The Infamous March Board Meeting

The financial troubles in our state are well documented.  24/7 Wall St. has ranked us dead last in terms of how we are run at the state level.  This is based on many factors including poor housing markets, financial management and a poor credit rating.  Our General Assembly has missed the legal deadline for passing a budget and many people and organizations are being hurt.  Protests are mounting and relationships are being damaged. 

I wonder if our governor and lawmakers would visit a March board meeting in any school district in our region.  I bet they would see struggle, broken relationships and kids losing school staff that help them daily.  Take the recent John A. Logan College announcement of cuts for example.  The administration is reacting to a situation that is out of their control and the result is a packed house and more than two hours of pleas from students and staff to save programs and save opportunities for the students.  I doubt the board and administration disagrees with them but they are being dealt a lousy hand of cards.

The school districts of Illinois will soon be holding the toughest board meetings of the year.  Sadly, this is an established tradition in our state.  Board meetings will be filled with concerned teachers and staff waiting to hear the bad news.  This is especially stressful in our part of the state with more than 2/3 of our budgets coming from state resources.  The only way to make up large amounts in these gaps in funding is by cutting people.  This is a hard reality when you consider that some districts have lost millions over the last three years and have nothing left to cut.

The infamous March board meeting is a horrible tradition. In small towns like ours people love to hold on to traditions but this one we can live without. How do we change tradition? Tradition is a static concept. It is the opposite of change. To relieve the stress of the March board meeting we have to be willing to change in many areas of our culture and communities. It is a shared responsibility even if I point a finger at the state legislature. If we can change the minds of our electorate to finally believe that education is the single best investment we can make in our citizens then they will start to elect representatives that feel the same way. Maybe someday I will not have to attend tension filled board meetings and having heartbreaking conversations with adults and the kids that lose them.  Some traditions must change. 

Kids need parents, not defense attorneys

I play many roles in my position as a school administrator.  I take pride in being able to provide support to students, teachers and families in a variety of ways.  The one thing you can say about being a principal is that it is never boring given that you work with so many people with different expectations.  You really have to have a large professional tool box to serve so many and still be fair to the school building as a whole.  This can be tricky but you have to lead with your values and issues tend to take care of themselves.

I love to hear people say they couldn't be a principal because of the crazy parents.  I actually like talking to my crazy parents.  This is a great opportunity to communicate the fact that we should not be working against each other.  We have the same task of developing our kids but we have differing responsibilities.  I have a large number of parents that understand this and we have become great allies.  There are those parents that take some convincing however and it usually starts when their child had found themselves in trouble.

Many times when a student is in trouble (especially if it involves a punishment), parents tend to abandon the parent role and quickly turn into defense attorneys.  There is a stark difference between a parent and a defense attorney.  Consider the following:

Parents

• Understand that their primary role is the proper development of their child.
• Respect the fact that schools staff have a relationship with their child.
• Understand the expectations of the school building and expect their child to respect them.
• Understand the role of the school staff is to uphold the school expectations to the best of their ability.

Defense Attorneys

•  Assume that every interaction is an adversarial process.
• Seek to divert responsibility away from their client (child).
• Seek to eliminate or at least reduce punishment for their client (child).
• Attempt to intimidate and distract school staff with grandstanding and big talk. 
• Expect the outcome to be in the best interest of their client (child) and not the larger community.

I will be honest, I mostly experience defense attorneys.  My parents understand their role which means that a visit to my office is not typically necessary.  They handle their child's behavior at home and convey a high value on personal responsibility.  They teach their child how to manage themselves better and prevent other problems.  They help us develop their child as teammates and trust me we appreciate it.

If you are a defense attorney please know you are hurting more than the process, you are hurting your kids.  They will follow the model set before them.  If you are combative with others, they will follow your lead.  If you make a habit of blaming others, so will they.  When you make everything about them and not about us, they will grow up selfish.  You may not think they listen to you but trust me they do.  Here's some food for thought, if you and I have trouble getting along as adults then its a pretty good chance that I am correcting a lot of your child's behavior.  They will treat school staff in whatever way you set the tone.  Please realize your influence.

Trust me, I respect the fact that I'm speaking about a small number of people and I am truly blessed to have great families at my school.  But I challenge people to imagine what it would be like for all of our families to share the values of the school house.  Can you imagine how incredible that would be.  I'm not just thinking about improved behavior, I'm talking about the entire learning environment improving because we share the same goals for our kids.  Our kids need parents, not defense attorneys.

Many Thanks!

Recently, I was named the IPA/Horace Mann Middle School Principal of the Year.  I cannot express how honored I am to represent the Egyptian Region and West Frankfort at the state level.  I have received many kind texts, emails and social media posts congratulating me and I would like to say Thank You.

