Present- My #OneWord2019

Has it really been an entire year since I last pondered what my #OneWord2018 would be? I remember this time last year searching for my #OneWord2018 by being aware and open to anything and everything around me. I am a voracious reader as anyone who knows me is well aware of so as I read I intentionally sought out what God would have me focus on. At the time I was reading through the book of Daniel and I stumbled across the following verse:

But Daniel resolved...

That was it. I had found my #OneWord2018. How did I do on resolving? On a scale of 1 to 10 I would have to give myself a 6. Why a 6? Well, I didn't intentionally focus on resolving each and every day. I didn't set goals for what I resolved to do. This year will be different. I am spending more time reflecting and setting goals as I go into 2019. I purpose to make things happen instead of letting things happen. 

Here we are just hours away from a brand new year and I find myself going through the same process to find my #OneWord2019. Again I went through the same process by opening myself up to anything and everything around me. Once again it was in reading that I came across a pattern of phrases that brought me to my #OneWord2019. 

I read a blog by @MarkWilsonGA entitled 10 Questions for Mid-Year Leadership Reflection . One phrase fired across my synapses: 

"Keep your mind where your feet are." 

I have also been reading and digesting #ReclaimingOurCalling by Brad Gustafson (@GustafsonBrad). In his chapter entitled Autopilot he lists 6 strategies for getting our brains out of autopilot. Number 6: Be Fully Present coincided with what I read in @MarkWilsonGa blog. 

I began to think that maybe I had found my #OneWord2019, but I wanted to make sure. So, I spent the next several days testing my ability to be present in each moment and what I discovered was astonishing. 

Being fully present is really difficult. 

Whether I am in the car, doing laundry, cleaning house, watching TV, or my favorite thing to do, running, I found that being fully present took a lot of intentional focus and energy. My mind really struggles to be in the moment. 

But as this shirt I stumbled on at Old Navy, it is truly Mind Over Matter. I can learn to be #present in each and every moment. 

Brad says, "No matter the size of the moment, it's important to be in it. Be fully present. Make it a habit to be mindful of where you are and whom you're with." (Reclaiming Our Calling). 

That's it. My word. PRESENT. Here's to a fabulous 2019. 

The Story of One

It is sometimes surprising where you read information that confirms and supports your beliefs and ultimately your actions. Recently I have been listening to the book The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns. In it he shares the following research:

In 2006 researcher Paul Slovic at the University of Oregon and colleagues Deborah Small of the Wharton School and George Lowenstein of Carnegie Mellon University performed a simple behavioral experiment. A test group of ordinary people was divided into three subgroups. The first read the story and saw a photo of a poor, starving seven-year-old African girl name Rokia. The second group was given a statistical portrait of seventeen million Africans in four countries who were desperately hungry because of crop failures and food shortages. They were told about yet another four million who were homeless. In other words, group two read about hunger and suffering on a massive scale. The third group was given the story about the little girl Rokia but was also given the statistical information given to group two. Finally participants in all three groups were asked to donate money to relive the suffering. Amazingly, the group that heard only Rokia's story gave the most money. The group that was given the statistics about twenty-one million suffering people gave the least, and the group that received both pieces of information was only slightly more generous than the statistics-only group. The story of one child was more compelling than the suffering of millions.

The story of ONE child... 

Now I don't want to take away from what Stearns was communicating here because what he shares is so important when it comes to helping others in our world. But I couldn't help but relate it to what we do in education. 

As educators we are constantly looking at data. We love our numbers. In Georgia the ultimate number looked at is CCRPI (College and Career Readiness Performance Index). I won't go into great detail about what that number means (most states have some method of grading their schools), but basically it is a grade that comes about by looking at end of year test scores and other factors. So, it is a number that evolves from other numbers. This number is used to label and group students, schools, and school systems. Somewhere in all of those numbers is the story of ONE child. 

Do you see the disturbing significance of the research shared above and how it connects to our current reality? Ever since NCLB more and more focus has been placed on test scores, grading schools and labeling schools and students. Because of this we have taken our focus off the very purpose we went into education to begin with, which is to improve the lives of children. 

Brad Gustafson, is a voice shouting in the wilderness that it is time to reclaim our calling. What he says in his book Reclaiming Our Calling completely lines up with the research I presented above. He says, "If you're anything like me, you're growing weary of watching assessment data used primarily to label and group learners." Yes! I agree, Brad. It's just like those people who were given only the statistics of suffering people. By being given the statistics about suffering people in Africa they inadvertently dehumanized the very people that needed their help the most. Stearns said, "If we are able to objectify whole classes of people so that we don't think of them as persons equal with us, the unthinkable becomes possible."

Our students deserve more. They are more than a number. I daresay it is time to shift our mindsets from numbers to individual students. I know that seems a little scary because in essence we are going against the flow, but it is time. It is time to look at Johnny and David and Beth and Lisa and Luke. Who are they? What do they need? How can we help them grow? This change will not happen overnight but if we will just take small steps we will begin to see the benefits. 

