100 Pages In

I have decided to write a book.  Lets hope that at this time next year it is finished, but hey I'm writing a book.  I honestly wasn't getting too serious about telling folks until I hit the 100 page mark.  Now I'm there and things are getting real.  I don't have a publisher so yes, I'm doing this the hard way.

What's it about?  Is it a revolutionary new way to educate kids or lead schools?  That's not the intent, but I suppose it could be used for those purposes.  It is a deep dive into the changing political landscape and how dysfunctional it has become?  No, but it definitely provides policy recommendations to help people.  So what's the book about?  It is about my story and how it can shape other people's stories.  I'm a big Kevin Smith fan and I stumbled across this quote that empowered me to believe my story was valuable.

I am a product of generational poverty.  I am a survivor and now occupy the middle class.  I used to not give much thought to how I made it, but now that I look back on the cast and crew of my story I know this was no accident.  I'm not a rags to riches story of an inner city kid that made into professional sports.  I'm a little less boring, but my journey was aided by tremendous people and opportunities.  

In my book I will tell my childhood story and what it was like growing up in a rural area in a poor, non-traditional family.  Those experiences have taught me what people need to do to lift others up and prevent the cycles of poverty that keep people out of the middle class.  Many of the social ills that keep people in poverty can be addressed in a meaningful way.  I will look at being fatherless, being a free lunch kid at school and being a low wage worker.  With each chapter I will ask and answer a guiding question such as, Can post secondary education be a pathway out of poverty?  My colleagues know the answer to this, but I will use my experience and available data to show why.

Who knows?  Maybe I will get published and sell a million books.  Or maybe just a 100 books.  Either way, I want to tell my unique story and maybe help others in the process.  This writing stuff is difficult but rewarding and I have gained a lot of respect for authors.  I am excited about the prospect of becoming one of them.

Selfishly, I would like to ask for help.  The last chapter is about people like me.  If you know anyone that would like to be a case study for the book, please send them my way.  They can email me at ccass810@gmail.com.  

My Teacher Appreciation

This is a one of my favorite times of the year.  I enjoy scrolling through social media seeing all the ways schools across the state honor their teachers.  COVID or not, they deserve it and more.  Sure this was a tough year, but this is tough work with or without the challenges that COVID brought us.  I've written plenty about my respect for teachers, but today I am taking a different turn.  I want to show some respect for My teachers.

Next year I will taking a new position and leaving the building I have served for the past ten years.  I remember being told all those years ago that I was getting the best teachers in the district.  At the time I took this as lip service to a certain degree.  As it turns out, this assessment was more than accurate.  The teachers at Central Junior High School will always be the standard of comparison for me for the rest of my career.  There are lots of reasons for this, but let me hit the highlights.

CJHS teachers care about each other.  I know this could be said about a lot of teaching staffs, but I have always felt mine is different.  Yes, they have always helped each other when someone struggles.  But they also help each other when things are going well.  They share their professional learning and push each other to do better.  The field of education is a exercise in work that is never done and requires a continuous effort.  They continuously support each other because they know what I know, when teachers are at their best then kids can be at their best.   

CJHS teachers care about our kids.  I'm not just talking about grades.  I'm not just talking about test scores.  Junior high kids are at a crossroads in their academic and social lives and these folks understand this.  They are not afraid to form critical relationships that help every kid feel special and worthy.  This is special to me, because I was one of those kids that needed that when I was in school.  They celebrate them when they do well and their hearts hurt when they are struggling.  I've always said that heartbreak is a quality of a good teacher and they definitely show heart in their work.

CJHS teachers care about me.  I often tell colleagues that I am spoiled with a great teaching staff.  My next stat that I like to brag about is that we had a stretch of a about five or six years where we had no turnover in the teaching staff.  We have stuck together because they have been willing to give me a chance and I am forever grateful for that.  I seem to always be coming up with some new adventure for them that is aimed at serving our students.  I have had some good ideas and a bunch of not so good ones (Redbird Karate).  Nevertheless, they take the ride with me and challenge me when it needs to be done.  

I don't feel that I can ever honor this school family properly.  I have experienced more professional growth at this school than ever because of them.  I am a better school leader because of them and I will always compare other schools by their example.  At the end of my career I will be proud to say that I spent nearly a third of it at this wonderful place.  Leaving them will be very difficult, but it brings me peace that they will treat the next principal the same way.  

