Classroom Leadership

My goal this summer has been to read as many books about leadership and influence as possible. At the moment, I am reading two texts, Crucial Converstaions by a bunch of people, and The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell.
I am reading Maxwell's book with a small group from my church. This past week we read chapter 10, The Law of Connection. The following letter is designed for teachers, especially the younger teacher looking strategies that work in the classroom. Where the italics appear, I am using a quote from the book, only substituting educational language where necessary. If you are an entrenched teacher, but wanting to stay fresh and revived, you will also benefit from Maxwell's advice.

Dear Teachers,

With so much of the political dialogue about education focusing on standards and ensuring that we are all "highly qualified," it is easy to forget that we cannot teach our content if we fail to connect with our students. When it comes to teaching students, their hearts come before their heads. Teenagers are emotional beings, easily swayed by the darting hormones and chemical changes happening in their bodies and brain. Yes, our content is important, but for most, it isn't enough to move a student to buy in right away.
This is precisely why effective teachers connect with students. You can't move students towards learning unless you first move them with emotion. I am not advocating that you simply entertain them. Instead, I am suggesting you begin with passion, true heartfelt passion for the profession, the classroom culture, and the students themselves.
Good teachers work at connecting with students all of the time....The stronger the relationship you form with a student, the greater connection you forge--and themore likely your students will want to learn from you. Notice that I am yet to emphasize the content. A healthy relationship with a student will make him want to learn from you. But, you have to show that you genuinely care and want to help him. That is how you gain their trust and respect.
Before you can influence or connect with students, however, you must know who you are and have confidence in yourself if you desire to connect with the students. Be confident and be yourself. Many new and veteran teachers fail to truly connect because they have yet to have confidence in their own abilities or even their own inner being.
Learn students' names, find out about their histories, ask them about their dreams. Teaching should never be about you. It's tempting, believe me. You spend hours creating the fun and ingenious way to teach iambic pentameter and you'd like a little spotlight time. They don't care about your pedagogy; they don't even know if your objectives were met or if you used some fancy initiation (anticipatory set). They will remember whether you cared--a very true cliche.
One of the ways you can connect is to speak the students' language. I'm not saying you have to go out and learn Spanish, Russian, Vietnamese, Chinese with two differnt dialects--and yes, you will have them all in your classroom at the same time. No, I am saying that you ought to pay attention to their culture of IM, MTV, Youtube, Myspace, and dance. It is okay to adapt to your students instead of having them adapt to you.
Then, it is important to communicate to your students that you believe they have value. In a previous post, I wrote about a student who will be attending a university in Europe. When that student, a very capable academic, began to struggle with the transition from teenager to adult, I regularly confirmed, "I believe in you." It remains true today. Give students a sense of hope, which gives them a sense of future.
Many veteran teachers who hold on to the "good 'ole days" will tell you not to smile until Christmas and that the students should respect them because they are the teacher. NO. Innitiate the relationships and then continue to build them.
Part of that relationship building means getting out from behind your desk or getting out of your room to walk the halls. Attend games, plays, or even their place of employment. Students who see you caring about them will exhibit loyalty and a strong work ethic for you.
That is how you can set yourself up for a successful career, one that you enjoy and your students remember.

Sincerely,

Mr. McNamar

My Bucket was Filled.

Back in January, I plugged the book How Full is Your Bucket?, a motivational text offering insight into the power of positive communication. This evening, in my sweltering home office, I visited SchoolGate, a British education blog, via one of my favorite blogs, Joanne Jacobs.

Ms. Ebner lists The Daily Grind as one the Top 10 Education blogs. For all of the time, and sometimes lack of it, that goes into examining education policy, classroom experiences, or the teaching life, I appreciate such adulation.

I hope that once life returns to normal here--my buddy Stence just visited for five days, including two Red Sox games: one at Yankee Stadium, the other at Fenway Park--I will return to thoughtful posts about education.

