As if Parenting Wasn't Difficult Enough...

To add to their woes about contemporary parenting, most adults can’t adequately police their teen’s cyber world because they simply don’t know how.  It’s so different from teaching a sixteen year old to drive; because in this arena, our kids know more than we do.  Yet, (and rightly so), as parents and teachers we still feel responsible for our teenager’s cyber mistakes.  Given that paradox in which we need our kids to explain to us what should be within our parental role, it’s even more important to simply have open and honest communication about our expectations for their behavior.  

Without getting into the specifics of which applications they should or should not use, our discussions with our kids must still  include our expectation that they be the same person online as they are in their everyday life in Litchfield, Connecticut, and the other locales they visit.   If they wouldn’t walk up to a perfect stranger on the street and ask that person’s advice, they shouldn’t do that online either.  If they wouldn’t express their frustration or anger to a teacher or a friend face-to-face, they shouldn’t hide behind their computer screen. If they wouldn't swear, use vulgarity, or --shame in public, they shouldn't ignore those instincts in texts, messages, and posts.   The cyberworld is not a place to unleash a side of themselves about which they will never feel proud.  They are who their actions say they are, regardless of who knows about it.  Bullying someone online makes you a bully; sharing an explicit photo online makes you a pornographer; creating a false identity to spy on or harass someone online makes you a stalker.   

In truth, much of the “chatter” in their electronic world is teen-centered and harmless.  But, some of it is not.  When it is mean, targeted, and especially when it’s anonymous, this “chatter” is dangerous.  While some people claim it nothing more than the modern version of the "for a good time call Sally" graffiti we dealt with on the walls in the school restrooms, others find it much more far-reaching and insidious.  Unlike the bathroom wall which can be painted over, cyberworld graffiti cannot be undone and might haunt both the victim and the perpetrator long into adulthood.  The following three topics are examples of how our teens may be participating in the electronic world. These applications only skim the surface; and very quickly, they will be usurped by others.  

After School: the App

This is a relatively new application.  It is billed as “Funny Anonymous School News For Confessions And Compliments.”  Supposedly, a teen can share his or her inner most thoughts without fear of ridicule or backlash.  It was a place to get advice about deep issues, such as the best way to tell your parents you’re pregnant, or gay, or have an online gambling problem.  In short, it's a vehicle to poll other teens (strangers, however) about the everyday problems they face… or, a way to just share a great piece of news and celebrate being a kid. But a quick look at its anonymity feature reveals an uglier truth; and anyone can quickly see how this application can wreak havoc in a school community.  

This app checks your credentials against Facebook to ensure that you are a student. The lack of a school/student affiliation is what shuts adults and parents out.  The app then connects you to other students all of whom post anonymously.  It is this anonymity which makes the application so dangerous to the school environment.  While the application was envisioned as a safe space for high schoolers to discuss sensitive issues without having to reveal their names, in truth posters have no accountability for the nature of their posts and any kind of natural peer-to-peer monitoring disappears.  Anonymous posters can openly spread rumors, name-call, body-shame, send threats, or even tell someone the best solution to the problem is to kill themself.

Apple removed After School from its App store a while back, but it reappeared quickly with new filtering features.  The developers say it now has a warning system that asks any teen who posts signs of self-harm if he or she would like to text with a counselor.  They claim to have connected about 50,000 teens with counselors.  There are a crew of employees who randomly check messages that use key words and who attend to messages that are reported to them.  

To learn more about After School, click here.

  

Yik Yak: For Smartphone, iOS, Android

Yik Yak combines the features of a GPS system (which pinpoints your location) and ‘instant messaging.’  In other words, users can anonymously ‘yak’ to other random users who are within approximately one and a half miles without revealing who they are.     Thus, it is an “effectively anonymous” messaging board which requires no user profile. 

The developers did include a technology, called “geofencing,” which allows middle schools and high schools to be ‘fenced’ off using the GPS technology.  The supposedly app would not be accessible in a fenced-off area.

The developers also implemented self-filtering prompts.  If a yakker should key the word “Jewish” or “bomb,” for example, they would get a warning: “Pump the brakes, this yak may contain threatening language. Now it’s probably nothing and you’re probably an awesome person but just know that Yik Yak and law enforcement take threats seriously. So you tell us, is this yak cool to post?”

However, despite geofencing and self-filtering, Yik Yak allows small groups of anonymous people to comment back and forth about real or made-up events, in polite or non-polite ways, with good or ill intentions, in real time.  

At a high school having trouble with Yik Yak, the principal tried to intervene by holding an assembly about the proper uses of social media.  Within minutes of the assembly beginning, a Yik Yak message said the principal and a female teacher had been spotted together on the nurse’s office couch.  Last spring, a sophomore at Middlebury College, was scrolling through Yik Yak in the dining hall when she happened across a post comparing her to a “hippo” and making a sexual references about her.  At a college campus, a Yik Yak reading, “I’m gonna [gun emoji] the school at 12:15 p.m. today,” caused panic.  

You could make the claim that messages such as these come quickly to the attention of adults and are just as quickly sorted out.   But, when the lie reads that sophomore ‘Sally Jones’ was seen with senior ‘Jill Adam’s’ boyfriend, the kids try to attend to the problem themselves, often ineffectively, and do not seek help from adults until the impact of the false message is out of control.   The victims of these messages, as they look around the hallways or cafeteria, don’t know where these messages are coming from, but they know the aggression against them is very close. The anonymous nature of Yik Yak brings and additional amount of fear.

To learn more about Yik Yak click here.

