Champions

     It finally hit me a few weeks ago as I had some time to change my summer closet to my fall/winter closet. I put on more weight during last year than I had thought. It wasn’t a huge surprise. I knew it last year. I knew what was happening. Having two teenage sons who are highly involved in multiple activities, I spend a few hours every afternoon either driving kids from one activity to another or at an event my son is involved in which eventually lands us eating out afterwards. Last year was also filled with a tremendous amount of paper work, reports, and a tedious amount of “desk” work. Not to be one to sit at my desk very much, this was a tremendous change for me. I also discovered that the vanilla lattes at Little River Roasting Company, just ½ a minute from school, are better than Starbucks-and they opened at 5:30am just about the time I was arriving at school last year (thank goodness they open later). Then, with the exception of only 4 weekends last year, I spent pretty much 12 hours every Saturday and 5-6 hours every Sunday sitting reading, researching, and writing for the completion of my dissertation. While I completed all of this “desk work” I did what I always do when I’m stressed- I ate. And what I ate wasn’t healthy. As one who has been on a “diet” since the age of 22, I knew what I was doing was wrong, but had little desire or motivation to make much of a change at the time.

     So here I was with very little to wear and a huge amount of disappointment in myself for what I have done-willingly. I made the determination to start the 28-day challenge- no bread, no sugar, no processed food, no dairy, no fried food, 84 oz. of water a day, and so much green tea I thought I would turn into Kermit. I was 100% successfully on this 28-day challenge. Yet, the success on the challenge only took off 8 pounds. I was disappointed yet again. As I was detailing my disappointed to my most supportive husband, he suggested, with some trepidation, that it may be what I was missing was exercise. And you know what he was right.

     After this conversation, I was thrilled when Rosebro#2 asked me to train with him for a 5K and possibly a 10K. He stated that he wants us to do the Disney 5 and 10K next January (2018) and if we train for the next year, we could do it together. I am not sure which he wants more- to run with his Mom or have a trip to Disney-either way-I’m all in.  My next step was research. I am one that needs lots of information about anything. I researched the Disney 5K and 10K program. I researched running-although I used to run as a much younger adult. I researched shoes, C25K programs, routes, times. I probably could have gotten out there are run a 5K with the amount of time that I researched. There were few websites I didn’t explore.  During my research, I came upon a quote from Muhammad Ali that really stuck in my head- “Champions aren’t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them-a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have the skill, and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.” The thing is, I know what to do. I have the skill. What I am missing is that unstoppable desire- or will- to get this done and be the very best me I can be. It is called passion and I am thrilled to have my best buddy as my partner as I discover this passion again.

     As most things do, this got me thinking about our work here at school.  What does it take to be a champion teacher?  I agree so much with Ali’s declarative that champions aren’t made in the gym. I believe champion teachers aren’t made just in the classroom. This does not mean that teachers can’t give their best in the classroom-you have to-just as Ali probably gave 110% in the gym, but what makes the difference in a good teacher and a champion teacher is what happens outside of the 7 ½ hours of instruction. A champion teacher is passionate about their work. A champion teacher feels that passion deep inside. A champion teacher researches, studies, and plans for exceptional practice to take place in his/her classroom every day. A champion teacher has a desire-a deep seeded drive- to provide only but the best for their students every day. As much professional learning that takes place for teachers, all teachers are provided with the skill-it is the WILL that is missing that takes a teacher from good to CHAMPION.  Passion drives people to excel by challenging and pushing your work to your limits. Passion excites you and makes the work almost like play, fuels your efforts, and helps fight burnout. Your intense passion about teaching and learning in turn ignites your students to be passionate about learning. Without passion for teaching and learning, a good teacher will never be great. You can’t fake passion. That passion shows in all a teacher does. Passionate teachers are always in my office or blowing up my email with questions. They wonder. They explore. They try new things while demanding that even though the latest and greatest says one thing, they’re proven practice has shown differently. They can defend their practice with data. They are sharing their failures, they question some of my directives, they arrive early and pull kids or they keep kids afterschool, they demand me come to their room to see what their kids are doing, they share readings, websites, new ideas, they share during PLC, they love being at school, they stop at nothing to provide what their current students need-not just the same thing they did last year. They desire collaboration with other teachers in order to share and learn with others. They want to be better every day. They stretch my budget needing items for their class. Passionate teachers are the ones that our students deserve. Being passionate isn’t the only key to championship caliber teachers but it certainly is one of the most important characteristic.  

