Whatever Flips Your Waffle (192)
Helping Verbs in Your Life
I love baseball. There is so much perfection in the length of the bases, the shape of the diamond, the sound of bat on ball or ball smacking glove. Being outdoors on a perfect evening with a little breeze and watching a ballgame at any level from Anton’s young group of ballplayers to Jayna’s up and coming softball players to a Twins game is as close to nirvana as I’ve gotten.
Except for one thing – some of the banter.
I talk as much as anyone when I’m coaching baseball. I usually have something to say after every pitch. I was brought up to encourage teammates and keep the dialogue going, maybe not Ferris Bueller-like, but I can get going with the best if necessary.
But the English teacher in me just cringes when I hear one phrase: “Now you seen it!” after a player watches a good pitch go by. Brrr, just like listening to nails on a chalkboard! Actually, now you saw it or now you’ve seen it.
Even being the grammar freak that I am (it is my mutant power, after all), I don’t always speak the Queen’s English, especially (according to my wife) when I’m back home in New Ulm. However, the preponderance of “seen” being misused has started to irk me. I hear students say it constantly, I hear their parents say it often, and I even hear my co-workers misuse it.
I always tell my students that it is imperative they use the correct verbiage when writing and to strive for it most of the time while speaking. After all, we often speak in run-on sentences, but we’d prefer to see some more punctuation when you write that amazing story in your diary. But there comes a point where continued slaying of our language just makes you sound uneducated, and that can cost you money!
How so? I can only imagine that in most businesses, if you interview for a job and everything else is equal, the person who speaks better will get the job. If you tell the potential employer that you “seen something on my way in,” while the other candidate says that he/she “saw something,” you may be out of luck.
Does that sound preposterous? I have sat at job interviews and listened to teacher candidates speak as if they were in a junior high cafeteria. All things else equal when looking at resumes, those people dropped quickly on my list.
We’re supremely influenced by those around us. If we hear our parents speak that way, we are likely to follow in those footsteps since that’s what we know best. We look up to our parents and figure they know everything. I must have listened to my mom more growing up! (Happy birthday, Mom!)
Michelle and I are both pretty good grammatically, so imagine my surprise when I started hearing my kids speaking without those crucial helping verbs! I started connecting the dots and realized they were being influenced by talking with kids at daycare. I backtracked and thought about how Mom stayed home with me for many years, which could help explain this strange urge I have to correct other’s speech patterns since Mom speaks well. (Well, not good, but that might be another column!)
My wife’s aunt and uncle posted a cartoon on my Facebook page of an English teacher being arrested for changing a “Got Milk?” sign to proper English: “Do you have any milk?” That’s what I feel like doing too often, and I am guilty of correcting kids’ language frequently.
Hey, you can talk how you want, but it frightens me when I ask students to listen to what they say, and they tell me it sounds perfectly fine to them. I guess some of them are destined to be baseball coaches some day!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is muzzy, which means blurred or indistinct, as in, “The ballplayer’s language was muzzy, leading people to miss his use of a contraction instead of a lack of a helping verb.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
When I look at my calendar for this summer, it’s hard to find many stretches without copious activities marked down. It’ll be a busy summer with the kids and a number of school-related functions. (I don’t really have to tell you how most teachers don’t just relax for three months, do I?) Part of the process since February has been helping plan the school calendar for next year, because it’s never too early to plan ahead.
For the first time in many years, the staff had input into how next school year will shape up. Members of a committee hemmed and hawed over many alternative looks to the way the calendar has been set up in the past. Here’s a look at some of the major changes and the reasons behind them.
One that doesn’t affect many of you is that we added two extra professional development days as a staff. There is so much on the plate of a Minnesota educator these days that it’s impossible to get ready for the school year in three days, so we’ll spend five days prior to the school year (and many will be in there much more than that) getting more than just our bulletin boards ready.
The many initiatives (sometimes considered a swear word in education, but an unavoidable one) coming our way have led to something that will affect many of you: two-hour late starts. In the past, we always had 2-3 of these, often listening to speakers or spending times in our Professional Learning Communities. However, this year there will be one of these each month. They will always be on a Monday, usually the second Monday of the month. There just aren’t opportunities to get staff members together on a regular basis because of various meetings, coaching, etc. These late starts will be reserved solely for work on the initiatives we have going on.
Another big change revolves around parent-teacher conferences in the secondary building. We are going to try one conference night per quarter, right around mid-term. In the past, we did two sessions after first quarter and two in the middle of third quarter. These work well with the elementary principle, but not as much at the 6-12 level. After first quarter, it’s too late to do anything about the grades. In February, many teachers barely know their new semester classes.
Our hope is that conferences will become an opportunity for parents with children in trouble to come in and work out a plan for success. Honestly, so many parents keep up with grades online that conferences are starting to wane in attendance at our level. A quick email often alerts parents of a problem, and a resolution can be found. We still enjoy that face-to-face experience, but we’re spreading out those chances. As always, teachers are often available to meet at many times during a quarter; there’s no need to wait until a grade is out of reach!
My regular readers know how I feel about tacking snow day make-ups on the end of the year, and now we hope to avoid that! Snow day make-ups will occur within the school year, when valuable learning can still take place. There’s one each in December, January, February, and April, with what we hope is a remote chance also in June. Our hope is that parents can look at these and make plans that might be easily changed if we end up in school those days. It’s pretty simple: for example, if we have a blizzard on January 14, we have a make-up day scheduled for January 19, a day that will otherwise be off.
One big change from “that’s the way we’ve always done it” is that seniors will now attend just as many days as everyone else. Graduation has been pushed back a week and will not fall on Memorial Day weekend. It’s always been a struggle for the many classes which have mixed groups with what to do with the rest of the students that is meaningful when half the class is gone. This past year, seniors had six less days than the others, and the previous year, they missed ten days since we kept tacking days on the end. So if you’re planning your grad party for next year, do a double-check: graduation is May 31!
