Who is driving the bus

In my previous job the operations people drove what the company would do.  So if we thought a store needed to be designed a certain way to insure the best service for the customer, store construction would figure out how to design the store in that matter.  Never would store construction think about telling us how they wanted to design the store.

In education it seems that the schedule is now driving the education process.  We are not really arguing what is better for students 46 minutes or 90 minute period but rather what gets is the least costly.  Even when we are thinking about which type of block schedule we are going to implement, the main focus seems to be on how can we schedule that in our school.

Again, this is a crazy thought but I would try to figure out what meets the students needs and then tell the scheduler to make it happen.  That is going on in one school in the county where the principal believes that instruction should be the driving force.

Bank on it

Amanda Bank is a student who is strong academically.  There is no doubt in my mind that she will do well all year in my AP Economics class.  However, what I am finding out is that being strong academically does not mean you will be successful.

Amanda however, showed me her college essay the other day.  While she is a strong academic person she is quite the opposite on the athletic field.  While she might not be a strong athlete she likes to play.  She decided to try out for the cross country team basically because the coach did not cut anyone.

During her first year you could look at the back of the pack and find Amanda.  She wheezed her way through the season.  At the end of the year she was determined to be better.  She woke up in the summer everyday at 6:00 AM to run.  Again, this is a young lady with no aspirations of being great, just someone who wanted to do a better job the next year.

As the start of the season approached she was very excited.  She was in much better shape and thought that she would set a personal best.  Wow, would people be surprised.  Just as she was getting ready to show off her new fitness, she came down with pneumonia.  At first the doctor told her to rest for one week, but that soon turned into four.  As a person who had pneumonia I know that even when you get back it takes you a long time to return to full strength.

Upon return, Amanda realized she lost all of what she worked so hard for during the summer.  She struggled to run and every mile was killing her.  It would have been easy to quit, everyone would have understood.  That word is not in this young ladies mind.  She reset her goals and became determined just not to be the slowest runner on the team.

When counties came around she beat one runner on her team.  If this was Hollywood she would have won the counties.  In real life however, she showed us why we play high school sports.  To learn transferable skills, that carry on with us for life.  While be strong academically will surely help her throughout her life, her GRIT will make her a winner.

As we continue to try to figure out how to teach GRIT, we need to look at people who demonstrate it.  Any other stories of GRIT you would like to share.

Valued partner

It occurred to me a while ago that the thing that I miss is being a valued partner in the education process.  If asked I think that my bosses would state that I do a good job, get good AP results, and have a good work ethic.  So in no way do I think that they are down on the job I do.  What I do not think is that they value me as a partner, which bothers me.  When I was at Eastern Tech we had great results turning that school into an academic powerhouse because all the stake holders felt like valued partners.  My opinion was sought out, valued and often implemented.

It now occurs to me that  having this type of relationship is important to the educational process.  So since I am in charge of my classroom I need to figure out a way to make my students feel like valued partners.  I realize that I am failing at that now and need feedback on how to make that happen.

So I hope that you chime in and give me suggestions on how to develop a partnership between student and teacher to make the educational experience the best it can be.  I really want only things that I can control so that I can model it in my classroom.

Let the ideas flow.

Why golf helps me as a teacher

This summer I came off maybe my worst summer hitting the golf ball.  My distance disappeared in front of my very eyes and most people told me it was due to age.  However, there had to be more to it.  I fooled around with twenty different swings and finally I decided to see the Pro.  He has totally changed my swing which is very difficult at my age but it is reminding me how difficult it is for some students to learn.

I practiced for two hours and still was doing some of the things that he told me to change.  It proves to me how hard it is to change bad habits and how hard it is to stay on the treadmill.  I am going to work all winter on fixing this swing.

Sunday, my last five shots were great.  It is like crushing a quiz it keeps you going.  The trouble with golf is that by next week I can have lost it again.

Three great young ladies

I have the amazing opportunity to teach so many great young men and women.  I just thought I would write about three of them today.

