What if?

What if we slept side-by-side with the families of war torn nations?   What if we became a part of their lives?  What if we helped them to rebuild their homes, their towns, their cities ?  What if we asked for nothing in return.

What if we stopped working on our own privileged lives and focused on those in need. What if we all did this? What if we carried no weapons, but instead, risked our lives by leading with trust?

Some of us would surely die. But, we are dying now.  

We are afraid and we are killing.  They are afraid and they are killing. We are angry and we are killing.  They are angry and they are killing.

What if we started with our own country, first?  What if the rest of the world watched us as our problems dissolved?  

Could we start a war of healing?  A war comprised of a wave of human compassion so large that it became a tsunami of comfort, love, and support.

What if we stopped everything we are currently doing?  We joined each other in the center of each of our towns and cities.  We found all of the people who are suffering amongst us and responded with love.  What if we gave of ourselves?

My heart is layered in sadness.  There is no comfort.  I know that I am living better and with greater ease than many of you.  Yet, I am frightened to change.  I am frightened to reach out to those who need.  I need others beside me.  I need you to change with me.  

Bridging Our Differences

What happens inside the classroom can profoundly effect the lives of students outside of the classroom.  Like parents, teachers are models and exemplars.  The complexity of this role can feel daunting.

When students enter our classrooms, they bring with them different cultures, languages, religions, and socio-economic backgrounds. They possess a variety of learning styles, cognitive, and social-emotional skills.  Their families are comprised of parents, step-parents, adoptive parents, siblings, cousins, friends, and guardians.  Some students have been abused, neglected, over-indulged, entitled, criticized, adored, and violated.

As teachers, we have to consider the similarities among our students and honor their differences. In the face of the diversity of our student population, this task can seem overwhelming.

It doesn't have to be. Here are a few tips.

• Be Inquisitive.  Lead as a learner. Be willing to ask questions, when you don't know the answer. 
• Select Instructional Content that reflects Diversity.  Look for content that expresses the diversity that exists in the world.  Use the content as a springboard for meaningful discussion that raises awareness and understanding of our differences.
• Emphasize Similarities. We are all human.  Our humanity connects us.  Everyone loves a good laugh, a friendly gesture, and compassion.
• Be Human.  Remember none of us is perfect. It is ok to make mistakes.
• Set Your "Shoes" Aside.  It is easy to get entrenched in our own perspectives, backgrounds, and beliefs.  Remember to step outside yourself and practice humility.

Diversity is a beautiful thing. If we were all the same life would be uninteresting.  We would be clones. We would have no motivation to learn about or from one another.  Above all else, dare to be you and allow others to be themselves.  If you do your classroom will be an engaging place where connection between others will ignite learning.

Closets are for Clothes

It is much more comfortable to live outside of the closet.  First of all, there is absolutely no room in a closet. The lighting is terrible and it is an awful location for a party. On the other hand, it has always been a sorta safe place. A place where hate, opinions, and antiquated laws seemed to drift into oblivion.

Love doesn't fit well into closets.  Love is large and expansive.  Shame and fear are well-suited for small places.  Closets are for clothes.  In America, some people's closets are bigger than other people's homes. That, however, is fodder for another blog.

On Friday,  I boldly slammed the door on my personal closet of shame and fear.  Since Nicole and I were married on Wednesday (in the expansive state of Indiana), I decided to contact the HR rep for my school and add Nicole to my health insurance policy. As I pressed the send button on this email, my sweat glands engaged and I choked a bit.  This contracting emotion was quickly followed by joy.  Some things are worth the fear of losing a job.  Loving Nicole is one of those things.

There will be a massive celebration when fear makes way for love.  Following love is the only way we can create a world without violence, or hate, or war. Following love is the only way to heal.  Following love is the only way to set aside our need to control and allow ourselves to be consumed by faith and trust.

"Teach Your Children Well"

"78 percent of respondents in a recent international Monster.com poll reported experiencing the so-called "Sunday Night Blues." And a whopping 47 percent said they get it "really bad." In the U.S., that number jumps to 59 percent."

Reported by: Huffington Post, The Third Metric

If you stop and think about the number of people who are suffering on Sunday night...59%...it is really startling.  The article, that reported the results of this poll, goes on to give advice on how people can cope with their weekly bout with the blues.  What the article doesn't address, in any real deep sense, is why people have the blues.  

Oh sure, the obvious answer is that work is not as fun as play. Work involves stress. Work involves...well work. I am going to take a "Gladwellian" stab at illuminating the "why" of this conundrum.  

People don't choose professions based on what they love to do. People choose professions for economic reasons.  

After a few years in the workforce, Americans realize that they are unsatisfied with what they are doing. All the while, their family has developed an appetite for expensive toys, homes, and all of the accouterments of the American lifestyle.  From this cycle of mega-materialism, the Sunday Night Blues are born.  

There is another way, of course.  It takes guts to get there. It takes a willingness to make changes and sacrifices.  In the end, however, your children will thank you and respect you, and there is a good chance that they will escape the Sunday Blues.

Educational Assessment: Is It Really that Hard?

Standardized assessments are not the work of evil-doers.  Though from ground-zero (the classroom) it can feel that way. The problem with standardized assessments is that they are standardized.  The intent behind standardization is to create a method of assessment that is objective. This sort of approach works well when testing tire safety, or performing other types of quality control tasks.  It does not work well with people.

Note to education policy and assessment specialists, people are not the same. 

Standardized assessments are cold and unfriendly.  Tires don't care, but people do.  Standardized assessments do not measure thinking, except in a very limited sense.  But, let's not throw the baby out with the bath water.  Let's not ditch assessments all together...at least, not yet.

Note to education policy and assessment specialists, trust teachers.

What would an assessment look like that accounted for differences in students and that trusted teachers to administer the assessment accurately and carefully?

Choice.  A one size fits all assessment model doesn't work.  Period.  Assessments must vary in flavor. A new assessment model could allow collaboration between the parent/guardian, student and teacher  to determine which assessment method would provide the best possible measurable outcome for the student.

Method.  Teachers are experts at rubrics.  Sample rubrics could be developed as they have been for some state-mandated teacher evaluation programs.  The work product or output of the assessment would vary, however, the objectives to be measured would remain the same. How hard is that?

Current state-mandated assessment models are not student-centered.  They focus on the ease of implementation for the state.  They focus on control not trust.  If we are to fix the education system we must fix the way we assess our students.  We must focus on building a new choice-based assessment methodology that allows all learners to communicate what they know and what they know how to do.