Disability Awareness Week

We just finished disability awareness week in our school.  This is a week full of activities to help all children become more sensitive to those with disabilities, and to help build a sense of empathy for people living with disabilities.  The activities are organized by parents, many of whom have children with disabilities.  The parents volunteer to spend an hour or so in each classroom conducting interesting and thought-proving activities with students in grades K-5.

So, I just came across this video on my Facebook page, and I will be sharing this with teachers and parents.  I think this is a wonderful example of someone who did not let a disability keep him from fulfilling his dream.

Enjoy!

Lance, Lies, and the Library

I posted this question on my Twitter  page and on my Facebook account:

We have a bunch of Lance Armstrong books in our school library that portray him as a champion and hero. Do we pull them off the shelves?

I have had some interesting replies and comments, most of which were to pull the books off the shelves.  But, a few people made these comments:

“I don’t think so. It’s part of history and shouldn’t be hidden. It could bring great discussions. What can we all learn from it?”

“If they relate to cycling yes, if it’s about his life with cancer then they need to be assessed if the message is a lie.”

“Maybe they just need to move from biography to fiction?”  (That was my nephew; I think he was kidding, right?)

And this one really made me think because it came from a very close friend and educator whom I highly respect:

“If a history book were outdated what would you do with it? If a map were outdated because borders change or names of countries change, what would you do? I am against the banning of books, and you don’t want to be accused of that (especially in your school community), so I think you have to approach it in a different way. What your nephew wrote, while probably meant to be funny, has some merit. Do you keep the old maps and history books as part of some record of how history has changed, but put them in a different part of the library? Just food for thought……”

… And here was my response to him:

“These are books based on lies. I would not purchase these books now for our library, but I will purchase books telling the truth about Armstrong’s life when they are published. Your point about my school community is an interesting one. I don’t think either of us can definitively say what the parents would think about this topic. Some would agree; other would disagree. Maybe I should just ask the parents what they want their kids reading instead of making assumptions. This would make for an interesting blog post to the parents, or a Twitter question once my school Twitter page is live. The analogy about maps does not fit here. Maps change because of politics and boundaries. Old maps were correct until a war or politics changed the boundaries. We do keep old maps for comparison sake. We also keep old history books with the assumption that what is written in them is true (knowing full well that truth in history is subjective relative to who is telling the history). But, if an author of a history book came clean and stated that his book was based on false info, it should be pulled from the history shelves.”

So what do YOU think?  Should school and public libraries remove biographies and other books that portray Lance Armstrong as a hero and a champion when he has admitted that he cheated and he has been stripped of all his titles?  Is this really a case of banning books from the library? What about asking parents about this?

If You Send Your Daughter To College …

… She may ask to pledge a sorority.

If she decides to go through rush, she is going to need a whole bunch of new clothes for the process.

That means her mom will have to take her to 20 different stores for at least 4 different outfits.

But the new clothes won’t look as good without accessories, so she will have to find some new bling to accent her new outfits.

And what goes with new clothes and sparkly accoutrements?  New shoes, of course!

When she realizes that she needs new shoes, she will have to do some web surfing on Zappos.com

This search for shoes will remind her that she will need to search the web for the “best looking, coolest” sorority houses on campus.

This web search will give her the idea to look up all of the sorority web sites where she will see hundreds of smiley, happy girls.

These cheerful pictures will remind her how badly she wants to join one of these exclusive groups which then will produce lots of stress and anxiety upon returning to college for the new semester.

This stress may trigger thoughts of insecurity, even though she first went off to college with a great sense of self-worth and confidence.

As she soon will learn in her psych 101 class, insecurity could lead to a bad first impression which of course will earn her many, many rejections from the “best looking, coolest” houses on campus because rushing is all about the superficial aspects of people.

This will cause much crying, weeping, sobbing and uber-drama (did I mention crying?) which will generate scores of calls and texts to her mom for advice and help.  If she is lucky she will listen to her mom who will expend every ounce of energy to build her confidence back up.

This will help her come to realize that most of the girls in most of the sorority houses just don’t get it, and there really are one or two groups of girls who want to know her as a person and not as a blingy, smiling mannequin.

Once she realizes this, all the drama will end, and she will gain back her self-assurance.   AND…

With a new, more mature attitude, she will find and join a group of nice young ladies who will help her start the next episode of her still very young life.

Meanwhile, mom and dad will have aged 20 years during this week-long process!!

Back on the Blog!

Happy 2013 to anyone who may be reading this post!

Well, it has been quite some time since I posted anything on my blog.  I have spent the last two and a half years taking two classes per semester as I have been working toward my Ed.D.  I am now finished with all of the classes and am officially an  “ABD!”

I now am going to try to get back into posting about life as an elementary school principal and father of two teenage girls – one in college and one in high school (oy).  I also will be looking for ideas and assistance regarding my dissertation topic for which I am just about finished with chapter 1.