Isabel Griffith is probably the most talented runner in the state of Maryland.  In a school that has a great history for women cross country runners she just smashed the course record by 29 seconds.  What is great about Isabel is that she brings that same work ethic into the classroom.  If for some reason she does not understand a concept she will ask a neighbor, if they can not explain it she will raise her hand and ask me.  Finally, if it still is not straight in her mind she will come up to me at the end of class, to make sure she has the concept correct.  It is this tenacity to refuse to leave the classroom without total understanding that makes her a great student.  The GRIT I see in the classroom is the same GRIT her coach sees in practice everyday.

Isabel-Garcia-Garcia is another great young lady.  Unfortunately for her she has me two times a day.  Once for economics and once for psychology.  Earlier this year I showed a clip about Will Smith saying that "He will die before he gets off the treadmill"  That he refuses to allow anyone to outwork him.  Isabel has that same GRIT.  While economics does not come easy to her she refuses to give in, call it hard or do anything but give it her total effort.  She also will ask her partner for help, if that does not work she will schedule a lunch appointment with me to grasp the concepts.  As educators we often get tied up in grades, concepts but we forget that one of the most important ingredients for success is GRIT.  There is no doubt in my mind this young lady will be successful, because there is no quit in her.

Jenny Ingliss is the third young lady I would like to talk about in this blog.  I had her in psych where things came pretty easy for her.  However, almost everyone has some questions or some concepts that they are not sure about in economics.  Jen is another person who will slow me down, ask a question and then re-ask it to make sure that she understands the concept.  This often happens even when she gets the question right on the test!!!!!!!!!!!!!  While the grade is important to her she still wants to make sure that she understands the concept for the next time.  After her class, I often have hall duty, and a couple of times this year she has followed me out to the steps to ask me questions.  Again, the refusal to leave the class without totally understanding is what makes her great.

This has been a good week for me.  I thank all my students for energizing me.

Attention is all there is

I found the article that I am now going to post fascinating in that it is old school.  The focus on education back in the day was to read.  To do that you needed to have a strong focus.  I often wonder and may try an experiment, how many students read at home with no interruptions?  If you did not use any of your electronics but instead took plan breaks would that help both your retention and shorten your total workload.

Anyhow here is the link to the article.  Read and please post a comment back on my blog.  Interested in your viewpoint on this educational piece.

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2013/09/paying_attention_is_a_skill_schools_need_to_teach_it.2.html

When I think I can not be surprised I am

This past Friday I arrived home at 4:30 after attending an after school meeting.  I had three e-mails in my box from our Assistant Principal.  As I read each one it seemed to get me in a worse mood.  One of them was about not turning in paperwork which I did.  He acknoledged that it his return e-mail.

However, what really bothered me was that we were mandated to have a committee meeting on Monday when in the past the times have been left up to the chairs.  I was purposely not having a meeting since I wanted to give our people a chance to grade with interims due on Weds.  When I asked can we hold them whenever we want like the past, I did not get a nice reply.  After that response I told him that I would have the meeting on Monday and sent out a letter to the team members.

I was then asked to meet with him at 6:30AM on Monday.  During this conference he told me that only three people complained about the e-mails, one of them was me.  He then told me when he asked two of the younger people to do things they just jumped with enthusiasm at his requests.  He also mentioned that I was contractually obligated to attend these meetings every week.

During the day, I was amazed at how many people were really upset about the e-mails.  There were literally teachers cussing in the halls, resenting the meetings and appalled by his e-mails.  What was once only me now turn into a nice portion of the staff.  So instead of using our responses as a gauge of the staff, reflecting upon his own poor judgement, he decided that I was the problem.

In a prior life, I dealt with customer relations.  When you received one customer concern you realized that 11 people had the same concern but for whatever reason they did not bother to call.  We were trained to trip over ourselves to make sure that this customer was appreciated, and won over.  In education, I guess we do the opposite, we shoot the messenger.

So we spent the weekend, totally killing morale in the building.