Thoughts...6/29/2017 Tomorrow, June 30th, marks the last official contract day for the 2016-2017 school year. As I sit here trying to finish up my 5th year as principal and 15th year in education, I feel the urge to reflect, to write. But just as the past month has gone, I struggle to find the words.
Sure, I have a plethora of topics running through my mind I want write about; new beginnings, relationships, competition, drive, leadership, mediocrity, complacency, advocacy and the list goes on and on. Yet, my mind wanders…I sit. I stare. I pray. My mind brings me back to The Master’s, Las Vegas, Thornridge, my classroom, your office. I reminisce about the hundreds of trips to games, the countless rounds of golf in the sun, the time we thought our plane was going to crash, or the closed door conversations in your office. The memories of watching you struggle to hit the ball only to be laughing so hard three seconds later as it careens off a rock and hits our playing partners golf cart. When we sang our favorite songs (Hot Child in the City) by the pop machine while doing lunch duty. The moments of joy, laughter, and sorrow we shared always knowing that you had my back while I had yours. Or the last time we talked. It was short and to the point. One hug and an “I Love You”. You gave me a chance and believed in me long before I was probably ready. You provided me with guidance and support while always challenging me to be a better teacher, administrator, and person. And although your story was cut short long before it should have been, your legacy lives on through the lives of those you taught, worked with, and mentored. I miss the rounds of golf, the Husker football games, the text messages, and the “you will not believe” what just happened in my office phone calls. God has a plan and I need to trust it. Rest in Peace TJ. “EVERYONE HAS A STORY...MAKE YOURS WORTH TELLING”
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Dear Seniors 20175/13/2017 Each year on graduation morning, I take a few hours to reflect upon that years senior class and the unique qualities they bring to MHS. Upon reflection, I write a letter to them with some words of advice for the future. Here is the 5th edition of "Dear Seniors".
Just a...2/5/2017 Recently, while endlessly scrolling through twitter at 11 pm, a post from a first year teacher caught my eye that read, “I’m just a first year teacher”. Educators are never “just a”, they are learners, dreamers, and visionaries which have the greatest job in the world.
Educators come in many forms with various titles: Teacher Counselor Cook Custodian Secretary Para Bus Driver Administrator Parent Coach Para Board Member Cheerleader Advocate And through these roles we: Are the givers of knowledge Provide comfort Are a shoulder to cry on Provide warm meals Ensure students have clean clothes for the concert Purchase winter coats for those coldest of mornings Ensure a safe place to learn Counsel students when needed Provide support when a student’s world seems to crashing down around them We also: Smile High Five Fist Bump Hug Celebrate Sing Dance Cry Inspire To all educators, don’t ever cut yourself short or let anyone tell you you’re “just a” because to your students you are so much more. For some students we are that smiling face, while to others we are everything. You never know the full impact you’ll have. However, everyday you have the opportunity to impact your students, staff, school, and community and that isn’t a “just a” responsibility. LOVE...1/25/2017 Words have amazing power. They have the power to lift up, destroy, make a person smile, or bring a lump to your throat. However, I believe one word has more power than any other and that is Love.
As we started the 2016-2017 school year our staff read the book “One Word” and everybody selected a word to keep them focused throughout the year. Commitment, hope, patience, pray, and survive were just a few words that our staff chose. Each of these words were personal and held great meaning whether that was shared publically, amongst a small group, or held in private. The word I chose is “Love”. While love has driven my actions, behaviors, and words throughout the year, it had extra special meaning today. Today, we celebrated the great work Public School Educators across the great state of Nebraska do on a daily basis through social media posts, pictures, and videos. More than once I got choked up as tweets and posts displaying the great things happening in our schools were shared. From staffs wearing their “I Heart Public Schools” shirts, videos about students overcoming challenges, the importance of extracurricular activities, to personal stories of achievement because of the support of public school educators, it was hard not to well up with pride for my mentors, colleagues, and friends who choose to serve our schools, communities, and most importantly our students on a daily basis. What made it extra special was I got to spend the day with my staff, students, and a host of dedicated administrators from across the state at the quarterly NCSA (Nebraska Council of School Administrators) Executive Board meeting in Lincoln. While many tough conversations were had at the meeting, it was reassuring to look around the room and know I was surrounded by men and women who will stand up for what they believe is right for our students and the future of Nebraska Public Schools. Love is a powerful word and I can’t say enough how much I LOVE my job, this school, our students, and staff. I also love the network of caring educators from Falls City, to Chadron, and everywhere in between who I know will stand up with me and proclaim #ilovepublicschools! Why I DON'T Quit10/9/2016 Every year a number of “open letters”, blog posts, or newspaper articles go viral outlining why a teacher or educator walked away from the profession. The educator is often heralded as a superstar teacher or award winning educator and nearly all of them have similar reasons for stepping away. Too much testing, lack of funding, lack of administrative/classroom support, disrespectful students, over involved parents, and/or changing school climates and cultures are all cited as reasons these educators have decided to change careers. Nearly all educators can relate to one or more of these reasons and understand their plight. But what about those educators that have stayed?
