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.