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.

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.