The following post was written by my Assistant Principal, Cyndi Felton.  I am happy to share her story of the importance of relationships and making every child feel loved.  

“No significant learning can occur without a significant relationship.” I’ve heard James Comer’s words so many times and each time I nod my head in agreement. But I had an experience this summer that brought these nine words to life for me. I had the opportunity to serve as the administrator of a summer school program for 115 third graders that were all enrolled because they were unable to demonstrate proficiency on the state reading assessment. On my first day with the students I was struck by the fact that very few seemed upset about being in summer school. Although the grade level material was a struggle for them, most were on-task and putting forth the needed effort. However, I also had a handful of students who were regularly tardy and often fell asleep during class, as well as students who were sitting outside the school an hour before the doors opened because their parents left for work and no one was home.

One particular student, we’ll call him Kenny, arrived late each day and frequently remained at the school well after pick up time. I bonded with Kenny on my second day at the school. I would walk him to class when he arrived late, spending time with him at lunch in the cafeteria, and talking with him while waiting for someone to pick him up. We called the house multiple times to express concern and asked his mom to get him to school on time and have him picked up on time. He began trying to get to school earlier and would ask me each day how many minutes late he was. I believe he was doing all he could to improve his punctuality in an effort to please me. One day Kenny shared he had already been retained in first grade. However, he constantly tried to deflect away from the fact he had great difficulty reading and low self-esteem. Kenny was loud, always making jokes, and putting on a show for all. I noticed that there was always someone on him regarding his behavior and/or lack of attentiveness, including teachers, cafeteria staff, office staff, and other school personnel. It seemed that when he was told to be quiet, “zip your mouth” or even “shut it,” he only talked more, with a smile on his face. Kenny was desperately looking for attention and any attention would do.  

I was only at the summer site for a couple weeks before I needed to return to my home school in preparation for the coming year. On my last day, I spent time saying goodbye to students, praising their hard work, and letting them know just how much I would miss them. Kenny let me know he wasn’t happy about me going and asked me where my school was. I explained it was about a 25-30 minute drive from his school. Kenny proceeded to tell me he didn’t care, he was still going to go there next year. Grinning, I asked “Oh really? You want to come to my school?” and he answered, “Yeah, I’ve never been someone’s favorite before”. Stunned, I just hugged him and tried not to cry.

How can a child who has been in school for five years feel this way? Shouldn’t every child believe they are the teacher’s favorite? The difficult students are often the children who already lack relationships with caring, attentive, engaged adults. Student-teacher relationships can truly affect both their academic and social development. Research tells us that a student who feels a strong personal connection to their teacher, one with genuine interest and concern, is more likely to demonstrate increased engagement, higher levels of academic achievement, and improved behavior in class. But academics and classroom behavior aside, kids deserve to feel valued everyday. If that isn’t our highest priority, are we really in the right field?

 

 

Let me start by saying that I know that some educators out there will say “This is easy for you to say.  You’re in an “A-rated” school and you’re in an affluent community.”

And those people would be correct.  It is easy for me to say.  That’s the point.

Because it is easy for me to say, I need to say that school grades based on a single test measure do not and will never accurately portray the true value of a school.  There have been many opponents to standardized testing in the past but those of us who have benefitted from these assessments and the subsequent school ratings have to stand up for our colleagues in the education field.  Because while my school staff and community will be celebrating how well we performed, there are friends of mine throughout education who are crushed right now.  Devastated because the perception of their school will change because of a single letter grade.

This is wrong on so many levels.

Florida released school grades a few days ago.  This time the scores are based on the two-year comparison of the FSA (Florida Standards Assessments) that was first implemented last year.  These school grades are the first “official” grade to be given with our new assessments.  The school grades that were released for the previous year were termed “Informational Baseline” with the preposed caveat that there were no consequences for those grades (I will get back to that in a moment).

So the grades came out and my school is “A-rated” once again.  But what does that mean? I honestly don’t feel that this tells anywhere near the complete story of what my school is.  Walk through our halls, talk to our students and staff, ask the community.  I believe you will hear about a school filled with love, happiness, a desire to help all students, and individuals seeking to innovate so that our students are always exposed to the best possible practices, strategies and technologies that help make their lives better.