Tina taught me that.....

It is not very often that I pick up my children from school. When Rosebro #1 was the only one in school, he would ride with me, but when Rosebro#2 started school, my husband started taking them to school. Of course when they were students at JBE, they would come to my office afterschool, and like many teachers’ kids, rode home with me when my work for the day was done.  When they both left JBE, I missed those few moments in the car together each afternoon. Now Rosebro #1 either stays with his Dad at SHS, gets a ride home from our teenage driver next door neighbor, or begs for a ride with a friend’s mom to the golf course. Rosebro#2 stays at his school every afternoon for football practice and on Fridays he rides the activity bus to SHS as he has team manager duties for the football team.  So, it was very unusual, when on Thursday afternoon, I had to pick up Rosebro#2 from his school due to football practice being cancelled because of conferences.  The car line at his school is long. From a long way back in the line I watched curiously at the preteen social dance of activity taking place. I suppose I am like most mothers and worry about friendships, relationships and decisions of our children. It gave me some relief as I watched Rosebro #2 joke and talk with a group of kids as I slowly crept closer to the front of the line. As I did someone other than Rosebro#2 caught my eye. It was that of a former JBE student. One who was at best description-awkward, socially unaware of the consequences of such behaviors. This student had a teacher in 5^th grade at JBE that saw past the awkwardness and found joy. The work of this teacher transformed this student not only academically but emotionally. I saw this student with a group of kids, laughing and joking. It made my heart smile. What may have happened in the strange years of middle school to her had this 5^th grade teacher not worked so hard to make this student find her voice. It also immediately made me think of Tina. 

Tina was a student in my class 15 years ago.  We had a strange departmentalization of core content and I taught social studies to 4 classes and 2 classes of creative writing. It was so very important to me to teach these students the value writing could possess and how expressing feelings, emotions, and wonderings could hold power. I did my own version of writing workshop and spent a great deal of time conferencing with students, helping them edit and revise their pieces, and then building up their confidence enough to share. The community of our classroom was strong. Then Tina entered our class. She was new to our school. She was different. She hadn’t fit in to any one group in the class. The other teachers and I had discussed her- and her lack of work ethic- often in her few weeks with us. So imagine my surprise when during author’s share time, Tina asked to share-even though I had not even conferenced with her on her piece just yet. It was one of those moments as a teacher when you’re caught in a conundrum. The last thing I wanted to do was to harm her eagerness to share-this burst of enthusiasm needed to be celebrated, but I was terrified at the response the other students may give this new student; after all, they knew my expectations, they knew how hard I could be on them-she did not. We teachers have seconds to make major decisions-I so wish I could make non-educators understand this. I let Tina share- while silently praying that this would go well- for all of us. My other students knew that share time was sacred and I was proud, as Tina began, at their interested in her words as she began. 

That week in our mini-lessons, we had been working on hooks. I’d been using Disney movies to show how the movies caught your attention in the first few lines of dialogue and how those movies all began with a screenplay-a writing. Tina began with the words “If you could create just one wish what would it be?” I immediately bit my lip and a few kids even looked at me as they knew one of my writing pet peeves was starting with a question. Her next statement made that pet peeve seem minor when Tina continued with, “My wish would be to meet my mother.” Silence. I seriously could hear crickets breathing. She continued to read her words detailing her mother leaving her father when she was a toddler and that she did “Mom” work around the house-cooking, cleaning, and even taking the clothes to laundry mat-always on Friday night instead of Saturday mornings-when it was not so busy (a fact I remember thinking an 11-year-old should not know). Her writing, albeit lacking in complete grammatical and syntax perfection, told a story that had my class intently listening to every word. As she finished her sharing, her last sentence made a tear escape from my eye when she stated, “This is my wish so that every night I would stop dreaming about what she looked like.”  Tina took a deep breath and waited for “peer feedback”. What Tina got instead was a small applause from a couple of girls that ended with a loud roar of applause and a few “whoops” from a couple of the boys. Tina’s face will forever be etched in my memory as she brushed her hair, that she often used as a veil to hide her face, to the side to reveal a beautiful smile. Quieting down the class, I thanked Tina for sharing and noticed as she walked back to her seat, the manner her peers immediately responded to her in ways they had not 10 minutes prior.

