Interrupting cow!

Some kids love this joke!  Other kids don't get it.  As I participate in more conversations each day with kids and teachers, I have noticed a continuum of interrupters.  Some people cannot let you finish a single sentence without interrupting.  Some people never interrupt.  They practice Covey's Habit #5 almost perfectly, seeking first to understand before trying to be understood.  Don't we all love to be listened to and heard!

On the interrupting side of folks, there are many different reasons and styles.  Some simply cannot wait to share their own thoughts.  Some are excited about the topic and want to participate.  Some understand your point-of-view perfectly and don't need to hear any more.  They interrupt to move the conversation forward.  Some want to tell your story for you or better than you.

Then there is the method of interruption.  There are the, "Umm hmm-ers."  They voice their agreement throughout your words with a barrage of agreeing hums!  There are the sentence finishers.  How lucky not to need to ever finish your own sentence!  There are the folks who already know what you are saying.  They provide a response before you have even posed a question.  There are the story-tellers.  They interrupt in order to tell you a personal story related to the topic of conversation.  There are the questioners.  They have a question before you finish what you are saying.  In a classroom, you know these kids because their hands pop-up after the first 6 words, regardless of what you have already said or what you still need to say.

My favorite, new interrupting style is the, "Yeah, no" and the "No. yeah."  These folks may or may not agree or disagree.  They usually add their two cents with truly contradicting what has already been said.

With students, it is easy for most of us to handle the interruptions.  As a teacher, you choose the correct response.

How do you handle it with adults?  Is it different?  What about that one person on campus that interrupts everyone, every... single... time?  Everyone has that one coworker that interrupts every single time.  So much that it is impossible to have a conversation.  Do you give up?  Do you interrupt back?  Does your facial expression make it clear that you don't appreciate the interruption?  Do you handle it gracefully, while always seeking to first understand?  Or do you put your head down and simply avoid the conversation altogether?

It seems to be a common response for folks to follow the interrupting lead.  In order to participate with the interrupter, lots of folks are compelled to interrupt back.  Other folks just stop trying to talk.  If you get two interrupters in a group, they just end up talking over each other until the oxygen is depleted from the room.  The silver lining in this situation is the valuable side conversations that ensue while the two of them make noise together.

To make this better for your work team, what do you do?  How do you make sure there is equal voice for each team member?

If the test disappeared???

This is not a rant against state testing.  I was clearing out some pages of notes from the umpteen legal pads, spirals, and composition notebooks I have taken notes in throughout the last several years and I came across a couple of intriguing reflective questions.

What would you do differently if your state test disappeared?

What would you keep doing if your state test disappeared?

I hope that most educators would continue doing many of the engaging and relevant lessons that kids love.  Of course we all would!  These are the lessons that are the most fun for us too.  I can also guess that there are several instructional practices that would disappear from your spring-time classrooms.

What about things like assessment and curricular mastery checks?  What would change?  What would remain?  What would change in the area of differentiation?  Would you still scaffold lessons for students lacking pre-requisite skills.  What about RTI?  Would you continue to provide extra, targeted instruction for struggling learners?

It is easy to say yes to these questions, but it is also easy to see how easy it would be to let some of them wane.  Even with the best of intentions and even when we see clear benefits to certain practices, they typically diminish when the pressure of results diminishes.  It is also easy to argue that a much softer accountability standard would improve the higher level thinking and problem-based learning in classrooms across the state.  There are very few classrooms that prepare students for the state test by providing them with an engaging, cross-curricular project about animal adaptations or bridge building.

What about your day-to-day instruction?  Would it improve?  Would you venture away from your curriculum a little more often to do something more engaging?  Would you worry less about covering it all and more about deep conversations among students?  The curriculum in Texas (TEKS) is ridiculously too much.  Common Core is too.  Then districts turn the standards into units of study which actually add to the number of pages and materials and learning expectations.  How would you attack the learning expectations for your students differently?

What would I do differently?  Probably a bunch.  I wish I wasn't saying it, but it is true.  Test results drive everything.  I wish that a meaningful written curriculum and strong, engaging lessons drove the
learning and the tested portion was simply the measure.  Unfortunately, it is the other way around.  The test drives the machine of teaching and learning.

Regardless, the test is a reality.  The expectations from students, teachers, principals, districts, parents, and communities are a reality.  So... based on these great questions, what can I do better? 

Boycott The Incredibles

I think not!

I can't wait to see it!  My boys were the perfect age to enjoy the first one!  I am really looking forward to the sequel and so are many of my friends.  Earlier today, I noticed two tweets about the upcoming movie.  First, a friend of mine simply tweeted that she was looking forward to it and included a link to the movie trailer.  I watched the trailer.  Awesome!

Then I saw this tweet:

"Math is math." 👎👎 Boycott THE INCREDIBLES 2. 👎👎

At one point, Mr. Incredible is trying to help Dash with his math.  Dash tells his dad that he has to do his math the way his teacher tells him to do his math.  Frustrated, Mr. Incredible says, "Math is math!"

