Homework? We're talking about homework?

If you are any kind of sports fan you remember Allen Iverson going off about being disciplined for missing a practice.  Actually I don't remember what he was disciplined for because the speech transcended the action.  The point was he felt that a press conference was too focused on practices and not the important part, the actual game.  Sometimes I feel that the practice of homework has taken this form and the debate is on.  So why are we talking about home work?

Disclaimer: when I was teaching social studies, I rarely gave homework.  There were two reasons for this, I felt that the kind of homework I could give was not engaging enough and secondly my kids were so involved in extra curricular activities I knew I would struggle to get it and they would struggle to get it done.  After nine years in administration, my viewpoint on this has evolved and so have our kids and families.  Its time to have a real conversation about it.

I have looked at this through three lenses: parent, teacher, and administrator and folks this is the best I can do.

What homework should not be:

• Pointless repetitive tasks such as writing down definitions or word searches.  These do not engage students they only bore them.
• Homework should not be the reason a student fails a class.  Ask yourself, does your grade reflect student learning or compliance?
• Arbitrary.  Homework should be linked to a legitimate learning goal.  Don't give it just to give it.

What homework could/should be:

• An opportunity for higher order thinking skills.  Challenge your kids.  They actually want to be challenged to think.
• A time to expand upon a class project or problem to be solved.  Heaven forbid they return to a class ready to contribute to a real world learning experience.
• Time appropriate.  Your students have been at school all day.  They have families and need play time.  If a whole night is lost to homework then that is a true shame and does not encourage learning.  Finland gets credit for respecting this.  Take a look.

Let me be very clear, I am not anti-homework.  I am anti busy work that does not contribute to student growth.  I'm tired of seeing bright kids failing because they do not have homework done.  Many kids do not have what my kids have.  My wife and I both help with homework each night and it never feels like an extension of the learning experience.

I was a social studies teacher.  Here's how I would love for my kid's homework to go.  Instead of finding answers in a text book and filling in a worksheet, how about giving them one discussion task related to the learning topic.  If he/she came home and asked me to talk to her about the civil rights movement I would probably have a heart attack.  What if she could take those perspectives and add them to the ones she might find online and take them to school to enrich the class discussion while the teacher guides them though the content?  Better yet, what if the teacher had a class Twitter account that students could collaborate with their peers and share ideas.  Those things might motivate my kids to engage the boring facts and figures to gain a deeper understanding of civil rights in this country.  Hard to grade?  Yes but the engagement is invaluable.  Then maybe, just maybe we can talk about homework.

Need help getting homework done?  Take a look at this quick read.

Why am I a Star Wars fan?

Unless you live under a rock you would know that there is a new Star Wars film coming out December 18th.  For guys like me it's time to feel like a kid all over again. Except I'm not all that excited about the toys, just the continuation of the story.

I was only a few months old when Episode IV debuted in theaters so it wasn't until I was seven when I saw it. I remember how taken back I was even at that age so long ago. More than anything I remember watching Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia swing across to safety as Stormtroopers fired away at them. (Always missing of course) This was my first experience with seeing heroes and understanding the concept of good and evil, all wrapped in a visually stunning film. What more could a small boy ask for?  The fantasy section of my brain was turned on and I've never lost interest.  Even with the notorious introduction of Jar Jar Binks I have remained true. 

At 39 I'm still a huge fan. I've seen all the films front and back. I own all the films on Blu-Ray with special features and a ton of Christmas ornaments.  I'm not a mega Star Wars nerd but I still utter lines form the films in my head when comically appropriate.  The concepts of heroism, good/evil, and the choices between them have still resonated with me as the movies progressed. I never really became a sci-fi fan but I've always been a Star Wars fan.  Let's be honest, who wouldn't want to have the powers of a Sith or Jedi?  Even if it would be used to impress people at a class reunion or at best saving the day from evil doers.  

If you have yet to be immersed in a Star Wars movie, I suggest you do so.  Forget that they are most often associated with kid's toys and nerds and watch the films for what they are: tales of heroes and rebelling against oppressive powers.  They are fantasy worlds where people are choosing good over evil with the help of badass lightsabers.  Who could not want to see that?

Go see the new movie on December 18th.  Here is a great trailer video to get you motivated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gCbnwavkKc

Let's be RED!

Everyday at the end of the announcements you might hear me say, "Lets be Red."  Being RED is something that we hope defines the students in our school building but also gives them qualities to shoot for to be great students and great people.  The concept came about this past summer as we were writing a grant for teaching social skills.  These qualities were quickly identified as what we wanted our students to look like as a result of our influence on them.

