Will Work for Beer

Teacher Appreciation Week always gets me thinking about the educators that influenced me. This week, I remembered a teacher and coach that inspired me a lot, even after I graduated. Mr. Baker was my AP US History teacher and cross country coach. No doubt, I took a lot from him since I became a history teacher and cross country coach myself. He was a mentor and guide through most of my high school years, but at times, his students struggled with where to place the line between mentor and friend. All teenagers push that limit and good teachers show us where it is. 

In my Senior year, our cross country team had been pretty successful. Coach Baker was driving us to a regional championship and a graduated member of our team had decided to follow the bus to come to cheer us on. Our coach always tried to get us in the right mindset before a race. He wanted us to be serious about it and even had a "silent within 10 minutes of arriving" rule. But with a friend driving behind us, the 17 to 18-year-old boys just couldn't pass up the opportunity to flash our "best sides" from the back of the bus. And wouldn't you know it, Coach Baker caught us from the rearview mirror. He immediately pulled the bus over and fussed us out better than we could ever remember. In frustration, he tore his hat from his head and broke the snaps on the back. When the bus started again, there was no need to remind us of the silent rule. 

We ran pretty well that day if memory serves me well. On the way home, we stopped at a gas station for snacks. Behind the counter, there were hats for sale and the team thought we needed to replace the hat that our coach broke as a sign of peace. Now if you're wondering what kind of hats are sold at a country gas station, you're thinking in the right direction. The most appropriate hat we saw had a patch that read, "Will Work for Beer." We pitched in a couple of bucks each and presented him with the hat at the bus. Coach Baker broke out in laughter and it seemed that somehow, we had restored that relationship. He wore the hat the rest of the way home. 

Today, I preach a lot about building relationships because I believe it is just as important as curriculum. But there's a wise saying in education: "You can't love them into being stupid." Good teachers care for us, maybe even love us, but great teachers remind us of why we are really there. They teach us purpose. If Coach Baker had not broken his hat in an effort to set us straight, we probably would not have done well that day. He had to set us straight, but despite that, we knew he still cared for us. And we cared about keeping that relationship enough to buy a him a silly hat. So for Teacher Appreciation Week, here's a big thanks to the teachers that care enough to teach students the important things in life. I can tell you from experience that those lessons carry on much farther than your classrooms. 

Pink Shoes and Art Teachers

My daughter, Reagan, inherited my love of shoes. She has her own style, and lately, she has been obsessed with platform Converse hightops. She saw a pink pair online and has been searching for them for months. Converse doesn't sell them anymore in the US and the online auctions have them going for $300 or more. She managed to find them through Australia's Converse website for just $100. Throw in a promo code and the exchange rate, and that's just $64 US. But the problem is they don't ship outside of Australia. Undaunted, Reagan reached out to her grandfather, who had told her about a cousin of his that lived there. She pleaded with him to contact his cousin to see if she could ship the shoes to her and then have her ship them to the US. After figuring out payment, several phone calls and emails and some help from half the world away, the pink shoes arrived this week. I don't think she's taken them off other than to sleep and shower since.

My daughter's ability to access resources through her connections to others is known as social capital. Our social capital is the web of people that we know and those that know them. A large social capital gives us access to knowledge and resources much grater than what we own ourselves. It's the reason for the old addage, "It's not always what you know, but who you know." But not everyone has a grandfather with a cousin in Australia, and we all don't carry around the same social capital. This was the theory behind my doctoral dissertation. There are marginalized students all around us every day, and we can play a role as their social capital. When we have relationships with students, we give them access to our knowledge, experiences and resources. They also gain access to the people that we know beyond our school. And when students don't always have the social capital at home, they lean heavily on us to fill those gaps.

During Spring Break, I received a text from our art teacher about attending a first-generation celebration  for a former student that we had been keeping up with. Julene was about to graduate college with a degree in Art Education. Julene's story isn't like most students that become educators. When she was at Greene Central, she was no stranger to discipline issues early on. Her incident history shows infractions for inappropriate language, disruption, skipping class, insubordination and fighting. The mural on our math hall was done in an after school detention as a punishment for skipping class. Towards the end of her time with us, she had gained some social capital with a few teachers, and was inspired by her art teacher, Ashley Shiosaky. She stopped getting into trouble and leveraged her new resources to follow that path to college. She needed help along the way as a first-generation student on filling out paperwork and financial aid. She needed support when she had a baby and when she needed a way out of a difficult relationship with the father. But she had the social capital to navigate all of that through the same people that she had come to depend on in high school. 

In just a few days, Julene will finish her teaching internship, graduate ECU, and become an art teacher. She has already accepted a job at a nearby high school. She's still leveraging her social capital here to figure out how to sign up for benefits like insurance, something she's never had. In a time when we need young people that are willing to become teachers more than ever before, we can see just how important it is to invest in our young people as their social capital. If we expect them to navigate into the unknown without an example, then we have to be the example and fill in the gaps for all of the questions and fears along the way. When you become a piece of social capital, the relationshiop doesn't end with a bell or a semester for that student. You are forever part of their web of resources. But the great thing about social capital theory, is that Julene now gets to become social capital for someone else. Her new knowledge and experiences let her impact a classroom full of students. I sincerely hope that she gets to find a student just like she was, so that she can answer their questions. This is how you change the world.

