Skretta's Scintillating Salutations

Ski School lessons for Educators

2012-01-03T06:22:00.000-08:00

We drove out to Colorado with the four boys over break and spent a couple days in Keystone. It occurred to me again that skiing holds many life lessons and in particular many metaphors that are applicable to educators. I wanted to share these with you in the foolishly optimistic hope that some good can yet come from my Colorado travails.

I am not a great skier. I’m the kind of guy who considers it a monumental feat to simply avoid the urgent care clinic. I had the ignominious distinction of probably being the only guy on the mountain to be approached not once, twice, or even three times - but on four separate occasions on day one by Keystone ski patrol with the prompt, “Dude! Are you alright? That was a colossal wipeout, bro.” (Actually, the first two referred to me as “bro” and “dude.” The latter two who approached me to help gather my ski apparatus that was scattered over the debris field of my latest wreck referred to me as “Sir” - as in, “Are you okay to get up, sir?” which I took to mean I was aging rapidly during my brief sojourn on the mountain).

Here are some lessons for educators I took from our family outing::

Speed is your friend, until it’s not. Momentum is everything in skiing. You definitely want to go just as fast as your mastery of the mountain permits. However, the slope can sneak up on you with unexpected changes in conditions - suddenly the terrain becomes icy under a veneer of powder and, next thing you know, you have faceplanted in a most humiliating fashion.

Lesson for educators: Curricular pacing is everything. You must find the balance. Seek the balance between a slow pace that simply frustrates learners because it is too plodding and proceeding hurriedly in a way that bewilders and induces fear in the learner, since neither extreme is good. Proceed at a pace that is manageable or you’ll make yourself miserable and end up having to crawl back up the mountain to collect your things!

Stay high side or you will lose momentum. If you ever want to see a frustrated snowboarder, find a fairly flat part of terrain on a ski run and watch them do the hop-along. A snowboard does not glide very well over flat ground, but most runs have a rise near the middle and slope off to the edges. The hop-along is what I call the situation where a boarder has to remove one foot from the board and literally hop along, dragging his board to get to the next descent. The key for a snowboarder is to stay high on the ridge. The better boarders manage to get enough speed going and continue to glide along without sliding over to the margin and losing momentum.

Lesson for educators: Take the high road. Don’t allow digressions to destroy a great run (or a great semester). When the going gets tough, you have a choice. Stay focused and intent on what matters most- the key learning objectives for the day. Don’t drift off to the margins or you’ll find yourself hopping along on one leg, cursing the conditions, and wondering how you got there.

Yield to those in front, but beware of those behind. The Skier’s Responsibility Code requires that you yield to those in front and that you are always aware of skiers and snowboarders in your “periph” as you go down a run. You must also maintain an awareness of obstacles both man-made and natural that are part of the surroundings. To fail to do so jeopardizes your safety and the safety and serenity of others who are out there with you.

Lesson for educators: Teaching requires a vigilant awareness of your surroundings and an almost uncanny knack for sensing what’s happening elsewhere - out there - beyond your immediate visual field. You don’t have to have eyes in the back of your head, but there would be some days where it’d help. Be mindful not just of those students who are “out in front” but also those who are struggling, slipping, and scrambling downhill as you work your way through the term.

Take delight in other peoples’ successes. Sometimes, the student surpasses the teacher. Such a situation should not be cause for petty resentment or adult annoyance. We should take delight in the accomplishments of our students, even when they’re a bit precocious and we’re a bit perturbed.

Two years ago, entering a lift station, Coby knocked me off the chair with his board, the lift chair raked my back, and the lift just kept right on moving. His comment as he soared away from me was, “Well . . . bye, Dad.”

This year Coby was much more proficient in his handling of the board, his lift chair etiquette, and his skillful maneuvering on the slopes. As we exited the Summit Express lift he simply glided away on his board turning his head back just partially to say, “You can go down the run with me, Dad, but seriously: you’ve got to try to keep up.”

A Happy New Year to all and good luck “keeping up” with your students as you conquer learning objectives both Green (“Easy”) and Black (“Difficult”) this semester!

The Best Runs of 2011 - trails, teams, and marathons

2011-12-27T06:28:00.000-08:00

2011 is almost over. Personally, it was a great year for running: no debilitating injuries that kept me from pounding the pavement and I am getting better at staying the course, keeping my commitment to myself to keep moving, and living the discipline of going the distance and trying to log miles to stay marathon-ready. I averaged 40 miles per week over the last year.

So, with the end of another year approaching, here it is, the long-awaited, much-anticipated list of this year's best runs according to my own totally subjective opinion! (If that's not enough of a disclaimer I'll also note that I am most decidedly not an elite runner and I have the privilege of being sponsored by: no one.)

First of all, let's be clear about the criteria. To have the audacity to call these the "Best Runs of 2011" is a bit presumptuous, admittedly. I didn't run every run out there. But of those road races and trail runs I did have the privilege of participating in this past, here's the ones that I found the most memorable:

5. Chevron Houston Marathon: It's not the cool swag, although medals, mugs, and t-shirts make for a pretty sweet set-up for participants. The packet pick-up and pre-race seminars are sweet and the post-run support (including chocolate milk) is great. It also offers a relatively flat course and great crowd support rooting runners of all ages and abilities as we pace through the miles. For me, though, the satisfaction of this run has more to do with getting out of Nebraska in the brutal mid-January cold and going somewhere it's much more likely to be sunny and 70. Results at http://www.chevronhoustonmarathon.com/Marathon/Results.cfm

4. XTerra BOLT Trail Run: A brutal, beautiful, and demanding course that is a complementary event to the XTerra Triathlon occurring the same weekend at Nebraska's Branched Oak Lake park. So while the really crazy-committed athletes do the triathlon, those of us who 'just' run can find satisfaction with this event. The 5 miles will leave even veteran trail runners and cross country harriers spent. You're in thickly wooded trail for about three of the five miles and to call the path rigorous really doesn't do it justice - you'd better keep your head on a swivel or you'll be picking pine needles out of your butt and wondering how you face-planted so fast. No need to 'warm up' - the August humidity and demanding terrain will get you heated up right away. Course map available right here http://www.xterrabolt.com/maps/TrailRunMap.pdf

3. Bohemian Alps 50K Endurance Run: I admit that although I would definitely flag this one as highly memorable, I am ambivalent about ever doing it again. Brutal. But for those who say, "26.2? That just doesn't seem far enough," this run might be for you. Any race that begins with a pledge recitation / waiver of liability wherein the runners confess to their general stupidity and idiotic intent to "do it anyway" is bound to offer its share of challenges. The 2011 32 mile stretch had segments of dirt road that, because of moisture and precipitation basically turned it into a churning mud run that left me utterly exhausted and tested my will to keep going. Anyone naive enough to consider Nebraska "flat" just needs to run the hills outside Brainard for a revelation. The finisher keepsake plaque is cool. The camaraderie on the course is slim. If you are not talking with another runner who happens to be alongside, you are on your own. The run support consists of a couple guys in a pickup truck with a few coolers of supplies - cookies, bananas, water, Gatorade. They'll meet you at the next aid station a few miles down the road. Just keep running. Race info available at http://dalenielsen68626.tripod.com/

2. Lincoln Marathon: Even if it weren't the hometown favorite for hundreds of local Lincoln runners who make the trek religiously every year, this run would be one of the tops. Most participants can attest to the top-quality in-race support from volunteers who staff the aid stations throughout the course. The crowds cheering runners along, especially on stretches down Sheridan Boulevard and along Highway 2, are simply fantastic and provide a huge motivational burst. To give you an idea of how popular this run has deservedly become, registration for the May, 2012 run just opened a few weeks back. The entries are capped at 10,000 and it's nearly full already.

Information and results for the Lincoln National Guard Marathon and Half-Marathon are available at http://www.lincolnrun.org/races/marathon

1. Market To Market Relay: It's about team, it's about unity, it's about the nostalgic thrill revisited of cheering on your teammate as he lifts his knees and pumps his arms, baton in hand, getting ready for the exchange. It's about rooting one another on. This Omaha to Lincoln relay is an absolute blast, and a grueling gut-check as well. It's not the first or second leg that will zap you . . . but by the time that third leg comes up and the combination of dried sweat and post-run stench is threatening to asphyxiate everyone on your team as they ride to the next exchange station in the team Suburban, you're just really, really tired. Our creatively named "2yearsolder" team finished 5th in Open just in front of the Beer View Mirrors.

Results for M2M are available here http://markettomarketrelay.com/

Here's hoping 2012 brings you success in your running and fitness goals! Let me know what your "Top Runs" list would consist of and whether you agree with mine. Happy trails to you -

Comments at Building A Healthier Future Summit

2011-11-30T05:54:00.000-08:00

The conference was held November 29 and 30 in Washington, DC. It was sponsored by the Partnership For A Healthier America and I spoke in the Healthy Schools strand on behalf of the Alliance For A Healthier Generation.

Comments:
I am John Skretta, Norris superintendent. To give you some idea of our context so you know where I'm coming from, we are a district of over 2,000 students in southeast Nebraska just south of our capitol city, Lincoln. We are a consolidated district that draws from numerous surrounding small towns, and we are growing in student enrollment every year. We are a combination rural and suburban district.

Our demographics are that we have 15% free and reduced lunch participation and we have 10% special education. Like a lot of schools, we have seen an increase in those numbers in recent years.

To our district, in the context of our discussion today, one of the most important thing for schools to do is realize that students' health and also the wellbeing of staff members are in fact logical precursors to high academic achievement. These things are not separate from a quality educational experience that assures excellent academic outcomes. They are in fact central tenets of a positive learning experience.

At Norris , we believe sound nutrition, quality health education, routine opportunities for physical activity, and embracing the importance of physical education are all a part of how we do business, they are part of the fabric of our being. We believe affirming that only fosters better success in the rigorous core areas of math, science and English.

We didn't achieve that level of integration and cohesiveness unilaterally, we have only been able to do that because of commitments from partners internal and external, like Shannon Vogler, our Alliance Relationship Manager in Nebraska. You don't achieve anything systemically as a unilateral effort or a top-down dictate. This isn't about compliance or policy dictates, it's about reaching critical mass consensus within a school community to propel positive change forward.

So when we got tired of playing cat and mouse with repeated go-rounds from snack vendors on stocking too many products of minimal nutritional value AKA junk food, we had a parent help guide us in finding great values to purchase our own vending machines. And we use the Alliance Product Calculator to help make some of those product selections that comprise our inventory.

When we needed help to acquire milk machines so that we could offer students healthier beverage alternatives, our friends in the farming community and with Prairieland Dairy stepped up and we sell a machine full of skim and 1% daily as a great student consumption option for kids.

