The Value of Nothing...

In a recent Men's Health magazine article, Mike Zimmerman writes " There are no successful cynics. Think about it: Real success, any way society measures it - money, fame, happiness, family - cannot be achieved in the presence of cynicism." (March 2010, p.94). In a time when bad news is at a premium, and it is more difficult than ever to keep a positive outlook, cynicism is a prevailing outlook. Zimmerman is right though, rarely does one ascend to greatness without a fair amount of idealism and a minimal amount of cynicism.

Oscar Wilde wrote, "A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing." That thought could be applied to many things I've read recently regarding education. At the local level, the state level, and the national level, funding of education is a concern. Everyone knows the cost (or can figure it out) of paying our educators their salaries and benefits, however ascertaining their value is a murkier proposition. I see newspaper articles, blog posts, television news stories, and any other number of public forums that involve discussions of the "cost" of education. Those stories recently have most commonly focused on what educators cost school districts and governments in terms of salaries, benefits and retirement. Rarely have they focused on the value of these educators.

I encourage everyone to think of the value of a good teacher, a good administrator, a good school secretary, a good school custodian, a good classroom assistant or school security personnel - these are the people who hold our future in their hands as they work with young people. In fact, they are invaluable...

At North we are fortunate to have an exceptional staff. They are caring, committed and extraordinarily knowledgeable and talented. It's hard for anyone to be cynical around people like that - even teenagers. If we want to cultivate great leaders of tomorrow, who will be creative problem solvers, we can't be cynics. We have to be optimists and idealists even when things are tough. We have to focus on value rather than cost. When something is valuable enough, we must find a way to afford it.

That New Car Smell...

I recently purchased a new car, and like all things new it came with an opportunity. An opportunity to keep it clean this time - inside and out, an opportunity to actually keep a scheduled maintenance log, an opportunity to keep the kids from eating in my car this time - in short an opportunity to do car ownership right. Similarly, each new school year, and each new semester gives students and staff an opportunity for a clean slate.

Today marks the first day of second semester, and much is at stake. In some cases college admission or even high school graduations hang in the balance over the next five months. Many of our students start today with a renewed commitment to their school work. It's important that educators and parents partner to keep these efforts to achieve academic success alive so that all of our students put themselves in the best position possible to meet goals they have set.

This morning we had a brief staff gathering in which we stressed the importance of communication. In today's world, with grades and attendance posted online, teacher websites that include assignments and updates, and 24/7 email availability, there is no excuse for anyone involved in a young person's education not to know current information regarding progress. Please know that our teachers, counselors and administrators welcome parent and student communication, and truly want partnerships that work towards a common goal of student achievement. Let us know how we can help.

Hopefully in June this semester will still have that new car smell, and not the odor of a half eaten chicken nugget stuffed between the seats for five months...

The Biggest Losers...

Because of my almost pathological dislike of commercials, and the power afforded by a good remote, I spend much of the little bit I watch television flipping through channels catching snippets of various shows. The other night my kids and I were watching one of their programs, and during the commercial I flipped to the show "The Biggest Loser". Having seen little bits of the show before we were all familiar, but this time became interested and watched for probably twenty minutes. In fact when I tried to turn away from it, all my kids yelled for me to switch back. I asked "why", and my youngest said "Because they're all trying so hard".

It's compelling to watch people try hard, especially when they've overcome odds. The Olympics are coming up, and America's favorite stories are of the underdogs who have overcome great odds to succeed. We love the underdog, even when they've created their own hole (maybe especially then...).

I talked with my kids about the show, and my youngest asked how the contestants became so obese. I told her that some of them probably got into some unhealthy eating habits, didn't exercise, or maybe had health conditions or other problems that led to their overeating. She said "I bet they hated gym. I love gym, but the fat kids hate it."

I asked her why she thought some kids hated gym, and she replied, "Because they aren't good at it." One of my other kids chimed in, "That's why I hate math." Out of the mouths of babes...

It's human nature that we spend more time doing things that we are good at than at things that are difficult. In schools, part of our challenge is to help students overcome their anxiety over working outside comfort zones. Too often we accommodate a student who is unwilling or incapable of working outside a comfortable area.

I have had parents of straight "A" students come to me to tell me that their child is receiving a "B" or "C" in physical education and that grade is ruining their g.p.a. The request is often to remove a student from P.E., waive the requirement, or look for a personal curriculum that will avoid the class. There is public and even educational sympathy for this position. However, the athletically, musically, or artistically gifted student who struggles in math is told to "suck it up" because math is such an important life skill. Schools fail when we fail to educate the "whole" student. Valuing education in one area over another is dangerous.

