Some more thoughts from Alumni

In the last week of school, I had a chance to talk with a lot of our alumni.  The first thing that struck me is that many of them talked about students who were unhappy at school during the first six weeks.  This is truly a normal reaction as many students wonder do they really belong at school, emotionally, socially and academically.  If you had strong connections in high school, it is sometimes hard the first couple of weeks at college because you do not have those connections yet.  The truth is that you forget how long it took to build your friendships in high school and just wonder why you do not have them in college.

My advice is always wait, give college time.  That almost everyone is feeling the same as you but that there are students who are better at hiding it than you are.  That it is natural to wonder do you belong but the fact of the matter is that once you do adjust you will do fine.  An alumni then told me that one of the problems was that our school put too much of an emphasis on college.  That we made college bigger than it really is.

I hope that I convey the message that the individual student is more important than the college.  I know that when our students get accepted to colleges, my first thought is how lucky these schools are to get such talented individuals.  That most of our students have figured out  how to make high school a great experience will have little problems getting that same great experience out of college.  That you define the college experience more than the college.

Alumni also talked about that the pace of the college class is sometimes faster than high school and that students need to be able to keep up the pace on their own.  That reading with understanding is important as the professor is likely not to cover all the material needed for you to be prepared for the papers or the exam you must take.  I am probably going to speed up the pace in the reading for macro in the first unit to see how that goes.

Another great piece of advice was that you need to go to college with an open mind.  That there are so many bright people with diverse views that you need to be open to what other people have to say.  That critical thinking really occurs when you can change your mind based on new information that was obtained.  This is often hard to do but an important part of college life as you continue to grow.

The take away, should be most people struggle at the start, and you should not be scared to be open about your struggles.  It is not a competition to see who is having the best college experience but rather important to express your true emotions.  If for what ever, reason you do not think the college is right for you that is fine because there are plenty of other choices.  Remember, failure is a way to grow not something that should be looked at negatively. That all your parents, friends and teachers want for you is that you are happy.

Failure and other advice from alumni

One of the questions I always ask my returning students is what can we have done better to prepare you for your college experience.  The other day one of my favorite students told me that we needed to teach her how to fail.  When she arrived at college as a Pre-med student she had a difficult time handling a "B".  It made her doubt herself, made her wonder was she following the right career path and brought about general doubt.

Carol Dweck writes a lot about the power of a growth mindset.  The type of person who does not seeing mistakes as failures but as an opportunity to grow.  That many of us get so focused on the grade that we do not look at what we can learn from our mistakes. 

Our new Chinese teacher, a great addition to our school, gave a talk about failure the other day.  He mentioned that nobody start a computer game and masters it the first round.  That the truth is that you play the game and constantly learn from your mistakes.  As you master these mistakes you then go to the next level.  The trick is the ability to transfer the skills from the computer games to real life.

When talking to another former student they told me how much they enjoy the gratitude page but also told me that we need to encourage our students to share their weaknesses and insecurities.  That we need to open up the lines of communication so that we can help each other overcome our problems.

All of us, even the angry old man, sometimes gets lost in the day to day battle we call school.  This alumni gave the advice that we need to walk away from that grind, make sure that we are doing things that we enjoy and finding friends that we can trust to help us.

I proposed a couple of years ago to teach a positive psychology class to all the ninth graders.  The first response was not to our GT kids, like they are immune from stress, anxiety and depression.  Now with a new person in charge maybe it is time to introduce that idea.

How do we make our school a safer (mentally) place for our students?  How do we improve the well-being of our student body?

Make stress your friend

I work in a place where everyone seems stressed.  My students will often talk about or show their stress during the course of the day.  Now that I teach mostly seniors, the stress is added with such things as college essays, applications and the entire college process.  Teachers are stressed with the changes that are put upon them without any input into them.

I have told my students that stress is good for you.  The problem with stress is when you think it is your enemy.  This weekend I have done a lot of research on stress and am going to do a seminar after school on "Making Stress your friend" 

Hopefully in getting both teachers and students educated on stress will help both of these key players in the educational process more productive.  Stress is really a true ally in our being productive.

Slay Economics

I have been reading a lot and thinking a lot about gaming.  It always amazes me how much time students will spend on games while they could not imagine putting that same time into school work.  What makes great gamers?  They are creative in solutions to problems, they are resilient, gritty, and often in some games work well with others.

So can we start a new game called Slay economics.  The goal of the game is up to each player to set for themselves.  Once you set this goal the first thing you should do is find some allies.  Do you have friends in economics class that will help you reach that goal.  Some people who will give you positive feedback as you move toward the desired goal Allies are the type of people who will help explain concepts to you.  Second identify the bad guys.  These are the obstacles that prevent you from accomplishing your economics goals.  Make sure your allies no of these bad guys so that they can help you overcome them.  Third, we need some power packs.  These are things we can go to when we are not feeling so good about economics.  My suggestion is that you master two graphs, perfect competition and monopoly graphs.  Become an expert in these graphs and on days that you are feeling bad about economics just draw these graphs and dazzle yourself with your economics skill.  The power packs just help give you a positive lift when you are feeling better about the game.