When we needed help with health alignment k-8, we were able to bring out the Alliance's Kathy Wilbur all the way from Maine to help us with the HECAT and now we have a well-articulated health sequences in no small measure because of her content expertise.

When we needed to reseed our cross-country course or get rock on the trail for our Elementary walking path, a Board member who works in construction stepped up to make it possible.

It started all the way at the beginning in the 05-06 school year when the state legislature (in response to federal requirements) dictated that schools adopt policies for student health by the summer of 06. When we adopted our student health policy, we had leadership from within with a school board member whose training and background is as an RN, and we hired a nutritionist from our district and had student and parent volunteers providing sound recommendations. So it had a chance right away to be a dynamic document, not a dead-on-arrival dust-gatherer like so many policies that exist in name and number only.

When we wanted to integrate our School Wellness Council with school improvement, we knew we weren't alone and wouldn't be declared to be inhabiting the lunatic fringe, because we have had partners in the Kearney and Lincoln districts who were already finding correlations between BMI and fitness test results with scores and grades. And we had the courage to push forward because our state Board of Education and our state department of Ed have adopted a state level Coordinated School Health policy. So now we are examining risk and protective factor data along with Fitnessgram results when we are talking about state test results and other achievement indicators.

When we wanted to integrate daily fresh fruit and vegetable snacks in the Elementary, we got tips and strategies from parents who serve as early childhood care providers and preschool educators.

And when we wanted to offer a fun family fitness activity that promoted the crazy concept of mothers and fathers being active together with their children, we worked with Angry Cow Adventures and other local health and fitness vendors like NE Surf Company to sponsor an annual outdoor adventure race at a state park in our district.

We believe our results academically bear out the importance of a balanced curricular approach. We don't relegate any subject area to marginalized status, we value how the holistic educational experience enhances and complements results across the board. We are into curricular integration and we make an earnest commitment to the success of every individual learner on our campus.

We have the highest ACT scores we have had in 5 years with a 23.7 average, we have a 99% graduation rate, and when computing mandatory state rest results across all grades tested- three through eight and eleven, we have among the best cumulative percent proficient scores in reading and math in the state.

We believe schools should embrace this coordinated curricular approach as instrumental, not an optional or peripheral endeavor.

Our mission is clear, and unlike what one might commonly encounter, we consider mission first and we believe ours is memorably succinct, not rhetorically cluttered. We guarantee quality learning experiences so that every individual learner thrives as a productive, lifelong citizen.

If the things we are doing as a school district are contributing factors in a cultural epidemic that results in reduced life expectancies for our students, how can we claim we are fulfilling our mission!? We cannot.

So we are striving to fulfill our mission. Like many Alliance partner schools, we have a long way to go and lots of room for further improvement, but we are committed to this journey and believe that through the power of public and private partnerships, we will continue to succeed and help students flourish.

Why build, why now? The three "N"s rationale for Norris building project

2011-10-13T06:19:00.000-07:00

The Board of Education has determined that a bond issue will be before the Norris district in March, 2012. The plan will call for a new grades 3, 4, 5 elementary school to be located just northwest of the existing middle school.

I have had many people ask me for my opinion about the issue and the timing of the request. It is well known that Norris, just like the vast majority of districts across the state, underwent a budget cut in state aid last spring. While the Nebraska economy has remained relatively strong, we are still emerging from a recession and the economy is still in recovery mode.

With that said, it is actually an ideal time for Norris to move forward with a building project.

The rationale is quite simple. There are three bases for it.

#1: The Need:

Our current Elementary school is at capacity. We were already at 95% capacity when DLR and Olsson Associates completed a site development study on behalf of the district in 2008. We haven't gotten any smaller since then. Our pk-4 Elementary enrollment sits at nearly 800 students! In our desire to keep class sizes manageable, we have this year had to resort to holding one grade level classroom in a pod area. Rubbermaid storage bins used as a makeshift wall do not constitute the sort of classroom environment we really want for our kids. The last time the Board considered a bond issue was in the fall of 2003 for what became our middle school. Our enrollment at that time was under 1700. Today, we have over 2,050 students, nearly 20% growth. Our numbers warrant this project and the time to move forward is now.

#2: The Numbers:

The numbers are very favorable financially. Interest rates are approaching all-time lows and construction firms are aggressively seeking work and delivering projects at or below projected costs for similar work. Through the Construction Manager @ Risk process we will use, the district will know the guaranteed maximum price and have clear oversight and control of the process.

Bonds funds are separate from the general fund of the district. Bonds funds are set aside for clearly stipulated construction purposes. We have bonds retiring from the 2000 Elementary School addition next year and, shortly after that, Qualified Capital Purpose Undertaking Funds bonds retiring from post-tornado facilities improvements. By wrapping the new debt service into the old, there will be no change on the existing bond levy for our constituents. We won't be asking for more from our taxpayers, just that they continue their commitment to meeting the needs of the growing Norris School District. We believe this is the right thing to do and that our public expects us to meet the needs of our students.

We can build a new Elementary and possibly address some other facilities needs in our district and do so without any adverse effect on the existing bond levy. Homeowners continue to pay what they have, and we meet the needs of Norris.

While Norris had a general fund revenue cut in state aid due to the loss of federal recovery dollars, the district has emerged from that well positioned to sustain all programming and quality of operations going forward.

#3: The kNow-How (okay, technically, that is not a third "'N' for Norris" rationale but the 'k' is silent!):

The district enjoys excellent leadership and support. Your trust is placed in capable and experienced hands and the guidance we rely upon comes from the best in the school business. The combined years of experience of our Board of Education, our architectural service provider DLR, and our administrative team have seen districts including Norris through dozens of successful school construction projects. We have adopted a delivery method for the process that will result in an efficient, expedient construction process that will produce a building to meet the needs of our district for many years to come.

Comments to @norris160 teachers on technology integration

2011-09-21T08:34:00.000-07:00

This morning Tech Director Noel Erskine and Network Administrator Jim McConnell hosted an ad hoc committee to engage in strategic planning and professional development preparation for further technology integration. Here were some of the topics, areas of interest, and needs identified:

Topics:

Clickers

Prezi

Blogging with Google sites

Google forms

Google sites

Advanced Google forms with self-grading quizzes

Review game web sites.

Sessions on web resources for specific curricular strands or grade levels

Paperless classroom workflow and setup.

Smartpen (Livescribe)

Technology needs:

More computer availability

More Clickers

One comment I would offer is in follow-up to Rick's comments about the need for more computers, which I think was widely re-affirmed. Dr. Brandt and Shari seemed ecstatic to learn that a cart of netbooks will be rolling their way soon.

This summer we had the opportunity as members of the admin team to meet with Scott McLeod and discuss tech integration at the Administrators' Days conference in Kearney. He indicated it is crucial that a "robust device" - whether a tablet, a smart phone, a laptop - whatever - be "in the hands of every individual learner" in order for seamless tech integration to occur and for educational methodology to move away from a 'stand and deliver' to a more 'learner-centered' mode. I think McLeod's points have a lot of validity. I even think that at some levels and in some content areas, it would be increasingly possible to use technology in lieu of textbooks and to build courses online that do not require textbooks and a lot of hard copy materials (some of Janelle's comments this morning resonated with this theme). I would like to challenge us to consider how we can do that. I don't want discussions around technology to approach it as a discrete topic, one that is separate and distinct from curriculum and instruction. Discussions about technology must also incorporate discussions about how we teach and how we access and deliver valuable content to students.

Thank you for your leadership and your initiative in helping us move forward as a district to keep on the cutting edge technologically. I realize we will always have a push for more resources and that the need stated is a legitimate one. The infrastructure development which occurred this summer with wireless was a huge step forward. We are now at a place where our capacity to integrate classroom-level devices (whether tablets or laptops) is the envy of most districts. We need you to continue to consider how you integrate this amazing capacity and what the needs are for you to do so - both materially and instructionally. Keep communicating that back to us so we can help you on this journey!

[I tweeted several in-meeting comments which you can pick up off my twitter timeline @jskretta - some of the other tweeters from today's meeting include @noelerskine & @jimmcconnell62 & @jillr2 & @mrscoady so please follow us and we'll follow you for continuing #edtech discussion.]

The best advice Baker ever gave me

2011-08-24T18:01:00.000-07:00

Baker kicks it old school

Today is Roy Baker's birthday. Dr. Baker was a great school leader who shepherded the Norris District through unprecedented growth and helped us come roaring back when a tornado decimated our campus. More importantly to me, Roy is a friend and a mentor.

The best advice Baker ever gave me? I'll share it with you:

"I don't care what somebody else says the message is. The only thing that matters is what the message is based upon your actions."

Stay focused on results!

Baker's always done that. He's wired that way. I spoke with him this afternoon to wish him a happy b-day, asked what he was up to. I had heard he'd been doing well in a local golf league paired up with Gary DeBoer. Baker growled, "We actually lost today so we're going to get second."

No prizes for second and "Good is the enemy of great." Keep striving and stay focused on results.

Happy Birthday, Doc.

Really simple advice from the Sup for our new teachers

2011-08-12T04:28:00.000-07:00

When I say it's really simple, what I mean by that is that it's very easy for me to dispense advice. Adhering to it could prove challenging! But here are a few basic lessons to contemplate as you embark upon your teaching career at Norris:

Gratitude is the right attitude. We are privileged to be in education and to have the opportunity to work with young people. It is a wonderfully inspiring life to be an educator. Be thankful you get to live this challenging and rewarding adventure! We all have moments where the gratitude slips and the cynicism spikes, but let's not let those fleeting moments define us.
The compassionate response is usually the correct one. Students will frustrate you. Their behaviors will perplex and annoy you. And some of them, well, you'll find their limit-testing behaviors downright annoying. The punitive reaction, though, will seldom bring about the results you really want. If you're really about promoting positive relationships and building a collaborative learning environment, you'll ask yourself first, "What can I do differently to bring this kid around?" before you resort to punting students out of class, office referrals, or hollow verbal admonitions that just turn students away or against you. Yes, the discipline code and all the rules and regs have their place. But students conduct themselves admirably mostly due to a classroom climate and school culture of mutual respect and caring - not because the language in the student handbook is ironclad.
Don't say "We can't," "I won't," or "That'll never happen" (or any variant thereof) when students initiate ideas with you related to their learning. It is not your job to place obstacles in front of students which deter their innate curiosity or convince them that adults don't listen, don't care, or don't value them as people. Find a way.
Don't allow your instruction to be characterized by a pale, bland uniformity in the name of "consistency." Yes, you have a curriculum - you have essential questions and major objectives and you must dutifully promote student attainment of mastery related to these. There are many paths and myriad road maps to proficiency. Is your classroom going to be a pale monolith of grayish monotony or a multi-colored monument to the innate creativity and intellectual curiosity of your students?
When students initiate ideas with you related to their learning, and your impulse is to say, "That doesn't fit with my lesson plan," your immediate response overriding that impulse should be, "Let's think that over." When it comes to differentiating instruction, you'd better get there - and fast, if you want to keep students engaged and really foster high levels of achievement.
"Let's work together, c'mon, c'mon, let's work together." Remember that old song by Canned Heat? You probably don't. They played at Woodstock. The '69 version. Nevertheless, the song I'm referencing emphasizes the partnership you need to establish with parents. Reach out. Too many young teachers are anxious and insecure about interacting with parents. Get over it. Make the calls. Build the relationships. Connect. Share. Ask for input, and don't be afraid to share your expertise. They're counting on it.
Build an expansive Professional Learning Network and use it. It's never been easier to do so and that means it's never been more unforgivable to live a life of painfully myopic isolation as a teacher. You shouldn't just be reaching across the hallway and down the next wing. You should be reaching across states and nations and around the world to connect with other educators, share your insights, and steal their best ideas to bring them home here. Blog. Tweet. Reach out and greet and meet other educators. Use professional affiliations from PDK to ASCD, but don't for a second limit yourself to the institutionalized
Have fun. At Norris, we don't check our own spirit of intellectual curiosity at the door. A sense of wonderment is appropriate! Go ahead and revel in the awesomeness of the ability of individual learners and classrooms to inspire and amaze you. Share that with your colleagues. You are hereby ordered to inspire others and be inspired by them.
Have a great year. See you in your classrooms and out in the halls, and I look forward to connecting with you out in cyberspace. I post on this blog, my webpage is on the district site, and I tweet @jskretta.

