Yes You Can - I Know You Can! #YouDeserveIt

I can't - No way - It's too hard - I'm not old enough - I'm too old - I'm not techy like you 

What is it with failure? Or is it about failure? I've come to believe it's a combination of things. 

This isn't just about kids either, I hear this from adults too often as well. Years ago when I taught 5th grade we were at outdoor camp for the week. A parent chaperone was hanging out by the climbing wall and watching all the kids go up and down. I encouraged Carol to try and she gave me a crazy look.

"I'm too old and out of shape, plus I don't like heights."

After some encouraging from me (I'm good at pushing people) she harnessed up and started climbing! She made it clear she only wanted to go up halfway. Well, at the midway point I organized the kids and we rooted her on! She kept climbing higher, and higher and then the bell rang.

She'd made it all the way. After she descended and took off the harness she came right over to me. Looked me in the eye and gave me a hug. She didn't say anything, just the hug. 

Was it fear that almost kept her on the ground? Or the encouragement to accomplish a goal and belief during an event?

Don't walk out, don't give up, stay strong, you can do it! Rudy did, against SO many odds! What if hadn't gone to that last practice? How much would have been lost?

I also need to bring my four-year old daughter into this post. She's totally glommed on to monkey bars within the last six months and we're always looking for new parks to try some out. We went to my friends school this morning (@HVEHuskies) and there were some super long bars. 

She spotted them from across the yard and rode her bike over. 

"Dad, I want to try those monkey's!"

"You bet, let's go."

She climbs the ladder.....

"Dad, I'm nervous, I can't. Hold my legs the entire way."

"No way Greta, you can do it, let's go!"

"I can't....."

"Yes you can, now make it happen!"

Please watch the video below!

I'm starting to think more that it's not so much about the fear of failure. It's more a lack of encouragement. We need each other. Nobody can do it alone. 

- We must believe in our kids!

- We must encourage our kids!

- We must push our colleagues! 

- We have to encourage those around us!

- We're so much better together if those around us believe in themselves and push us as well!

Yes You Can - I Know You Can!

What's Up With the Food? #KidsDeserveIt #teamkid #beawesome

Seriously, I'm so frustrated with restaurant menus for kids. My wife is too!

It's much more than just about the food though, I'll explain!

Chicken nuggets - Chicken fingers - Grilled Cheese - Hot Dog - Pasta with butter - Pasta with some red sauce - And that's about it. 

Is that our expectation of young tastebuds? What does that say about our expectation for kids in other areas?

We don't eat meat in our house, my four and two year old have never tasted it. But we eat really great food that has amazing flavor. We treat meals (especially dinner) as an experience and raise the bar for our kids and feed them well!

If we give kids low expectations, how do they know any better? John Hattie even talks about having low expectations and how it impedes learning. I don't have data like Hattie to back up my claims, but a low food mindset for kids (at home and restaurants) is a low achievement mindset at school and maybe in life.

My kids eat wild salmon because it tastes amazing! They eat kale and chard because my daughter helps me sauté it with her apron on. My son thinks fresh figs are dessert and my four-year old could eat pumpkin bolani with yogurt sauce everyday!  If you have low food expectations for your kids, do you think you have high academic expectations for them?

We just spent last week in Lake Tahoe and ordered from the 'adult' menu one evening. Both my children had halibut with garlic mashed potatoes at a local restaurant. Our waitress was awesome and even commented on how they both ate so well! Not really, that's just what they know.

Is it all in the delivery? Like an engaging teacher that everyone loves and kids can't wait to go to school each day! Or a 'boring' teacher that's long winded and doesn't connect with the class?

Who would you rather learn from?

Would your kids have higher food aspirations if Jacques was cooking? His feisty knife skills, olive oil and butter on everything with the French accent?

(don't watch the entire video, you'll get the point!)

Or, Chef Matt making tortilla's with little engagement? Hot dogs, grilled cheese and pasta with butter? (don't watch the entire video, you'll get the point!)

