White Christmas

The “Hilbrich” side of our family has a tradition at Christmas of having a contest of movie trivia.  Uncle Tim has been the designated quiz maker for many years.  The team that wins gets the honor of picking the Christmas movie from which the questions will be generated for the following Christmas gathering as well as earning some highly expensive prizes that I pick up from Dollar General or another fine retailer that incorporates $1.00 in its name.  Over the years, I have asked questions from It’s A Wonderful Life, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Elf, Home Alone, The Santa Clause, Jingle All The Way, and last year , A Christmas Story.  Last year’s winners (Aunt Barb, Annie, and Hayley) chose White Christmas as their movie selection.  Mind you, I have to watch each of these movies to generate questions from the relatively easy to beyond belief difficult.  If you have never seen White Christmas and are low on estrogen, this movie should boost production of that hormone.  The stars of the movie are Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Vera- Ellen, and Rosemary Clooney.  Crosby and Kaye play a successful song and dance team after their discharge from WWII and fall for the sister team of Ellen and Clooney. Wow, didn’t see that coming. Whatever.  As they perform around the country and gain notoriety, they end up at an inn in New England where their former military leader is struggling financially to keep the establishment in the black.  You guessed it – the boys round up the troops, host a show, and all is good once again.  They even throw in a little snowfall to romanticize the ending.  The idea to save the General from financial ruin was from Bing Crosby.  To this idea, Danny Kaye said, “I think it’s impossible, ridiculous, and insane!”  He then added, “And I wish I would have thought of it first!”    

When was the last time someone told you that an idea you had was straight off the stable floor?  If the answer is never, then you may be a “stay in the box” teacher.  Think about your own education for a moment.  What were your favorite lessons along the way?  I bet they weren’t a 50 minute lecture about the mating habits of horse flies or doing a stack of worksheets that were as tall as Sears Tower…or Willis Tower…or whatever they are currently calling that building on Wacker Drive with 110 stories.  No, your favorite lessons most likely involved actually connecting something to the curriculum.  Perhaps you actually got out of your seat and did something that was “hands-on”.  Maybe you actually had fun (God forbid) during the lesson.  Your teacher may have gone so far as to tell you to put your textbooks away because what you were about to learn wasn’t in the book.  If none of those ring a bell, well, then…never mind.  Here’s the bottom line – it’s okay to think outside the box and to color outside of the lines.  Yes, we all have standards that we have to reach and common summative tests to measure the achievement and growth of our students, but how you get them there is what makes a teacher a teacher.  Throw your boxes away and long for the moment that someone tells you your idea is impossible, ridiculous, or insane. Then let your buttons pop when they tell you that they wished they thought of it first. It worked for Bing Crosby.

Dead Ends

There are many names for those things we drive on.  There are roads.  There are streets.  There are boulevards.  There are avenues.  There arelanes.  There are expressways. There are parkways (interesting that we drive on a “park”way, but park in a “drive”way). There are state highways.  There are interstate highways.  There are roundabouts. There are gravel roads.  There are dirt roads.  Recently, I was driving on a thoroughfare(there’s another name) and for quite a stretch there were signs posted at each intersection that read “Dead End.”  Hmmm. Each of these lead to cul-de-sacs that provided no way through; just a simple in and out.  There was no means of passing through unless you wanted to “four-wheel” it through someone’s property and enjoy time in a concrete cell with bars. Then, as I retraced my route, I noticed that I had missed the intended way out; probably because I wasn’t paying attention to the way out as I was concentrating on the road blocks and not the passage.  The way out was there all along. I missed it because all of my attention was on the road blocks. 

Far too often, we get on roads that lead to dead ends.  If that is a personal issue, I would suggest an updated GPS or consulting Rand McNally (map makers for our youthful readers).  It’s a little different in the classroom.  We are not just on the road, but we are leading others down the road.  That road should end in success.  It should never end with a “dead end.”  That’s a dead end in the mind of your students; not yours.  Yes, there perspective on where they are heading is extremely important to the enrollment of themselves in the whole process.  The teacher needs to provide a road map for students that ultimately leads to their success.  A direct correlation is that their success will be your success.  So, plan your route (lesson planning) toward alignment with the assessments to be given and make certain that the assessments given are aligned with the objectives – what you want them to get smarter about.  If there are no long-term goals, then essentially, there are no roads because there is no destination to reach.  If the goals and assessments do not align, then the road will lead to a dead end; heck, it might not even be paved!  If the instruction does not align with the assessments, they you are essentially on the autobahn without a steering wheel.  Be certain that you keep your kids off of dead end streets.

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Okay, I will print it – my Browns were robbed last Sunday against the Patriots.  This Sunday, it’s the game all of you Chicago fans have been waiting for as your opportunity to let me have it = it’s the Browns vs. Da Bears on the shores of frigid Lake Erie.  Sorry, no monetary bets…I don’t have that much money.

How's Your Game?

Each August, I take time out to watch the Little League World Series which is held annually in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.  Without exception, I am amazed at the baseball skills of these 11 and 12 year olds on the baseball diamond.  This tournament has a special place in my heart because 43 years ago, I played in the same tournament and on that same field.  My head floods with memories with each game – my teammates, my coaches, our group leaders, and trying to communicate with other kids that spoke in languages far different than my “Da Region” dialect.  Of course, there was a lot of competition between the lines as well.  It was a blessing to compete in this tournament, in several sports in junior high and high school, running on scholarship at Butler, and then decades of coaching kids in several sports.  A constant that you hear coaches talk about is the need to “Bring your A- GAME!”  I lived this as an athlete and preached it as a coach.  Anything short of giving your best effort was unacceptable.  Your goals could never be reached with a half-hearted effort.  Your team would be let down if even one slacked off.  Successful teams have each and every player bringing their best effort (A-GAME) every single time.

What kind of game to you bring to the classroom every day?  Do you bring your A- GAME or do you just bring a game?  There is a huge difference.  Could you imagine if your doctor did not bring his or her A-GAME to the examination room or worse yet, to the operating room?  Seriously, imagine that you are going in for a heart procedure (been there) and your cardiologist just wasn’t into it that day.  How would you feel about that?  Maybe your mechanic just didn’t feel like putting their best effort into fixing your car and did a half-butt job but still charged full price.  Would you go back and demand a refund?  Maybe the grain farmers in America collectively decided that they just didn’t feel like plowing and planting this year.  Would that affect you?  We all have days that we are not feeling up to it.  No one can deny that.  There are days when you are just worn out and your personal life is in tatters.  It happens.  As a teacher, there are hundreds of students that are counting on you to bring your best every single day.  That’s not an absurd expectation – it’s what we should be doing.  We expect the best from anyone who provides a service to us or for us.  Our kids should not expect anything differently. Bring your A-GAME EVERY DAY!

The Browns travel to Massachusetts this weekend to take on the Patriots with a starting quarterback who just joined the team…oh, my.