Fitnessgram: A great tech tool for assessing student health & fitness in schools

2011-08-05T19:34:00.000-07:00

For Leadership Day 2011, educational leaders have been invited to blog about whatever we like related to effective school technology leadership: successes, challenges, reflections, needs, wants, resources, ideas, etc. What a cool idea! It's a great invite to push and promote these resources with one another. Info on this is available at @mccleod's "Calling all bloggers!" post at http://bigthink.com/ideas/39450

I'd like to tell you about Fitnessgram and encourage your school to consider adoption of this tech tool. One of the things I am most passionate about as an educator is the connection between health and academic achievement. Ever since I read my Maslow in my early Ed Psych courses as a pre-service teacher, the correlation resonated. I realized there is a profound simplicity and truth in prioritizing health, safety, and belonging needs and that doing so in education is essential if we want students to be able to perform complex cognitive tasks. Simply put, healthy students learn better.

One tech tool for helping bring student health and fitness data into your conversation around the overall quality of your instructional program is Fitnessgram, which provides very basic tests of strength, flexibility, endurance and an assessment of body composition or BMI. The scores are inputted and through the software, reports can be formatted which provide aggregate analysis by grade, gender, and test.

The idea of fitness testing in schools is hardly new and for decades many schools have been doing the Presidential Fitness testing. But the Fitnessgram is more of a criterion-referenced fitness test that places students by age and gender into norming groups that identify whether the individual assessed is in the HFZ or "Healthy Fit Zone." We have had Fitnessgram for a couple years now at Norris and test at all levels - elementary, middle, and high school. The students enjoy the tests because (a) they are working for a target range, not a pass/fail like the Presidential Test (b) they get meaningful results and are provided individually tailored reports in a timely manner after completing the tests (c) they can track their own progress over time.

Historically, Physical Education curriculum has been characterized by a competitive team sports dynamic that does not allow individual students to flourish in aspiring toward and attaining meaningful individual fitness goals. The Fitnessgram assessment helps schools make a shift to providing students with important individual health data that instills a commitment and interest in fitness for a lifetime, to attain personally meaningful health goals.

In addition to the individual reports, the Fitnessgram aggregate reports can show whether there are significant health disparities in the areas assessed across grade levels within your system. This can help a district target its interventions and tailor instruction to best meet the needs of students.

We have a small network version for our unified campus district, and we will probably be adopting the web-based version in the future. It was not a big investment and has helped bring our whole PE team into a data driven culture in our district. Fitnessgram is like any tech tool - it is not perfect. Importing rosters from our student information system hasn't been without glitches and there's no getting away from some data entry when it comes to recording scores on the rosters, but those have been pretty small sacrifices for the results. Happy #leadershipday11 !

10 Web Resources to Galvanize Your School’s Commitment to Coordinated School Health

2011-08-02T20:47:00.000-07:00

There are many ways and many resources, but here are some external resources I’ve found helpful and hope you do, too:

http://www.education.ne.gov/HEALTH/PDFs/CSHPolicy3-1-10.pdf

The Nebraska statewide Coordinated School Health Policy, adopted March, 2010

http://healthylincoln.org/#resources.html

Partnership For A Healthy Lincoln offers resources including national and local trend data on the obesity epidemic.

http://www.letsmove.gov/schools

Action steps from the Let’s Move! campaign to assist schools.

http://sss.mpls.k12.mn.us/sites/6c9fd336-96c5-451c-a8a6-b6f00373668d/uploads/appendixF_celebrations_alternatives.pdf

Healthy alternatives to the traditional ‘junk food as reward’ classroom celebrations offered by the CT Department of Education.

http://www.ahealthieramerica.org/chefs-move-to-schools.html

Information from the Partnership for a Healthier America about the Chefs Move! To Schools campaign to place visiting chefs in schools to help educate children about healthy eating.

http://www.healthiergeneration.org/uploadedFiles/About_The_Alliance/SBG%20FINAL%20PROGRESS%20REPORT%20(March%202010).pdf

Read about the impact the Alliance is having on beverages sold in schools by getting full calorie sodas out of schools.

http://www.education.ne.gov/HIV/2010_YRBS-Results/results.htm

2010 Youth Risk Behavior Survey results; tables, graphs, and trends analysis.

http://www.thrivingbrain.com/brain_facts/exercise.htm

Empirically validated findings demonstrating the connection between exercise and intellectual performance, displayed in a user-friendly table with source reference noted.

http://www.aahperd.org/whatwedo/advocacy/

American Alliance for Health, PE, Recreation and Dance legislative and policy advocacy information. Get connected to the key issues at state and local levels.

http://www.fitness.gov/

President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition: includes general nutrition information, fit facts, Shape of the Nation, and Physical Activity and Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

Cherish our freedom to learn

2011-07-04T06:06:00.000-07:00

Happy Fourth of July!

Though it is still not something we do frequently enough, it is common on Independence Day to recognize the commitments of those who serve in our Armed Forces to protect the freedoms we hold so dearly. That is an appropriate gesture, and one of the things our Norris school community is very proud of are the many students who have made the choice to serve our country as soldiers. We must also recognize that numerous Norris families have endured great hardships over the last several years as parents of our students have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. The resilience and cohesiveness of these families is inspiring, and we should all continue to do our part to encircle those affected by deployments in the broader family of our district and reach out to them.

Another facet of freedom that is appropriate to contemplate on the July 4 holiday is the impact teachers have on helping a democracy flourish. Unless we are free to learn, to inquire, to challenge one another, to ask difficult questions, and to pursue our thinking in creative and innovative ways, our democracy will not flourish. Teachers are essential in perpetuating democracy and public schools need to be places where teachers are asking essential questions about meaningful content to guide students toward greater levels of autonomy and higher levels of critical thought. Through the relationships our teachers establish with individual learners, trust is built. Within the bonds of trust, a learner can take leaps of faith and risk 'not-knowing' to overcome ignorance and strive towards knowledge and awareness. That nurturing process helps instill democratic ideals in young people.

These aren't just lofty abstractions or noble ideals. If you want to earn, you've got to learn. Study after study notes that future earning potential is highly correlated educational attainment. Our teachers do a great job preparing Norris students for post-secondary life - whether at two or four-year colleges, the workforce or the military. With the essential role teachers serve in empowering young minds, it is disheartening to read about some of the negative rhetoric that has been spewed from politicians during the recession who want to scapegoat education for the fiscal woes of a nation. Public education is a great value for the dollar, and the vast majority of teachers I know are incredibly dedicated, caring people who are motivated not by the myth of 'summers off' but by the highest ideals of fostering student learning and helping others attain their life dreams.

At Norris, we have been giving a lot of thought to how we can use technology to empower learners. We took an innovative role as a district in adopting Open Office and instituting Google Apps, encouraging student e-mail and document sharing for collaboration last year. Our next step is that we have been doing summer infrastructure work on the wireless that will allow us to empower learners to make Norris a BYOD "Bring Your Own Device" school where the connection is up, on, and open all the time. It will depend on the ingenuity and intelligence of teachers and students to take advantage of a learning environment that is more powerfully connected than any we have had before - at any time in our district's short history and at any time in the history of public education. Capacity is not an issue. In addition to the open wi-fi, we will be rolling out a limited implementation of iPads and Chrome notebooks. The capability will be there to connect. So let's empower one another to use this freedom to better ourselves, learn more, and aspire towards an even greater future in this amazing democracy.

And on this Fourth of July, if you love learning, enjoy reading, dared to question, and weren't afraid to wish, to dream, and to inquire, you probably have a teacher to thank for that. So thank them for helping instill democratic values in you as a learner and thank your community for supporting public education.

What Gil Scott-Heron meant to me

2011-05-29T12:30:00.000-07:00

I was saddened to learn of the recent passing of poet and spoken-word artist Gil Scott-Heron. What Gil Scott-Heron's amazing poetry meant to me was that poems could inspire peoples' social consciousness and raise their awareness. And that they could do so in a way that was really cool! I could respond aesthetically and emotionally - and even politically - to the words of an African American voice whose life and life experiences were very different from my own. I am someone who grew up in a fairly homogeneous small-town rural culture in southeast Iowa and then Nebraska. Reading Gil Scott-Heron's poetry and listening to his rhymes made me stretch outside the boundaries of that culture to realize bigger connections in the social fabric of American life.

With his passing, many of the most influential voices of hip hop and rap have come forward to celebrate Scott-Heron's legacy as they themselves (artists ranging from Chuck D to Eminem) see their art as appreciating and perpetuating his legacy. My own experience as a reader of his amazing works came about because of my teacher Joyce Joyce, who was a fantastic and thought-provoking prof I studied under at UNL at the time. I became someone who enjoyed listening to his albums, and that in turn really helped instill in me a personal appreciation of and understanding of the importance of multicultural literature and the prominent role it should have in schools. That appreciation was developed as an undergraduate English student who was studying literature at a time when it was still very common to experience academic reading as mostly 'canonical' literature, which is to say, mostly lit written by DWMs or Dead White Males. Without saying anything to denigrate the voices and the amazing literary accomplishments of those authors, Gil Scott-Heron was a prominent voice in late 20th Century American literature because he was a voice of social consciousness: hip, self-aware, humorous, politically provocative, and rhythmic. That rhythmic sensibility helped me to see the connection between his writings and the Beat poets, whom I already loved - guys like Ginsberg and Kerouac - who were definitely inspired by jazz artists like Miles Davis and John Coletrane - and the later hip-hop artists who were part of my pop culture lexicon: from LL Cool J to Public Enemy.