Resilience is simply the ability to bounce back from adversity.  All kids must be able to experience various kinds of adversity and also be able to regroup and find ways to be successful despite it.  This may come in many forms.  Maybe after failing a test, a student changes their study and preparation habits to help ensure success for the next go around.  Maybe after a tardy detention a student changes their hallway routine to prevent another detention.  No matter how many scenarios you construct, the underlying idea is that student need to learn to fail forward.  Resilient students do not see failure as the end, they see it as an opportunity to learn, improve and move forward.

Being exceptional means being unusually good or special.  Students need to know that they are all different and its okay to be that way.  Seeing and appreciating differences makes kids more tolerant and more open to new people and their ideas.  But also students need to embrace being different themselves.  It is perfectly acceptable to be different and develop strengths based on those differences.  Kids not only need to grow to be aware of others but also aware of themselves.

To be dedicated means that you are devoted to a task or a purpose.  Students must be able to see that they are part of something bigger than them.  Dedication comes from accepting that.  This very RED acronym we are talking about needs to serve as something to be dedicated to.  Maybe a little more study time before TV time.  Maybe visiting a staff member if something is wrong.  Speaking up if you think someone is being bullied or harassed.  It is easy to show dedication when you truly care about your school and the people in it.

So parents, if you were wondering what the t-shirt design is all about and students that were wondering why I want you all to be RED this should serve as what we want our students to aspire to.  Being RED will not only help them be ready for school but ready for life.

When will data become a human right?

I have a belief that health care is a human right. So when all the Obamacare argument was taking place I really had no interest because everyone seems to be missing the mark. All people have the right to be healthy but somehow we have allowed big business to turn what should be automatic into a business venture keeping it from those who barely make a living wage and bankrupting those who do make a good living. 

So what's next?  I recently attended a conference in downtown Chicago and even helped present a session. This is an event designed for the exchange of ideas and collaboration with colleagues. A perfect place for the Internet to flow freely to enable this task. This is where our future is heading. To compete and to learn you must be connected. Many institutions are realizing this. There are stories popping up of school districts parking school buses with access points on them in neighborhoods that lack internet access. The idea is that they need to make sure all their students can keep up, regardless of their neighborhood.

At this conference you had to pay for Internet service. Even as presenters we had to pay to present ideas. Think about the world we live in. Information is now literally at our fingertips and the data rate competitions are on in full force.  Will we soon be fighting the same battles that we have over healthcare?  I realize that if people had to choose between being healthy and shopping online they would choose health (let's hope). But, could we get out in front of this before the large corporations play the same story out again?  When will we look ahead and see that data will be the next human right that is monetized and kept from the masses?

Think about what the internet is doing for us.  We use it to learn, to exchange ideas, to shop, maintain records digitally, entertainment, instant news access, and just the simple shrinking of the planet in general.  The game of life is changing and at some point we have to be the ones to demand this technological gift be a right of all people to have access to.  We need to prevent it from becoming yet another aspect of life that divides the haves form the have nots.  As a school administrator I have seen first hand the benefits of a free flow of information to students who want to learn and also need to be able to function in this transforming society that is rooted in data access.  I say now is the time to ensure access for all.

http://hechingerreport.org/kids-no-internet-home-parking-wifi-enabled-school-bus-near-trailer-park/

When Your Kid Out-Coaches You

I'm sure I'm like most parents and want to go completely insane over my kids behavior.  "Pick that up", "why did you do that", and "why didn't you tell us that" might be a few phrases overheard in my home from my wife and I at varying levels of volume.  We have known our kids every day of their lives yet they still don't get us like we get them.  Well I used to think that until the last week when my daughter truly impressed me without me having to tell her to do so.

I have the honor of coaching her in both basketball and softball.  Our basketball season has been rough.  She is a talented player and loves the game.  Last week in a losing effort, her "coach" told her coming out of halftime to "do what you have to do" in order to win a game.  She disobeyed her "coach" and went out playing team basketball.  She at no point tried to take the game over.  She looked for open teammates and tried to involve everyone.  I told her on the way home how happy I was with her.

Fast forward a few days and we are at it again.  This time a close game that actually went into overtime.  Her "coach" was busy pouting over calls and rolling his eyes while she was playing her guts out.  Again, involving everyone she could.  The game ended and we lost by a basket.  Her first response was to send this picture out on Instagram:

Trust me, I've been out-coached a bunch.  I'm not sure how to feel now that my ow kid has out-coached me.  That's why I used the term "coach".  Its hard to feel like a coach when your 11 year-old daughter shows you what its all about.  And what its about is rarely what you think is urgent.  They see the big picture when we are distracted by the little one.  Trust me parents, your kids do listen to you and when given the right opportunity, they will make you proud.  All the petty barking about the little things tends to go away when they out-coach you.  She is a great kid,  even if she doesn't always pick up her socks or throw her trash away.

