Thursday, May 29, 2014

Endless Chains

Many think that Henry Ford invented the automobile.  Wrong. That distinction goes to Karl Benz in 1886. Yes, “that” Benz.  He called it a “Motorwagon” and replaced the horse and carriage.  Of course, the horse and carriage still exists, but largely to provide romantic rides in big cities for a cost that requires installment payments…plus, you are seated downwind of the south side of the horse. Ever see the “Rusty” episode on Seinfeld?   Henry Ford introduced his “model T” in 1908 and for a reasonable cost. Suddenly, cars were much more af”ford”able for the typical American citizen because they were built more efficiently. By the way, the price was $950.00.  Ford was able to reduce his costs by creating an assembly line of workers (paid $5/day) and assigning repetitive tasks to his crews. The process took 84 steps.  In 1914, Ford took this vision much further with the “Endless Chain”, a device that pulled the chassis of the automobile along at a rate of six feet per minute. This increased productivity immensely and  he passed the savings on to the customers as the price of a Model T dropped to $280.00.  This design concept of an endless chain paid dividends for all involved.

In a very short while, your current students will be passed to the next grade level. A third will be leaving our school; possibly forever.  Last year at this time, there were 5th, 6th, and 7th graders you did not know.  Over the last 180 day span, you have come to know them quite well.  Think about this – as we pass our students on to another teacher and another team, how is the endless chain working?  Kids get on this assembly line way back in pre-K and have a culminating event called commencement after successfully completing their high school requirements.  Each year, new concepts are taught to students and deeper levels of understanding are required.  The simple A-B-C’s become a grand research paper complete with citations. 2+3 becomes a story problem that requires a great many steps.  Simply recognizing a type of animal becomes a dissection study of its anatomy and physiology. Naming the fifty states becomes…well, we’re still working on that.  Playing with a parachute in P.E. becomes measuring your heart rate and designing fitness activities to last a lifetime. The list goes on and on and I have not even mentioned emotional maturity and interpersonal relationships. If you are a 6th grade teacher, your kids just completed 36 feet of the endless chain trip.  7th grade  is 42 feet and 8th grade is 48.The chain really doesn’t end at 72 feet, but that’s the length we have them for.  Congratulations on making a difference in lives and keeping the chain moving. This design pays dividends for all involved.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Sticks and Stones

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.”  Heard that one before?  It’s a bunch of horse hockey. It’s a lot of mule muffins and cow pies. When I hear that quote, I am reminded that I forgot to fertilize my yard.  Names do hurt. Don’t dismiss that.  Sometimes they hurt worse than sticks or stones.  If you were ever called a negative name in your life; perhaps especially during your middle school years, you understand just how deeply words cut you. I watched a news clip of a recent study on obesity in the United States.  In case you have been hiding out in a news-deprived cave, you understand that obesity is a fairly large (no pun intended) problem in our country.  Mississippi leads the nation in the percentage of obese adults. In 2013, Indiana ranked eighth.  The point of the study was the psychological damage done with words declaring that someone is plump.  In this, a ten year old girl who is told by only ONE adult that she is fat, will be more than 4 times likely to be obese at age 19.  Not the prophetic message we want to convey.

What do you speak into your students? What we say to our students and how we say it is one of our most powerful teaching tools. As a teacher, you cannot teach a lesson, welcome students into your classroom, or settle an issue without using words.  The Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development, a well-respected organization in education, lists three ways that positive language shapes learners. (1) Affecting students’ sense of identity, (2) Helping students understand how they work and (3) Influencing our relationships with students. It is that last one that I want to emphasize.  Do you want good relationships with your students?  Your choice of words and the tone of those words can go a long way in establishing that relationship.  Your students need to trust you.  You do this beginning with your words and then by demonstrating it with your actions.  Kind words produce good results toward this.  Demeaning words produce negative results.  Kind actions produce good results. Demeaning actions produce poor results.  Great teachers work hard at developing rapport with their students.  Ineffective teachers make no attempt at this vital ingredient.  Speak positives in to the lives of your students and you will have a much better chance of those same kids producing at higher levels.  If the only attention they get from you is negative attention, then don’t expect much to change.  It’s a conscious choice.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Songs on the Radio

Let me set the scene…you are sitting in your vehicle at a red light…great song comes on the radio…feet start tapping…you play the imaginary drum set on the dashboard…perhaps the air guitar comes out…you begin to sing…louder…louder yet…then it happens…you look out of the corner of your eye and notice that the person in the vehicle next to you is enjoying the show you are putting on…he applauds…you turn shades of red never seen before and pray that the light turns green in the next millisecond. Don’t tell me this has never happened.  How many songs do you know by heart?  I bet it is in the hundreds…or thousands.  How did you ever learn all of those lyrics?  It’s simple – you played them over and over and over again.  Probably drove your parents or someone else nuts.  You learned the words through repetition. You played that song over and over and over again.   I recall wearing out not one, but two LP copies of “Frampton Comes Alive” plus one 8-track. Don’t know what those are – ask your parents.  Side question and required answer = what is your favorite song?  See you at the stop light.