I would not have had the opportunity to make those important connections if a teacher would not have cared enough and risked enough to step outside the predictable boundaries of academic discourse to share Gil Scott-Heron with a lot of students whose reading background was much like my own. I thank Dr. Joyce Joyce for the inspiration and am quite confident she continues to inspire students as a prof at Temple (http://www.temple.edu/english/people/faculty/joyce.html). I am grateful she introduced me to Gil Scott-Heron and a lot of other amazing African American authors and poets whose works I will continue to appreciate and enjoy.

Gorging on test scores & starving for meaningful health & fitness data

2011-05-26T15:06:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I attended the NE Medical Association's Childhood Health / Obesity policy group meeting. The group is comprised of various public health advocates - doctors, registered dietitians, nutritionists, and educators, among others - who are working together to propose helpful solutions and policy-level impact in combating obesity. Childhood obesity has reached epidemic proportions and the CDC has labeled it accordingly.

The obesity epidemic is real locally, too, and thousands of Nebraskans are affected by it. Our district is similar to most across the state and we have between 20 & 30% of our students per grade level who are highly overweight or obese. The health consequences are dire and schools do have a role in this. We have students with us for a good portion of the day during the school year and for many kids, a majority of calories consumed on those days are at school. Schools need to promote physical activity for a lifetime and nutrition literacy. Schools don't need to be dictatorial and Machiavellian about instituting 'regime change' that takes the element of choice out of classrooms and lunchrooms, but when it comes to student diets, schools need to help encourage the consumption of healthy foods and minimize the frequency and prevalence of the bad stuff. By 'bad stuff' I just mean foods of minimal nutritional value - candy and pop, for starters.

It occurred to me that one of the things schools should be doing is reporting out on their vending product choices, publishing their a la carte lunch items, and disclosing aggregate (group only) BMI data to show what their trendline (waistline trendline!) analysis looks like. Why? Because schools that are being up front about their aggregate BMI results and sharing fitness testing results will be more likely to be positioned to share why physical activity and health education are priorities in their district. We've already got the evidence that shows the correlation between fitness and academic achievement. Healthy students are more learning-ready and are more likely to achieve higher learner outcomes. It's obvious to parents but what is less obvious is how sedentary the learning experience remains for many students.

Our mission statement talks about our commitment to helping each individual learner "thrive." In order to do that, we have an obligation to take a balanced curricular approach. We need to carefully integrate routine physical activity opportunities and promote healthy student nutrition choices throughout the day. It's not that tough to do - it doesn't require a lot of resources schools don't already have - and it's the right thing to do. We just need to provide the support for everyone doing it, consistently, through quality professional development.

One of the things the group talked about is that, to borrow the Druckerian truism, "What gets measured gets done." Schools are now recording BMI data and many districts, like ours, have instituted fitness testing using the Fitnessgram. We are going to publicize our fitness testing group results - grade level group summaries. We can do this for tests of strength, flexibility, and endurance. I think our parents are every bit as concerned about the health of their students and what schools are doing to promote healthy, learning-ready students, as they are in seeing how their kids are reading and performing in mathematics.

By the way, while I was there this afternoon I got to meet one of my heroes, Dr. Cristina Fernandez. She does amazing work providing interventions and education for children and families that are afflicted with childhood obesity and the attendant health problems. Her blogs provide great outreach and practical advice about this profoundly important public health issue. Check her posts out at http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/cfernandez/ and you'll see what I mean.

Testimony to NE Legislature in support of Children's Health Advisory Committee LB125

2011-02-10T17:05:00.000-08:00

[I testified at Legislative hearing 2-10-11 in favor of the bill because I believe it would further Coordinated School Health. NDE, NCSA, School Boards' Association were neutral. Dr. Karla Lester of Teach A Kid To Fish, Dr. Bob Rauner, and others also testified in support, representing NE Dietitians and American Heart Association and others. Text of my testimony today.]

Good afternoon, Senators, distinguished committee members, my name is John Skretta and that is spelled J-O-H-N S-K-R-E-T-T-A. I am testifying in support of LB 125. I am a doctor but in the interest of total disclosure, I confess I am not a medical doctor but merely a doc of Education so I'll leave the dispensing of actual medical advice to Rauner and Lester and those inescapable pharmaceutical ads on TV!

I am the Superintendent of the Norris School District . As an administrator at Norris, I have had the privilege to promote our schools’ attempts to deliberately integrate physical activity during the student day, increase the nutritional value of our food service program, institute fitness testing at all levels in our Physical Education program, and monitor Body Mass Index grade level data. We report this information to our Board and we share information about these initiatives to our district through newsletters and wellness council meetings. We support our staff through providing professional development opportunities in these areas.

We intend to keep moving forward. My belief is that the legislation in front of you today provides desperately needed positive mojo for student health. To put it another way, we need LB125 to increase the muscle mass behind the healthy schools movement and help all schools in NE including ours to do the heavy lifting required to really institute best practices.

I speak to you today as a school administrator and parent. I’ve got 2,050 kids in my charge and four boys of my own in that mix. We are bombarded with messages about food that is cheap, accessible, and readily available but without a sound nutrition education curriculum that is integrated in schools we have risked becoming a nation of junk food junkies. By the way, have you tried the extreme cheddar burst Cheetos twists? Delicious!

We have achieved a higher standard of living than any nation at any time in history, yet our children’s life expectancies are for the first time lower than those of the previous generation because of decreases in physical activity and increases in sedentary screen time. We need to make sure we are being prudent in our approach in schools to help students think and act critically to take charge of their own healthy lifestyles.

LB 125 is good legislation. It addresses a significant social need and some might fairly say (and the CDC has declared it thus) a public health epidemic, and it does so through a collaborative, consensus-building manner by instituting a committee that is process driven and results-oriented.

Making this legislation a priority and emphasizing the importance of healthy school environments through a coordinated school health approach is not frivolous. It is not spendy. It is not a ‘deterrent’ from what is important and essential. Until student’s health needs are met and schools work with communities and we institute statewide reform to address this, we are not going to see the student learning out comes we all desire.

Key considerations in support of LB 125:

Extends and allows us to actualize the intent of the Student Health mandate. The legislature mandated student health policies. Now is the time to help us move from policy adoption to practical implementation by the work of the proposed advisory committee.
Measurable results. Are we about measurability and performance, or not? We broadcast test scores in the cores, we demand fiscal transparency from schools, we examine every demographic facet. Yet when it comes to a basic Student Health Index and profoundly important data like BMI, we are systematically choosing to ignore it. In doing that, we risk telling kids and communities: health doesn’t matter.
Real health care reform. Talk to anyone in insurance. The best cure is prevention. You want to drive costs down for the Medicare reimbursements our state cannot afford to sustain? Prevention. It starts with empowering kids with good information and building a statewide approach through the advisory committee.
Accountability. We are living in an era of unprecedented focus on results. You’ve already made us responsible and accountable for everything from anti-date-rape curriculum to anti-bullying to a springtime testing extravaganza. Hold us accountable for doing our part and for partnering up with health care professionals to promote healthy school environments. There is nothing overbearing in that. It’s basic and attainable, with your support.

Thank you.

Techno-Poppin': From Droppin' Office To Cloud Floating

2011-01-21T14:22:00.000-08:00

We have made some bold moves with Technology recently in the Norris School district and I would anticipate a few more are coming. I commend Noel Erskine, Tech Director, and Jim McConnell, Network Administrator, in this process. What we are demonstrating in this process is a phenomenon one Norris Board member has described as being "on the bleeding edge." The point is that in times of fiscal constraints and when resources are slim, it is important to take an innovative approach and figure out where resources can be conserved to maintain an innovative edge while providing comparable utility and functionality with technology - and other resources, too. Managing costs does not mean minimizing results. We have thought differently and innovated to provide a more prosperous tech environment for students and staff while actually saving resources.

We took an underutilized space in our district and converted it to a student lab. The underutilized space? The Norris Board room. We converted that to a testing lab and we are now having students in there regularly and routinely using a room that used to sit unoccupied most hours, most days, week in and week out. We are getting a better ROI out of that now. We were able to use some Special Education ARRA money to do that. Our Board benefits through being able to use the space monthly for Board meetings that now occur via the nasbonline.org e-meetings site. Our students benefit by having another lab space to further their computer-assisted learning.
We dumped Outlook and public folders earlier this year and officially made the transition January 1 ("Your Outlook account no longer works people - to the Cloud!") to G-mail. G-mail with the Chrome browser and you're set. It's amazing how great it is having the exact same interface and e-mail wherever you've got internet access. G-Mail on Chrome flies. On top of that, the other apps such as Google Docs have been so great to integrate our projects. There is more shared doc development and authentic collaboration than we've ever seen occurring, both among colleagues on the faculty and admin and among our students.
We formally announced this week that we are dumping Microsoft Office and embracing Open Office. It's a move in part predicated on finance and in part based on risk/reward. Low risk, high reward in conserving dollars that can be repurposed for other things. The move has not been without some reluctance among those who have grown accustomed to the ease and elegance of the Cadillac that is the Office Suite. However, we approached this the right way and I know the decision is fundamentally sound: we had pilot groups including teachers and our entire admin team on this for weeks immersing themselves in it and every application of it before we moved to roll out. In light of a possible >$1 million reduction in state aid, a savings of 20K or more in annual licensing fees is not insignificant. We have already been receiving positive feedback from staff on this, just a few days in. Schools have limited means to conserve resources operationally; most school costs are tied up in personnel. Moves like this that offer us an open source program that looks, feels, and functions similarly and is user friendly are going to be enacted in the interest of saving money while maintaining the service. We don't sacrifice anything, we just have to make the change.

I am proud of our district for embracing these tech-oriented changes. It's been like anything else: some people are innovators, constantly looking for a means to refresh and reinvent themselves, always examining purpose and striving to get better. Some are early adopters who are opportunists seeking better results. And some people are going to exhibit generally good followership and say "Alright, you gave me the rationale, you described what and why we're doing this, let's march forward together." And, yes, then there is always that slim percentage organizationally who are disengaged or just entrenched in their resistance to change. At Norris, we are going to be forward thinking, fast to innovate and quick to adapt, while maintaining strong, sustained support for staff and excellent resources for kids to enhance their learning.

