Thursday, October 22, 2015

Thou Shalt Not Kill

Did you ever kill anything?  No, I'm not asking for a confession to murder here and repentance for violating the 6th commandment.  Seriously, I bet the majority of those reading have killed a spider.  Maybe you have swatted a fly to its demise.  Perhaps you have added a “thousand legger” to the bottom of your shoe.  How about a mouse that you caught in a non-humane trap?  Maybe you are a hunter and you have brought home dinner or several dinners in the form of a deer, rabbit, pheasant, or quail.  Don’t forget about that enjoyable relaxing sport of fishing where the goal is to haul something in by use of a metal barbed hook that lances the mouth of the fish.  Maybe you have slaughtered farm animals with the intention that they end up on your dinner plate.  No, this isn’t a message from P.E.T.A. and a sad video asking for monthly donations, but here I go – why is okay to kill some things and not others?  Why is it okay to step on ants like Danny Kaye doing a tap dance and not okay to knock off the person who cut you off on the expressway? Why is okay to chemically kill a nest of wasps but not okay to drop the guy who looked at you funny? The answer is simple = it all comes down to what is valued.  Things of value do not get killed without penalty; sometimes the penalty is immediate and sometimes the penalty is down the road.  Regardless, there is a penalty.


Okay,” Where are you going with this?”, you may be asking.  In school, the worst thing to kill is a kid’s spirit.   How is that possible?  I would never do that!  That never happens here.  Not on my watch!   Let’s check on that.  The first check if you are a spirit slayer is to ask yourself if you know what makes each of your students tick.  By now, you should have some semblance of what that is.  If not, you are a prime suspect in the case of the spirit killer. Check two – when your students enter your classroom, do you greet them in a positive way, comment on a personal achievement or their appearance, or ask them how things are going? If not, get in the line-up so that the victim can identify you. Check three – do you celebrate the “little victories” with a student?  Do you compliment them on finally mastering a concept, improving their performance, completing their homework for the first time, or being at school five days in a row?  If not, there is a picture of you in the student’s “Post Office.”  In general, teachers do not kill any student’s spirit on purpose.  It happens unintentionally in most cases because we miss the opportunity to encourage.  We miss the opportunity to compliment.  We miss the opportunity to reward.  We miss the opportunity to value their aspirations and personal goals.  It doesn’t have to be that way!  We just need to recognize what they want from us – acceptance, praise, and simply recognizing that we value them.  Many years from now, these kids will attend their graduation reunion and guess what – they will talk about you!  They will, mark my words.  Here’s the part of you they will talk about – how you treated them.  Yes, they will mention the spirit killers, but will do so with disdainThe bulk of the conversation will center on how you believed in them, how you made a difference in their lives, and how they wanted to be like you.  If you show them that they are valued, that’s what they will be saying.  Things of value do not get killed without penalty; sometimes the penalty is immediate and sometimes the penalty is down the road. Regardless, there is a penalty.

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The Browns travel to St. Louis to face the Rams.  Ironically, the baseball team in St. Louis was originally named the “St. Louis Browns.”  Go figure…

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Labor Pains and Waiting

When Mary was pregnant with our first child, we attended the childbirth classes offered by the hospital.  Part of the philosophy was that the husband and wife team were “sharing” the birth experience.  Are you kidding me?  It’s this simple – fellas, unless you are passing a bowling ball or pulling your lip over your head, then it is best to just shut up!  Can I get an “Amen” ladies?   Being a Dad for the first time is surreal.  In a few months, I will be a Grandpa for the first time and this feeling of anticipation for this baby boy is way cool.  I remember that August day in 1983when Andy was born like it was yesterday.  At one point, I believed that three guys with crowns would show up at my door and say, “We saw a star dude.”  As I watched my wife go through labor, I just wanted it to stop for her because of the obvious pain she was experiencing. I did my best to provide comfort, but let’s face it; the pain is more likely to win out.  Labor has no time limits (unless the Doc has plans) and you really don’t know what time your child will be brought into this world. It’s a waiting game. A good representation of our family was in the waiting room waiting for a report. The perspective is on waiting and the waiting room.  Wrong perspective.  It should be on the delivery and the delivery room.

It’s similar with teaching a student or students that just don’t seem to be getting it. The results have not been delivered to the waiting room.  The perspective is on the wrong location.  You have worked hard.  You have tried to speed it up. You have put a time limit on it.  It just isn’t happening. Again, the perspective is on the wrong location. Some “deliveries” are fast and labor is quick and dare I write, easy.  Other deliveries have a long labor; it may be painful and you just wish it would end. Here’s the truth – some kids will take longer than 180 days to get it.  Someone, somewhere and somehow imposed the 180 school day minimum on public education and we are supposed to get it all in in that time frame = the waiting room. The perspective is in the wrong place.   The perspective should be on “delivering” the educational gains; not the place where it occurs or when it needs to be done.   The “baby” will get delivered. Sometimes it takes more time. But when it does, it will take a team of surgeons to remove your smile.  Keep laboring.

