Managers vs. Leaders

I love this quote from Seth Godin:

"Managers work hard to get their employees to do what they did yesterday but a little faster and a little cheaper.  Managers seek compliance and reliabilty.  Leaders don't know what's around the corner.  They're leading us somewhere and their goal is to challenge the people who work for them to do something that they didn't expect better than they hoped."

When I read this, of course, I immediately applied it to my job as a teacher.

As teachers, do we seek compliance and reliability?  And those things are nice.  They are okay.  But if all you can do as a teacher is manage your class, is that really what you want to spend your career doing?

Or as teachers, do we challenge our kids to do something (read a new book, present a lesson to the class, set up a blog, give a speech, or write an essay) that they didn't think they could.  Not only that, but as a teacher do we push them to do that something better than they thought they could do it?

I don't think teachers who manage classes can do that.  I think only a teacher who leads their class can get their kids to do that.

Now does that "leading" necessarily look the same?  Not at all.

But that's what's so great about teaching.  Some of us can lead our classes through our passion or our content mastery or our caring.  It doesn't have to look the same.  Nor do I think that it should look the same.

Interesting

I watched this documentary today.

Watch The Education of Michelle Rhee on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Quite interesting.

I've been fascinated by Michelle Rhee, especially during her time "reforming" the Washington DC schools.

What I like about her (and don't think she's going to go away.  I think she will be secretary of education after Arne Duncan):

*She holds teachers accountable.

*She holds administrators accountable.

*She believes the #1 way to improve education is to get excellent teachers in front of every class.

What I dislike about her:

*She holds teachers accountable through high stakes testing.

*She is too much of a media personality.  I don't know that she can live outside of the spotlight.

What I find most interesting about this documentary is the apparent extent of cheating on the high stakes tests that hold teachers accountable took place.

And it's not just teachers and proctors who cheated.  It's gone all the way up to superintendents (look at the shameful example in Atlanta).

In Noise elementary school, a school celebrated for significant test score improvements, in Washington DC the principal there reported clear examples of teachers falsifying test scores.  When security was tightened (the principal changed the locks on the rooms where the tests were kept and hired more proctors), the result? Test scores dropped 30%.

It seems while NCLB had a nobel goal: to eliminate the soft bigotry of low expectations of inner city and minority children, it has most certainly not done much to eliminate those low expectations.  Instead it has exposed (or perhaps created) another tragedy: cheating.

Here is one of my favorite takes on how to improve education and why we should shy away from high stakes testing as the sole measure of student achievement and teacher quality.

Today's Stupid

Pat Robertson.

That pretty much is a life sentence of stupidity; however, his foray into marriage counseling is just too stupid to comprehend.

Robertson tells a woman, whose husband is cheating on her, to basically just get over it.

Someone needs to inform Robertson that this isn't the 1950's anymore.  And thank God for that.

So your husband is cheating on you.  Well, does he provide you with a home (never mind she could well be making more money than her husband)? Does he provide food (with the implicit being she should probably stay home and cook it for the bread-winner too)?  Is he handsome? (yes, believe it or not). Is he a good father (nevermind that he is setting an awesome example for his children with the affair)?

Just focus more on making the home a better place and being more attractive and since he's a lowly man (and men are prone to "wander" anyway), maybe if he had it better at home, he wouldn't have to stray!

You can't make this stuff up!

Today's reads

It's been far too long since I've been able to do any professional reading via Twitter.  But with all of my speeches out of the way for the year and all but two themes graded and half of my senior letters done, I have a bit of down time.


Why teachers should join Twitter



Speaking of Twitter, Here is 7 Steps to Grow Professionally using Twitter.

 *****

Why the kid who yelled at his teacher (see the post below this one) was right.  Mashable doesn't really do anything with the story, but they do at least have an interview with the student as to why he stormed out and launched into his diatribe.

And here is a take on this from one of my favorite education bloggers, George Courus.

****

This article, Five Ways to Innovate by Cross-Pollinating Ideas, is right out of Steal Like an Artist and Imagine.

This tip for innovating is what teachers do best.  There should be a class on this for every education major.

3. BUILD ON EXISTING IDEAS

Building upon existing ideas and inventions is another way to foster innovation. In fact, when you ask artists of all types where they get their inspiration, they can usually list others before them who set the stage for their work. Painters draw upon the tools, techniques, and approaches of other artists; musicians build upon the styles of other musicians they have heard; writers are influenced by literature they have read; and inventors build upon the creations of others. As Pablo Picasso is claimed to have said, “Good artists copy, great artists steal."

Steve Jobs, the cofounder and former CEO of Apple Computer, amplified this sentiment in a 1994 interview by saying that the key to creativity is to expose yourself “to the best things that humans have done and then to bring those things into what you are doing.” he goes on to say that what made the original Macintosh computer great is that the people working on it were “musicians, and poets, and artists, and zoologists, and historians, who also happened to be the best computer scientists in the world.” Apple took inspiration from their knowledge of these diverse fields to create something that was completely novel.

****

I love this one - What is Flat Learning?

FLAT from Julie Lindsay

****

I love this one.  And how awesome would it be to use this as an example of what infographs could be used for in the English classroom.

