Twitter, One Year and Counting

The other day I noticed on my mobile app on my phone that I joined twitter on September 16, 2010. I was surprised that I had been on that long, and at the same time was surprised that it had only been a year. Our district brought Will Richardson in for an inservice for administrators about a year ago to discuss the usage of different types of media, including twitter. I really didn’t get it at first, but I gave it a shot. My first tweet went something like this: “So I’m tweeting, now what?” It took a little time for me to see the value in twitter, but a year later, I have a different perspective. I felt like sharing a bit of what my one year journey has been like.

One of the biggest impacts I feel that twitter has had for me is my ability to share information about our students and their activities in a timely manner. Any time we can put more information out there about what is going on with our kids, I think that’s a positive. I’ve developed relationships with local media and community members based upon our sharing information on twitter, connections that were not there at that level a year ago. I like to think that sharing that information makes their job easier, and that it makes it easier for our kids to get recognition. It’s also a quick, efficient way to share lots of information WITH students, as many students follow my twitter account.

Twitter has also given me an outlet to share some free stream of thought, although some people who follow me probably hate that part. In my own mind, I think I am funny. I like to share my (somewhat) funny thoughts. Twitter makes it so that my wife isn’t the only person subjected to my brand of humor. Twitter makes me want to watch award shows just so I can comment. Twitter has also enhanced my sports experience. I interact with tons of Royals and Chiefs fans and it has made me feel more connected with those teams- maybe a closer connection with the Chiefs isn’t something I want this year, time will tell.

To me, the most important aspect of what twitter has given me is the professional connections I have made in the past year. I get lots of professional development in small bites, picking and choosing articles to read that others have linked, and often in short frames of time that I have available (sitting at a ballgame, waiting for a meeting, etc.). I have had the ability to learn and interact from people all over the country and world that I would not have interacted with. I have made personal connections with authors that I admire (Todd Whitaker, @ToddWhitaker) and feel like I have gained friends who share very similar views of education and how we make things better for students (Bill Burkhead, @northeagles) and people who are not educators, but are doing great things to improve their communities (Trish Brown, @TB101163).  These are just a few of the smart, talented people that I count as part of my PLN, a phrase that I was not even familiar with a year ago. I debated if I would list any in this post, because there are so many that I admire and respect in my PLN. I look forward to participating in chats like #edchat and #leadershipchat and being able to get so many different perspectives in a concise format.

As I look back on the last year of twitter (and the slightly over 4000 tweets I have sent), I’d have to say my viewpoint is much different now. I feel that I am more globally connected, but able to act locally with the information I am able to access. Someone once said smart leaders surround themselves with people smarter than they are. Twitter has become an invaluable tool for me to do just that. So I’ve tweeted, and now I really DO know what.

Just Another 9/11 Memoir

 

Ground Zero by Damian Brandon

With the 10th anniversary of the tragic 9/11 attack, I felt compelled to pen a few lines about my thoughts related to that day. I”ll be honest, I don’t know how much of the news stories, documentaries, and witness accounts I’ll be able to watch. It is interesting to me, but disturbing, and I honestly tend to just get a little overwhelmed with all of the coverage.  It’s like picking at a scab that never quite heals over; it doesn’t consume my thoughts, but it’s still there.

Like most, I remember exactly where I was when I found out. I was on my plan period that morning as a science teacher at Lafayette High School in St. Joseph, MO.  I saw on Yahoo that a plane had hit the World Trade Center and walked across the hall to tell my colleague, Butch James. I figured it was some random accident, and went about my business.  I flipped on the television in my room just to see some of the updates and footage. Not much later, I looked up at the TV to see that a 2nd plane had hit. I walked over to Butch and told him that he may want to turn the TV on in his room, that something must be up with the 2nd plane hitting. I remember the rest of the day pretty much as a blur, trying to have some semblance of class, but with all of us pretty much glued to the television coverage that I left on in my classroom.

Terrorism by Idea go

I talked to my wife that morning to just make sure things were ok with her. She said that my son (now 15) came walking in to her from watching Good Morning America and said, “Mom, a plane just flew into that building”. I’m not sure how good his memory of the event is now, or if the memory has almost been created because of the number of times we’ve relived that morning. I remember people were slightly panicked, and I know that evening we sat in line at a gas station because everyone wanted to fill their tanks up to make sure they had gas. The unknown was literally staring us in the face. Uncertainty was the overwhelming emotion most of us had.

C-130J-30 Hercules by Tim Beach

I don’t have a lot of specific memories of the days that followed, but lots of general ones. I know I had a feeling of wanting to do something, probably wanting in some way to fight back. I had served in the Army National Guard from 1989-98 and it was all I could do to not go to a recruting office and rejoin. I remember the skies were so quiet. A few days later, I was on a ladder working on a storm window at our house, and I heard a plane flying over. It literally scared me for a moment. I then saw it was a C-130 from our nearby Air Guard base. To this day, the sound of them flying over is a comfort and a reminder of the men and women who protect us daily. I remember going to a Chiefs football game not long after 9/11, the first one after the attack. The security was so amped up, and the there was a nervous feeling in the air. I remember the flyover and the national anthem and the feelings of patriotism that day. I remember that it was silly, but something as simple as attending a football game in a big crowd was our way of saying “we won’t live in fear”.

Football Stadium by arkorn

I know I was fortunate. I didn’t know anyone who was personally affected by the attack. The closest I can claim is that I know someone who was in the Pentagon when the plane hit and that I played Little League baseball with someone who would have been in the tower, but was late for work that day. I know the world really did change that day. My kids have never known just walking up at the last minute to get on a flight or telling someone goodbye at the gate. My good friends tell the story of driving to the airport late one Friday night with an overnight bag and driving up and saying “where is the next flight going?” Wouldn’t happen after 9/11.

Just as I was nearly 10 years ago, I will be at a Chiefs football game this Sunday. I look forward to a patriotic scene once again. My life wasn’t affected as much as it was for others  by the events of 9/11, but I know it will never actually be quite the same for any of us. I pray that inspite of the political infighting that goes on in our country, we will never need something like this to draw us together again.

American Pride by Carlos Porto

It’s the Apple That’s Rotten, Not the Barrel!