 I realized at that moment-and in many more since then-that our job as educators is so much more than creating great academic scholars. We must create environments where our students are safe enough to learn and grow. Without that type of environment, our students can never be scholars. They will never find their voice. The lack of that type of environment, we harm rather than help our students. 

Hitting a Wall

A teacher and I were discussing after school last Monday just how very tired we both were….on a Monday!  She reminded me that it is this time of year that we all get very tired.  We’ve accomplished so very much in less than 45 days of school.  We’ve unpacked and decorated our rooms, gotten to know our students, we’ve established relationships with our families, we made tons of copies, graded and analyzed lots of work, had plenty of assessments, completed progress reports, made tons of phone calls and conducted several parent conferences.  That is just a simple small list of all that has occurred the last 45 days.  To say that we deserve to be tired is almost the worst understatement that I’ve ever made.

I’m not sure about you but when I start hitting the wall, I sometimes feel like hitting someone (not literally). My Clarendon County temper likes to rear its ugly head.  When I’m tired, I can be quick to anger, quick to respond in a not so kind way, or quick to jab when I should pull back.  Luckily, I have learned this about myself and have learned to spot those signs (most of the time).  

My AP and I were discussing a discipline problem recently and he was reminded of a quote he heard, “small minds discuss people; average minds discuss events; but brilliant minds discuss ideas.”  I wrote it down, as I do with many quotes, and have pondered over that idea for days. 

This is an Eleanor Roosevelt quote.  I’m not sure how much you all know about Mrs. Roosevelt, but she had what I would call the most miserable life growing up: alcoholic father, mother who tragically died of diphtheria, her brothers dying of scarlet fever, and an orphan by age 10 when she was sent to boarding school.  She had a lot to complain about.  I am sure she had many times when she felt like she was hitting a wall.  However, she used that sadness to become an advocate for minorities, the poor, the addicted,and for children and women’s rights.  Even when you feel like hitting a wall, and so many of us do right now, don’t do what becomes the natural thing to do….hitting others (with our words or actions), power through knowing that you are making a difference...with little sleep and loads of caffeine. 

I'm becoming my mother.........

MUSC is a wonderful hospital. Having spent a lot of time there this last month, I can say that they certainly understand the importance of relationships. One of my Mom’s nurses always spent time talking with us-not just about my Mom but about us. One day one of her nurses, spent a lot of time asking me questions about my life, my boys, and my job. Before he left the room, he looked at me and said, you sure do remind me of your Mom.  “You look and act just like her,”  he said. These are not words that many 40+ year olds want to hear. “You are becoming your mother” is what I heard ringing in my ears the entire drive back home. Not that my mom is a terrible person, she is not,  she is wonderful, but there is something about becoming my mother that stopped me in my tracks.  We don’t always like to hear it, but it’s true. It’s in our DNA. The older we get, the more we resemble our parents. If you’re especially close to your parents, you might even start to act like them and before you know it, you are them. 

The more I drove the more I thought about this and the more I thought about school.  Isn’t this true about school? I remember once when Rosebro#1 was in kindergarten and he was “playing school” with then 3 year old Rosebro#2 who wasn’t behaving very well in pretend school (shocking). Rosebro#1 made me cry with laughter at his dead on impression of Mrs. Jacobs when attempting to get Rosebro#2 to do the right thing.  Children mimic our behavior.  I remember that same year in kindergarten being at the public library and Rosebro#1 checked out a book because it was one of “Mrs. Bahnmuller’s favorites”.  You see his love of this book came from his teacher’s behavior. He didn’t guess it was her favorite, she had told him.   

