Gamification, Part Deux

So, we were at a friend's place this weekend, and they had a new game system that had open-source type games.  Without getting into the details, the game system and game that they chose to play had no instruction manual, no explanation of what the game was about, no reference to how to score points, what the points did, how to achieve merits and badges, how to find the power ups, where to find the power ups, how to use the power ups or any information around the power ups that would help the kids choose the merits of using a power up in any given situation.

Here is what I pieced together:

The snowboarder in this game was racing.  Then, he was being chased by something that turned out to be the Grim Reaper.  There were gold coins.  Some of the objects on the course knocked him out of the game if he touched them and others just stunned him.  There were random meteor showers, sharp barriers that hurt him, outhouses and snowbanks that he just bounced off, exploding mines, Pterodactyl powers ups that picked him and and flew him high above the course, a power up that changed him into a giant wrecking (snow)ball, a jet pack power up, and jumps and trick moves that gave the player bonus points if they figured out how to use them.  Also, the longer he lasted on the course, the more points he gained.

Whew, that was a lot for me to take in.  When I played video games, I scoured through the instruction manual.  This manual always included the background story for the game, instructions, tips and tricks to excel with, the point scoring system, and a detailed map of what buttons were needed for what moves on the joystick.

This game had nothing.  Of note, it took the kids under a minute to figure all of this out, to beat the high score and then do it again, over and over.  They figured out not only how to jump, but how to add in sweet snowboarder moves for extra points--flips, tail grabs, 360s, etc.

And, here is what else I saw...

• The kids working together to "decode" the game
• The kids not just sharing important information, but pooling it together to improve their experience
• A single-player game become a group experience
• Complex problem solving
• A shared language develop right before my eyes, along with a shared rubric for success
• Individuals supporting each other
• Stronger players assisting (and celebrating the success) weaker players, in a mixed group of 9 kids, boys and girls, 5 years old to 13 years old.
• 9 kids sharing one controller, taking turns one at a time
• Laughing
• Good sportsmanship (one boy was given a bum-steer which led to a quick end of his turn, to which kids all laughed and then cheered "re-turn" because they made him fail and didn't want him to feel jilted)

...and, all of this was done with a 100% chance of failure.  The "Game Over" banner kept scrolling across the screen and they kept eating the game up.  No one had any real success.  No one defeated the game.

But, they kept trying...with smiles on.

All the adults did was institute a "3 attempts per kid" rule before they handed it off to the next one waiting in line so that each person's turn wasn't mere seconds long. 

They failed, over and over and over again.  Sometimes, almost instantly.  They failed because they didn't understand the objectives of the game, because they didn't understand the rules of the game, because they weren't good at the game, because they didn't know which buttons (tools) to use, because they didn't know when to use a power up (resources), because they didn't pay attention enough when they were waiting, because they forgot to ask for help, and they failed because they were often talking when they should have been listening.  But every time, they jumped into the driver's seat with vigour and energy.  Every time, they dusted themselves off, got back up and tried again.  And after 3 failures they gave it up to the next in line for a turn, but not before giving them some tips and tricks from the experience that would help their friend do better than them on the next play.

I sat back watching all of this, wondering how fast I could destroy all of this enthusiasm for learning by:

• making them sit in rows without talking or looking at anyone's work
• having one adult demonstrate the game, explaining each (boring) detail at the level of the lowest (and youngest) learner
• calling kids up--one at a time--to try, and then go sit down while the others watched quietly
• scoring them on their success based on my criteria, that may or not have been shared with them up front or during the process
• telling them how important this "irrelevant thing" (kid words) was going to be for them in the "real world" (adult words)
• scolded the ones waiting for not paying attention (while they sat quietly, keeping their eyes and hands to themselves, waiting for their turn)

My guess is not very long.

And, don't worry; after everyone cycled through their turns twice, the game was shut down and the kids bundled up and sent outside to play in the snow for a few hours.  A learning experiment is one thing, but a video game will never replace the kind of learning that happens when a bunch of kids go outside and play in the snow.  More on that one later... :)

Gamification

Gamification of learning activities is a strategy that "rewards players (learners) who accomplish desired tasks.  Types of rewards include points, achievement badges or levels, the filling of a progress bar, and providing the user with virtual currency" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamification).

 A colleague introduced me to gamification this week.  He works in a virtual environment where they are having great success.  He said that if he returned to a "regular" school he would gamify everything.  He would create student "houses", and give out rewards for individual achievement and for groups achievement.  He would give out helper points.  It wasn't, however, the use of badges and banners that got me excited (blogger's note:  I am still scarred from a keynote by Alfie Kohn, around the time of the release of his book Punishment by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's. Praise and Other Bribes), but his observations that led him to this strategy.  You see, he was watching his grandson play video games and noticed the following things:

• Why will a child try a video game over and over, even though they continue to fail?
• During this "trying" they are engaged, and not a behaviour problem.
• They like the badges and rewards that they earn on their quests, and feel great success when the complete a task and "level up".
• They work hard learning how to win, and in the process they learn how to lose.
• Games have built in cheats, and the kids work incredibly hard researching and learning the cheat codes to do better in the game, all the while learning new things.

This reminds me of another Principal who looked at the skateboarder culture.  He watched kids try a trick over and over again for hundreds of hours.  He tried and tried and tried again, and in the process scraped skins off his body, bruised his muscles and broke his bones.  He tried despite a 100% failure rate until he finally achieved success.  Then, he started the process over with a new trick.

Hmmmm...

