Say What?

Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity.  We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair.  Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble. --Yehuda Berg

This week I would like to take a look at words through two different lenses.  The first one makes an argument about person-first language.  Choosing words carefully makes a statement about our mindset and about what we value.  The second section looks at communicating words and emotions in American Sign Language. 

I hope you find both the words and the visuals thought-provoking.

Person-First Language

The words we use and the way we use them are critically important.  My wife made this point in her newsletter to the Cumberland Road Elementary folks, so I “borrowed” a section of the newsletter. 

Lisa always makes sense to me.  See if her words resonate with you:

Am I autistic, or am I a person with autism? Am I homeless, or am I a person who is homeless? Am I learning disabled, or am I a person with a learning disability? Am I a failure, or am I failing?

How we use our words says a lot about our mindset.

If you look at the chart below, you will see that person-first language places the emphasis where it belongs.  “I am a person who is failing" is different than "I am a failure." Person-first language means that I—the person—am what is important. My situation or label is not what is most important about me.  Being a person first is.

As we think about our students and ourselves, using a growth mindset means we are in the process of growing. We might not be there (wherever that is) yet, but we are on the way.

Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity.  We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair.  Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble. --Yehuda Berg

How Do You Say “Happy”?

Please take a few moments to watch this video made by campers who express their words using a different language but communicate quite effectively.  It will make you happy, and it might make you think again about how communication involves much more than simply words.

Choose your words and expressions carefully this week, HSE.  Keep the person first and make someone happy! It is, after all, how Royals promote respect, foster pride, and inspire excellence.

Phil

A few closing thoughts on the impact of words.

• As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.  --J. F. Kennedy
• No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.     --Robin Williams
• Kindness in words creates confidence.  Kindness in thinking creates profoundness.  Kindness in giving creates love.      --Lao Tzu
• Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace.            --Buddha

Navigating Feedback

Google Maps is a patient teacher.  She knows where I’m going and continually reminds me when I get off track.  When I miss a turn or make a mistake, she doesn’t get upset or give up on me.  Instead, she recalculates and tells me exactly what to do and where to go to keep moving in the right direction.  In fact, I find myself being much less patient with my GPS than she is with me. 

John Hattie and Gregory Yates argue that educators could use a GPS as a model for providing feedback to students.  Before exploring the GPS analogy further, take a look at the somewhat disturbing findings about feedback in the classroom.  Hattie and Yates came to these conclusions through a series of extensive interviews and classroom observations conducted by trained observers:

• Teachers routinely say they give lots of helpful feedback to students.
• Trained classroom observers see very little teacher-to-student feedback, even in classrooms with expert teachers. 
• Most students report getting very little feedback from their teachers, often only a few seconds of feedback a day.

The reason for the disparity, say Hattie and Yates, is that teachers believe they are giving feedback when they speak to the whole class, but the researchers conclude that group-level feedback “is largely irrelevant to those who have mastered an objective, and often ignored by those who have not.”  Ouch!  That hurts, but it also makes sense.  Anyone who has spent time in the classroom can relate.  The ones who know it, don’t need to listen.  The ones who don’t know it, often won’t listen.  Either way, the positive impact of feedback is negated in the whole-group setting.

The irony is that good academic feedback is essential for learning and can have a huge positive impact.  For example, Robert Marzano documents the extensive research about academic feedback and includes “setting objectives and providing feedback” as one his high probability teaching strategies in his still impressive book, Classroom Instruction that Works.  Feedback, when used well, can double the rate of learning and is among the top ten influences on achievement.  The question isn’t whether or not feedback is helpful.  Rather, it is this: What does “effective feedback” look like and sound like in the classroom? 

Hattie and Yates say this about using the GPS as a model for giving feedback:

[The GPS] can only look forward.  It remains unconcerned about any past streets, suburbs, or erstwhile errors passed through on route.  We may get to a location through using different roads and we may take longer or shorter to get there.  But such differences are superficial since options are constrained severely by reality.  At some point, all routes to one goal will converge, even though the starting points vary.

If we know where we want the student to go, and we know where he or she is now, feedback is the communication about the next step or next turn.  It is not praise, it is not generalizations, and if the researchers are right, it must be more than whole-group feedback.  If students are all over the map, to get them all to the same destination takes specific individual teacher-to-student feedback.  

Consider this scenario: You are one of 30 drivers spread out all over Hamilton County but all heading to the same destination.  You all are using the same GPS and it is trying to guide you all at the same time.  As one of the drivers, you might be able to get some help from this GPS giving whole-group directions to all 30 drivers, but most of the specific turns would not be useful until all of you are very close to the same point on the map. 

How much attention would you pay to whole-group feedback from this GPS?  If your answer is “not much,” it might be worthwhile also thinking about ways to increase the individual feedback you give to students as they move toward a common goal.

Below is another roadmap for effective feedback from Edutopia.  Similar to the other experts, this model argues for specific, individual, and actionable steps.   Start at 1 and work through 5.  It is another map that will take you home. 

I hope your week “turns” out to be a good one, HSE. 

Phil

Winning the Mudsock

Mudsock to Fully Stocked

No question the town of Fishers has gone through a few changes since the days of William Conner.  I gather from a quick search that at one time this area (not really a town yet) was called Mudsock.  Later the name changed to reflect a function of the railroad, so we were called Fishers Switch.  Eventually the reference to the railway was dropped, and we became simply Fishers.  As time passed, the town continued to grow dramatically, especially in the last 30 years, and the result is that we are currently the fourth or fifth largest school district in Indiana—depending on which source you reference.  