Am I Pretty? Videos

Since 2010, Am I Pretty? videos have become a trend or fad among young teenage girls mostly in the 11 – 14 age group.  It only takes a few minutes for a young girl to take a selfie video and upload it to YouTube, asking the question “Am I Pretty?” and allowing strangers to rate her appearance through their comments.  Many consider this impulsive action to be a form of self-harm, like cutting or purging, particularly if the young girl checks on her video daily for comments.  Both the nature of the comments ("Your kinda cute but them teeth...oh gosh no") and the lack of any comments (no attention to one's video) can be toxic to a girl's self-esteem.  

Girls who participate say they are looking for honest feedback because they do not believe the compliments they hear so often from their mothers and fathers.  They no longer care what their families think and want to know what the world thinks of their appearance.  They ask the strangers viewing their video to be honest, saying they can take it.  But, when people who are trolling these videos give feedback, can these girls truly take it?

Currently, there are thousands of Am I Pretty? videos on YouTube, but every day many are taken down and others added making it impossible to determine the total number of girls who have participated.  Most of the comments young girls receive are positive or supportive; but, the danger in this activity is that, unlike social networking, there is no familiar audience of friends and family to intervene following the post giving support to a young girl who is ridiculed or taunted.   

To learn more about Am I Pretty? videos click here.

A Climate of Outrage?

My grandchildren text me.  A possible conversation evaporates into a single word. Or worse yet into OMGs and IDKs and LOLs.   At the same time, I sense their stress levels have escalated; and with dancing lessons, soccer practice, games scheduled 2-hours away, homework, and rec-center basketball about to start, their idle moments have all but disappeared.

It used to be the TV remote was the center of power in the family room.  Now everything is handheld. And much of what these devices deliver into their world is valueless.  In the media, egos outshine ethics; celebrity ‘train wrecks’ subordinate real-life heroes; and no one wants to read about two 10- year-old boys raking lawns to raise $120 for wounded veterans when they can zero-in on how the Duggar family gets their haircuts.

And, outrage about all of this surges around us everywhere.  For many, too much of the small stuff takes us from 0 to 60 in seconds.   It feels like over the past three years, outrage has become our ‘default’ setting.   We are equally outraged when the kid at the supermarket can’t make proper change as we are at child slavery in the cocoa farms in Western Africa.

Yes, perhaps outrage is appropriate when we’re stuck on the runway awaiting departure for 2 hours or when our elderly parent waits too long, yet again, for an aide in the nursing home.  But, are we also outraged when our child doesn’t get enough playing time, when he or she isn’t invited to the birthday party, or when the teacher uses ‘principal’ instead of ‘principle’ in an email comment about a behavior problem?

This isn’t mine, but I’ve read it somewhere and I like it.  There is a damaging cycle to outrage. Obviously it begins with the quick rise from 'perception of a wrong' to white-hot anger.  It is followed by the piling on of more details and offences.  Then, there is the sarcasm, accusations, attacks, and counter-attacks.  There’s the contempt and the accompanying insults.  There’s the Tweet and the Facebook post, making it easy to stoke the outrage from the car, the dinner table, and even the bed.   Sometimes, outrage ends in chagrin and an apology; but more often, the storm of outrage just smolders out there in the world where we've left it until it eventually dies down of its own accord.

The same cycle takes place regardless of how big or how small is the impetus for the ‘outrage.’  If we could remember them and list all the things from January to now that have caused us outrage, how many of these things would cause us to wonder what was I thinking?  And what do they then cause our children to wonder about?  How are our kids supposed to filter what things in their world are worthy of outrage if everything is?

This past summer there was a picture that went viral of a drowned Syrian boy, a refugee, whose family was trying to reach Greece.  It seemed that there was more outrage over the publication of the picture than there was over the circumstances that led to the drowning.  How are we using our outrage?  What lessons are we teaching through the media?  Through our own example?

We need to remember that children are affected by the quality of the adult interactions that occur in their presence, even when they not the center of those interactions.  Our emotional demeanor, (i.e. our content, happiness, and generosity … or our disgust, anger, and aggression) influences their feelings about their world.   We become mirrors of the world -- and, when they look at adults do they see a wondrous place, or a wrathful one?   Check any source, and you’ll find tension in adults is negatively linked to childhood development and esteem.

Knowing what we know about our children's world – texts, snapchats, posts, sound-bites, emoticons – perhaps we can do more to make the real world they live in a place of interest and beauty.  There’s no end to the quotes you can find about compassion and generosity of spirit, but recently we had an adult workshop with a fabulous guest speaker who also worked with students and staff at the high school.  Calvin Terrell, the founder of Social Centric, left us with the message that our daily lives and our ‘Litchfield’ community can be better if stop making negative and judgmental assumptions about the people we encounter.  If we just let today be the day we look for some good in the everyday people we meet and if we respect their journey.  This isn’t to say we should ignore maliciousness when we see it -- just that maybe we should not see every mistake or misstep as evil and reserve our ‘outrage’ for the truly titanic issues our world is facing.

Telling Our Own Story

Convocation Message to the Litchfield Staff on Opening Day

August 28, 2015

My theme for the coming year, something you’ll very likely hear me repeat over and over, almost a mantra is:  “This is our year for Telling Our Own Story.”

A Story

And so to begin, I’m going to tell you a story of my own.  This is my granddaughter Ella.  She’s five.   “And a half!” she will tell you. “But, I’m more on the half towards six than five!” she’ll add with an emphatic series of karate chops, as if to cut off the remaining time.  She’s in a bit of hurry to grow up! 

This summer, Ella and I were returning from some errands out past Worchester, Massachusetts.  We got on the Mass Pike, (which is a toll road), at I-495 … and, since I was not driving my own car with my EZ-Pass, I had to stop and pick up a toll-ticket.   Ella asked about it… what it was for and so on… And I told her, looking at her in the rear-view mirror.   