The continuous response we had on the committee was let’s try it. Some of these are sound ideas, even if they’ll take a little getting used to. If something flops completely, we can always change it for 2015-2016. Take a moment to look at the full calendar on the school’s website and start planning now!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is noesis, which means the exercise of reason, as in, “The calendar committee used noesis to determine some changes that could have made life easier long ago.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
For most people, the New Year begins January 1 every year. For teachers, that’s not even the midpoint of the calendar. We often think of Labor Day as the final hurrah before beginning a new year. Thus, it’s time for a column you might expect to see in December: the year in review!
And what a year the 2013-2014 school year has been! Ups and downs, comings and goings, it’s been quite the roller coaster ride. The year really began with a buzz of excitement. Dr. Goodwin and Mr. Bunn entered stage right as new administrators, and it was clear from the start that change was afoot.
More on that in a minute since it was also a time to take a look at the renovations in the New Richland building in the form of a condensed media center and an expanded cafeteria/commons area. That has been a hit all year long, and you rarely walk by without seeing students and/or staff in the commons working on something, enjoying the ambiance. It’s become a meeting place for various activities and is developing into a homework haven after school some days.
It was clear from the start that the atmosphere in our school district would be different. Dr. Goodwin and Mr. Bunn have striven to achieve a positive atmosphere. It hasn’t always been successful, as evidenced when NRHEG became lockdown central in early October, one from an outside threat and one from within. That seemed to put a halt on the positivity train that had been rolling, and it has, at times, seemed difficult to get trucking along that track again consistently.
Positive vibes were certainly felt in extracurriculars though. The football team did better than many people thought, T.J. Schiltz made it to the state cross country meet, the boys’ basketball team won the conference for the first time in many years, and the girls’ basketball team won a second consecutive state title. The softball team had a good run, and everyone is waiting to see how many track athletes will make it to state and if Carlie Wagner and T.J. can set more records before their time at NRHEG is done.
From a teaching standpoint, it’s honestly been a difficult year. As I wrote about back in September, I adopted a new grading philosophy this year: no grades. I’ve focused on judging student work based on the state standards and looking for improvement. This has been a trial and error process, and I’ve come to the point of not accepting inferior work. Students must redo work that doesn’t come close to the standard. I’m leaning toward going back to a modified letter grade system next year, one that will evolve from my work this year.
More stressful has been a marked lack of motivation from so many of my students; it’s almost an epidemic! I started keeping a list on my board of all the missing work…and I ran out of room. As a staff, we’ve tried various things to encourage completion of work, but there are so many students who simply don’t care. It doesn’t matter if you punish them for late work or even reward them for completing work, their apathy is palpable.
I’ll be brutally blunt in throwing some of my frustration the way of some parents in this. My loyal readers know that I’ve ranted about parenting in the past, but it continues to be frustrating to talk to a parent and get nothing in return: no ideas, no support, no help. Granted, there are a number of parents who have worked with us to get their kids back on track, but there are at least as many who won’t even return a call or email.
However, I’ve also seen some of my students bloom. There is such a benefit to having the same kids two years in a row, and the biggest part of that is seeing some tremendous growth from the beginning of seventh grade to the end of eighth grade. I can see some of them finding great success as they enter the high school and can’t wait to see where the future takes them.
A couple people have a new future are Tim Siewert and Gratia Johnson. While we have many departures as this year ends, those two stand out to me. Mr. Siewert has built the band program to an enviable position, and I only hope we can find someone nearly as talented and passionate as him for next year.
And Gratia. How many people have had their spirits lifted by her infectious smile (pun intended) over her many years as school nurse? Gratia has exuded positive vibes and will be missed by many of us who have had “owies”!
Despite ups and downs, we continue to build at NRHEG. There are exciting things coming down the pipe, and we’ll look forward to another thrill ride in 2014-2015!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is Bardolphian, which means having a red complexion, especially a red nose, as in, “Gratia immediately went to work when she saw the Bardolphian student and diagnosed a rash quickly.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
The NRHEG Senior Athletes of the Year has an important stipulation: you must be a three-sport athlete. At times in recent history, there has been a small sample from which to choose the award winners.
What has happened to the three-sport athlete? There was a time in the not-so-distant past that there was a plethora of kids playing fall, winter, and spring. Suddenly, that number has been slashed, and in a school the size of NRHEG, that is troublesome.
Full disclosure: I was not a three-sport athlete myself. When school sports rolled around in middle school, my parents told me to pick two sports. The reasons for this are irrelevant now, but I settled on basketball and baseball. There are times I regret not playing football, but I was still part of the band and even helped with videotaping football games, so I remained involved.
Why are students today not staying involved in all three seasons of the school year? There are a variety of reasons that I hear. One I rarely hear is that a kid doesn’t like the sport anymore. I’m sure it’s the case sometimes, but it’s not a reason often given.
Kids talk about needing to work. It’s too bad that they’re passing on some great memories and opportunities to focus on money. I always worked around my sports schedule, spending more time working on weekends and during the summer. I realize gas costs more than the 95 cents a gallon it did when I was in high school, and college costs more than the $4000-5000 a year I paid. Still, to forego the teamwork skills learned seems a big price to pay for that money.
The more disturbing trend is specialization in a sport and year-round training. When I was part of the baseball board, we often bemoaned the “good old days” when football season went from August to October, basketball from November to February, and baseball from March until July. You might go to some open gyms for basketball between school seasons or go to a passing camp in July, but that was it for mixing these seasons.
Now we have athletes participating nearly twelve months in one sport, especially basketball and volleyball. This is difficult to swallow, even for a basketball coach like me. When you look historically, these offseason programs, such as JO volleyball and Pacesetter and MYAS basketball, started small. When more people started participating, it started a trend. Soon, players and coaches felt they had to take part, for fear of not doing that and failing in the next season.