A bill that passed in the Missouri legislature was recently signed into law by Governor Jay Nixon. It has grabbed nationwide attention for educators in the state of Missouri, and not necessarily the kind of attention we hope for.  I tend to stay pretty up to date on many legislative issues that affect education, and was aware of this bill, but became much more involved last week as I was interviewed by both our local media (KQTV2) and by Foxnews.com for stories.  If you ever want to quickly become an expert in something, agree to go on camera, it makes you cram like you would before a very important test.  Before going on any more, let me lay some ground work for those of you unfamiliar with the subject here.

Court Icons by digitalart

The bill (Senate Bill 54) is also called the Amy Hestir Student Protection Act and additionally creates a task force for the prevention of sexual abuse of children.  Amy Hestir (now 40) was abused by a teacher when she was 12. In summary, the bill requires schools to share information about district employees who are terminated or allowed to resign due to sexual misconduct involving a student.  This part of the bill is not very controversial, in fact, I applaud it.  My heart aches for the pain that must have caused her in life. Nobody can justify those actions. I’m sorry that she suffered through this. Schools (and other employers, for that matter) have become afraid of saying anything about a former employee for fear of a suit from the released employee, many following a policy of only confirming dates of employment.  This bill allows us to share that information, and in my opinion, do what is right for children.  I detest the thought of any educator (or adult for that matter) engaging in that type of behavior with a student/child.

The controversy that has been created lies in a section of the bill, Section 162.069, that states the following:

“By January 1, 2012, every school district must develop a written policy concerning teacher-student communication and employee-student communications. Each policy must include appropriate oral and nonverbal personal communication, which may be combined with sexual harassment policies, and appropriate use of electronic media as described in the act, including social networking sites. Teachers cannot establish, maintain, or use a work-related website unless it is available to school administrators and the child’s legal custodian, physical custodian, or legal guardian. Teachers also cannot have a nonwork-related website that allows exclusive access with a current or former student. Former student is defined as any person who was at one time a student at the school at which the teacher is employed and who is eighteen years of age or less and who has not graduated.

By January 1, 2012, each school district must include in its teacher and employee training a component that provides information on identifying signs of sexual abuse in children and of potentially abusive relationships between children and adults, with an emphasis on mandatory reporting. Training must also include an emphasis on the obligation of mandated reporters to report suspected abuse by other mandatory reporters.”

In essence, to combat inappropriate behavior, Senator Cunningham has chosen to attack the media used, not the behavior. In a time when many teachers are working to connect with students in forums that they are comfortable learning with (and to prepare them for the technologically-driven 21st century), teachers are being mandated to cease using any forums that might possibly create an instance where there would be exclusive communication. I am relatively new to some different forms of social media, and the two that are most commonly discussed related to this are Facebook and Twitter. Facebook communication only happens if you choose to “accept” a “friend request”. I have long had a personal policy that I don’t “friend” students (and spend a good deal of time in my office encouraging students that are fighting on Facebook to NOT be friends there, but that’s a different story for a different time). My “friend list” on Facebook generally consists of people I grew up with, went to college with, and a few former students that have been out of school for years (some as many as 18 years). Twitter is generally an open forum in 140 character bites. Direct (or private) messaging is only available if you are being “followed” and you are “following” that account back. I don’t generaly follow student accounts, so again, this shouldn’t be an issue for me. That is not the case for many educators that are using electronic media in very legitimate ways.

Our student government recently started a Twitter account. They follow me to keep up with items that I tweet about (scores of games, upcoming events, etc.) and I followed them back to stay up on what they are sending out as representatives of our school. They had a question the other day and sent me a DM (Direct Message). Under this new law, I would be in violation. Many educators use sites like Blackboard and eCompanion, which allow for online

Social Network by renjith krishnan

discussions about class. Students can turn in papers digitally in these platforms and also receive feedback. Anyone that has taken a college class in the last 5 years will tell you that the days of turning assignments in as a hard copy don’t exist any more. Our students need to be familar with this type of interaction and platform to be prepared for continuing their education. Just as a teacher wouldn’t discuss and evaluate a student’s hard copy paper openly in class, a teacher wouldn’t post in an open forum the revisions needed on Blackboard or eCompanion.  There is real value in being able to have a conversation that is between the student and teacher. This law forces districts to create policy that will forbid that.

One of the problems I have with this legislation is that there is an underlying tone to it that assumes that teachers are predators, just waiting to strike if they can find a way to privately communicate with a student. I thought maybe my own personal bias was just reading that in on my own, until I read the following response to an email that a young man sent to Senator Cunningham’s office:

Excerpt from email reply sent to Cameron Carlson by Senator Jane Cunningham’s legislative aide, Sandra Allen, on August 3rd (was posted to the Facebook Page Students, Parents, and Teachers Against MO Senate Bill #54, Sec. 162.069):
 
“First things first – I need you to educate yourself to the magnitude of the sexual abuse of students by educators. It is of epidemic proportions both locally (Missouri) and nationally. Just a quick Google search brings up pages. Unfortunately, this heinous crime has gone grossly underreported because the school districts didn’t want to deal with it – now they have to or they will be held liable and culpable for the future abuses perpetrated by someone they just pass to the next district. Senator Cunningham recognized the need for these types of laws to protect innocent children from being taken advantage of by someone in authority.
 
Second, what I am hearing you say is that the 1st amendment gives educators, who by the way would be the only adults allowed, the right to any all unmonitored private conversations with minor children? If so, I find that extremely unnerving and a lot like the adult child pornography proponents.
No adult – teacher, doctor, police, judge, Senator, Legislative Assistant, mechanic, etc., etc., etc. has the constitutional right to private conversations with children under 18 without a legal guardian and/or parent present or that has not given written permission.
 
I also find it strange that it is the male educators who are the loudest critics – interesting don’t you think? The female educators recognize the need for these types of laws. The ones who have contacted Senator Cunningham have wanted to make sure they stay within the confines of the new law.
 
