Race to the Top - Just Keep Running

Kentucky recently lost out on the second round of Race to the Top funding offered by the Department of Education. Two times our state has been a finalist only to lose the final funding award. Compounding the loss is that our state has directed our education system to begin a systemic overhaul that includes a number of major changes in standards, assessments, and teacher evaluation. It was the intent of the Kentucky Department of Education to utilize Race to the Top funds to make these changes happen. Instead they are saddled with the prospect of reducing their own staff and furloughing staff who are fortunate to keep their jobs. Now, they are faced with the dilemma of asking the Kentucky General Assembly to fully fund Senate Bill 1 which includes all these changes and, with the continuting economic downfall, the chances of that happening are slim.

So, given our circumstances, what are we to do? My suggestion is that we just keep running - moving forward. One of the benefits of Senate Bill 1 and the Race to the Top Grant submission is that our state education leaders have taken time to seriously look at our current educational system, to analyze its strengths and weaknesses, and to develop a plan of action that they are confident will lead us to better student performance. While our schools cannot be responsible for the state-wide components of this plan, we can implement the ideas that are achieveable at a classroom level. We can implement Professional Learning Communities. We can facilitate conversations and learning for our staff. At the building and classroom level we have teachers who have the skills and expertise to examine areas of concern and find ways to address them. Working in groups we can learn collectively how to improve student learning. We can begin to implement research based interventions that we have simply not used on a building-wide basis. We have always had teachers who go that "extra mile" but now we have societal pressures that will encourage all teachers to do whatever it takes to increase student performance. We can and will make this happen.

So, we didn't get Race to the Top dollars. It does not change the reality for our schools. We still must change and learn new strategies that will help us teach more diverse learners. We must be responsible for our students and I know that our teachers are ready to do just that. Race to the Top simply defined our direction. Now it is up to us to put on our running shoes. We still plan on racing to the top and making our students winners in the 21st century.

Uncommon Common Sense

Every one can remember a time when they were succesful and achieved something important to them. All of us have moments of joy or contentment when we feel a sense of accomplishment. At other times, we wonder why things just didn't happen as we envisioned. How we perform in school or in our career can be viewed in the same way. When I think back to moments of success in my life, I realize that there are some real actions that can impact my success. It is these uncommon common sense ideas that I want to share today. In order to be a success in school (or life), it is important that you:

1. Show Up - You cannot learn or be successful at anything unless you show up at school or at your job. You can be the smartest person around but being smart without knowledge will not get you far. I cannot stress enough the importance of showing up every day. If you practice showing up, it becomes a habit - one that will benefit you greatly throughout life. Who wants to hire or rely upon someone who is not dependable. People who are successful in life do not get that way from sleeping in or skipping work to go to the lake for the day.

2. Play to Win - Whatever you do, don't settle for anything less than your best effort. Your time and effort is too valuable for you to waste it if you are not going to do your best. Too often people drift through life and just "settle" for the least they can do and get by. Yes, you may get by but where will that lead you - to a life of always just settling for less. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

3. Learn from Failure - This is the best advice I have ever received. I once heard an olympic athlete speak who said that he learned to be the best by analzying his mistakes and readjusting. Failure is a learning tool. If you score low on an exam, ask yourself why and then start learning what you need to know so that you can pass. Don't allow failure to become your mantra for life. View failure not as a stopping point but as a new beginning. People who cannot rebound from failure are saddled with a burden that will negatively impact their lives. Everyone has failed and those who become successful learn to channel the failure so that they learn from their mistakes and choose to go another direction where they can succeed.

4. Luck is not Enough - While I believe in luck, I also believe that those who are prepared when opportunity knocks are the "luckiest" people I know. Luck alone cannot get you through life. There are only a miniscule number of lottery winners so the best option is to make sure you have positioned yourself in the right place with the right knowledge in hand when luck shows up. Also, in case luck doesn't show up, I find that persistence will support you even more than luck.

Growing Benefits

Whenever it starts turning warm outside, I find myself flipping through different books and researching on various websites for information about gardens. While I love all kinds of trees and flowering plants, the type of garden that brings me most satisfaction is the vegetable garden.