I’ve heard a number of coaches say they wish they didn’t have to keep working with their players in the summer, but feel they have to in order to meet expectations of players, parents, and community. Since so many are participating in summer leagues, if you don’t, no matter how you fare the following season, anything short of a state tournament will be blamed on not working hard enough in the offseason.
Except there doesn’t seem to be an offseason anymore. These kids are driven and pushed until we see numbers drop, even in those sports. Kids are simply burned out after playing 50+ games a year. But it’ll be hard to ratchet back unless the MSHSL puts some policies in place, preventing so much of this offseason rigmarole.
Carlie Wagner is a perfect example of what our athletes should be doing. Nobody would have begrudged Carlie if she would’ve said she wasn’t playing volleyball or running track. Why risk the investment you have coming in a full ride to college for basketball? However, she has finished her senior year as a three-sport athlete, showing how dedication to your teammates pays off in being a well-rounded individual.
Carlie is a unique athlete; we won’t see many like her. But I keep hearing about kids specializing in one sport, to the detriment of others. I haven’t seen any other athletes at NRHEG that look to be scholarship Division I stars. Might some kids play a sport at a college level? Sure, but we have smaller numbers in so many of our sports because they’re playing volleyball or basketball all spring and have abandoned their classmates, who work so hard for them in the sport of their choice. I’m pretty sure you’re not hitting a volleyball or shooting a basketball every day. If you truly want to get better at a sport, you find time among your other activities. Follow the example Carlie set.
If you’re not interested in three sports, that’s fine. But be active! Find other things to do, such as drama club, band, and other student organizations. These are great resume builders, both as you go to college and find a job some day. If your resume simply lists one activity in school, you’re digging yourself a deeper hole to climb out of and impress others. The more you can show you can do many different things at once, the more likely an employer will want to pay you the big bucks you will not be getting as a professional athlete.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is bumptious, which means self-assertive in an obnoxious way, as in, “The columnist’s seemingly bumptious tone made sense upon a second reading.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
Michael Sam was an All-American defensive player for the University of Missouri this past season. He was reportedly a team leader and respected by his coaches and teammates. One would think that would be an easy ticket into the NFL.
Wait a minute, though. Michael Sam has also come out as being gay. Suddenly, whether they admit it or not, NFL teams are looking at him in a different way as they contemplate the draft. Is his talent worth the media scrutiny that will come with having the first openly-gay player on an NFL team? Will the team sell more tickets, or will people not come to that team’s games because of it?
It’s really too bad that in 2014 we even have to ask these questions. Will a player help you win games? That is the only question that should matter outside of legal issues that could hinder the player’s progress.
When I was attending college in Winona, I distinctly remember sitting in the cafeteria with a group of friends when a gay rights organization was holding a peaceful demonstration outside. One of my friends grew angry and said that if he had his shotgun, he would be sorely tempted to use it. Looking back, I’m embarrassed by my initial response to this, laughing and going along with this hatred.
Let’s get the religion card off the table right away. My regular readers know that I’m not going to go along with, “The Bible says it’s wrong,” since I’ve referenced other rules the Bible lists which most of us don’t follow. The Bible also says to love thy neighbor as thyself, so I’ll choose that route.
I know some people who are homosexual, and I can’t think of any way that they are not upstanding citizens. Most of the people I know are former students. It’s really too bad that these people didn’t feel comfortable coming out while they were still here. Unfortunately, they were probably aware of the response they would get from too many people.
Every year, when my 8th graders work on persuasive writing, we work through some debate topics, trying to get kids to look at both sides of an issue. One of those topics in recent years has been gay rights. Many students respond negatively, bashing and hating on a group of people in large part because they’re uncomfortable with the concept. Listen, it’s not like I would be really comfortable either if I saw two homosexuals in an embrace, but I’m not overly comfortable watching two straight people in that situation either.
One of my stars this year, however, started her persuasive paper on gay rights this way: “Black people don’t deserve to be equal to us. They shouldn’t have the same rights. Now doesn’t that sound like something that should’ve been heard fifty years ago? It’s outdated and insensitive. That’s how people sound when they talk against same-sex couples.” I was floored by this great introduction to a well-written paper and am gratified she allowed me to use this quote this week.
And it’s perfectly stated! People in earlier times DID discriminate against other races (still do, unfortunately) and against women as well. Homosexuals are just the next group that in 50 years, we’ll look back and wonder why.
The producers of the hit ABC series Modern Family were ecstatic when gay marriage was approved in California because it meant they could hold a wedding for two of their main characters. That wedding will air this week and next week and be a major step on television in having people accept gay people as equals. Certainly, stars like Ellen DeGeneres have paved the way, and hopefully we are near a time when it’s not a big deal when someone who is gay is part of something big.
As to Michael Sam, the St. Louis Rams drafted him in the 7th round. Hopefully, within a few years, we’ll talk about Michael Sam, the football player, instead of Michael Sam, the gay football player.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is quiff, which means a tuft of hair brushed up above the forehead, as in, “The football player couldn’t wear a quiff during the season since his helmet always flattened it.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
When I have to prepare a presentation for any group, I try to get as much information as possible to meet the needs of that group. That means I need to do some research and make sure my facts are straight, especially since I often present to teachers. If I’m not prepared, they are a group that will jump on that as quickly as anyone.
So you’ll understand why I found it amusing to see an unprepared presenter at a community meeting concerning the future of the Ellendale Post Office.
Everyone is aware the USPS is in trouble financially and is making cutbacks. According to this presenter, they plan to have saved $2.1 billion by the end of 2014. A small trickle in that savings is cutting back hours at my local post office.
First off, I completely understand. It’s a business, one that is slowly deteriorating. I have no problem with cutting hours; it would seem that in our small town it doesn’t need to be open all day. However, the proposal of opening at 8:00 and closing by 3:00 at the latest didn’t sit well with me or a number of others.