...and here at school, kids fail once and then never want to do it again...

They fail once, and the "are done".

Somehow, we have to tap into these classic examples of intrinsic motivation.  Somehow, we have to allow the process to be more engaging to the students than it is to us.  Somehow, we have make learning something that makes failure worthwhile, so that students will come back over and over and over again until they master the tasks that we have set out for them. 

Somehow, we have to make "the learning" something that they want to do. 

Thoughts?  I'd appreciate anything to add to my own new thinking to this topic.

I Took A Risk This Week

 

We have really been pushing learning strategies to engage students at our school the last year and a bit. 

• We have inserted them into our staff meetings, where we model the strategies and make the staff work through them
• We built our Implementation Day around student engagement activities
• About half of out staff have received Kagan Cooperative Learning training (1-5 days worth)
• Our Circle of Friends (grade 1-6, multi-aged) groups, who meet once per month, are working on a cooperative learning project with student engagement structures embedded into it
• We have had a Kagan coach come into the school
• Many staff are sharing ideas and resources, and restructuring their classrooms around the training that they have received

 I am so pleased with the direction that we are moving, and very proud of my staff.  Still, I really wanted to push the envelope.  I wanted to do something beyond what I (and we) maybe thought that we could.  So, I took a big risk this week and put my money where mouth was.

I used a cooperative learning structure to debrief our last Circle of Friends activity...with all 237 students--at once--during an assembly.  It was wonderful!  Sure it was noisy, we would expect that when 237 people are sharing ideas with each other in the same room.  Sure, it required a bit of set up and a bunch of help from my teachers;  I think that we would expect that too.  What we ended up with, however, was spectacular.  We had every grade, partnered up, sharing their ideas of what a sensible school was (what we would see, hear and feel).  That means, for each question exactly 50 % of the room was talking and 50% was listening.  We modelled appropriate greetings and compliments, we changed partners, and we were engaged!  When I was a student, the most common scenario was 1 teacher talking and 32 students listening.  Think back to what I just said happened in the gym where everyone was partnered up and taking turns listening and talking.  1 out of every 2 students was sharing, and 1 out of every 2 students was listening, and then sharing back (with compliments!).  That is a phenomenal improvement in both participation and accountability.

A move from this:

 

To this



And, best of all, it worked!

Ed Camp

This week, our Itinerant Learning Network prepared an Ed Camp for the administrators in the district.  Similar to a the unconference that we did last year, ed camp is designed specifically for teachers and their needs.  Prior to our meeting, the planning team sent out an electronic survey requesting input from us about the burning topics on our minds.  They collected and collated that data, and organized a schedule with meeting rooms for the most common topics (see below).

 

We then chose where to go, sat down and waited for the group to form.  We then began to talk and share, generating all sorts of ideas to borrow and steal, and colleagues to network with for support and collaborate with.  It was authentic, it was real and it was time well spent.  Instead of feeling talked to, I was an active participant in each conversation, some as a listener and some as speaker.

In the end, we were asked to identify topics/colleagues that we would like to work with and some dates were given for us to meet.  People self-selected roles such as presenter, expert, experienced, novice and host.  Some of us will stick to one topic within one group, and others will move from topic to topic and group to group, as there needs see fit.  At the end of the year, we have a date scheduled for a dinner meeting where we will all collect and share out our experiences.

Some of the highlights from my experience on building collaboration in schools:

• one colleague has 60 student teachers visiting the school on Tuesday mornings to observe instructional practice in the classroom so that they can compare experiences and debrief back at the University.  Wow, isn't that cool (for both the school and the student teachers)!
• one colleague has built a block of collaborative time into the weekly schedule of the teacher-librarian to help teachers find a teaching partner to collaborate with.  We are also doing this at our school.  Yah us!
• one colleague blocks school-based team time into her assembly schedule so that the SBT can meet during weeks when there are no assemblies.  This is great for her because it is a time when no one has a scheduling conflict.  We can't do this because of part-time schedules this year, but it gives us some great ideas for next year.
• one colleague is engaging intermediate teachers with the early learning profiles (literacy) that teachers build for each student K-3.  We hope to get there soon.
• one colleague has started moving staff meetings around the school to different classrooms, giving people a chance to connect with people and ideas in  a way that they never seem able to.  What a great idea!  They are even considering moving off-site for a future meeting.
• two colleagues of very small school combined staff meetings, alternating between the two schools.  They shared the agenda and projects, and then planned implementation days and their ELFF (Early Literacy for Families) nights together.  Awesome!
• one colleague at a high school has a department identifying learning objectives and sharing those with its feeder schools in an attempt to better identify the stumbling blocks for students.  Cool.
• one large school gives up every second staff meeting for departmental collaborative time.  The Principal provides a focus question and collects minutes from department heads.  I love the stories about people finding ways to make it work.

For me, this is the type of professional development that really gets me jazzed up;  it gets me actively engaged in my own learning and learning needs.  I leave feeling like I am in touch with the pulse of the district, which is something that can be hard to do when you are busy working away at your own small school. :)

Click here for some more information on Ed Camps:  http://edcamp.org/

Turning Your Back on the Future

Last week, I had the opportunity to hear from some of our best district student leaders who are preparing to host the Canadian Student Leadership Association Conference in September 2014.  They had just returned from the most recent conference on Prince Edward Island, and they were brimming with enthusiasm--and a little jet lagged.  The student joined the Principals and Vice-Principals for small table discussions to talk with us about their leadership journey.  The student who joined us shared two very inspirational ideas that are currently driving her:

Stay in the moment.  She explained to us that young leaders needed to "stay in the moment" and enjoy the life that they are currently living.  To do this, she told us that they needed to turn their backs on the future.  Wow, that really hit me.  Turn your back on the future in order to stay focused on the present.  I think that this is great advice, even for a 40-something principal. 