My appreciation of this spans many levels.  If my mom was still with us she would be over the moon.  We didn't have much but she gave me the life lessons it took to treat people fairly and to leave things better than the way I found them.  She couldn't give me Air Jordans as a kid but she gave me the tools to know that none of that stuff actually matters.  For people in poverty, relationships are currency and I would not trade any fancy things for what she taught me.

I would like to thank my wife and kids.  This profession is not easy on families but mine has put up with the highs and lows.  They keep me focused on what is important and support me when I make tough decisions  They make a daily sacrifice to put up with me and accept that they sometimes have to share me with an entire community.  I am truly blessed to have them.

I would like to thank my school staff.  The heart of a school house is not in the principal.  It is the teachers that set the tone of the building and do the tough tasks set before them to grow kids.  I have been quite spoiled since arriving at Central Junior High School to have great teachers, cooks, and custodians.  There has not been one day that I have felt that we weren't on the same page about how to teach and nurture kids.

I would like to thank the Illinois Principals Association.  Their advocacy and support of school administrators allows their members to grow professionally and to grow our profession.  My experiences with the IPA have helped me develop as a leader.  My experiences with the IPA have motivated me to seek out every possibility to grow kids and teachers.

I would be a very long blog post to thank everyone that has been so kind to me but it has been especially heart warming to have current and former students stop me to congratulate me.  I'm not sure how many kids have walked through my doors as a teacher or administrator over the last 15 years but all of them should know that they are the reason that I will keep showing up.

Many Thanks!

Have I Gotta a Deal for You?

I have to say that I'm disappointed in the Republican Party.  How could they let the used car salesman become the front runner for the presidential nomination?  Without a doubt they have created this monster.  All the fear mongering and finger pointing helped propel Donald Trump to the top spot.  The division and disagreement among party leaders helped propel Donald Trump to the top spot.  He has run with all the anti-Obama sentiment and put it into a uncivilized contest that people are eating up.  He speaks big, tears people down and is shallow on the issues.  That my friends is how you win elections, not how you govern.  If elected, I'm sure most conversations will start with "Have I gotta a deal for you?"

We know him to be a blow hard but how is he on the issues?  If you view his site you will find a drop down box with five positions, none of which are education.  I think the ten people reading this knew I was going there.  Really though, how can you mess up your position on education?  I sharply disagree on almost all of his positions and I even disagreed with Obama on education.  But education is the purest of the issues.  If a candidate truly cares about the development of the middle class and the sustainability of a strong economy, you will have a well developed position on education.  I do not feel this is the case with Mr. Trump.

In a nutshell this is Trump's position on education.  The Common Core is junk, school choice and competition will make schools better, and cut down (way down) the Department of Education.  The Common Core business is anti Obama and Jeb Bush rhetoric.  I have found no real substance in his argument against the Common Core.

One thing that Trump has said about the common core is that education should be local and not run by Washington bureaucrats.  I can live with that.  Except that in the same breath he supports school choice and competition.  This is code for the privatization of schools.  This is not the answer fixing "local" public schools.  This would reduce kids to products and means to earn a profit.  What else would you expect from a business tycoon.  Take this into consideration, education is the only public service that has not suffered some sort of privatization.  When you let companies in the mix of already campaign fund driven politicians, you do not improve the lives of kids.  You simply make them subject to the same politics as every other issue that we get upset about.  Not only that, what happens when private companies fail in a community?  The school changes hands when the next company comes in.  How is that a "local" education?

The Department of Education is not as wasteful as some think.  It definitely doesn't eat up the budget as much as military spending.  Why is the DOE a target of not just this Republican but others as well?  The DOE grants student loans.  If we offer fewer or no student loans, then we lose an opportunity at social mobility.  Poor kids stay poor with few options within their reach.  Lets be honest, fewer college educated people means more low wage labor.  Perfect for the successful corporate businessman.

If you want to see a real education platform that seeks to do what schools by nature do then take a look at Bernie Sanders.  Schools by nature build the future citizens of this country.  Sanders is the only candidate that I can fully support when it comes to education at every level.  Education will not make or break this presidential election but voters from each party need to take a serious look when they go to the polls.  Don't be distracted by the deals that Trump can make for you on 2nd Amendment rights or the illegal immigrants that he seems to have no problem hiring.  A candidate's position on education will tell you where their true priorities are for our country.  My hope is that Republican voters come to their senses and say no to the deal-maker.

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/
http://www.breitbart.com/video/2015/07/18/trump-common-core-way-of-taking-care-of-the-people-who-dont-give-a-damn-about-ed/

I Found a Documentary

If you were one of the handful that read my post Waiting for a Documentary, you will know that I was critical of the film Waiting for Superman.  Mostly because the filmmaker did what most commercially successful documentarians do and tell what people are to blame for the problem and then offer no viable solutions. Waiting for Superman painted a bleak picture of American education and pointed blame in a number of areas including teacher's unions and basically proclaimed charter schools to be the way of the future.  This is something I felt to be a bit of propaganda coming from a rural public school setting and understanding the limitations of this setting.