Please understand my intention is not to degrade certain types of food that people eat. I just see a trend and am concerned......

- We can do better!
- Our kids deserve better!
- It will taste better!
- They'll expect better!
- They'll aim higher!
- I'll bet they won't gravitate towards hot dogs and tater tots anymore :)

Aim high, go high! - Expect greatness, achieve awesome! - At a restaurant, in life and especially at school!

Love this @nytimes video, all kids should have this experience!

Being a Principal - Being a Kid #KidsDeserveIt

This morning I ran ten miles with my kids in our double jogger. Both our joggers have thousands of miles each and both our kids have been running with my wife and I since they were born. The first couple miles I didn't feel great, then as usual my body warmed up and I caught my groove, then on the turn around my phone was going off and we had to make some stops!

Of course being a Principal I think about school even when I'm not at school.

How I felt running this morning brought me to how I feel sometimes as Principal, and how I'm sure our kids feel at times too!

- Feeling really awesome, like you were Born to Run!

- Sometimes crawling to the finish of a day or even a year!

- And on occasion being pulled in many different directions!

Forget about me.....if I'm feeling this way, how are our kids feeling?

- Grades
- Tests
- After school sports/activities
- Divorced parents
- Friends
- Bullying
- Hunger
- Money
- What else??????

Being a Principal is hard work, it's rewarding and fun but it's challenging.

Being a kid is hard work too, it's rewarding and fun but it's challenging.

We must put kids first!

- Think about their emotions
- Their story that we don't know
- Are they hungry
- How many different directions they're being pulled in

Give them kudos when they're cruising like Bruce in the video above!

Lend a hand and some empathy when they're crawling like the runner in the video above!

Give them some slack when they're being pulled in fifty different directions like in the video above! 

If you're an educator, thanks for all you do, our kids need us!

Kids Need Social Media Exposure - Here's What Sully Thinks #KidsDeserveIt

Todays guest post is written by Sullivan who was a student at my former school for three years. He'll be entering 6th grade this year and his experiences with social media are below!

Looking back at my experiences with social media in elementary school, I have great memories of my time creating a weekly podcast, being a social media intern and attending breakfast at the Martinez Rotary Club.

I was new student to John Swett in third grade. Mr. Welcome approached me with an idea to do a weekly talk show,and podcast using an app called AudioBoo, we’d call it “This Week with Sully”. One of the many benefits of this opportunity is that I was able to meet a lot of new people and make new friends. Whether they were asking me to mention something on the show, or they just thought it was cool that I got to be on a podcast with Mr. Welcome, I spoke to people I may not have had the chance to otherwise. I also really enjoyed sharing my opinions and interests, such as, sports, reading new books and movies I had seen recently.  Getting to do “This Week with Sully” helped me become more fluid with speaking, it was good practice for public speaking in and outside of the classroom and it was always fun to work with  Mr. Welcome. He and I would brainstorm and then throw together a speech. Now that I think about it, this was one of my favorite experiences in elementary school.

During the first ever student council meeting of the year another student and I were given the post of Social Media Interns. We were taught how to use Twitter, then we were given Mr. Welcome’s iPad and told to take pictures of things we saw that looked interesting. We took pictures of art projects, kids at recess, and everyday activities we thought were funny. Being a social media intern was a great experience for me because I would like to write and direct movies for a living. I thought that being a social media intern was almost like being a journalist. It also helped me learn how to use a social media platform appropriately and correctly. I believe it was like we were giving teachers ideas from other teachers, as I know that most teachers do this. We didn’t only take pictures, but we asked questions and got to participate in conversations. It was like the technology version of a school newspaper.

When my internship was finished I got the privilege of taking a visit to the Martinez Rotary Club for breakfast one school morning. We were asked to speak about what benefits social media has to offer in education today. We explained that we were the social media interns and how our job was to take pictures of things around the school and put them on Twitter for parents and other kids to see. The members of Rotary had many questions, but the recurring questions were mostly along the lines of “what if a student does something inappropriate through using Social Media?.” Mr. Welcome explained that there was an app used by a teacher that monitors all the computers in his or her classroom. He also explained the many positives, such as using Twitter, that can make the campus seem like it’s Open House all year.  I think they were convinced.  