I have some very successful friends the same age enjoying a variety of careers right now, and we are all creeping towards that awkward "mid-life crisis" point of our lives.  To avoid the affairs and red convertibles, we have done what most guys never do:  talked about our feelings.  Knowing that someone else feels the same as you has a weird way of making you feel better, and that, along with some appropriate reading, has really made a difference for each of us.  As a young man, everything in my life was so centred around me:  my accomplishments in sport, getting good grades, getting into the right university and program, graduating with distinction, getting a job, getting into the right Masters program, graduating with honours, getting my first admin posting, getting my first Principalship.  I defined myself by listing my accomplishments.

And then 41 came calling...

I guess it really started before I was 41, but that was the time when I stood back and looked mirror and really freaked out.  You see,

• I wasn't a superstar athlete anymore, and it took tonnes of work to keep myself fit enough to play soccer at a reasonably high level.  And, on those weeks that I didn't get in my runs through the orchards and vineyards, I suffered come game time.  It was absolutely clear that I wasn't ever going to compete in the Olympics.
• I had some newish pants that were a bit to snug in the waist, hiding--yes, I am ashamed--in the back of my closest.
• I was a Principal, doing a good job, doing the things that I felt I needed to do, and nobody seemed to care or even notice.
• My life was so busy, and getting busier and busier at home with a wife who was a doctor, and three kids in activities.  A typical family week outside of the school day included 5 soccer games, 2 soccer practices, 2 piano lessons, 1 Cub Scouts meeting, 1 basketball practice, 1 basketball game, 1 tap dance lesson.  Fast forward to this week we have 5 soccer games, two soccer practices, 2 piano lessons, 2 banjo lessons, 1 tap dance lesson, 1 basketball practice, 1 basketball game, 3 field hockey practices, 2 field hockey games, 1 rugby practice (games coming soon), two evening work meetings, a dinner at grandma and grandpa's, a pool to winterize, etc., etc., etc...
• I perceived that I was struggling to find the time to connect with my spouse and myself.
• Everybody was watching.
• I was the only one feeling this way.

I had it all wrong, I wasn't defining myself by what I thought about myself, but what others thought of me. Instead of judging myself by my accomplishments, I needed to start defining myself by the things that were important to me.  The reason that we have so many after school activities in our family is because we value the things that these activities--music and sport, in particular--instill in our family.  Exercise is hard to fit in, so a soccer game a week for me is a good thing.  The kids are involved in sport and I coach them...great family time.  My wife is taking piano lessons with our youngest and I am taking up the banjo with our middle child.  Music is good for the mind, and soul, and this is more special time between parents and kids.  Those snug pants?  The exercise has got them back onto a hanger.  Was anyone watching?  Not really...at least not with the same lens that I was using.  Was I the only one feeling this way?  Nope, that's the myth that a little friend talk dispelled.

And, for that Principal thing.  The reason that "no one" was coming up to notice anything was symbolic of the job that I was doing.  I wasn't in need of support, so support wasn't pouring in through the front door. That realization was huge for me.  You see, I wasn't looking ahead for the next thing.  I was living in the present, and that was at the heart of what our grade 12 student was trying to say.  It is also a realization that I have to find happiness in what I do, not what other people--through promotions, raises, acknowledgements--can do for me.  I have to look at myself and be happy with what I find, not rely on someone else to fill my bucket. 

I had to turn my back on the future to realize what I have right now.

The second inspiration that our grade 12 leader shared with me was her belief that if your goals don't scare you, then they aren't big enough.  This idea was a good reminder never to stop dreaming; turning our backs on the future to enjoy the present doesn't mean that we still aren't dreaming of the big things to come.  In fact, I think that having a better awareness of my present allows me to dream better goals for my future and allows me to enjoy the journey;  if we can't enjoy the journey, why would we take it in the first place?

Parenting Advice--Building Resiliency

Last week, my new-to-high-school daughter missed her first bus.  Her teacher PE teacher dismissed them late, she dawdled in the change room, and then arrived at the bus loading location to find--to her great surprise--that the bus didn't wait for her.  She walked home with a friend and called our house, and fortunately Grandma was over visiting and drove down to pick her up.

My response to this lesson sent shock waves through some of our parent friends.  First, I made sure she thanked Grandma for the ride; I would have made her endure the long walk home.  Second, I told her that there were some good lessons to be learned from this experience: 

1. She is solely responsible for getting herself to the bus
2. Do not dawdle (this was self-admitted) when getting changed, exchanging Library books, talking to friends, etc. when needing to accomplish lesson #1
3. If, in a worst case scenario, she ran to the bus wearing sweaty, smelly gym clothes...well...she would have still been on the bus
4. I cannot drop everything at my school and drive 45 minutes to pick her up on a nice sunny day to save her from an 6 km walk home.  Emergencies?  Absolutely, and I will be there in 35 minutes, but not for this.
5. Lastly, and this is the one that my friends had the most trouble with, I didn't call the teacher and chew him out for this inconvenience.  I didn't because, she needs to understand that getting to the bus is her responsibility (back to lesson #1), I didn't because I only knew one side of the story, and I didn't because she knows that I can't solve every little problem by rushing in "mama bear"-style and yelling at people. 