And I believe that most schools are filled with the same love and happiness, the same desire to do whatever it takes for kids.  But, unfortunately, so many schools are living under the fear of the almighty school grade.  Numerous schools are forced to deliver curriculum and strategies designed specifically to raise test scores.  And yes they are forced, because there is always a consequence for school grades, whether the State says so or not.  The biggest consequence is public perception.  We are so conditioned to believe in school grades based off of a test that only measures how well students do on the FSA in English Language Arts, Math, and Science (for elementary schools).  Schools that don’t perform well on these accountability measures aren’t always afforded the opportunities to innovate and try new ideas like those of us who do perform well.

I have been talking to educator friends of mine, both teachers and principals, from different schools these past few days.  Some are so distraught because their school grade “dropped”.  One of my friends, who is one of the best teachers that I have ever met, said “Does this really mean that from last year to this year we just sat around and did nothing to educate our kids?  We still have the same passionate and dedicated teachers.”  All of our schools are filled with caring, compassionate educators who are relentless in their pursuit of helping make kids’ lives better.  All of our schools have students who deserve the best each day.

This madness needs to stop.  We need the general public to wake up and realize that we are demoralizing entire school communities and reducing their efforts to nothing by placing a grade on them.  While some of us have freedom and are highly regarded because of these grades, there are so many more educators who don’t have that opportunity.  We need everyone to talk about this and spread the word.  Our schools are so much more than a letter grade.

 

 

 

 

I have been contemplating a lot about life recently and how fleeting time can be.  I often wish I can grab time and hold it still but I constantly feel it slipping through my fingers.  Music is a big part of my life and I often get swept up in the emotions and my connection to the lyrics and the sound.  Two songs that have haunted me since my childhood have come into my mind recently.  Our school family was shattered this year as we lost several individuals connected to our school due to car accidents, including two little girls who were students here.  These tragedies make you question why something like this can happen to those who are so young.  There is a line in Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World that always hits home to me when I hear it:

“There’s one more kid that will never go to school.  Never get to fall in love, never get to be cool.”  

I always get choked up when Neil sings this because of the lost opportunities for a child who will never get to experience so much of life.  We can never make sense of losing young people.  All we can do is hug each other a little bit tighter and love each other a little bit more.

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“When you comin’ home, Dad
I don’t know when, but we’ll get together then son 
You know we’ll have a good time then.”

I can’t really explain how the lyrics to Harry Chapin’s Cats in the Cradle have affected me for pretty much my whole life.  I mean, how is it possible that I internalized the meaning to that song and held it within me even at a very young age?  But I can promise you that I cannot listen to that song without tears welling up in my eyes.  I can’t even read the lyrics without getting emotional.  As long as I can remember, I made a silent promise to myself that I would never be the Dad in the song, the one who is too busy for his son and then watches his son become exactly like him, too busy for family, too consumed with work.

My wife and I were walking to the park with our two boys the other day.  Along the path to the playground, each of the boys took turns doing a different stunt, whether it be climbing on monkey bars or simply walking along the edge of the path.  Throughout the walk, Maddox and Jagger went back and forth calling for my attention.

“Daddy, watch this!”

“Did you see that Dad?”

If I tell you they said these things about twenty times in a minute, I would be lying.  It would be so easy to get frustrated and exhausted with always having to see what the boys are doing.  Luckily though, I caught myself and remembered that these moments don’t last for long.  I can remember when Maddox wouldn’t do anything on the baseball field without first looking to make sure that I was watching.  But those times aren’t as frequent anymore.  They won’t always call for me to watch them so I want to see everything they want to show me.

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I connect these stories and songs because I feel compelled to promote the messages of “be here now” and “now is good” at every available opportunity.  Our families, our students, and our colleagues need us to appreciate and to be fully present in those moments that we are together.  While what we do in education is important, we must also remember that our families are more important.  Give of yourselves each day while at school but then go home and engage with your families.  They are the motivation to keep on giving.  They deserve your undivided attention.

I think this message that a parent emailed me at the end of the school year says it all:

“The years move too fast.  I’m still trying to find a way to slow it all down,                                   because it’s so good and so much fun.”

What if we could…appreciate each moment; not worry about the past or the future, but simply treasure the present?