Thrivapy: Live, Learn, Have Fun

B elow is a copy of the script I wrote to help me deliver my remarks at our recent New Student Orientation program.  In full disclosure, I did not say these verbatim.  This is the script I wrote as part of my preparation. I do not read scripts when I speak at gatherings. (August 30, 2012) G ood morning and thank you for attending our middle school orientation program. Normally, I prepare only a brief statement about the coming year.  In that statement, I usually go over a few new initiatives, encourage you to ask plenty of questions, and then introduce the faculty with whom your child is going to work this year.  However, as I read through my Google Reader this morning around 5:15, I came across an article that spoke so deeply to me that I had to change my direction and share with you some important insights into how we feel about you, your child, and the nature of success in middle school. Dr. Heidi Grant Halvorson is the Associate Director of the Motivation Science Center at th

M any schools have already started.  The school I serve opens classes just after Labor Day.  Inevitably, ideas I had over the summer are moving from theoretical to practical.  In a very Darwinian struggle, the better ideas are living to see another day while the weaker ones are naturally finding their place lower on my priority list. However, here are three things that I am doing this year that  may be of use to you.  I am interested in finding others who will join me with these ideas and, possibly, report back here on The Art of Education about how these ideas are working out. #1 - Praise Notes A number of years ago, I received a sample packet of praise notes.  Basically, these are simple carbon paper notes to give at will to thank someone or recognize their efforts.  I used a couple of them, but after a couple of job changes and moves, I lost track of the notes.  As fate would have it, I was cleaning out my office this summer and found the notes stashed away in the back of a d

T eachers are faced with a multitude of responsibilities.  Some teachers, unfortunately, focus more on their "rest-ponsibilities."  Here are 5 of each (in no particular order).  When you finish reading them, take the quiz. 5 Responsibilities   Get to know your students' strengths and challenges Have a clear goal and plan for the lesson and for guiding your students Nurture an environment that encourages growth and risk taking Provide helpful feedback including suggestions for how to improve AND how you will help Make learning fun   5 "Rest-ponsibilities" Concerned about when your "free period" falls in the schedule (if you even have one). Get to school early do get a parking spot that allows them to leave faster at the end of the day Use faculty work room (lounge) as a forum to complain about students Plan annual announcement on Facebook about how much you can't wait until the next holiday or summer vacation Consider

B efore we get into the meat of this post, I want to come to a mutual understanding.  In a perfect world, all teachers love their students, are only concerned with their well-being, and work in the teens of hours/day to do a great job. That is in the perfect world. The reality is that both you and I have worked with teachers who are NOT those things.  They complain endlessly about every discomfort of the job.  They are much more ready to say negative things about their students.  When holidays approach, they are shouting praise and glory form the rooftops (or on their Facebook pages). Of course, they will also say that they are blowing off steam and never take that attitude into the classroom. Yea, right.  Kids are very perceptive and, eventually, true colors are revealed. A lso based on my experience, this description is applicable to a very small population of teachers.  The vast majority of those I have met are anything BUT what I describe above.  However, education is mor

O ver the past year or so, I have been allowing the idea for my next book to emerge organically out of my writing, note taking, reading, and blogging.  The result is my most current work-in-progress, Thrivapy . Thrivapy  is, basically, a manifesto on finding more success and satisfaction with your work, art, responsibilities, etc.  It is shaping up to be my most ambitious book yet, but my goal is to have it ready and available before the end of 2012. I am going to share more about Thrivapy is the coming weeks and months.  However, for you, I want to share the very first glimpse into Thrivapy . The book is organized around the 10 Standards of Thrivapy .  Here they are. The standard of satisfaction is not perfection. You don't need to win them all.  Win more than you lose (and win the most important ones). Understand how goals work for you and how you work for goals. Find the joy. Opportunities are abundant. You always have choices.  However, they may not always be the

U ltimately, the one thing you know better than anyone else is you.  After all, nobody has spent more time with you than you.  Nobody has thought about you as much as you.  Nobody has invested as much time in developing you as you. You are THE expert on you. However, you are not alone. Somewhere, there is someone who shares some of the same qualities that make up you.  Someone else enjoys classic country music.  Someone else reads Seth's Blog .  Someone else reads on a Kindle. The list goes on. In your class, someone also loves American history, likes reading poetry, loves solving math problems,  and can't wait to test their hypothesis. The thing to remember is that as the expert on YOU, the goal is not to create junior versions of YOU.  The goal should be to allow the shared elements of YOU and THEM to feed off of one another. 