Any honest educator will tell you they have thought about quitting more than once or twice and even evaluated what other professions are out there for them (for me it’s carpentry or woodworking). While I don’t condemn these educators for their decision to move on, I do questions what it says about our profession as a whole when this is the narrative that is being published nationwide via mass media and social media outlets. If our (educators) story is about being overwhelmed, underpaid, and over regulated why would any student contemplating career fields choose to go into education? While the issues that are plaguing public schools need to be addressed, we can’t allow the pundits to use “Why I quit” letters to seek further change that will ultimately place more oversight and restrictions on teachers. Our profession is so much more than standardized tests, evaluation models, and tax levies. It is about building relationships and inspiring youth to find their true passion in life and become the leaders of our communities tomorrow. For me relationships, passion, and moments far outweigh the issues which seems to burden educators and ultimately push them out of the profession. Nothing is more important than being a part of a family and through our schools, educators build relationships that superseded the classroom walls and impact communities as a whole. Relationships with staff, parents, patrons but most importantly students are the fabric of our schools that create cultures of learning and trust. For a handful of our students the only family they have are the people that greet them at the school door each morning. Passion is what drives me to continue to advocate for public education. Students depend on adults to advocate for them outside of our buildings. Sharing our school’s story and the great work that our students do is what I enjoy. I believe wholeheartedly in the programs and offerings at MHS and across the state. The “Why I quit” articles only paint schools in a negative light and the great things happening in our buildings are lost in the rhetoric. At the end of the day, moments are why I don’t quit. While throughout any given day or week I can have multitude of negative interactions with staff, students, or parents, it only takes one moment to remind me why I love this profession. If I were to quit, I wouldn’t get to experience the 7th graders first day at school, a struggling student acing a test, a staff member trying something new in their classroom, the student who walks in your office asking for help, singing Ice Ice Baby at Prom, the basketball player hitting the game winning shot, announcing every single graduating senior by name as they walk across the stage to receive their diploma, or a plethora of other moments which brings a smile to my face or a tear to my eye. As an educator, these moments prove you are making a difference in a student’s life and/or providing the comfort and support they need. Education is a tough and tiring profession which brings with it the great honor and privilege of inspiring the next generation of artists, electricians, architects, lawyers and hopefully teachers. As educators, we need to share our stories of success, while continuing to work on the issues facing ours schools. Positivity and joy needs to outshine the negativity. Our best and brightest students need to be inspired just like the thousand of educators who have decided the moments are what makes teaching so special. Relating to the Unrelatable6/15/2016 Youth today get a bad rap. As adults we accuse them of being lazy, too connected to their mobile devices, unable to socialize, lacking of morals and values, quick to spout off their every emotion on social media, and the list goes on and on. While many of the sentiments carry some truth, I would argue that youth, particularly preteen and teens, are living in a time period unlike any other in the history of the world.
