Read the Fine Print

If your mailbox at home is like ours, it is filled with “special offers” almost on a daily basis.  These range from reductions on prices for oil changes, eyeglasses, sports physicals or dog neutering. Of course, the oil change does not cover synthetic oil, the eyeglasses are for single vision only, the sports physicals are between the hours of 1:00-1:15 p.m. and the dog neutering is only for dogs that do not have wet noses.  Maybe that junk mail is an offer for a special on laminate flooring installation, but the ends in 10 minutes and by the way, materials are extra.  How about five rooms of carpet cleaned for $119.00, but the fine print says up to a room size of 2” x 3” and only shag carpeting is included?  What about that “free” checking account?  Folks, there is no such thing.  The “$2.00 off any purchase of $15.00 or more”…if you pick up the entire dinner tab for the table next to you.  You get the point – there’s no such thing as a free lunch. If it’s too good to be true, then it is too good to be true.  This is not to say that all offers or coupons are bad, just be sure to read the fine print or you may be making payments on beach property in Nebraska. 

Take a look at your teacher contract.  The one that you signed.  In ink. With a date on it.  Within the contract is a bit of “legalese” verbiage such as “All of the terms of Chapter 182 of the Acts of 1915…” and “acts supplemental thereof and amendatory thereof” and a bit more that will exhaust you just deciphering it.  This is all under the title of “Regular Teacher’s Contract” (I would rather receive the “Exceptional” or Highly Effective” teacher contract, but I guess those don’t exist).  Regardless, in the entire contract it never really specifies what you are signing up for.  That’s where the beauty and dare I write, nobility, of being a teacher comes in. While others in different professions may say, “I didn’t sign up for that”, we cannot truly say so.  Yes, in signing up to be a teacher, we signed up for everything included in that.  Huh?  What’s “everything” mean?  I don’t know.  What comes your way.  We have to be the teacher in an academic sense.  We have to be the teacher in setting examples.  We have to the counselor.  We have to be the Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa, or whatever gap needs to be filled.  We have to be the statistician. We have to be the planner. We have to be the mind reader. We have to be the support system.  We have to be a data analyzer. We have to be the communicator. We have to be….We just have to be whatever is needed.  Thanks for signing up.

Be Where Your Feet Are!

Roll Tide!  I have a direct connection to the University of Alabama football program.  My great uncle, Frank Thomas, was the Head Coach at Alabama from 1931-46 compiling a record of 115-24-7. His 1934 team finished 10-0 and beat Stanford in the Rose Bowl and was named national champions!  Prior to his coaching career, Uncle Frank played quarterback for Knute Rockne (yes, that Knute Rockne) at the University of Notre Dame from 1920-22.  One of his players – Paul “Bear” Bryant, who would later succeed Uncle Frank as Alabama’s coach.  Uncle Frank was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1951.  Today, there is a statue of him outside of Alabama’s stadium. He passed away in 1955 of heart and lung disease - missed him by three years. I would have loved to have known him by something other than family records and books.  The Crimson Tide of Alabama continue to be one of the top football programs in the country.  They are continually ranked near the top and this past year made it to the “final four” of college football. Their current Head Coach, Nick Saban, was interviewed just prior to their final game and made a comment that stuck with me.  He was asked how he had his team focus on the task at hand and not get caught up in the hype of all of the festivities. His response was simple – “I tell them every day to be where your feet are.”  With that, he ran off to join the team.

Be where your feet are.  We have a big week next week. Round two of ISTEP.  We cannot afford to not be focused in. We have to be where are feet are. Here’s how it works – the Department of Education combines the results of the first round of ISTEP with the second round for a total score.  It’s not really like a first half/second half thing; it all counts!  Instruct your students to be dialed in.  Instruct your students to take care of business.  Instruct your students to give their best effort.  Instruct your students to be on time and on task. Instruct your students to show all of their work as required and to submit complete answers; even the ones that have more than one answer!  Instruct them to show, in dramatic fashion, just what they have learned this year.  Okay, that’s the kid part.  What’s the teacher part?  Encourage your students before and during the test.  Be up and about during the test. It is a temptation to get on the computer and answer emails while the kids are testing. Wrong move. Take this opportunity to check their efforts.  It’s the little things that make the big differences. Tell your students that the expectation is that no one is finished with their test until you physically see it.  Make that the expectation.  If you want to see achievement and bubble growth, this is another opportunity to encourage your students and increase their confidence.  Don’t miss that opportunity.  Be where your feet are!