If you have ever taught at Central Junior High with us, thank you for the last ten years.  It has been an honor to serve with you and a blessing to know you.

Learning Loss < Accountability Loss

The term "learning loss" has gained traction in our sector of the world as a problem we need to throw money at.  I realize that none of us are going to give that money back, but how many of us are already tired of the spam email we are getting from dozens of curriculum and assessment companies from across the country?  I was frustrated by a post from EducationWeek about study results from Renaissance.  In essence, they reported that using the term "learning loss" may be misleading because their scores showed that students were not doing that bad.  I would expect that from someone who sells assessments.

Admins and teachers on the ground know that what we are really talking about accountability loss.  Kids have the ability to learn and maybe the term learning loss refers to loss of content coverage.  That is a little more fair to say.  What we witness on a daily basis is not the pandemic disruption causing kids to be able to learn less or at a slower rate, but rather our students losing soft skills that enable them to be good students.  The biggest one being being accountable for their own behavior.  Schools often provide the best setting for this type of learning.

Lets compare some behavior instances at my school this year compared to 2018-19.  You know, our last normal year.  Keep in mind that we have attended half days while in school and we have spent a good amount of time in full remote learning.  During the first semester, we were remote more than we were in person.  Less than a month ago, we changed course and asked that 90% of our remote learners (that were by choice) to return to the school building.  Now that you have a rough overview of the conditions, lets look at some behaviors that are destructive to academic performance and are very related to personal accountability. 

The biggest change in a given behavior for us is the number of students caught cheating on assignments.  In 18-19 we had a total of 9 referrals for cheating.  In 20-21, there were 30 referrals for cheating.  This was easy to catch when two or more students would submit identical assignments down to each mistake and the color and type of font.  In a student wellness survey I sent out in December, nearly 30% of respondents reported that they had received work from another student once or a few times.  Eight said they do it all the time.  With an enrollment of 250 students, this is a pretty frustrating chunk of the population.  It is easy for them to simply text in a group chat and share work.  The behavior has become normalized.  We are positive that we have only caught a small amount of it.

Being in remote learning as a district or families choosing remote learning has kept many students out of what I call school practice.  Dress code referrals are up and we do not make a big fuss about this in general.  What we are noticing is that many student come to school in what they went to bed in or what they plan to stay out all night in.  Sleeping in class is another one.  Many students report that they basically go to bed when they want to and come to school ready to eat breakfast and crash out.  As you might imagine, we have lots of morning tardies too.  We are seeing a loss of urgency towards school.  

When students began to struggle with the in person routines and therefore school, they opted into remote learning.  Sometimes moving in and out each quarter at their own convenience.   This allowed them to cease getting better at these soft skills or abandon them altogether.  Only when we forced them back into the building did we learn of legitimate health related reasons for them to be remote and some just didn't show back up at all.  I begged many families to send their struggling children back to help them be successful.  The success rate on that pitch was low.  Home visits would teach us many times that students were never home during the day and sometimes the parent that was home was not sure of their whereabouts.  The conditions some of our students are subject to are completely out of our control, but we spent a lot of time and energy trying to reel them in because we know that they are losing the skills it takes to be successful at school.

We have to be honest about what this is.  Students aren't experiencing learning loss, they are experiencing accountability loss.  When they are not held to a regular standard of excellence because pandemic conditions keep them out of school, they lose their ability to be academically successful.  I have many parents that are working hard to put food on the table and it can be difficult to be an accountability partner for their children.  COVID has not just affected schools, but families too.  Please do not forget that.  Yes, you will have some taking advantage but know that most are doing the best they can with what they have.

But both schools and homes need to agree that best possible place for kids to be is at school.  Admins need to acknowledge that while 20% of their federal grant funding needs to be used to address learning loss, you can spend some of that on accountability loss too.  I'm seeing lots of districts moving to hire social workers and counselors.  This is a great approach to reconditioning kids to be accountable.  Hiring liaisons to help re-enfranchise families is another good way to help parents help their kids.  Personnel to help address chronic absenteeism post pandemic is extremely critical to helping students rebound from a school year that left them unconditioned to return under normal circumstances.   If we address accountability loss, we can overcome learning loss.  We cannot heal one without the other.