When we got to our exit at Rt. 84, the traffic jam was ridiculous. If you’ve ever been in that area of the Mass Pike on a Sunday evening, when all the summer Cape Cod traffic is headed west, you know that if the exit for Rt. 84 is extremely backed-up, they start waving cars through the toll booths until it clears.  We had that luck.  I had the ticket in my hand, ready to turn it in, when we were waved through.
 
From her car seat in the back, Ella said, “Oh good!  Can I have it?” 

“Sure,” I said and handed the ticket back to her. 

“Thank you, Gramma!” she exclaimed, as if I had given her the deed to the Taj Mahal.  She held onto it, and when we got home, she set-up a pretend game on the kitchen floor, with all of her many horses and one two-foot Tyrannosaurus Rex crossing over the raised wooden threshold between the kitchen and living room.   When each animal crossed over, they had their names spoken aloud, and they got a little circle colored-in on the Mass Pike toll-ticket. 

Why is this story important?  Because this year Ella starts kindergarten.  This year, her family turns her over to the teachers in Southwick, Massachusetts, in a school system that’s not very different from Litchfield’s.  Over the next thirteen years, through their lenses, and of course, through her family’s as well, Ella is about to learn that this toll ticket (with its colorful crayoned dots) has absolutely no real value – and this, a crisp $20 bill, does.  How that ‘introduction to the real world’ and how that ‘education’ take place is of vital importance to all of us. 

It is, of course, important that our students learn math and can wrestle with difficult reading passages.  It’s important that our children learn money and time and the notes on a C-scale.  It’s important that they know what an anecdote is and how to use a microscope.   But, it’s also important that when they see a friend in need, they stop to help.  That even though their T-shirt reads “It’s all about me!” – it really isn’t.  That they learn to understand, and even predict, the impact of their decisions.  It’s important that they sometimes live in their imaginations. 

Teachers do ALL of THAT so very well.  For that reason, it is important we tell our own story.  
Every child, in every one of our classrooms, is an Ella.   A child loved by his or her family and entrusted into the hands of educators who hopefully understand that “in loco parentis,” which in Latin means “in the place of the parents,” in parent-language really means, “Please be kind to my child, kinder than I am when I lose my patience … And, therefore, please, be patient … And, please, please, please be better than I am at translating this crazy world we live in into something meaningful my child can use.”

Fortunately, you’re up to the challenge!  And that too is where “telling our own story” comes in!

We can’t control what happens around us in the educational setting.  We can’t control state mandates for teacher evaluation or for SBAC.  We can’t control ‘opting-out.’  We certainly can’t control what comes into our environment from the outside – our students’ broken home-lives, the prevalence of drugs and alcoholism their culture, or domestic violence. 

That is primarily why my goal for this school year is to improve communications and, through communications, to control our message that we send out into the world!  I want a better and more interactive webpage where it becomes easy to post a picture and a headline… or, a sound bite of kids at work and a sample of their accomplishment.  I want a webpage with a calendar we can trust to be up-to-the minute, menus, and a link to the CIAC, so we can use those kinds of features to draw parents and the community in.  Then, I want rss-feeds and links to Facebook and Pinterest for even more sharing.   I want a place to brag about our teachers and our programs.  I want our positive message, about all the good things we do, to be louder, with a more memorable melody and a stronger cadence, than the voices of the dissidents.

Our communications can be our fight song. 

In Our Classrooms
First and foremost, we can control to a great degree (because it is solely our domain), how we treat each other in our classrooms.   How we treat each other in our classrooms matters.   Sarcasm, (even when gentle), teasing, and insensitivity have a way of chipping away at everyone’s health – ours, the target’s, and the bystanders'.  Kindness and thoughtfulness lift people up!  Incivility holds them down.

Words, when they are not carefully and thoughtfully chosen, make people feel small.  I remember reading a study in Psychology Today which said that emotionally healthy children can receive up to 11 negative messages to every 1 positive.  A negative message could be anything from an emphatic ‘Shhhh!’ to ‘Can you do something with your hair?’ to ‘How many times do I have ask you to take out the garbage?’  ALL messages which adults have long-ago ceased to consider negative.   Imagine, 11:1 -- and that’s the emotionally healthy kids.  The damaged kids received as many as 56:1; and because of their circumstances, many of their negative messages are self-generated: “I’m such a loser!” “Why is everyone prettier than me?” “No one likes me.”

That’s an important set of statistics; but, whenever you genuinely ask a student, ‘How is your mother feeling this week?’ or ‘How many kittens did the cat have?’ or ‘What did you like best about your trip to San Antonio?’ you are showing you care about what's important to them.  When you focus your classrooms on respectful discussions and ask kids to acknowledge another student’s point before they disagree… or, when you consistently reinforce, ‘mean behavior is not tolerated here,’ you are lifting your students 12 feet off the ground!

This year, in addition to talking about math and AP scores and awards, I will try to communicate all of those fabulous activities in your classrooms and our schools which focus on building our students’ respect for others and their own personal dignity. 

In Our Faculty Rooms

No, we can’t control many of the most recent variables of our profession.  But, neither can today’s nurses … or airline attendants … or policemen… and so on.  We are all living in a dramatically changing world.  People in every profession, in every walk-of-life feel the impact of change in their lives.  No one can control the speed of change.

But, we can control how we treat our colleagues in the workplace and how we communicate with each other.  A generalized dissatisfaction with our profession and an insensitivity to the virtues of teaching and teachers chips away at everyone’s well-being.  In the spirit of our colleague-to-colleague communications, reach out to the new teachers we have hired this year.   Share your materials, your ideas, your anecdotes, your legacy, and how our late-openings and snow days work.