Source: holykaw.alltop.com via Kurt on Pinterest

What kind of infographs could our students come up with for To Kill a Mockingbird, A Separate Peace, Heart of Darkness, Night, Pride and Prejudice, or Huck Finn?

*****

106 creative works of street art

I could look at this stuff all day.  Enjoy.

Food for thought

I tell other teachers "Whether you like it or not, your students are tweeting about you and your class.  The only thing you can control is what they say about your class on their social networks."

For some, that's terrifying.

The days of us being able to close our doors and toil away in isolation are over.

As well they should be.

Here is an example of just how quickly a moment in a high school can go viral.



I've had students send me this.  I've discussed this with my colleagues.  I've shared it with our principal who found it very interesting.

Whether you agree or disagree (while I tend to think Rock on kid!  Fight the nefarious unengaging worksheet loving teacher I realize too that this is a small moment in time taken out of context), the main point is that we are only a second away from having something go viral as a result of what we do in our classroom.

Now, the young man, Jeff Bliss, is obviously bright - judging from his well spoken diatribe - and perhaps he should have handled it a bit differently.  But guaranteed had he spoken eloquently to his principal about this situation, there is no way it would have had the same impact as this viral video has. After all, revolutions are not bloodless. And maybe this will start a revolution where students try to speak up and challenge more.

I use this as a reminder to always bring your A game.  For you never know when your F game may go viral and be plastered all over Yahoo or Youtube.  Likewise, when you are doing something original and engaging in your classroom, advise your kids to take out their smartphones or iPads and document it and share it.  Why not have your A game go viral instead?

Sometimes I wish . . .

that I was a first year teacher again and could just walk into school, teach Comm 10 and that's it.

But a lot has changed in 15 years on the job.

Thus, I've hardly had time to breathe since May began.

To name just a few things -

EA meetings; speaking at the Digi Key robotics luncheon; common prep meetings; speaking at the honor's banquet; presenting twice to the school board; PLCs; speaking at the academic breakfast; speaking at the Kramer Brown spring fling; being part of the interview committee for two new English positions; more EA meetings; and a department meeting.

Oh yeah, and a trip to the state robotics competition.

Sometimes, it would just be nice to be a first year teacher where all I had to worry about was getting a bunch of sophomore to actually read A Separate Peace or pass the 100 word vocab exam.

Cash & Kenz

How cute are these two?

Here Cash is being a cheese ball at KoKo's art show.

Here Kenz is striking a pose prior to the grand march.

Has Anyone Seen Fortunato?

Our media specialist, Kelly, snapped this picture and shared it on Twitter.

How can you not think of Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado"?

Another reason why I love this job

Last weekend was prom.  It happened to be KoKo's first one, so it was a big deal in the Reynolds/Pesch household.

KoKo and Kristie were able to find a beautiful dress and KoKo, along with her date, Cody, looked awesome.

Cody's dad even let him use his sweet muscle car.  Though he wisely took it back home after the grand march!  Ha ha.

Though they looked great on this evening, I'm not sure Cash is pleased about having his picture taken with them!

Here is the family (minus Gail who was at home with Cash and Casey who is moving into a new apartment in Moorhead) after the grand march.

And here was one of the highlights from grand march.  Here is the story.

Nate asked Rachel to prom.  Nate said that though he is confined to a wheel chair, he wanted to walk out for the grand march.  Thanks to a little help from Esther, he did too!  And it was awesome.  Then Mr. Zutz and Mr. Brekke stepped in to help him back into his wheelchair.

My favorite part was the beaming smile Nate got on his face when Mr. Zutz and Mr. Brekke went to help him out.  When I look at the picture now, I see that both Mr. Zutz and Mr. Brekke were beaming just as much as Nathan was!

To top it all off, Rachel was crowned prom queen!  And the couple received a standing ovation.

When I looked again at these pictures, especially the last one, I was reminded of what I love about teaching and my colleagues: it isn't always about the standards and grades and tests and essays.  Sometimes (actually most times I'd argue) it is about helping others out and connecting with them so you make their day or their week or, in this case, their prom a little extra special.

If you can't do that as a teacher, find something else to do.  Please.

This is why I love my job.

This is the final few seconds of a video created by one of my students.  The full video was designed to capture the unique aspects of millennials.  I wanted to put the final few seconds on here because it shows some of the craziness, fun, and learning that goes on here.  What a way to earn a living!

That time of year

Is here where everything gets incredibly busy and you walk into the door on Monday and leave on Friday.

The late spring (or early summer really) doesn't help things.  When the spring sports can finally play games, they'll be looking at three or four a week.

On top of all that, the end of the year functions begin to pile up.

Just this week I have our Robotics Digi-Key luncheon today.  Tomorrow will be a department meeting as well as our community expo from 4-7 at the Ralph.  Thursday also happens to be one of my favorite days of the year: the NFL draft.  Saturday is KoKo's first prom.

The following week brings the honor's banquet as well as the academic breakfast.  Then it's our Kramer Brown Spring Fling for retirees, our Friend of Education, and our Teacher of the Year.

After that it's a trip to the state competition for robotics.  Then it's KoKo's graduation.  After that we have to move everything out of our rooms because it's our turn for remodeling.

Then I am teaching three technology courses at the NWSC.  After that summer school at the ALC will start.

Before I know what hit me, it will be the Fourth of July.

And after that it's football practice and school will be here again!