One small step we have taken at the school where I am a principal is using our PLC time to discuss individual students. We have "data cards" for every student in our building. These data cards have their picture along with their data. We can't ignore the data and the fact that we are held accountable, we just have to keep our priorities in the right place. This one small action is yielding a lot of dividends in how we view our students and the plans we make for each one of them. 

It is time to know and value ...the story of ONE child.

Going All In: Conquering Our Fears of Unknown

Going All In: Conquering our Fears of the Unknown

A couple of weeks ago my niece and nephew came to visit from Newnan. They wanted to swim in our pool one last time before we officially sold our house and moved out. They swim like fish because they have always been around pools. However, they have never jumped off the diving board into the deep end. In fact, they have never swum in the deep end at all.

Uncle Andy is notorious for challenging kids to do things that are outside of their comfort zone. So, he challenged them to jump off the diving board. Needless to say, they were scared and kept saying they couldn’t do it. Uncle Andy kept begging them to (and eventually promised them Sweet Frog if they would do it).

Emmalyn was the first to try. She stood on the diving board for an extended period of time. She would walk to the edge of the diving board and then back up. She did this several times. Then all of a sudden she mustered up every ounce of courage and....

...she jumped. She went ALL IN. Because of her courage Ethan (her twin) gained the courage to jump in himself.

What happened next was amazing. They just wanted to jump in over and over and over. Their fears was gone. They weren't even thinking about the initial bribery of Sweet Frog that was used to get them to jump in the first time. They realized that their fear was unfounded, that jumping ALL IN could be fun and it was not unknown to them anymore.

It just took ONE time. And even though Ethan was scared to begin with, when he saw his sister jump in, her COURAGE motivated him to be BRAVE.

Lesson from this: At Alto Park Elementary School we are going ALL IN for our students this year. We are not going to do the same 'ol same 'ol things we have done in the past. We are not going to stay in the shallow end because it is comfortable. Why? Because our students (each and every ONE of them) deserve more. Some of us are going to be asked to do things that we have never done before in order to reach that ONE student. Some of us are going to be innovative and think outside the box. You may be scared to step out and do something new, but just do it.
JUMP OFF!   GO ALL IN!

I can't bribe you with Sweet Frog, but I can promise you that if you go ALL IN the reward will be well worth the effort and better than Sweet Frog any day (nothing against frozen yogurt). 

And if you see one of your colleagues scared to try something new, then you lend them your courage. Your courage motivates someone else and someone else's courage motivates you. 

...let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good work. Hebrews 10:24

I Needed a Champion

Rita Pierson is best known for her TED talk in which she says, "Every child needs a champion." Let me repeat that:

Every child needs a champion. 

I am currently reading Culturize by Jimmy Casas (@casas_jimmy). In his book Jimmy echoes Rita Pierson's words in his Core Principle #1: Champion for Students.

As I was reading, the following quote jumped off the page and became so real to me:

When I read it I instantly thought of Mrs. Dunn. She taught the Teacher Academy class my senior year of high school. This was the first year this class was offered. We had to go through an interview process to determine if we would be selected. I must go ahead and tell you that I believe in providence. I was selected for this class because God knew I needed a champion my senior year in high school.

Senior year of high school was a difficult year. Without going into personal details I will say that before the year was half way over I was considered to be an emancipated minor (someone under the age of 18 who is no longer considered to be under the control of their parents; they take responsibility for their own care).

Enter my champion, Mrs. Dunn. Now if you were to ask Mrs. Dunn today if she considered herself to be a champion, she would humbly say that she was doing what she felt was right for her students...that she was just doing her job.

To this scared 17 year-old, she was doing so much more than that. Her encouragement and support were integral in keeping me in school and on the right path at a time when I was lost and alone and could have easily slipped off the radar.

This past May I was in the TJ Maxx dressing room while my daughter was trying on clothes. An idea fired across my synapses as I was reflecting on the upcoming Teacher Appreciation Week I was about to celebrate with my new staff: I need to tell Mrs. Dunn that what she did for me 25 years ago truly mattered.

I pulled out my phone and searched for her on Facebook. Once I found her I sent her this message in Messenger:

I hit send. And I waited. Then finally I saw those three dots...you know the ones I am talking about...the ones that tell you the person has seen your message and is responding. 

What I got back brought tears to my eyes and confirmed that I did a grand thing by sending my message. 

When I didn't believe in me, she did. She was right. If someone had told me in high school that I would be a principal one day I would have laughed. Me, a principal? No way! She saw something in me that I didn't see in myself and pushed me through to the finish line. 

Educators, hear me out...

What we say and do for our students has a lasting impact. The words you speak over them and the belief you have in them may just be the thing they need to keep them from slipping into darkness. Yes, we have that kind of power. Every single day that you walk into your school please know that you have the power to be a child's champion. And...

Every child needs a champion.