For my dissertation, I am combining two passions – 1.  Hiring and retaining the very best new teachers and 2. The use of instructional technology in classrooms.  I am looking for new teacher induction programs in place in school districts which are also strong in the area of instructional technology.  What kinds of PD are these districts providing to their new teachers in order to get their new teachers up and running on the first day of school and throughout the entire school year?

Any ideas or resources on the following would be wonderful:

1. Examples of high quality new teacher induction programs and rubrics to evaluate them

2. Rubrics to evaluate effective instruction technology plans in schools

3. Names of elementary (K-8) school districts considered exemplary in the area of instructional technology.

Thanks, and have a great new year!

Dave

It’s About Time…

… That a college professor in a Doctoral program understands the power of the Internet and requires its use for class assignments.  I have finally met that professor.  In my current class (The Role of the Superintendent), Dr. Tim Kanold is requiring all of us to complete our assignments online.  Each of the 16 students in the class has created a new blog on Blogger, and we are required to post our “homework” on our blog.  In addition, we each have a blog buddy for which we must write comments to their posts.

In the five classes I have taken so far, this is the first time the teacher has even acknowledged that the internet is an appropriate place to complete assignments.  Well, it’s about time.

Not only is this professor requiring blogging for assignments, he also is a blogger and he is on Twitter (tkanold).  On his Turning Vision Into Action blog he provides wonderful thoughts about Professional Learning Communities.  This is a topic Dr. Kanold should know a lot about because he was trained under the PLC guru Rick DuFour.  Kanold served as the director of math and science under DuFour at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois.  Then, after DuFour’s departure, Kanold took over the reigns as superintendent.

So, I am excited to finally be in a class where I do not need a printer!  But, more importantly, I love the idea that we are using the Read/Write web to interact with each other outside of the classroom.  This is a concept that is long in coming to post-graduate classes, and I hope  other professors in my program take note of this, and get on board.  The time has come for 21st Century instruction to take hold at the graduate level as well as in K-12 schools.

I’m Keeping My Day Job

Every June after school lets out for the summer, our school district’s educational foundation teams up with the local park district foundation to sponsor a charity golf tournament.  Every year I play in this tournament which equals the total number of times I play golf every year. 

Why do I only play golf once a year?  Simple.  It is the hardest game ever invented.  That dimpled little ball just sits on its cute little perch mocking me to give it a good smack, and no matter how hard I swing the club, the ball will not go where I want it to go.

This year, like I always do, I purchased some raffle tickets in support of the foundation.  I never win raffles, but what the hell.  It’s for the kids, right!

So I am sitting in the clubhouse after 18 grueling holes of swing and miss golf when they start the raffle.  And, lo and behold, whose raffle ticket is pulled first?  Yours truly, of course.  I got all excited at the thought of a free dinner at the local Red Lobster.  But no.  What do I win?  A one time chance to hit a hole in one for a million bucks! From only 175 yards!  Piece of cake!  What should I do first with all that money ($650,000 after taxes)?

Well, that may sound awesome to you, but to this duffer, all it meant was another opportunity to embarrass myself on the glorious links.  Picture this, if you will:  Little Dave standing in front of a teed up little white pea, with a crowd of colleagues, parents, and community members all cheering me on and hoping I will give it a jolly ride right into the center of the hole.  Did I mention that they were videotaping this momentous event?

So there I am, doing my best Ralph Cramden “address the ball” shtick (am I dating myself?).  My heart pounding through my striped golf shirt, my knees shaking, with three simple prayers running through my head “Please don’t let me whiff; please let the club head actually make contact; please let the ball rise up more than 10 feet off the ground.”

Well, I took my best swing with 1 million dollars on the line.  And I am proud to say that the silly little ball jumped off that tee, rose up in the air, and flew a good 175 yards right into the …

…trees 40 yards to the left of the green.  I was so proud of myself!  I hit that ball like a real Tiger (well, not exactly, but a boy can dream, right?).

Anyway, I am not a millionaire, and I am not quitting my day job anytime soon.  I might just get out on the links again this summer, however.

I finally won a raffle, and it was one that I could not win.

(Illustration credit: http://www.sonicgolf.co.uk/franchise.htm)

Way to Go Blackhawks!!

The Chicago Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup!  What a team!!  What a series!!

Jaime Escalante 1930 – 2010

There are a few educators whom I would love to meet.  John Dewey, Madeline Hunter, Maria Montessori, Albert Einstein, and Confucius would be a good start.  There is one more name that I would like to add to this list:  Jaime Escalante.

Mr. Escalante may not make the list above as one of the most influential teachers of all time, but he is at the top of my list of teachers with whom I would love to sit and talk shop.