I speak a lot about modeling to our students.  I don’t mean modeling just our behavior or writing or how to work out a math problem, but modeling our own love of learning. We should model how we want our kids to behave.  You model those expectations, but what you should be asking yourself is do you model your passion for learning?  Do you pick up a book and show your kids how much you’ve fallen in love with the words?  Do you model your writing?  Do you tell them about an interesting video you watched or newspaper article you read about something you’re studying in Social Studies or Science.  Do you explain with excitement how you used measuring skills to make curtains at home or order tile for your new kitchen design?  If you don’t how is it expected that your kids will fall in love with learning? If you aren’t passionate, how then can our kids ever be?   As I thought about me becoming my Mom, I eventually was grateful for that statement.  She is a strong, kind, generous, sometimes goofy and airheaded, a graceful Christian woman who always puts her family before herself.  Who wouldn’t want to become that?  When you think about that, when you think about what you are modeling to your students either with your behavior or your joy of being a life long learner, do you want your kids to be that?  Do you want your kids to show your same level of enthusiasm or passion?  If not, you only have the power to change the model. 

Safe Places

When I was a teenager I worked as a cashier at the Piggly Wiggly. Before you start laughing, this was THE job to have if you were a teenager in my hometown. All the cool kids, who had to have an afterschool job, worked at the Pig. Prior to my real job at the Pig, I worked for my Dad on the farm and trust me the pay at the Pig was 100 times better. My best friend worked with me. My boyfriend was a bag boy and the parking lot was always filled with teenagers, as the Pig was a local hangout. I loved my job. We always cashed our Friday paychecks at work and one day I had done just that stuffed my (now seemingly small) paycheck into my purse and went about my teenage life. I had probably spent $20 or so of the money by church on Sunday. My parents have always instilled in me to be a faithful tither so I again went into my purse and gave another $20 to my church during Sunday School.  Although I was a teenager, attending a small church meant that even at age 16, I was allowed to be in the church choir, so for the next hour or so I was in the choir. After choir I was hanging my robe when I heard frantic rumbling in the choir room. I soon discovered that during church, someone had come into our choir room and stolen out of all the purses of the female choir members. I ran to my purse and while I was expecting differently the remaining money from Friday’s paycheck was all gone.  I was devastated. Yet, what I remember feeling the most was that in my safest place-my church- I had been stripped of the feeling of safeness. Church was and always has been my safe place. After this incident the church started locking more doors and making it harder to get into the church.

Going to the movies is one of my secret hobbies. Since the Batman shooting in a movie theater a few years ago, I still remain a little anxious about going to the movies. I watch the folks walk in and look at the exit doors and honestly make a little plan in my head about what I’d do if something happened. This weekend I went to see the movie Sully. Tom Hanks portrayed US Airlines pilot Chesley Sullenburger brilliantly in this movie about the Miracle on the Hudson. While watching the movie, I was moved by the emotional display, without any script-only acting, of the landing and getting everyone off the plane and into boats. I watched Tom Hanks’s face and realized that that plane was his safe place. This wasn’t supposed to happen. But it did.  Last week, after our faculty meeting, I sat at my desk in shock and horror watching the live feed from Townville Elementary where two students and one teacher were shot in another school shooting. While church is and always will be my safe place, I have similar feelings while here at school.  I love our school. I look forward to car pool every morning and enjoying our Safety Squad and welcoming our kids to school. I love walking the hallways and looking at the displayed student’s work. I love being in your classrooms. Next to having one of the Rosebros telling me they love me, my favorite thing in the world is having a student read to me. I love hanging in the cafeteria during lunch. I had the best time riding my bike around the track during recess the other day. The last thing we expect is for all of those things to be interrupted by gunfire. School should be a safe place.

I feel strongly, that even with mistakes I make as a leader, I always try to make decisions that are best for our school, staff, students and community. The only time I ever “lose sleep” is thinking about the loss of JBE as a safe place. I do not nor will I ever take lightly the immense responsibility we have to ensure the safety and security of the students entrusted to us. As I was thinking about all of my safe places-I realized one thing holds true. These places-church, movie theater, our homes, our school-are still are safe places. They are safe because of the people we share them with and the experiences we have within the spaces. While in all of them we may do things differently to keep them just a little safer, they still are our Safe places. We make them safe not just in our physical actions of locking doors and gates, and ignoring the door and reducing adult traffic with in the school, we make it emotionally safe by creating relationships with our students and their families. It is through that sense of community and family that will keep us safe-even when the unthinkable happens.