Summer 2010- Laid Back and Refocused

Summer 2010 has started off okay. My wife, daughter and I have been trading back a cough and cold, I worked two days last week on Classroom 10 stuff for school district, and due to the sickness have not felt like doing much. This is how most of my summers start though. You relax a little, let you guard down, get away from 30 kids that have different ailments on a daily basis, and wham, you get hit with it. But I have to admit that even though I have not felt well, I have been able to do a lot that I do not normally have time for, reading. I have been engrossed in some books, Daniel Pink's Drive, I am just starting the Fablehaven series which is a intermediate grade series that my kids have been reading so I assume I should get caught up on the latest, and I have two others waiting for me; The Passage and Playing for Pizza. My goal this summer is to read one book each week at a minimum and not watch TV during the day. My wife and I also enjoy playing games. We are big Scrabble players and we bought Bananagrams (a type of scrabblish game) last week. In addition to that, I am ready to get serious about losing weight. We have two programs for our Wii; Wii Active and my wife has a jillian Michaels one. It works you over but since I have been sick I have not been able to do much. My hope is to lose 40 pounds by the end of August which would be 5 pounds a week. If I lost more that would be awesome. Anyway that is my summer.

Addy/Daddy Time

My family is the most special part of my life and my little Addison is definitely my little princess. Addison has always loved giving kisses, giving hugs, and loves to be active. My favorite part of every day is coming home from work after a long day and having her run to the door, wrap her body around one of my legs with a giant hug, and then run off to go back to whatever she was doing. It is as if she knows that I need a hug but that I also am ready to have my 10 minutes of down time, she just knows me. The other thing I love about Addison is that she loves to play games. Right now we play a lot of Connect 4 (Cowboys vs. Redskins version). I love the Cowboys and so does she but regardless she always wants me to be the Cowboys, again she just knows me. Lastly, Addison loves me unconditionally and that is so special, I can always count on her being there for me, even if she is only 3 she asks me how I am and gives just the right kind of love to match the moment. When my wife was pregnant with Addison, I could not have ever imagined what it would be like to have someone this special. My wife is wonderful and special in every way also, but a daughter is a different special.

All my Addy/Daddy time is special and if I can pass along anything to those that are parents- love your kids with all your heart, hug them every night, say I love you a lot, and always make 15 minutes for them before bedtime (I still remember my parents reading and singing to me every night before bed).

Maple Valley Educator of Year

Today, the Tahoma Education Association walked and rode in the Maple Valley Days Parade as the Educator of Year. All of teachers were honored for our dedicated efforts to our school community. The association in particular was honored for their financial and volunteer help to pass our school levy.

As we walked the parade route today, if gave me a small sense of small town pride. The whole way each time we would go by our community they cheered with such a proud cheer, not for the person but rather with respect to the work that we each do. I think that all of us today felt along the way. It was a beautiful day.

I want to thank our school district for nominating us for this award and it just shows the collaborative learning community that we have created between our local union and district, which is very rare. Later this week we will be featured on the Washington EA website for our commitment to building a strong relationship with our district and school community.

Thank you also to all the teachers that took time today to walk the route and be with our association.

Help, I can't find Autonomy on the Roadmap.

This weekend I have been reading a new book by Daniel Pink called Drive. The book discusses what it is that motivates people to do well in their workplace. I picked this book up the weekend on the recommendation of a colleague and to be honest I have skipped ahead to the chapter called Autonomy. I wanted to read this chapter in particular because of the desire that teachers have for more self directed time on early release and waiver days.

So I am just going to share a few excerpts from this chapter.

The idea of management (of people) is built on certain assumptions of the basic nature of those being managed. It presumes that to take action or move forward, we need a prod- that an absent of reward or punishment, we'd remain happily and inertly in place. It also presumes that once people do get moving, they need direction-that without a firm and reliable guide, they'd wander.
But is that really our fundamental nature? Or, to use another computer metaphor, is that our "default setting"? When we enter the world, are we wired to be passive and inert? Or are we wired to be active and engaged? I'm convinced it's the latter- that our basic nature is to be curious and self directed.

In a quote from researchers Deci and Ryan in this chapter, they say "Autonomous motivation involves behaving with a full sense of volition and choice, whereas controlled motivation involves behaving with the experience of pressure and demand toward specific outcomes that comes from forces perceived to be external to the self."

So as I am sitting reading this weekend, I cannot help but take these words to heart in a lot of ways. Though I have read more than just the two pages I am taking from, he hits a chord with me when he talks about people not needing prodding but rather autonomy. We are professional educators, we deserve the respect to choose what we need to do with our time to be better teachers, and we need to be given voice, opportunity, and commitment from those that have hired us to do the work of educating our future. The bottom line is that as educators we all are okay with a roadmap of how to get around but it is time to stop being the mapquest with only one set of directions and let us decide how we get there. Let us do what we need to do to get there and let us stop at the rest stops, take a breather, and figure out our journey. And please in the end when we have reached our destination, let us have some time to explore the destination, see the sights, and figure out how to make the destination something memorable that we will want to visit again. Don't just start another trip without knowing that everyone had enough time at the last stop.

We need time to look at the new concepts, explore what works and does not work, and find ways to make sure that each and every child can have quality learning, everyday in every classroom across our schools.