Sincerely,
Sandy”

I had to read this response more than once. Did this person really imply that educators are similar to proponents of child pornography? Did she really claim that male educators are the only ones bothered by this law? Finally, does she really think that this law will prevent private conversations between teachers and students? Numerous private conversations happen daily between teachers and students, they are integral to the relationship-building we work so hard to develop. While she claims that teachers are asking for some exclusive right that others don’t have, this law actually makes teachers the ONLY group that would not be able to have this type of communication with students. Parents in your building could privately interact with students electronically, but teachers would not have that same ability. Should youth pastors be prevented from this type of communication with children, after all, there have been cases of abuse in this situation? (Note- I am NOT advocating pastors be grouped in here, only making a point). Should legislators be prevented from responding to a private email from a student? It makes one ask where do we draw the line?

I don’t think this is the end of this issue, I think it will continue to be cussed and discussed, and that’s a good thing. Healthy debate can bring solutions to complex issues. Seeking out the view points of those who disagree with you can be a good thing. My hope is that from this we realize that it’s not the means of communicating that is the problem, it’s the message. Inappropriate conversations or comments are inappropriate in any forum, whether it be by email, a private message, a tweet, a text, a phone call, a note, or a smoke signal. And we should focus on that, the inappropriate behavior. In discussing this with educator and author Todd Whitaker the other day (one of the smartest people I know-and in a Twitter DM no less), he said, “Idiots already know what they do is wrong . . . tough to legislate appropriate behavior with creeps”. Immoral people are in all walks of life, sadly, even in our field. We can’t legislate morality either, as much as we might want to. That being said, we can’t just make the assumption that ALL educators are immoral, to do so is damaging to our profession, and in the long run, to our children. The target should be on the rotten apple, not the barrel holding it.

Scary Green Apple by Tina Collins

The Town That Built Me

Apologies to Miranda Lambert for the title of this post, but it just seemed to fit.  I’ll share a little of my background.  I grew up in a small rural town in Northeast Kansas with a population of about 1000 people.  My graduating class had 28 people.  There were 5 school districts in our county- that will be 3 next year as the others have consolidated leaving my town as the lone remnant of a community district in the area.  Although I only live about 15 miles away, I don’t often make it back to Troy  these days.  My parents live about 5 miles outside of town towards me, and my in-laws no longer live there.  My wife’s grandmother still lives there, but it’s the rare occasion that we make it over since she comes to our church in our town.  Weddings and funerals are about the only reason I go home, other than the annual Alumni Basketball Tournament (24 straight years and counting- it’s more about keeping the streak alive than winning these days).  The death of my friend’s grandma took me back home this week.

First Baptist Church

First Baptist Church

Funerals tend to make me fairly contemplative, and this one definitely had that effect.  The service was in my boyhood church, the First Baptist Church.  Few things have changed since I was a kid there.  As I grew older, I quit going there and attended church with my then-girlfriend/now-wife and am now a Lutheran.  Being in the pew, hearing many of the same things I heard as a kid, took me back in time.  The pastor encouraged everyone who hadn’t already done so to ask Jesus to be their Savior (something that happened for me in one of those pews in 1981, literally a few feet from where I sat Tuesday).  The hymns were familiar, being sung by the daughter-in-law of the woman who had passed.  She often sang when I was a kid.  Her voice was just as sweet as I had remembered it.  The piano was played by the same man.  The funeral was for a woman who had been a pillar of our church and had a large family that networked throughout the community.  Their family was intertwined with mine throughout life.  She had 14 grandchildren, many of whom I either attended school with or coached when they were in school.  After the funeral, I decided to take a drive around town and take a few pictures as this blog was already simmering in my head.

 

Tall Oak- Peter Toth

Tall Oak- Peter Toth

After the funeral, I drove down Main Street.  It truly is the primary street in Troy.  As a kid, we “cruised” up and down it- of course, gas was 80 cents a gallon.  The county Courthouse is there, across the street from the home that Abraham Lincoln allegedly spent a night in during his campaign. This is also where both banks and the only restaurant, bar, and doctor in town are housed.  Additionally, it  has the post office and the county jail.  The large Indian sculpture was carved by Peter Toth from a large oak tree.  He’s carved one in all 50 states, and I remember when he and his wife lived in a tent on the courthouse lawn for several months one summer as he completed the sculpture.  The courthouse square now also has the memorial to Don Clary, a young man taken too early while heroically serving in Iraq.  His is another family that my life has been criss-crossed with.  The flags were flying in honor of Memorial Day.  Troy’s Main Street is unique but similar to several others in town, in that they are brick.  Many a young person has passed an evening sitting on the wall on the courthouse square.

 

Donald L. Harter Attendance Center

Donald L. Harter Attendance Center

I drove a little more, coming to what used to be Troy Grade School- now the Donald Harter Attendance Center.  Mr. Harter was my grade school principal, my first basketball coach, and one of the biggest influences in my life.  He would open the gym on Saturday nights and allow us to come in and play, giving me a postive outlet for energy that might have gotten me in trouble.  I spoke with him after the funeral, giving him a big hug as he gave me the same greeting he always does, “Hello, Number 22!”   my number in school.  His influence on generations of kids in Troy is beyond measure.  He is the standard I often use to measure my service to others, and fall miserably short.  The world would be better if we all lived a life of servant leadership like Donald Harter.

 

2A State Champions

2A State Champions

I continued on over to the High School and Middle School.  Both are fairly non-descript buildings, but hold many memories.  The plaque on the gym reminds community members of the magical 1984 basketball season in which the team went 25-0 and won the state tournament.  I was fortunate enough to be a freshman on that team and be along for the ride.  I’m sure there’s a book about the “Cardiac Kids” that I need to write some day.  The community literally picked up and moved to Topeka during the title run, it would have been a great time to be a thief in Troy,  because nobody was there.  After we’d won, there were dinners and celebrations in honor of the team.  We were all given symbolic keys to the city and named Grand Trojans (or something like that-it’s been a long time).  A lot of my blood, sweat, and tears were left behind in that gymnasium.  The time spent there kept me from a lot of trouble and the lessons learned there shaped the person I am today.  I drove  around to the football field, where the “Welcome to Trojan Country” sign adorns the bus barn.  I still can smell the grass and wet dirt coming up through my face mask while stretching before practice or a game.  Friday nights, it’s the only show in town, small town football really is king, even if it’s never had the success of basketball.  As an option quarterback, I still think people should run it more 😉

Welcome to Trojan Country

Welcome to Trojan Country

Troy Armory

Troy Armory

I drove on a little more, past the National Guard Armory.  A few years ago, the state decided that they didn’t need so many units in so many places, so they closed the unit in Troy.  It was a sad time for many people in the community as many had served in Vietnam as members of the unit, and others, more recently, in Iraq and other places in more recent deployments.  An old tank has been sitting out front ever since I was a kid.  There used to be a jet plane also.  I served as a member of a Kansas Army National Guard Field Artillery unit for 9 years, several of them at the unit in Troy.  It now serves as a Head Start facility, so it still has great value to the community.