After claiming that the postal service is trying to make things as convenient as possible, that was their best idea? While they are planning on having a 24-hour lobby for those of us with a PO box to have access to our mail, they would be severely limiting our ability to perform functions at the office such as purchasing stamps and mailing and receiving packages.
When this was brought up, his first response was to add package receptacles that could be accessed with a special key at all hours. When asked if he had seen the lobby and how that would be difficult to install, he admitted he had not been in there. And there’s where the problems started.
You’ve got to be prepared. To make changes to a facility, don’t you have to at least have walked through it first? This guy was from Fairmont; couldn’t he have swung over a little early and strolled through for five minutes before the meeting? He lost all credibility after that.
He also seemed oblivious to the working hours of the postal carriers. By changing the hours, they would get a later start. He seemed stymied by a suggestion that the office open at 7:00 or 7:30 at the very latest. This would give people a chance to access the office before going to work and would get our carriers out on the road earlier so they could finish before dark.
The postal service is on its way out; I would expect it will not last my lifetime. I don’t help since I pay most of my bills online and save in stamps. However, I also do more online shopping, which I’m sure makes up for that. All of us use it less; I used to go through a book of stamps every month, but with the two books I just bought, I’m probably good through the summer.
Part of the decrease in postal use is a little nagging. Mom used to have us write thank you notes after Christmas and our birthdays for the gifts we received. Admittedly, we’re a little lax in that regard with our own kids, but do try to get to that. It’s always a little perturbing to go to a wedding or a graduation party and find a generic thank you attached to a party favor. I’ve even seen invitations that take care of the thank you as part of the package! It would be nice to go back to a society where we thanked people individually rather than that method or mass emails or messages online. That alone could boost postal revenue greatly!
So we know that eventually the USPS will go the way of the dinosaur, but the obliviousness of our presenter continued as he predicted the postal service would grow and change and continue to be relevant. Of course, this was after he shot down questions about a continued decrease in service hours, calling it “speculation.” Um…
The post office will not grow if they don’t give local communities a chance to access their services in person. While some things can be done online, I can’t pick up a package on my computer. Much like the lack of preparation by this presenter, it would seem a general lack of preparation by the entire industry has led them to the precipice. It looks like a short fall.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is incorrigible, which means incapable of being corrected or reformed, as in, “The presenter was incorrigible, failing to admit that he might be wrong.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
This past week, my grandma turned 88. I can always remember Grandma’s age easily since my sister Kim was born on Grandma’s 50th birthday!
Grandma Ann Hacker is the last surviving grandparent that either Michelle or I have, and she’s special in so many ways. We don’t tend to appreciate our grandparents until we start losing them. When we’re young, our grandparents are these people that seem to live in a time warp from some long distant past. We don’t always understand everything they say or do.
It’s always a little bizarre to think that Grandma was born in the 1920s and lived through the Great Depression and World War II. Those were major events in my American History class!
I’ve always known my grandma to be a hard-working lady who always seems to be on the move. She and Grandpa Tony lived on a farm outside of Lafayette, Minnesota, and I remember many trips over there for a meal, some visiting, and later in the afternoon, “a little lunch.” To this day, it feels like a treat to visit with Grandma!
Grandma always seemed to be bustling around a lot when we’d visit, a little like Martha from the New Testament stories with Jesus. I’m convinced one of the reasons she’s lived such a long life is her constant activity. Too many people retire and become sedentary, but Grandma has never really “retired” from life. The busier she is, the happier she is!
I think part of my enjoyment of cooking comes from seeing how much love and effort Grandma puts into the food she prepares. Plus, I think we have all experienced the “Grandma effect” with our cooking. I can follow whatever recipe she gives me to a tee, but I can never seem to duplicate the taste of Grandma’s cooking.
My absolute favorite dish from Grandma is her homemade sauerkraut and dumplings. Put those in a crockpot with some pork and you’ve got a dish made for a final meal on death row! Add a slice of her smear kuchen (a German coffee cake), and the meal is complete. Grandma used to make this up for me when I’d come home from college for a visit. There would always be enough leftovers for me to take back to Winona too!
Grandma was there for me when I started driving. Grandpa passed away when I was 16, and she let me have his old 1966 Ford pick-up as my first vehicle. Red paint, three on the tree, and a self-installed tape deck were all I needed to get around! When I headed off to college, I survived for a bit without a vehicle until she sold me her car so I could get to work and back easier, plus make some more trips home to New Ulm. Finally, when I got my job in New Richland, she loaned me the money to get a Grand Prix and make an attempt to drive a snazzy-looking car.
Michelle and I have enjoyed the opportunity to stay at Grandma’s house in past years when we travel home for Pumpkinfest in October. The kids go to my parents’ house, and we get to spend quality time in Lafayette. It’s very relaxing, catching up on things with Grandma and enjoying some excellent reruns on TV like Everybody Loves Raymond or The Cosby Show.
Hopefully one of these years the Twins will still be playing meaningful baseball, and we can watch a playoff game together. Grandma can always tell me more about the Twins current predicaments than I know myself. One of my best memories with Grandma was seeing a game during the inaugural season at Target Field. I believe that was her first time ever seeing the Twins in person, and it was a beautiful day to spend with family.
Grandma is the last living sibling out of 16 in her family. Most of them lived long lives, including some over 100 years! I keep telling Grandma that we expect her to be around for many years to come. She’s had some health issues over the years, but seems to keep bouncing back stronger than ever. Remember when I said we don’t always appreciate our grandparents until we’re older? I fully expect that my own children will reach that age with their remaining great-grandma still around! I love you, Grandma!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is impecunious, which means having little or no money, as in, “Grandma lived through a time when her family was impecunious, suffering through the Great Depression, which has made her value every dollar.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
A couple of weeks ago, I heard our sump pump go off for the first time this spring. That was a good sign the frost was coming out and spring was on the way. However, it brought to the fore an anxiety I’ve had since 2004: flooding.