If you have not seen the film “Stand and Deliver” go rent it now.  If you saw it a while ago but you do not remember much, go rent it now.  This is a terrific story of one man’s struggle to raise high school students up and out of the barrios of East Los Angeles.  Sure, the film is a product of Hollywood, but  Escalante described the film as “90% truth, 10% drama”.  It is a realistic interpretation of his story.

Escalante was a math teacher, who, against huge odds, successfully taught Calculus to students with very limited math instruction.  Over the years, Escalante’s students scored incredibly well on the AP Calculus test.

Jaime Escalante died yesterday at the age of 79.  RIP Mr. Escalante.  You have left your mark on the world.

Making Better Teachers

I have had friends ask me what I think of our neighborhood school, and my answer is quite simple.  I tell them, “The school is only as good as the teacher your child has that year.”  I have believed this for a very long time. This stems from my belief that good teaching trumps everything when it comes to student achievement.  Analyze all the data you want, throw a bunch of acronyms at people (NCLB, RtI, IEP, DIBELS, FAPE, PBIS, Yada Yada Yada), and race to the top of wherever you want.  Yet, everything boils down to good teaching in the classroom.

This opinion is based on watching my own two children go through school and on my 23 years of experience as an educator .  Why is it that one child will have a great third grade experience while another one will not?   And then in fourth grade, the situation is reversed.  They attend the same school with the same curriculum, the same principal, the same assessments, the same materials, supplies, and technology.  Yet, their educational experiences differ greatly from year to year.

To a parent, it does not take a PhD from an Ivy League University to figure out why their children’s educational experiences are discrepant.  Obviously this is the result of the quality of the teacher they have each year.  As an educator, I can see the differences in teachers quite clearly so I spend countless hours talking to staff members about good teaching strategies and planning effective (hopefully) staff development activities all for the sake of improved instruction and class management.

I have wondered for a long time if excellent teaching is an innate gift that can’t be taught.  You either have it or you don’t.  It sure does not seem as if good teachers are developed in collegiate teacher education programs.  Nor do I think outstanding teaching is a self-taught skill.

Well, maybe the best teaching CAN be taught to teachers, and according to a terrific article in the March 7 New York Time Magazine titled “Can Good Teaching be Learned?” excellent teaching is a learned skill.

The article describes the work of Doug Lemov, a teacher, principal, and charter-school founder who has written a book called Teach Like a Champion:  The 49 Techniques that Put Students on the Path to College.  This book, which will be released in April, describes 49 specific teaching techniques (jokingly referred to as the “Lemov Taxonomy”)  that will make all teachers better.

I have read many books on good teaching and instruction, I have recommended many of these to colleagues of mine, and I have led staff book studies on the best ones.  However, if this book turns out to be as good as the NYT article describes, I think it could revolutionize teacher training for years to come.  Click on the cover of the book at the Amazon site, and check out the table of contents!  Do your teachers need to improve in some or all of these areas?

Maybe the way to make our schools the best in the world is to make our teachers the best in the world.

I can’t wait to get my copy!

(Cross-Posted on LeaderTalk)

Senatorial Hipocrisy!

I usually do not get too political on this blog, but I am red-hot mad about something I heard on NBC’s Meet the Press this morning.  David Gregory was interviewing Senator Chris Dodd (D) Connecticut.  Dodd made a statement that absolutely infuriated me.

Watch this very short interview or read the transcript below, and see if you can pick up the hypocrisy in one of Dodd’s statment (hint:  can you make a connection to the state of education these days?)  Gregory asks Dodd to respond to his falling job approval ratings.  This is how Dodd answered:

“Well, well David, I’m not sure how to answer. We’ve been through a tough time, obviously, over the last year. But I’m confident, again — do the job, work hard on behalf of the people you represent — that those numbers’ll turn around. These polls are a snapshot. Obviously you pay attention to them, but wish they were better. Obviously had difficulties. But I’m confident, again, a year from now that if I continue working hard on their behalf that these things will turn around.”

Did you pick it up?  Did you hear the explanation Dodd gave for his job approval rating that has slipped down to 43 percent?  He said, “These polls are a snapshot.”

One simple phrase that really got my blood boiling.  Why?  Because the politicians are the same geniuses who created NCLB.  Do you see the connection yet?

How many times have we educators used a similar phrase when explaining the results from the high-stakes testing we are required to administer every year?

The idea that schools are rated as passing or failing based on a single test that students are required to take is ludicrous.  The results of such testing are just a “snapshot” of a school’s progress toward its goals.  To judge a school’s effectiveness on a high-stakes test is wrong.

The same can be said for an individual child’s performance on a standardized test.  They are just a snapshot of the student’s achievement.  The real judge of a child’s success in school is how he performs on a daily basis, all year long.

Instead, a school, or a student, must be judged based on progress made over time, not on a single day (or even a week) of testing.

How dare a U.S. Senator use this excuse to shrug off his failing “test scores” when he is part of the same group of politicians who created NCLB.