Trying Not to Fail

Last week, my blog was about defining success. The summary is that student success should be measured much differently than college acceptance, a full scholarship, or a six-figure salary as an adult. Successful students become contributors to their community. While the definition of success was fresh in my mind, I traveled to Raleigh this week for professional development. As a part of this workshop, I got to hear Dr. Dudley Flood speak about equity in education. Trust me, if you don't know him, look him up. He's a WEALTH of knowledge. He's much older now and has a foundation that others run in his namesake. He's one of those older people that you just want to listen to. I was pinned on his every word and one particular sentence caught my attention. "Trying not to fail is not the same as success." Please take a second and think about that sentence. Seriously, stop reading and think. 

It's no secret that this has been a tough year for educators. The instant readjustment to school has been painful at times as we deal with behavior issues, attendance issues, apathy, and students that are simply unprepared for the courses that we teach. Some have done fine, but others are failing. At times we have done so much to try to engage them and at this point, many of us have grown tired and feel that we are failing as educators. No one likes to fail, so at different points, we have a spark. Students turn in assignments late or we have just one more conversation with a few students to convince them to do their best. I have days that I am right there with you, wishing I had done a little more. We are all trying not to fail. 

In a few days, we will all get a much-deserved break. Enjoy it. You earned every second. But when you come back for the final five weeks of school, I am going to ask for your very best. It will take excitement, motivation, communication, and every teacher trick that you have in your arsenal. It will undoubtedly take patience and understanding. It will certainly take love. So please enjoy your break and time to recharge. We have important work to do when you get back, and when you do, I am going to ask for success over trying not to fail. 

Success

This week I had a chance to participate in the first of three "Portrait of a Graduate" meetings. These meetings are held between all types of community and school stakeholders and are designed to guide some conversation on what successful graduates from our schools can do. The first thing that jumps out at you in these meetings, is that we are assessing the absolute wrong skills of students today. Parents, businesses, and almost every other stakeholder said that they wanted students that were better communicators, better problem-solvers, and to be more civically minded. Unfortunately, we don't measure those things in a test at all. It's not something that you can bubble a sheet to figure out, and that doesn't work well for the people that measure schools. We spent some time starting to talk about what success for graduates today looks like and that conversation will be carried out in future meetings. It was a long first meeting, but I enjoyed it. 

During the meeting, I had to ignore a phone call from an unknown number. When I listened to the message, it was a business owner asking if I could be a reference for a former student that had listed me. Generally, I am happy for students that ask to use me as a reference, but I don't get many calls about it. It was late, so I returned the call the next day. The student in question was a girl that graduated in 2014. She had a baby her Senior year and didn't initially come back to school afterward. It took a lot of coordinated help throughout the district to get her to try to finish, but she agreed to come work in an empty room that was a part of the Pre-K center. Mrs. Davis and I took turns watching the baby, while the student finished the work necessary to pass the classes of her last semester. When she finished, I made her promise that she would work hard to be a great example for her little girl. It wasn't going to be easy for her, but something told me that she could do it. Since that time, I have kept up with this former student through social media. She shared her daughter's first day of school with me, and I always have enjoyed watching that little girl grow up in pictures. 

When I spoke to the employer, she told me that I was the only reference that she had listed. She asked about how she had been as a student. For some strange reason, I remembered it well. She was an average student academically, but she was spunky and didn't mind working for things. That's what got her to graduate. It's also what made her a good mom and now it was making her step out and try something new. When I explained this to the employer on the phone, her response stopped me. She said, "Well isn't that what success really is?" She's right. Somehow we have got to start teaching children that success isn't a six-figure job or a full scholarship to a prestigious university. Success is being a productive member of society in whatever you choose and supporting yourself and your family in doing it. Years later, my former student had figured out a way to show me that she was being successful, and I absolutely loved it. 

Why Do We Do This Job? - Part 4

The stories of teachers in this series have all been of educators in the back half of their careers. Their experiences and wisdom earned along the way are generally insightful for us all. But when our school elected a 6th-year teacher as our Teacher of the Year, I felt that it was important to understand her perspective as well. The majority of Emily Lahr's teaching experience has been in a time of educational turmoil. Given her education, drive, and youth, she could have decided at any point to go and use her talents elsewhere. So I had to ask her, "Why do you do this job?"

Mrs. Lahr's mom is a middle school business teacher, and while you might think that she was just joining the family business, I think you'd be wrong on this one. Emily always thought she was a biology major as a route to medical school. But when she started helping teach lab classes, she found real fulfillment in helping turn on that lightbulb in student's brains. When it was time for graduate school, she chose education over medicine. I remember recruiting her and I convinced her to come check out our school to see if it was a good fit for her. I'm always impressed when potential hires take me up on that, because that's true initiative. She took the job and suffered the wrath of being a young teacher and coach amongst "the boys" of the athletic ranks. She gave it back to them just as quick as they dished it out. 

