Wrap Up

Well, another school year is almost complete along with entries for The Principal Outlook.  I started writing this year with Albert Einstein as the first entry and encouraged you to use multiple means of assessment with your students.  Did you?  The Love Boat was next with a warning that many of the issues you face in a classroom cannot be solved in a 40 minute segment and that you would need to keep at it. Did you?  September brought us the exhortation to tell your students what it is that you expect; they shouldn’t have to guess about this.  Did you? John Wooden was next with his “Pyramid of Success” and a reminder that your actions reveal your character.  Spencer West, that paraplegic who climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro without any legs reminded us that it doesn’t matter what you have; what matters is what you do with what you have.  What did you do with what you have? The month finished with Olympic champion Sanya-Richards Ross who reminded us that you don’t win the race until you win the race and nothing should be taken for granted. October began with the harvest and what goes into reaping what you sow in the classroom. What did you reap? Next was Mark Twain and the day you find out why you were born.  Have you discovered this?  This was followed by a plea to not let your teaching methods get dusty as many do with their Bibles. I finished out the month withCharlie Brown’s Halloween and the need for us to refrain from putting rocks in the bags of our students. How are their treat bags looking?  November brought climbing both sides of the fence and doing whatever it takes to reach students. How many fences did you climb?  Being receptive to a kid’s perspective is vital to zeroing in on what is needed.Brad Meltzer spurred me on to encourage you to write your favorite teacher with a note of thanks during Thanksgiving. Did you write that letter?  I finished out the month with the concept of changing the pronoun in your mentality to favor those which are plural. A soldier in our parking lot reminded me through his actions on what allegiance means in a very visible way. Our daughter’s college graduation reminded me of a time where we almost lost her – sure thankful that we didn’t. 

The New Year brought a note about making and more importantly; keeping your resolutions. How are those going for you? Rick Warren’s, The Purpose Driven Life, was compared to being a purpose-driven school. Are you holding tightly to the purpose? At the end of the month, we were reminded that Florence Chadwick would have reached her goal in swimming a section of the Pacific Ocean if she would have just focused on the goal and not the barriers to it.  How is your focus?  Finally, the Super Bowl reminded us that preparation from reflected practice is paramount to succeeding n the classroom. How is your reflected practice coming? February brought “running in all of the lanes”and the call to be the very best teacher that your students will ever have.  Are you running in all of the lanes?  Money Ball was tied in to using the formative data that you get to inform your instruction. How do you use formative data? I wrote about breakfast cereals and the charge to be like a Rice Krispie while you snap, crackle, and pop in your classrooms. The green month of March began with giving your “Seal of Approval” to your students as they began round one of state testing.  Teddy Roosevelt was used to remind us of what not to do during “Disabilities Month” or any other time for that matter.  I instructed you to stop being normal as you provide a unique experience for students in your classroom; often just a one chance deal. Are you being normal? I wrote about changing the ending to bad movies as well as how the school year will end. Did you change the ending? The month was closed with a request to not only spring clean your home, but yourself as well and to stay refreshed. Are you staying refreshed? Garth Brooks came to visit (at least in my thoughts) during April with “The River”; a song which encourages us to never be satisfied with the status quo. I came clean and wrote about how slowly I drive, but that habit also makes my vehicles last longer and that the need to rush through education is detrimental to the lasting effect on kids. I wrote about leaving your legacy at this school (or whatever school you are teaching) and to imagine a mural featuring you and what would it include. How is your mural looking? In May, I wrote about the new generation and how we older folks had it worse off…so did out parents and their parents and their parents.  The one thing that will never change is the need to reach kids – they will always be here. “Being born into the right family” was a huge hit as I received incredibly feedback – just remember that every school has kids who are struggling in ways not always obvious. Always be cognizant of what your kids are faced with through developing great relationships. I concluded the school year with “Summer Breeze” and the need to overcome the temptations of letting summer get an early start in the heads of your students and to keep your foot on the pedal. Are you overcoming as we head into the final few days?

Perhaps you had a personal favorite.  If so, please share it with me.  It has been an honor to write to you and to lead this school.  No matter where our paths go, know that I have tried to make the most of every opportunity and appreciate what we do in this great calling.