Stay tuned, because I believe we're just getting started. It seems to some of us that the world of textbook adoption has become an anachronism in today's environment of personal digital devices. Why buy hard copies that are immediately several editions out of date when a tablet or a hand-held or even a desktop workstation can connect a learner to the same knowledge base, constantly refined and reformed by emerging research?

Thanksgiving note to Norris 2010

2010-11-25T14:37:00.000-08:00

We at Norris School District SD#160 have many blessings for which to be thankful and today is certainly an appropriate occasion to recognize some of these gifts. While we enjoy time with our families and friends at home, at church, and of course in the Black Friday shopping mall mayhem this weekend, I wanted to pause momentarily to consider some of what I am grateful for here at Norris and share that. Here's a short, far from exhaustive list:

*I am thankful we have an administrative team that sets high expectations for all because they believe that we must always strive to get a little better no matter what our previous accomplishments. That belief we are accountable to each other for perpetual self-improvement is a pretty powerful motivator.

*I am thankful we have such a dedicated support staff that takes care of so many things behind the scenes that the rest of us have come to take much of what they do for granted. From shimmering waxed tile floors and vacuumed carpets to a fleet of buses that keeps running and drivers who get the kids there safe and on time, to a food service staff that manages to efficiently provide healthful fare to the >70% of our students who participate in the food service program every day to technology that works so consistently we are stunned if the network’s down (even for a few minutes) – what a great job these people do for us.

*I am thankful we have we have a community that is deeply supportive of its school district and has committed the resources to demonstrate that support in so many ways, from bond issues passed to Foundation gifts for scholarships to parent volunteers serving as guest readers in our classrooms.

*I am thankful that we have a school board motivated by the right things- children and their achievement- and that they know the importance of their role as stewards of the district and ambassadors for Norris and they embrace those roles.

*I am thankful we have dedicated and caring teachers who strive to provide the kind of classroom environment where parents are thrilled to have their children learning important lessons from you every day- academic and life lessons, both. The quality of faculty here is indisputably excellent.

*I am thankful for the paraprofessionals who provide the instructional support that helps teachers teach more effectively and helps so many students move from marginal to proficient, and proficient to exemplary.

*I am thankful we have secretaries in each office who are the front line in all our interactions with the public. Secretaries who are courteous, professional, polite and just the right degree of pushy – err, sorry, I mean assertive when it is necessary to get the job done for Norris.

*I am thankful for the trust we have and the responsibility that comes with it: Educators enjoy great trust from their communities – survey after survey has found that to be a truism, and that is certainly the case here at Norris. We at Norris get to uphold traditional values of hard work and fairness while we push ourselves to also be one of the most progressive districts in the state to ensure our future grads have a solid foundation and excellent preparation, both.

Like I said, this is hardly a comprehensive list, but it's a pretty good start. I hope you too find time this holiday to consider some of the things to be thankful for here at Norris that might make your mental list, as well as thoughts of gratitude you have in the other important areas of your life. Thanks for everything you do and have a great holiday weekend.

Comments at Foundation Banquet: SCC Learn To Dream & FFA Farm Project

2010-11-20T13:59:00.000-08:00

[Speech from Norris Foundation & Alumni annual banquet held @ Yankee Hill Country Club in Lincoln the evening of Friday, November 19th, 2010]

Good evening, I have a special announcement to begin with tonight, that is that I want to point out one of our very special guests here - I noticed retired Middle School principal Barry Stark is here tonight. Bar-Meister, where are you? Yeah, there he is...hey, Barry, Mary Jo Rupert, current Middle School Principal could not be here tonight. That's because she's supervising the 7th and 8th grade dance - I am sure she would love some supervision assistance if you want to just rush right over there afterward, I know she'd appreciate it!

[Barry - interjected: "Johnny, I can't rush anywhere anymore!"]

Well, I am here tonight as your Superintendent and I have the opportunity to follow Lenny Vermaas, who pointed out that Teammates is a way to give back that costs nothing. Now you know, as soon as you see a Superintendent, I'm going to be asking for more than that! Some of you are thinking the instant you see a superintendent, "Tax and spend, what's he gonna ask for now!?" So I'll tell you that what I'd like to ask for: I'm going to ask for each of you individually to consider donating $1,200 to the Foundation to send a Norris kid to college for a year, because that's what it takes to send a student to the SCC Learn To Dream program and we have a great model before us tonight in the FFA Farm Project of a group that's doing that. That's what I want to talk with you about.

The Norris FFA Boosters farm project is a partnership agreement between the FFA Boosters composed of FFA parents and Norris FFA Alum and the Norris School District. The students of the Norris district are the direct beneficiaries of this partnership.

Through this unique partnership agreement, the land to the west is farmed by the FFA boosters as a lease agreement that pays the whopping sum of $1 to the district. That’s really all we want- because for the district to receive more, that rent just comes in as an accountable receipt and our state aid is adjusted downward that much more. So the revenue cannot directly assist the district. Instead, what happens – and this is the first year we’ve done this and the harvest was successful, the FFA Boosters farm committee commits a portion of proceeds totaling $110 per acre back to the Norris Foundation. Folks, that is an amazing annual commitment of $11,100 to the Foundation to support the SCC Learn To Dream program.

The SCC Learn to Dream program functions through the Foundation. Through Learn To Dream, we will be able to send students to college who otherwise could not afford the tuition. For students graduating from Norris who are free/reduced lunch eligible, and that's the federal marker for poverty status... SCC waives half their tuition and the Foundation –through the contribution of the FFA Farm project – will pay for the other half. That's amazing. These are students who otherwise would not be able to afford college or would have to take out a bunch of loans to do it.

Each student per year requires a Foundation commitment of about $1,200. We need your commitment to make that commitment back to needy Norris grads even bigger. Think about sponsoring a Learn To Dream scholar and the impact you could have.

I see the FFA Farm project and its work with the Foundation as a model for other districts across the state and as a positive example for all of us here tonight and everyone in the Norris District of giving back to the school and community through servant leadership. The plan was created through the ingenuity of people like Roy Baker, my predecessor and one of tonight’s honorees, and the innovative thinking and planning of the FFA folks and of course lawyers and accountants.

I want to recognize the members of the FFA Boosters Farm Committee who are here tonight and thank them, if each of you could stand up as I introduce you and remain standing, the audience here tonight needs to give you a huge round of applause:

They are: Merlyn Docter and his wife Julie. Clayton Doeschot and his wife Stephanie. Dan Rice and his wife Brenda. Ed Woeppel and his wife Lisa.

Thank them for their hard work,bountiful harvest, and example of giving for all of us to emulate! Way to go!

How much money will be there for state aid to schools, anyway?

2010-11-18T04:28:00.000-08:00

I am at the Nebraska School Boards conference in Papillion. Yesterday were the pre-conference workshops and the regular sessions run today and conclude with a Friday luncheon. Yesterday afternoon I attended the NE School Business Officials meeting. The meeting was attended by about 50 school finance leaders (Superintendents, Assistant Superintendents, Business Managers, etc.) from across the state.

One factor that was discussed was the uncertainty around how much money is actually available for state aid. Amazingly, it doesn't appear that anyone knows. Even Dr. Dulaney, who is one of the most knowledgeable and informed in the state about these matters said, "Pick a number, you might be as accurate as one I'd come up with or what the Revenue Forecasting Board just predicted." One state department official, acknowledging the speculative nature of budget forecasting and guesstimating dollars available for state aid, said "I work with it every day and I'm not sure I can even explain it."

One number that has been floated quite a bit is $810 million; that the total money allotted to schools will be that amount. However, now there is the latest wave of stimulus money, $58.9 million in "EduJobs" or Saving Teacher Jobs recovery money. It is unclear whether the nearly $59 million is going to be on top of the 810 million or if the $810 million will be reduced by $59 million. I don't know how much is in your checking account, but in my little personal finance microcosm, I think there's a big difference between $869 million and $810 million.

The Edu-Jobs money is actually going to be allocated to schools in the spring of 2011 but the intent of the legislature is that the schools carry that money over for 2011-12 because it will be basically considered stabilization money for part of the state aid to schools in 2011-12.

So, what would it take to fully fund state aid? One of the numbers I heard yesterday was that we had $950 million in state aid total for 2010-11. So if we run with $810 million that's about between an 8 & 9 percent reduction from this year to next. However, the projected needs following the statutory formula (and apparently what the Revenue Forecasting Board based their projections on) would be 1 billion dollars for state aid in11-12 and 1.1 billion for 12-13. To quote one of the meeting participants, "That ain't gonna happen." The state does not have a billion to spend on schools' state aid; to the contrary, the state may have a projected needs versus revenue available shortfall of 890 million to a cool billion. There will be some reduction in state aid, it's just not clear how much. The game schools get into is that there are so many facets to the state aid formula that fluctuations occur yearly anyway - and even in a year of cuts, some schools may not be fazed much while others get dismembered by the vagaries of the formula.

What will the legislature do about it? Here's what the speculation was yesterday about legislative fixes for state aid shortfalls:
1) Increase the expected local effort rate. (That means shifting the burden more to local taxpayers and telling districts they have to be taxing at a higher rate in order to qualify for state aid: The current lowest legal limit is .95 cents; they would raise it from that to compel districts that are lower to either surrender state aid entirely or generate more revenue locally through property taxes).
2) Zero out basic averaging adjustment for allowable growth rate. Reduce or don't allow any additional aid for student growth to districts.
3) Expand the comparability array from 5 schools above and 5 schools below (by student enrollment) to include 10 above and 10 below (by student enrollment); there is an averaging adjustment that occurs based on the array. The point of this is to level out the wild swings that sometimes occur in state aid year to year now for schools that have outliers in their comparability group. It would conceivably be more equitable in dispersing the pain more evenly, but it's not really a revenue fix.

There are no easy answers and the legislature has their work cut out for them. Some state aid fixes would be more palatable to Norris than others; I'm sure most districts would say the same.

An ugly state aid timeline is projected for NE Schools

2010-11-18T03:53:00.000-08:00

I am at the Nebraska School Boards conference in Papillion. The place is crawling with Superintendents, district administrators, and school board members from across the state. Yesterday were the pre-conference workshops and the regular sessions run today and conclude with a Friday luncheon. Yesterday afternoon I attended the NE School Business Officials meeting. Speakers included Russ Inbody with the NE Department of Education's School Finance office and Michael Dulaney, the Executive Director of the NE Council of School Administrators.