So there are some teacher people out there feeling like this is such a negative that the movie should be boycotted.  Really?  Really...

Is this a level of protection our kids need?  Do they need to be shielded from cartoon dads that hate math homework and the "new" way to do math?  Especially when many of our students go home to parents that feel the exact same way. 

Or perhaps the boycotters don't like that Hollywood and Disney have dared to speak of education in a negative sense.  Aren't we continually trying to make our schoolin' efforts better all the time?  This can't possibly be the first time anyone has seen an unappealing view of math homework.

Perhaps, instead of boycotting the movie, watch it with your kid.  Most children will giggle or ignore the scene.  A few will say, "That's you, Dad!"  A few will say, "No way!  I love math!"  Either way, simply have a conversation and provide some guidance.

Now excuse me while I go laugh my way through Bad Teacher.

Today, I cried.

Tears fell from eyes this morning as I drove to school.  The radio played the audio recording of a Snapchat from Florida's high school shooting yesterday.  It was the sound of children dying.  It was the sound of fear and terror.

Every school shooting since Columbine has caused me to breathe deeply, pause, and consider exactly how crazy it is that this type of evil finds it's way into the most innocent of places.  As a career educator, nurturing students and teaching them how to be kind human beings has always been my first priority.  Schools should be safe beyond worry.

This morning, all I could think about was the possibility of my own two, wonderful children heading to a seemingly safe campus that could possibly be the next place featured on CNN.  My two boys, who have bright and happy futures ahead of them, could find themselves amidst gunfire at school.

Yesterday, at least 17 families learned that their own children would not be coming home.  In the past few years, school shootings have killed an unfathomable number of children.  Is there anything I can do to keep my own kids safe?

Sadly, there are no guarantees for safety at school.  We all wish we could guarantee a safe childhood education.  We can't.

So every morning, we send them off to school with an, "I love you."  More and more in recent years, we hope it is not the last one.

And the gun-control argument?  With all due frustration, it really doesn't matter what side you agree with.  School shootings are followed by countless thoughts and prayers and news reports.  Then the outrage and screams for better school safety fade away and no significant or discernible change has been made.  This pattern has repeated itself enough already.  Things are the same after a school shooting (except, of course for the family and friends of the victims.)  The arguments for and against gun control provide the rhetoric that empassions folks, but things do not really change.  Schools will review their practices and policies.  Special interest advocates will get 15 more minutes in the public eye.  And this time, a Florida community will never be the same.

But a few weeks from now, across the rest of the country, things will be the same until the next school shooting.

How many tragedies will it take until we do SOMETHING different?  Should we ban all gun sales in the US?  Should we train and arm teachers?  Should we significantly improve our mental health care system?  Should we fence our schools and pay for numerous armed guards? 

I am not writing to advocate for any, one potential solution, but I can tell you that I want SOMETHING different.  I do not want more children to die.  I do not want to worry that my children have a greater chance of getting murdered at school than elsewhere in this crazy world. 

Extra work

During my first week of teaching, many years ago, I talked with my fifth graders about their career aspirations.  At least half of the boys dreamed of a career as a professional athlete.  Several of them played little league, Pop Warner, or Junior Dribblers.  Many of them simply showed their athletic prowess during recess.  All of them had a dream that was years away and, statistically-speaking, very unlikely.  I didn't anticipate how man kids would aspire to become a professional athlete.  I guess I thought that there were still a bunch of future police officers and firefighters and doctors and teachers.

 In conversations with my aspiring Dallas Cowboys, I would turn the talk to the necessary work to actually become a professional football player.  I would ask, "What are you doing to make your dream come true?"

"Well I play Pop Warner for the Chargers and we practice twice a week."

I would ask, "What else do you do?"  This question usually resulted in a blank stare so I would explain a little bit, "At your age, I hope you are loving every minute of your play as a Charger!  As you get older, you'll need to do more than everyone else if you want to be better than everyone else."

"What do you mean?"

Great question.  The kid might already be the best player on his team.  He might have a natural gift that will give him an advantage.  "I mean that you might be the best player on your team right now, but to make the NFL, you might need to be the best player in the entire city of Austin, and that takes extra work.  If you do the same work as everyone else, you might be just as good as everyone else.  If you do more than everyone else, there is a better chance you will be better than everyone else."

In my third year of teaching, an extremely gifted basketball player asked, "How do I do extra work?"

He was the first child that truly wanted to do more.  He wanted to be better than the rest.  He wanted to work for it!  To the ten-year-old, I asked him back, "What can you do on your own that will make you a better basketball player?"

"EASY!  I can shoot baskets at the park every day and I can dribble my basketball to school every morning!"

Is this idea different for teachers?