Perhaps you remember 2004. Twice that year we got a so-called Century Rain, the type of daylong downpour that allegedly only happens once every hundred years. Twelve inches of rain helped to find problems in my drainage system and a re-decorated basement. Twice. I shiver just thinking about wading through inches of water, trying to salvage items and drag wet carpet up the stairs.
We put in a system from American Waterworks that worked fabulously. I was finally getting over my fear of flooding every time a heavy rain occurred. I could sleep at night when the sump pump would run. Then 2010 happened. While much of New Richland was dealing with issues much bigger than mine, I was in my basement again, trying to fend off the encroaching waters again.
American Waterworks came and improved their system free of charge, and Michelle always reminds me that it’s a good thing to hear the sump pump; that means it’s working! Still, when I hear it run, that generally means a night of little sleep.
This is an anxiety of mine that has been difficult to overcome. As I travel through life, I realize this is pretty common. Many people have something that sets them off and brings fear to their lives. This goes beyond a fear of something, like my wife’s dislike of spiders. This type of anxiety can bring on physical problems instead of just having your spouse go kill the spider.
Sometimes I think these anxieties help make us more human. I used to think nothing would really bother me much. Sure, I didn’t really like scary or gory movies, but it wasn’t something that kept me up at night or had me worrying when I glanced out the window like this flooding thing does.
I’ve written a bit before about speech anxiety, having seen more kids have a difficult time standing in front of their peers for two minutes. We made it through our first round of speeches this year without tears or breakdowns, but I think there were some that were close. Again, this is a natural anxiety to have, and many kids have overcome it over the years and become comfortable enough to not let it bother them as much.
So how do you overcome an anxiety? There are certainly many different solutions. The kids with speech anxiety often find that the very act of speaking helps decrease the anxiety, and the more they do it, the more comfortable they become. There are little tricks we work on with eye contact, since that’s usually what sets them off.
My anxiety with flooding was nearly gone, merely through attrition. We had gone so many years with hearing the sump pump and not flooding that I had finally relaxed. Hopefully this will work again, although I still have a few years to go at this rate.
Jayna had some anxiety issues after the tornados a few years ago, as I’m sure many people did. Any time she heard the wind howl or the thunder crash down or the skies open up, it was assured she’d be sleeping with us or on the couch. This also has decreased with the years, and she’s fine with it now.
Some people have such strong anxieties that they see a therapist and/or use some prescription drugs. Too many folks view this as a weakness, but the simple fact is life without that anxiety must be so worth some sacrifices.
I’ve got some anxieties I’ve been working on for many years and can’t seem to get over. Whenever it’s game day for a team I coach in basketball, my stomach is in knots. I can’t eat anything after lunch if it’s a game after school or much at all during a tournament day. It’s hard to even brush my teeth because of the gag reflex. The funny thing is this only has ever happened for basketball; in 13 years of coaching baseball, I never once experienced that!
I’m not sure what causes this anxiety, especially since it’s so specific. I’ve tried all kinds of things to relax more on game day, but I’ve also talked to a lot of other coaches at all levels who face the same challenge. It’s clearly not something that just goes away with time like the public speaking anxiety does.
It’s good to self-evaluate and search for solutions. The next time you feel anxious, remind yourself that it’s perfectly normal and think about ways to overcome. Ask for help. Talk to a friend or family member. We might never be anxiety free, but we can find sunlight through the rain clouds if we look enough!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is hypocorism, which means the practice of giving pet names, as in, “The father found that his hypocorism with his kids helped reduce their anxiety in stressful situations.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
I like to win. This is blatantly obvious to anyone who has ever seen me coach or even through my announcing. We’ve experienced a lot of winning at NRHEG over the years, and it’s a great feeling.
I like to win. I’m that parent who never just let his kids win a game. They had to earn the victory. Jayna wanted to learn how to play chess a few years ago. I told her she needed to beat me in checkers before that would happen, but I wasn’t going to let her win. She’s now a pretty good chess player!
I like to win. But I also know how to lose. Nobody wins all the time, though my dad probably remembers his twelve straight losses to me in Chutes and Ladders when I was young, when it seemed like a game based completely on chance would never allow him to get to the top first. One of the great lessons of competition is learning how to handle adversity and loss.
The best teams build off a loss and learn from it. It’s no secret that our girls’ basketball team fumed a bit after their loss to Chaska early in the 2012 campaign. It was a close loss, but one that stuck with them when they were in a close game for the state championship at the end of the season.
The best players deal with loss well too. After Brett Favre lost his father, he gained a focus unseen before and raised his game to a new level. Competition and sports often are affected by life in general, and learning to win and lose in life is the most important lesson of all.
I tend to raise a few hackles any time I bring religion into the mix of my column. As someone recently told me at a seminar, “If you’re offended, please choose not to be.” Here we go.
As much as I like winning and being in control, God doesn’t always allow that. Our purpose in life is to figure out how to win with God, but that sometimes involves losing. Sound like a conundrum? That’s what is difficult at times to deal with as a Christian.
A powerful and difficult moment in my life occurred when my grandma was very sick and about a month away from dying. She was in the hospital, and nobody was sure if she would last. One of my uncles was really struggling with this. He talked about what a good person my grandma was; she always tried to do what was right and rarely had a negative thing to say about anyone. Why was she made to suffer? He questioned why God would do that to her.
I thought about that a lot leading up to Grandma’s eventual demise. I still think about it a lot. It’s logical to understand that we lose people in our lives that we care about, but it’s difficult to see the suffering. We can understand losing, but it feels like the other team is running up the score.
