Did I learned anything important in school?

Did I ever learn anything important in school?

Yes.

But, of course, I'm supposed to think that. I'm a Superintendent.

The question is what?

Neil Gaiman has said:

I've been making a list of the things

they don't teach you at school.

They don't teach you how to love somebody.

They don't teach you how to be famous.

They don't teach you how to be rich or how to be poor.

They don't teach you how to walk away from someone

you don't love any longer.

They don't teach you how to know what's going on

in someone else's mind.

They don't teach you what to say to someone who's dying.

They don't teach you anything worth knowing.

Each of us could add to the list that Mr. Gaiman started.

They don't teach you how to laugh.

They don't teach you how to enter a room and feel comfortable.
They don't teach you how to react when you get

a phone call with terrible news.

They don't teach you how to be a friend.

The list could go on and on. School does not teach us everything. 

But is it true that school doesn't teach you anything worth knowing? No!

School doesn't teach us everything. It is not supposed to. School can't teach us everything. There is just too much to know.

That's where parents, grandparents, friends, uncles, aunts, and others come in.

That's why we develop passions and interests and do our own research. 

But that brings us back to the question that we started with - what did I learn in school that is important?

It's not so much that school taught me specific things that I will remember all my life - although it did. I learned about the periodic table and simplifying equations and the APA method of citations for papers. I learned specific tasks to help me complete specific homework assignments. I learned multiplication tables and spelling words. I learned the classics and the not-so classics. 

I followed the tried and true math trail - algebra, geometry, algebra 2, and pre-calculus. I circled the globe learning about countries. I wrote papers. I completed projects in shoe boxes. 

I learned the curriculum that was taught. And that was important.

The things I learned in school prepared me for college. It gave me a foundation that allowed me to continue learning. 

But I also learned the curriculum that was not taught and that schools on occasion don't want to recognize.

I learned that people are not always nice. I learned that some people turn their backs on you and others embrace you. I learned that navigating the social pathway helps you learn a lot about yourself and a lot about other people.

I learned that looks are not everything. I learned that some people think they are.

I learned that some adults are your advocates and some adults are not.

I'm in a school because I believe in schools. Can schools be better? Absolutely.

Do I believe that schools help people learn things that are important? I believe that they do!  

On Teacher Appreciation Day, I would like to say thank you

I've had teachers whom I've loved.

Miss Hixenbaugh, 4th grade teacher at Inez elementary School. She had never married, stood over six feet tall, drove a Studebaker, and promised a Hershey candy bar and a dollar bill to any student who had perfect attendance. Plus, she was a wonderful teacher. We wrote stories, we acted out plays, we enjoyed coming to school every day.

I've had teachers whom I've respected.

Coach Braig, 10th and 11th grade Latin teacher at Sandia High School. He looked me in the eyes when he talked to me, challenged me to do better in his class, and always said hello to me when I walked by his classroom.

I've had teachers who challenged me.

Miss Ely, 10th grade English at Sandia High School. She helped me see that I had a voice and that I should share that voice with others. She challenged everyone in our class to try and do things differently, to engage people, to make people hear what you were trying to say.

I've had teachers who let me know that someone besides my Mom and Dad cared for me.

Mrs. Getz, 9th grade Speech teacher at Monroe Junior High School. She spent time helping me learn how to be on the debate team. She made sure that our class won the after-school PTA party. She laughed and cried with us because she cared.

Today, May 7th is officially Teacher Appreciation Day.

For all those teachers who have touched my life, had a hand in making me who I am today, challenged me, cared for me, inspired me, and taught me - I say thank you!

If work is no longer a place, what about school?

School, for most of my life, has been a place.

Inez Elementary School. Monroe Junior High School. Sandia High School. Graceland College. The University of Washington. Texas Tech University. Wayne State University.

Each and everyone of those schools was, and is, a place. I showed up, entered a building, found my classroom, sat in a desk, and waited for the teacher to help me learn. For the most part the teachers directed my learning. They identified the questions that I was to ask. They provided the resources that I needed.

Then I saw this on Twitter today.

Steve Kwikkel ‏@SKwikkel1h

The idea that work is a location is quickly fading. School as a location is a notion that will fade away too. Gr8 catch @B_Wagoner #plaea

It made me think.

I work from home. I work in my car. I work at Biggby's Coffee.

I work during the day. I work at night.

I work during the traditional work week. I also work on the weekends.

It's not that I work all the time, it's that I work not only at work but also when I need to in places and at times that would be considered unconventional.

Work is no longer, for me, defined by a place or a time.

Work is now about getting things done. Sometimes that happens in my office or in my school district.

Other times it happens at night, on the weekends, through Twitter chats, through reading, through listening.

The answers that I seek are not in a book. They are in a thousand books, and articles, and websites, and conversations with colleagues.

If where I work is no longer defined by a place and occurs at times and at places that don't fit in a box, maybe there is another way to look at learning.

I still consider myself a learner and I learn in a whole host of ways. I learn via webinars. I learn by reading. I learn by engaging colleagues through Twitter. I learn by going to conferences and attending sessions. I learn by watching YouTube videos. I learn by listening.