Of course I will follow up with the teacher if this becomes a regular occurrence, but not for a one-off event even if that one-off was exactly how she described it.  My kids need to be able to problem solve themselves out of trouble, and to do that they need the chance to actually try.  That's how we support responsibility.  That's how we build resiliency.

I found an article today on ParentsCanada.com called "How to interact with your child's teacher", and I think that there are some connections between what the author Nancy Fornasiero is saying and the point that I am trying to make.  Nancy describes 9 "types" of parents, and I will borrow the following three for my post:

1. The tattle-tale: Do you go "straight to the top" with every concern?
• As a Principal, I will listen to a parent's concern, but I always refer them back to the classroom teacher for an issue stemming from the classroom.  I know that my teachers will come back to me if they need some advice, support or resources to solve a problem, but cutting them out of the loop only damages the relationship between school and home.  We ask our students to deal with issues together, and we need to expect the same from the adults in our school community.
2. The fixer: Can you not bear to see your child struggle of fail?
• This is a hard one, and one expressed most often to me because we do not want our kids to have to fail or to feel bad.  I believe that many successes stem from experiencing something undesirable and then having the gumption--the moxy, as my dad would say--to make the changes necessary so that it won't happen again.  I also think that it's okay to feel bad when you have done something wrong; that builds empathy.  When I graduated from high school, I included the following quote in my yearbook message: "A kick in the ass is still a step forward".  I still believe that to this day.
3. The blind believer: Do you forget to take your child's version of a story with a grain of salt?
• This is a hard one for parents because they take such a black and white stance to issues.  I spend a lot of time helping them to understand that (1) I believe that their child is telling me the truth from their point of view, and (2) there, quite possibly, might be more than one version of the truth.  This does not mean that their child is a liar!  We know that memories are anchored by emotional experiences, and if an experience emotes emotion (a fight, and argument, someone feeling slighted, etc.) it makes it very easy for us to add in our own feelings.  How many times, for example, have you had a imaginary conversation between yourself and someone that you are in conflict with (it often happens for me on the drive home) where you get to a point where you can't believe what they just said to you (remember, it's still imaginary)?  The next day, you interact with that person, they give you "a look" and you then fill in all sorts of blanks with what they meant, including some that they might not even have realized that they gave you.  Whew!  How about some of those "at home" conflicts?  You get on your teen for "always needing a reminder to take the garbage out", without noticing that they had done it twice without being asked.  "My parents are always mad at me", or "they never notice..." are common complaints that we hear at school.  Remember, the comments don't have to be true to be believed.  Real strength comes from listening, taking a step back and helping our child to see multiple points of view.
• Take some time to talk to your child's teacher, and I bet that you will find not only someone who cares a lot, but someone who knows your child much better than you think.  No one likes to be complained to, so develop a relationship, and talk about all things that go on in the classroom, not just the negative ones.  My children know that dad knows their Principal and their teachers, and that I am not going to over react to a small injustice.  They know that I have their back, and that I am so proud of them when they show responsibility, when they problem-solve, and when they advocate for themselves. 

The Doorway Effect Part 2--In Through the Out Door

So, on my last post I pointed towards an article in Scientific American that I found about memory and the doorway effect.  Basically it said that our memory is purged of old information when we walk through a doorway so that our brain can make room for the new--and more pressing--information set in the new room.  That's why we can head to the kitchen thirsty, only to forget our thirst when we get there.  Just yesterday, I left my office on a mission, only to have someone distract my attention. 

Poof, it was gone.

Remembering this article, I retraced my steps, walked back through the doorway and "poof" it was back.  Cool!

I do think, however, that--doorways aside--this idea of the brain only holding the most pressing information needs some further discussion.  If, for example, the brain is stressed (no breakfast, mom and dad are fighting at home, worries about safety, self-esteem, etc.) and holding onto some sort of information that engages the reptilian part of our brains (fight or flight responses), then we most certainly won't be able to comprehend, process of remember any new context or connections in algebra or sentence structure. 

If we use this model of a doorway shifting our brain to a new, and learned, set of information, let's work on creating doorways that lead to safe learning environments where:

• ideas are appreciated
• trial, errors, stumbles and failures are an expected part of the learning process
• we are given the tools to reflect, to collaborate and to think critically
• we teach learners to be problem solvers
• safety and respect are paramount
• we celebrate diversity
• the learning drives the assessments

Just think of a kid coming to school with all sorts of baggage, and being able to park those challenges at the door when they walk into your classroom because of the conditions and experiences that you created.  That would be really cool.

The Doorway Effect

Have you ever walked into a room, only to realize that you can't remember what you went in there for?  Left your office to find a staff member, and then forgotten why you went to find them once you get to their office?  Put your sunglasses on your head and then gone outside thinking that you don't know where your sunglasses are?

We all seem to think that we know why this happens;  we were not concentrating enough on the task at hand.  Some compelling research out of Notre Dame University, however, says that we aren't losing our minds, rather we are just falling victim to the darn doorways that we are walking through. 

We live in a busy world, and our universe is a dangerous place overloading us with information.  It is impossible to process the information coming at us at once, so we tend to work through things one at a time...worry about things one at a time...and so we don't hold onto information beyond its relevance (expiry) date.  Early man needed to be alert in the forest.  He couldn't be watching the butterflies in the jungle if there was a hungry jaguar wandering about;  stopping to smell the roses would make him a tasty morsel in the food chain.  Our brain know what we need to concentrate on.   It keeps us safe by forcing the issues most relevant to our survival forward, and makes room for these ideas by pushing all other information to the wayside.  That's where scientists think that the doors come in.