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The Browns host the Denver Broncos on the shores of Lake Erie this weekend.  We have a large contingent heading to Cleveland for the weekend as we take part in “Big Jack Tailgate Crazy 8”.  I am hoping for a victory in Mr. B’s honor.

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Postage Stamps

It used to be that people actually wrote letters to one another.  They had paragraphs and everything. Envelopes, stationery, the whole nine yards.  One thing has always amazed me to this day about letters sent in the mail.  If you sent a letter to your Grandmother in Florida, circa 1976, the price of the stamp to affix on the envelope was 13 cents.  If you sent a love note to that cute girl a few blocks away in 1976, the price of the stamp to affix on the envelope was 13 cents.  Same price.  Distance was immaterial. The sentiment expressed in the message did not change the cost of the stamp.  It could be a business letter of straightforward nature or the greatest ode to that special someone…just throw a stamp on it and all was good.  However, the one thing that every letter, package, or box, had to have was a stamp that was affixed and did not come off.  If not, you got the proverbial “Return to Sender” stamp.  Neither made Grandma nor your girlfriend especially happy.

We need to be just like a postage stamp.  We need to stick to something until we get there!  In each class, there is a set of long-term goals.  Some of these are to be mastered in a few weeks; others have a projected mastery date later in the semester or in the school year.  One thing is certain – the time to reach these goals gets shorter every day. The delivery date of your “letter” will vary.  The constant will be that a stamp on it.  Think in terms of YOU being the stamp and a stamp has to stay on the package for the entire trip.  What this means is that you will have to stay with your student’s progress toward those long-term goals the entire school year.  You cannot just rip the stamp off and not be concerned with the contents actually being delivered.  We have to stick with it!  Will there be days when you feel like the letter is still in the mailbox and no progress is being made?  Yep. Will there be days where you the progress is at a snail’s pace?  Yes, but celebrate that as progress.  Will there be “strange days indeed” as John Lennon sang about? You bet your Grannie’s cookie jar there will be!  But there will be many more days when the light bulb comes on. There will be more days when you cannot wipe the smile off of your face because “they are finally getting it!”  There will be many more days when you go home satisfied that you are making a difference.  All of these success stories take work and that cannot be dismissed.  But, like a postage stamp, you have to stick with the effort it takes!

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The Browns travel to Baltimore to face the Ratbirds, I mean, the Ravens.  Division foe, the team that was stolen from Cleveland, yah, lots of love.

Thursday, October 1, 2015

Brand Names vs. Generic

The top selling brand names in cookies are Oreos, Fig Newton’s, and Chips Ahoy!  The top selling name brand clothing linesare Nike, Polo, and Levi’s.  The top selling name brand soda/pop/soft drinks (geography dictates their name) are Coca Cola, Diet Coke, and Pepsi-Cola.  The top selling name brand sports shoes are Nike, Adidas, and Reebok.  Did you find any of your preferences on these lists of the top three selling brands?  I gave up cookies on the second day of kindergarten, I do not drink pop, I wear Asics, and I love Levi’s blue jeans.  The primary use of a brand label is to focus consumer attention of what makes the brand memorable.  To do that, the brand must be easy for the consumer to comprehend and to see the benefits.  Each of the brands listed above carry some memorable tag line or capture some allure.  The marketing departments of each of these companies are paid ridiculous sums of money for clever people to come up with the sales pitch.  Their goal is simply this –What is the primary message we want our target audience to remember about our product?  Don’t be fooled because the real primary goal is to make bucks…big bucks.  Generic products do not have a sales slogan.  They just kind of show up on the supermarket aisles, the clothing racks, or in soft drink machines.  Their allure, of course, is that they typically cost less money. They have no pizazz, they have no cute slogans, they make no promise of leading you to the zenith of your social interactions, they do not claim to make you run faster, jump higher, nor do they produce a claim of attracting the opposite sex in droves. 

Are you a brand name teacher or of the generic version?  What does a brand name teacher look like?  Glad you asked?  Brand name teachers put forward a strong message that what they are delivering is the most important thing to learn.  They are excited about what they are teaching and they do not put a muzzle on that excitement.  That excitement transfers over to their students and geez whiz, pretty soon you have a whole class that is excited about learning.  Generic teachers have all of the marketing skills of their subject as a Dodge dealer in Japan.  Their students do not get excited because their teacher is not excited one bit; in fact, they appear to hate what they are doing.  Brand name teachers create memories for the kids every day.  They do so with engaging activities on a daily basis.  Their kids flourish. Generic teachers have not created a memory for a student ever except that they all watch the clock and can’t wait until they are released from this non-cerebral dungeon of boredom.  Brand name teachers help their student see the benefits of learning the material. They make their instruction relevant.  Generic teachers just go through the motions and really don’t care if anything sticks.  They don’t tie any lessons to real-life experiences because that would take some effort.  People buy name brand items because they think that brand serves their needs well.  Students do the same thing with their teachers.  So, what are you selling in your classroom…and is anyone buying?


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The Browns travel to San Diego to play the Chargers. After a very tough loss to the Raiders last Sunday, we need to come back strong against another struggling team.  National viewing audience is expected to be in the hundreds.