As I reflect back, I really do appreciate the experiences I was given through the exposure to and privilege of the use of social media and technology. I think that podcasts, social media, and even speaking to the rotary club only begins to describe the benefits of social media in Elementary School.

More Celebration Please - More Students Celebrating! #KidsDeserveIt

This image came through our @kidsdeserveit Twitter feed yesterday from @mrdearybury1 and I grabbed it right away!

Then this morning I hopped on #sunchat for a bit which was based around taking risks in schools. I shared some ideas about students Tweeting from your school account, student voice and this video of Tony Hawk which I love!

Then I was watching a clip of Genzebe Dibaba breaking the Women's 1500m world record yesterday, which was absolutely amazing. 

My uncle was a runner, had his own shoe with Nike and even competed in the 1988 Olympics. The video above brought me back to his days and all the cameras hoarding the runners after a race. They all want a photo, statement and of course more photos.

How come we don't do this in schools, or how come we don't do it enough? 

Yes it's an amazing feat to beat a world record, but how about all the amazing feats that happen with kids in schools each and every day?! 

I also talk with SO many Principals and teachers who have SO many amazing photos of their students doing amazing work in their classrooms on their smartphones, and nobody sees them......

Share them with your community! 

Share them with your Superintendent! 

Share them with the school board!

Share them with neighboring schools, you never know what connection you'll create because of it!
Please share all the #eduawesome more!

We have the once/twice a year 'awards' assemblies that are usually based around academic achievement, this is not enough. We need more celebration please and more students celebrating!

Let's celebrate everyday! 

Let's invite TV cameras to our schools for the big celebrations, not just when something goes wrong!

Let's be awesome for ALL of our students, they deserve it!

Must close with this video from @Principal_EL - Every child deserves someone to celebrate them as well, let's make it happen!

Where Do You Learn #KidsDeserveIt #savmp

Where do you learn? 

This thought has been on my brain a ton lately, @techninjatodd and I even wrote our first blog post about it here. As you can see from the post we're huge advocates of Twitter! But if you're not on Twitter, where do you learn?

- Where are you getting new ideas?
- How are you meeting educators other than those you directly work with?
- How are you connecting classrooms so they can collaborate?

Are you reading magazines? Newspapers? Are you waiting for summer to attend a conference?

If so, that's not enough.

This is an amazing time to be an educator. We have the opportunity to be connected and learn with so many other educators that simply wasn't possible even just ten years ago. Thinking back from my first few years as a teacher, I always just 'learned' from the three other teachers in my grade level. I remember only a few professional development speakers and they mainly focused on testing strategies. It simply wasn't possible to access the learning floodgates that we have now!

If you're not on Twitter you're doing your teachers/students/parents/school disservice, because where do you learn? We must be the best for our students, that means we must be continually learning for them!

Put The Bat In Their Hands - See What Happens! #KidsDeserveIt

"They can't write in Kindergarten."

"They're too young to code."

"Why would you have 5th graders learn how to Tweet?"

"You want your entire school to be 1:1, and have 1st graders blog?"

You can't see what kids can actually do unless you let them get after it! 

The video clip below from The Natural puts this into perspective perfectly! Roy Hobbs is a 40+ year old rookie in the major leagues and his coach refused to play him in games. Finally one day at batting practice he was allowed to hit, his coach put the bat in his hands - see what happens!

- We must believe

- We have to believe

- We must open all available doors for kids

- We have to get kids out of the 'dugout' and onto the 'field'

How much potential is never reached because adults said no? Or can't? Or shouldn't? Or won't? Or you're not old enough? Or just simply didn't listen?

As a Principal I refuse to say no, can't, shouldn't, won't, not old enough and I will ALWAYS listen to kids. I want the absolute best for my own two children, and the same for my other 550!

Put the bat in their hands and SEE what happens, #KidsDeserveIt