  S ooner or later, someone you know or someone who heard about you will be having a conversation and something being discussed will remind them of you.  At least it will remind them of what they perceive is you. Then you become their prime example of (fill in the blank). This may make you feel a little  uneasy.  That's natural.  Unfortunately, you don't have much control over whether or not someone else decides to talk about you. You do, however, have quite a bit of control over how you interact with others and, thus, can influence which blank is filled in above.  Perfection is not the standard, but the negative can be an obvious outlier as an example of you. Perception is often reality.  There are two basic ways to shape perception. 1.  Personal experience 2.  Base it on what you hear from others Not everyone who has an opinion of you will have had personal experience.  Many will have only based it on  what their friends experienced. Your meeting tomorrow is not

I usually do not post much about effective school technology leadership .  This is not because I am tech adverse.  On the contrary, I have embraced technology's place as a powerful engagement and productivity tool in school.  The fact is I just do not spend much time reflecting on the leadership aspects of school technology. Today, however, I have decided to jump into the pool on Leadership Day 2012. Here it goes. W hat came first?  The chicken or the egg? Heard that one already, huh?  Well, how about this one. What needs to come first?  School leadership that embraces technology or a technologist who embraces school leadership? Yes, many principals, division heads, heads of school, superintendents, etc. are realizing how technology can enhance the learning environment, but in their roles as instructional leaders, technology presents a challenge.  Most of these leaders were former teachers, but not in a technological sense.  They were Math, History, E

"Smart" teachers ask good questions .  One good area to question involves finding your students' intellectually "fertile fields" to sow the "seeds of wisdom." How do you locate those fields? 1.  Ask questions (see the post linked to above).  Asking good questions gauges student understanding and interests. 2.  Do not allow the first "I don't know" to work.  Many times, students use "I don't know" to get them "off the hook."  When you get "I don't know" ask again using different language.  Then ask again.  Once you get three "I don't know" answers, it is probably genuine. 3.  The point at which the student is truly "stumped" presents a potential area to explore.  Of course, the real exploration is done by the student with you as the guide.  Remember, if the answer or new skill presented by The "Stumped" Factor is particularly difficult for the student, help t

I continue to see numerous articles and blog posts about fear of failure.  Specifically, most of these articles are written about not fearing failure.  The point being that not fearing failure will free oneself to take necessary risks that allow one to achieve higher levels of success. This post is not a critique of those opinions, I think they are valid and necessary.  However, one aspect of achievement in schools that is rarely, if ever, discussed is overcoming fear of success. Here are a few observations and thoughts to consider about failure. 1.  By and large, we are a very forgiving society.  If someone is working towards a noble goal, does their best, and falls a little short, we are generally very supportive and willing to give them more chances. 2.  Even if the goal is selfish, failure followed by reconciliation and eventual triumph earned by the lesson learned is the basis of many of our hero stories. 3.  When you fail, it is often easy to see where things went wrong

  W hen we examine the course of our lives, we tend to remember certain events that, in hindsight, were life altering moments.  For me, I remember choosing which college I would attend, getting married, the birth of my daughter while exiled during hurricane Katrina, the birth of my son while I was out of state on business (he decided to come earlier than our scheduled delivery), and successfully defending my doctoral dissertation. Professionally, we also experience powerful moments that were similarly powerful.  These are what I call profession altering moments.  I purposely do not call them career altering moments, because those tend to involve changing careers.  With profession altering moments, we go through a transformation of what it truly means to be a professional in our chosen field. One such moment occurred when I was coaching baseball and had a serious disciplinary infraction take place during an away game which resulted in the cutting of a number of players from the team

I f you stop long enough to take stock of our professional development, you may see that the areas in which you are better today than when you began are the result of an accumulation of smaller gains.  In other words, you are better today than you were before not because of any one major event, but as a result of how you grew in relation to the multiple events and opportunities that have been presented along the way. Similarly, students get better as they experience the opportunities to learn presented by the school.  In almost every circumstance, students get better as a result of the overall experience, not specifically any ONE event (though they may only remember some truly remarkable instances that stand out in their memory). Schools also seek to get better.  However, as many schools look outside of their walls for solutions for getting better, they can sometimes overlook the many opportunities presented each day within the school.  Here are a few examples: Teacher