The Playing Time Continuum

In my short time as a coach, athletic director or principal, the number one sports-related complaint is about playing time.  Why isn’t my kid playing?  Why does that kid get to play over mine?  You could go on and on and many of us have had the experience of seeing a mad parent and maybe even trying to comfort them.  I have always been pretty good about talking parents off the ledge when it comes to this conflict but I never really organized my thoughts into an understandable model.  Here is my best attempt.

Above, you see the “Playing Time Continuum,” which should explain to any parent or fan why a kid is not playing or why they are playing.  For this model to work you must have a coach is that is there to help the kids win.  Wining is their reward for effort and execution.  The players deserve a winning effort for them to be able to grow as players.  Without this, my crude model is null and void.

Playing time comes in many forms but we think of it as simply getting a chance to play.  It may be a whole game or maybe pinch running.  Either way a player is in the game for some amount of time and should always see this as an opportunity.

If you travel clockwise on the continuum you will see “Hard Work”.  Hard work is time off the field to improve your skills, become stronger or learn something new.  You may take lessons or simply get up and shoot 100 free throws a day.  It shows self-discipline and dedication.  No player can help a team if they do not work hard to better themselves.

Further clockwise is “Ability”.  Players develop their ability from their hard work.  Without hard work, a player may not have the skills to earn playing time.  Every player should have something to contribute in order to have a winning effort.  Some kids may not be suited for some abilities but that is where a good coach and parents can lead them in a direction that will give them a skill set to help their team.

The “Situation” may or may not demand a player’s ability.  The more abilities a player has it is likely that they get more time.  The game situation is critical if a coach is operating in a winning environment.  If a player is best suited to hot against left-handed hitters, then they should get the opportunity.  There are lots of scenarios that could be created to illustrate that point.  If your child is a one-trick pony then the situations they can play in become limited.

Now we are back to “Playing Time” and it’s important to note that this is a continuing cycle.  There is no destination.  Even if a player is getting playing time they should still work hard, develop their abilities so they can be ready for game situations.

My hope is that this simple idea can change a player, parent, or coach’s attitude towards playing time.  I can’t speak for every coach but I know these things are valuable for me.  Of course this doesn’t factor in team or school policies that may prevent kids from playing.  Attitude may be a factor of hard work and may keep players from playing as well.  In any event we need to communicate the right concepts to our players and parents.

Winning With What You Have

This past week Illinois Vision 20/20 announced the launch of its 21^st Century Learning Center.  It is a free resource for high school teachers that provides lesson plans, lecture and videos in a multitude of disciplines.  Through iTunes U, students and teachers can now access materials they may not have had resources for in the past or be able to enrich their current course offerings.  This is truly a step in the right direction.  Using technology to bridge gaps for teachers and students to enhance learning.  What a concept. 

Despite these breakthroughs, some schools still do not embrace the possibilities that technology can bring them.  In schools we still hold on to outdated methods and approaches in the name of routine and proven student outcomes.  Usually those outcomes are content delivery with a degree of control over the students.  But as our society, workforce and attitudes change with the times schools as a whole are slow to follow.  Don’t get me wrong, there are many schools doing this right.  But still we look at them as exceptions and not the rule.  Educators might look at innovative programs as just a show to be watched and not an example to be followed.  Or, they dismiss the possibility of replicating innovation because of a lack of resources or staff.  I say do what is within your reach.  It may not seem like much if you don’t have much but it’s far better than doing nothing.

I’ve had the opportunity to coach on and off in my career and if there is one thing I learned it’s that you survey the landscape and find a way to win with what you have.  This year my school building went back to a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) approach to the technology gap in our school.  We don’t have much and like most Illinois school getting more is not exactly an option.  To ensure that technology is a fixture in our school, the students bring their own devices to use.  This sparks a lot of conversation about how and what the students would use their devices for.  How do teachers control their behavior?  And certainly, how do we reach them if we are not always the experts ourselves?  This was a great session at EdCamp West Frankfort and many viewpoints were considered, all of which had merit. 

But let’s say we continue with debate and do nothing in our building.  Who are we failing?  The obvious answer is our students.  If we use my poor coaching analogy from above we could say we like talking about winning but we really don’t have the courage to be winners.  This is what a winning attitude towards BYOD looks like:

·        - Students learn far differently than we did.  They can multitask and engage on multiple levels.

·        - Mobile devices are not only their tool of choice but it will be for a long time.

·        - Students need responsible adults to teach them digital citizenship. (Teachers and Parents)

·        - Students need to be treated like the digital natives that they are.

For us, our resources are our teachers, students and their attitudes towards technology in learning.  This can have a much farther reach than money to buy gadgets.  I fully anticipate there to be bumps in the road and conflict as we move forward but the end result should be engaged learning through student owned devices.  That’s how we will win with what we have.