So when we started talking about why she chooses to be a teacher, she gushed about getting former students to a national science fair. Their research on caffinated soybean plants was enough to get the judges attention despite the handmade trifold board amongst the professionally printed posters. The same college girl that was a full-blown science geek got to bring that back through her students. And there it was; her reason why she does this job. Emily Lahr is still a student. Being a teacher allows her to learn something alongside her students every day. Some days she learns a lot about content and other days she learns a lot about people. But every day is a lab and she's still doing research. 

Her family always thought they would have a doctor in the family when Emily finished school. That may still be the case. Emily is currently working toward her PhD and her study idea is a pretty neat one, but that's probably a story for a different time. Right now, she is still a teacher and you might need to be careful, because she does this job because she's studying you. 

Note: After we talked about this, Emily and I spent some time just talking about the state of education today. We discussed hopes and fears and big take aways. She told me that the first big lesson that a teacher needs to learn is how to control the chaos in the room to make it productive chaos. I think that's a great metaphor for all education right now. We have to control the chaos and make it productive. I think we can do that.

Was I a Bad Teacher?

If you work in any type of management position long enough, you will hear about the Peter Principle. It's the idea that if you are good at your job, you will continue to be promoted until you are no longer good at your job. You rise to your level of incompetence and then stay there. Promotions are generally given to people that excel in their field and eventually, that means that you manage other people that do the job that you used to do. Unfortunately, there is no correlation between performing a job skill and leading or managing a team. In fact, the opposite is generally true instead. So in our world, if you want to advance as an educator, or you want to make more money, that generally means you leave teaching and become an administrator. But outside of helping here and there with instruction, not much of what I did as a teacher has anything to do with what I do as a principal. In fact, according to the research, chances are that if I am a good principal, there's a greater chance that I wasn't that good as a teacher. The jobs are just that different. 

But what about all of the teachers that do a great job, like what they do, but want to find ways to be paid well or promoted based on their work? Shouldn't there be something out there that keeps this expertise in teaching? A group in our state has been working on a proposal and this week, I had an opportunity to hear more about it and to talk with some legislators that are trying to make it happen. (You can read much more about it here.) It is an interesting proposition, and one that pays educators based on what they do rather than their years of service. It is also fluid from year to year, so a teacher can step back when they need to and advance when they want to. If you take a minute to read up on it, I'd love to have your feedback. It is the beginning of a conversation about how to fix the teacher pipeline and how to adequately pay teachers for their work and while we may not have all of the wrinkles ironed out yet, it's good that we are having the conversation. Especially if that conversation means that good teachers can find a way to stay in the classroom.

Now I guess I just need to come to terms with some hard truths. If I am considered a good principal, that either means I beat the odds and happen to have been a good teacher, or perhaps I wasn't that good in the first place. Or maybe I was a good teacher, and I've risen to my level of incompetence. Either way, it's a good thing I have plenty of good teachers around me to make up for it.

The Price of Gas

I'm not one to blame politicians or individuals for the current cost of gas, but when I filled up my SUV this week at just under $85, it was enough to get me thinking. Who can I blame for this problem and how do I get this fixed? As a student that still loves economics, I know that there are a lot of factors that play into our current cost at the pump. We want there to be a simple answer or some little thing that can fix it all, but that's very rarely the case. Some problems are quite complex, but there are also some problems that are more simple than we would like to make them. 

This week I asked everyone to regroup on some basic classroom management. It's the time of year when educators are tired and students get restless. That's usually a recipe for problems that might have been avoidable earlier in the year. Small fires in your classroom can turn huge if they are not managed, but how you manage them also matters. There are two ways to handle a fire: you can throw water on it and put it out or you can throw gas on it and watch it explode only to burn itself out. It's not a complicated problem, managing student issues is all in how you choose to put the fire out.

So why does student management always seem more complicated than it has to be? We focus our attention on why students don't do what they should do, or how they make bad choices or react poorly in a given situation. Our attention is on them...the fire. Unfortunately, I think fires (metaphorically) are always going to be a part of education. It's almost like asking, "Why is fire hot?" We teach young people how to govern themselves just as much as we teach curriculum. And I don't know about you, but I certainly caused a few fires myself when I was younger. It's a part of growing up that isn't avoided by most children. Luckily, I had some good people around me that knew how to throw water on my fires. They focused on how to diffuse the situation instead of focusing on why I did what I had done. They took the time to teach me instead of being frustrated by me. But what if they had thrown gas instead? The cost of escalating a bad situation with a student is high. It costs us our ability to connect with the student. It breaks trust. It hinders our ability to teach. While the behavior may 100% be the student's fault, but the price of throwing gas is too high. 

As Spring nears, outside warms up, and our patience thins, please take a second to consider how to make student management simple. Please search for ways to throw water on the small fires. Remember that we are here to teach and lead. And even when your last nerve is tested, consider that the price of gas is still probably too high to pay.