Summer Breeze

Seals and Crofts sang about the joys of summer in their 1972 hit, Summer Breeze.  Big AM radio hit.  It was a gentle song about the simple life in the midst of the Vietnam War.  Don Henley sang about the Boys of Summer.  Alice Cooper had the ultimate kick in the teeth to teachers trying to hold their classes together with School’s Out for Summer!  Donna Summer…moment of silence…ironically, had no songs about summer.  Bryan Adams sang about the Summer of ‘69 while wearing jeans that had to be painted on.  Sly and the Family Stone sang Hot Time in the Summertime when they weren’t insistent on taking us higher.  The Beach Boys sang about nothing other than summer…I bet they never did a gig than wasn’t within 25 miles of a warm beach.  Eddie Cochran, in 1958 (very good year) sang the legendary hit, Summertime Blues…no mention of summertime pinks and reds from sunburn. Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta performed Summer Night in Grease.  Side note:  If grease is “the word”, where does Dawn dish soap come in to the equation?  Just thinking.      

These last few days are often the hardest because we still have much to teach and the struggle to gain and maintain attention is difficult….IF, we let that happen.  When the weather is nice and the sun is out, it is easy for kids and let’s face it, for us as well, to not wish we were out there…IF, we let that happen.   Some days of teaching are harder than others.  Maybe you struggled to get a point across.  Maybe a lesson didn’t quite go the way you wanted it to.  Maybe the computer network didn’t work as well as it should.  Hint:  Don’t call CTB for help.  Maybe your plan period was interrupted by a difficult parent meeting.  Days 1-15 are usually pretty good as you get used to your new kids and they see just what they can get away with; I mean, they get used to you.  Days 165-180 are typically a little more challenging for the reasons described above.  It is at this time that you reach into your tool kit and pull out all of the stops. Don’t make the mistake of counting down your calendar with big X’s – that sends a bad message…a really bad message.  Don’t announce that it is nice outside…the kids already know that.  We need to be better than the weather.  In the classroom, we have to shine more brightly than the sun.  Side note:When I was a kid, I was so bright that my Dad called my son…

Born Into the Right Family

During the first semester, I was part of a case conference committee on behalf of one of our most profoundly handicapped students.  Throughout the conference, many areas of improvement were noted.  The mother of this student said something that day that I will never forget when asked about where the credit for her daughter’s success stemmed from.  In addition to the excellent teaching that her daughter received at our school, she simply said, “She was born into the right family.”  This wasn’t an arrogant statement.  She was not patting herself on the back.  The point she was trying to make was this – many kids come to us from a less than functional family.  This young lady was not part of a dysfunctional family. We all choose our friends; we do not get to choose our families. Some of our kids go home to an empty house and have to fend for themselves for several hours.  This young lady gets off to bus to the welcoming arms of a Mom who loves her unconditionally.  Some of our kids struggle with getting anyone to help them with their assignments that are taken home.  This young lady has help every waking moment.  Some of our kids have been abused physically and emotionally.  This young lady is cared for and her needs are being met.  We have hundreds of kids who were “born into the right family.”  We have others who were not so lucky, blessed, or fortunate. No welcome home hugs, no pats on the back, no one to help with their homework or make their dinner, no unconditional love.  That is the reality for several of our kids. 

Let’s, for a moment, make our school a “family” that kids can be “born into.”  Work with me on this.  They, for the most part, didn’t get to choose which school to go to.  Kids are assigned to our school.  It is our moral and professional obligation to make this place a school where kids want to be and are challenged daily.  How do we make it a place where they want to be?  It is more than just offering athletics, a nice lunch, and assorted extra-curricular activities.  It is about making connections with kids; forming positive relationships.  Your interest in what a student does may be the only adult who shows that interest.  Your smile and a “Good morning” may be the only one they get that day…or that week…or that month.  That pat on the back, high five, or fist bump may be the only one they ever received.  It is worth the investment.  How do we make it a place where the students are challenged every day?  We work our way up and down the Bloom’s ladder constantly questioning.  We pose more questions and answer less of them.  We do not accept the status quo.  We tell them “good job” and then work to make it a “great” job.  We provide an example of doing what is right and avoiding what it wrong.  We refuse to accept anything less than being courteous.  We make them be gentlemen and show them how to demonstrate that.  We teach them how to be young ladies and we demonstrate that.  We stand in the gap.  When all is said and done, we want kids to say, “I am glad that I was born into that school because they made a difference in my life.”  You have that power – do not miss the opportunity.

