I Got a Rock

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown! is a classic.  Okay, maybe not one of the classics, but at least a seasonal classic.  It was first broadcast in October of 1966, when I was in 3^rd grade and destined to be a Principal since I knew the layout of the office quite well.  Anyway, the story is about Linus writing his annual letter to the Great Pumpkin informing him that he will meet him in the pumpkin patch on Halloween night.  Of course, he is ridiculed by everyone, including Snoppy the dog. Only Sally, who has a major league crush on Linus, agrees to stay with him in the pumpkin patch.  The others, including the obviously bipolar Lucy, go throughout the neighborhood on the usual “Trick or Treat” adventure that many of us have traversed.  After each house, they compare what they received in terms of a treat.  Without fail, everyone received some sort of candy, apples, or a popcorn ball…everyone that is except Charlie Brown.  After each house, he sadly announced, “I got a rock! Were you a trick or treater (don’t you love how The Region dialect sometimes pronounces this “Trig” or treat?”)  So, I guess the choice is high level Math or a treat?  Remember the times you dressed up for Halloween?  What was your favorite costume? What were your favorite treats to receive?  Let’s not talk about the tricks.

Many of our kids receive treats every day.  Their bags get filled with the good stuff.  I will define treats here as enough food to eat, a room in which to sleep, a soft place to fall, parents who teach them right from wrong, adults at home to help them with their homework, and many other things that money can’t necessarily buy, including love.  There are kids here that feel like Charlie Brown at the doorstep saying, “I got a rock.”  Don’t be fooled by the persona that our district is full of wealthy folks who provide their kids with every imaginable treat.  Some are doing just that.  But it’s not just the tangible things that are important.  While proper food, clothing, and shelter are essential; they are not what lasts.  We have many kids who feel as though their personal “Trick or Treat bag” never gets filled with anything other than empty promises.  I know this because I talk with them.  They see no hope of support from adults.  They are discouraged.  They are lonely.  They are falling apart.  We can help to change that! We can make this a place where they want to be.  It can be their safe haven.  We can be the ones who fill them up by pouring ourselves out to them.  Kids change classes many times a day and kind of go “door to door”, so to speak.  Think of what you are filling their “emotional  bag” with as they enter and leave your classroom. Are you pouring in good stuff and just putting in rocks? You have an opportunity to make a difference every day at school.  Don’t miss that!  Don’t think of yourself having to “go the extra mile”.  Initially, just go the extra inch because, over time, those inches add up to a pretty good distance. Make a difference every single day.  You have the power to fill them with good things.  Many have already had too many rocks to lug around. 

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The Browns play on the shores of Lake Erie this Sunday against the San Diego Chargers.  Surf boards have no place on this blue-collar shore!

Dusty Bibles

My wife is a prayer warrior with her feet firmly planted.  I am convinced that when she hops out of bed in the morning, the Devil says, “Oh crap, she’s up!” I believe this is a direct correlate of where she gives her attention.  People give attention to others in four ways:  casual attention, inconsistent attention, no attention whatsoever, and diligent attention.  It is that latter one that makes the difference.  How much attention she gives to the One who made her shows up in so many ways about her.  The Devil is not afraid of those with dusty Bibles.  Not at all.  They are of no danger to his plans.  Not the case with my wife.  Her Bibles are well-worn and read daily.  She shows good fruit every single day and I am one lucky man to have her as my wife.  She is armed and dangerous and uses the most high-yield resource ever written to impact lives.  I write this to make a point in the following paragraph.  Plus, I am still smitten after 36 years and I like to talk about her.

If you had to categorize your teaching tools as to which are dusty and which are well-worn, what would your list look like?  Which strategies do you give casual attention to?  Which ones do you give inconsistent attention to?  Which ones, even though you know that they are high-yield, do you give no attention to at all?  None of these levels of attention will get you what you want; assuming that you want your students to grow high and to the right.  As I have been trying to emphasize in the Marzano study and during our “Digging Deeper” session, the greatest impact on student achievement is the teacher’s appropriate use of high-yield strategies.  If those strategies have dust on them, I encourage you to get them out and reflect on how you can use them in your classroom. You need to give them diligent attention. You have to take what works and make it work.  If the material that you are receiving is just a table adornment or just something in the file, then that’s all it will ever be.  Never before has there been so much out there to pull from to make your teaching experience a successful one. You just have to go and there and get it.  Put your diligent attention to improving “The Art of Teaching” and it will come back to you multiple-fold.  We are here to make a difference and the appropriate use of highly effective strategies used by highly effective teachers results in highly effective kids.  That equation should never have dust on it.  

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Mary and I are heading to Butler on Saturday for Homecoming and many trips down memory lane.  Also, we will attend the Browns game on Sunday as they play the Colts in the “Oil Can”. We will not be the only ones in the stands wearing orange and brown. I do hope that the Colts run out of “luck”.

Your Two Most Important Days

Samuel Clemens, better known to most as Mark Twain, was born in 1835.  He grew up in the state of Mississippi.  (side note:  did you ever notice how any kid can spell that word, but ask them to spell a simple pronoun and an adventure begins?)  Anyway, Mark Twain spent the majority of his life in M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-P-P-I where he authored 28 books.  He was called “The first truly American writer” by William Faulkner, a huge compliment to say the least.  Mark Twain’s (no relation to Shania) most notable books were “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”, written in 1876 and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, written in 1885.  These two books were probably required reading as you went through school.  Twain was also famous for his humorous quotes.  He described college as “a place where professor lecture notes go straight to the students lecture notes without passing through the brains of either.”  Perhaps he was on to lectures not having a huge effect size in student learning.  My focus today is on another Twain quote which centered on the two most important days of one’s life.  If you think on that for a minute, many things may come to mind.  Maybe the day you were married, the birth of your children, the day you proposed, getting baptized, landing your first job, buying your first home, seeing the Browns actually win a game…  The list is special to you for many reasons.  However, Mark Twain summed it up this way:  “The two most important days of your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”  That is what I want to focus on. 

“Why” you were born is a really intriguing thought. Seriously, that is a deep thought. How about “why” you decided to become a teacher?  Is there any correlation to why you were born? Teaching is really a calling; at least that is what I believe.  Teaching isn’t for everyone.  Working with kids is not for everyone.  Working in a school is not for everyone.  What is it that drives you to do this for at least 180 days a year?  If the starting pay was $172,000 per year, would that attract more people?  It probably would, but maybe not the right people.  You see, just because someone is “smart” doesn’t necessarily make them a good teacher of anything.  There is both an art and science to this business.    Why were you put here?  What is the purpose that you are to fulfill?  Is this really what you are supposed to be doing? Do you really enjoy what you do?  Do most of your days seem like bad days?  What if I switched careers at this stage?   Trust me, there is more to life than just living and dying and what happens in that hyphen between those two dates is what defines you. If you have found your purpose by teaching and you know that you are making a positive difference each and every day, then I encourage you to keep running the race that was set for you.  Bloom where you are planted.  Know that you are serving a greater cause.  You’re not making widgets; you are developing people.  If this is truly what you were called to do, then leave it better than you found it.  Make the most of every opportunity.  Make a difference every single day.

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 The Browns play at home vs the Bengals in round two of “The Battle of Ohio.”  0-5 is about as much fun as a Tupperware party.