Growing up in the 80’s and/or 90’s (or any time period prior to Napster), parents were able to relate to many of the issues and problems their children were dealing with. Sure, parents may have struggled to understand hip hop music, the grunge look, or even the fascination with the TV show “Friends.” However, for the most part, what kids were going through parents could relate to. Relationships, school, sports/activities, etc had advanced but not to the point where parents didn’t have a point of reference when their child had an issue. Times have changed and changed dramatically (for now)! We live in a world of unbelievable growth and progress. To have nearly every bit of information at our fingertips or more accurately in our pockets would be the illusions of science fiction to humans of the 1960’s or 70’s. Technology has advanced and grown at such a rapid pace over the past 25 years that the computer you buy today is the “old” version in a couple of months. And the internet was only the starting point in changing how we have and interact as humans. But, I would argue that this technological wonder wasn’t the tipping point. The smartphone and other portable connected devices fundamentally changed how we interact with each other along with the creation of social media sites. These advances in technology have impacted human interactions and spurred our continual desire to check our phones. But unlike parents of the past, there isn’t any reference point for how to help your child deal with issues caused by these newfound avenues of communication. It’s hard to believe that smartphones and social media outlets have been in mainstream society for less than 10 years and for many of us even less than that. Where as I can still remember the first time I logged onto the internet in 1995, teenagers today have lived with these devices in their hands for as long as they can remember. In the past, parents would normally be able to share their “expertise” and “experience” with their children when issues arose. It is impossible in 2016 to do so because we are learning how to appropriately interact in this constantly connected world together. There isn’t necessarily a book or script for us to follow. Additionally, kids take their cues from adults. When their favorite athlete, actor, internet star, or personality posts inappropriate, hateful, hurtful, sexual, or graphic posts on Instagram, SnapChat, Twitter, or Facebook they believe that is the norm and acceptable because these post get thousands if not millions of likes. Don’t get me wrong, I’m just not placing the blame on the famous. We all know adults that could use a lesson or two in proper social media use and digital citizenship. So what do we do? Do we allow this behavior to become the norm with teenagers possibly forfeiting future opportunities (college acceptance, scholarships, jobs) because of what they posted to social media? Or do we become even more diligent in teaching not only youth but all individuals in proper social media use? As educators, I feel that even though it is just one more thing we have to find time to incorporate into the curriculum, it is vital that digital citizenship continues to be stressed. Social media and smartphones aren’t going away anytime soon, so we can either be a part of the solution or continue to look the other way and allow inappropriate social media use to become the norm. Luckily, the teenagers we are trying to reach will one day grow up and become parents themselves and their generation will have that reference point that adults in 2016 lack. If we create good stewards of technology today, these teenagers will carry on the message for generations to come. Dear Seniors...20165/14/2016 Each year, I pen a letter to the seniors on the morning of graduation reflecting upon their accomplishments and what their lasting legacy will be for MHS. This is my forth installment of "Dear Seniors..." Congratulations on your accomplishments and thanks for all you've done for MHS.
You can see the other three letters by clicking on the links; 2013, 2014, & 2015. Thank You Teachers!5/4/2016 My 7 year old son loves Minecraft, and by “loves” I mean obsessed. He talks of diamond swords, iron body armor, creative mode, mods, and ender dragons as if these are everyday items we can pick up at Wal-Mart or Target (which for many of these items you actually can). Many times I am frustrated with the amount of time he is playing, however, I am also impressed with his ability to create these worlds from nothing. When I asked him how he knew how to build all of these great worlds, his response is typically, “YouTube.”
