Wayne Gretsky

Wayne Gretsky is the greatest hockey player in NHL history.  In fact, his nickname is “The Great One.”  Gretsky is the leading career point-scorer with 894 goals and 1963 assists.  He is the only player to score over 200 points in a season and he did that four different times!  What made this guy so good?  Why did he stand out above the rest?  Why did he manage to put it in the net or be the guy who assisted on putting the puck in the net so many times?  His philosophy was simple:  “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it is.”  That is what made him “The Great One.” He understood that what lead up to the goal was just as important as reaching the goal because you can never reach the goal if you have no plan to get there.   He also said that “You miss 100% of the shots you do not take.”  Hmmm…

It should be that way in what we do.  We should have a what and where we want kids to be (desired outcomes).  Then we should devise ways to measure if they arrived (assessments).  Then we should plan to get to each benchmark through best-practice and high yield teaching.  Note the order of these three things.  If you were in “Lunch & Learn” two weeks ago, this should be coming back to you.  Proper alignment of these three is essential.  Without this, your kids will not grow.  If we know where we want the kids to be, that is the direction that we should go, check progress along the way, and take some great shots at teaching them on the way to the end.  Gretsky put the puck in the net a lot of times – you can as well through proper alignment and teaching to where you want the kids to be. 

By the way, I went to a boxing match last Saturday and a hockey game broke out…

Late for Your Life

Tonight, Mary and I are going to see Mary Chapin Carpenter in Aurora.  She is a very talented composer and performer with many hits during her career such as “He Thinks He’ll Keep Her”, “Shut Up and Kiss Me”, “Down at the Twist and Shout”, “I Feel Lucky”, “Passionate Kisses, “I Take My Chances” and “Stones in the Road.” She is such an incredible writer and manages to stir emotions through her lyrics …kind of like Bob Dylan, but with great vocals.  I find a great deal of introspection through the words of “Late for Your Life.” 

“You’ve been saying for the longest time that the time has come.

You’ve been talking like you’re of a mind to get some changing done.

Maybe move out of the city, find some quiet little town

where you can sit on your back porch step and watch the sun go down.

No one knows where they belong; the search just goes on and on and on

for every chance that ends up wrong another one’s right

A change of scene would sure be great; the thought is nice to contemplate

But the question begs why would you wait and be late for your life?”

It sometimes is a struggle to wonder if this is the right path.  Is there is another route that I should be taking?  Is what I am doing supposed to be what I am doing?  Is this the right place for me? Should I be doing something different with my life?  Do I really enjoy what I do?  Why do most of my days seem like bad days? (my beautiful wife says that bad days are just good days in disguise). Why am I not advancing at the speed I had imagined?  What if I switched careers at this stage in my life?  Is the grass really greener on the other side of the fence…or over the septic tank for that matter? Why do I have to wear so many different hats?  As Ms. Carpenter writes above, the search just goes on and on and on.  Here’s what I believe for what it is worth – bloom where you are planted.  If this is truly what you were called to do, then leave it better than you found it. If you do not have the passion at that level, then you probably should consider finding that passion in something else.  Just being in the right place doesn’t mean that everything will go as planned or that life is a bed of roses (I never really understood that phrase since roses have thorns as well).  Victories come by winning, and sometimes, losing the battles along the way.  Make the most of every opportunity that you have to make a difference in where you are placed.  Don’t miss that.  Don’t’ be late for your life.

Trees

The oldest tree in Lake County, possibly in the state of Indiana, has been declared dead. How do you declare a tree dead?  Is there some sort of tree coroner who “barks” out instructions to “branches” while getting to the “root” of the issue?  Trees are dead when they fail to produce the possibility of new life – when they no longer produce fruit (nuts/acorns).  The tree is a bur oak and is thought to be between 500 and 800 years old (the same time period that the Browns last won a championship – beat you to it).  The tree is located at 2800 W. 57^th Ave. in Merrillville and really is something else.  I cannot imagine that when the tree was fruitful, how many acorns it produced.  Now it is the ultimate “spooky dead tree” that I am sure will be the center point of many photographs between now and the 31^st. Take a drive and see it – tell your kids that the Keebler Elves live there.

Like trees, we are called to be fruitful in what we do.  No, we won’t drop acorns and no one will have to cut us open and count the rings to determine our age.  I don’t even want to know about core samples…The fruit that we must produce are students who have grown from one year, one semester, one quarter, one unit, one week, one day from the previous.  As I presented on Wednesday, now that is measured with actual growth data.  We have to be fruitful.  We have to produce.  So, continue to use your formative data to plan for changes in instruction.  Glean information from Wednesday morning time.  Use what I am trying to teach you during Lunch and Learns.  Do whatever it takes.  Be fruitful.  This is always good fruit:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  We’re not growing trees here…we’re growing kids!