Going the Distance!

What is the longest distance that you have ever walked or jogged without stopping?  Hopefully, your answer is not “from the couch to the refrigerator!”  We have several staff members who are active runners and who have completed full marathons.  Here’s the old coach in me coming out.  There is a vast difference in training for a marathon (26.2 miles) and the shortest sprint in Track & Field (100 meters). It means very little to a marathoner if he or she covers the first 100 meters in 10 seconds (but if they did, I can tell you that they are in the wrong event!). The finish line is still over 26 miles away.  It’s not about where you start. It matters where you finish. The best coaches will plan training for their athletes in a backward manner starting with the ultimate championship race.  They schedule training by then working back to day one. The end goal is always in sight and all work is directed toward achieving that goal.  For a long distance runner, it is the ability to stick with it mile after mile that counts. Being steadfast, not just short sprinting, will determine the outcome. 

You may want to spend time with your classes impressing upon them that the long-term goals are what they are shooting for and that the daily goals factor toward achievement. Use a backward approach to teaching = determine what the desired outcomes are, then script the assessments, and finally plan your instructional route.  Of course, be mindful of informal and formative assessments to guide your plan along the way.  This school year is not a sprint, although some days and units will feel like it.  It doesn’t matter where you start. In fact, it is far too late to change that.  It matters where you finish.  No one remembers who won the first race, but they do remember who the state champion was (missed that personally by one place…still bugs me). Always keep the end goal in sight and all work is directed toward its achievement. Right now, we are just past the three-quarters race that we call a school year.  That’s like lap 7 in the 3200 or the gun lap in the 1600.  This is no time to take your foot off the pedal!  Be intentional. Be purposeful. Be prescriptive.  Be inspiring. Be creative. Be logical. Be a critical thinker.  Nothing can stop you with a great plan!

Tossing Things Overboard

You may have heard that items have been thrown overboard from ships when in rough seas.  What exactly would be thrown into the sea?  A non-specific list would simply be cargo, tackle, and food. Thus, I am not including the Boston Tea Party.   Why would the crew do that?  Well, most importantly, it would lighten the ship.  The heavier the ship, the deeper the ship will sit in the water.  That is especially problematic in shallow water. Tossing cargo overboard lifts the ship in case the ship is blown to less deep areas where reefs and rocks could cause destruction. If the ship ran aground, the crew could be tossed into the sea. The moral of the story:  when faced with life or death, everything becomes expendable.  Taking weight off the ship also results in stability and prevents the ship from being capsized.  Lastly, throwing cargo overboard would allow the ship to go faster just in case the crew wanted to outrun the storm.  This all makes me think about the 60’s show, Gilligan’s Island. What the heck, “The Professor” could make an FM radio out of a coconut, but he couldn’t fix a hole in a boat?  Lame as it gets.

What things do you need to toss overboard as a teacher? As the remaining time available wanes, there is just no time for meaningless activities.  So, what can you get rid of? No, you cannot toss the kids.  Explore first the lessons that just don’t engage the masses.  Activities that do not have a positive impact toward reaching the daily or long-term goals is a waste of cargo. Throw it overboard.  But I really like that activity. It’s fun. I do it every year because well, that’s what my plan book says. Dump it. Next, take a good look at the collection of “materials” that you have. We don’t want to see you anytime soon on Hoarders. If you haven’t used something in the last two years, zip that sucker over to the USS Dumpster.  What else can lighten your load?  Try looking at grading in more specific ways. If you are assessing correct usage of adverbs, then why grade an entire paper?  Save the big grades for the big grades.  Outrun that storm by focusing on what the assessment is all about.  If you are assessing a Math problem set of “the odds on page 213 from 1-23 and each problem requires the same processes, why grade all twelve when grading a few will get you the data that you need?  Throw that to “Davy Jones Locker”.  Keep looking for things to toss overboard besides your cookies. While you are at it, toss the Gilligan’s Island DVD collection.