Troy Pool

Troy Pool

I continued on around town, past the community pool.  Leaders in the town had enough foresight in the early 70’s to build this.  It seemed huge when I was a kid.  When I was a kid, I would leave home in the morning with a towel and my swim trunks attached to my bike handlebars with a rubber band.  I’d spend most of the morning either at the ball field (which I drove by and took a picture of, also) or at the grade school playing ball on the playground.  When the pool opened at 1:00, we were there waiting.  I’d go home at 4:30 or 5:00, when it closed for the one hour adult swim.  My parents never worried about me, I didn’t call to check in, and I didn’t have a cell phone.  We didn’t know what the internet or video games were (well, maybe Donkey Kong at the drive-in).  We used our minds to come up with something to occupy our time.  We weren’t obese, not because there was some program to keep us active at school, but because we PLAYED all the time.  The world really was a different place then.  The idea of my kids leaving in the morning and me not making contact at some point for 8 hours just seems crazy now.  That probably lent a lot to some sense of independence.  We learned to compromise and work out conflicts without the aid of adults, even if the only solution was for me to say, “I’m going home and leaving you with an odd number,” if the arguing became too much.  My friends still make fun of me for that to this day, but it usually settled the fight.

Baseball field- grade school on hill

Baseball field- grade school on hill

Then I drove by the house I lived in growing up. We lived there until 5th grade, when my parents moved us to the country.  I slept upstairs with my 3 siblings.  My older brother and sister each had a bedroom on each side of the stairs, and my younger sister and I had a bunk bed in the landing area between them.  We had one bathroom for 6 people.  We didn’t have air conditioning, we’d open windows in each of their bedrooms and one would have a fan pulling in, one would have a fan blowing out, to create a little air flow.  The landing area I slept in had a window, but it didn’t open.  It was hot, but we survived.  I’m sure people would now think it was cruel and unusual.  Lots of memories are attached to that house.  Some really good, some not so much.  Just like the pool, it seemed a lot bigger when I was a kid.

The HOUSE that built me

The HOUSE that built me

John's Market

John's Market

As I left town, I drove by John’s Market- that used to be Knapp’s Grocery store.  Troy used to actually have two grocery stores.  It’s a blessing that they are still supporting one.  The store was just behind our house down the alley.  When it snowed and they would pile the snow at the edges of the parking lot, we’d make forts in the piles.  I’d take bottles that I found around town  to the store to collect the deposits. I’m sure some of the younger people reading this have NO idea what that even means.  I bagged ice to make a little money as a kid.  When I started high school, I was hired to work there.  I worked there all through high school and part of college.  The Simpson family was very good to me.  John’s son, John-Michael, now runs the store.  I worked there with Jeff, Julia, and John-Michael.  They each own a store now, Julia in Eudora, KS and Jeff in Baldwin City, KS.  One of the best learning experiences I had in the store was going to work on Saturday mornings after a football game, especially if it had been a particularly bad one on Friday night and I’d thrown a couple of interceptions.  The fans at Troy games stand on the track and are literally about 6 feet from the players.  Having four-letter words thrown at you by adults with a few beers in them was NOT uncommon.  Having to be nice to the same people on Saturday morning as you sacked their groceries was a good life-lesson, in fact, I think it helped shape how I now deal with unreasonable parents but maintain a professional demeanor with them 🙂

Troy was a good place to grow up.  I really don’t have any desire to  live there now, and that’s not a knock on the town.  I’ve been used to living somewhere different for a long time, and if things had gone differently, I might still live there.  I applied for a job teaching middle school science in Troy right out of college.  The superintendent at the time felt like they had been hiring too many local people to teach, so he wanted to hire someone else.  If he’d hired me, I would probably still be teaching science there and trying to recreate the 1984 season as a coach.  As often is the case in life, things work out how they are supposed to.  The experiences I had as a kid in Troy shaped me, made me who I am.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Main Street

Main Street

Class of 2011: Parting Thoughts- 7 for ’11

As I write this, the CHS Class of 2011 has been gone from our halls for a little over a week.  I’ve spent countless hours with many of you.  Conversely, with some of you, I’ve rarely had the occasion for us to have a coversation.  One of the parts of my job that has been hard for me to reconcile is that sometimes, a kid makes it through four years here and we never connect.  The student that mostly likely slips by me like this is the one who has 2011 Grad Programaverage to slightly above average grades, might not be in very many extra-curriclular activities, and isn’t a student who gets sent to the office on a regular basis.  Based upon sheer numbers and time, we just never cross paths much.  That being said, here are a few pieces of advice I’d like to pass along to the Class of 2011, to the ones that I never had the opportunity to speak with a lot, and also to the ones that I spoke to a lot, but maybe they weren’t in the listening mode.  Apologies to those who have heard these words repeated in the past four years.  I hope that some of these words are taken to heart:

1)  The two most important decisions you will make as far as happiness in life are your choice of career and your choice of who you spend your life with.  Those choices can be sources of great happiness, or they can literally suck the joy out of life for you.  Choose wisely.

2)  Related to #1, education and training do one important thing for you:  they give you options.  If you are qualified to do many different jobs, you have more options to leave a job if it is not one that makes you happy in life.  A high school diploma gives you more opportunities than being a drop out.  A bachelors degree gives you more.  Technical training gives you more.  Take every opportunity to give yourself more options.