Be present, in mind and spirit, when your grade-level teams meet.  Bring your best self to professional development, to SIT Team and PPTs.  Support your principals in faculty meetings.   Advocate for, and be a champion of, teachers and education.  To the degree that you can on any given day, take a deep breath and smile at change because we’ve seen it before and it didn't deterred us then, nor will it now.

In Our Wider Community

I’m asking that you please be thoughtful about how you represent your school and your colleagues outside our doors, as well.   Always remember there is a text … and a subtext.   You might say to a parent, “Wow, we’re having a hard time getting the tech up and running this year,” and what someone in the community eventually passes along to their neighbor is, “That school is a mess and no one knows what they are doing…”  An off-the-cuff remark that “the early release days for PD make the day feel longer, not shorter” later gets translated in the community as, “The teachers hate the PD days, so why do we need them?”  Everyone knows how the negative flows.  Everyone understands the nature of ‘scuttlebutt.’   So, kindly be ambassadors for your schools.  Brag, celebrate, congratulate, and think about the powerful subtexts of those positive messages and stories you can send forth.

Conclusions

Teaching is a challenging job with many unique frustrations, but the rewards of teaching are innumerable.   Remember Ella?  This year someone just like you is going to teach her that while a $20 bill ‘buys her things’ that ‘Mass Pike toll ticket,’ which represents her imagination and story-telling, can take her places too.

That is a powerful… awesome! … responsibility.  And it is ours!  Relish in it!  Celebrate it! 

Do what you can to tell our story!

Finnish Lessons: What the World Can Learn From Finland

Finnish Lessons: What the World Can Learn From Finland

Recently, I had the fabulous opportunity to hear a keynote address by Dr. Pasi Sahlberg, a Finnish educator and scholar, who was both incredibly knowledgeable and incredibly funny.  He has a laundry list of credentials: a Master of Science from University of Turku, a PhD. from the University of Jyvaskylä, and a Teacher’s Diploma from the University of Helsinki. He served in the Ministry of Education in Finland, as the Senior Education Specialist for the World Bank in Washington, DC., and as the Lead Education Specialist for the European Training Foundation in Torino, Italy.   He even received First Class Knight of the White Rose of Finland from the President.  He is currently a visiting Professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which is how he became available to educators in New England.

Why is this relevant?  Because Finland is #1 in the world in all aspects of education – math, reading, science, etc. -- (although he admitted Finland doesn’t care about that; they only care that they are better than Sweden.)  Rather than proposing that other nations follow in Finland's path, his book Finnish Lessons documents how Finland achieved success without going through the difficult and controversial educational processes typical of the United States -- in other words, without implementing competitive practices such as school choice, school report cards, and test-based accountability.  

The United States is not doing education wrong, however.  Salhberg said that Finland and all the other developed countries regularly copy the educational ideas that come out of the United Statesand implement them in classrooms most often in very similar ways.  Salhberg cited the technological advances and concepts such project-based learning, interdisciplinary teaching, STEM, and collaborative learning.  What he reminded us of was this: the United States is significantly struggling in the other social domains that ultimately make us educationally non-competitive.  We do not fully recognize or acknowledge the tight relationship between poverty, health care, and education, for example.  According to Salhberg's research and expertise, Finland is # 1 in education because the country is also #1 in the world in other key ‘social’ factors such as the empowerment of women, health care for children, low rate of poverty, and the percentage of people reporting satisfaction with life.  In Finland, for example, both parents get paid child care leave after the birth of a baby because of the importance Finnish society places on the nuclear family.  Free, state-sponsored child care is available to working mothers.  And so on.  

Thus, underlying the success of the Finnish system is a constitutional commitment to every child’s right to great education, as well as a strong social safety net that has reduced child poverty in Finland from its peak in the 1970's – about 22%, (near the current U.S. rate) – to just 4% today.  In the United States, as is true in most countries, socioeconomic status is truly one of the keenest predictors of a child’s success in school.

My take-aways were these : 

1. When it comes to the best educational practices, Sahlberg said everyone in the world is copying the United States (perhaps a slight exaggeration on his part, not mine!)
2. When our educational achievement (our y axis, or the dependent variable) is plotted on a grid against the equality of key social factors in our society (our x axis, or the independent variable), we fall below those countries with whom we most want to be recognized and competitive. (See the chart above).

He labeled the "high achievement/strong equity" zone  ‘heaven,’ and used the Led Zeppelin soundtrack ‘Climbing the Stairway to Heaven’  to close his presentation.  

His book is titled Finnish Lessons: What the World Can Learn from Finland.

The Death of Boredom or Bored to Death?

The Death of Boredom or Bored to Death?

I worry about my grandchildren, specifically, and our youngest generation of students, generally, and their overall inability to accept boredom into their lives.   Without boredom, how will they think? 

When I was a child, my mother and father expected me to rake, shovel, dust, and do a whole host of very boring things.  Yet, while I did these chores, my mind was active.  As a duster, I remember ‘staging’ commercials in my mind.  I could dramatically wave my hands and ad lib about my streak-free shine and Pledge’s ability to bring out the natural beauty of the wood.  As I got older, I used the boring times, such as walking home from field hockey practice or washing dishes at Friendlies, to problem-solve the ‘major’ issues in my young life.  I ran scenarios; I pre-scripted upcoming events (as in, 'I’ll say this, and then he’ll say that,' and 'then I’ll say…'); I made plans, both for the weekend … and for the future.  Even now, when I’m driving home to Massachusetts or gardening in the backyard, my mind is active.  Boredom is important to my mental processes.  Boredom is where I reminisce about the past and sift through new opportunities, ideas, and solutions.  Boredom leads to a clear mind.  A clear mind leads to creativity.

