Great First Week

After an extended summer vacation, the halls were busy again this week with students and school activity. Construction is continuing around us, but we are rolling along. There are a few obstacles to overcome, such as make-shift office space for the administrative and counseling office staff and a classroom that is not completed. By mid October, the classroom is suppose to be ready. By the end of October the offices are suppose to be ready. So, we will have one more move to make this year, which will hopefully be the last move for a long time.

I was amazed with how well the first week of school went. We started the week under construction, going a full day on the first day, having a full five-day week, extending the day by 20 minutes, and having nice, hot weather. Despite all of that, everything seemed to go very smoothly. I know that a lot of that had to do with the preparation of the teachers and the great attitude of the students. From my perspective, it was greatly appreciated. Shepherd is a great place!

We hit the ground running, and Homecoming week is next week. There was no easing into the 2009-2010 school year, but as smoothly as it started, I don't think we needed to ease into anything.

Here we go!

Wow! It has been a long time since I have posted. I guess I was enjoying the summer and not thinking about school as much as I should have. It has been a wild summer with the construction. I have made my second office move with only one more to go before it is all done. The building looks good to start school, especially considering what it looked like last week. We are getting right into things with a full day, class meetings for homecoming, and of course, classes. I hope everyone has a good start to the year!

Something for Parents to Consider

I came across a web article recently that had to do with the use of technology by students. I thought the point in the article was at least worth consideration. Parents may want to review/consider taking more control over their student's access to technology. The article describes some of the potential harm that can come from students who have access to technology 24/7. For example, a parent could say good night as their student heads to his/her bedroom and then the student could sit in his/her room texting/chatting until 1:00am. There are obvious implications for their academic performance at school the next day. I encourage parents to do a family assessment on what technology their students have access to and when they have access. Could they be harming their academic success due to fatigue, sleep deprivation, and motivation due to access so some of these social networking applications?

Click here to check out this article.

More Summer News

I have been out of the office for much of July traveling with family. I have had some great times, but it makes the summer go really quickly. The good thing is that I can see big jumps in progress on the building project when I return. It is exciting to see.

I will be in the office working as normal until school starts. There is much news about the school these days. With the construction, it was necessary to adjust the school year calendar. Please check out the Shepherd High School home page for the 2009-2010 calendar. Click here to jump to this page. If you look at the left side of the page, the section has two calendar links. One is "Calendar" and the other is "Text Only Calendar." The first will show you the 2009-2010 calendar in a monthly calendar format. The other simply lists the significant calendar dates for the school year. You can look at one of those links for the specifics, but the adjustments call for a longer school day by 20 minutes and a shorter school year to allow for the summer work that is needed yet this year and what will be needed next summer.

Another big item out there is the state of school financing. We are potentially facing massive cuts in our state aide. As of now, some of the reduction will be offset by federal stimulus money. But, that will only help with the short fall for the coming year and will only cover a portion of the reduction for 2010-2011. After that, there is no stimulus money left to offset the reductions. I encourage you to research this funding problem and contact your government officials as you see fit. Those who have been in education for many years view this as the worst financial crisis for schools they have seen. Please keep an eye on this topic.

I hope the summer is going well for everyone!

Brief Summer Update

I hope that everyone is getting a good start to the summer. It took a while for the warm weather to arrive. As I write this, it is probably the hottest day of the year. It is supposed to be in the low 90s today. If you have not had a chance to drive by the school, it is really looking different. The office area was being torn down about the day after school let out. One day I drove by and saw a Bobcat in the office tearing things down on the inside. The new gym area is coming along well. The tall walls are starting to go up. It looks big! The lights for the football field were installed shortly after school got out. They have started on the concessions area and bathrooms at the sports complex. There are crews all over. It is exciting to see. The elementary work is coming along well, too. Starting in the fall we will have a very different feel with all of the physical changes to the buildings.

Click here to see a few pictures from June 23, 2009.

Michigan Merit Curriculum Interview

The link below is to a radio interview that was done by WCFX in the spring of 2009 regarding the Michigan Merit Curriculum. The interview included the superintendent from Mt. Pleasant, the superintendent from Beal City, and me. We left a link to interview on the high school web page for several months, but we are moving it to the blog to make room for some other items.

Click here to hear the interview.

Have A Great Summer!

It has been a great year! I hope everyone has an enjoyable summer. My family is doing a lot of traveling, but I hope to use much of the summer to prepare for a good start to next year. The summer will go by quickly! It will be exciting for people to back to school after having been away for the summer because the construction is moving along so fast. I hope they continue to make good progress. I want to be able to start next fall in the new office!

Congratulations!

Congratulations to the SHS baseball team that won its first state championship this past weekend. The team had a remarkable season. The boys were so focused all year. It is great to see all of that hard work pay off. We are so proud of their accomplishment!