But as Easter approaches, if you are a believer, you can think about the death of Jesus. He did not die an easy death and suffered as much or more than we will. Being scourged, having to carry a cross, facing ridicule and denial, and finally being crucified are beyond imagination for the physical and mental pain. In the end, though, Jesus won. He won the most important game of all – victory over death.
I’ll always struggle with losing in life. My faith wavers at times, often when the logical part of my brain kicks in. I find myself asking questions about how a person could die and rise from the dead. There has to be some explanation which explains that, perhaps a coma-like state or some other scientific rationale. When I see good people suffer, as I too often do, it shakes that faith. Why would God rub it in like that?
Finding my faith to believe is a game plan that is always a work in progress. Coaches have to make halftime adjustments all the time; I have to do that in my life too. Constant adjusting will help me continue to follow that faith and hopefully find victory at the end of the game.
I hope everyone has a good Easter and can spend some time thinking about this occasion. We often hear at Christmas to remember “The Reason for the Season,” but Easter is much the same way. It’s not all about bunnies and chocolate and ham, but about the game we’re all in the midst of trying to win.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is manducate, which means to chew or eat, as in, “The hungry family sat down after church and proceeded to manducate the entire ham before taking a nap.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
Lately, I’ve been part of a wonderful process in our school district called Strategic Planning. We have a group of teachers, administrators, and board members working together with the South Central Service Cooperative to really plan ahead and set some realistic, concrete goals for NRHEG.
When I started teaching, I was told by veteran staff that every time a new initiative was introduced, you could count on hearing about it for two-three years before something new took its place. They were absolutely right.
Since I began, we’ve seen the Profiles of Learning, the Basic Standards Tests, Advisor/Advisee groups, Curriculum Mapping, Response to Intervention, No Child Left Behind, NWEA testing, MCA testing, Professional Learning Communities, Problem Based Learning, Sustained Silent Reading, Common Core Standards, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, and many others I’m sure I’ve forgotten. Just keeping track of what we’re supposed to be focused on is an initiative unto itself.
Every one of those ideas above has had its merits. Many of them have gone the way of the dinosaur. Others most likely will. It’s just the nature of the beast; someone comes up with a brilliant “new” idea and markets it, when in reality it’s an old concept wrapped in new paper.
We have to continually reinvent ourselves in education and try new ideas. I’m loving SSR and PBIS, but we always need to keep moving ahead and finding ways to keep those good ideas fresh and relevant to the students.
My long-time readers know how I feel about standardized testing; we can chuck it all as far as I’m concerned. The target keeps moving on the tests, making it difficult to know just where the students should be. Calls to the Department of Education are as frustrating as talking to a politician on the campaign trail: no real answers and a lot of avoidance of anything remotely going against the grain.
During one of our Strategic Planning sessions in Mankato, our facilitator gave great rationale for why the standardized tests currently being pushed on us by the powers-that-be started and why they continue to make life difficult for teachers and students. The government is trying to get more and more involved in education by forming tests made to look schools look bad.
Any time you see a study that shows the United States is behind all these other countries in education, remember one important fact: the USA educates every child in the same system. Many other countries put students on a tracking system early, and their futures are determined by the time they are teenagers. In the United States, all students are supposed to be able to read and do math at the same level.
This is ludicrous. Every child is not the same. Brain studies show that our cognitive functions are often geared toward math or toward reading and not always both. People all have different strengths; they all have different needs. Should I be able to read and comprehend any story in the newspaper? You bet. Should I be able to do some basic math to balance my checkbook and keep a budget? Absolutely.
Reading and math both offer more than that, though. Those skills help develop brain connections and make us better at so many things, problem solving being first and foremost. Still, is every child going to reach a level of math and reading as it is currently placed? Not in America. Children have so many different needs that the basics are what are necessary for the vast majority. I’ll be honest; I don’t know how well I’d do on the high school math test currently put forth in Minnesota. Does that mean I should turn in my teaching license?
I have a natural suspicion of every new idea that is presented to us. We’ve been burned so many times by “This is the real deal! This will be around for the rest of your career!” that it’s hard to think anything is the ultimate solution. As one senior staff member told me my first year, “Figure out what’s important and keep teaching it. You’ll find a way to cram it into whatever they throw at you.” Wise words, indeed.
Hopefully, our Strategic Planning committee can sort through the morass that we face in our school and decide what is truly important and how to get there. The ultimate goal is that rather than, “This, too, shall pass,” we can say, “This, too, shall last.” Meanwhile, it’s once again testing season and I could possibly be more excited, but don’t hold your breath.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is bloviate, which means to speak pompously, as in, “The speaker bloviated about the latest fad in education.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
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Earlier this school year, I was humbled and gratified to be nominated for a WEM Foundation teaching achievement award. The best part of the nomination was that it came from some of my students. Being recognized by students is the best honor there is as a teacher; they are with you every day and see you at your best and your worst.
The process I got to undertake after my nomination was fairly arduous. I had to get letters of recommendation and put together my resume.
The last thing I had to do was answer a series of essay questions about my motivations, my style, and my goals. Even for a guy who really enjoys writing, I had to work hard to craft my words and get my meaning across in a clear manner.
As I was contemplating some of these questions, I thought back across my career and even to what motivated me to teach in the first place. Here we go: my secret origin as a teacher!
I distinctly remember sitting in social studies class as a freshman in high school. I had always been a good student, sometimes because of understanding the material and other times because of understanding the system in place and using it to achieve a high grade. That class was an example of the latter. I’m sure I don’t remember much of the material I learned, but I got an A or A- every quarter. The teacher lectured, we took notes, read a section, and answered questions. The tests were pretty straightforward, with an essay question that the teacher always thought would trick us, but never did.
I sat there one day, in somewhat of a stupor, thinking about what an easy job this teacher had. How much effort was it to sit up there and do the same thing every day, except days when we’d watch a filmstrip? Right there, I decided that I would become a teacher.
