Adversity

This fall has been a tough time for several students and teachers. Several have lost family members or have been there for devastating medical news about a family member. Several students have received some tough news about their own health as well. Undoubtedly it is hard to focus on teaching and learning when things like this fill your attention and drive your emotions. In the face of this adversity I have seen students and staff members show true compassion for one another. I have seen students worry about grades and attendance because despite their troubles, they recognize that they still have goals to meet for their future. I have seen teachers show up and teach when every logical reason says that they could have taken another day or two off.

Even though no one would ever wish this type of adversity on themselves or anyone else for that matter, there is some truth to the idea that adversity builds strong character. Persisting through adverse times and troubling situations has statistically shown to build strong leaders and character traits of compassion and empathy. One of the most common characteristics among United States Presidents is that an unusually large number of them lost a parent as a young child. We think of this type of adversity leading to troubled teenagers that would be at risk for failure. But when we see people that face adversity and work to succeed in site of it, we often see tremendous results.

Thank you to all of you that help our students face their own forms of adversity, large and small. And thank you for choosing to stand and deliver for your students, when bad things come your way as well. Tremendous results are waiting.

Investment

Each month the administrators get together before the next scheduled staff meeting and talk about the agenda. One of the first things that we discuss is always the Whatever It Takes Award. We look for someone that stands out in what they do for a student or the school at large. I am not looking forward to having to make a decision for this month's staff meeting and there's a really good reason for that. Recently I have seen so many of our staff members doing very special things for students. These things have nothing to do with academics, content and language objectives, curriculum maps or anything like that. These are investments in our students as people and they often address issues that pull at our hearts.

In the past couple weeks I have seen some pretty dramatic examples of that. Between teachers that have purchased shoes for a student, another that purchased a belt for a troubled student that had done better and a teacher that served as a father in a daddy-daughter tennis match, I've seen some amazing things out of our staff. I'm certain that there are many more examples that many of you have kept to yourself. These acts of investing in children serve the exact same as money invested in an account. It doesn't just sit there; it grows.  Children that are shown kindness and understanding in times of need are much more likely to become adults that do the same for others. These acts of compassion grow upon one another.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I want you all to know that I am thankful to work with a staff that sees children as more than a name on a roster. They know more about them than a predicted achievement level. They care about them more than just 90 minutes a day.

Water Your Seeds

I was talking with a Senior this week about grades and attendance. It's a fairly regular conversation that I have to have about this time of the year. We talk about finishing strong, maintaining focus so that colleges will accept you and getting back on the right track before it causes a real problem. Most of these conversations hinge on that student's specific goals beyond high school and trying to leverage that goal toward doing what they should do in class. I asked this particular student a rather simple question, "How are you going to get back on track in class?" She just looked at me. I asked it again. She replied, "Well I just hope that I can go in there and do it." That's not good enough.

There is an old proverb that states, "I pray for rain, but I cannot neglect to water my seeds." Sometimes when students (or any of us really) face a tough task, we go into it with optimism that if we want things to work out, then it will all be alright. Some people call it hope while others know it as faith. We want to believe that things will turn out well in the end. While I am a strong proponent of positive thinking, I also believe that hope or faith without action is usually fruitless. Anything worth hoping for is also worth working for and that means that you need a plan.

We are at the halfway point of the fall semester and that means that no matter where your students are, now is the time to push for growth. It's time to get serious and that means both us and them have to get our heads in the game. Whether your plan to growth them means a new instructional game plan or a different look at management or motivation, it's time to water our seeds. Even if you feel like things have been going great in your classroom and your "crops" have been getting plenty of "rain," know that we can still fertilize them as well. Be specific about a game plan and let's finish strong!

What We Teach

While the start of almost all school years will include some settling out of new faces, new needs and new attitudes, I'll easily admit that this year has been exceptional. It's been tough to get kids to effectively communicate in times of conflict. We have seen it the most amongst our freshman class. While teachers and students see the argument or fight in the hallway, those of us in the front office usually get to hear the rest of the story surrounding the event. In many of these cases, the students involved are friends. They are upset over something or someone and when they attempt to communicate that, it fails miserably.

In the wake of this, I was very quick to utter the statement, "Kids today just can't communicate!" On the surface it is easy to say that. Each new generation carries the blame and ridicule of an older generation that disagrees with how we have changed culturally. The more I thought about it though, I'm not certain it's all their fault. All children learn through observation. Their communication skills (or a lack thereof) are learned behaviors, not ones that are innate to a group of people, born at a particular time. So where are our kids learning this? Between families that increasingly split due to conflict, mass media that popularizes all kinds of dysfunctional behavior and political leaders that name call each other via social media, is it any wonder why our children behave the way that they do? So with that being said, what on earth do we do about it? I think that all we can do is educate. We teach kids, and if the truth was told, we teach them a lot more than what we see in our curriculum.  But just like the content knowledge that we want them to know, we have to be explicit about how to behave as well. We all get frustrated and upset at times, and that's perfectly normal. What we have to teach kids (and sometimes remind ourselves) is how to handle life when that happens. Remember that good or bad, we are all an example for our kids. We are the ones that children look to for knowledge and guidance. What we teach, often has nothing to do with what we are paid for.