These guys and the other school finance folks who spoke were eloquent and informed, but it was like a three hour Debby Downer monologue. Here's one factor to worry about:

Timeline: The timeline on state aid is not going to work out well for school districts for budgetary planning purposes. By law, schools have to inform teachers of their employment status for the next year by April 15th. Though the target date for getting a certified state aid number from the state for 2011-12 will be April 1st, there was widespread acknowledgment at yesterday's meeting that this is wishful thinking and April 1 is going to come and go, as will April 15th, without schools knowing what they are going to receive in state aid for the 2011-12 school year. The problem with this is that the vast majority of a school's expenditures are tied up in personnel, and in particular certificated personnel, so if a district has to make reductions beyond what attrition might cover, then they have to go through a RIF (Reduction In Force) process and they have to enact that and work through notifications, procedures, and due process steps within that timeline. It puts districts in a bad place because you either gamble that it's not going to be that bad, and you could end up with insufficient funds on hand to sustain your current personnel, or you do what some districts have done in the past which is to issue a mass RIF and that is very destructive to morale and leaves everyone wondering whether their job status is secure. The problem is that a school district is supposed to make a promise to its employees by April 15th but for many districts, like Norris, half of our budget is state aid and won't be known by that date. Tough situation.

Comments at Press Conference for Hickman Regional Recreational & Event Complex

2010-10-27T12:02:00.000-07:00

[I was invited to speak as a district representative at the press conference unveiling the JEO-developed Master Plan for a Hickman regional rec and event complex. The complex is slated to include development of a drive-in movie theater complex, baseball diamonds, a skate park, picnic shelters, and a splash park.]

DATE: October 27, 2010

This is a neat day for Hickman and as Superintendent of the Norris District, it is great to have the opportunity for our district to have been invited to have a voice in the planning and development process. Our district of course is a direct beneficiary of the growth of the Hickman community; for as Hickman grows, the Norris population continues to grow. One of the key words in our district mission statement is “thrive” – and this rec and event complex is a means by which Hickman citizens and residents of the entire Norris district and surrounding areas can “thrive” through active and healthy lifestyles. We have emphasized families being active together and the importance of physical activity in a lifestyle that promotes academic achievement for kids. This community project will enhance existing trails networks and provide wonderful opportunities for families to flourish in this area.

As a district, we have already used the existing Hickman baseball diamond and tennis court and appreciate having the opportunity to do so. Having adopted these sports as official programs several years ago, we have benefited from that partnership with Trent and the Hickman Parks team. My observation is the intensiveness of use for ballfields and playing surfaces will only go up, because with the formal school adoption of program you tend to see increased participation and enthusiasm around those activities for youth development. We see the Hickman Regional Rec & Event Center Complex as a means of fostering growth because it will be that multi-stop, multi-sport destination that truly offers something for everyone. In fact, in the interest of full disclosure, I must confess that I am not merely a school administrator but also the father of four active young boys ages 13 to 6 and they happen to either be baseball zealots or skateboarding junkies, so you can imagine their enthusiasm for seeing this project come to fruition, an enthusiasm many in this room and throughout the local area share.

We have had district personnel and board members who have served in an informal consultative role in this process. My predecessor Roy Baker, myself as our current sup, Greg Hardin our Athletic Director and Jim Craig as a Board member and trails advocate who is also an adventure racing enthusiast. We express our gratitude to the Hickman City office for involving us.

As a final and important point of clarification, the Norris District is not in any way a fiscal partner in the Hickman recreation and event complex development. Please note: No District resources or tax dollars will be allotted for this purpose! Furthermore, the Norris District is fortunate to have its own long-standing (since 1988) Educational Foundation and I’m always happy to accept donations for post-secondary scholarships and other support the Norris Foundation provides the students of our district. Thank you.

Senator Adams Speaks & You'd Better Believe I Was Listening!

2010-09-09T16:46:00.001-07:00

All right, Senator Adams, a longtime York educator and chair of the unicameral Education Committee, did not so much speak today as he gesticulated emphatically, hammering his point home about how those of us in the schooling business need to be especially mindful of the fact that 'The Cliff Effect' is coming. He spoke to Superintendents today at ESU 6 in Milford.

For the uninitiated, the Cliff Effect is the appropriately ominous phrase for what happens in state aid to education in Nebraska (and elsewhere) when the federal stimulus dollars have disappeared and the state lacks the revenue to replace those lost dollars back to schools. It's coming - in fact, it's just around the corner.

It's not actually true that all the stimulus money is gone next year. The feds passed another multi-million dollar package on the EduJobs bill that was designed to save teacher jobs. That money will come to NE in the form of another $58 million. Sadly, 58 million sounds like a lot of dinero but in the scope of a 660 mill to one billion dollar shortfall in state tax revenues, it's really more like a band-aid on a massive hemorrhage. On top of that, the state has already made it clear to us that whatever we see in this will just be considered part of our state aid for 2011-12. EduJobs money is not 'extra' dollars for districts.

Adams told us that the Education Committee has three aims in this session: continue to make state aid work within the equalization formula, get to the target # of dollars available for state aid (he declined to say what he thought that would be), and "do it fairly." In this case, "fairly" is a relative term - it has nasty connotations because it is not going to be "fair" as in "everybody gets their share" but as in "everybody gets to taste the pain."

At Norris, we have $990,000 or over 14% of our current state aid through ARRA stimulus dollars this year. That is gone next year. On top of that, you factor in ARRA SPED dollars (IDEA) outside of that, and you are talking about 20% of our state aid that is tied up in federal stimulus money. Taking that away with no replacement revenue and you are talking about the "cliff" because it's going to be steep, and it's going to be hard.

Senator Adams' point was hard to argue. You can't make something out of nothing. NE will not be able to fund state aid at the full levels for the next biennium due to the negative impact of the recession on state tax proceeds. He told superintendents gathered today, "There is going to be a reduction in state aid." He said it twice, then three times for emphasis.

I commend Senator Adams for his candor. As he said, "I want to be a friend to k-12 education," but other areas like Corrections, State Patrol, Department of Roads, courts - all must be paid for through state tax dollars. It's slim times we're facing.

At Norris, we will try to conserve costs this year in order to enhance cash reserve status for next year and better weather the shortfall. Unfortunately, that may not be enough. There may be drastic cuts looming in our future, but if we are facing that scenario, many other districts in our state will also be facing that grim possibility. Let me help you through a little simple math to understand. With 856 million in valuation, we kick about 85K into our General Fund for each penny we move up on the levy. Running all the way from 95 to 99 improves our position relative to next year while allowing us to absorb the costs that predictably increase each year (insurance, salary schedule movement, additional $ to the teacher base). But you can take 85K X 10 and still not make up what we are going to lose in state aid next year. So, we need to hold onto whatever resources we can this year to carry more reserves into next year and then. . . well, we need to brace ourselves. If you thought the Big Shot free-fall ride at the Lancaster County Superfair was a wild ride, you'll definitely want to strap in for this one.

The good Senator said that there will be more to talk about come October or November. Then the State revenue forecasting board will have its latest round of tax receipts to review and can make some projections (they've been pretty accurate in the past).

I thank the Norris District patrons for their unyielding support of maintaining top quality programs and your trust in our Board. We will work together to continue to provide the resources in programs and personnel necessary to ensure Norris remains one of the top districts in the state. In case you didn't notice - we ranked in the Top 15 out of 250+ districts on the state reading test.

Why We Celebrate Achievement

2010-05-03T14:43:00.000-07:00

[All staff meeting comments May 3, 2010]

The purpose of today’s meeting is to share celebration points that affirm the outstanding instructional practice that leads to excellent student achievement. We are not going to take a lot of time to do this today, because the point is not to dwell on all the specifics so much as to affirm and recognize contributions to the team effort, upholding what we value. We are going to take a few minutes to recognize one another for the great things that continue to happen here at Norris.
· First of all, everyone is busy, but we must never be too busy to notice outstanding performance. If we fail to recognize excellence, how will we distinguish it from anything else? How will we know to repeat it? We tarnish excellence when we do not overtly uphold it and point it out, so that we can emulate it. It just becomes another assumed thing. That is a dangerous gamble to take with excellence; excellence is something that needs to be brought out in the light of day and not consigned to the shadows.
· We also need to do things like this periodically to make sure we share with one another as a larger district family, not three separate islands. We have many shared practices, shared colleagues and we are one intact system. You are all in the second year of a new information system, the first year of a standardized test (MAP), and the first year of state testing for reading. That’s a lot of change to absorb!
· We have just come through a month (really, March 29th through April 30th) that marks an historic shift in state testing as we move from STARS to NESA, from an environment of local control and development to mandatory state testing where testing becomes an event, some would say a full three-ring circus. The circus act is not going to get any easier. Next year, with the advent of an operational state math test on top of reading, it will make the acrobatics even more difficult as we have Reading, Writing and Math all ‘without a net.’
· There are a variety of ways in which we measure student achievement. I want to point out several of these to you with some basic indicators. [This is embargoed data so I have edited it out of the blog!]
o [NeSA-R reading test grade level averages, quartiles.]
o [State writing results]: Students have performed that well for so many years in a row that we have come to take it for granted. We shouldn’t, as it requires much pre-teaching and writing development in the grades which are tested and the years which precede those assessments.
o In MAP scores, Torri Lienemann and Ann Thober and other curriculum leaders in reading and math have helped students document tremendous growth as they achieve growth goals in reading, math, and language. There is probably no simpler means of validating the worth of MAP compared to Terra Nova than the fact that students compare their own results and are high fiving one another over RIT scores. Amazing!
o We sometimes neglect to account for data in other areas that are also vitally important to our students’ success. Just because the feds aren’t interested doesn’t mean we aren’t! We test for our own purposes, too! I want to highlight the achievements of the PE team in instituting Fitnessgram Testing. Through the hard work of the PE team and the support of other classroom teachers, we have students who have improved their strength, flexibility and endurance testing results throughout the year. As one student wrote, “I saw my body change for the better” and “I noticed a change in my energy” when fitness testing results helped him begin to lead an active and healthier lifestyle.
o Some other areas have performance assessments, too but they are not standardized tests. I was in awe a week ago Sunday as members of Titan Singers joined the Lincoln Civic Choir and Lincoln Symphony Orchestra to perform the music to a Mozart Mass at St. Paul’s Methodist church in Lincoln. It was an exquisite, remarkable performance.

There are many other areas deserving of mention, too numerous to probably sufficiently cover today. The point is that I hope you are aware that excellence is never business as usual. Excellence requires extraordinary effort, commitment, and follow-through. It requires both a sense of the importance of the big picture and an awareness that the devil is in the details. For all of you, I commend you for understanding that managing the minute details contributes to achieving the right outcome for everyone. Think of the kids who just added in the last week of the testing window and how we scrambled to get them set for a successful assessment experience. Not an easy challenge, but you rose to the occasion.

o I commend the work of building principals in cooperatively developing test schedules to ensure all students had adequate time and lab access to test. Thanks for playing nice together!
o I commend the work of our paraprofessionals who served as computer lab proctors and who helped work with students in alternate or extended time testing scenarios.
o I commend the work classroom teachers in all grade levels to teach to the standards and make an unwavering commitment to ensuring all kids succeed!
o I commend the work of special educators to ensure that all students are provided the accommodations entitled to by their IEPs and pushing proficiency for all!