Family Memories

I know that I have talked about Google Docs a lot at work. We are using the applications more and more to collaborate and share documents. Well, today I started a Family Memories document and shared it with my immediate family. I intend to make this a living document that we continue to add to as we create memories. You never know what is meaningful to others until they start to share their memories. For example, when I knew that I was going to propose to Kristi, I was afraid that she would say no. I didn't tell anyone what I was going to do. We went to a play at Christmas time and before the play (Phantom of the Opera) we were talking about church and singing in church. To make a long story as short as possible, Kristi made the comment, "We would have to be married before I would let you hear me sing." Little did she know that I already had the ring and planned to ask her to marry me sometime, somehow after the play. I had no idea what I was doing or how to go about the whole thing. I took the ring out of my bag. Just as I turned around to try and figure a way to actually propose, Kristi turned and walked toward me. The thing that came to mind was to open up the engagement ring box and say, "I want to hear you sing." Well, she didn't say, "no". There have been many memories since then - some good, some not as good. But, the rules of the memories document is that they need to be positive or sentimental memories. It will be interesting to look at this over time and see what is memorable to each of us!

Have you ever noticed the difference between people who have a difficult time with change and those who seem to relish it? I guess it all depends on the type of change. None of us like change that is the result of something tragic. But, there are many things that change our lives or things that we initiate that change our life. I think there are some of us who have adult ADD, while others are a little OCD. I don't want you to tell on anyone, but I would be more in the OCD camp while Kristi would be in the ADD category - generally speaking. I don't like changes when it comes to my routine and what I have become used to, but I do always look to make changes that I believe will help improve things. I am always looking at things that I need to do to make my house better or improve my job performance or improve the school, etc. But, I don't like change for change sake. I don't like to break what has become tradition. There is something in my core that gets troubled by changing traditions. Some people can just "roll with the changes", but others of us feel very uncomfortable inside. We are sure facing some changes for some of our high school staff. As you all know, enrollment in the high school is down, and we have to reduce teaching sections. Either you or one of your colleagues will be facing changes for the coming year. Some will adjust to the changes more easily than others.

MACUL

I am here at the MACUL Conference (3/18-20/09). This post is to provide those who attended or are have interest the presentation, "Apps For Administrators: Tools to Support SIP...and More" that Kristi and I are did on 3/19/09. You will be able to go to my Google Site and click the presentation attachment of the slide show if you click the link below. Much of the presentation was demonstration of the applications mentions from web tools so what you will see is what was discussed, but the actual demonstration will not be in the slide presentation. Please feel free to contact me through the comment feature of this blog.
Click here to see the presentation.

For those who were in the session, please use the link below to complete a survey about the session. It will require a password that will be provided to you at the session.
Click Here to take survey

Starting To See The Change

It seems like the vote on the bond proposal was a long time ago. I guess it depends on how you look at it. It was almost a year and a half ago. I knew when the proposal passed that there would be the reality of the long, long process of moving from design, to bidding, to actually seeing the new construction and renovations. I pulled in at 6:30 this morning and arriving at the same time was a large truck, probably here for the demolition. All morning it has sounded like a truck stop out my window. Those are great sounds to hear, though. That means all of the planning, drawing, changing, and bidding work that goes on behind the scenes is done, and we will now start to see physical evidence of the change. We have been able to see a few signs of change with the demolition of the football stands and the construction of the new sports complex. However, we aren't able to use those facilities yet, and they are a ways away from where we work every day. I know that we will have some inconvenience through this construction, but it should be awesome when we are done. It is a great time to be a Blue Jay!

What Do You Think About?

When you have the time to think and plan about things other than school or work, about what do you get excited? For me, it is travel. Kristi and I have taken a cruise five of the last six years. We took our first with the prompting of our brother-in-law whose boss's wife is a travel agent who specializes in cruising. Well, after that first one, we were hooked. Since that first Eastern Caribbean cruise, we have done the Western Caribbean, Hawaii, Southern Caribbean, and Mexico. We just finished booking our sixth cruise. We are going back to the Caribbean, but are hitting a couple of new places. I know that I have said before how much I like to travel. Kristi and I have considered how we can incorporate travel into a post retirement job. We will be doing more traveling than just the cruise. The cruise is just for us this year. We have taken the kids on one cruise because the entire family was going, but we want to wait until the kids are a little more independent before we take them again. We are working on a Route 66 road trip out to the Grand Canyon with them for this summer. I hope you have time to think and plan for some special times that don't have anything to do with school or your work!