It would seem that when we cross through a door, our brain "resets" our memory to our new surroundings.  We have crossed a threshold to a new set of information and to make room for it our brain purges the "expired" information--that stuff we brought into the room that is no longer relevant to the experience ahead of us.  The new stuff replaces the old stuff.  That means that even though you are trying to concentrate on one thing, your brain is trying to provide you with the information that it thinks you need based on the changes to your environment.  Ultimately, there isn't room for everything so while you may think that you are losing your mind and dementia is setting in, it is actually your brain playing tricks on you.

Have a read of an article describing that research here.

Why We Do What We Do

This is a very interesting September for me; it is my first one—as the principal of an elementary school—where one of my own children is entering Kindergarten.  So, when asking nervous parents to “leave their kids and trust us”, I am very aware that I too am leaving my youngest in the care of someone else.  It is good for us to remind ourselves, every day, that we are trusted with the most precious treasures from each of our school families, and that it is our moral imperative to make sure that the decisions we make for children should be the same as if they were all our children.  In BC, the School Act uses the term “in loco parentis”, which refers to the legal responsibility for us to take on some of the functions and responsibilities of a parent.  And, pushing moralities and legalities aside, the reason we are all here is the kids.     

Areneus gemmoides

As the morning bell rang and students were running to class this morning, two grade 3 boys rushed up to me to show me their latest find:  a huge spider.  They had found it on the fence and collected it with a plastic container from one of their lunch kits (not sure where the snack went that mom sent in the lunch kit...).  Of course, there was plenty of excitement in other kids, there were parents and supervisors both enthralled and repulsed out, and the boys announced to me that they were going to take it to class.

Hmmm...

I definitely saw the concerned look our supervisor's face.

And, this would definitely be a hit, simultaneously stimulating and grossing out the entire class.

And--most importantly--I needed to know if this spider was poisonous; once it got into the class I would surely have someone's parent call with a concern later in the day.  This was, after all, not a tiny, little spider.  In fact, it was larger than a marble.  So, I did what any fast-thinking Principal would do:  I bought myself some time.  I told the boys that I would keep it safe in my office until we could release it.  "RELEASE IT?" one exclaimed, "He is going to KEEP it!"  I assured them that I would keep it safe, and rushed off to my office to try and identify this beautiful creature.

A quick search told me that we had found Areneus gemmoides, a very common, harmless arachnid, considered a very useful natural predator for insects. They are more commonly called the Jewel or Cat-Faced Spider, and their horns and markings resemble a cat's face.  I printed off the Wikipedia fact sheet for this critter, and took the spider back to class so that the teacher could share a look and some neat information with her students.  Now, they will all go home to tell their parents that they found a huge, harmless spider, and then the principal and spider-collecting student released her unharmed, back into nature to lay her eggs.  A great, teaching moment.

...and only one student was really grossed out...

Confessions of a Kindergartener

So, yesterday marked the first day of kindergarten for my youngest child.  The first two breezed through their kindie orientations, but this one--in his words--just loves his mom and his favourite stuffy a lot".  This one is very smart, has a well-developed sense of humour, is reading, is counting to 200, and is self-aware enough to tell mom flat out that he is too shy to enjoy his first day of kindergarten and would be crying.  Geez, what do we do with that?

Mom talked to him about how much fun kindergarten was.

Big sister and brother told him how much they loved kindergarten.

I talked to him about making new friends and gave him some scripted, one-liners to help him reach out and make a new buddy.

Mom texted me as she was leaving him to let me know that he was crying.  I texted back that he would be fine.

Later that afternoon, I got a phone call.  It was child #3.

Me:  So, how was your first day of Kindergarten?

#3:  Soooo EPIC!!!

Me:  Good. Were you a bit nervous?

#3:  Yes, and I cried for a bit.  But, then I just decided that no more tears would be coming down.

Me:  Great.  Did you make a new buddy?

#3:  That's the best part.  It was so much fun and so awesome that I didn't even need to make a new friend.

Obviously, he was excited--and ready--for day two.

Back to School

Good Bye Summer!

And, just like that...we are back at it.

Why Kids Quit

Where has all of the fun gone?

I found a great article this weekend that talks about the single, biggest reason for kids dropping out of sports.  As a long-time track & field and soccer coach, this topic really piques my attention.  The article is from an Australian newspaper--a place where amateur sport rules supreme--and quotes statistics and anecdotes from the USA, the UK and New Zealand, but the brand, so-to-speak, is the same here in Canada.  Of course the answer was simple and predictable:  parents.

Kathleen Noonan, the author, describes coaches who are berated during games by parents who drive "Mercedes and BMWs.  Even in front of their kids."  How about sports where they "have introduced lollipops for parents to put in their mouths because their barracking so out of hand an abusive."  In Canada, we have seen this type of behaviour documented time and time again in the hockey arena, but have you ever watched a youth soccer/lacrosse/basketball/etc. game?  The soccer association that we belong to has had to institute rules requiring parents to watch from the opposite side of the field from where the team sits, and to have specific language demanding that coaches and parents not speak to or engage the referees, in any way, before, during or after the game.  I have even had a team parent have to be spoken to for chewing out an opposing player for playing to hard against her daughter.