The problem I see in my beloved and beautiful grandchildren is their desire to fill every moment with activity and their complete uneasiness with ‘boredom.’   If we are early to the movie and the previews haven’t started, if we’re riding the escalator in the mall, or even standing in the kitchen, waiting for the toast to pop up, they are texting or playing a quick game of ‘Draw Something’ or 'Monster Busters,' on their phones.   In the back seat of the car, they have headsets on, cutting them off from both conversation ... and observation. 

They call it multi-tasking, but they watch TV and work on their computers or fiddle with their cell phones at the same time, making even TV-watching less cerebral (if that’s possible!), because they aren’t processing either the facial expressions or the dialogue.  If you ask them a thought question about the show, they respond, ‘I don’t know.  Why?’ as if thinking about the story-line was absurd. 

I love them dearly, but I worry that I never ever hear them complain ‘I’m bored;’ and as a result, I never ever get to say, ‘Well, go think of something to do.’

For more information about kids, creativity, and boredom, check out these on-line resources:

Aha! Parenting's "Why Boredom is Good for Your Child" and Essential Kids' "The Battle to Let Them Be Bored."

There’s a Lot to Like about Common Core

There’s a Lot to Like about Common Core

So much has been said and written about the Common Core State Standards (CCSS); and, as with any new and controversial idea, the public is left with the task of separating the truth from the hype -- on both sides.  I like the Common Core, however.  I’ve ‘met’ the standards, and there isn’t one I don’t like.  I contend that the best of our country’s teachers have been teaching common-core-style for years.   

To illustrate, I picked two examples, somewhat randomly, from the English Language Arts CCSS.  Meet “Read closely to make logical inferences” and “Describe the logical connection between particular sentences and paragraphs in a text.”   I wouldn’t mind going to work with either one because they are more authentic and more demanding than some common educational practices in the recent past. 

Let me explain.  As the English Department Chair and a strong curriculum leader in my past, I cringed when I saw students taking reading quizzes.  ‘Where does Of Mice and Men take place?’ ‘List the main characters in Romeo and Juliet who are dead at the end of the play?’ ‘In Cather in the Rye, why does Holden go to New York?’  Questions of this nature measure either compliance or memory, not comprehension.  The students have either read (or at least read the Cliff Notes) … or they haven’t.  They either remember the intricate details or they don’t.  

The Common Core State Standards for Language Arts demonstrate to me just how far we have come from a “Trivial Pursuit” style of learning in this new century.  I also like the CCSS’ potential to affect changes in instruction – particularly to change the level and depth of the deeper questions we ask.

One argument against Common Core states that the emphasis on close reading strips children of the joy inherent in reading.  Studying the text ruins the experience.  The opponents ask if it isn’t important to help children develop a love of reading … and not just read for information or to evaluate, critique, and compare?’  The ‘just’ is my emphasis because the argument isn’t either/or –either you read closely or you enjoy what you read. 

Let’s look at the first CCSS above and consider “Jack and the Beanstalk,” a story with which most people have some familiarity. Typically, a teacher might want to assess whether or not students comprehended the story: ‘What did Jack get when he traded the cow?’ (Magic beans.)  ‘What did Jack find at the top of the giant beanstalk?’ (The ogre. ‘What is an ogre?’ might be a logical follow-up question.)  ‘What was the first thing Jack stole?’ (A golden egg.)  ‘The second thing?’ (The hen that laid a golden egg every day?) ‘The third thing?’ (The golden harp.)  And so on.

Common Core, however, expects teachers to change their style of questioning and pursue concepts which are not obvious or can’t be found through skimming the text -- concepts which require close-reading.  These questions require kids to both reread and to read between the lines.  A good Common Core question asks, “If Jack already has the hen that lays a golden egg each day, why does he go up the beanstalk for the harp?”  I would contend that as a young reader I would have been much more fascinated by the ‘why?’ than the ‘what?’  Asking me to reread and go back to the earlier pieces of the story for a closer look at Jack would not have ruined it for me.  It would have given it ‘dimension.’

Another argument against common core is that it is too often expects students to fill in the missing pieces when a text is not explicit. ‘How can they do that?’ critics complain.  Kids can’t know what isn’t there.  I once read this example about building bridges in America and it resonated with me.  The first paragraph told about building the Brooklyn Bridge, a suspension bridge, across a large expanse of water, with its pylons under water.  Another bridge crossed the very expansive Mississippi River; and another, ridiculously high in the air, crossed the Rio Grande.  Each paragraph gave details about how the bridges were built.   

In the second CCSS above, we see that excellent readers sometimes need to connect a series of ideas to arrive at the author’s purpose.  In this example, in each case, the bridge was built despite the difficulties each unique setting presented.  So, the author’s purpose was not “to show how hard it is to build bridges” but “to show how American ingenuity overcame obstacles to get the job done.”  There’s a subtle, but important difference.  It’s our job to make sure our children have opportunities to talk about and refine their conclusions. 

Because I’m in the business, I frequently read and think about the CCSS, which expect kids to think deeply and problem-solve.  I know the standards are challenging, for students and teachers.  But there isn’t one I would dismiss as nonsense. 

[If you would like to read the CCSS yourself, click HERE.]

Budget Season is in Full Swing

Budget Season is in Full Swing

To date, this year's budget season has been both challenging ... and rewarding.  The challenges have been coming quickly to grips with the existing line items, from personnel to paper clips, and understanding the needs behind any new requests.  The rewards have been realizing how caring and supportive of staff and children the Board and the Litchfield community have always been.  I appreciate that the community wants to be both conservative with spending and generous in support of kids' needs.  The administrators and Central Office staff have been thoughtful.  I ask a million question, all of them beginning with 'why?' and they are still thoughtful.

