Teaching Thoughts for Week 25 -
This week I got an opportunity to try something new that is going to change my life for the foreseeable future: I became the head football coach of the LHS Prowlers.
Since - as far as I know - the coaching world isn't full of English teachers who moonlight as head football coaches, I worried a bit that my passion for teaching reading and writing would take a backseat to my passion for football.
Luckily, I had that dispelled last Thursday when I was giving some feedback on a narrative essay. The prompt called for the student to include a flashback somewhere in the narrative. As I was reading the draft, I marveled at how effortlessly the student not just included a flashback but used dialogue and thoughts to help engage the reader in her narrative. I found myself so happy with the essay and fired up about it that I thought, Okay. I'm going to be all right as a head coach because I'm as happy about the job the student did on this rough draft as I am when we score a touchdown on offense in a game.
What are the simple pleasures in teaching (or coaching) that make you happy? I'd love to hear.
Inside this week's Teaching Thoughts, you'll find --
The World is a Fine Place - A student is sent to the principal's office and instead of getting sent home, he gets a haircut. The young man in question, you see, refused to obey the hat policy and simply take off his hat. Thus, he was sent to the office. Fortunately, the principal knew there was more to the issue. It seems the young man was embarrassed about his hair. So the principal showed him some photos of the cuts he has done on his own sons. When the boy agreed to let the principal trim his hair, well, this story is born. This is what leadership is!
Book of the Week - Dare to Lead by Brene Brown. I've long been a fan of Brown's thanks to her iconic TED Talks, but this small, quick read is profound. Brown's main point of the book is simple - we live in a world that values the outlier, that values scarcity. But to be a true leader - and being brave enough to rise up to being a leader - isn't about being elite or fining other elites. It's simply about being brave enough to find the potential in others around you - even when they don't see that potential inside themselves - and striving to help them develop it. How do you do this? It's a cliché, I know, but you have to start with what's in our hearts: empathy and connection. I think that's a great place to start. Just look at any political rally. How much empathy do you see? Just watch any Zoom or Google Meets session. How much true connections do you see going on? Our world is starved for this kind of leadership. Rise to it.
Teaching Thoughts - It's all about culture this week. I'm stealing a metaphor I came across from an Entreleadership podcast on culture, on the five keys to developing and sustaining culture. The metaphor goes like this. First, in order to build great culture, you have to have the right soil. Second, you have to plant the right seed in the soil. Third, you have to add water to help the seed grow in the soil. Fourth, keep the weeds out! In order to have great culture, you have to be relentless in getting the negative people and those who don't buy in out. Period.
Podcast of the Week - After reading Dare to Lead, I discovered Brown's podcast - not available via iTunes or apple podcasts, though. Brown's podcast, called Dare to Lead, is available on Spotify. She interviews some of the greatest people in creativity, success, and leadership today. The only I focus on is the amazing Dr. Sarah Lewis. I loved her great TED Talk (more on that in a bit) and she was my first choice to a listen on Brown's podcast. You won't regret a second of this. Lewis is amazing.
Video of the Week - Sarah Lewis's Embrace the Near Win. This is gold if for nothing other than hearing her utter these words on the difference between success and mastery after watching a women's archery team practice for three hours in the rain and drizzle: "Success is hitting the ten ring, but mastery means knowing it is nothing if you can't do it again and again." Whoa. I love that.
Thoughts from Twitter - I love the first one from Dr. Brad Johnson, who is an amazing follow on Twitter, by the way: "We hire teachers based on their strengths but we manage them based on their weaknesses. This creates a culture of mediocrity rather than excellence." I agree with that, but the real take away for me was this - we do the same thing with our students don't we? I'd love to hear how you manage your students based on their strengths instead of their weaknesses! I'll never forget dear Susan Hauser at BSU tell me, "If you focus on what writers do well, you'll get more of that. If you focus on what they do wrong, you won't get more of what you want them to do right."
Give this a try in your Classroom - I share some creative websites and tools that allow students to show what they know - Piktochart, Wakelet, Loom, and Smore are excellent to use with kids. You won't regret any of them.
Article of Interest - My sister shared this with me - and it speaks to some of my deepest beliefs about teaching and school - "We are born creative geniuses and the education system dumbs us down." I'd love to hear what you think of this article.
I hope you have a great week and enjoy some of the warmer temperatures. What I love most about spring in northwest Minnesota is that you know it's going to get better. Sure, we could still have a couple of blizzards, but that first 60 degree day isn't too far away. And you have to admit, donning shorts and flip flops in April is one of the best things all year!
PS
The background photo this week is of the Prowler logo on the new floor in the weight room.
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