Ms. Noonan says that the car ride home can be a real game changer for kids who are, at the same time, reeling from a loss or poor play (or both), and still facing a barrage of criticism from an overly-competitive parent.  She does, however, provide some advice for that ride home.  Instead of complaining about the ref, or the coach, or the other team or--heaven forbid--your child's performance, stress the fun in the game.  Find a compliment (good passing, responsible defensive play, teamwork, fancy uniforms, a great cheer...), and spread the wealth.  Find something good, and compliment your child.  Tell them that you are proud of them, and encourage them to be a good sport when they win, and to stick with it when they don't.  Two weeks ago, my girls' team had a tough game.  We had a long drive and started with no subs.  A bunch of girls did not show up, and we withered in the heat in the second half against a very good team, which was really hard because we played our hearts out in the first half.  The girls left down, some in tears, and I heard compliments like, "where is so-and-so" and "I am tired of losing like this".  My daughter is a strong player, who played her heart out.  She told me that the girl who volunteered to play goalie was very upset, and so we talked about her go up to that girl at the next practice and complimenting her play.  We talked about how much that would mean to someone who felt that she--undeservedly--let the team down, and about how that type of compliment means so much more from a peer than it does from a coach or parent.  This one the heels of me trying to prop her up for her good play, and her grumbling...

Anyway, for at least one week, the positiveness led to a team refocus, and that led to an absolutely outstanding effort against a far superior team in a very close 2-1 loss this weekend.  The girls were exhausted from the heat and the running--again, only 2 subs this time.  But what I appreciated is that, while disappointed about losing, they saw the improvement.  They know that they took control against a strong team in the second half and put them on their heels.  We will reinforce this at practice this week.  We will tell them how proud we are of them.  We will single out game strengths for each player.  And, we will try again next week.

I coach this team with a friend and fellow principal.  We work hard every week on skill development, and on parlaying those practice skills into game play.  Most importantly, however, we measure success not by wins and losses--we've had mostly win and mostly lose seasons together--but by how many girls retruns next year.  So far, after 6 years, we have been very successful.

While this post took a definite sports angle, I would say that my experience has me convinced that the same themes ring true for many healthy activities for kids.  This like playing piano, painting, writing stories, building Lego masterpieces, etc.

Check out Kathleen Noonan's article here:  http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/the-real-reason-why-our-kids-quit-sport/story-e6frerdf-1226645601355

Loving What You Do

We went to see Sting last night.  Wow, what an amazing show.  

At 62 years old, Sting brought it.  He brought every bit of energy, passion and sound that we could have ever wished for.  You can tell that he absolutely loves what he is doing, that he is living the dream.  I guess that is all that we can ask for, to find ourselves going to "work" everyday doing what we love.  I know a farmer who believes that he has never worked a day in his life.  He is in his 70s and still going strong.  It's not worth struggling--trudging--through your day doing something that you would rather not do.  I had a teacher once--grade 9 Social Studies--who started off the year telling us how much he hated teaching and how he was too old to do anything about it.  How do you think that year went?  I can tell you one thing, that teacher taught me more in that sentence than he did the entire year.

I often hear young teachers--especially student teachers--make statements along the lines of "I am just trying to survive".  A mentor once told me never to "survive" but always to thrive.  There is something good to be learned from every experience.  I have had two TOC experiences, in two provinces, where I was led to a classroom of, well, animals, with nothing planned or prepared, both times with a new student teacher sitting scared in the corner.  One was a grade 7 class and the other was the first day of middle school sex ed.  I could have turned and ran, but instead I dug in my heels and planned a day (thank goodness that I was married to medical student).  Here is what I learned from those two awful  experiences:

• I will never, ever leave my classroom unprepared for a TOC.  I will always have a clear plan laid out for me, every day, that is written in "teacher-on-call" language, that anyone could pick up and go.
• My lessons are planned so that my class know what they are doing, and why.  It is way easier for someone new to take off when they can see the runway.
• I can't be the all-encompassing driving force, passion, information vessel, energetic story-teller, sole judge and evaluator for every lesson and assessment.  If I am, I can never be away or have an off day.
• My students are prepared in advance if the upcoming lesson is of a sensitive nature.
• My job is to teach, not to be cool.  As a student, I had a "cool" teacher who had low standards and gave out little work.  The most valuable thing for a teenager is probably their time, and they don't want it wasted.  While we complained about getting homework, it was a far better choice than having to sit through idle time every day for an hour.
• I am very adaptable, and can be thrown into any situation.
• Lesson planning is not simply about "what I can do today", but "what I need to do today, tomorrow, and the next day..." and so on.  There has to be purpose and clear design in what we do.  Experience tells me that most of the time that students don't really know what they are doing stems from their teachers not really knowing what they are doing.  BTW, the class of "animals" had no idea what they were doing that day, the day before or the day after.  They were just there.
• I connect with people well, even when I need them to do something that they are not used to doing.
• I will never assign a student teacher to someone who is not worthy of being a leader and a mentor.

When you love what you do, you have purpose, reason and meaning.  You are happy, and make things productive to those around you.  You make a difference.

My BIG question:  are you doing what you love?

My follow-up to the BIG question:  if the answer to the above question is "no", then why not?

Kid Snippets

Kid Snippets are hilarioius.  They get small children to answer questions or describe situations, and then bring in adult actors to "lip sync" to the words.

As we are busy in staff season, I thought that I would share their Job Interview movie (above), but can't resist sharing my favourite, Math Class (below).  My kids absolutely love them.

