From the Principal's Desk

Never Gonna Give You Up*

* With apologies to Rick Astley

One of our teachers had one of those treasured educator experiences yesterday, and she was kind enough to share it with me.  She had received a letter from a former student - a student who was by no means an "easy" student to teach, one who had in fact given both this teacher and others quite a challenging time in terms of behavior, engagement, and all-around efforts to reach him.

In the letter, he shared his current situation, which unfortunately is not a good one.  But his letter showed a mature ability to reflect on his choices and actions, and it showed the intelligence we all knew he possessed despite his actions and performance in school; his letter thanked this teacher for her efforts with him, despite the challenges he had presented to her and to others.  He shared that, despite his current situation, he was taking steps to try to improve his life, and he specifically reflected on some things he was doing that were a direct reflection on the work he had done with this teacher.

We can never give up on our students.  Never, never, never, never, never. 

They may give up on us; they may give up on school; they may give up on themselves. 

But our job is to be sure that we never give up on them. 

This doesn't mean turning a blind eye to their faults, or not holding them accountable for their actions (and, in fact, sometimes doing so is the strongest message we can send that we are not giving up on them). 

It does mean, however, that even when we have one of those days when a student has driven us past the last bit of our patience - and, no matter who we are, we eventually get those experiences with students - we have to handle the situation in front of us the best that we can; go home that night; shake the negative or discouraging elements of the experience off; reflect on how we can proceed forward; and show up in school the next day, ready to start fresh.

We never know WHEN it is that a student will turn things around; we never know WHAT it is that will make a positive impact; we never know exactly HOW it might be that we can help make that positive impact happen. 

But signing on to be an educator means signing on to being an eternal optimist - we believe that what we do can positively shape the lives of our students. 

There are days that's hard to remember; there are students with whom that's harder to keep in mind.  But it's part of our obligation.  It's part of our mission.  And, it's a huge part of what makes teaching the amazing, life-changing profession that it is.

The Learning Shark

Over the course of the past couple of weeks, I've been reading segments of our postsecondary reaccreditation self-study; participating in an accreditation site visit for our postsecondary culinary program; visiting classes; and reviewing lots of lesson plans.

And I am reminded once again of the fact that no one has good ideas or strategies for everything, but everyone has good ideas or strategies for something.  There are areas of excellence, and those who could grow professionally from that excellence, all over our campus, among all our faculty.  The first year teacher who is a model of self-reflection and uses that to improve her practice; the second and third year teachers who know how to develop differentiated lessons to meet the needs of a range of learners; the experienced teacher who can help a student take a practical, hands-on experience and not only master it, but use it to develop more abstract knowledge; the teacher with decades of experience who builds a class around projects that develop students' judgment, critical thinking, and evaluative abilities.

The challenge, as always in education, is to see that the time, place, motivation, and opportunity are there to share and learn from one another's excellence.  As written in WWBDAW, "Consider the shark, who must constantly move forward or die. He must keep moving through the water, so that the water will move through him, bringing him oxygen, keeping him alive. So too does your organization need to keep moving, or it will die. Learning is endless, and the more you know, the more you realize how much you don't know."

Building a learning organization that is that way by design, not by chance, involves growing one shark at a time into a learning shark, while at the same time getting all the sharks to swim together.

Hmmm, not sure I like the analogy of "swimming with sharks" that this post just grew into, but I think you get my point.  :)

The Best of Intentions

Having always been interested in most things Asian (beginning with the giant panda as a child, then Asian cuisine, eventually culture and history and philosophy),  I enjoy reading both the actual works of great Asian thinkers, as well as their ideas expressed through others.  Several years ago, I read What Would Buddha Do At Work?, by Franz Metcalf and BJ Gallagher Hateley, and recently picked it up to read it again.  Although some of it is frivolous or simplistic, much of it is thought-provoking.  The quick-read book poses a work-related question, provides a quote attributed to Buddha or to another well-regarded Asian philosopher, and then provides commentary on it from a modern perspective.

Today I'm reflecting on this quote from the Dhammapada, a collection of more than 400 verses attributed to the Buddha:

"Other's faults and errors are so plain,
But our own are difficult to see."

The writers of WWBDAW go on to say,

Have you ever noticed the double standard we use when we're evaluating someone else's behavior versus our own?  Oh yeah, you've noticed it when others employ it!  But here is why you don't see it in yourself:  we judge ourselves by our intentions, while we judge others by their behavior.

Think about it.  This is why we're so quick to judge other people's faults and errors:  it's so easy to see them.  We give them no credit at all for good intentions, because we cannot read their minds.  But when it comes to our own behavior, we know we meant well and we reward ourselves for it... We try to conceal our mistakes with purity of purpose, and we expect others to understand and forgive us.... Buddha suggests we lighten up and give others the benefit of the doubt for their good intentions.   (WWBDAW, p. 69)

A valuable reminder, and good food for thought.  Time to chew on that one for a bit.

Oops I Did It Again

Yep, I once again disappeared off the face of the blogging planet for a long, long time.  But it wasn't just blogging that screeched to a halt.  I stopped tweeting.  Went awol on Facebook. My feed reader went unread.  My WiiFit sat unused.  Even barely kept up with non-work email.

I think I just needed some time to be unplugged.  Did lots of offline reading - for pleasure, for work, for class.  Cleaned and organized and decluttered my home like there's no tomorrow.  Caught up on my sleep.  Didn't add any new apps to my iphone.  Had a ton of research to do for my Ed Finance class (my group is to argue our case that the Florida Education Finance Program is inadequate and/or inequitable - we're ready to go and, as it relates to the other group that has to try to defend education funding in Florida... well, to paraphrase Mr. T, we pity the fools.)

I'd been creeping toward plugging back in again for a while, but you know how you feel awkward getting back in touch with someone you've neglected for too long?  Yep, same feeling.  Finally, though, with a well-timed push from one "loyal reader" (yes, you, Holly)... here I am, rejoining the plugged-in world.  Back on Facebook.  Caught up on my reader.  WiiFit groaned at me earlier tonight (and I groaned back).  I feel good about my so-called down time, and now I also feel good about being back online. 

As for what I might have to say, for now I'll just take a moment to congratulate our high school's first members of the National Honor Society - as a high school that just this year has juniors, and won't have seniors until next year, this was our inaugural group.  Congratulations to this very special dozen:

Veronica Lopez, President
Eboli Gonzalez, Vice President
Bailey Baumann
Julianie Beauplan
Lezly Camacho
Samantha Kenworthy
Paula Medina
Olivia Pierre
Jeanette Potter
Lina Rivera
Carly Sharbaugh
Tamara Tuckey

I also look forward to congratulating, soon, our postsecondary school's latest inductees into the National Technical Honor Society.  Nominations for induction are being provided now by our teachers, with initial eligibility based on enrollment status (full-time students must have completed one semester; part-time students must have completed two semesters) and academic performance.  Final selection will then also consider leadership, service, character, and more.  Can't wait to see this year's group of inductees!