Very Superstitious

Over the past few months of basketball games, several of us became very superstitious. For me, it started with refusing to talk about a state championship. Then I would refuse to talk about anything other than the next game. By the end of the season, I had lucky shoes, a lucky shirt and specific places I would stand during the game. In my head, these things mattered somehow. All I knew was that things were working and I refused to change anything that worked. Anything.

Being superstitious is nothing new for athletes and sports fans. Most will likely admit to something small that they believe impacts the game. The funny thing about superstitions is that they require some form of constant assessment. When things go well, you evaluate what was right about that day. When you lose, you evaluate what was different. So with that thought in mind, is it smart to be superstitious about instruction? When students perform well in a lesson or unit, do we take the time to evaluate what made that difference? I'm not talking about a lucky shirt in this case, but more about what changed within the classroom. When students do not perform well, are we analyzing what changed to cause this? If we can approach instruction with the same mentality of a superstitious athlete or fan, we can take a much more critical approach to self-assessment. So while wearing your lucky shirt on exam days may help, try analyzing all parts of student achievement and try making those repeatable.

And by the way, we only had two losses this season in men's basketball. Both of those occurred on days that Duke and Carolina played each other. We should probably not schedule games on those days next year.

Confidence

Most of my blog posts are about metaphors. I am always looking for things I see throughout the week that can be applied to teaching and learning. Like many of you, I've been watching a lot of basketball lately. One thing I have noticed about this year's basketball team is how confident they look when they are playing. From the moment their name is called, to the final minutes, their faces show that they know what they are there for. There is never a look of confusion or doubt about what their job is. On Tuesday, I looked for that on the faces of our Juniors when they sat down to take the ACT. Did they look confident or afraid? Were they ready? To be honest, I saw both. I saw students that were smiling with two pencils and a calculator on their desk. I saw others that already looked like they were beaten down.

How can we replicate that confidence that our players have about their mission to academic achievement? I feel like anything like that can be coached. So what are coaches doing that classroom teachers are missing? Coaching brings instant feedback, positive and negative. Coaches applaud great work and make an example when a player steps out of line. But even when a player miss-steps, there is always a learning opportunity and a chance for redemption with a cheer at the end. I think that reinforcement from the coaches and teammates is what builds that confidence. So do we cheer enough in our classrooms? Do we encourage confidence in our students and can we even get them to encourage it amongst themselves? If you can, you've built a truly accomplished classroom culture based on collaboration and achievement. Try coaching along with your teaching and let's see if we can build some confidence in our students for their next big assessment.

Bragging

Last weekend I was asked to teach a course to aspiring school administrators on marketing your school to all stakeholders. The all-day lesson focused on school culture and how to get your vision out to the students, staff and community. I remembered how much I liked teaching and left at the end of the day feeling like they didn't even need to pay me. Throughout my lesson I got to tell several stories about our school and about several of the teachers and students. By the end of the day I felt like I was bragging. I had several of the students ask to come out and see our school. Essentially, I had just marketed our vision to them.

I thought about how we can use that concept at the classroom level. Each of you gets a chance to market yourselves as a part of our school and our community. Students leave your classroom telling a story about you. They tell how and what you do. They express to others the things you do that go above and beyond the requirements of a classroom teacher. You should be proud of that. Be sure to brag about yourself and about what you do. If we can't be proud of ourselves, we cannot expect our community to be proud of what we do.

Absent

I find it ironic that in the days after we issued a new attendance policy, illness and social events immediately took students out of school in large numbers. You would have to be living under a rock to be unaware of how bad the flu, strep throat and other viruses have plagued our schools lately. In fact, I am late sending this week's message out due to the fact that I had to get one of my own daughters from school today. Even our Superintendent had to urge parents not to send their children to school if they showed symptoms. In this case we wanted children to be absent to protect the others.

On Thursday, a social event also led to quite a few absences. Many of our hispanic students participated in a "day without immigrants" protest and stayed home from school and work. I learned about this early in the week and I have been torn on the subject ever since. Having worked closely with many undocumented students, I can understand how they and their families must feel recently. As someone that studied American History, I can empathize with their struggle as it is so similar to the struggle of almost every immigrant group before them. I can only imagine the internal struggle many families had deciding if they were to participate. On the other hand, the educator in me wanted these children at school. I want school to be sacred. I want it to be a place for everyone, all of the time. I think overall we do a very good job with that in our school. Like most schools, students align themselves in groups and cliques, but at our school they all generally respect one another. That has a lot to do with what you expect in your classrooms and in our halls.