From Conner Prairie

Current History

One of the events making current history is the Mudsock football game played yearly between the Royals and Tigers.  It's an amazing thing to witness a high school game that garners this much attention.  Last Friday, around 10,000 people showed up for the festivities.  Tailgating started early, TV trucks lined the alley between the school and stadium, helicopters flew in and out, and the stands filled with blue and red.  Many colleges and universities would envy a turnout like we had.

The Mudsock game is perhaps the premier in-season football event in the state, and I venture to guess there aren't too many high school football games around the nation that bring in this many fans or have the hype we experienced last Friday.  Fishers has come a long way from its humble muddy crossroad beginnings.

From 2012 Mudsock Game

The Logistics

An event like the Mudsock football game, however, doesn’t just spring into existence or maintain its unique characteristic without considerable concerted effort.  An incredible amount of planning and logistical support went into pulling off Friday’s game.  From the outside, it may seem routine—just a larger version of a regular football game, like thousands of others taking place on a Friday nights across the nation.  Those doing the planning know all too well the time and energy it takes to pull off an event that ensures 10,000 people can safely and comfortably enjoy the spectacle.  The planning is far from routine.

The same can be said for much of what goes on inside our school.  Day in and day out we have 3,000 students walking through our doors.  And we repeat this “event” 180 days a year.  Take a moment to consider the logistics of keeping Hamilton Southeastern High School open and education taking place on a daily basis.

Whether it is a band concert, an art show, a club meeting, serving lunch to several thousand students, or a single lesson in a classroom, an incredible amount of thoughtful preparation and effort makes it all happen.  You may not get the news coverage of the Mudsock football game, but those of us on the inside know and appreciate all of the time and work that goes into making each day, each class, and each activity look “routine.”

So you win the Mudsock, Hamilton Southeastern.  It may not be the official one that is presented to sports teams, but your good work and thoughtful approach to education is every bit as important and appreciated.  Whatever your role at HSE, kudos to you and all you do for the students of HSE. 

It’s a great day to be a Royal!

Phil

Fishin' in the Dark

OI found myself in a bit of funk this week.  I’m not particularly fond of the feeling, so I decided to do something about it.  I started by brewing up some good Sumatra coffee, but that wasn’t quite what I needed—although it wasn’t a bad start.

Since caffeine didn’t do the trick, I gave myself permission to take ten minutes to conduct a search for “something fun.”  I wasn’t sure what that might be, but I began by turning on Pandora to Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Radio.  A little bluegrass music takes me back to my Kansas roots and reminds me of going to the Winfield Flatpicking Festival when I was in college.  Below is a picture of The Dirt Band as I remember them from their concert in Wichita in 1977.  Yep, that’s how we looked.

NGDB Cover Art

Between the bluegrass and dark coffee, I was on the right track but wasn’t quite there yet.  In a fortuitous turn of events, a friend of my wife sent her a link to “Jokes So Terrible They’re Actually Funny.”  She passed them on to me at the right time.  Additionally, a friend stuck her head in my office to say “hi” and check in.

My search for fun came to a screeching halt.  I now had the perfect storm of positivity going: good coffee, Doc Watson playing his guitar as only he can, a kind word of encouragement, and some really bad jokes.  Actually, some of the jokes made me chuckle; some made me groan.  I can’t explain the science of how laughter helps, but somehow it does.

If you find yourself needing a little laughter, see what you think of these “Terrible Jokes” that come from a website called Geekfill.  (I have no idea what else is on the site, so don’t blame me if you go looking.)  

• Two antennas met on a roof, fell in love, and got married. The ceremony wasn’t much, but the reception was excellent.
• A jumper cable walks into a bar, the bartender says, “I’ll serve you, but don’t start anything.”
• A man with dyslexia walks into a bra….
• Two cannibals are eating a clown.  One says to the other, “Does this taste funny to you?”
• An invisible man marries an invisible woman.  The kids were nothing to look at either.
• Deja Moo: The feeling that you’ve heard this bull before.
• I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day, but I couldn’t find any.
• I went to a seafood disco last week….and pulled a mussel.
• What do you call a fish with no eyes?  A fsh
• Two fish swim into a concrete wall.  The one turns to the other and says, “Dam!”
• Two men sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft.  Unsurprisingly, it sank, proving once again that you can’t have your kayak and heat it, too.
• Finally, there was a person who sent twenty different puns to his friends, with the hope that at least ten of the puns would make them laugh.  No pun in ten did.

Let me know if you have any others I can add to my collection.  If I get enough, I might be able to post a selection of HSE Terrible Jokes If the joke makes you chuckle, groan, snort, or smile, pass it along.

I hope your week is a great one, HSE.  Find time to laugh or make someone else laugh.  Add a word of kindness and encouragement if you can.  At the very least, give and get a smile from the people you meet today.

Phil

By the way, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is still around.  Check out their current look.

Promotional Photo

For those of you who have never heard The Dirt Band, enjoy this You Tube video and then feel free to make fun of me for being such a nerd: Fishin' in the Dark.  (Bonus: Notice how their pronunciation of creek rhymes with trick.  Now that takes me back home….)