Renaissance education focused on physical education, and education in the arts as being as important (sometimes more so) as education in reading and mathematics. As states and our nation consider educational reform, or slash school budgets in response to growing financial concern, I worry about the loss of courses in the visual and performing arts, and in physical education.

The biggest losers in some of the budget cuts on the horizon for schools stand to be students who do not get the same kind of "whole" student education our schools have emphasized over time. The responsibility is on educators, parents, school boards and legislators to see to it that we not only turn out a generation of creative problem solvers, but a generation who is healthy in mind, body and spirit.

Quotable...

As a teacher I put "quotes of the week" up on my board each week (or at least when I remembered to...). As a coach I used to give players a note with a quote that was specific to them or our team for inspirational purposes. I often include quotes in staff newsletters, and notes to parents and students, and have books of well-known quotations in my office. Over the years, I have often relied on some of these words to get through tough times, or to help others through tough times.

My wife and I were shopping recently when she came across this Mark Twain quote engraved on a piece of polished wood, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” What a great thought!

It occurred to me that there are certain quotes I always rely on or come back to, and that led me to ponder whether we can define someone's personality or personal philosophy by that which they quote. Here is a collection of my favorites over the years, along with context. Please refrain from psychoanalysis based on my choices:

* "Every year Babe Ruth led the league in home runs, he also led the league in strikeouts." - My friend Chris "Rooster" Daly. Used often to encourage someone to "keep swinging"...

* "It'll feel better when it stops hurting." - My grandfather, James C. Bearden, to help lighten things for someone with a minor scrape or pain (not recommended for serious injury...).

* "Wherever you go, there you are." - Buckaroo Banzai from the movie "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai". Great for signing yearbooks when you really have nothing meaningful to say...

* " What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." - Ralph Waldo Emerson - on a plaque my parents gave me that rests on my desk.

* "Fair is not always equal." - Legendary basketball coach John Wooden. Particularly useful if you have kids...

* "All great masters are chiefly distinguished by the powers of adding a second, third and perhaps a fourth step in a continuous line. Many a man has taken the first step. With every additional step you enhance immensely the value of your first." - Ralph Waldo Emerson. A good explanation of the importance of continuing to move forward. I've used it in every personal portfolio I've ever put together.

* "Doh!" - Homer Simpson. No explanation necessary...

* "Good is the enemy of great." - Jim Collins, author of the book Good to Great. A reminder to avoid complacency.

* "We're always modeling whether we realize it or not." - South Principal Al Diver. An especially good reminder for parents and educators.

* "We teach people how to treat us." - another Al Diver quote. A good reminder that others take their cues for how to treat us based on teh way we act and react to things they say and do.

* "Winning is a habit" - Vince Lombardi

* "Be wary of contempt before investigation." - Harry Gossett. Particularly good when you encounter people who never like an idea that is not their own...

* "Nothing more dangerous than an idea when it's the only one you have." - Harry Gossett - fits well with the previous quote...

* "Do or do not. There is no try." - Yoda

* "That dog'll hunt." - My friend Bob Kinder, used to describe any good golf shot, or any good attempt at virtually anything...

* "We must be the change we wish to see."- Ghandi

There are many, many more, but you get the idea. Feel free to add your favorites as comments!

Sometimes You Just Gotta Go to Recess...

Yesterday I asked my kids how their school days went. One of them said "It was great - we had double recess!"

My first reaction was a typical principal's thought regarding lost instruction time. I said "Wow... that's cool. Why did you get double recess?".

"My teacher said everyone was stressed out, including her, and we all needed to blow off a little steam, whatever that means."

Smart teacher. Smart teacher with her finger on the pulse of her class. Sometimes we all need a little extra recess.

Lately it seems like all the news both in and out of education is bad. We're seeing a lot of stressed out kids, teachers, administrators and parents. Yesterday our counseling office was full of kids with a wide variety of affective issues. In my twenty plus years in education, I don't think I've ever seen a time when kids felt more uncertainty in their worlds. As adults, both for the kids and ourselves, it's important to take time for a little extra recess now and then.

Remember to take time for yourselves, your kids and everyone's collective sanity. Sometimes taking fifteen minutes to "blow off a little steam" can result in hours of increased productivity. Next time your day is getting you down, find a couple of co-workers or family members to go outside and play a little tag... just might turn things around for you...

There's Greatness Within...