I remember the first garden I planted. I was a “city” girl and never actually thought about where vegetables came from. I had married into a farming family that grew all their fruits and vegetables and raised all their meats as well. My father-in-law took a lot of pleasure in my initial reaction to digging a garden spot. It was not a good reaction. However, after the planting was completed and all the seeds sprouted and became plants, I became hooked. There is something so fulfilling seeing those neat, tidy rows of plants growing right where you planted them. Sure, you had to weed them, water them, and fertilize them, but the results were fantastic. Unless there was some sort of poison resistant bug invasion, you were rewarded with wonderful tasting vegetables that you could eat or preserve for later in the cold winter months.

I think I liked gardening so much because it allowed me a sense of accomplishment. I started out as a middle school teacher (grades 7 – 9) and there were days that I wondered if I had accomplished anything at all. I liked my students and they liked me. I enjoyed coming to school everyday and I truly wanted my students to be successful. I was a resource teacher and my students were often viewed as “bottom of the barrel” kids. They were in school filling their time until they could drop out. I had thirty students (ages 12 – 16) and all were in my class at least four hours a day. I tried everything I could think of to help them learn. At that time schools did not separate students by handicapping conditions so I had students who were FMD, students who were learning disabled, and students who were slow learners. I had emotionally disturbed students and I even had one gifted student who was placed in my class because no one wanted him in their class. They were a real mixed group but I really connected with them and did everything I could to teach them english, spelling, math, science, and social studies. I soon found out that many of them were poor readers so reading was added to the list as well.

As a first year teacher, I soon found out that I didn’t know what I needed to know to teach these students. So, I spent time trying to learn “on-the-job” from whatever resource I could find. And, eventually, as that first year ended and the second one began, I continuously added knowledge and skills to my teaching arsenal so that I could help these students learn. But it was not easy. It wasn’t like planting seeds. These students didn’t stay where I placed them. They didn’t respond to my watering and care like my plants did and they definitely didn’t always bear fruit, even after the most intensive care.

So, working in the garden became my therapy. I was in full control there. I could predict, with fairly certain accuracy, how my plants would react. In fact, it was not at all like teaching. Don’t you wish it was?

I know that all of you have stories just like mine to share. None of us starts out as a master teacher. Many work years to get to that point and everyone can make it. It is hard work being a teacher. Much harder than most people realize. When my summer garden was over, I could till the ground under and wait for next year knowing that it would bring a fresh start. Of course, teachers start a new year each year as well but the fruits of our labors, our students, are still in our school. We see them each year until they graduate, move, or dropout. And if they do dropout, we ask ourselves, “Could I have made a difference in this child if I had done something different?’

Teaching is hard work. I hope that you find something, whether it’s gardening, fishing, woodwork, cooking, etc. that you can use as your therapy. Because with gardening, it is very nice to look at what you have accomplished from beginning to end. You can see the results of your labor. I hope that all of you will come to the graduation this June 4th to see the fruits of your labor because when that child walks across the stage it is because of his/her pre-school, kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10, 11th, 12th grade teacher. It takes all of us to grow a "graduation garden".

School Colors Make a Difference

It sounds sort of silly to say that school colors make a difference but, after a recent refinishing of our high school gym floor, I was amazed at how many people remarked that they were so thrilled to see that we had painted the gym floor with the "orginal gold" color. I even had people stop me on the street to make similar comments. It made me start thinking about why something as simple as a hue change from yellow to gold would mean so much to someone.

I guess the simple answer is that school, especially middle and high school, are defining moments in our lives. When we start school we are all pretty much reflections of our parents and their guidance. It is at school that we start seeing that not everyone is like us and that there are different personality, choices, and viewpoints. At school we start on a journey of discoving who we are, individually, and making life decisons that affect our entire life. We make choices about career, friends, and sometimes even meet the person that becomes our life-long partner.

In school we learn that life is not always fair, that you don't always win, and that others can be cruel. We also learn that winning is not everything and that we can show compassion and caring for those who are different than us - those who may be not as smart, not as athletic, not as popular, but still worthwhile human beings.

So, I guess it is natural that we develop deep ties with the environment (school) that serves as the backdrop for so many of our growing-up events. That is why school colors and mascots take on a greater importance. They remind us of a time when we were on the road to becoming an adult. Our school memories are of the worst and best times of our lives.

When I first came to Middlesboro, I was so excited to hear that we were the Jackets. After all, I was also a Jacket when I went to high school. It was not the same school but the symbolism remains. And I have the same memories of my school days as well. I guess school colors and mascots do make a difference.

All I Want for Christmas is......