The revised attendance policy was born in the idea that students were abusing the makeup policy and were absent far too often. When we look at problems like that, we only look at the data that is relative to the problem. We ignore the students that value school because they do not contribute to the attendance problem. This week's events made me see both sides. As the moderator of the school's social media accounts I get to see the posts from students, parents and alumni. I want to conclude this week's message with the following words from a Greene Central student (yes, we have a lot of good ones):

"My siblings woke up early, went to school. I woke up early, went to school...Mama woke up early, fixed my dad some lunch for work and dad left for work. Moral of the story, I still went to school on this "no immigrants day" because that was my purpose; to do so. That's what my parents came here for, a better education for me and my siblings and to make a move forward, little by little. Because every day that I or my siblings miss a school day is a day wasted. One last thing. I will not protest or march or anything because my parents crossed over. Instead, I went to school today to educate myself and so did my siblings so that my parents efforts in coming over are beneficial for them, for me and my siblings, for a successful life. I still support the movement."

Support Your School Counselor

Once upon a time, schools just had to teach students a set amount of information. After schools grew from the "one room schoolhouse" into multi-room buildings, the principal was simply the lead teacher that helped oversee the building. Still the focus was just on teaching that set of information. Today schools operate as so much more. Between feeding the hungry, athletic programs, college preparation, social and emotional wellness and so many other things, schools have become community centers designed to meet all of the needs children arrive with. Today, teaching content is just a part of what we do.

The people on the front lines of those "other things" that we do are the school counselors. While we often recognize that teachers have to wear many different hats in their job, it is the counselor's responsibility and sole purpose to wear all of those hats at once. I am always amazed at how quickly a counselor can transition between counseling a student with depression and thoughts of suicide one minute to finding scholarship avenues for top students the next. Literally every person that walks through their door needs something different from them.

In honor of National School Counselor's Week, please join me in saying thank you to our counselors and their support staff for the many things that they do for us and our students. Our school would be a very different place without them.

Dominating

I read and watch the blogs of several other people each week. Their thoughts sometimes spawn my own as I try to adapt them to education or our school. This week I watched a vlog (video blog) on the topic of winning versus dominating in what you do. The author highlighted the difference in why we know superstars in their field and are not familiar with others that are professionals at what they do. Even professional athletes. We know the big names because they dominate in their sport but we may not know the names of those that play on the same team. The author's purpose was to inspire us to become dominators in our own arena in life.

This week I met a man that I consider a dominator. Several of you had the opportunity to hear Barrington Irving speak at a STEM conference earlier this year and I had heard quite a bit about him. Barrington was the youngest person (and African-American) to fly solo around the world. While that is plenty impressive enough on its own, the story gets better. Captain Irving did this at 23, in an airplane that he built himself, from parts that he convinced manufacturers to give him. That's dominating your field.

Today Captain Irving has dedicated himself to improving STEM education and sponsors a flying classroom with hands on labs for students. He wants his passion to become infectious to others. While people like him are certainly a rare breed, there is plenty that we can learn from him. Imagine all of the obstacles that he must have met on his journey to fly around the world. They probably are not that foreign to a classroom teacher. You meet new obstacles every day. Things that stand between you and dominating at your craft. If we can focus on a single goal, much like Captain Irving did, then that goal becomes just a little easier to reach. So, what part of teaching do you want to dominate in? What can you pour you
r heart into and be proud of? Define that and then let's all get to work dominating at what we do!

New Things

As an American History teacher, I remember my lessons on the British invasion of America. When we hear that we think of early wars in our country's infancy. While I liked teaching that, my favorite British invasion was the musical one of the 1950s and 1960s. I love the Beatles and I love how changes in American and world culture can be tracked through their changes in musical style. A few boys from Liverpool started a revolution in culture and American thought using music. As much as I appreciate their music and the ever-evolving style, I also like their story. The world watched these young men grow up and change and it was this change that eventually led to their end. Some blame the influence of John Lennon's girlfriend, Yoko Ono, on the breakup, but true fans could see it coming back in 1968 (almost two years before they officially separated). The Beatles were changing and they were trying new things. Those things just didn't exactly move in the same direction anymore. Their evolution was moving them somewhere different.

Back in the fall semester, I sent an email to our math department urging them to try new things. I am certain that behind my back, I got some remarks or criticism. If I had received that email from my principal I would have done the same. The email simply said that they were working far too hard to be getting mediocre scores in Math 1. I didn't have a simple answer for what they should be doing, but I knew that it was time to try new things. This led to somewhat of an evolution. Our four Math 1 teachers took a field trip to see what math looks like in elementary schools. We observed math centers and guided small groups. We examined math software for K-8 students and how it is used. Then with some help from Mr. Shaw, the Math 1 teachers left the ways of traditional 9-12 math teaching and made a decision to try new things. They started this semester teaching every day through "rotations" (they are really centers). It's only been a few days, but I can tell you that it is the most engagement I have ever seen from 9th grade students. There have been a lot of visitors to these classes this week to see how it works and I have no doubt that there will be many more throughout the year.

My dad had a saying that I must have heard a hundred times growing up. "If you always do, what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always had." If you feel like you're working as hard as you can and getting the same results, maybe it's time to break away and try new things. I think Sir Paul McCartney would agree that it can work in your favor.