3)  Find a way to serve others.  This can be in your career, your church, your community; there are many ways to achieve this.  Living a life where you give back to others has many benefits to you.  Not the least of them, you make this a better place to live.  Don’t hesitate to take up a cause you feel strongly about.  Share your gifts with others, even if it is something small.  Your heart will feel better knowing you have given to others.

4)  Be open to change.  This one isn’t easy.  Change isn’t always fun, but it’s a symptom of growth.  Be willing to try new things.  Expand your horizons by trying something different.  You may be surprised how much you learn about yourself.

5)  Live without regret.  Regret is a wasted emotion.  Regret can be caused by something you’ve done (comission) or something you’ve let go undone (omission).  Do your best to make sure that down the road, you don’t look back and say, “I wish I would have . . .”  That is a truly tragic feeling, work to exclude it from your lives.

6)  Don’t be afraid of Plan B.  You may have your life all mapped out as you leave high school.  Your interests may change.  When I started college I was pre-med, and I was going to be an orthopedic surgeon.  I decided I didn’t want to go to school that long, so I took a different career path.  Ironically, I completed my last schooling at the age of 40, and I’m really at peace with the path I’ve taken.  Plan B might be superior to Plan A in many ways.

7)  Finally, ignore everything on this list.  The most important piece of advice I can give you is this:  find what works for you.  Don’t be locked into Books and Capsomeone else’s plan for you.  Steal the ideas that work for you, discard the ones that don’t- that’s what great coaches do, they steal the good stuff, leave the other behind.  Approach your life that way.  If something you pick up here resonates with you, use it.  If it’s all “jibber-jabber”, toss it in the trash.  You know yourself better than anyone else.  To paraphrase from Dr. Seuss, nobody is more youer than you. 

Best wishes as you head out into the world.  I’m hopeful that we’ve helped by giving  you the right scaffolding to build amazing and extraordinary lives.  Make the world the place you want it to be.  YOU CAN DO THIS!

Jack, I’m Struggling With All Trades, I’m Mastering None!

This will just a be a short post, unlike most of my others.  Maybe a short venting about my frustration at this time of the year.  You see, right now, my self-assessment is that I suck. 

Young Businessman Under Stress by Nutdanai Apikhomboonwaroot

Young Businessman Under Stress by Nutdanai Apikhomboonwaroot

I feel like Will Ferrell in “The Office” when he’s “air juggling”, except I’m not really sure if I am keeping all the balls in the air.  I feel like I’m doing nothing “well”, but everything just “ok”.  I’m not a perfectionist, but I don’t dig “ok” for myself.  I have higher expectations for myself, but today, this is where I find myself mentally.  The list of things stressing me out a bit right now is pretty lengthy (and I’m not normally a high-stress person):

1)  Seniors that are going down to the wire that I’m worried will not get to walk across the stage in 11 days.  I’ll be sick if one slips through the cracks at this late date.

2)  The 8 sophomore students that I have worked with all year that might not pass all of their classes this semester.  A year of hard work culminates in a few days.

3)  The constant struggle to retain/recapture students in ALL classes that have decided that May attendance is purely optional.  Attendance %  and graduation % are like oxygen meters in a submarine, I’m scared to breathe if they go too low.

4)  I probably SHOULD have at least one or two practices for my daughter’s basketball team that I am coaching- and their first game is May 23.

5)  Summative conferences, teacher checkouts, and other various pieces of paperwork that must be completed before they all leave next Friday.

6)  Summer school enrollments, having rooms lined out and making sure that the numbers are enough to have all the courses that teachers are counting on having for a little extra money this summer.

7)  Beginning to work on the students who are currently on my dropout list- tracking them down, visiting their homes, getting them enrolled back into some type of educational programming.

 

Ok, I feel a little better- venting is done.  I’ll take a deep breath or two. 

Meditation- FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Meditation- FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This too shall pass.  I know that others out there must feel similar stress this time of year.  Feel free to comment and commiserate.  No sense losing sleep; in two weeks we’ll start working in earnest on next year- ahh the cycle of a school 🙂

Happy Teacher Appreciation Week- now let’s make others appreciate you!!

Let me start this post by thanking each of you in the field of teaching for your service.  I really do appreciate that, it involves more sacrifice than most people realize or appreciate.  Teachers give up countless hours with their own families to spend it with the children of others and to improve the lives of children that are not theirs.  It  truly is a career of service to improve people’s lives and our society.  God bless you for your work.

A Schoolboy and His Teacher by Paul Gooddy

A Schoolboy and His Teacher by Paul Gooddy

Now that I’ve related my respect and admiration for you, I will probably say some things that may, at a minimum, make some educators uncomfortable, and may even make some angry.  A part of me hopes that this will stir that much emotion in you.  I hope it will inspire you to recreate a scene from the movie “Network” where someone went to the window and shouted out, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore!” 

(scene from “Network”)

I bring you one simple truth:  your profession is under attack.  It started with people who I really believe were well-intentioned, even if misguided.  Those people thought that a Utopia could exist where all (not most, not many, not almost everyone, but 100%) students would achieve at a set proficiency level if we just mandated it.  Schools would improve because the law said they had to.  In theory, it sounded great- what educator wouldn’t say ALL kids can achieve?  In reality, we know that it’s just not realistic to expect 100% of students to achieve at the same level at a pre-determined time.  I’ve often likened it to saying  by the end of the year  all students in a PE class will run a 6 minute mile.  We won’t take into account any physical disabilities they many have, nor will we take into account what their fitness level is at the beginning of the year.  If you happen to be a school that the government gives additional money to because your students are in an area where most students are poor and maybe they haven’t had prior training in running or haven’t been provided with quality shoes to run in, well, the government will solve that by taking the money back from those schools if they don’t reach the 100% level.  Sounds a little crazy if you are not an educator, but if you are, you know that it IS NCLB in a very concise package.  This was a difficult thing for educators to take, but it was really just the beginning.  That was coming from the federal level, so to a teacher in their classroom in Missouri, it seemed far away, plus, it wouldn’t really affect them for years to come.