Inspiration: The Way We Choose to Live

This one really got me.

Every once in a while we get a reminder...a real reminder...about the things that are important...

...about how we can should live our lives...

...about being a leader.

Zach has such a beautiful story, and one that needs to be shared.  Zach died recently, just days after turning 18.  Above all else, I think Zach epitomizes the qualities that we need to see in our young leaders—about making choices to live the right way.  It is 22 minutes long, and it is emotional,  but definitely very worthwhile and inspirational.  Zach didn't face uncertainty; things were very certain for him.  And, instead of worrying about dying, he spent his energy living.  He showed us how we all should live.

Thanks Zach.

Silly Season Mantra: One Thing at a Time

Wow, it's May 17th, and I can't believe how busy things are at this time of year.  With track and field in full swing, school-wide writes, cultural performances, staffing and budgeting for next year, new kindergarten orientations, a busy spouse's work schedule, multiple soccer practices for multiple kids at the same time, fighting over who is buying groceries for dinner tonight (every night)....the list goes on.  On top of that, we are all getting tired--not worn out--just tired, and when that happens and our resiliency is low molehills often become mountains.  My wife is experiencing this as she approaches the one-year anniversary at her university job.  She loves the job, but finds the human resources--a.k.a. the people part of the job--a real time consumer. 

Welcome to my world.

"But, you have a Master's degree", she says. 

"And, you have a Doctor of Medicine", I say.

"But they didn't teach us about Human Resources", she counters.

Welcome to my world.

It is funny that I find myself finishing of a post intended to encourage us all to enjoy the last months of the school year without feeling overworked and overwhelmed, two weeks after I started it.  I guess it just goes back to that idea of a daily "To Do" list gone awry, smothered in a humongous helping of the "One Things at a Time" mantra that I was going to write about.  Talk about irony.

In any event, here is my advice:

During silly season, the playoffs push so to speak, we all have days when we feel like we are running on fumes.  Our resiliency is low, and that leaves us susceptible to stronger reactions (you will notice that I did not use the word overreaction) to things that would be managed more easily with a fuller tank.  It is very easy to throw your hands in the air, in despair, and to feel overwhelmed when in fact all we need is a little focus to give us clarity. 

Easier said than done.

For me, it usually takes enough emergencies that I want to run away for me to step back, prioritize, and start dealing with things one at a time.  O n e  a t  a  t i m e.  It helps to remember those posters, you know, the ones that you find in offices everywhere that ask for the patience to solve the things that you can and the sanity to let go of the things that you cannot fix?  So, make a list, a real list on paper, and start dealing with things on at a time.  People already know that you are busy, and appreciate that you have a plan to help them out even if they have to be next in line.  You see, they at least know that they are next in line.  I find that being able to make a list, and then actually crossing things off of that list really helps me to calm done, and that means that I listen better, connect better and help people to solve their problems better.  It also helps me to delegate off the things that someone else can do a better job on;  trust me, trying micromanage your way out of a deluge of issues isn't good  for anyone

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely live for the weekends and the quick recharge I get from them at this time of the year.  I have lists of the things that absolutely need to be done today, this week and this month in front of me, and those lists change depending on the circumstances that come before me.  Let your lists be fluid, and tackle the things that you can, one at a time, when they need to get done.  You can do it.

Phew, I did it!  Not on time, or at least on my original time line, but I know that you understand.

Risk vs. Reward: How Much Help is Healthy?

A friend connected me to this article by Tim Elmore, who believes that "our 'over-protection, over-connection' style" of parenting "has damaged" our children.

Hmmm...in my experience, I think many of us are worried about this exact thing.

I hate to sound like my parents when I talk about "when I was a kid...", but things were really different.  I grew up in a small, coastal, mill town where we played outside, made forts in the bush and kept a keen eye on the clock so that the axes we borrowed from our dads' tool sheds were back before they got of the bus from work at the end of the day.  Imagine us, straight-legging down the street with an axe down the leg of our pants, hiding it from the nosy old lady on the corner, racing to get it back in the shed so we could be washing our hands before our mom found any tell-tale evidence of our lumber jacking escapades.  We didn't have video games, and cartoons last for 30 minutes on one channel, so there was no way our moms allowed us to hang around in the house complaining about being bored.

We didn't get rides places; we rode our bikes everywhere.  This in itself built up our future resumes as riding a bike--no matter how old and hand-me-downed it was--necessitated some serious engineering skills building jumps and obstacle courses.  Nothing was too extreme, of course, as YouTube hadn't been invented yet to fill our minds with death-defying feats, and the X Games wasn't here to justify a youth misspent. The bikes extended our range, allowing us to travel much farther (and get back before the work bus much faster), and it also added to our education.  We could now easily get to Kirby's Pond where we collected salamanders, pulled sword ferns to make swords and bracken ferns to make throwing spears, and we learned life lessons like running away from the bad, big kids who smoke and swore, and building secret, camouflaged forts to hide in--laughing--when they chased us.  The bikes took us down to the stream where we learned about commitment; you can't pull up short on an epic flight over the creek bed without getting hurt, wet muddy, and an earful from your mom who spent all day doing laundry.

And summer was the ultimate freedom, described best by phrases like "be home before dark" and "don't get caught doing anything stupid".  We would walk down to the store by ourselves, and buy whatever teat we could afford with the change in our pockets.  The stores then never had those signs that said "2 kids at a time" and "no backpacks".  Man, if you screwed around or were rude to someone, you knew your dad would hear about it and that you would get a whupping when you got home--without a chance to explain your side of the story.  Adults ruled and no one questioned them.  There was no such a thing as a child negotiating out of trouble;  if you messed up, you took your lumps.  That was called learning.