Being 12 Then and Now - Collecting Baseball Cards

My son is 12 years old.  I was 12 in 1988.  It goes without saying that lots of things have changed since then and at a shocking rate.  His world is moving at a faster pace then mine did in every way.  Its hard to share my 12 year old life with him and relate to what he is exposed to.  But we have found one thing that we can find common excitement in.  Baseball cards.

I remember collecting at his age.  Mark McGwire was a very big deal and I bought in very quickly.  If the bash brothers were involved, I was all over it.  I could go just about anywhere and buy a few packs of cards for about 40 cents each and dig right in.  We even rode our bikes down to Stan's vacuum cleaner repair store to get cards.  He was a collector and had a small area to buy and trade at.  He even had a baseball themed pinball machine that spit out cards when you scored runs.  We would be all over the next edition of Beckett Monthly to see what cards were hot.  Then were either trading like fools or buying more packs of Topps, Donruss or Upper Deck to snag the most valuable cards.  Yes, I am guilty of buying Score every once in a while because they were inexpensive.  My paper route could only feed so much of this addiction.

The is a very different experience for my son at 12 years old.  My favorite and best card in my collection was the Mark McGwire Olympic rookie card and I think it was only valued at about $20 at the time.  He has multiple chances of pulling $20 cards from pack to pack.  The first big difference for him compared to me is the cost of this hobby.  Cards tend to be expensive these days, but he has chances to pull autographed cards.  Not in my day.  If you wanted an auto, you went to the ball park or special events to get it.  Card companies are also printing more specialty and update cards through out the season.  I had one set per year of about 700 cards, then a small update set and then we waited until the next year.

He also has access to all the hype that can be created around certain cards and players.  The internet is a huge game changer for this hobby.  He loves to watch break videos on YouTube.  If you have never seen on of these take a look at this one to get you started.  Basically, collectors and shops post videos of them opening card boxes and packs to see what exciting things come out.  This keeps him wanting to open packs.  Yes it is great marketing for the companies, but is also a way to keep collectors hungry.  He got a 2021 Topps Series 1 hobby box for Easter and he sat and opened each pack like in the videos and gushed over the cards he pulled.  It was exciting for him and me.  I am little envious of this world of collecting he gets to roam around in.

This has amounted to great one on one time for me and him.  We buy packs when we can find them or order them online.  We buy a few through online auctions here and there.  We have taken my old cards, some cards that have been gifted to us and what we have bought to amass a pretty good collection of baseball and basketball cards.  Being 12 then and now is definitely different, but I hope we have created something he can share with his 12 year old in the future.

Scoreboards and Dashboards

American discourse on difficult issues these days is truly complicated.  It's not good enough to simply know where other people stand in a debate on the concerns of the day.  The lines have blurred along traditional boundaries.  Knowing someone is a liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican doesn't actually tell you what you need to know all of the time.  I look at people's perspectives based on scoreboards and dashboards.  I've been trying to come up with some metaphorical way to look at our complicated social/political landscape.  This is the best I can come up with.  Sounds crazy, but hear me out.

                                    

Dashboard people look at our social and political landscape in way that shows caution to the things that may be going wrong.  They pay attention to the warning lights that come on.  They respond using their own understanding of that thing.  The gas warning light is an easy one.  The low tire pressure light is an easy one.  But when the check engine light comes on, they know it might be serious.  I know many of us ignore some of these until things breakdown, but at that point we are all willing to take the car to a mechanic.  The short of it is that we want a machine that runs well and that is dependable.  If you compare this to politics or social strife, these people want resolve and for everything to be done fairly.  For the good of the whole country, they pay attention to things like racism, civil rights, election reform, the economy and any other issue that might jeopardize or hurt our nation.  This approach takes a lot of work.  To make one light go off, you may need to address other lights that come on.  Regardless, you look for ways that the whole system can run smoothly.

Other people are scoreboard types.  These people often deal in absolutes and have a win/lose mentality.  The question is not often how do we help, but how can we win.  We are a sports loving culture.  We love it when our team is winning and accept the win even if it comes in a sloppy manner.  Look at this scoreboard.  The home team is winning, but only a couple are doing the scoring compared to the visiting team that has a more balanced scoring result.  We just want our team to win and just like real sports life, we will make the people doing the scoring superstars.  In the social political landscape, these people will seek to make the ability to win the issue and not elevate the actual issue.  They will see a win as a validation of their position.  