 

A little economics lesson

Finances by Salvatore Vuono

Finances by Salvatore Vuono

Then something else happened:  the economy tanked.  The bubble burst.  Greedy people looking to make more money loaned money to people that they knew couldn’t afford to pay it back.  People borrowed money they knew they couldn’t afford to pay back.  The economy was a delicate house of cards that collapsed with the mortgage crisis.  Rather than this just affecting a segment industry, its effects were felt in ALL industries.  Companies began laying off, people had less money, people spent less money, companies made less money, companies laid people off.  The cycle continued over and over.  As more people were unemployed and had less money to spend, social programs were burdened more.  Less money being spent meant less money in the coffers of state treasuries.  State governments are not like the federal government, they cannot pass this debt on to the children of your grandchildren.  They are forced to have balanced budgets.  If they don’t have it, they can’t spend it.  Things that were the responsibility of the state governments were now underfunded, even as the expenses for those programs continued to grow.  Education falls into this category.  Legislators had to choose where to allocate the limited funds they had due to reduced tax revenues.  Most legislators recognized that education was an important function of the state government and attempted to keep funding at adequate levels.  Every now and then a bill would be filed that tried to reallocate some of that money under the label of scholarships (seemed the least offensive) and more blatantly, tax credits and vouchers  to private entities, namely private schools.  The pie got smaller and smaller and the expenses continued to grow for public schools.  This led us to where we are today.

This isn’t just about money

As educators, we understand that finances are tight.  They are tight statewide and they are tight on a local level.  Many educators have had their salaries frozen in many districts, even as they continued to spend more of their own money to get more training and advanced degrees.  Most teachers understand that legislators can’t give us money that doesn’t exist. 

School Bus by Arvind Balaraman

School Bus by Arvind Balaraman

What is disconcerting for me (and should be for all educators) is that this has gone beyond money, and there is a pervasive attitude of derision aimed at educators.  Not only are bills being filed at a rate like no other time to divert funds into charter schools, vouchers, and tax credits, but bills are now being filed that take direct aim on the very people in the classroom, all under the umbrella of “reform”.  For the life of me, I can’t understand where these thoughts and beliefs are rooted.  In this session alone in Missouri, bills have been filed in both the House and Senate to remove teacher tenure, create a tiered system of paying teachers (with no credit given for advanced degrees or professional development), to remove any protection for teachers that have seniority during layoffs, and to remove due process for teachers that are removed at the end of their contract. 

I’ve joked to colleagues that public education is the only group that  is now politically correct to take shots at.  The media, through films like “Waiting For Superman” and the like, have created this perception that classrooms are full of lazy educators, doing the bare minimum and just biding their time until they retire, doing as little as possible with teacher unions protecting them.   There is a belief by many legislators that we protect poor teachers with things like tenure and due process.  I’ve had legislators tell me that a contract should only be binding on the teacher and not the district.  Not one has been able to show me how removal of tenure and the creation of a tiered system that creates competition among teachers (not collaboration) will improve the education our children are receiving.  The attacks on teachers have gone as far as hiding items in bills that have nothing to do with education.  A bill about tax amnesty was working it’s way through the process last week, and it was discovered that there was a provision that would revoke the teaching certificate of a teacher who was more than 90 days behind on their taxes.  Why this profession was singled out, I have no idea.  Why not hair dressers, doctors, nail technicians, or any other profession that requires state certification-?  Mind you, I don’t think they should be singled out either.  Luckily, a Senator that realizes the value of educators was able to remove that provision from the bill.  This is an example of the animosity and passive-aggressive behavior directed at teachers in our capitol.

The Charter School myth

Charter schools have been hailed as the savior to all education problems.  Many believe that charter schools are something new, some even thinking that President Obama created the concept.  Truth is, charters have been around for many years.  Charter schools have scored higher than some schools on assessments.  Charter schools have scored lower than some schools on assessments.  Some charter schools have even scored similarly to other schools on assessments.  The truth is, there is no statistical evidence that charters do better or worse than traditional schools. 

Old School by Carlos Porto

Old School by Carlos Porto

 I will be the first to agree that in the state of Missouri, we have long-term problems in the St. Louis and Kansas City areas in both drop out and graduation rates.  Lots of money and programs have been directed at those two districts to remedy the problems.  I wish I had an answer, I don’t.  It is a legitimate problem.  Expanding charter schools throughout the state won’t fix that problem.  St. Louis and Kansas City have been allowed to have charters for years.  Ironically, just as legislators are trying to expand charters, two long-time charter schools in Kansas City, Tolbert Academy and Don Bosco, are going to close at the end of this year due to low enrollment.  Every tax dollar that is reallocated to a charter is one less dollar that is available to ALL public schools in Missouri.  Again, legislators like to paint themselves as the knight on the white horse saving our education system because it’s so broken.  THAT is the true myth: it’s not broken.  The media points to international test scores as an indication that American education is in a crisis.  The truth is, other countries want to emulate our system.  In his book, “Catching Up Or Leading the Way”, Yong Zhao points out that almost all of the intellectual capitol (patents, copyrights, etc.) in the world is created in the United States.  We encourage a creativity that encourages ALL talents to grow, not just test taking.  There are tremendous things going on in classrooms all over our state, but stories about that aren’t “sexy” and no legislator makes a name for themselves by saying, “I will go to Jeffrerson City and keep the status quo”.

A matter of choice for my tax dollars?

For those that ask the question, “If I choose to send my child to a private school, why shouldn’t I get some of my tax money back since the local school doesn’t have to educate my child?” 

Decisions Decisions by Andy Newson

Decisions Decisions by Andy Newson

I suggest an analogy for you:  if I don’t care for the local police force, I may choose to hire my own private security firm to guard my home and property.  Would it be reasonable for me to demand some of my tax money back to subsidize what I am paying the security firm since I am not using the services of the police department?  Most of us would believe that the hiring of a private firm is your own choice, and your tax dollars go to protect all of us, for the good of all.  Then I ask, if you choose to not utilize the educational services provided by your taxes, and you send your child to a private school,  is that not similar?  I have no issues with private education; I know great things are going on in those schools, as well.  Again, the choice to send your child to a private school is just that:  a choice.  I just don’t feel that it can be done on the dime of taxpayers and take limited funds away from already strapped budgets.

So what do we do now?