Not the most auspicious way to decide on a career, I grant you, but it worked. The next thought was what would I teach? I didn’t want to teach social studies or be anywhere near something that teacher was a part of. I rather enjoyed band, despite the teacher there. I had gotten the opportunity to be “Teacher for a Day” in band and had a lot of fun.
Still, it was English that stood out. I loved to read and write, so what better field? My loyal readers will remember my column where I mentioned Mr. Larry Tise as a profound influence on me. He was my English teacher in 10th and 12th grade, and I know that I chose English because of him. He didn’t just stand up there and lecture. Our tests were more creative than formulaic. We didn’t always sit in straight rows. I loved it.
His inspiration carried me to college, and it was a real benefit to know what I was going to major in from the start. I was able to mix my gen eds and my major studies from the start. Trust me, as an English major, you don’t want too many English classes at a time – that’s a lot of writing!
My professors in college pushed me, but once again I found myself influenced by a not-so-great instructor. My prof for classroom management told us how not to teach, but she did all those same things herself. A group of us called her out on it, perhaps startling her out of the routine she’d been in for ages.
Between her and the high school teacher I did not admire, the negative influences have helped me as much as anything. Over the years, I’ve vowed not to be an influence in that manner. I’ve taken the framework of Mr. Tise’s class, along with some great professors and my student teaching supervisor, Mrs. Judy Schmidt from Houston, Minnesota, and crafted my own identity.
I hope others follow that type of path in finding a career. As the seniors begin looking ahead to life after high school, I’m sure many of them are besieged with questions about future plans. Some know what they want to do already and others will take some time. Take the good and the bad and use them to shape your future too.
I haven’t heard back from the WEM Foundation since I sent in my materials in January. That most likely means I didn’t win, but as the cliché goes, the journey is often more important than the destination. My journey of reflections has reinvigorated me for the stretch run of this school year and many years to come.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is absquatulating, a word my wife ran across in a book, which means running away, as in, “The teacher thought of absquatulating after a particularly difficult week, but vowed to get through the tough time.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
When I was young and we’d go for a car ride to our grandparents or some other location, I could count on a couple of things. One was that Dad would have the radio tuned to WCCO if Sid Hartman was on, or he would have KNUJ or KDHL on for some polka music. The other thing I could usually count on was a smooth ride; it got easy to tell how long it would take us to get to a location.
The communities of New Richland, Hartland, Ellendale, and Geneva have been on a smooth ride the past three years following the NRHEG Lady Panther basketball team. I’m typing this up after coming home from our third straight welcome home pepfest following another run at the state tournament.
This has been unbelievable for everyone involved. The seniors on this team not only have talent, but have led by example on how to carry yourself on and off the court. I realized, with sadness, that tonight was the final time I would announce Hannah Lundberg, Paige Overgaard, Jade Schultz, and Carlie Wagner as members of the basketball team. When that thought struck me, I had to pause in what I was saying; I was getting a little choked up.
Here’s the thing in a group of communities like NRHEG: we grow very attached to our students and our athletes. This group has been so open and has never walked around like they’re better than everyone else. They’d feel free to joke around at the scorer’s table or in the hallways at school, even with the nut at the microphone.
Hannah is the epitome of what a coach wants in a player. She does so many little things right on the court, even if she doesn’t stuff the stat box. Hustle counts for a lot toward winning, and “The Badger” is the best there is. Couple that with her strong Christian beliefs, and you have a great person for kids to admire.
Before her junior season, I commented to Paige that I thought the team would go as far as her contributions would take them. If she battled for rebounds, played solid defense, and contributed 8-10 points a game, nobody would stop us. She looked stunned (but still with her ever-present smile). But it’s held up. Paige has been so consistent and made all the difference in how the defense is run, and she’s gotten better continuously over the last two years.
Jade has certainly battled to be out on the court. She worked so hard to get back from her injuries last season and looked stronger than ever all year. Her presence has helped drive the girls to give her the same opportunities she missed out on by being on the court for the championship again this year. The work ethic of “The Blade” is a great ideal for younger kids to look up to and surely has played a role in her ability to play at the U of M next year.
And then there’s Carlie. So much has been said and written about “The Dagger,” but here’s a little more. Carlie is a genuine superstar, but her humbleness is what places her above other high school stars. She gets approached for autographs often, and saw even more of that at the state tournament this year. I’ve never seen or heard of her turning anyone away. Here’s a girl who is a three-time state champion (don’t forget her high jump championship!) and still would rather hang out with her friends and family than anything.
We may never see another Carlie here at NRHEG. We’ve got talent all around, both in boys’ and girls’ athletics, but Carlie is something very special. Her hard work and great attitude have gotten her a scholarship with the Gophers, but her personality is what will earn her continued success in life.
Since the whole sweater vest superstition started with Jade and Carlie all those years ago, I’m thinking it might be time to retire that tradition; thanks, girls, for the fun that went with it! My hat’s off to all the seniors for taking us on this smooth ride over the past few years!
With that said, though there will feel like something’s missing next year at the home opener, it’s now time to open a new chapter in Lady Panther basketball. There are some superb characters left from the last story. Here’s to continued success and new traditions!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is edacity, which means greediness or a good appetite, as in, “Panther basketball fans showed their edacity by continuing to hope for more state tournament appearances.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
Earlier this school year, I had a fellow staff member ask me if I wouldn’t write a column about medication and our students. I said I’d keep it in mind, and the time has come to grant that request!
It seems there are more and more students who are on some form of medication these days. There are all manner of reasons for this, most of them dealing with some form of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). NBC News just reported that some studies show that 11% of all US children have a prescription for ADHD. And that number is climbing.
There is a lot of speculation on why this number is growing all the time, with much of the guessing trying to tie this into electronics and the great amount of time spent before them. However, some studies have also shown a 53% growth in adults taking these drugs. For so many of them, it’s a matter of, “Oh, that’s what’s been bothering me all these years!” Let’s face it; I don’t remember many kids being diagnosed with ADHD growing up. They were just labeled as hyperactive and they would grow out of it.
