Corvette or Van, That Is the Question...

My wife and I recently joined the ranks of mini-van owners after years and vehicles of avoidance. The mini-van seemed to us the final concession. Despite four kids and a dog, we held on as long as we could to more stylish, gas guzzling people movers. We are now officially not cool ( no comments please from those who believe that bus left the station years ago....).

Nevertheless, I have to confess, we love the van. It's comfortable, has lots of room, gets decent gas mileage, and from the kids' perspective has the one thing that matters in any room or vehicle - satellite television and the screens that go with it. In fact recent conversations with our kids got me thinking about how much home environments influence all of us, especially our children. As we prepare for the return of students to school, I thought it was a good time for all of us to think about how our home environments impact the lives of our children.

While together with friends whose children are approximately the ages of our children, my wife and I overheard a conversation one of our elementary aged daughters was having with her friend. Our friends have a corvette, and their daughter told our daughter that she was going to have a corvette when she got older. Without hesitation, and very proudly, our daughter said she was going to have a VAN.... when the laughter subsided, I started thinking about how much children reflect their parents and their homes.

A colleague of mine often says that adults are always modeling behavior whether they realize it or not. Our children mimic us and develop much of their belief system and value system based on what they see us do, and not what they hear us say - "Do as I say, not as I do" rarely works. Often times I meet with frustrated parents who are looking for a third party to give them some ideas as to how they can assist their children. From my daughter's desire for a van, I was reminded that the things we do, and the people our children observe us to be, determine to a large extent what and who our children will be.

A few years ago I was at a retirement party for a teacher who had spent more than forty years in the classroom. During his retirement party he said, "In 41 years of teaching I never met a student I didn't like where I also didn't like his parents". The comment was facetious, but with the ring of truth. We're always modeling. In humorist Dave Barry's list of life lessons he's learned he says "A person who is nice to you but rude to a waiter is not a nice person. (This is very important. Pay attention. It never fails.)" What a great reminder to all of us that how we treat others, and the behaviors we model are not just important for us, but for those who depend on us.

As we prepare for the start of another new school year it's a great reminder for all of us that the behavior we model is destined to be repeated.

By the way, I told my daughter that she shouldn't limit herself...there's no reason she can't have a van and a corvette if that's what she wants...

Writing

At North this year our entire staff committed to a literacy and writing initiative. At the beginning of the school year, each department committed to department wide minimum writing standards, and in every content area students were given a variety of writing tasks. In addition, we conducted practice ACT writing tests for all of our juniors that were designed to give the students and parents an idea what strengths and deficiencies a student might have in writing prior to taking the actual ACT. We are anxious to receive the results of our spring MME to see if these initiatives had an impact on our juniors, but know that the single most important strategy in improving student writing is practice.

Recently a North parent, Sylvia Clark, approached me to tell me she had written a book entitled Standing on God's Promises which comes out in June. I was privileged to read an advance copy of what she has written, and was struck by her introduction. The basis for her book is journal writing that she had compiled over time. Through her personal faith and based on her own experiences, she has written about how events of her life are intertwined with her personal fate. One of the things that many of our students do in their courses is journal writing. Our hope is that like Ms. Clark, students extend this practice beyond high school. Writing is both a critical skill, and a tool for personal expression. It can be cathartic and exhilarating to write, and is a skill that extends beyond school and English classes to every facet of a person's life.

In looking for ways to improve your son or daughter's ability to succeed academically, I encourage you to promote journal writing, and regular written expression. Through practice, even with no instruction, students will improve as writers dramatically by simply writing. In addition, they get some no cost, effective personal therapy. If you are looking for other ways to help your son or daughter improve as a writer, contact a North English department member or me for ideas.

What we don't know CAN hurt us...

During a visit to one of our social studies classes the week before Easter break, I was impressed with the student perspectives on the topic of the day - globalization. Today's young people have a greater grasp of this concept than many adults. As technology has led to greater connectivity between peoples of the world, Earth has become a smaller, and to use the term of author Thomas Friedman, a "flatter" place. At a recent conference I attended, a presenter made the statement that in the world of technology, adults are immigrants, and young people are natives. By their very immersion in the technologies of our time, our students have innate understandings and intuitions about the use of those technologies that are elusive to even the most tech savvy adults. It is essential that schools recognize the differences in the way students learn today, and the way they learned years ago, and adjust instructional delivery to take advantage of the technologies that exist.

In his address to school administrators at a recent conference the executive director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, Gerald Tirozzi, said the following, "We are currently preparing students for jobs that don't yest exist and teaching them to use technologies that haven't been invented, in order to solve problems we don't even know are problems yet. We are living in exponential times. With changes whirling all around us, the American school has remained remarkable stagnant." While our content has evolved with the times, and we are constantly updating curriculum and standards, we have not yet entirely adapted our instructional delivery models to mesh with the digitally oriented generation we service. If you don't know what blogs, wikis and message boards are, ask your kids - they will know...

In addition to modifying instructional methodology to better address our students' learning styles, it is also critical that we look closely at the methods of assessment used to measure student learning. At the high school level, teachers are increasingly using a wide variety of assessment including online projects, portfolios, and tools that measure layers of learning. Again from Gerald Tirozzi's recent address, "...we must awaken policymakers to the reality that one test, administered once each year, based on minimal proficiencies, which stymies enlightened and creative teaching....is not the wave of the future...".

As we enter the meat of an election year, I urge you to carefully evaluate political candidates based on their education platforms, and their positions on No Child Left Behind's testing requirements. There are some interesting ideas out there. To move our educational system and our country forward, it is imperative that we not fall in the trap of doing what we have always done. The "natives" of our digital world no longer relate to long hours in lecture halls, taking copious notes. Today's world changes quickly, requires creative solutions to problems, and requires that we prepare our students with the tools to problem solve in a rapidly changing environment. In this new millennium the capacity to adapt to change and utilize it will become significantly more important.  What we don't know can hurt us, and what we don't know how to use may hurt us even more...

The Principals Page

Special thanks to the PrincipalsPage.com, which made this blog its "blog of the week" for the week of March 10th, and which has "favorited" us now. I've added a link to the page for anyone itnerested in seeing perspectives of other principals across the nation, or for anyone interested in viewing different perspectives on education in the U.S.

Technological Literacy

Karl Fisch is an educator with a well known blog The Fischbowl . His post regarding educational literacy of teachers won the Edublog award for most influential post of the year. It is a controversial but provocative post on the responsibility of teachers to maintain technological literacy in our digital age. View the post at http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2007/09/is-it-okay-to-be-technologically.html.

Millenials and Technology

Grosse Pointe North and the Norsemoms are hosting "Millenials and Technology" in room B312 at North High School on February 5th at 7:00 p.m. If you are interested in information regarding our millenial generation, please join us at North on the 5th.

For additional background, see the 60 Minutes excerpt on teh Millenial mGeneration which is posted on this blog.

Technology and today's students...

As we explore ways to make high school more relevant for our "millenial" generation, it has become increasingly apparent that the way today's young people function is at odds with traditional educational methods. Visit this link to see a nine minute clip which explores a New Jersey high school's implementation of technology as well as a glimpse into teacher successes and failures with it, and student approaches to learning and interacting. It gives great insight into the challenges facing today's educators.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/video/flv/main.html?pkg=2606&seg=2&mod=0