I will wrap up with a final thought:  this is a critical time in our profession, maybe more critical than any other time in our history.  Recently, Missouri rolled out new standards as part of our School Improvement Process.  In short, the process happened without much input from educators.  Educators were not pleased with this process.  In a collaborative effort not often seen, ALL education groups (MSTA, MNEA, MASSP, MASA, MAESP, and others) banded together to have their collective voices heard. 

Teamwork-FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Teamwork-FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This needs to happen now.  We need to demand the respect back that our profession so richly deserves.  This is not comfortable behavior for most in education.  We want to enrich lives, not be in confrontation, but the need for grass roots action is desperately needed now.  You need to contact your legislators, be involved constituents, have your voices heard.  If you are a member of MSTA, you need to join the Rapid Response team by sending an email to rapidresponse@msta.org.  If you are a member of other organizations, check with them to see what you can do through them.  If you don’t belong to any, contact your legislators.  They need to hear your message.  They need to be reminded that they represent US!!  This really is a call to action- all educational groups need to be able to put any differences aside and band together during this dark period in education legislation.

Businessman by graur razvan ionut

Businessman by graur razvan ionut

  Short of standing at a podium and pounding on it, I’m not sure I can be more passionate about this.  I guess I have finally gotten to this point about my profession:  “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it any more!”  I hope that you will become mad as well.

Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda

My apologies to those not familiar with the vernacular that a small-town Kansas boy might use.  My background is splattered with family and friends who have always used different little colloquiolisms as a regular part of their vocabulary.  Spend more than 5 minutes at a family gathering, and you will find that “I’ll be durned” is used early and often.  “I’ll be durned” can mean a variety of things, ranging from, “That’s interesting”, to “That can’t be true”, to “You really did that?”  My dad has often claimed that my mom is a Missouri hillbilly, and she reinforces his claim with statements like “wrinching a warshrag” and stopping at “Walmarts”.  “Coulda, shoulda, woulda” could be added to that list.

I pause at this time to explain a little about how the writing process works for me.  I’m not an “on the clock” blogger.  I can’t sit down at a specific time each night and write.  I’d be a horrible newspaper writer with deadlines.  A post floats around in my head for awhile before I’m ready for it to come out, what I have jokingly referred to as “dumping my brain”.  I told a friend the other day that it’s like cheese, it has to cure and ferment, otherwise, it’s just spoiled milk.  Blogging for me is more about quality (hopefully) and less about quantity. 

Pressed Lemon Cheese by Susy Morris

Pressed Lemon Cheese by Susy Morris

 

This one has been bouncing around in my head for a couple weeks.  There is a hint of avoidance, because I’ve not wanted to tackle the subject.  A couple weeks ago, a middle school student  in my community died tragically due to a gunshot wound.  I coached the young man on my son’s team in baseball for the last 5 or so summers.  I’m friends with his family, and his older sister is one of the top athletes and students in our entire community, not just our high school.  I know I haven’t really dealt with my feelings about this incident.  I’ve worked through loved ones dying often enough to know that actually realizing I haven’t dealt with it is a good first step.  I know that I’ve really been on auto-pilot about this whole situation since I first received a phone call that morning at about 5:30 AM.  That’s when I started calling others in our district to let them know so they could  prepare to help kids that we knew would be hurting that day.  The entire day literally seems like a distant memory of something I watched, and it was only about 2 weeks ago.  What made this even harder to comprehend and deal with was the fact that a classmate of this young man had also died tragically about 1.5 years earlier, a young man who also played on the team I had coached that previous summer.  The amount of grief those boys have dealt with is more than many of us have dealt with in a lifetime.  My heart hurts for them and my concern for them is genuine.

Baseball no title by ericdege

Baseball no title by ericdege

 

Last week, the grandson of a my high school coach died in a similarly tragic way.  I didn’t know him personally, he lived several hours away.  Today, I attended his funeral.  Again, I saw the pain that people were dealing with as someone was gone from their lives way too early.  Again, I heard stories about this young man in happier times.  Sadly, it was all to familiar.

Consolation by allspice1

Consolation by allspice1

Mental health is something that I have been acutley aware of for a large part of my life.  I have had family members suffer with mental health issues, both when I was a kid growing up and also in my adult life.  I had a family member that had to spend some time in an inpatient clinic during my high school years.  That was difficult in many different ways.  Though it isn’t now and it shouldn’t have been then, at the time, it was embarrassing.  There is this stigma attached with mental health.  If my family member had to go away to be treated for cancer, I would not have shied away from talking about that, but words like “loony bin” and “psycho ward” help attach shame to this type of illness.  And in retrospect, how sad is that?  Part of what makes mental health treatment so frustrating is that we really don’t know a lot more now than we did years ago.  There haven’t been the advances like we have had in other areas of medicine.  When I was 4, I fell from a tree and broke my arm.  I spent 18 days in the hospital in traction.  When my son was little, he incurred the exact same fracture when he fell down.  Within 36 hours, he had surgery and was back home.  Medicine had advanced. 

L:istening for brain activity? by Daniele Oberti

L:istening for brain activity? by Daniele Oberti

 

With mental health, other than newer drug treatments, even the professionals are often left scratching their heads, trying to figure out how to treat an illness that we still don’t understand very well.  So the frustration we face as educators trying to help young people who may be suffering from these type of issues is overwhelming at times.  If I see a student limping down the hallway it is obvious to me that they are suffering in some physical way.  Seeing a student who is suffering mentally is so much harder to ascertain.  A lot of it takes opening our eyes and our hearts to being receptive  to seeing that.  In our rush to do the things in our task-oriented world, we can miss that sometimes.

So at this point, you are probably wondering about the title of this post.  Even though I have had more exposure to the mental health world than many, I am still, very much so, a layman.  In my attempt to be at peace with these tragic situations, I think of that phrase:  coulda, shoulda, woulda.  I saw the young man who passed two weeks ago two nights before he died.  He was at a baseball game for our high school.  He was sitting up behind home plate and laughing with a group of friends.  It’s the memory of him I will always carry, besides ones of him on the baseball field.  Sometimes I think I “coulda” gone over and said hello, or I “shoulda” at least waved up at him to say hi.  Knowing what I know now, I wish that I “woulda” done one of those.  Regret sucks, but I also realize it is a fruitless emotion.  We need to make sure we take the time to tell loved ones how we feel, how much they mean to us.  We need to reach out to others that may be hurting.  My hope is that instead of thinking “coulda, shoulda, woulda” we can be proactive with “can, shall, will” and possibly ease the hurting that others may be feeling.

