You Carry Me Through!

I may have told you about the Turk before, but in case I haven't I want to share who he is. Y0u know the voice in your head that tells you that everything is going wrong, that you're no good, that you can't handle the situation? That's the Turk. The Turk has been challenging me all week. We have had some interesting things happen to us all week. I'm drawn to my faith in God to get me through these times through prayer. But I've also found that I have surrounded myself with good people that can help me get through any situation. I am blessed because they are part of my life. It reminds me of a great song, here's part of the Chorus, and if you can tell me who wrote it, I'll give you a fish pass.

And when my mind is free
You know a melody can move me
And when I'm feelin' blue
The guitar's comin' through To soothe me

Thanks for the joy that you've given me
I want you to know I believe in your song
And rhythm and rhyme and harmony
You help me along Makin' me strong

Oh, give me the beat boys and free my soul
I wanna get lost in your rock n roll
And drift away
Give me the beat boys and free my soul I wanna get lost in your rock n roll
And drift away


Translation - Verse 1 -

When the turk is challenging us and our minds are wandering freely, the melody of our school gets me back on track. The melody of a great teaching, students laughing and having fun, hugs, smiles, laughter, etc. etc. This music that we make crushes the turk and reminds us of our missioin and purpose.

Translation - Verse 2

Thank you for guiding me along this week and reminding me it's the strong melodies that we need to focus our attention on. We can all be guided by our common belief, our common vision, this will carry us along through the times that the Turk is challenging us.

Translation - Verse 3

Keep giving us the beat of what we know and hold true as important for our students. Focus on that and we will get lost in what is great rather than what is overwhelming for a few minutes of our day.

Driftin Away,

Mike

Do You Know Me?

This week we were challenged by Dr. Dudley Flood to know all of our students as individuals. He later said that once we felt like we knew our students as individuals that we should compare our original beliefs to our previous beliefs. In my personal experiences, I admit that I have passed judgment on people before knowing them. I think if we are all honest with our selves we do the same thing. This is especially true when we look at individuals from other cultures. Point in case, how often when you get your class list do you ask others about the students you will have in your class. We race to think about how many students from each ethnicity or how many boys and how many girls we have. Before we get to know them we have a perception of who they are, how they behave, and worst of all how much their parents value the education of their child.

I learned this week that the power of knowing our students as individuals helps make the school as a whole a better place. Think about the mosaics our fifth graders created and hung in the cafeteria this week. Our fifth graders taught us that by knowing how each piece fit individually on the mosaics a masterpiece could be created. Each person had an individual role, knowing when and where they fit, they felt valued to be part of the creation of something great. Each of our classrooms is a mosaic. We are all creating this years work of art. Let's not have any Van Goghs out there.

The same is true of our school. If we work to know each of our students as individuals like each piece of the mosaic our finished product will be a masterpiece. One that is not measured by test scores, but a positive learning experience that motivates higher education and productive citizenship. If you don't trust this, look at the pictures to the right of your screen and what our students created this week. This type of work was not done by students that are low achievers. This was done by great kids, with a determination for success. Guiding them down that path is our challenge. How do we do that? Get to know who they are! Challenge your perceptions. Go deeper with the students on a personal level than you ever have. We had a teacher in our building that became a great assistant principal that used to do a home visit with each of her students before the school year began so that she could get to know them. It's not by accisdent that she always had the best scores in her grade level.

I read a story with a first grader today. The title of his story was "My Favorite Vacation." My inferencing skills were way off, by the title I thought we would be talking about Disney World or the Beach. His vacation was to his teacher assistants house last year, when he got to feed the geese and play at her house. It's not by coincidence that this child is having a greater year this year than last! How many of us talk about our favorite vacations the same way. Do you understand the power and influence you can have? A phone call, a special note, a visit to a baseball game, or a dance recital. These lessons go beyond the classroom, and raise the learning capacity of our students.

Thank you Dr. Flood, and thank you Ms. Crosier. You have motivated me this week to understand our students as individuals, because the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts.

Humbly Yours,

Mike

The Apple

My grandfather joined us on one of our families trek's up to watch my brother swim at Fredonia State University. I was in high school and I didn't really want to go. After a lecture from my father about how to keep Mom happy I fell in line. Because if Momma isn't happy, nobody's happy!