On December 10th, my school district hosted a screening of Most Likely to Succeed.  The film was written and directed by Greg Whiteley and predominately featured a school in San Diego called High Tech High.  Folks, this school was nothing short of fantastic.  I will admit that as I watched I was jealous of the teachers and kids in the building.  No books, no bells and really nothing that resembled a traditional school.  Students learned content but as needed to complete their project for the open house that would be held at the end of the year.  This event was the sole judgement on the school's progress.  Not state tests.  It was a pleasure watching students completely turned on to school and eager to work towards goals they set for themselves.

The key to the luster and success of High Tech High is the notion that students need to learn the soft skills and non-cognitive skills to be ready for college and careers.  Content is great but watching what these kids do with content is amazing.  Not one one student questions why they are learning something, they simply embrace it and move on towards their goals.  One student that didn't finish by the open house continued to work tirelessly over the summer until it was done.  Why can't schools be like this?  If we can see that students flourish in this environment, what is holding us back?

What holds us back is traditional thinking.  We cling to too many things that can hold kids back.  Kids are changing and at a more rapid pace.  The answer should be to change with them or try to get ahead of where they are going to be.  I was told once that Wayne Gretsky's father told him to not play where the puck is but where the puck is supposed to be.  Shouldn't this be the thinking for our kids?  There are many barriers to this but where do we start?

My only few notes on the film would be two things: we are still talking about charter schools and the student body in this school does not reflect traditional American public schools.  Yes these kids are chosen by lottery to attend.  To be fair, 50% of their population must be considered low income.  Also, there was no mention of how the needs of special education students are met.  While I think that the methods used in the school would surely benefit students with learning differences it seemed that no special education students were served by this school.

Waiting for Superman blamed teacher's unions for being a barrier all its own.  Teachers in this school take one year contracts in exchange for complete academic freedom.  I'm sure these people are not anti-union (nor am I) but they are seeing schools and teaching for something else.  People like me with a rural, traditional school model bias consider these kinds of things paramount because it is our reality.

Still, there is no excuse for taking risks as educators.  We constantly call out lawmakers for not spending money to invest in our future citizens.  Why are we not making the human investment to change the thinking around our schools and how kids learn?  Startling fact from the film: 65% of today's grade school children will work in jobs that have yet to be created.  Knowing that, why we not teaching kids to play where the puck is supposed to be?  This film inspired me to think different about my school and its possibilities.  How we look at our students has to change and how we teach them has to change.  Of course this must be done within the resources we have and in conjunction with stakeholders but now is the time.  How will you become the change you wish to see?

Developing and Understanding Self and Others

A couple of years ago we made the decision to offer exploratory classes at Central Junior High School. They had been absent from the curriculum and we were wanting to make a change that would benefit our students.  Teachers were asked to contribute courses that spoke to them and that they could get excited about teaching.  Our parent group was asked what they would like to see offered.   Many traditional suggestions flew around the room but something special emerged. Mrs. Swann, our 7th grade English teacher, suggested DUSO. The acronym stands for Developing and Understanding Self and Others.

The course is a character education class that uses the six pillars of character as its foundation. Students also take part in field trips designed to lend a helping hand to our autistic students including accompanying them to Special Olympics events.  Mrs. Swann has a unique connection to autism and brought her valuable experiences to the class and students saw her commitment right away.

This class quickly became the most requested exploratory class we offer.  Once other students got to see how special this class was and how devoted the teacher was, it became popular. The word on the street was that this class was not only about learning how to act, it became about how we should treat other people. The word spread and now kids line up to take part in learning the non-cognitive skills that create leaders and more empathetic students. 

We have been astonished at how a small idea has festered into the accepted culture of a school building. Now two other buildings in our district are slowly becoming DUSO schools. I can't tell you how proud I am of Mrs. Swann for being a change agent. She may not have set out to be but great ideas cannot be hidden. Teachers set out to do the right thing for kids. This is what makes great schools.  Relationships encourage kids to show up and meaningful classes make them want to stay.

We tend to get hung up on test scores and national issues that may not apply to to our local communities. The fact is our schools are packed with teachers like Mrs Swann and they are leading kids. This is just another thing you won't find on the state tests.  Soft skills or non-cognitive skills can't be measured but they can be greatly valued by our communities. 

I would like to salute Mrs. Swann, CJHS and our district staff that recognizes the value of the DUSO model and the value of growing kids and future leaders.  More programs like this would breathe life into many schools struggling to find their way in the fog of accountability and testing.  Maybe the spark ignited at CJHS will light fires all over the place.

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.