How Did I End Up With a Teenage Daughter?

I’m diverting a little of my normal writing to pause and reflect a bit as a momentous occasion occurs in the life of one of my children.  This Friday, my daughter, Alison, will turn 13.  Truthfully, she’s mature and wise beyond her years-she’s been a teenager in many ways for awhile, and that scares me at times.  I’m not sure where time has gone;  it seems that one day she was this cute little toddler following her brother around the house, having him read books to her, and the next, she was a cell phone-toting guitar player and all-around social butterfly.  Her talent makes dad pretty proud.  Here’s a recent video clip:

Ali- “Rocketeer”

and one of her and her friends singing the national anthem at the Women’s Division II Basketball Semi-finals:

A team anthem

Alison with her new braces

Alison with her new braces

I tried to recall my 13th birthday- that would have been August in 1982.  I was just beginning my 8th grade year.  School might have started that day, it often was a “great” birthday present for me.  I’m sure it was a big day, but I don’t remember any details about that day.  I know I had grown 6 inches between 7th and 8th grade, so I’m sure my knees hurt.  I also was preparing to have surgery on a hernia that the doctor found when I got my sports physical, making me unable to play football in 8th grade.  I served as the team manager that year, so I could still be around the team and throw a football around at practice.  Times have changed- not sure many kids who were used to being one of the best athletes would agree to be a manager now.  I’m sure that Duran Duran, Def Leppard, Van Halen, and Michael Jackson were getting equal play time in my tape recorder.  Saturday Night Live was probably my favorite TV show, that and Friday Night Videos.  Again, I don’t remember the details, just a large “overall feeling” of that time.

Ali being a goofball at Christmas 08

Ali being a goofball at Christmas 08

Lots of things were still ahead of me at that point, just like they are now for Ali.  I think of all the things I hadn’t experienced yet at that point in life:

  • my first serious girlfriend
  • success and failure athletically
  • losing a grandparent
  • my dad losing his job and being in the hospital
  • dating my future wife
  • becoming a father

I know that those happy things in life and those equally difficult ones lie ahead for her.  Part of the hard part of being a parent is knowing when to help her through and knowing when she needs to deal with them on her own.  I’m an admittedly emotional person when it comes to sentimental things.  I know that I’ll cry on her wedding day.  I know that I’ll cry the day she leaves home.  Why wouldn’t I, I cried the day she was born.  Two songs were playing on TV while she was being born: Garth Brooks “The River” and Shania Twain “Love Gets Me Everytime”- the line about “gone and done it”.  Often, Ali makes me think that we’ve “gone and done it” when I get frustrated with her making normal 12 year-old mistakes.  Guess I’ll just have to get used to the teenage ones now 🙂

Me and the kids in the summer of 06

Me and the kids in the summer of 06

Happy birthday, baby girl.  I know you will “sail your vessel til the river runs dry” in a way like none other.  I hope we’ve given you the right life lessons on how to keep it between the shores.  Enjoy this time in life.  It goes by faster than you can imagine.  I hope you are more able to remember the details than your old man.  You probably won’t remember what gifts you get, or maybe even what you did for this birthday, but always remember this “overall feeling” about your 13th birthday; your dad loves you very much.

March Madness- in education and beyond

I have an obsession, I won’t lie.  I LOVE this time of year.  This was an entirely unproductive weekend, and it is entirely the fault of the NCAA basketball tournament.  And for the record, I enjoyed the 4 network format that let me watch even more of the games as they fit my interests and needs.  My wife (good sport that she is, watched a lot of the games with me) even commented during the first half of a game Saturday night, “It’s not even enjoyable to watch the first half, I’ve gotten to see so many good endings”.  In four short days, we got to the point that we wanted the immediate feel-good moment, the last-second buzzer beater.  We didn’t want to watch the hard work that went into getting your team in a position to make that last second shot possible.  This thought led me to think of the similarities in education.
Basketball Shot by Bob Sanders

Basketball Shot by Bob Sanders

We’ve become a society of instant gratification.  Microwave meals, streaming video, voice search on our Iphones.  For those of you old enough to remember dial up, how insane would you go waiting for a page to load now like it did in the old days of AOL dial up?  My friend Sean and I were uncomfortable the other day waiting 3 or 4 seconds for the page to load because the wireless in that part of the building wasn’t as strong.  Unfortunately, society wants that same thing in education.  People want to see the instant results.  What’s the best way to immediately see results?  Often they use test scores, something quick and concrete that they can draw conclusions from.  This is the basis for NCLB and many other “reform” initiatives that continue to pop up in discussion and legislation.  They take a “last-second” snapshot of a student or teacher’s year and use that as the basis for success or failure.  That mindset misses a big  part of the overall picture.

The University of Pittsburgh men’s basketball team suffered a defeat to a lower-ranked Butler team this weekend.  Pitt had a 28-5 record this year and was the regular season champ of the Big East conference, a conference judged by many as the toughest conference in the nation.  And by many, their season will be judged a failure.  A failure because they did not win on a given day in March.  The outstanding season, the hard work that started in the fall, the hours of time in practice, all of that will fall by the wayside as they are judged by that popular hashtag “#fail”.  How similar is this to a teacher or student who spends hours of work, possibly having numerous successes throughout the year, but get judged as “not meeting standard” on the basis of a given day in March- or April, or May, depending on when the MAP, EOC or (insert your own acronym here) falls.

50 Books by Zeborah

50 Books by Zeborah

I know that lots of educators are scrambling to “catch up” and try to get information in because of lost days due to snow, etc.  Let’s hope that we can find a way to judge not just the final shot, but the overall body of work for them.  I’d hate to see them judged as a failure because we only want to see the results of the buzzer-beater and not watch the rest of the game.  THAT would be March Madness.