Unbeknown to me, my parents planned to stop on the way there and pick fresh apples. How could they do this to me. We spent about an hour filling bushels of apples and piled back in the car. My grandfather kept a few in his flannel pocket. He polished the apple and handed it to me. With his pocket knife he carved slices of his apple and ate it right of the flat edge of his knife. I ate mine in large chunks, right down to the core.

The thing that strikes me is how vivid I can remember this, how I wished that apple didn't have a core. This was not an ordinary apple, it was one I was sharing with my grandfather, one that he had picked and hid in his pocket for us to share on our adventure to see my brother. To this day every time I eat an apple I think of that day. To be honest, I've tried to think of a story about my grandfather all week and this one will not leave my mind. It was meant to be shared.

You see, you never know when the memories you will recall 20 years from now will happen. I'm sure many of you, like my children, and myself, have many fond memories of your grandparents. I think of all the things my children get to do with their grandparents, and how much it will mean to them 20 year from now. I encourage them to always spend time with them, I invite them to share our special moments with us as a family.

This week we have the opportunity to shape some special moments for our students and their grandparents. I encourage you to make this opportunity special for all your students, you see when are emotions and attitudes about school are filled with excitement our learning and memory becomes incredibly strong.

An Apple A Day,

Mike

Safe Zone vs. Faith Zone

Every Monday I get up a little earlier than most days and meet with a group of my friends at the Sun Valley Cafe. This week our Pastor invited all of our Mens groups, or anyone looking for a group, to meet at our central campus in Weddington. His message was on leaving the safe zone and entering the faith zone. As I sat their and listened to this message I drew an analogy to our profession. Sometimes we teach in the safe zone, sometimes we teach in the faith zone, and sometimes we teach in the danger zone, (another message, another day).

When I say we teach in the faith zone, I'm not saying we expect divine intervention in our lesson plans. What I am saying is that we have faith in ourselves, faith in the curriculum staff and faith in the leadership of our grade levels, of our school, of our district, and of our state. When we can all committ to a common goal and a common way to get to that goal, we call it faith and sometimes faithfulness. With faith, their is no fate. We have faith that what we are doing will lead to what we want. Think about it without faith in the way we educated children in a formal system of schooling where would we be. Here's an example, not long ago we believed that only men should be educated, furthermore only white men. We committed, through faith, that this was an injustice and as teachers we did something about it, becasue we committed to it. Now, in the United States we educate every person regardless of income, gender, ethnicity, etc. etc.

When I say we teach in the safe zone, I'm saying we are comfortable. I do my lesson plans, I come to work, pack my lunch, grade my papers, pull out last years test, and move on to another day. We are safe, affraid to try a new program, affraid to abandon one of our old lesson plans. We are safe in our routine, what time we teach reading, what time we do word work, changing that would challenge our sense of security. I think of Linus and his security blanket.

I am committed, through faith, to making our students, our school and our teachers successful. I have faith that this will happen. When we add up all of our faith, we create a powerful force. Never doubt that power, committ yourself to the mission of this school. I'm already beginning to see the great things that this committment can do for our students.

Faithfully,

Mike

Now You're Thinking

Growing up my Dad would always challenge me to come up with the answers to the questions that I asked rather than just giving it to me the easy way. Kids ask their Fathers and Mothers questions because at the time we think they are the smartest people around. My Dad is the player you hate to play against in Trivia Pursuit. He is a Jeopardy Snob, no one can answer any of the questions because he doesn't let Alex finish the answer.

When my father and I would go on short or long trips together, I would inevitably ask him questions, I was a curios and nosy child, rather than give me a one word response he would lead me to the answer by challenging me with another question. At the time, I figured he was just giving me a hard time or teasing me. Inevitably what should have been a two minute conversation in the car always wound up taking 10 or 15. Like clockwork when I did come up with the right answer he would always use the line "Now You're Thinking." I think this was from one of his favorite T.V. shows at the time, but right now I can't remember which one. (I would love to learn which show this comes from so I can reference the show in a more appropriate way.)

