Time to Read

This morning I was sitting in on a professional development training over "Close Reading" and in the session we were asked to read a couple of different passages including excerpts from The Grapes of Wrath and Tuck Everlasting, plus a short story by Mark Twain. While I was sitting there it dawned on me...I actually enjoy reading. I am a little embarrassed as an educator to admit that this has not always been the case. When I was a teenager, I tried to make sure that I was busy enough that I did not have free time to read. Now as an adult I really wish that I was not so busy so that I had more time to read. Throughout my coursework thus far, just about every current or former administrator that talks with us has recommendations for about three to four books to read. I started tackling the list by reading Mindset by Carol Dweck and then Drive by Daniel Pink. This is only a tiny step towards getting my list down and I am sure that within the first 15 minutes of my first class this fall I will have two more to add to my list and be back to square one. On second thought, if anyone out there in the bloggersphere has suggestions on reading material about leadership and learning, feel free to leave me a comment on what I need to read. I do enjoy reading now, so fire away. I will just have to find time to get them all read now.

Only 57 hours and 11 minutes until the start of the 2014-2015 school year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am more than a little excited if you didn't notice, but more about that on my next blog. Thanks.

I AM...

Last night, Kristin and I rented the movie Divergent. I haven’t had the pleasure of reading the book yet, but have heard some good things from people about the movie. Thus we decided to give it a try. Here is the quick and dirty synopsis. Set in the future, post-war Chicago, the citizens of the city are all divided up into factions. Everyone has to fit into one of the factions. If not, they’re faction-less (homeless) and do not live a decent, fulfilling life. Young adults in the city take an aptitude test to give them guidance on which faction to choose to join. The test, in rare situations, can also be inconclusive. That means the subject is unable to be categorized into a faction and they are labelled “Divergent”. To the governing body of the city, “divergents” are unpredictable and dangerous...DUN, DUN, DUN…

Obviously the author, Veronica Roth, is making an analogy for life. I also think it makes a great analogy of leadership. Leaders cannot simply be classified into a single faction, but instead need to dynamic, diverse, and to steal the title, Divergent.

There are five different factions in the movie, so I am going to talk about five different parts of myself as an educational leader that I see.

1. I AM A DIFFERENCE MAKER. A quick shout out to my favorite band, NEEDTOBREATHE (here is a link to their song Difference Maker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2LtB9KLf98). As an educator, I make a difference in families' lives, students' lives, and their futures. Whether we like it or not, we have the power to make peoples' lives better or worse. I, for one, want to attack everyday with the attitude that I am going to make peoples’ lives better. This leads into...

2. I AM THE MASTER OF MY ATTITUDE. There is the analogy that I have heard from many people, you can be either a thermometer or a thermostat. Thermometers simply tell what the current temperature is at. Thermostats control the temperature and set what it is going to be.

3. I AM A LEARNER. If I put off an air that I know it all, I am kidding myself and being close minded. As an educator, I love the atmosphere of school and have always enjoyed being a student. I hope to continually grow.

4. I AM A MODEL. Looking above, if I am not demonstrating learning habits for students and other staff alike, I am not being effective. I want to model curiosity and a drive for knowledge.

5. I AM LAST. There’s a recent billboard campaign about "I am second." I’m going to go a step further and say "I am last". In a classroom full of students, I am literally the most insignificant person in the room, in my opinion. It doesn't matter the slightest if I understand the material. It is all about students and families and making their educational experience spectacular.

Thanks. God bless.

First Ever VLog-Intro, Flipped Classroom, and Growth Mindset

Attached is my...FIRST...EVER...VLOG! On the scale of excitement between watching the Super Bowl front row in person to watching paint dry, I would probably put it at the level of Antique Roadshow on tv. It isn't going to get you all fired up, but hopefully it will be bearable for 3 minutes and 31 seconds. If I were grading myself, I think I would give myself a C+. Delivery wasn't too bad, but need a little more details on the content. Feel free to share any thoughts or ideas. Like I mention in the video, I am always open to learn. #growthmindset

It really was very simple to video and upload and I was pleased with how quickly I got it done. I am excited to flip the classroom this year and will share how my journey is going. Thanks. God bless.

This is my confession...

All right, I have kept my secret long enough, it is time for me to just come out and say...I am not very good at grammar. To clarify, I am not horrible at grammar, but I wish I were better. It is a growth mindset thing for me that I know I will improve the more I get an opportunity to write. It feels so freeing getting that off my chest. I am making a little joke of it, but in all sincerity, I do feel more free getting that out there. I really hope that I can start blogging much more and I think my biggest issue over the past 8 months and only blogging 3 times has been my concern about having to spend extreme amounts of time making sure that my blogs were grammatically error free. For my graduate classes, I have my wife read over most of my writing before I turn them in, but I would hate to burn her out on reading my bi-weekly blogs. I have set a goal for myself to blog every third day...we will see how I do on achieving this goal. Life is definitely starting to pick up here shortly. Tonight we start our football camp and football will be going for the next three months, my grad classes will start up again on August 20th, and finally as I sit here, school will start in 19 days. (I know that was a long sentence and I hope I punctuated it correctly) Soooooo without any further ado, be prepared for more material coming from Michael D. Kline. Thanks.