Treat Life Like a Golf Scramble - Pick Each Other Up

I like to ski. It has been a good winter for skiing. Unfortunately, it is hard to get to the slopes enough. I have purchased a ski pass for the last several years at Crystal Mountain. My mother-in-law works there, and it is a great place to ski. I just started skiing more seriously about five or six years ago. I have mixed feelings about this time of year. I want to have more opportunity to ski, but I am ready to be able to golf, too. I don't have enough time to do either, but I enjoy them when I can. I used to be very competitive and get upset if I didn't golf well. There is really no score in skiing, but I have advanced my skills so I feel pretty good about that, but golf is a different matter. There is always that score to let you know if you are making progress or not. I never really cared about beating a fellow golfer. For me, golf is an individual sport. I wouldn't mind having a higher score than someone I was playing with as long as my score was as low as I wanted. I used to get mad. I would toss my club and get so upset that the rest of my round would be shot because of one wayward shot that "ruined" my round. Now, I don't get too upset. I am just glad to have the opportunity to slow down, enjoy being outside, and leave everything else behind. The older I get and the less opportunity I have to golf, the more I like to play golf in a "scramble." I can have fun and make good shots, but if I have that wayward shot, I have a team mate to pick me up and make a shot that we can take as a team. The beauty of the "scramble" is that it is generally unlikely that everyone on the team will all have a wayward shot at the same time so collectively the team does better than any individual could. I guess the same could be said for most other things. There are times when we need to pick each other up. We are stronger collectively than we are individually. Encourage and support those around you.

Where Did You Think You Would Be By Now?

I recently sent these thoughts to the high school staff in my building. Though the content is specific to teachers, I think the idea applies to everyone - both those who have created a long personal history and those who are hoping to have many more pages to fill.

When you were 20, where did you think you would be by the age you are now? That may be too difficult to narrow down. For some of us that was quite a while ago. Most of us were in the middle of completing college degrees at age 20. Do you remember when you first thought you wanted to be a teacher? If you can remember back that far, what did you answer when you were asked, "Why do you want to be a teacher?" Would you give the same answer today? I remember a former teacher asking me that question when I told him I was going to be a teacher. I don't remember my specific answer, but I am sure it had to do with helping people and providing students with the skills I developed and the opportunities I had because of my high school experience. I think my answer would be a little deeper now as I take a more global view of things. Did you think, "I want to end up in Shepherd, Michigan for my career in education?" I would guess that most of you didn't have that plan in mind when you set out. Yet, here we are. Think back to all of the students on whom you have had an impact. I hope you can look back on your career so far (for some it is a longer look than others) and have a sense of accomplishment and happiness. I hope you still have the same enthusiasm for education that you did when you first began! It is easy to get mired down in the negative stuff of the job. Remember, the students we currently teach or students we taught and who are now working adults make up the society in which we live. That is an important and difficult task, worthy of honor and respect. I challenge you to look to the greater good and all of the positive aspects of your job - your influence on students, your colleagues/friends, and the history you have created and continue to create for yourself.

We all create a personal history - page by page, day by day. Whether you are a teacher or in any other profession, see the good that you do and continue to create that positive history that makes up who you are.

Anything Worth Getting Just Right Is Worth The Effort

Fudge! That is what I say with a gleam in my eye when ever I get close to Mackinaw City or Mackinaw Island. I always walk by the fudge shops debating on which shop to ultimately settle on for my purchase. If I am on the island, I tend to buy a few 1/4 pound slabs and get one free. At least a couple of those have to be for me. One of them has to be for immediate consumption. I carefully pull out the selected fudge and use the plastic knife they provide to cut off a very well-defined piece of fudge. I just can't hack up good fudge. Well, I have always thought it would be cool to be able to create fudge like they do on the island. I have watched them pour the hot, liquid fudge on the marble table and start to stir and flop the fudge with their long-handled stirrer that looks like a wide putty knife. I have thought I would like to be able to make fudge that way. So, last year I put a marble slab on my Christmas list so I could make Mackinaw Island style fudge. Amazingly, my uncle somehow was able to find a marble slab that I could use at home. It is about 2' X 2'. With a little research on recipes and technique, I took my first crack at making my Mackinaw Island fudge over Christmas break. I bought a 6" putty knife and stirred the fudge into a long log of fudge like they do on the island. I cut it into slabs like they do on the island. I am still doing a bit of experimentation, but I think it turned out pretty well. To get it just right, I will have to continue to work on my technique, experiment with ingredients and flavors, and research more from the experts, which will mean that I will have to make a lot more fudge! Making successful students is a little like making fudge. You have to have to passion for it so you will take the extra effort to make it happen. You have to continue to work on your technique. You have to experiment with what and how you put things together, and you have to continue to research best practices. Some of the ingredients are good by themselves, just like students. But, some are hard to take (unsweetened chocolate or vanilla) by themselves, just like students. Once the unsweetened chocolate and vanilla are added to the sugar, the cream, and the butter, the combination makes a good final product. Anything worth getting just right is worth the effort.