Tinkerings

Today is New Year’s Eve.  While it is the end of a year for real people, it is the middle of the year for educators.  Either way, it gives us a time to reflect on what has happened over the past year in politics. movies, music, relationships, work, and a host of other minute aspects of our lives.

It is also a time for making resolutions that sound great today, but become increasingly difficult just moments after the ball drops in New York’s Times Squre.

As teachers, we think about what happened in our classrooms, new attempts at lesson plans and classroom management, meetings with parents, meetings with faculty, meetings with administrators, meeting with students….did I mention we think about meetings?

As you contemplate all these things today and tonight, please know that there are hundreds if not thousands of people in your sphere of influence who are all, in one way or another, wishing you and yours a very happy New Year.  And that includes me.

Here is the karaoke version of Auld Lang Syne.  Feel free to sing along!

Happy New Year!

I have been remodeling the house I bought for a few months now. I should have been done two months ago, but you know how it is.  Things happen.

The inside is really taking shape.  I’m down to a few minor details requiring paint, finishing one closet, and tiling around a newly installed bathtub.  People driving by don’t get to see how close I am.  They get to see my carport with saw horses and wood trim laying around, a gas fireplace I removed, and a screen door I no longer need.

And they get to see my backyard.

When I moved in, there was a big hole in the ground where a pool used to be.  I’ve filled it in rather than repair it.  I’ve still got part of a concrete pad showing that will eventually be covered over with a new section of decking.

And there are the two big piles of dirt.  My son-in-law has been using his bobcat to break up all the old concrete and fill in the hole.  He’s done a fantastic job.  It isn’t his fault I’ve still got two piles of dirt arching up like old Indian burial mounds next to my house.  The weather is the real culprit.  We can’t do much with the dirt while the yard is water soaked.

I swear with each passing day of rain it looks like the dirt piles are getting smaller and smaller on their own. I’m not sure where the dirt is going, but something is changing.  The longer we can’t work with it, the less workable the dirt gets.  It will be fun when the weather breaks and that bobcat tries to eat away and two hard, crusted over piles of solid earth.

As I was looking out the window at my dirt a few days ago I realized it was a pretty good analogy for what it is like working with kids in middle school.

Most kids come to us like those piles of dirt.  Their brains and wills are soft and pliable.  It is easy to move them in the direction you want them to go.  With some time and patience, the landscape of their lives can be impacted for good by a skillful teacher.

Some, however, come to us hardened.  Crusted over.  Difficult to move.  As teachers, we are often frustrated with those students.  But we shouldn’t be.  It really isn’t their fault.

Like the dirt in my back yard, these kids have been passed over, ignored, forgotten, or fallen between the cracks.  Maybe they were too quiet in class to get the right attention.  Perhaps their parents just don’t take the time to work with them at home.  Or life’s circumstances (like the rain in my backyard) have just beat them down smaller than they should be.

It does us no good to get upset with these kids.  They are used to having people upset with them.  Instead, we need to realize that the work is just going to be a little tougher, a little slower.  But the end results are often sweeter.

That’s the view from my backyard.  What does your view look like?

Last week I spent 3 days in Nashville for TETC at the Marriott Renaissance in the downtown area.  I called two days before to finally make my reservations (and paid full price in the process).  I told the reservation clerk what time I would be arriving, and the next day I got a confirmation of my reservation by email.  Quick, easy, friendly.

Then I arrived.

I got to the hotel around 2:00 PM local time and proceeded immediatley to check-in.  I was told that my room was not ready and that it would be about an hour before I could settle in.  I was a little bothered by that, but not overly so.

Then an hour went by.

I went back to the desk (with a new agent) and asked about my room.  I was told, curtly, “Sir, we make no gaurantees of rooms before 4:00 PM.”  I explained that I had told the reservation person what time I would arrive and she assured me all would be ready.  ”I’m sorry you were misled,” I was told.

Finally, at 4 PM I went back to the desk to get my key.  I explained my frustration to the gentleman behind the counter (the curt one) and asked if he could give me key access to the concierge level to make up for my frustration.  ”I’m sorry, sir, but we aren’t allowed to do that,” I was told summarily.

Ordinarily, that would be the end of it, and I would walk away content that I had at least asked.  But this time I knew it was a lie.  A friend of mine at the conference had, indeed, accomplished exactly what I was asking for.

Needless to say, I am contemplating staying off site next year.  My $436.00 could be better spent at a hotel where the service is friendly and helpful.  If I stayed off site for the next three years, that one employee’s attitude could cost his company over $1200.

Which brings me to the second company: Panera.

I went to Panera this morning to get a sausage-egg-and-cheese breakfast sandwich. I do this when I want to treat myself.  They were busy putting together gift baskets for pick up and delivery.  I noticed when I placed my order that no one was making sandwiches, but I let it go because it was early.

After twenty minutes, I began t wonder if they had forgotten about me entirely.  After all, waiting two hours for a room is one thing.  Waiting twenty minutes for breakfast is just beyond the pale!

In another minute or so my buzzer went off and I went to get my order.  The manager was there to hand it to me personally.  It came with a heart felt apology for their actions.  They threw in a side order of fresh fruit on the house.  And the manager told me that if it ever happened again he wanted me to complain…loudly.  This lack of service is, evidently, not acceptable.

He had me at hello.

Now, I know which company I want to do business with.  The bigger question for me is this: which classroom teacher will I be?  Will I be the one with rules that can’t be broken or bent?  Will I be the one who dismisses students out of hand because they aren’t worthy of my time for understanding and compassion?  Or will I be the teacher who is so attentive, so over-the-top about helping kids, that I am willing to go the extra mile to make sure one student stays in school?

What about you?

This past week Teryl Magee and I presented 4 separate workshops at TETC in Nashville.  What an honor!  Our first in the series was one I was looking forward to for some time: Skype.

There were 55 chairs in a room that should have only held about 30.  By the time we were underway about 40 people had showed up.  We were amazed and appreciative of the support we received.

The most interesting aspect of our crowd was that there were only about 5 classroom teachers present.  Everyone else was from an IT department.  That had never happened to us before, so we quickly changed our approach just a little bit.  We realized this was the crowd we needed.  One teacher from a school can impact one classroom (and a handful of others).  IT people can influence a district.

After a few minutes of describing the various things Skype is and does, we launched into some short video snippets of the ways in which people use Skype.  One video I really loved was of a piano lesson where the little girl is in Spain and the teacher is in Chicago.  Way cool!

Toward the end of our presentation we linked up with Chad “imcguy” Lehman for a live demonstration of video chat.  I think the audience was surprised at how easy it was to do and how good the signal was we were receiving.  Chad did an awesome job helping us demonstrate the power of Skype.

I’ll post more later from some of the other sessions we did.  Needless to say, we had a fantastic time with the sessions, meeting more people to put into our PLNs, and hanging out with the “really cool” people from DE Streaming and DE Assessment.