Retirement

I am ready to retire. So what if I'm only 31? Top athletes often receive criticism from the media for hanging on too long, for not walking away from their game while at the top. If an athlete wins a championship late in his career, many think he should retire. That's how I feel today--and yes, I recognize the arrogance in that sentiment.
Allow me to tell my championship story. As an introspective and doubting person, I often wonder what exactly my students learn. Today, I received an e-mail from a student of mine (though she's already graduated, I still consider her a student). She informed me that after much deliberation, she'll be attending the University of (Insert Foreign City).
While reading the e-mail, the corners of my mouth moved upwards, and I chuckled outloud. She had learned to be a pioneer woman, to forge her own path, to listen to her life and what it was saying. Can I really take credit for that, who knows? What I do know is that I am extremely proud of her, that I believe she will succeed and flourish while there.
So, I want to walk away while on top, after realizing success in teaching my course objective: To become global citizens through the study of literature and writing. Hand me my cigar, spray the champagne, commence the victory parade.

MInimum grade

A student in England answered the question prompt of "Describe the room you are sitting in" with: F--- off. The student earned a score of 2 out of 27. In previous years, I might write about the obscenity as an answer, but after hearing that phrase a miniumum of three times a day this year, I've become immune to it.
Instead, let's consider the giving of credit for assignments completed. If a student turns in a writing assignment that answers the prompt either indirectly or not at all, and if the writing style lacks purpose, or if the grammatical structures are missing, what type of score should the student receive?
Lately, I've given a minimum score of 50% if the assignment is turned in. I suppose the better solution is to hand it back to the student and request that they redo the assignment.

Obnoxious (A short Rant)

My wife and I sprung for an afternoon movie, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. The plot disappointed me, but I was more bothered by the seating arrangement. With forty to fifty people in the entire theater, a grandmother, mother and child arrived just before previews and sit down, yes, right next to me. An entire theater open, and the grandmother chooses the seat next to me. But then she talks all through the previews and the first twenty minutes of the movie.
After we saw the movie, we stopped at our local Ford dealership to check out a Ford Escape Hybrid. We are in the market for a second vehicle; my choice would be the Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. Here's the obnoxious part: they didn't have one on the lot. And not only did they not have one on the lot, the salesman informed me that I will be hard pressed to find the Ford Escape Hybrid on a lot, but if I want to order one, it will be a 10 month wait.
Now, I see the commercials for this vehicle every night. Many of the morning shows are talking about this vehicle. But it isn't even available because production was limited.

Mondays with Daddy

It is 8:17 on Monday morning and my wife just pulled out of the driveway to attend summer school training sessions. I am sitting across the table from my two year old daughter, Tate. She has started the morning off as a terror. That fact, combined with my love of a Bill Simmon's running diary, is the reason for my sharing the first--well, second--day of summer vacation.

