Can't wait.
I'm a huge fan of Tim Elmore's. His book, Generatin iY, is a must read for parents and teachers . . . or anyone who wants to understand young people today. They are different. No way around it. But we are still the ones who have to help mold them and raise them. PS - and we are responsible for the young people they grow up to become. Don't just leave that part to their smartphones and Netflix.
Elmore is also a must follow on Twitter. What I love about Elmore is that he doesn't just focus on generational theories or young people today. He focuses a lot on leadership and personal development.
I think he hits the nail on the head with his latest tweet:
I am fortunate enough to work in a field where I get to see this first hand. I can't imagine doing anything else. And this is also why I'm counting down the days until next year!
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I've become fascinated with Hamish Brewer.
He has a new book out, Relentless: Changing Lives by Disrupting the Educational Norm.
I love several things about Brewer's leadership and message. I'll outline them below.
1. He is opposed to business as usual. He wants to disrupt things at his school. His reasoning? It wasn't working before, so why continue it? Education is great for beating a dead horse. I love this approach. That may also explain why I try to change my curriculum up so much. I'm never satisfied doing the same old thing over and over.
2. He isn't afraid to shock and awe. Some of his new initiatives? No homework. Free participation for student athletes in all sports. Free attendance to all games. 1:1 laptops with personalized internet accounts for each student. Unlimited class trips! Partnerships with local businesses. No scripted curriculum or preparing for high stakes testing.
I could go on and on. I hope Hamish Brewer becomes the face of education in American rather than Michelle Rhee.
3. He isn't what I think of when I think of an educator. You see when I was growing up, I thought in order to be a teacher, you had to be super smart. That's not all bad as it's one reason I was so motivated in college to do well. But Brewer fully acknowledges that he failed two years of school in New Zealand. He wasn't motivated or interested in school. But sports saved him and offered him the inspiration he needed to change as a student. I think this is the new type of teacher who isn't afraid to talk about their struggles and show students that it's never too late to have the light go on. And I think this is a message our kids need to hear constant. It's the growth mindset in action.
I get so fired up listening to him. How amazing would it be to work for him?
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Back to Tim Elmore. I just saw this, and it's gold: Sixteen Issues Parents Must Balance to Lead Kids Well. What I love about the title is that it doesn't say 'raise.' It says 'lead.' There is a massive craving for leadership in our world today, and it's my belief that this starts at home. We have to lead our kids and show them why it's awesome to grow up and become an adult, not baby them so they live in our basements for the next decade.
Here are a couple of my favorite issues that parents must balance -
1. Activities: Parent is present but allows children to navigate their involvement. This is for all of the helicopter parents out there. As a parent, our job is to support or kids, not coach them from the stands (a personal pet peeve of mine), not interfere with them (that one goes out to the parent from an EGF school that yelled when one of our fourth graders was preparing to shoot a free throw), and not be the athlete themselves (don't relive your glory days through your kids).
3. Technology: The home environment makes technology a servant, not a master. This is one I had to learn the hard way. I have been giving Cash baths ever since we brought him home. So it was our nightly routine for me to plop him in the tub and scrub him down and then sit down while he plays and makes a mess. While he was doing this, I'd go on my phone. One night I found myself looking at my email while Cash was calling me. Then I looked over and saw him looking at me. I had a moment where I saw myself through his eyes. I didn't want his main memory of me during this time to be sitting on my phone instead of interacting with him.
4. Time: Parent shows love without making the child the focal point. This is another important facet. I think too many of us live vicariously through our kids. And the worst part is that our culture is set up for this. If your child is in athletics, you know what I'm talking about. I know of hockey parents who shift their vacations around their kids' tournaments. This is true for the start of football too when we have a scrimmage over Labor Day, which alters plans. I don't think we're doing the kids a favor when it comes to this. I even read a story via Facebook about how important it is to attend not just your kids' game but almost everyone's games, which is impossible. I don't think it's a bad thing, but when I was a kid (and I know it's dangerous to go down this road), I had no expectations for my teachers to attend my games or my grandmother or siblings. I just wanted to play for the love of the game, not to show off to anyone. I have great memories of my mom at all my games, but my father never made a baseball game as he had work on the farm.
In fact, my sister talks about parents showing love through quantity time instead of just quality time. Too often, we fall in to this trap where we feel bad if we aren't taking our kids to the lake or Disney World or Universal or a Twins game. But the fact is that what really counts is the quantity of time you spend with your kids, not taking them on a fancy trip. Some of my best memories of my parents is doing chores with them, driving to town, sitting at our kitchen table over dinner, watching Seinfeld, or baling hay. I wouldn't say any of that is really quality time, but it was a lot of quantity time, which I look back now was full of quality and love.
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The kids and I love Aaron Mahnke's The Cabinet of Curiosity podcast. This reminds me a bit of the old Ripley's Believe it or Not or In Search of . . .
A new episode comes out every Tuesday and Thursday. Every episode contains two curiosities. We listen to these on the way to school ever Tuesday and Thursday. Kenzie knows it so well she can recite the introductory monologue before it starts playing.
I enjoy this because I love weird and odd pieces of history. Some of my favorite topics/stories from the podcast are -
The Ice Palace - The Empress Anna of Russia had a castle built out of ice. She despised a man who broke tradition and married a catholic woman. When his wife died, she forced him to become a jester for her court and then forced him to marry one of her servants (who was old and ugly). As if that wasn't enough, their wedding ceremony took place in the ice castle and she forced them to spend their honeymoon night in the castle. Oh yeah, she forced them to do so naked. She figured they would freeze to death, but supposedly the couple was able to bribe a guard for his coat and managed to survive.
Sergeant Stubby - His story is just too good to be true. He enlisted in the army with some close friends. He served faithfully in WW I, helping alert his friends to mustard gas and even cornering a German spy and occupying him until his colleagues could come. And he did this all despite being a Boston Terrier!
Lawn Chair Larry - Larry always longed for flight but his poor eyesight kept him out of the Air Force. So he did what he could. He bought 45 weather balloons, tied them to his lawn chair, and filled them with helium. His plan actually worked. A little too well. He made it to 16,000 feet where some jet pilots saw him over LAX. Larry's plan was to shoot the balloons with the pellet gun he brought, but he was scared that it might cause him to wobble and fall. He did finally do it though and got entangled in some power lines on his way down. He became a bit of a celebrity and inspired others to take flight too . . . He even inspired a Pixar film you might have hear of: Up.
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This story breaks my heart. I can't imagine what the grandfather and family are going through. So tragic and so incredibly unfortunate.
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Over the Fourth of July weekend, we ended up watching Saving Private Ryan with Cash and Kenzie. It was violent and horrific at times, but it also reminded me of when my father let me watch Patton with him when I was Cash's age.
I recall that opening scene with Patton in front of the flag going off. He was swearing. That was something my father never did nor never allowed us to do.
"Dad," I said, shocked. "He's swearing."
"Yes," my dad said proudly. "That is the good kind of swearing."
So we watched Saving Private Ryan as a family. We stopped it to explain some of the historical background to the kids.
One thing that I became fascinated by was the real story that inspired the movie. Even more interesting is the story of the Sullivan brothers, which was what inspired the military's focus on not having brothers (especially brothers from large families) all serve together.
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I'm actually perfectly okay with this.
BTW - Cash and Kenzie love this song.
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