There is value in learning at a place and with other people. There is value in having someone guide me as I learn.

But . . . there is also value in exploring on my own, with colleagues, in ways that would be defined an un-traditional.

As work transforms from a place, I should look to see how school can transform as well.

Letting happiness find me

I've been thinking about happiness lately. Questions abound.

What is it?

How do you find it?

How do you keep it?

Recently, I've thought more about happiness than usual. Finding happiness and keeping happiness seem harder than ever.

I certainly don't have all the answers to what happiness means, how to find it, and how to keep it, but I know I want to be happy.

There are books and books and websites on happiness. I've read some but I've thought more.

Here's what I think I know.

Happiness comes not from accumulating things but from developing relationships.

Happiness comes not from being somebody but from helping someone else up.

Happiness is not an end in itself but a result of being involved in something meaningful beyond yourself.

Happiness does not mean that you don't hurt or grieve or suffer.

Happiness comes because you care about making the world a better place.

School superintendents are supposed to be focused on outcomes and test results and curriculum and budgets. I focus on those. I recognize that those are important.

But, more importantly, I want to focus on serving my family, my school district, my students, my staff, and my community. If I do that  - happiness will find me.

Gamers as a model for real learning?

What do you think of when you think of a gamer?

A slacker?

A basement dweller who can't relate to the real world?

How about . . .

A person with a questioning disposition?

A person with curiosity?

A person, who as part of a community, transforms and shapes their own learning?

A model for what real learning looks like?

Look at this video in which John Seely Brown talks about motivating learners. He paints an interesting and provocative picture of today's learners. It is a picture that those of us in education need to embrace but clearly have not.

Data, sports, and schools: What's the connection?

An article appeared on how statistics and data can be used to improve outcomes. The author said:

• analytics are advancing and changing everything
• access to previously unimaginable information and statistics
• various software programs can break down in breath taking detail . . .

Yet the author continued and said:

• Many people are still fighting back against the numbers
• The numbers are the the numbers. But you better know your [people]
• Even at a conference about using the numbers and analytics in new ways, there is significant backlash against using the numbers in the current ways.

The author concludes with:

• You can understand those under the microscope being dismissive of those people calculating odds and percentages and best practices while sitting far away from the fray

And there you have it.

On the one hand you have those who advocate for the use of data. Numbers. Statistics. Quantifiable outcomes.

Then you have those in the trenches, those on the field, those doing the work that have a different perspective than those in the offices calculating performance who have never been in the trenches, on the field, or doing the work.

That is the world of education. 

Except this article was about the use of data in sports not the use of data in schools. 

It was interesting to see the similarities between those in sports and those in schools.

Both have data.

There is some skepticism in some quarters about the importance of data.

A big difference is that in sports one can define success. A team wins or loses. Inquiring minds can ask why "Team A" did better than "Team B"? Those who advocate using data in new ways will argue that it is using the data in new ways that is making the difference for those teams that win.

Think "Moneyball."

But in education is the use of data that clear cut?

Do we see winners and losers just based on data?

Some data points seem more important to some people than other data points.

Test scores? Important.

Poverty rates? Not so important to some.

Grade points? Viewed with skepticism by some.

The outcome in education is learning. We need to use all of the available data that we have to try and figure out if students are learning.

But we also need to look at the human factor. How do we quantify the importance of a teacher who cares? Of a teacher who connects with students?

The conversation surrounding the use of data is critical.

When data conflicts with a political agenda, who wins?

On January 16, 2013, Governor Snyder, in his state of the state address, said the following:

Only 17 percent of our kids are college ready.

This is a consistent message that the Governor gives. He hammers again and again that only 17% of Michigan's high school seniors are college ready. He has said it many times.

But it is just not true.

No matter how many times he says it, the Governor is wrong.

On the Governor's dashboard - MI School Data (www.mischooldata.org) - 75% of the 2010 graduates - the latest year for which numbers are available - enrolled in college within 16 months of graduation. (Here's a link that shows the numbers - click on the "percentage" link.)

On the Governor's dashboard - MI School Data - the latest figures show that less than 30% need remedial courses in college in any subject. Indeed, the numbers show that less than 8% need remedial courses in reading, less than 13% need remedial courses in writing, and less than 22% need remedial courses in math.

If Governor Snyder's numbers were accurate then fully 83% of students would need remedial work.

Why would the Governor try to sell an idea that clearly is not true?

He has a political agenda that requires him to try and show that public schools are not doing the job. This would allow him to sell his idea that other forms of education - commercialized, for-profit companies and his Educational Achievement Authority - are needed to provide the kind of education that Michigan students need.

But the data refute the Governor. It appears that the Governor is not looking at the data or is choosing to ignore the data.

What happens when data conflicts with a political agenda? It appears that the political agenda wins.

The Governor could be selling that Michigan's public schools do a great job of educating students. The Governor could be trumpeting than businesses should invest in Michigan because we have an educated population that would help businesses succeed.

But the Governor is not doing that.

That is - to put it mildly - unfortunate.