If you are struggling with motivation about economics I suggest you start this game. 

Okay, who is ready to play?  Any suggestions from the gamers out their for our game?

grades

Our district is thinking about changing their grading system and there are so many rumors going around that it is hard to keep up with them.  Here are some of the controversial points that are sure to bring teachers, parents or students screaming.

1.  No grades for homework.  Homework should be done to support knowledge but not used as proof of knowledge so students should not get a grade for it.

2.  No zero's.  Students lowest grade should be 50%.

3.  Students should be allowed to retest if they do not do well on the original assessment.  They might be given an alternative assessment than the original one.  Meaning if the failed a multiple choice test that they can be given an oral presentation to substitute.

4.  Students will be graded on their knowledge of each standard.  Not really sure how that works but that theoretically you can not continue forward for new knowledge until you show mastery knowledge of the previous standards.

5.  Class room work can be collected but not used as a grade.  Students would then more likely read the teachers feedback without worrying about the grades.

6.  No extra credit for bringing in tissues going to the school play etc.

So what do you think of these ideas.  I would love your feedback and try to pass it along to the powers that be.  Secondly what might you change in the grading system.

Mental well being

Today I collected to me both my favorite assignment as well as the most important assignment.  My students handed in their gratitude visit.  In one of my classes a student asked me did any of this years assignments bring tears to my eyes which brought up a rant by me about the importance of mental well being in our school house.

If the goal for school is to prepare you for the world after high school, should we not be giving you the tools to make you a happy person.  It would seem to me that being happy is more important than being smart.  Yet, you never hear our leaders talking about making our students better men or women but rather much more about increasing test scores.  One of the things that always impresses me as a parent about the private school sales pitch is their concern about making my children better people which is important to me.

When I reflect back on notes I get from students who have went on to the next level, what they really enjoyed three good things or gratitude assignments.  The chance to reflect on the prior day or the chance to reflect on people who have really made a difference in our life.  Whenever I read these assignments many of them start with I do not often express my emotions.  My question is why not?  One of my favorite psychologist told me, "that the most reflective people need to reflect more"  That reflection is a great way to make a successful journey.

When I listen to the talk in the hallways, you can constantly hear students complaining about teachers, other students, and parents.  Rarely if ever do you hear "wow, my mom is an amazing women, or man that teacher realty cares about me" 

It has been shown that great organizations have four positives (at least) to every negative.  Imagine the type of creative and intellectual energy we could generate in our building if we were more positive about the things that are good.  Not phony positive but truly focused on the good things that are going on.

I am blessed to teach so many students who I know will make the world a better place.  Never  before have I learned more from students than I have this year.  Each day I am amazed by their generosity of their time to make our school and their friends the best that they can be.

So what do you think, do we as teachers get caught too much on our curriculum that we often miss the more important message?

Nuggets from Buck

I often kid people that I am voting for Buck for President because if he can fix the Orioles he certainly can fix the nation.  I had the opportunity to hear Buck speak last night and he did not disappoint me.

He started the talk discussing how his father taught him to stand up for what is right.  That as a principal of a school in the south his father supported desegregation at a time that this was an unpopular stance.  People told Buck's dad that he would never run a school again if he took that stance but that did not deter him.  Instead one Sunday he brought his whole family to a black church.  Buck talked about having chills go down his spine as he walked to the pew because he was so proud of his dad.  That his father walked the talk really made an impression on his young son.

He asks himself at the end of each day did he treat people right.  He often wonders did he give people the right amount of time or did he seem rushed when he talked with them.  You really get the impression that being a good person is extremely important to him.

He talked about the disease of me.  People who are just so centered upon themselves that they do not think about others.  One of the things he thinks about when putting a team together is getting people that actually enjoy helping each other.  Players who wants the new players to have it easier than they did, who help teach them the tricks of the trade so to speak.  When I think of students who have really impressed me over the years it is not the smart students which we have plenty of, but those who go out of their way to help others.

He then hit home on something that I think teachers often forget.  He talked about how managers forget quickly how hard it is to play the game at a high level for 162 times a year.  That once you become a manager you often forget the grind that the season is.  I think that happens often to teachers, we often forget how hard it is to be prepared every day.  How hard it is to focus every class and balance your school work, extra activities and life.  This was a great reminder to me.

Then he asked another question that he asks himself each day.  What did you bring today?  I think a great question for both teachers and students alike to ask?  What did I bring today that helped make our class, school or someone better.  As he said, there is a lot of accountability to that statement.

He then talked about how you find out your true character when you face adversity.  Do you buckle to the pressure and cut corners.  When he scouts players he does not watch what they do when they are on the field but rather tries to watch what they do when the players do not think anyone is watching.  To me I always hope that students would not cheat even if I left the room.

Any thoughts or comments of course are always appreciated.