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On a side note, I will be flying out on Tuesday night to Norfolk, Virginia and driving to Corolla (Outer Banks), North Carolina.  Our son is getting married to a beautiful young lady who stole his heart.   I will be returning to school on Monday, May 20th having gained another daughter. I hope that she feels like she is marrying “into the right family.”  Thus, this message will be one for two weeks.

A Memo to the New Generation

Many of us have heard about the battles of life that our parents went through as children such as having to walk uphill (both ways) to school through six feet of snow barefoot without a coat and leaving before the chickens got up to get there early enough to gather coal in order to light the stove to keep all of the students warm in a one room schoolhouse that had a class of 172 with ages ranging from 5-18….how’s that for a run-on sentence?  Did you ever think, “”I am never going to lay that on my kids or the kids I teach? … and then you do because you think that these kids today have it SO EASY.  It’s okay, every generation does this.  Here are a few of my favorites from my age group (yep, a card-carrying AARP member):  (1) We didn’t have the Internet.  If we wanted to know something, we had to walk to the library and look it up in something called a card catalog and then read six books from cover to cover.  (2)  E-mail?  What the heck is that?  We actually had to take a pen (it’s that thing with ink in it), write a letter, walk all the way to the mailbox (those metal containers where you placed stamped mail) and then, it would take a week to get there! (3)  Child Protective Services?  Are you kidding?  Not only did parents have the right to not spare the rod, but the neighbors also had permission to take us behind the woodshed. I could have received mail at that location. (4)  There was this little book called the TV Guide in which you had to look up the shows you wanted to watch and then…God forbid, you actually had to get your rear end off the couch and gulp, manually change the channel on the 19 inch black and white Zenith while your brother stood on one leg with “tin foil” wrapped around his forearm and a colander placed on his head. (5)  Car seats?  Yeah right.  Mom tossed you in the back or “Way Back” and you just hung on for dear life.  I recall actually removing the seat belts because they were too cumbersome.  (6)  Caller ID?  Here was the deal – if you were on the phone and someone called, they got a busy signal and just had to wait.  When the phone rang for your house (party lines, ever hear of them?), you had no idea who it was and had to take your chances. It could be your friend, your teacher, your Pastor, your mortgage company. It couldn’t have been a girl – they weren’t allowed to call boys back then. If they wanted to leave a voice mail, they would have to wait a few decades because there was no such thing. Don’t even get me started on texting…As Bob Dylan crooned, “The Times They Are A Changing.”  These kids have it so easy…our parents said the same thing…

Of course there have been technological advances throughout the years and thank God!  If you have been at this for a while you may recall that before white boards and Smart Boards there were chalk boards…and before that, slates.  The only mouse in the classroom was a live one.  You didn’t discuss things with the Principal through the PBIS format – he just told you to assume the position, to grab your ankles, and that you would feel a little sting as he warmed up his paddle with a few practice swings. I still have scars, but I digress.  The point and click sounds heard today had forerunners of the tap-tap-tap of manual typewriter keys. Ball point pens grew from having to dip your pen in an ink well that was located on your desk.  Computers, if you had any, were not in the classrooms.  They were located across the street in a building twice the size of Rhode Island.  Personal computers and electronic tablets were something that weren’t invented yet…or thought of. Kids ate paste…okay, they still do that.  Video-streaming has replaced DVD’s, which replaced VHS tapes, which replaced BetaMax, which replaced Super 8, which replaced reel to reel movies.  A LOT HAS CHANGED!  One thing will never change in what we do – KIDS.  Kids will always be made of flesh and blood.  There will always be a personal relationship component to what we do. There will always be a human connection.  The technology that we will have next year will far exceed what we have today – our son, the CISCO Engineer told me so.  No matter what that technology may look like, remember that kids will always need us so make the most of every opportunity that comes your way to make a difference in their lives.