A Minion Reasons to Be Thankful

It is important for anyone who enters our school to immediately feel that it is a positive environment.

• Positive school environments promote adults that are in charge of the students to take pride in what they do

• Positive school environments promote better student achievement and behavior

• Positive school environments promote better teaching and better teacher behavior

Because of the above mentioned reasons, I was very excited when I was approached by two of our teachers at Starry about all staff and all students to express what they are thankful for within our school and then making it visual for all to see.

I am thankful for having the opportunity to work in a school (alongside a great staff and student body) where I can have a positive impact on staff and student learning.

The more you focus on what's good, the more good you will see.

If a child doesn't know how to behave, we...

Who has students that can't read?  We all do. What do we do? We try everything under the sun. We try different resources, we bring-in additional people, we make instructional changes, we set-up interventions - the list goes on and on.

Who has students that can't behave? Again, we all do. What do we do? Punish? That doesn't work. Verbally scold and berate a student? That is the single most commonly used, but least effective method for addressing undesirable behaviors (Albetro and Troutman, 2006). So what do we do? Throw our hands-up in exhaustion?

This is something that I've been thinking about, a lot, lately. I'd heard the words on the image before, but recently they've been coming-up more and more frequently in conversations at school and on Twitter and Voxer. It is a pretty powerful message.

We teach academics; we expect behaviors. That isn't really fair to a growing population of our students. We value academics more than the emotional needs of our students due to the pressures of testing our students. That doesn't really align with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

It is crucial that we continuously revisit and reteach our expectations and procedures. We must practice patience and persistence. We have to be aware that ultimately it is the environment that we create that can and will change student behavior. And to steal a line from one of my favorite YouTube videos, "You can't expect a kid to change, you gotta touch his frickin' heart,"

We can't allow ourselves to become cynical; and this, unfortunately, is easy to do as there are land mines all around us. We have to remind ourselves as to why we got into the education field because as Todd Whitaker and Annette Breaux say in the The Ten-Minute In-Service, it is one of the "noblest and most influential professions on earth."

We have to find ways to remain positive. How do we do that? I don't know what works for everyone else, but I know what works for me. I try to surround myself with as many positive people as possible. I try to engage in meaningful conversations that enhance my learning via my professional learning networks (PLNs) on Twitter and Voxer. I try to take care of myself; I eat relatively healthy, I exercise regularly, I TRY to get an adequate amount of sleep, and I TRY to find work-life balance. These things are important, they mater.

Our frame of mind, our mindset is our greatest asset. It is something that we have the power to control every. single. day. There is no tool more powerful.

Patrolling Our Beat

Last week, my grandfather in-law passed away. This week, I had plenty of time to reflect upon various topics during his visitation and funeral. He was a retired Davenport police officer. It 

A while back I was listening to a podcast. I forget who the host(s) were and what the episode was titled, but I remember the topic. The podcast talked about how as a result of events that have transpired throughout our country, post-Ferguson, there was a need for police work to be altered. It was time for the pendulum to swing back to the idea of beat cops.

As a school principal, I've listened to students compare me to a cop.

I'm okay with that, IF they are thinking of me as a beat cop.

According to urbandictionary.com, the definition of a beat cop is:

A beat cop is a police officer who walks, rides, cycles, or drives in a specific neighborhood, known as a "beat." Because the officer routinely patrols in the same area, he or she becomes well-known in the community, creating a positive relationship between law enforcement and the community.

I am not okay with that, IF they are thinking of me as a cop that catches bad guys. Unfortunately, this is sometimes people's perception of us as principals. You see, at our back-to-school night, I was introduced to a kindergarten student by his mom as the principal. I was the one who the "bad kids"  had to go see.

I quickly tried to explain to the incoming kindergartner and his mom that I didn't see "bad kids," but instead I saw kids that made bad choices.

This is an image that we, as principals, need to change.

As principals, we need to be instructional leaders. We need to be in classrooms. We need to be talking with teachers about what they are teaching, and with students about what they are learning. And then we need to celebrate all of the great things that are being accomplished in our schools that we see when we are patrolling our schools (our beat), thus creating positive relationships among our school community.