We came from a neighbourhood, a community, that worked hard to get by.  Dad's appreciated jobs in the mill because a job there meant that you could buy a house and raise a family.  We took vacations...crammed in the family car, and travelled to wondrous places like Surrey to visit relatives where they had amazing things like 7-11s and McDonald's.  I did well in school, and my dad was proud.  He showed it by saying things like "Good job.  I am proud of you".  Recently, I had a conversation (that I didn't realize was actually an argument) with a beloved family member about how I should be paying my daughter handsomely for every A she earned, and then add a special bonus for the perfect report card she brought home last month.  Payment for As?  Isn't that her job?  Do you understand how rich I could have been if could have only negotiated a fair price for every A I brought home?

Everything is not supposed to come easily.  We need to get knocked down and scratched to learn what hurts.  We need to be left to figure conflict out with our peers without parental referees so that we can problem solve for ourselves when we are older.  We need to have our hearts broken so that we can learn to love.  Our kids need to be able to accept disappointment so that they can develop resiliency.  That way, they will learn to take risks--calculated risks--that are smart and safe, and that will open up options and opportunities for them when they are adults.  Risk-taking is an essential part in building success;  it is how we build leaders.

Tim Elmore's article provides some good discussion points to that last idea of building leaders.  Have a read and let me know what you think.

 http://growingleaders.com/blog/3-mistakes-we-make-leading-kids/

 It's a choice:


 or

Reading Groups--UPDATE X2

Wow!

That's all I can really say.  After analyzing the data last week, and few more assessments were done and a few more kids changed groups.  While I realize that any data measure is just a snap shot in time, I am so proud of the efforts of my staff and my students and of all their families supporting them at home.

We are at a point in time--7 months into this project--where 80% of our grade 2 and 3 learners are meeting or exceeding the reading expectations for their grade level.  That is amazing!  What is equally amazing in that in this short period of time, we have reduced our most at-risk readings in these age groups from 12.2% of the cohort to 6.7%, and while the percentages are terrific, that represents 4 students--real people--who are no longer "Not Yet Meeting" in their reading goals and reduced the group of students approaching grade appropriate reading levels from 29.7% (22 students) to 13.3% (10 students).  That's 12 more students who are now meeting or exceeding their reading benchmarks.

So, that leaves me back to where I started...WOW!!!

Reading Groups--UPDATE

You may remember my post back at the end of November, describing the new reading plan for grade 2 and 3 students at our school (Differentiated Reading Groups).  Well, our first batch of results are in and they are phenomenal.  A recap:

• We are using PM benchmarks as our measurement tool to assess student reading and to assign students to the reading groups.
• We measured each student in early October and assigned them to a reading group.
• We brought in three non-enrolling teachers to help make the reading groups smaller, including myself, our LAT and our Teacher-Librarian.
• The students with the lowest PM benchmark scores were put into the smallest groups (6-7 students), and assigned to a classroom teacher.  Students with the highest PM benchmark scores were put into the largest groups (17-18 students), and assigned to our non-enrolling staff.
• Each group met 3 times per week for 1 hour sessions (3 hours per week).
• Each teacher designed a program that best suited the needs of the group.  For example, the weakest readers received very intense reading instruction, and the larger groups worked on more advanced skills such as novel studies, oral reading to an audience, vocabulary and character development, etc.
• We re-measured all of the benchmarks at the end of March.

I have just compiled the data and am very pleased to announce that the following information:

October Results

March Results

 We have gone from:

• 12.1% to 8.1% of our grade 2 and 3 students "Not Yet Meeting Expectations" in reading
• 29.7% to 14.9% of our grade 2 and 3 students "Approaching Expectations" in reading
• 16.2% to 21.6% of our grade 2 and 3 students "Meeting Expectations" in reading
• 41.9% to 43.2% of our grade 2 and 3 students "Exceeding Expectations" in reading

That means, we have shifted from 58.1% of our grade 2 and 3 students "Meeting or Exceeding Expectations" to 64.8% of our grade 2 and 3 students "Meeting or Exceeding Expectations" in reading.

More importantly, we have dropped from 41.8% of our grade 2 and 3 students "Not Yet Meeting or Approaching Expectations" to 23% of our grade 2 and 3 students "Not Yet Meeting or Approaching Expectations" in Reading.

Wow!

Our goal was to find a way to really reduce that "Approaching Group" so that they were meeting expectations with some support so that we could more efficiently disaggregate the "Not Yet Meeting" group.  The NYM group will always need supports, and most of the readers here have identified learning challenges that we support with very intense one-on-one and small group LAT and specialist support.

On a very personal level, I think that we can become overly fixed on data, its collection and analysis, and forget about why we are collecting data.  When we present this news to our School Planning Council on Monday, we will have a grade 2 student read to us.  This student started off the year in one of our small intense groups and was still reading at the late grade 1 level.  As of today, they are not only exceeding expectations for grade 2, but incredibly reading close to a grade 5 reading level!  This is tremendous growth, and it came from a wonderful combination of school and home support for reading.  We have taken a young student who was feeling frustrated and embarrassed at school, and helped them blossom into someone brimming with confidence and excited to learn.  We were able to collect and analyze data in a way that allowed us to put an appropriate response in place that made a huge difference for a student.

And that, exactly, is why we collect the data we do.