I want to turn the microphone over to Principals, Curriculum Leaders, Pod Chairs, and Team Leads to be able to share a few words. While they may be sharing some data or some remarks that seem immediately applicable to a particular content area or grade level, I urge you to listen carefully and extract for yourselves the themes of excellence that our teacher leaders up here today are sharing with you. It’s open mic night; with the adage of “keep it positive, keep it fun” to guide your comments.

What I learned at the Boston Marathon

2010-04-28T13:51:00.000-07:00

I ran the 114th Boston Marathon on Monday, April 19th. This photo was taken about 10 minutes after I literally hurled my Gatorade all over my shoes after the finish, nearly passed out, and heard the five words no marathoner wants to hear: “Do you need a medic?” After refusing to go the medical tent, (because I figured I could just lean on Sara) I managed to fold my cramping legs into a cab and we got back to the hotel. It was awesome! I have a blissful look because approximately 2.5 seconds after the snapshot was taken, I collapsed in bed and did not move for 2 hours! Hooray for physical activity. Marathons may be a little excessive but they do give one a neat sense of accomplishment.

Here are two important things I think I learned in Boston:

*Great city, great people, so kind and encouraging of all participants. It reminded me that everyone’s got their own race to run. Pace doesn’t matter so long as you’re in the race. The point is to keep movin’!

*Enjoy the moment. I derived a lot of satisfaction from the throngs of thousands lining the course cheering people on “Yo, 8014, yuhrr supah faaaaast. Keep it up, bud!” We all occasionally need other people to be our cheerleaders and root us on. The walking challenge over 100 staff members are participating in now at Norris is a good example of a team support network but it doesn’t have to be that formal. Keep encouraging your friends and colleagues to stay committed to their goals – whether those are fitness goals, education goals, or life goals. You may not know realize it, but it makes a difference.

Happy walking to all those who observed National Walk At Lunch Day Wednesday. We have had several "Run @ Work" days at Norris where we invite staff members to run or walk together on the track. For the earliest part when it's still dark out, we throw on the lights so people can see who they might otherwise run into on the track. And we crank up the tunes on a couple mix CDs that the hardcore devoted runners like Coady and Votta have put together. It doesn't matter whether you are walking or running, it's kind of a neat communal experience on these mornings. The physical activity and cardio benefits are well documented in health lit. We encouraged teachers to participate as a staff wellness initiative in the National Walk At Lunch Day, however they were able to fit that into their day. We had a nice turnout Wednesday morning on a chilly spring day. I extend the best of luck to everyone participating in the Lincoln Half or Full Marathon this weekend. I am doing the half; it's too soon I for me after Boston to run a full again.

Welcome speech to EMC Counselors

2010-04-16T07:31:00.000-07:00

[Remarks from Skretta to EMC Counselors conference hosted at Norris April 16th]

Welcome to Norris! We have a beautiful campus here and we are glad to have the opportunity to host you. Thanks for coming.

As counselors, I want to express my gratitude to each of you for the way in which you allow us to stretch your capacity! Administrators are demanding of our counselors and you respond well. Curt and Becky have been phenomenal examples of that here at Norris. I know it’s a truism in education, but it does seem that we never ask anyone to do less and there is no group that is truer of than counselors, because you are in that ideal middle realm….administrators delegate to you, teachers complain to you, and you get to figure it all out so it works! It is another truism that “Adminstrators Decide, Counselors Do.” I know that’s playing out right now in our scheduling process. When it comes to the specifics: thanks for figuring it out!

It just becomes more challenging for counselors, so thanks for your responsiveness. We used to strive at the junior level to have kids plan and plot out what they were shooting for in college and careers. Then we said two years really wasn’t good enough. So we went to four. Now the movement is 6 years. That’s because, I don’t know if you knew this, but apparently India and China are cranking out science and math and engineering graduate students at a rate exponentially higher than the United States and someone figured out that if we could just get our 12 year olds to think more seriously about trigonometry instead of their X Boxes and skateboarding, we would close the gap. So get them to plan, provide evidence of the plan, monitor the plan, and close the international math/science achievement gap!

We have very high expectations for counselors, dare I say even preposterously high. But I don’t see that changing. When I look at your agenda for the day, I am really impressed by the scope of what you address and I encourage you to take advantage of the opportunity to collaborate with one another and to have the same shamelessly selfish motive I do in conference opportunities: steal the best ideas from elsewhere and claim them as my own!

We look for you to help kids in the personal, social, and academic realms. We expect you to be the experts in test prep, data analysis, developmental needs, so we ask you to do everything from design a testing schedule that works for everyone to being able to shift gears and work with kids who are experiencing extremely traumatic or just developmentally challenging issues in their lives. By the way, you should also be tech wizards so you can keep up on all the latest social networking tools to really know what kids are doing! But you also need to know about cutting, not to mention piercing, tattooing and how to advise parents and their students on these and other topics.

One final note, whatever you need from us today, if you need us to pull some resources we are happy to do that and happy to jump in on any part of the discussion administratively if you want our thoughts. Two areas I could weigh in on would be if you want MAP district perspective I’d be happy to help with that and also regarding twitter, as I think it is an excellent tool with lots of potential for educators.

State Fiscal Encounters of the Deficit Kind

2010-04-05T10:48:00.000-07:00

I’ve come across three interesting articles recently that I wanted to share. To me, they all relate to the same theme, which is that the economic challenges facing schools in our neighboring states are real and that they are likely to play out in a similar fashion, soon, in Nebraska. While 2010-11 still looks pretty decent in comparison to what’s coming the next couple years after that, there are already many districts in our own state that are floundering.

There is an abundance of information out there right now about this. Clearly, it behooves us to pay attention to this finance information so that we are cognizant of what our policy-makers at the state and national level are doing (or not doing) to address the crisis and so that we can respond thoughtfully and strategically rather than reactively. On a local basis, it may be instructive for us to examine how other school districts handle this to better prepare ourselves should we encounter such challenges.

The Des Moines Register http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20104020315 published an article on the Ankeny Board working through some budget cut recommendations. Ankeny is a growing district outside Des Moines. Some key points from this article include:
· The district is in the ironic situation of raising their levy rate while slashing their budget; that’s how far off the state aid has fallen.
· Operational cuts can only assist to a degree; they are using attrition as much as possible to reduce personnel where needed (not replacing those who retire or resign, if possible).
· They are reducing work agreements and involving building principals in deciding how to manage that as it relates to paraprofessionals and support staff (in Iowa lingo that would be an “associate.”)

The Omaha World Herald published Saturday an article on “Bluffs Schools in Tough Spot” that is available at http://www.omaha.com/article/20100404/NEWS01/704049900 . This article describes how the Council Bluffs district has attempted to reduce costs and has been running down their cash reserves to meet payroll demands. A $5 million budget cut for next year is forcing them to reduce personnel significantly.

The particulars of these local contexts described above need to be considered when examining them, but the general scenario is applicable in that NE will be in the revenue milieu Iowa is in a year from now when the ARRA $ is gone and legislators are confronting a major revenue shortfall.

Don Walton’s column in today’s Journal Star is at http://www.journalstar.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_e9da38ec-4045-11df-baae-001cc4c03286.html and describes our state’s unpalatable options. I appreciate Walton’s suggestion that ‘we the people’ need to be proactive in creating solutions to the shortfall. (He mentions considering heavier taxes on alcohol and tobacco and even the possibility that a tax on sugary sodas could provide some revenue and be consistent with our society’s increasing emphasis on healthy lifestyles and combating obesity). He also states the truism that a blanket rejection of tax increases is the politicians’ easy way out but does not make much more sense than a blanket embracing of tax increases as the answer. The real solution probably lies somewhere in between, where moderate tax increases shoulder the burden with targeted cost reductions. (Or what I would describe as a “shared pain” approach.)

The mood of the articles above is somber to say the least. I am not one for advocating catastrophic thinking, but I also think that remaining blissfully ignorant about the impending issues is dangerously naïve. Norris will find ways to manage fiscal challenges while remaining a progressive system with excellent personnel. We will encounter tough choices along the way. Our building principals have already been stringent on communicating to teachers that we need to take on sharp reductions in equipment and supplies expenditures next year to preserve those resources for what’s coming.

We’ll need to enlist the cooperation of all staff and sense of team play in our community as we encounter those tough choices together to preserve the great things Norris has in place and continue to be progressive in areas that positively impact student learning.

The Roy Baker School of Leadership Lessons

2010-02-03T04:03:00.000-08:00

Wednesday morning I have a wonderful opportunity. I get the chance to kick off a day of interviewing as one of three final superintendent candidates for Norris. I have no idea whether I’ll emerge from the battle as the candidate of choice, but I know that I am excited beyond belief and I am proud to be the internal candidate who represents the legacy and tradition of Norris leadership. It may sound audacious, but I believe I’ve been reared by the best.

I say that because I worked just down the hall from our retiring superintendent Roy Baker for four years as the high school principal and for the last year and half+ now, I have had the chance to work right next door to him as an assistant superintendent. Heck, by process of osmosis alone I have learned quite a bit about leadership. Some of my learning has been just through that exposure to the Sup day in and day out, as things come up. And some of that learning has been very intentional – wherein Roy has deliberately conveyed an important lesson or understanding to me.

So, I have learned a great deal from Roy Baker in the six years I’ve been working for him. I thought I’d put some of these things down in writing because the moment seemed right for it. In this calmer moment of reflection before the stress and excitement of an interview day, I offer educators some fundamentals I’ve acquired from a darned smart mentor:

1. There can be only one quarterback. [Translation: a leader knows the buck stops here. When the situation calls for it, no one should wonder who’s calling the shots. Whatever your position, you are probably the quarterback of something or some domain in your life…A true leader does not disavow or shirk, but accepts and in fact welcomes personal responsibility.]
2. Four words I hate most: “That’s not my job.” [Translation: it’s related to lesson #1. Marginal people look for ways to avoid doing things. Peak performers are always finding new ways to get involved and apply their talents. If something needs doing, see that it gets done.]
3. Sub-optimization will sink you. [Translation: sometimes schools have a tendency to get wild about programs and initiatives. While everyone going off in their own direction with their own pet program or instructional approach may sound creative, it’s just a recipe for chaos.]
4. In the absence of information, all people have is speculation. [Translation: don’t sit on valuable information. Communicate what is known in a timely and thorough manner to everyone.]
5. A school budget is just instructional priorities expressed in dollars. [When crunching the numbers, never forget that students and student learning is what we’re all about.]
6. Trust. It’s our most valuable commodity. [This one needs no translation; if it does, God help you and your district!]
7. Good is the enemy of great. [This one is lifted from the Collins Good To Great classic. Roy has repeatedly pointed out that it’s an important reminder for systems like Norris, where we can sometimes get very comfortable just being good – when we should be striving for greatness in everything.]
8. Spirited disagreement is a key characteristic of great teams. [It may seem counter-intuitive, but really tight teams have a high enough level of trust that they are able to challenge one another’s viewpoints and offer different perspectives – with the outcome ultimately being a stronger, unified decision.]
9. Wishing and hoping and TGI (‘the gut instinct’) is not the same as seeing the evidence. [Translation: everything should be linked to data. There need to be identifiable, measurable outcomes in place to evaluate individual, program, and district performance.]
10. Job-embedded learning is essential. [Translation: regardless of how great we think Teachers College prep programs are or how gifted someone is to begin with, we all need to be lifelong learners who evolve in our understanding of best practice.]