The budget supports current staffing and benefits (77% of the budget) and fixed costs such as utilities and transportation (13%).  The remaining 10% supports programming, curriculum, materials, and supplies.  In addition to meeting our contractual obligations, here are the three priorities of the 2015-2016 budget: 

First, a new Math curriculum for grades K - 5.  

We are investigating a Common Core aligned program that is rich in differentiation materials and teacher and parent resources.  Common Core is not the demon so many groups paint it to be.  It is a rigorous set of standards that expect hands-on learning, complex problem-solving, and communication of ideas.  As with any new change, it's what you do with it that counts.  Litchfield’s previous math program was aligned to the requirements of the old CMT with 26 different content strands each year.  We’ve come to call that approach ‘a mile wide and an inch deep.’   The new Common Core State Standards require far fewer concepts per year and a much deeper level of understanding.  The new requirements also add ‘math practices’ to the core content expecting teachers and students to change their old strategies and incorporate more hands-on problem-solving, more conversation about how and why an answer is right, and greater fluency and facility with number sense.  The math practices expect students to persevere if a multi-step problem is difficult.

Second, the technology to support a new Math Curriculum.  

Any math program worth our investment will support this new Common Core math content and a student-centered instructional approach.  Any worthwhile program will also offer rich technology supports such as pre- and post- assessments, online skills work with opportunities for immediate feedback, teacher resources for differentiation at all levels, SmartBoard-ready lessons, and online parent supports.   We’re looking at programs which offer computer-adaptive activities that look like games, but are individualized to each student’s ability.  They repeat skills the child is struggling with until they are mastered… or escalate the skills until a child is being challenged.  The data is readily available to teachers and paraprofessionals.  We've looked at one program which when parents scan their child's homework from a device, an instructive video opens re-teaching the lesson.  The same videos are available through online links.

Finally, retaining the class sizes at the elementary schools and the diverse program offerings at the high school. 

At the elementary schools, class sizes average at or below 20.  Caseloads in Special Education are also very manageable at about 12 - 15.  We are expanding pre-school for 3’s and 4’s, but keeping classes at or below 12. 

In a small high school such as Litchfield’s, class sizes are much more variable.  Several factors play with simple arithmetic:  number of students who elect a class, weighted classes (AP, Honors, and Academic); heavily-enrolled core classes (band and chorus), and specialty courses with only one section, called singletons (AP classes, Tech-Ed, World Languages, art).   

This is easier to see by example.  Imagine this year’s junior class, for example, with 84 students.  Simple division would yield four English classes with 21 students each.   But, there may be only 12 juniors who elect AP Language and Composition and 48 students who want Honors English.  The schedule then becomes further complicated when, of the 48 students taking Honors English, 20 are in Band and cannot take English during that particular Band block.  If 14 of the 20 Honors/Band students are also taking AP US History, another singleton class, an extra section of English may now be needed to cover the inflexibilities caused by selecting these three classes in combination.  Litchfield is committed to providing programming which does not cause a junior to choose between AP US History and Band.  We do the best we possibly can in honoring students’ individual program needs through flexible scheduling and recently through the flexible (asynchronous) scheduling of a few virtual high school courses.

The Board of Education budget is understandably a collection of static numbers with a bottom line.  But, more poetically, it is the foundation on which we are building our future through the education of our children.  So side-by-side with our analysis of the figures, we should remember our accomplishments throughout the district and celebrate our children and teachers at work.  Ours IS a people business, and this budget continues Litchfield’s tradition of supporting the individual growth and development of every child.  Simply put, it’s what’s best for kids.

To view the budget presentation in easy-to-read slides, click HERE.

Connecting Reading to Real Life

Connecting Reading to Real Life

Yesterday, I was taking my 13-year-old grandson to an away soccer game which gave us that momentously valuable opportunity for a car-ride conversation.   Anyone who loves a child knows that sometimes the best conversations can happen in the midst of everyday activities when we are not eye-to-eye.

I wanted to discuss a bullying scene from a movie we had been watching just before we left, and I asked him what he would have done if he had seen the same thing happen at his school.  “Gramma,” he said.  “It’s fake!  It’s only a movie.”  I was struck once again with the difficulty we have as parents and educators helping kids connect to what they read, or in this case, view.  It’s the difference between merely seeing the picture and internalizing what that picture means in terms of being human. 

Readers may already know that helping kids connect the text and their outside experiences is a tough challenge.  But, much more important than mere reading comprehension is the need for a child to connect with what he or she reads or views simply because empathy is a significant life-long success factor.  The best leaders, (as well as spouses, friends, and parents), have the ability to understand the patterns of human behavior and what motivates others.  In addition, people who connect with others and feel empathy are better able to withstand adversity.  Connecting with others provides a feeling of belonging and reduces feelings of loneliness.

Typically, our students connect to the events in a story or a show, and if they have never experienced that particular series of events themselves, they have difficulty imagining themselves in the same situation.  Our job as teachers and parents is to help children move beyond the situation itself and explore the elements of human nature embedded within.   This human connection can come from connecting with pictures in magazines, television, books, and movies.  It involves considering what the people are thinking and feeling, and why.  It involves asking kids important questions about what they read and view.