Most teachers work hard.  Really hard.  They cram a year's worth of work into 10 months, then work through June and July too!  This year, there was not a day over Christmas break without several cars in the school parking lot.  Teachers are dedicated to their students.  Many teachers are also dedicated to their craft.  Teaching is an ever-changing and growing profession that requires continuous learning.  Many teachers know that every classroom is really a laboratory with 20+ different learners.  Each kid is a project that lasts 36 weeks.  Each year of teaching is a project that lasts 36 weeks, plus weekends, nights, holidays, etc.  These teachers know that teaching requires continuous improvement.

I do find it interesting that some teachers complain about the amount of work that is necessary to do their job well.  Indeed, the amount is overwhelming.  Indeed, the responsibilities are numerous and never-ending.  This is not uncommon in education.  The State of Texas continues to add red tape to every single thing that we do.  The red tape rolls down to districts and principals.  The micromanaging accountability is absurd.  This red tape has added to the busy-ness of the profession from stem to stern.  Nevertheless, we must operate under these absurdities while advocating for their improvement.  We must follow the rules and work to improve them simultaneously.

Likewise, the profession itself is also changing.  Educators are awakening to the fact that the lecture/test/stand-at-the-chalkboard teachers of the past do not prepare kids for the future.  These changes are met differently by different educators.  Every campus has runners and feet-draggers.

The term, "Just one more thing that doesn't fit on my plate," is uttered every time something new or better is brought forward by someone.

Along those same lines, there is also someone who exclaims, "Yes!  This is exactly what I need right now!"  The new (or better) fills a need.

Some teachers complain when improvements are made.  Some teachers embrace the change.  Some teachers understand that the "extra work" is actually a normal part of the job.  Other teachers resist the "extra work."  Some teachers easily assimilate new or better within their current system while others shake their heads and stick with the status quo.

I can speak to my work involved in public school education from 1994 to the present.  In that time, I did not have a year that did not include extra work.  The job description for any teacher in any district does not do justice to the actual work that a teacher must do to be successful.  Nevertheless, there are some teachers that do it gladly and gratefully.  There are other teachers that say they can't fit one more thing on their plates.

Professionally, teachers see their own improvement as a fundamental part of the job.  Other teachers simply look at the amount of work they are already doing and throw their hands up in the air.

Extra work is not really extra.  It is the job.  It can be frustrating and tough.  It can be challenging and seemingly impossible.  It is OK to ask why changes and new things are important.  It is OK to ask for support.  It is OK to fail.  It is not OK to resist the extra work because you are not willing to try.  The schools that need the most help are full of teachers who are least willing to help themselves.  They are least willing to learn.  Successful schools are full of teachers who are more than willing to do the extra work it takes to learn and improve the art and science of teaching!

Is Glenn in denial?

Everyone knows people who live in denial of their own habits and practices.  These folks say one thing and do another.  Or they preach one thing and practice something else.  Or they "always" or "never" do that one thing that they actually do more or less than they think!

If those people are out there, in great numbers, it makes sense that I am one of those people more often than I think.  This year, I want to keep my mind open and recognize when I am in denial of the practices where my actions don't match my beliefs.  I will ask my friends and family to let me know when I am full of bull.  I'm sure my teenage boys will be good helping me out!

I hope to find a bunch of habits and practices where I can put my money where my mouth is!  Where am I in denial???

Luckily, I am pretty good at forgiving myself for my mistakes and misdoings.  If I can close the gap between what I think/say/believe and what I do, I should exit 2018 a better person.

Wanna help me out with this endeavor?

Getting caught

Are your students sneaky?  Are they trying to be sneaky?  Are you tired of them trying not to get caught?  Do you get frustrated when Little Glenn constantly watches you just to make sure you are not watching him?  You might catch him fairly often, which is frustrating, but imagine how you would react if you caught him every time.

Driving to work this morning, I noticed that pretty much every driver tries not to get caught doing something or another that causes an extra glance in the rearview mirror looking out for law enforcement.  Almost everyone drives too fast (or ridiculously too slow,) or gets through the traffic light a split second late, or changes lanes without signaling, or glances at a cell phone while driving, or a multitude of other things that warrant a quick look around for a cop.

 Adults try not to get caught.  The rules of the road are occasionally inconvenient to your personal desires to get where you are going.  So you break the rules and try not to get caught.  When we do get caught, the experience leaves the driver feeling bad or lucky.  You got caught and you got a ticket or you got away with a warning.  Bad or lucky.

I love hearing excuses from my friends after traffic citations and just how heartless the officer's attitude was.  I also love hearing how kind the cop was if you just got a warning.

Kids try not to get caught. The rules of the classroom are occasionally inconvenient to their personal desires to act like a kid.  So they break the rules and try not to get caught.  When you do catch a kid bending the rules, what kind of cop are you?  Does the kid feel bad? Or... does the kid feel lucky to have you as a teacher?

*Ultimate respect for all law enforcement!  Just talking about the feelings and reactions of the rule breaker, not the actions of the officer doing his/her job!*