Today’s students live in a technological world where they have never known life without YouTube, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Smart Phones, etc. As educators, we still remember the days of learning how to email, dial up modems, cell phone bans at schools, and Motorola bag phones. So what happens as these two worlds collide in our school buildings? Do we adapt to change or fight it tooth and nail because “that’s the way it’s always been?” In the book “Open, How We’ll Work, Live and Learn In The Future” David Price outlines the need for philosophical educational change in our schools to be able to adapt to the changing culture of our students and society. We live in a world where students have access to nearly every living author, musician, artist, electrical engineer, game designer, professional athlete, social media star, and the list goes on and on. If my sons wants to learn about creating a time portal in Minecraft he doesn’t need to attend a class at the community college, he YouTube’s it and within a microsecond he has thousands of “experts” to show him how. But it doesn’t stop there. He isn’t just the one consuming the information. With a computer and $20 headset he can create his own Minecraft tutorials and share his expertise with the world. At seven years old, he is now part of a community, or Tribe as Seth Godin would say, that freely shares information with other Minecraft fanatics across the globe. As an active Twitter user myself, I also experience this sharing of information freely on a daily basis. And it isn’t just with other principals in Nebraska. Twitter allows me to gather ideas from the best of the best our field has to offer. But these interactions aren’t just a one way street. Not only are these resources there for the taking but we can have one on one interactions from these experts. On more than one occasion, I have tweeted at experts and had a deeper conversation about their book or project. Have you ever had a question about leadership? Tweet at @ToddWhitaker and I can almost guarantee he will respond with the answer. The guy has over 75k followers and 40k tweets yet he is willing to share his expertise with me one on one. I have also been privileged to interact with multiple authors, the folks at Soul Pancake (Kid President), and the National Digital Principal of the Year, which lead to a visit to his school in Burlington, Massachusetts. With social media and online resources the possibilities for our students and our own learning is endless. Providing a well rounded education to our students no longer means schools have to have a staff member with the expertise in a certain field or hobby. Students today are already used to searching the internet to glean information on every type of question or interest they may have. Whether it is photography, psychology, drafting, interior design, 3-D printing, robotics, etc the list of resources and experts available to students is merely one tweet, Google search, Pin, or blogpost away. Our jobs as educators is encourage students to pursue their passions while opening doors for them in areas they may have never thought about. The value of an education can never be underestimated regardless if that knowledge comes from a classroom setting, a book, a TEDtalk, YouTube tutorials, a formal online class from a local college, or a weekly podcast. Through the formal education process, we need to continue to open up these avenues of learning and provide our students with the skills and resources they will truly need to become productive and viable citizens in the 21st century. The biggest question is are we willing to change? EDUblogging...Why It Can Be Difficult4/18/2016 In 2016, the sharing of information and resources is vital to the growth of education as a whole. Whether it is through Twitter, Voxer, podcasts, or any number of online resources, the internet provides educators the resources to help educate and guide students to be productive citizens in the 21st century. I also thoroughly enjoy reading other educators reflections of their experiences in their classrooms and schools. However, I find EDUblogging extremely difficult.
If you check out my blog you will notice that it has dried up like the Platte River during a hot summer in Nebraska. This isn’t because there is a lack of amazing things happening at MHS to share with the world. Those posts are shared regularly on the MPS Facebook and Twitter accounts. The lack of posts is more a personal matter that every educator deals with on a daily basis. From the outside, education is about testing, and curriculum, and board meetings, and sports teams, and evaluations, and the list goes on and on. I don’t disagree with any of this but when it comes down to it, education is about one thing, relationships. Relationships are the key to any well run organization but are especially important when you are dealing with 12 to 18 year old kids. And for that reason, relationships are what make EDUblogging so difficult. Everyday, educators have hundreds of interactions with students, staff, parents, and community patrons. Each of these interactions could lead to a great blog post that would interesting for the average reader. However, one mistimed, misconstrued, or misinformed blog post could ruin a relationship that took years to build. Schools need to be a safe place for all students but especially those who are struggling with life. Every student deserves to have a trusted adult they can confide in when needed. Every educator who truly cares about kids and building those positive and safe relationships has had a difficult conversation with a student who needed someone to talk to. Students today deal with home issues, academic struggles, drug abuse, dating violence, self harm, or an entire list of social factors which impact their daily lives. The fact that they can confide in a school employee means they trust this conversation will remain confidential, unless other agencies need to (or are required to) get involved. While many of these conversations would make for an intriguing blog post, it would also violate a trust that took years to build. While I love blogging and the power sharing our personal stories has, I love kids and helping them more. In no way do I want to violate this trust that I have built with them. Some of our most frustrating students or circumstances end up becoming our greatest victories because a relationship was developed in which the student decided to trust in what we were doing. I want to continue to see students leave MHS with not only a high school diploma but knowing a building full of dedicated adults were willing to help them write a better story for themselves. As we say everyday at MPS, “Everyone has a story...make yours worth telling.” Brandon MowinkelMilford Jr/Sr High Principal Archives
May 2023
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