What I've come to realize is that my Dad has helped me become a problem solver, he has forced me to be a critical thinker so that I can challenge the status qua of what ever career I chose. For 12 years now I have found myself challenging the status qua of an Elementary Title One School, and cutting my hair more often to hide my Grey. Thanks Pop!

I think about my son Nicholas and how quickly he can get information. Google, Wikipedia, Cha Cha etc. etc. What did we do B.G. (Before Google) and who did we ask before Jeeves came along? There is even a new service you can call on your cell phone that you can ask a question and the response will be sent to you via text message in minutes (Cha Cha). All of this is great, and a great resource to our students as learners, but what about problem solving and critical thinking. Are we crippling our minds by the instant access we have to all types of information?

This is why I love our new math program. As I walk from room to room during your math block I feel like I'm in a disco lounge with strobe lights. I see the light bulbs of your students brains going off at such a rapid pace I feel like. I feel as if I need to go get my disco shoes, butterfly collar and gold chains. We are starting to make them critical thinkers, problem solvers, connoisseurs of questions and I love it. Our students need these skills so they can take their technology skills to new heights. If we continue to provide them with the structure of a program that challenges them to think critically and find more than one way to solve a problem, we will undoubtedly experience higher growth results than we have ever seen before.

Why is this important? We are training our students for jobs, that don't even exist. Check out this video which is also on our moodle site right now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q75KhAeqJg


Stayin Alive!

Mike

Lily's Big Day

Please allow me to take a break from wearing my principal hat and allow me to wear my Daddy hat for a while. This was a big week for us at the Harvey house. My daughter Olivia, A.K.A. Lily, has decided to put three exciting events into one week.

Tuesday, August 18th, my daughter turned 5 years old. I rushed home from work to be a parent and not a principal, and I do demand the same from you on these precious occasions that we can only witness once. We celebrated with her friends and our family, and while I was happy for her, and in awe of her energy, it was saddening to realize that her days of calling me Daddy and sitting in my lap are going by way to fast.

On Thursday when I got home, she had decided to show me how she had learned to ride her two wheel bike all by herself. Allow me to share a proud Dad moment, it only took her a day. Check out this video of her riding for the first time on two wheels.



On Monday, Lily starts her first day of school as a Kindergarten student at Rea View Elementary. It will be an emotional morning for me when I watch her go off to school, but I know she will be under the care of some of the most special people who walk the face of this earth, TEACHERS!

Remember:

Treat your students as you would want your own child to be treated.

Treat others as you want to be treated.

And Treat Yourself every once and a while to some special time with the ones you love.

Ready Set Know

We had a great response from our first PTA function of the year. Ready Set Know! This approach was different than how we have traditionally done things for our open house event. If you're a parent, I hope you found this meeting beneficial, if you're a teacher I hope you found this easier to manage the communication with so many people. As an administrator, I can say that this was a positive experience for us as well. We were able to share information in a way that met the needs of our entire population in an effective and efficient way, and at the end.....we ate!

The word feedback comes to mind when I reflect on the process we used to organize this event. We have used the feedback we have received over the past few months from our staff and from our parents. We took the feedback put our heads together and came up with a solution to meet the needs of our customers. Are you taking the same approach in your classroom?

We sometimes forget to take the instructional feedback we get from our students and utilize them to the fullest potential. I encourage you to think about this. As you are getting to know your students and realize their strengths and needs who is the first person you share them with. What tone do you share weaknesses in? A teacher told me today that she was always up for a challenge, but needed help to climb the mountain. We decided that we would come up with a plan that will help not just her up the mountain but the other people and our students up the mountain as well.

Other grade levels are doing the same thing. I have noticed in our weekly meetings with you that you are starting to have the important conversations. I have enjoyed your data meetings, your working on the work meetings, and now your model classroom meetings. I have enjoyed the conversations about students more so than I have ever enjoyed the conversations about jean days, fish passes, discipline or duty free lunch.

I encourage you to focus on our legitimate educational needs or our students. To continue to climb the mountain, to get in the game, don't just be a spectator at your meetings, to seek the feedback, accept the feedback, then act upon it. When you get to the top of the mountain, enjoy the view. The journey will be a challenge, but the view at the top will be worth it.