SMR

How has summer gone so quickly? As a student, I felt like summer lasted forever. As a teacher, I feel like summer lasts about 3 weeks in length. It is hard to believe that it is already July 14th and less than a month before teachers report back to school. Having said all of this, I have always been a person that has enjoyed school. This is why I became a teacher. (I am guessing the fact that it is football season helps to ease me back into the swing of school as well.) I think this could make a great research question. What percentage of students genuinely enjoy school? Does this number vary depending upon the grade level of the students? What can teachers do to increase this number of students who enjoy school? I will let you know when I have done my research and have some answers. Goodnight.

The 3 Joys of Sunday, December 22nd

I had my younger brother Mark read my first post from Sunday and his comment to me was, "That is nice, but there is not a lot of meat to it." So today, I am hoping to satisfy Mark's carnivorous literary appetite. 

I never quite got how to count for the twelve days of Christmas. Do you count up from 1 to 12? Is it a countdown from 12 to 1? Not sure, and not sure that it matters...anyway. I want to share "The 3 joys of Sunday, December 22nd." I wish that all of you could hear my wonderful singing rendition of my joys, but I haven't figured that out yet. I will get there.

"On the first day of Christmas, my silly son gave to me...a boy with some really greeeasssy lips!"

I never knew that Chapstick was that addicting, but my mother gave James and his cousin some Disney Cars Chapstick. Giving a 2 year old his own Chapstick to use whenever he pleases is not the best idea. Entertaining to watch, but not always necessary. The picture really doesn't do the level of grease justice. (At least his lips are not going to get chapped. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.)

"On the second day of Christmas, my loving parents gave to me...two Soniccare toothbrushes!"

I always brushed my teeth because it is what I was taught to do and I didn't want to have bad breath. That was before I was introduced to Sonicare. Sonicare is a game changer. My timed two minutes of brushing is now something that I get excited about. 

"On the third day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me...three semi-entertaining NFL games!"

On Sunday I got a chance to watch the Bears get beat up by the Eagles. I was able to watch the Packers play a great, old fashion football game against the Steelers. The Packers came up short in the end, but a fun game to watch. Finally, probably the least entertaining game of the day, but held the most entertaining moment for me, was the Chiefs versus the Colts. The Colts won easily, but my favorite part of the game was by the Colts punter, Pat McAfee. McAfee had a nice pooch punt and the ball was down at the 5 yard line. I am not a fan of celebratory dances or showboating acts, but after the McAfee's punt, he turned sideways and simulated a golf chip shot. I guess in my book, punters get a free pass to celebrate as much as they please. 

(My impersonation of the McAfee golf swing. I didn't want to break any copyright laws by putting a picture of Pat McAfee here, but he looks like an entertaining fellow if you have the time to look him up.)

493 Words; hopefully I will get singing on blog soon; less than 10 hours to Christmas! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY! God bless.

Introduction

Hello everyone. This is my blog numero uno. Today I am going to do a little introduction and give you my goals of doing a blog.

My name is Michael Kline and I am a Christian, a husband, a father, a son, an at-risk teacher, a graduate student, and a head high school football coach. I enjoy writing and as I get older and take on more roles in my life I feel like I have so much stuff running around in my head daily that I wanted to just take some time a couple of days a week to verbally vomit my thoughts down on paper (internet). I am a HUGE sports fan so much of what I will be writing about will have to do a little with sports, but I am going to also be writing about different stuff as well.

I have 3 goals of writing this blog. Goal 1: I alluded to this earlier, but I want to be able to decompress my thoughts and feelings about different things in my life. Goal 2: My wife is the one who kind of got me thinking about blogging because she has a blog and blogs sometimes. (www.theklinecrew.blogspot.com) I think she should blog more, so I am hoping to encourage her with my own blogging. Goal 3: Give people something positive, encouraging, and hopefully sometimes humorous to spend 5 minutes a day reading. I promise that I will be as positive and encouraging throughout my posts as I possibly can. Additionally, I promise that I will not write more than 500 words per post. As a man, if I see anything that is toooooo long, I will not read it. Brevity is a good thing.

What this will not be is me pretending to know it all. I certainly do not have all of the answers. If I can get a few things right, I will be happy. My sons are 2 years old and 2 months old. I am still new at being a father so I certainly don't have all the answers in the daddy department. My football team has a combined record of 4-16 over the past two years, so I don't have all the athletic answers either. What I post here is just what I think and I am open to all help, encouragement, and kind words anyone is willing to share with me.

Finally, if you are a man and have gotten this far; CONGRATULATIONS!, I am proud of you. Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you soon. Merry Christmas. Go Chiefs. (I am currently watching them against the Colts...they are losing 7-20; 3rd quarter) God bless.