Try this out with your child.  Use the picture below and ask a few questions such as:   How did the boy get into this jam?  [You don’t want the obvious: ‘He put his head through the chair.’  Rather, and answer such as, 'Maybe someone dared him to do it.' Or, ' Maybe he was showing off for his friends.'] What is the boy thinking?  [He might be embarrassed because everyone knows he did something foolish.  He might be afraid of getting in trouble.  He might be afraid of getting hurt.]  What do think is going through the mind of the lady in the tan jacket?  [She might be afraid … She might be angry …]  How about the man in blue with the saw?

Any example of human experience will do, but if you’re game there is an incredible video on youtube.com at “Sailor Surprises His Son.”  After viewing, ask your child: If the boy is happy, why is he crying?  How does the father feel?  Why do you think the surprise was a good one?

Even our littlest readers and viewers can begin to connect to what they read, hear, and view with practice.  Good connection questions help us draw conclusions about people in general.  They help us understand jealousy, loyalty, shyness, embarrassment, and a whole wealth of feelings humans share in common.  They also enable us to understand reactions which are not common to most people.  Next time you’re reading a story or watching a movie, ask your children to think about whether or not they would like to be friends with a particular character or person.  Ask them what they might have done in that same situation, if they would like to visit that place or to meet that person you read about.  Ask which part of the story or movie they liked best, if one of the characters reminds them of anyone they know... and, of course, always ask why.

Introduction to the Litchfield Community

Introduction to the Litchfield Community

I have had the most memorable introduction to Litchfield in the past two weeks, and I am so grateful to the community for the warmest of welcomes.   On Friday, January 16, the Intermediate School students and I met for a ‘town meeting style’ assembly for which they had prepared a large set of interview questions.  Those questions, some of which I’ll answer below, serve as a perfect means of introducing myself to the Litchfield community. 

To open the meeting, I told the students a little about myself as a child and how lucky I was to have a caring and creative mom.  I shared with them a story my mother used to tell my sister and me about “a little red house with a little brown chimney that had no windows and no doors and a star inside.”  My mother had always made the story seem like going on a magical adventure to find this house, and then she would take a red Macintosh apple out of the icebox (red house, brown chimney, no windows and doors) and cut it crosswise in half.  There was always a star inside.  She told the story to remind us to be interested in the world, not bored… to see things differently and to think about the world creatively, rather than always doing things rotely and routinely. 

As I was sitting at my desk, writing this introduction, I received in my email this picture taken at lunch at the Intermediate School.  It's message mean a great deal to me, and I will always return to it on tough days.

After my story it was time for the kids to raise their hands, come forward to the microphone, give their names, and ask their questions.  I had a great deal of fun and was so proud of their interests.


Robert came forward and asked the first question: Why do we have so many snow days?
While kids like snow days, most adults do not.  Here’s what happens, Robert.  Sometime between 3:00 and 4:00 in the morning, I will receive an email from or talk on the phone with Mr. Jack Healy, who is Litchfield’s Director of Public Works.  Road crews are already at work, sanding or plowing, and reporting in to Mr. Healy about the conditions on miles and miles of roads in Litchfield.  At 4:15 a.m., I join a conference call with weatherman Mr. John Bagioni and all of the area Superintendents.  There are at least a dozen of us.  We hear the latest weather forecast, and everyone shares their town’s road reports because teachers will come from many different places to get to work.  We begin to talk our district’s needs, and we listen to what others are thinking.  Then, about 4:45, after everyone weighs in, we end our conference call; and I call Mr. Ed Drapp, who is Regional District 6’s superintendent.  We think about inexperienced drivers at our high schools and your bus drivers both navigating slippery roads and sharing the roads with less careful drivers who may slide into them.  We make the same decision; and in the end, it will always be about student and staff safety.

Sebastian wanted to know: Are you going to make changes to the school or the specials?Today, Sebastian, I met you and many of your teachers for the first or second time.  I have only been in Litchfield for eight days. I want to continue to visit your schools and talk to your principal and teachers … and the staff and students working in the other two schools as well.  I need to listen and find out what’s important to you.  Staying in touch with the schools is how I will focus on what you and your teachers need to be successful every day.  It's not my job to come here and start changing things around to suit myself.  My job is to make sure that all of the people in charge -- from the teachers in your schools to your parents and our community, including, of course, the members of the Board of Education -- always keep their focus on one important question: What's best for kids? 

Maya asked a seriously formal question: How did you get your job? 
With a smile I told Maya it was a long process.  I saw the advertisement for a new superintendent online; and the very first week I saw it, I applied by sending in a very detailed application with my resume, references, and college transcripts.  I made an effort to reflect your community in my application.   At the time, I was the Superintendent in Orange, Connecticut; and while I loved the teachers and students there, I missed working with a high school.  And Litchfield is such a beautiful community with wide open spaces and a terrific school system.  There won’t be as much shopping here; but it is more like the small town where I grew up, so it feels comfortable.  The Board of Education called me for an interview, and I answered tough questions for an hour.  Then they called me again, and I answered even tougher questions for an hour and a half.  Finally, they traveled down to Orange where they met with the people with whom I was working to uncover what those people thought about my commitment to education and my leadership abilities.  In the end, the Board offered me the job as your superintendent… and, I gladly accepted.

Maya’s card also asked: How many family members do you have?
I have a small family, Maya; but we are very close.  I have two children who are grown up. My son is 39 and he works as a digital photographer and graphic artist for a large advertising firm in Greenville, South Carolina.  My daughter is 37 and she stays at home taking care of my youngest grand-daughter who just turned five years old.  She is a curious little girl with an interesting way of looking at everything around her.  She is crazy for horses and dinosaurs.  My son-in-law is in the Air Force.  He repairs jet engines and ‘teaches drill’ to men and women serving in the Reserves.   I also have an 18-year-old grand-daughter, who is a freshman in college and already involved in several civic clubs that do volunteer work and contribute to the community.  She loves school, especially Spanish, social sciences, and government.  She runs 5K races for fun, and enjoys reading, too.  In the middle, I have a 13-year-old grandson with red hair, who loves soccer and plays outdoor or indoor soccer all year long. And, he likes his computer games, too! 