"I saw an angel in the marble and I carved until I set him free." - Michaelangelo

So much of teaching and learning is uncovering greatness within. Sometimes it's hard for adults to look at a young person and believe that under that hoodie, behind those noise canceling earphones, underneath that surly mood, or disguised by immaturity, greatness lurks. It does though...there is greatness in all of us. In our building's Challenge Day activities, facilitators challenge students to look below the "waterline", or surface, and discover that there is more to each of us. In doing so, as Michaelangelo did, we may uncover greatness.

A recent news story that has made the rounds on the internet and television gave an account of a small diner, where in the holiday spirit and in an unsolciited, random act off kindness, a patron decided to pay the tab for another patron. In turn, that patron paid for others, and the "paying it forward" continued all day. It's this kind of kindness and goodwill that the holidays often bring out in people, and that our best educators employ daily. Education is ,after all, the ultimate "pay it forward" occupation. The lessons of today lead to the innovations and creations of tomorrrow.

The holiday season is the perfect time to look a little deeper, be a little more accepting, and search more passionately for the "angel in the marble". The holiday tradition of gift-giving also reveals one of life's most precious secrets - the greatest and most staisfying joy comes from giving.

Happy Holidays!

The Three W's...Writing, Writing, Writing...

"I heard from my teachers that 'practice makes perfect', but then they told me that no one is perfect, so I stopped practicing..." - Jeff Foxworthy, comedian

Just before Thanksgiving break, North administered a practice ACT writing test to all juniors. The test was scored by teachers of our English and social studies departments, and copies of each student's writing, and their scores on the ACT writing rubric were sent home to parents of each student, given to the student's English teacher, and copied to 100 Club mentors. The ACT rubric is a 6 point scale, and each paper is read by two scorers. Their combined score is the student's ACT writing score. In looking for combined scores of 8 or above (two scores of "4" or higher by each reader), we realized we still have a ways to go to make sure our juniors are prepared as writers. The absolute best strategy for improving writing is practice. Practice writing, even without feedback, improves the thought process important to producing good work.

North English teacher and North Pointe advisor, Andrew Taylor, provided me this "tip sheet" from Roy Peter Clark at http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=78&aid=173999&view=print for teachers to use in improving student writing. Most, if not all, of these strategies can also be employed by parents who want to support their son or daughter's evolution as a writer:

The best writing teachers:
Encourage students to write every day. Students should spend some time writing in class, where the teacher can see them write or not write.

Do not mark up and grade every assignment. Grading papers is thankless drudgery for teachers; trying to interpret those marks is punishment for students. The good writing teacher develops a rich variety of ways of assessing student work.

Write, on occasion, with and for the students. A writing teacher cannot just talk about writing. The teacher needs to be in the game, demonstrating how writers solve problems.

Teach writing as a process. By now an old idea, but still undervalued by teachers who tell students what to write about and then correct all the students' mistakes.

Confer with student writers throughout the process. The teacher should spend some class time on being a resource to the student writers, an inquisitive editor who asks good questions and listens.

Connect reading and writing. The idea is not just to read literature for content and theme, but to come to understand the strategies professional authors use and pass them on to students.

Get students to talk, talk, talk about reading and writing. Writing workshops require moments of concentrated silence, but it's not all "shut up and sit down." Teachers must inspire classroom conversation about how reading and writing make sense.

Offer appropriate praise and encouragement -- as well as correction. Teachers, especially journalism teachers, seem much better at communicating what is wrong with a text than what is right, what needs work rather than an appreciative understanding of what works.

Give opportunities for revision. Good teachers attend to the three big parts of the process: prevision or rehearsal; vision or early drafting; and revision.

Never use writing as a form of punishment. Remember what happened in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to the evil pink nightmare, headmistress Dolores Umbridge, who concocted the most wicked form of writing punishment -- letters carved in blood on the backs of their hands.
Teach skills, like spelling and grammar, within the context of writing. Teachers may be required to teach skills through specific lessons and drills. Fair enough, but at least use real writing to test whether students have mastered the elements of English.

Believe that all students, not just the "stars" can improve their writing. Writing coach Jack Hart argues persuasively that we teach reading as a democratic social skill, something that every person should learn; but we continue to frame writing as if it were a fine art.

We must all work in partnership to prepare our students as writers. With the onset of the digital age, more and more communication takes place in writing over the internet. Social networking pages for social interaction and the workplace, distance learning, working from home or remote locations - all require people to communicate effectively in writing. If you would like more information about assisting your son or daughter be a more effective writer, please feel free to contact his/her English teacher at North, or me directly. Write, write, and write some more, and don't worry if you aren't confident in your own writing and editing, after all - "Most editors are failed writers - but so are most writers. " ~T.S. Eliot