Tahoma: 10 Years

Today, I received my 10 year service award from the Tahoma School District, an embroidered fleece blanket. While the service award itself is a nice token of recognition, the more important aspect is my reflection on my 10 years of teaching, learning and leading as a career and the path that led me here.

First off I come from a family of educators and as I look back on my family tree I have over 30 family members that have been or are currently in the teaching profession and so it has been part of our family blood from the get go. Second, my life long passion prior to college was to be a high school choir teacher (like my father) and that path was paved in that direction the first three years of college. But that all changed when one professor made one comment that summed it up, "you are not feeling the music as a conductor". He was right and in less than 24 hours I switched from choral education to elementary education (which my mother taught) and that change has made all the difference in my life.

As a teacher, I have loved teaching students and it is the most rewarding job that anyone could ever have. The opportunity to shape kids for the future and teach them skills that they will use the rest of their lives is something that I do not take lightly. I love having a career that I wake up each day and look forward going to. The kids are great and even when the one kid is messing around and being funny, I cannot help think about the fact I was that kid and every one them has potential to be something great. So I do my best to make every mistake a moment that I can teach to. It does not always happen that way, but I try. When I see the kids I have taught grow up, graduate, and start making life choices on their own, I have a smile on my face thinking to myself that I had a part in that. I love this job.

As a leader, I have seen many aspects of the teaching profession. I have served on summits, committees, and building teams that have giving me many perspectives on our school community. In addition to serving in these various roles, I have had the privilege of serving the teachers of the Tahoma Education Association as a building rep, vice president, and president. 9 of my 10 years have included being a leader in our teachers union, not something I was ever passionate about prior to starting teaching. I got started in TEA when a fellow teacher, Lila, asked me to be a building rep. Then it all went from there. I have had the opportunity to work with the best teachers in the business, collaborate with a wonderful school board, and in my discussions with other leaders across our state, we are fortunate to work in Tahoma with some of the greatest district leaders; Mr. Maryanski, Mr. Zahradnik, and Mrs. Skerritt. Many of our teachers have not had opportunities to work one on one with these individuals and while I do not always see eye to eye with them, they all care deeply about our Tahoma community from top to bottom. Each time I think of TEA, I think of the 400+ members I represent and what each of them brings to the work we do as teachers.

The bottom line is that if it had not been for my mother in law saying "why not sub in Tahoma" I would not have ended up in the greatest school district in the state. Thank you to all of colleagues for making Tahoma what it is.

Books in my Nightstand

So for my first official post, I will be sharing a small look into my reading selections that sit next to my bed.

Playing for Pizza- A great John Grisham book about a professional NFL player being let go and his journey of playing for a team in Europe. This book I am currently reading and I have started and stopped again for the past year. Looking forward to finishing this once school gets out.

The Five Languages of Love for Children- This book has been one that I have marked up a little bit and keep going back to when reflecting on parenting and teaching of children.

Basslines- This book tells many stories from the road of my favorite acappella group Take 6.

Einstein's Dreams- A very different book that was excerpted in a school training about 8 years ago. Very interesting book that has a lot of religious overtones that could be read into.

Boys Will Be Boys- An interesting read about the 90's Dallas Cowboys Dynasty and the partying, drugs, and night life that went along with these great teams. I now know a lot more about those teams then I amy have wanted to know.

Bible- The most used and loved book on the night stand. Keeps me grounded and brings peace to my mind.

The Choice- One of many motivational books by Og Mandino in my nightstand.

Crucial Conversations- I know, one that you may think would put you to sleep quickly but I refer back to this book often when I think about how to communicate with colleagues in all aspects of my work. Having it next to my bed, allows me to reflect on this in the early morning when I cannot sleep.

While those are only some of the books in my nightstand, these are the ones I am either currently reading or go back to for a read often.

Here We Go Again

Well so here we go again with this blogging thing. I have tried it a few times but now the more I get into reading blogs the more I want to share one of my own. So I think my first blog I will just share what the title of my blog refers to. I see my life in four categories that intermix with each other but also have their own identities most of the time. So here I am flying around in this plane called me and my life takes off and lands in four different runways. So I am going to talk about each runway in order of priority.

Runway #1- Family- My family means everything to me. My 3 year old daughter, my lovely wife of nearly 9 years, and my parents. Yes I have a brother and a myriad of sister in laws and those may be topics of future posts also but primarily you will see a focus on those three.

Runway #2- Friends- In my lifetime I have had great friends. I have the best friend in the world in Derek. I have a great group of friends that are also my colleagues and I live in a great neighborhood with people I have grown to care for. These will be where the crazy posts will come from.

Runway #3- Teaching- I teach 5th grade and honestly that is enough about that, it is the greatest job that is both tiring and rewarding beyond understanding.

Runway #4- El Presidente- The most difficult aspect of my life is being the president of the teacher's union. In my 5 years in this role, I have seen the best of times and the worst of times. From a complete mental crash to a group being honored as Educators of Year, this role has given me a confidence that I would not have otherwise found. In addition to this found confidence, I have had the honor of working with a leadership core at both the district and within my membership that cannot be matched. This will be the runway that the majority of my posts will land on.

So there is the history behind the title of my blog. I may get into this and I may not, we will have to see what happens.