Teaching involves a lot of repetition. We just don’t teach content once and forget about it. We cover concepts in multiple ways with multiple applications and with multiple connections.  We tell them what we are going to tell them. Then we tell them. Finally, we tell them what we told them.  Kids don’t just learn their multiplication facts by shifting through flash cards one time.  They work those cards so thin that resale is not a possibility. We teach advanced skills, but not without repeating the foundational work.  We teach muscle memory in Physical Education by repetitively doing the same motions. We spiral up and we spiral down.  We may bust out an old Saxon Math lesson. We return to the roots to emphasize them again.  We review before we move on. We move on and sometimes find that we should have reviewed.  We hammer home the critical information by emphasizing it, by giving it value, and by showing the kids its relevance in their lives.  We make a difference and that must be a repetitive skill.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Farmers Market

A saw an ad in the paper the other day advertising for merchants to rent space for the weekly Farmers Market this summer.  Have you ever been to a farmers market? No, not the farmers market advertised on television that is akin to e-harmony or match.com. My God, what is next?  What I am referring to are the summer and early fall weekend markets where local growers display their crops to sell to those of us without prosperous gardens or vast fields.  It is really inviting to see all of the ripe tomatoes, peppers, squash, apples, peaches,  sweet corn, pumpkins, and other assorted fruits and vegetables.  I wonder just what a Farmers Market looks like in Colorado or Washington?... those gardens would have “weeds”. Anyway, farmers typically do not make deals because they are already selling their goods at rock-bottom prices.  So how do you get a good deal at a Farmers Market.  Simple. Be a consistent customer.  You see, the farmer understands that he or she is cultivating more than just crops. They are also cultivating relationships that keep customers coming back weekend after weekend.  Side note:  our oldest daughter was asked out by a local a few years back. She asked him what he did for a living and he replied, “I’m a farmer.” Amanda replied, “Do you mean like E-I-E-I-O ?”  Witty girl…just like the Old Man.

In your “Farmer’s Market” called your classroom, remember that you too are selling.  While you are not selling potatoes and green beans, you are selling concepts.  You are selling knowledge. You are selling comprehension. You are selling application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.  Hopefully, the former sales are “Bloom”ing! (how’s that for wit).  Day after day, you present what you have to offer.  Are your customers consistently buying?  If so, keep on doing that and tell others just how you are making it happen.  If your students are not buying, perhaps it is because of an ineffective relationship or their perception of an ineffective relationship.  The good news is that either of these can be repaired…in time. Perhaps the tie-ins to real life just aren’t relevant for many.  That too is repairable…you just need to find out more information about your students and what makes them tick. Give them reasons for choosing to shop and buy in your market.  Create the farmstand that everyone flocks to.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Who Sets the Table?

There are certain things that you just don’t do.  You don’t tug on Superman’s cape. You don’t spit into the wind. More importantly, you do not answer incorrectly when your wife asks what you think of her outfit.  Here’s another thing you don’t do – let  little kids set the dinner table when fine china is involved. My wife and I were given my Great Grandmother’s china service several years ago. This is china from the World War I era.  We take them out only on special occasions  such as family holiday dinners. Throughout the years, a simple meal has not made contact with the china.  These are not your everyday run-of-the-mill plates.  They are beautiful and quite breakable.  This china is not brought out for spaghetti night or hamburger helper. No, when this china adorns our dinner table, the crystal glasses also are used.  When our kids were little, we enjoyed family dinner time many nights per week. Most of those dinners were consumed on everyday plates with everyday glasses with everyday silverwear.  We had no problem letting the kids set the table. However, when the china was to be used, the kids were not invited to prepare the table.  This took skilled hands. This job should not be given to just anyone. 

You set the table in your classrooms. Why? Glad you asked. It is because what is in your care is too valuable to leave to just anyone. This is “Teacher Appreciation Week.”  Not everyone should be setting the table.  What I mean by that statement is that not everyone is cut out to teach kids.  Kids are like that fine china in our pie safe.  Not everyone should be setting them on the table.  As I taught about in February, the quality of the relationship with your students is the cornerstone of effective management within the classroom. Students need to know that they can count on their teachers and that you have a personal stake in their success.  It doesn’t matter how you feel; it matters what you do and how kids interpret your actions!  Remind yourself to engage in these behaviors each day:  meet your students at the door, smile at them…really, it’s okay to do that, use appropriate banter with them, provide guidance both academically and behaviorally, be clear about the goals, be clear about the expectations, and be consistent in applying consequences.  No, not everyone should set the dinner table that we call teaching. That job is reserved only to those who can handle the breakables with care. Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!