Avoiding quicksand!

I am a sucker for sports movies. My all time favorite is Major League. I could recite lines from it all day long and laugh to myself. This makes my wife think she married a weirdo, but my brother and friends think its pretty cool. The fact that I know Jake Taylor tames Wild Thing, puts the bunt down, reaches first, and helps the Indians win the pennant is enough for me no matter the reaction. Last night during #IAedchat I found myself thinking how I could relate the feeling that I believe students can have when things do not seem to be going well at school. Then I got to thinking this is not unique to just students. I am sure teachers or admins feel like this more often than we think too. I still struggled for a way to put it into context and then a movie quote hit me. It comes from another sports classic, The Replacements.


"You're playing and you think everything is going fine. Then one thing goes wrong. And then another. And another. You try to fight back, but the harder you fight, the deeper you sink. Until you can't move... you can't breathe... because you're in over your head. Like quicksand." Shane Falco - The Replacements

Why can school feel this way? As someone who has now fulfilled each of the roles listed above (parent, student, teacher, and administrator) I think it comes from school being a highly competitive environment that takes some skill and finesse to navigate. Not all of it comes easy no matter who you are. I take solace in knowing that Shane Falco has a happy ending, he gets the girl and the job. He overcomes his challenges and succeeds at quarterback. We call can succeed too. It is not that bad things will not happen it is how we respond to those unpredictable challenges that come our way that determines our success. We are not always in control of what happens to us, but we are always in control of our response. If you have spent any time as a parent, teacher or administrator you know that it is not if mistakes will be made but rather when. When that time happens we have a great opportunity to promote growth in ourselves or others depending on the circumstance, but we also need to look for help. This is what we have to be able to show our students. Too often I see students that give up after one negative behavior incident or a poor performance on a piece of graded work. We have to teach them how to deal with adversity. We cannot expect them to know the way out.  This is why we are here. As educators is to not only teach this important skill, but to practice it ourselves.

 

One way is through a support system. In the Replacements Shane Falco had Coach Jimmy McGinty to pull him through it. Who is your coach? Who provides you perspective? Who will that person be for our students? If you are a student it could be your parents, but what if they are not able or willing? If you are a teacher maybe a colleague down the hall, but what if you usually are the one filling that role? As a principal you are the go to when all else fails for parents, teachers and students, So who is your Coach McGinty? You have to find a colleague or mentor that can help you keep your frame of reference and mindset in the right direction. However, I would encourage you to take this one step further. No matter your role to turn this into a network of people not just one person. What happens to Shane Falco if Jimmy McGinty never comes along? He lives a life stuck in the Sugar Bowl being drubbed with 3 concussions. He never believes he can be better. It is all about the relationships we form and those people that help us be better than we thought we could be. There are often no quick solutions to our most difficult problems, but the people we surround ourselves with will help us create a path out. Social media gives us an avenue to do this and essentially removes any excuse for why we cannot do so. Build your network folks. 

Finally, when you feel like you have hit quicksand. Quit fighting back so hard. Get out of the office, step back away from the stack of papers, focus on completing one task first, talk to a supportive person. Sometimes as doers or overachievers our first reaction is to fix things right away, which can cause quick decisions that are often times not the best. You are not really in over your head, you just need to get your head back. You will not change what happened but you can plan your response and reaction. If we can successfully pass this knowledge on to our students then we have taught them a lesson that lasts a lifetime. 

Be Great!

Matt

When was the last time you said, "I am sorry?"

From time to time I mess up; whether it is as a father, husband, brother, son or principal, etc. I make mistakes.  You get it, right?  At some point in any aspect of our life we all make mistakes.  Hopefully, we learn from them and improve.  That is what we are supposed to do, learn from our mistakes.  For me the first part of this is acknowledgement.  I also believe that this is often the most difficult.  Why is this so hard for so many of us?  Is it pride, fear of failure, appearing weak, anger? The reason can be different for different mistakes.  Whatever the reason when we have made an error, we need to apologize and say I AM SORRY. 

This can be especially powerful for our students to hear.  I was reminded of this during Rita Pearson’s TED Talk and a recent interaction with a student in my office.  She makes light of how students react to adults that apologize.  They almost seem shocked.  They shouldn't.  We need to model this skill for them and help them practice.  I asked a student to apologize to another student this week and they looked at me like I was crazy.  I did not force his hand at the moment because it was obvious he was not ready.  My mistake was forgetting to walk the student through what I would be asking him to do and practicing it on me.  I realized that this student may have not had to do this before and fears looking weak to peers by doing so.   This is a skill I will work with him to develop and come back to him when some of the emotion is removed from the situation.  The first thing I will do is apologize for putting him in that situation and come then come back to what he needs to learn and move on.  

 We also need to model how an apology is received.  A colleague of mine, would often be sure to tell students and adults that saying, it's okay, is not an appropriate way to receive an apology.  Instead it is important to say thank you.  Saying, it's okay, gives the impression that what they did was acceptable.  It definitely was not if they are apologizing for it so we need to acknowledge their apology, but not downplay that the behavior was acceptable.  

The last part of this equation is forgiveness. It is different depending on every situation and circumstance.  You can't tell someone they have to forgive someone else that comes internally.  However, I often tell my students that you can forgive somebody without forgetting what they did or how they made you feel.  

Be Great!