That’s certainly not all there is to it. One thing about life, you keep learning new lessons and sometimes learning more about the ones you thought you’d mastered. But, those noted above are 10 of what I believe to be the most important leadership and life lessons Roy has taught me. They’ve already served me well – and will continue to do so regardless of my job title. Hope you can get something from them, too.

Snow Woes

2010-01-10T06:57:00.000-08:00

A recent Lincoln Journal Star editorial lambasts Lincoln Public Schools for calling off school on Wednesday. I think the article is a bit unfair because we were in a winter storm warning, and to ignore that would have put the safety of students in peril. LPS has well over 30,000 students and many walk to classes. My gosh, the same time LPS gets hammered by the paper for not holding class, the Omaha World Herald has an article about two middle aged women (two separate instances) who died of exposure in the recent storm.

Norris called off school on Wednesday, too. The paper has been reluctant to criticize other area or county schools for this decision, perhaps due to some recognition that we have many rural roads that were dangerously drifted and others that were simply impassable. (I know this by my own eyewitness account of the roads on these last few days, but also from reports from other staff members in the know). We would have risked very unsafe driving conditions Wednesday afternoon (heavy snow was already piling up and winds were stirring) had we went ahead and tried to hold school. Even yesterday was flat out nasty. I drove out here in the morning to get to the office and South 68th, a fairly major thoroughfare in these parts, was only one lane in three or four spots due to the big snow banks and the encroaching snow on the west side.

Snow days stink. They throw everyone off their routine. Parents resent snow days for understandable reasons: while schools close based on the student safety premise, most other businesses and organizations remain open regular hours, and parents are put in a real dilemma. They’re having to take time off when daycare plans haven’t been made. In some cases, parents have already worked through those contingencies, but in most families it’s planning on the fly. There were lots of discussions (and probably more than a few arguments) over the last several snow days in homes throughout Nebraska about who was going to be responsible for kid care and who was going to get to go into work, or how the days would be split so both mom and dad could try to both be stay-at-home parents and still show up at work.

If you’re like me at all, you too thrive on routine. I genuinely believe kids thrive on that routine, too. And it is hard to stay on a disciplined schedule with the youngsters when a snow day is followed by another which is followed by another. To make matters worse, conditions were so brutally bad outside that it wasn’t like you could send the kids out for a little physical activity. Not unless you wanted to risk them suffering from exposure! These last few days were definitely not “Let’s go sled at Pioneers Park” conditions. I’m a school person, so – I love school. And my strong preference is for school to be in session! At this point, with two three-day stretches of snow days already this winter, cabin fever among the kids was reaching unheard-of proportions. Let’s face it, even for the most doting, loving, caring parents – too much ‘quality time’ pent up with your kids can get to be a test of patience that is as extreme as the temps.

I’ve attached a couple photos to this article that show the enormous pile of snow that had to be cleared away from South 120th in order for the road to be passable. Wednesday night through Saturday morning, it was impossible for traffic to drive south down South 120th south of Firth Road. I couldn’t get to my sons to pick them up Thursday or Friday. It was simply drifted shut, and our county road workers were too busy working major roads to be able to get to this more remote area. While I describe this area as more remote, hey, it’s still Lancaster County and it was a not uncommon plight for many Norris district residents over the last four days.

I am hopeful we won’t get blasted with too much more severe weather this winter. We have already reclaimed January 18th as a student day. Here’s hoping we don’t have to amend the calendar much more this season. Let me know your thoughts on the recent snow days. (Please, no more ominous predictions from the Farmers’ Almanac!)

What I Learned At Ski School

2009-12-31T11:40:00.001-08:00

We had our first family ski vacation after the Christmas holiday. Sara is quite adept on the slopes and is an experienced skier. For the rest of us boys (5, 7, 9, 12 and me the elder 40something), it was all new learning. I suffered through a day and a half finding my feet and learning how to maneuver the skis just to execute the most basic moves such as "the wedge" so I could stop and how to stand on an incline without shooting forward or ending up skiing backwards. I'm not going to kid you, I was a danger to myself and others on the slopes for at least the first half of our time out there in Colorado.

My ski instructor the first day was a grizzled veteran named Alice (sun-bleached hair, a weathered, wind-burnt face and a commanding voice that could bring everyone on the mountainside to attention with one bark). She repeatedly took my poles from me because she was insistent that everything I needed to be able to do could be mastered just by lifting my feet and turning my ankles. I wanted to believe her but was mostly just angry she took my gear away!

I learned a great deal about skiing and was reminded of what being a lifelong learner actually means during our two and a half days on the slopes. Here are the essentials I took from the experience:

1. Sometimes prior learning is just interference. As adults, we often convince ourselves that our prior knowledge is sufficient to get us through any new situation we encounter. It's not, and sometimes it actually gets in the way of new learning. I water ski - and can do so somewhat proficiently, but I quickly learned that not much about skiing on water translates to what one needs to know to ski on snow. Posture, balance, position - all quite different. Life lesson: there's no substitute for doing it.

2. The true emotional countenance of the learner is MODESTY. I was very humbled out there. I think it is good for adults to occasionally experience a situation like that. Again, most of us spend most of our time in our comfort zones - whether that's physical or mental. I'm fine on a treadmill at the Y or a long run on the trails. But put me on skis on snow and I could barely stand up. I wasn't in peril on the slopes, but I was woefully pathetic at this for a while. I had to work hard to execute basic turns and stops - while children a quarter my age whizzed right by and others two decades older than me went swooshing past with the greatest of ease. A good lesson in acceptance.

3. Frustration occurs when your ability to process new information and make sense of it in a timely manner is overwhelmed. Frustration can be valuable, but only if the learner can recognize frustration, stop the scenario playing out, and then subtask. I had a meltdown on the mountain morning of day two. An emotional meltdown. I had careened to the side, tumbled hard near some trees, and my left ski came off. For some reason, for several minutes I could not sort through (a) my anger at my ineptitude (b) how to snap my ski back on without sliding away from it because I already had one ski on (c) how I was ever going to get down the rest of the run without a similar mishap. I sent one ranting text to my wife and sat and seethed. But after I stopped seeing red, I was able to breathe deep, take one step at a time, knock the snow off my boot, get latched back onto the ski, and go.

4. Age should not be a barrier to new learning, but kids are more willing to take risks than adults. We should commend our kids for the courage and capacity they show every day in the classroom and in life, encountering new situations and learning through them. I think it is entirely possible for adults to embrace the values of lifelong learning (experiment, try new things, get out there, go for it!) but that does not mean it is easy to do so. To the contrary, I think that our prior knowledge base leads us to a life of habit and routine. We become very accustomed to the patterns we set for ourselves, and we are reluctant to deviate from those patterns. What I was awed at with kids on the slopes -the amazing young people out there- was how they were not afraid to biff, bail, crash, wipe out, or otherwise wreck - and just get back up and get going again. Just to be able to balance on a snowboard while coasting downhill rocking heel-to-toe? Wow. That perseverance is something we should all strive to demonstrate, in schooling and in life.

5. The bunny slope does not prepare you for life on the mountain, kids. I learned that one the hard way, but I think it's applicable to our schooling and life situations, too. I got real comfortable day one riding the conveyor belt up to the top of the tiny bunny run and gliding to the bottom (about 15 yards total). Heck, the grade on the decline was nothin'! Of course, it wasn't until I rode an actual lift up and stood staring down a mountainside run of several hundred yards of a comparatively much steeper descent that I actually realized this. Life lesson: no matter how challenging or rewarding the classroom experience is, it's not the real deal. Ultimately, the real lessons of life are harsher (and also much more rewarding) than the controlled artificial ones we create in our schools - whether academic schools or ski schools.

Did you have some great life lessons from an experience you recently shared with your family? Whether it was a vacation trip or a personal goal you were questing after, I would be interested in hearing what you took from that experience. I share these lessons above because I think it is important for all of us who are parents and educators to remember how challenging learning can be, and to keep encouraging our children to keep after it - while we continue to pursue our adult learning goals. Here's to you achieving your most important life goals in 2010.

Parenting and Sportsmanship

2009-12-06T08:24:00.000-08:00

Some thoughts this a.m. from Sioux Center, Iowa, where my oldest son, Tony (12) is playing in a Pee Wee level tournament:

The Lincoln kids won the game this morning going away. That was nice to see because they've already tasted their share of whalloping defeats this year. But they put together a nice game against a competitive team in their first game this morning. Some parents on the opposition were so upset about the outcome and about some of the calls that they were ranting about "taking it out to the parking lot," among other unsavory comments directed at officials or the Lincoln parents and players.

At Norris, we talk a lot about the value of sportsmanship and try to instill those values in our students. We work very diligently not just to supervise students but to also model and suggest to them appropriate ways to encourage and rally their peers and their school's teams on to victory. Not always an easy task - especially when officiating calls are questionable or even blatantly incorrect. Needless to say, much of Nebraska is going through the grieving process this morning following the seeming NE victory that was snatched from the Huskers when a second was added back to the clock after the game was evidently over...but replay showed a second left when the ball sailed out of bends and caromed off a railing. Well - this was a moment where sportsmanship virtues on a grand scale can become really strained. We don't usually look our best virtuous selves in those moments.

On a much smaller scale, when you've got kids out there on the ice, and siblings and parents in the stands, it's important to realize the influence our behaviors have. There is a culture of complaint in America today that relates to the whole "victimology" approach to life that is, I think, detestable. Why is it okay to wallow in self-congratulatory praise when you win, but it's never your fault or your responsibility when you lose? But that seems to be the way we (as a society) approach competition. And when you see that demonstrated by parents, it leaves little room to speculate about how kids will absorb and internalize those thoughts. Life is full of bad calls and subjective moments where perspective is everything. The challenge we have as adults is to help our kids understand that the best players play through, play on, stay focused, and keep going. And it's our job to cheer them on, in positive and affirming ways without tearing others down. Easy to postulate, tough to live it, I know.