At this time of the year most people are caught up in the joy and frenzy of the holiday season. It is easy to believe, based on the commercials we see on television, that both we and our families will only be happy if we can buy the perfect gift, cook the perfect dish, decorate the perfect tree/house. I recently asked members of my family if they could name for me their best Christmas gift and, I really shouldn't have been surprised to find out, all of them responded that they couldn't cite any gift. While all of them have favorite foods (sausage balls and hot cheese dip), they didn't really talk about that either. They didn't even mention the wonderful decorations that took days of my time to prepare. To a person, they all said the same time. We remember spending the entire day together, eating good food, playing games with each other, and having time together to really enjoy each other. Obviously, Christmas is more than things. It is a time for church, family, and friends. So, this year I have decided to make a different list of the things I want for Christmas. All I want for Christmas is.....

1. I want 100% of our students to graduate and have plans for education or training beyond a k - 12 education.
2. I want our attendance rate to soar because our students can't wait to get to school every day.
3. I want parents to be excited about their children's education and for parents to partner with teachers to ensure that students learn the knowledge and skills they need to be successful.
4. I want our children to realize the pitfalls of substance abuse and to rigorously rebut efforts of those who want to ensnare them in this trap.
5. I want all students to feel that their teacher(s) care about them as a student and as a person.
6. I want our students' families to find jobs that allow them to provide for their children and feel good about themselves as a parent/provider.
7. I want our schools to be places where teachers are happy and excited about their work and they feel valued for their hard work and expertise.
8. I want our facilities to be organized into creative learning environments with adequate space, technology, equipment, and supplies.
9. I want everyone at our schools to feel safe and secure at all times.
10. Most of all, I want all the students of Middlesboro Independent Schools to become happy, productive, involved citizens who want to live, work, and play in our community.

The Good Old Days Aren't Good Enough Anymore

In our hurried, quick fix world, you often hear people talk about the good old days when life seemed simpler and our teaching in school was focused on young people learning the basics of reading, math, and good citizenship. While these are still important skills for students, in our ever changing world the basics are simply not enough anymore. Our students in Middlesboro don't just compete for jobs in our community; they compete nationally and globally for good paying jobs. The ramifications of these changes are that our teachers must prepare our students to graduate with 21st century workplace readiness skills. These include knowing higher levels of math, being able to read and write more complex information, the ability to adapt to rapid changes in technology, good reasoning skills, increasing creativity, and working together collaborataively in groups. At the same time, our teachers cannot afford to let one student slip through the cracks and miss out on these valueable skills. Our schools are being reorganized so that the needs of all students, not just the larger group who are able to quickly master learning, are met.

So, these days, schools cannot be the same and teachers must teach very differently than in the past. Good teachers spend their time assessing students, revising their lessons to meet specific needs, and collaborating with their fellow teachers so that everyone is following a specific curriculum with predetermined outcomes for students. So, life is not as simple as it was in good old days. No matter what students can do when they enter our doors, we must have a clear picture and expectation of what they can do when they walk across that stage to get their diploma (a validation of their learning). We are exchanging the good old days for a great future in our children's lives.

Learning is More than Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic

All educators understand the importance of "time of task", especially in the core content areas such as math, reading, science, social studies, and language arts. However, for our students to become productive citizens, there is so much more that they need to know and learn than just core classes. Normally, I would be writing about the many other types of activities and fine arts classes that we offer. I would be writing about teaching students manners, appropriate social interactions, and much more. All those skills and extra-curricular activities are important but today, on Veterans' Day, I want to take time to emphasize how important it is for our schools, and all of us, to recognize the sacrifice that others have made so that we can have freedom of choice, schools, and regligion. When I attend special programs offered by the schools, I realize how important it is for our schools to help students who don't have enough life experiences yet to understand the importance of this day and to bridge the gap between history and reality. While they all have access to history via textbooks, classwork, and the internet; the reality of loss suffered by others for them becomes much more real when they hear actual letters written by those who have perished, when they see videos of actual people and war, when they hear music from that era or music that reflects on our country's greatness. Then the sacrifice becomes more real and the impact is much greater. While the students who peform at these progams experience a deeper understanding of the past, the students who attend and watch their peers benefit as well.

Most of the time when you read this blog, you will see that I am very committed and focused on student learning and academic performance. Time on task is critical for our students because it is a limited comodity. But sometimes......like today, it's appropriate to take time from the regular classroom for something this important to our students and all of us. It's important for our students to learn about respect, to develop appreciation for those who have sacrificed for them, and that freedom to choose is not free.