I'm not calling anyone out, but I do offer a word of caution.  Know your audience.  Which of these people are you talking to?  If the new COVID relief package is the issue, listen for what is important most.  Is it the number of programs it serves or the number of votes it got and from whom?  If you are still brave enough these days to debate the issues, you may be better served debating within their perspective.  It may save a friendship and show some respect.

Lucky Enough to Know Tim Murphy

Today, I stood on Candy Cane Lane and watched Mr. Tim Murphy go through one last time.  It was humbling standing in the middle of his creation and legacy.  It was humbling to realize, like everyone else has, his impact on the community of West Frankfort and the surrounding region.  As the line of cars drove through, I saw the faces of so many that had a close friendship with him and have shared so many of their fond memories with me.  If you were lucky enough, you got to spend time with Murph and have your own memories.

I am one of the lucky ones.  Tim was teaching art at both the junior high and high school when I was hired.  He was also the volleyball coach at both buildings.  That means I got to share some laughs and frustrations with him.  Sure you knew him as the Candy Cane Lane man, but I got to be his co-worker.  Even after he retired, he never stayed a stranger.  He helped judge contests for us.  He helped build stage pieces for graduation.  He would come by just to say hi.

I was lucky enough to know how much he loved the Beach Boys.  He knew everything about them and had seen them live 93 times at our last count.  My finest moment with Tim Murphy was the time I bested him at Beach Boys knowledge.  The movie Love and Mercy came out about Beach Boys front man, Brian Wilson in 2014.  I asked him if he saw it and what he thought about it.  He had no clue and I was starting to celebrate.  I finally knew something that he didn't about the Beach Boys.  This is the joy of knowing Tim Murphy.  With all the awesome things he has done for West Frankfort, you can get tangled up with him about the Beach Boys.  In my last conversation with him, we were working on the stage for graduation last June.  We spent a good part of our time working talking about how good the whitewall tires looked on his yellow truck.  I am lucky enough to have known Tim Murphy.

When he retired, we lost art for a short time due to budget cuts.  His void was definitely felt and the loss of art was felt.  We tried in every way we could to keep art alive even if he could not teach it.  I know that the community will keep his spirit alive through Candy Cane Lane.  For those who are lucky enough, we can keep his spirit alive by telling his stories and letting him live through those stories.

Rest in peace Timbo.

First Round Draft Pick

My son is a huge NBA fan.  He keeps up with players, stats and trades.  It's like he is aspiring general manager and who knows maybe he will be.  It has become a thing at our house to watch the draft each year.  While he is critiquing every pick no matter who takes who, I'm rerunning the Key and Peele sketch in the back of may head.  What if we treated teachers like pro athletes?

I enjoy watching the draft with him.  There is one thing about it that I get and that he doesn't yet at twelve years old.  When those kids in the upper picks start crying when their name is called, I know what that represents. Sure it will means millions of dollars for them, but it also is the reward for a lifetime of work and sacrifice.  Many of these kids are moving so far out of poverty and struggle that it is overwhelming to know you have made it.

Though I did not become a millionaire overnight, I can relate to this rush of relief after poverty.  I remember being drafted by Mt. Vernon Township High School back in 2002.  Lets keep this parallel going.  Based on the number of teaching interviews I had, I was a fourth round pick for the Rams.  They needed someone with a Sociology endorsement and I fit the bill.  This went on to a five year stay and me accumulating a load of good experience and opportunities.  I was then drafted in the 9th round as an administrator by Elverado in 2007.  In 2011, I was drafted by Frankfort CUSD #168 in the first round to be the Principal at Central Junior High School.  Note: This was the only place I had applied that year so "first round" may be misleading. 😊 

While becoming a teacher changed my whole world, there is no reason it can't have the same effect for anyone else wanting to be "drafted" into their desired profession.  Be a first round draft pick.  Work hard without exception or apology.  Know that you are filling a need for the organization.  Recognize and appreciate the opportunities that come your way.  Be the person that wants the organization to win regardless of the role you get to play.  This is what top round players do.  So what are you doing to be the first round draft pick in your desired field?