Effie asked: Do you have any pets? Did you have pets as a kid?  I have always had pets.  My father liked English setters and he even raised a litter of puppies.  My two favorite dogs as a kid were Zippy and Bessie, both were black and white setters.  Now, I have one dog, Harley, who is a poodle and cocker spaniel mix, because somehow I became allergic to dogs and he is hypoallergenic.  We also have four dwarf Nigerian goats.

Mikayla asked: What are you looking forward to as superintendent?  Are you excited?
I’m very excited and look forward to coming to work every day.  I love what I do and I love education and making a difference.  The best moments are the times like these when I get to meet with students and teachers and talk about what’s important.  However, there is a lot of email and paperwork, and right now, I’m trying to learn the budget and meet with as many people as I can, so it’s try to try to do everything at once. 

To answer Ashlyn's question, what's my favorite thing about being a superintendent? 
So far, Ashlyn, meeting and working with people -- kids, teachers, volunteers, parents, community members. At the end of the day, I like to feel like I've made a difference.

Emily and Gwen’s questions work well together:  What made you a superintendent and how many years have you been a superintendent?
To do back to my mother’s story, I was always curious and interested in every challenge and adventure.  I always wanted to try the next thing and test myself.  I was a good teacher in Suffield and East Granby, but I wanted to help other teachers and I became a department chair at the high school in Canton, which is very close to you, and I supervised nine teachers.  Then, because of the volunteer committees and projects I was working on, I became interested in curriculum.  I went to school and got my 092 license and became Canton’s first Curriculum Director and Assistant Superintendent.  When I realized I wanted even more challenge and responsibility, I went back to school again and earned my 093 to become a superintendent.  I was the superintendent in Orange for three years before coming to Litchfield.  The main reason I took on all those changes is that I always wanted to try the next step.  

Ava asked: What was your favorite things to teach in English?
I taught high school, so the books I loved may not be familiar to you.  So many books, it’s hard to choose. I taught a lot of different courses in high school.  I loved teaching a very complex books called Behind the Scenes in the Museum.  Another one of my favorites was Ragtime, which is actually written off the beat, just like ragtime music is played.  You know how when you are clapping to music, you usually clap with the beat?  Well, ragtime music is syncopated or off-the beat, as if you were clapping exactly when everyone else wasn’t.  Well, the author wrote the book off-beat.  Just when you think you know what to expect, he does something else.  I loved teaching about Romeo and Juliet, and how the problem was really that the kids could not communicate with their parents and went to their friends instead.  I loved teaching The Bean Trees… so many books, but I’m sorry they aren’t books you know yet.

Jake asked an interesting question: What would your second choice for a job be other than a superintendent? 
I would be a writer.  I try to be a writer even now in my spare time.  I write a lot of short stories; and have written three novels, but none of them is ready to be published.  Someday, I’ll go back and finish what I started, but it takes more time than I have right now.  When I retire, sometime in the future, I’ll finish one or all of the novels and send them out to a publisher to see what happens.

We were out of time, but here are a few of the questions I would have loved to answer:

Deanna wrote: What was your favorite subject in school when you were a kid? I loved everything about school; but I became an English teacher because I loved reading and writing.  I was very good at science, but I didn’t really understand it.

Bella asked: Who inspired you?  My parents did.  My mother graduated first in her high school class, but never went to college because she had been raised to go to work.  Her father worked in a factory and she became a waitress and then a secretary.  One interesting thing about my mother is that she could play the piano extremely well.  She could hear something and play it.  When she was 10 or 11, she traded doing housework for her piano teacher in return for lessons.  My mother also painted clock faces when we were kids.  She was an outstanding artist.  She and my father raised us to go to college.  They also talked about politics and issues at the dinner table and expected us to be thinkers.

Ellen wrote: What were you like in elementary school?  I tried to be very perfect and proper.  If I made a mistake writing, I wouldn’t erase it.  I would start over on another piece of paper.  (We didn’t have computers.)  I always wanted A’s on my report card and was upset if I didn’t get one in a subject.  But, I was also a little clumsy and awkward.  I sometimes did embarrassing things, such as falling off my chair or skinning my knees at recess.  Sometimes I got in trouble for things that I thought were funny, but annoyed the teacher.  One time I took a friend’s hat and hid it in my desk.  The teacher thought I was stealing it and made me stand in the hall facing the wall, which was a common punishment in my school days. 

Daniel wanted to know: Was it always your dream to be a superintendent?  No, I wanted to be an airline stewardess.  I romanticized that they were beautiful, adventurous women who traveled the world.  My father said 'NO.'   I was going to college and that was that.

To summarize a few other immediate concerns:  
No, Tommy, I have no plans to make you wear uniforms.  I went camping when I was a kid, Alex, but never as an adult.   I would love for you to have more technology, Aiden and everyone else who asked the same question; so I’ll work on that issue with the staff and the Board.  
Yes, I do have to work at home, Diana; and no, I have no real trick up my sleeve to being a good superintendent, Erin, other than listening to people and always remembering to do what is best for kids.  Patrick, I have no immediate plans to decrease the amount of homework you get; but it is the kind of issue a district committee can study if enough people are interested.  I do have some favorite memories, Madelyn, like the red house with a star inside; and I write about my memories all the time, so invite me to come to your class and I’ll share another one with you.  


Thank you to the students and staff at Litchfield Intermediate for this opportunity to say hello,