Over Communicate

I genuinely think that the majority of problems in any organization occur from a failure to communicate. In schools, I think that is even more true. Wether we acknowledge it or not, we are in a relationship with one another. Like any relationship, both parties need to express what they think and how they feel. Also like most relationships, we often assume that the other party understands what we think and feel. We've all been guilty of that at one point or another and the moment we realize it, we usually understand how things could have happened differently. It's often easy to acknowledge that feeling with a spouse, family member or a child, but we are not as quick to see it in our professional lives. I recently read an article about leadership and it highlighted failing to over-communicate as a key problem in leadership. Basically, if you want to lead a group of people, you have to be clear about what you want, and follow up along the way quite often about it. This week I thought I would start with a simple exercise in over-communicating.

I appreciate you. I genuinely do. I've seen so many of you do extra things for each other and for your students, and all of that makes my job so much easier. Homecoming week is always a great time to see school staff work with students on creative projects. That collaboration builds relationships and fosters growth for both parties. Thanks for taking your time to make this week's events happen and for doing the extra little things that show kids that you care. It may be just a silly outfit, participating in the pep rally or organizing the lineup for the homecoming court, but to kids it matters. So thank you. I hope that you know that I appreciate you, but this week, I want to be sure that I've said it.

Own It

Last Friday's inservice from Tara Brown has certainly invoked quite a bit of discussion. Research says that educators usually only retain about 5-10% of what they hear in professional development. With that being the case, I've been very curious about what each person took away as their 5-10%. Several of you have discussed the assistant principal greeting students. Others really liked the smiling cow picture and the story about the milk. Having heard her twice last week, I personally resonated with one simple phrase, "Own it." I'm not sure how many of you remember that part, but the idea was that before you can change your practice (she talked about not smiling at kids) you have to own the fact that you have a deficit. I likened it to the idea that an addict has to first admit that they have a problem before they can start the road to becoming clean.

While I couldn't define it at the time, "owning it" was precisely what I was having a problem with. Wether you are leading a team, a classroom or a school, you have a vision of what you would like that to be. When something falls short of that vision, it can sometimes be difficult to admit where things went wrong. In Monday's staff meeting we are going to take a look at our school accountability data from last year. There are so many things that went well, but I was having trouble owning the fact that we did not make growth. While there are some mitigating factors that truly do make things more difficult for us in that arena, at the end of the day it is what it is and we are still expected to meet that goal. I have to own that.

Here's where that can create change. "Owning it" means taking a look at what went wrong and addressing it. Just like not smiling at kids requires owning that in an effort to smile more, we have to own what we can do to change our situation. Once I made that revelation, I was immediately renewed with a sense of encouragement and enthusiasm to do something about it. It's a challenge now and I'm ready to face it. I hope that you are too.

So what can you own about your teaching that you know (but are not ready to admit) that can make you a better teacher? Write it down. Say it out loud. Own it. It can be something small or something big, but we can all be better at something that just requires a little directed effort.

Boys Will Be Boys

It wasn't until I started coaching that I truly appreciated what my mother must have gone through. Seeing the interactions amongst a group of teenage boys made me feel bad for her. You see, my mom was surrounded by boys. The constant habits and behaviors of my father, my brother and myself must have been truly confusing and tiresome. But what could she do? You know...boys will be boys. 

That phrase has probably excused more bad behavior and reinforced more stereotypes than any other set of words in the English language. Boys in our culture are expected to display certain qualities. It is not enough to be born male. Instead, boys often have to "prove" their masculinity by displaying traits like toughness, athleticism, self-sufficiency and stoicism. When boys display these attributes, but otherwise break social rules, we are quick to write them off as male behavior. Think about it...you've never heard anyone use that phrase when observing a boy reading, being polite or exhibiting kindness. Those are not culturally masculine things for boys to do. 

So (once again) what does this have to do with school? Statistically, it has a lot to do with us. The EVAAS growth scores from last year's EOCs can be broken down into various subgroups. Any guesses which groups underperformed? That's right, males and particularly minority males. But can we just ignore this and write it off as "boys will be boys" behavior? After all, we had some great sports seasons, and our boys did well in those areas. It's hard to get boys to like to do things like read and write and learn about things that don't automatically appeal to their masculine interests. But let's be honest, if they can read a defense, they should be able to read an author's intent. If they can understand sports statistics, then they can read scientific data. Let's stop giving our boys a pass on poor classroom performance and bad habits. Instead, let's truly teach them that "manning up" means taking care of all of your responsibilities, not just the ones that they like.