8:20--Tate exclaims, "My all doned," and proceeds to play peek-a-boo around the candle between us. Her hands are covered with jelly and so is her face. "Daddy, all done," she coos again.
8:25--Time for educational televsion. On Demand offers many good programs, and I wanted to introduce Tate to the Blues Clues. Nope. This section is "free with subscription." Well, wait. Free and "with subscription" don't seem to go together. Instead, we'll be watching "Eyore's Sad Day." It fits the current weather pattern which is keeping us from palying outside.
8:29--Tate is off the couch and commanding our dog, Fortinbras, to "WAKE UP, FORTI." But, I am enjoying Tigger and the gang trying to cheer up that depressed ass.
8:33--I can't imagine I'll be giving updates quite this regularly. I just found an interesting article from the Seattle Times on small school academies to break up large high schools. My school of 900 will start year two of this method, though I don't quite understand how it will work--especially when we don't have the funding. On a separate note, Eyore is still sad and the gang is confounded by this. Tate is sitting in an upside down bathroom stool.
8:44--"Eyore's Sad Day" ended with a great message about just being with someone to cheer them up. We don't have to put on a show all of the time. Now, Tigger is bouncing endlessly through his mini-episode. Tate is no longer watching, having ditched the show for play in the bathroom. She's giving Elmo a bath.
8:50--"We're going on a trip/ in our favorite rocket ship..." Though she wasn't watching Tigger and Pooh, Tate realized it had ended. This bothered her, so she came to ask if she could watch "Rocket Ship" or Little Einsteins. She's sitting quietly on the couch. How long will it last?
8:53--"My poopie potty," she yells as she hops of the couch and runs to the bathroom. She's pretty much potty trained. Now she's distracted; she's playing in the bathroom once again.
9:12--Coloring Time: I'm giving Tate the letter A with a picture of an alligator and an acorn. We might as well be academically minded. The weather is still dreary--a few storms in the area.
9:27--I ask, "A is for?," she replies, "Jelly-fish." Time to start a Data team, I think.
9:31--"Daddy, all done. Crayons go away." She wants to paly with mayno, which I find out means Play-Doh. We have blue and yellow at the moment. Tate believes we have only red. She can identify colors, but more often than not, she doesn't. Is she just messing with me, or does she really not know them?
9:43--Play-Doh time is going well with the exception of the inevitable taste test. I'm reading about how Obama and McCain will handle racially charged campaign ads.
9:52--"My all done with play-doh, daddy." She's mixed the two colors and is trying to jam a large flat piece into the round opening. That's my girl. At most, my days will be broken into 20 minute increments. THIS won't help my ADD.
9:59--We finished cleaning up and set her up with Lynn Downey's The Flea's Sneeze. She's listening to it being read on CD. In retrospect, I should have given her a copy of Tolkein's The Hobbit, and let her listen to that on CD!
10:22--I'm thinking about next year, my classroom to be exact. Tate is in her room putting with her toy golf set. 'Please, Golf Gods, give her the ability to make the PGA.' Our dog, Fortinbras, wants to play outside, but the drizzle persists.
10:33--As Tate gets herself dressed, kind of, I found this magnet that I want to turn into a poster for my classroom: If you're going through hell, keep going.... The truth would benefit many of my students who come from a version of hell to my classroom.
10:38--This is so wrong of me. My wife just called to say she was on her way home because the time provided to set up her classroom can't be used. Why? Their waxing her floor. My first reaction? Sweet. Tate's been really well-behaved, but we still had to have lunch, do some more coloring, and put her down for a nap. Sweet. It's all I can say.
10:43--As I pushed "publish post," Tate walked in with her alphabet puzzle. "Daddy!!," she proclaims before dumping the pieces on the floor. She had the letters D, M, N, T, and Q in place when I turn around. Now she has E and I.
10:45--She struggled with L but nailed Z, followed quickly by K and Y. Wait, did that really just happen? She drops in S, J, P and O before struggling with C.
10:48--C was a tough one, but once in B came easily ("B for Boston" she reminds me!") A and T are now in but "Daddy help," blurts out for the letter R.
10:50--H, V, and U are all in. It looks like she figured out R. X and Wis are being placed now, but we're missing F and G. Uh oh.
10:53--All of the pieces are thrown onto the floor so she can stand on the puzzle! Sweet.
11:03--After redoing the puzzle, Tate carries it back to her room and proceeds to dump it, again. THIS is going to be my summer? I just finished teaching high schoolers that acted the same way.
11:11--"MOMMY'S HOME," I scream with joy.

Superstar

I love sports. Athletes have long stood at the forefront of the nation's conscience. We track their stats, draft them in fantasy leagues, and watch hours of sporting events and the talk shows that come before and after.
As a child, I wanted to become a professional baseball player, but the fact that I couldn't hit prevented me from my dreams. Today, I returned to a thought I have had in the past: teachers being treated like athletes.
If in order to earn six figures as a teacher, we had to endure the paparazzi, endless talking heads bantering about our performance, or reporters critiquing us, would we take it?

Fatherhood

I have just wrapped up my third father's day, though I really only count two real ones. The first one, in 2006, came two months after Tate arrived on April 17. My first go 'round at fatherhood has begun successfully, mostly because Tate has been blessed with such an astounding charisma.

This child of mine can bring levity to any room.

In fact, this morning she made me laugh at the irony of the day. She kicked and screamed her way to the car. We were headed to Starbucks and then to church. Daddy had to discipline her, and so she pouted for half the trip. Then she warmed up to coyness, and finally she was asking to "snuggle daddy" as we walked into Starbucks.

We stopped at my grandparent's house on the way home. Tate loves her "Pop-pops," and he, at almost 90, is enthralled by her.

I tried to install a portable air conditioning unit as a gift to my father, who is now fully dependent on oxygen to survive. As with all mechanical adventures for our family, it was a debacle that ended with me back at Best Buy to purchase a different unit. That installation was only a minor debacle! (My buddy Stence will be happy that I used the word 'debacle' twice in one sentence)

The evening is ending, the U.S. Open still going and the Boston Celtics coming on shortly. My daughter is sleeping, my wife is making t-shirts for her students, and I am firmly planted on the couch, thankful for my father and my own fatherhood.