Matt

Are we having fun yet? 3 takeaways from Teach Like a Pirate by @burgessdave

This past weekend we had one of those weekends that are few and far between during the summer months for us.  We did not go anywhere or have anyone over.  This is a rather odd occurrence for us as we usually spend the summer catching up with friends and family or traveling to a favorite destination.  Instead we spent the weekend at home and doing things locally. Jack learned to ride his bike, we put together Alice’s toddler bed, went to the farmer’s market, a movie, church, and fishing.  Sounded relaxing at the start didn’t it, well it was and it wasn’t.  By the time we got to fishing on Sunday afternoon and got the poles in the water, I think I had barked at Jack and Liz one too many times when Jack asked me, “are we having fun yet?”  See sometimes when I one of our kids gets frustrated I ask them, “are we having fun yet?” So this time Jack turned the tables and flipped the question back on me.  This was a stop and think moment for me.  I needed to step back and actually enjoy what we were doing. 

This is also what we need to remember to do throughout the school year in our classrooms and buildings.  There will be times when we no doubt get frustrated, but we have to be able to step back and remember that if we are not having fun then neither are our students.  If we are going to engage them and increase learning opportunities we have to try to create as many enjoyable experiences as possible.   I recently finished reading Dave Burgess’ book Teach Like a Pirate and believe there are three major ideas we can steal to help us remember to have fun!

1)       Just like any good educator he states that relationships and rapport are very important to be engage students.  You have to know what they find exciting or interesting.   They have to trust you to be able to step out of their comfort zone in your class.  When you ask them to share and share about yourself this will lead to building some trust.   As with anything you have to follow through and deliver for that trust to come full circle. Burgess knows the tone is set the first few days, if you don’t start to establish it then you will find it more difficult to do the longer you wait.  You can’t bore them with a syllabus for two days and then start building relationships.  It begins right away.   If you really want to have fun, get to know your students on day one!

  

2)       Transform your classroom and instruction.  Burgess says, “Provide an uncommon experience for your students and they will reward you with an uncommon effort and attitude.”   To get this generation’s attention he tells us that we have to be remarkable.  Ordinary is not going to get it done or set you apart from other teachers.  I would ask you, what will make your class great?  Similar to how Burgess asks, what lesson could you sell tickets for?  Talk about a measuring stick! If you really want to have fun, work to plan the best lesson you have ever taught!

3)      Always approach your classroom with passion and enthusiasm.  If you take nothing else away from Burgess’ work it should be that students can tell how excited we are and see right through those that are trying to fake their way through it.  You have to bring it on a daily basis.  Think about it, we have all sat through terrible lectures and presentations.  Usually those people were not even excited themselves.  How can we expect our students to have any more passion than we do?  If you really want to have fun, tap into your passion, we are all creative we just have to go for it!  

I hope those of you that took time to read this post will also read this book and buy it for you teachers if you are an administrator.  Books such as this inspire me to be better than I am, and get me excited for the school year.  One of the teachers I recently hired is a veteran of 25 years.  He summed it up well during his interview when he said, if we didn’t have fun in class today, then I did something wrong.   I believe your students will without a doubt love you for it and learn far more than you thought possible if we increase those opportunities. 

Be Great and Get Better!

Matt

What are you doing this summer?

What are you doing this summer?  As educators we often times get asked this question towards the end of the school year or once the last day of school has arrived.  My own parents for the longest time would ask me this question and it would really bother me.   I believe it bothered me because I thought people were operating with the assumption that we sat by the pool or at the park all day.  I do not even think all people are trying to be spiteful or even have poor thoughts about that choice.  I think some people do recognize that it is a grind and that there should be a period of rest and re-charging and this is good.  Do not get me wrong you have to do some of this.  However, I think it is our job to make sure we tell the story of all the other things we do to get better as well.  I do try to keep some more regular hours during the summer and take advantage of not working the long days of the school year, but there are a lot of opportunities that summer provides to me professionally as well. 

So what are educators doing during the summer? You name it!  Many of us spend time working to further our knowledge by taking classes, reading books/educational journals, attending conferences, ramping up our presence on social media to learn from others, or by networking with our PLN face to face. We also spend time preparing for the upcoming school year by improving lessons, rethinking past practices, working a second job, and evening visiting some of our students and families.  Then there are some of us that coach because in Iowa we still have summer baseball and softball. J I was one of the lucky few to spend some of my summers on the diamond. We have great opportunities to learn from each other.  Even though I was sad this past week to be a #NotatISTE instead of a #ISTE13 Tweeter I still had a great time following the events and learning along with everyone.    

I believe that we have to model to our community what true lifelong learning looks like.  I try to learn a lot every day during the school year, but I do invest a lot in my own learning over the summer.  We do not stop learning once we leave K-12 education.  Conversely this should just be the foundation for us to get started.  If we are truly in the education business we have to make time for our own learning.  Time is always a challenge, but it cannot be an excuse.  Two weeks ago in Dubuque, IA I heard Eric Sheninger (@NMHS_Principal) say, "I don't find time to learn and get better, I make time to learn and get better." So the next time you get asked, what are you doing this summer; do not be afraid to share some of your learning with whoever is asking. 

I have blogged for the past year and a half, but those blogs were dedicated to our movement to a 1:1 environment in Bettendorf.  I am now in Iowa City as Principal of South East Junior High and am still very passionate about technology and social media, but I am even more passionate about leadership and effective teaching and learning.  Therefore, I have started a new blog and hope you will enjoy it.  The premise is that if you are not getting better you are falling behind and that we should always strive to be great! Hope you enjoyed the read.  Comment if you so desire! 

Be Great!