It is my dream one day that school would begin in the middle of August too and end in the middle of May.
There always seems to be stupid arguments against this though - what about the cost of air-conditioning, some argue. Really? Weather in MN is best a crapshoot, let's not base our education practices on the weather. The school district wastes money left and right anyway, so let's not act like they couldn't get their act together and not waste so much money for the sake of starting in August.
Another dumb argument - students need to help with harvest and planting. What is this 1908? You could probably count on your fingers and toes the total amount of students who work on a farm in our entire school. And I bet you still have digits to spare. If that is the case, why don't we have school all summer? I lived on a farm as a kid. Summers were busy with hay, but they weren't as busy as the fall (harvest) and spring (planting), yet traditionally we have school during those periods. Doesn't make sense to me at all.
Anyway, on to the reads, views, and links -
I think this article on the impossibilities of student debt has to be shared with every senior thinking about going to college. The article reveals that the average (and there are many with far more debt) student will graduate with at least $22,000 in debt. What compounds this is that many students don't graduate from college (the number was around 60% last time I checked). Yet, they are leaving a year or two later with debt and no degree. Or worse, they get a degree (and the $22,000 in loans to repay) and land a job that they didn't need the degree for in the first place! That is stupid.
The truth of the matter is that students need more training on finances (yet, these elective classes are being cut in order to put more emphasis on the BIG THREE - languages, math, and science . . . which are really geared for those kids who are going to college . . . which are the kids who (at least 60 percent of them) leave without a degree and all that debt!). Maybe we should stop doing that.
We need to do a better job of preparing students for the jobs that are there now (I know that there is a lot of talk about this generation not really being able to prepare for the workforce since many of their supposed jobs haven't been invented yet, but stop me if you think I'm nuts . . . but we will always need business owners and entrepreneurs. We will always need skilled trades people (plumbers, carpenters, pipe fitters, mechanics, architects, engineers, and so on).
So let's stop with the college for all philosophy that our Ramp Up curriculum preaches to our students.
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The sentiment of this statement is correct, but it was carried out in the dumbest way possible.
This is akin to the "boys will be boys" attitude that excuses bullying and rape and sexual harassment. I can only imagine what my dear old grandmother, Myrtle, a feminist if ever one existed, would make of this.
How about just posting the Golden Rule? Or how about something that doesn't make it seem like a woman not acting "like a lady" is grounds for her being sexually harassed or bullied???
How about engraining empathy and kindness in the school culture?
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If you're looking at improving yourself, give this a read: The Three Competencies that Thought Leaders Demonstration Exceptionally Well.
Here they are -
1. Thought leaders think - they identify challenges, problems and issues and then help others to think critically about possible solutions.
A case in point: our school district has decided to cancel the traditional homecoming parade. Now this decision came from upon high. This, of course, flies in the face of how decisions were made, at least in the high school in the past. When it came to looking at issues like a backpack policy, there were surveys sent out to all staff, there was an actual group appointed to research and look at other policies and alternatives . . . all before a decision was made. That didn't happen here.
Everyone I speak to about the parade not being held anymore, have all been disappointed and shocked that it wasn't communicated.
We were told it came from the Student Senate, but when I talked to a class advisor, they said it was a decision from the elementary level. When the root cause of a decision can't be pinpointed, it always is fishy.
The most obvious argument against the parade is the huge cost for bussing kids over. If that's the case, then let's just be honest and make that the cause. Clarity I can live with. That would be thinking critically about an issue.
I'd like to see us try to have new solutions and alternatives to the parade. There was one mentioned, a bonfire. But I don't see how that is more safe or wise than the parade.
2. Thought Leaders Learn - They are intellectually curios, ask questions and seek new information from myriad sources.
A case in point: we have been doing this at the high school for years now. This is exactly what we have been doing with Ramp Up, our 1:1 initiative and tech days; our with with Nicole Vagle in our Design in Five training, and now what we are (hopefully) about to do with our Gradual Release work.
This, too, is what attending TIES and MCTE and being part of the #pineconepd has been for me.
3. Thought Leaders Lead - they take a (coherent) position on an issue and provide sound solutions and options as they communicate and persuade others to change.
This is a person trying to enter a position of leadership! And they are this ill-informed?
I was listening to someone a few years ago talk about a real problem in some rural communities. A certain population of immigrants would come in and milk the welfare system to their advantage, creating a less-than-desired culture and ruining the potential for positive relationships in the community among lifelong residents and the immigrants.
This is where leadership is needed. Someone from the community needs to start mentoring the immigrants in how things are done there. They need to mentor them in the benefits of hard work, of strong families, of faith and community. Thomas Friedman writes about how this very thing happened in his hometown in MN between the lifelong residents and the new Jewish population that moved in. But when it comes to raising strong leaders, we have lost our way.
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Time for a little levity.
Bob Wylie, Cleveland's offensive line coach, is quite the character. And he clearly doesn't believe in stretching. Be careful for the language, but this is hilarious. Enjoy.
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We just read an article for our inservice training on how people learn. One of the big factors in helping students move from novice to expert is their ability to use metacognition (in other words, getting students to reflect on their thinking - or - as one of my professors once put it - metacognition is "thinking about how you think").
This link has some great ways to get students to reflect on how they think.
Now all of those don't necessarily get at metacognition, but they could easily be tweaked to do that. For example, when students apply this to their process for writing an essay, this could really guide them to think more consciously about their decisions in what they wrote, which is metacognition - what did I do (in the essay to try to make the reader more engages in the story? Why did I make those decisions?)? What was important about (my narrative. That is, why did I choose to write about this one specific events? What made it stand out to me as opposed to the other things I could have written about?)? Where could I use this again (where will I need to tell (or write) narratives again and what about this narrative would I change for those other audiences?)? And so on.
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This one is one of my favorites. I'll defend "Culture eats Strategy for Lunch" until my dying day!
Here are 10 Questions Every School Should Ask to Build Healthy Culture.
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And one last video -
Cats are totally badasses!
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