Getting a diagnosis for your child is a tough step. As parents, we want what is best for our kids, but it’s very difficult to take a step down that path because it’s almost like admitting your child is flawed. I’ve seen a lot of parents struggle with this decision. Honestly, nobody wants to medicate their child. So many people have told me that it hurts to have to “drug them up.”
On the other hand, I’ve heard from former students and from parents of students that pre-medication, some of these kids are suffering silently. They may act out a lot, and the hope is they’ll “grow out of it” without needing drugs. But many of these kids describe the difference once they are on meds as coming out of a claustrophobic tiny box into bright sunshine and open fields of green grass. Imagine being in that box all the time – wouldn’t you act out, trying to escape?
Many students I teach lose focus; it’s part of the age. However, it’s become easier and easier to pinpoint those who are just daydreaming and those that can’t focus for more than the attention span of a goldfish without a superior effort. It’s no fault of their own; that’s just how their brains function. I’ve seen some amazing success stories of kids who were trouble and not doing well in school and then turning it around because they were out of their confinement and breathing fresh air (well, as fresh as air gets in middle school).
It also becomes apparent when a child who’s normally on medication suddenly isn’t. It’s a completely different person in front of you. I’ve had students who are generally well-behaved and get their work done suddenly turn into wild beasts who are disrespectful and defiant, all because they didn’t take that little pill.
Again, I can sympathize with the difficulty as a parent to take this step with children. However, there really is no stigma with being ADHD. In fact, it can help the student get some more help at school through a 504 Plan. I don’t see kids make fun of others because they have to take their medicine. I do see them shun those who can’t be a part of a civilized group without disruption.
It’s difficult too to get the dosage right, and it changes as the child grows and goes through puberty. We’re very understanding of that, and many parents ask us to keep an eye on things as dosages are adjusted so we can help pinpoint the right amount. We’re happy to help if it means the student can learn at an optimal level.
It’s disappointing when a child has a diagnosis and parents can’t keep to the responsibility to make sure the child takes the medication every day. Kids can be forgetful, but parents should not be on a continuous basis. We see more and more of this, and it’s disappointing that some kids miss out on a good education because of it. Sometimes there are health insurance issues, but these can be overcome with some effort.
All our staff want what’s best for the students. Sometimes it’s not an easy truth to swallow, but swallowing that little pill can make a huge difference in finding a path to success.
Word of the Week: This week’s word is polyphiloprogenitive, which means extremely prolific, as in, “The number of medications in the nurse’s office was polyphiloprogenitive, and Gratia could hardly keep track of them all.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!
One of the vocab words this week for my students was meticulous, which means to pay close attention to details. Many of them used it in a sentence similar to, “Mr. D is meticulous when looking at our papers, looking for every mistake.” That’s very true, and it always reinforces to me how important the little things are in getting a big job done.
Certainly, my regular readers have seen examples of what happens when that fine attention is not paid to student writing. (I had some more this week when I read movie critiques about Star Wars from my students. I guess they flew around a lot in otter space. Plus, Han Solo was friends with the Wookie Chewable. Ugh, that’d get a lot of hair in your teeth.)
There are so many things in life that have many parts that work together. I was thinking about that during my most recent shoveling excursion to find the end of my driveway. Naturally, I was trying to think of all the parts that have to work together for the weather terrorists to get the forecast wrong again. It seems either they predict doom and gloom and it misses us or, as happened last week, they predict a piddling and we get a dumping.
As I plodded my way through the piles, I was thinking about the small things that make my life easier. My neighbors Jerry and Gene share a snowblower that I’m admittedly hesitant to use, even though it’s been offered. These gentlemen will help me out sometimes by blowing out the end of my driveway after the plow has been by and have helped widen my driveway from the impending doom of the snow cliffs surrounding it. That helps tremendously, even if it’s a small gesture on their part.
Then I was thinking about sports events (I know, shocker). Mr. Stork counts on a lot of small things and a variety of people to help the events run smoothly. Sometimes the casual fan isn’t aware of all these pieces of the puzzle. My seat neighbor at varsity events all these years has been Larry Crabtree at the clock. Larry and I get along well; we’d better for all the time we spend together at games! Larry doesn’t really want to be noticed at the clock, and the 99% of the time that he is error-free, he isn’t. But forget to put a point in the right column and the shouts ensue. It’s not an easy job, but it’s an important one to keep the games running well.
Some people do multiple things to help events at all levels. Since Tim Siewert arrived as band director, he’s done so much more. I have the pleasure of working with him as a football official and a baseball umpire. At a time when Mr. Stork finds it difficult to find people willing to don the stripes and/or the blue, Tim is willing to help at all levels. He’s also stepped in to help with the clock when Larry couldn’t be there and takes care of much of the behind-the-scenes sound systems in our acoustically-challenged gym.
Speaking of little things, I think that might be part of Nate Jensen’s job description at NRHEG. Nate has been a jack-of-all-trades these past few years and probably has his hand in more things than I know about at school. He works with the sound, coaches, deals with subs, and fills in about every position in the district outside of administration.
And then there’s Matt Groskreutz, who…um, well, I’m sure he does something around here other than sit in his chair and eat sandwiches. Oh yeah, he makes sure all the buses and vans that transport your kids are in good working order. He also brings a smile to the faces of the kids on his bus and anyone he comes across when he stops by school. Plus, he enjoys polka music, so he must be good folk!
These are just a few of the people who help the world go around and don’t often get noticed or appreciated for the effort they put in to make things work smoothly for others. Thank you!
Word of the Week: This week’s word is vituperate, which means to use harsh language, as in, “I tried to keep Larry from vituperating when the visiting fans yelled at him about the incorrect score.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!