You Are Going to Get Wet...

If you grew up in the Great Lakes State, chances are at one point or another you took swimming lessons. In my case, I've been involved in the process of learning to swim twice in my life - first as a youngster and then later in life as a parent.  As a child, I can remember my dad taking me for my first lessons at the local YMCA pool. While I was never fearful of the water, sometime during my development from a Polliwog to a Guppy to a Minnow I do vividly recall feeling like a sinking rock when I first jumped off the diving board in the deep end of the pool at Bentley HS. Many years later, my wife and I enrolled our own kids in swim lessons here at the Rec Center. Fortunately, they were not fearful of the water either, but both struggled at times to learn new water skills such as laying on their backs or putting their faces in the water for the first time.

Obviously my perspective as a child was much different than it was as a parent. As a child, I was intent on keeping my head above the water and learning new skills, and I placed an enormous amount of trust in my dad to provide support and encouragement. As a parent, I had no concern about my ability to keep my head above water and I knew my wife and I would support and encourage our kids. The instructor's role was and is to provide the information and expertise necessary for all parties to be successful. However, I am keenly aware that in both situations, everyone involved in the process gets wet! The kids get wet. The parents who are there to provide support and encouragement get wet and even the instructor, the expert with all the information gets wet in the process. For most if not all, learning to swim is an experiential process. No amount of reading, studying, talking, watching videos, etc. can replace time spent in the water.

I think about this process when I see a new concept or idea struggling to get off the ground. The natural inclination is often to read, study and discuss an issue from all angles before taking action. Said another way, there is an effort to create the ability to swim before ever hitting the water. However, implementing a new idea or concept is much like learning to swim - the participants must understand the need and be willing to learn, people need to provide support and encouragement and instructors and experts need to be present to provide the information and guidance necessary for success. And, perhaps most importantly, everyone involved needs to be willing to get wet!

Rules To Live By

Here in Saline, the students at each of our K-3 elementary schools are given rules to live by.

At Woodland Meadows they have the 3 Bee's:

• Be respectful
• Be responsible
• Be safe

At Pleasant Ridge, the students abide by the Pleasant Ridge High Five:

• Be polite
• Be prepared
• Be safe
• Be respectful
• Respond when spoken to

Finally, the students at Harvest live by the Harvest Four. The students are responsible for:

• What they say
• What they do
• How they help
• How they listen

As adults deal with the stress and pressure that challenges us, it is good to reflect upon the very rules we teach our youngest students. There are some valuable lessons there that apply regardless of age or issue. 

The Phenomenon of Relative Age

In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell explores the concept of relative age using the 2007 Medicine Hat Ice Hockey Team to illustrate the point. In youth hockey, players are grouped by birth year. On that team, the overwhelming majority of players were born in January, February and March, In fact, in Canadian Junior Hockey, 40% of players will have been born between January and March, 30% between April and June, 20% between July and September and only 10% between October and December. Why is this? In layman's terms, the theory is because they were born shortly after the cutoff date those boys were a bit older, mature and physically developed when they initially tried out for hockey. Over time, this initial advantage creates a situation where those players get placed on better teams, receive better coaching, more practice time, etc. and the initial competitive advantage is multiplied over time.

What does a team from Alberta competing in a Canadian Junior Hockey League have to do with schools? Well, the phenomenon of relative age exists in education as well. While the dates differ slightly from state to state, each state has a minimum age requirement. In Michigan for the 13-14 school year, a child must be 5 years of age on November 1, 2013 to enroll in school. Therefore, children whose birthdays occur in November, December and January will, relative to their peers, be a bit older, more mature and physically developed than a classmate born in September or October.

Why does this matter? Simple. Regardless of what the cutoff date is, (for school or sport) there will always be someone born shortly after the cutoff date who will be older, more mature and physically developed than a classmate / teammate born just before the cutoff date. The challenge for educators is to ensure that all students have the opportunity to succeed, regardless of what month they are born in. We cannot allow the initial advantages of maturity and development to create a perpetual cycle of more attention, more opportunity and therefore more success through the years. It is our responsibility to ensure that each student achieves his or her maximum potential, regardless of their relative age!

Did You Know?

November 5 is an election day and Saline Area Schools has a proposal on the ballot to renew our operating millage. This is not a new tax, Saline Area Schools has been collecting the same 18 mills since 1994 and passing this millage renewal will allow the District to continue to do so until 2023. In addition, the millage renewal has NO COST IMPACT TO HOMEOWNERS as the millage is not levied against an individual's principal residence.

If the millage is not renewed the district will lose approximately $7.9 million in annual revenue or 15.75% of our annual budget. To put this in real terms, that equates to the approximate cost to operate two of our elementary buildings, (supplies, utilities, teachers, support staff, administrators, etc.).

For further information, including the actual ballot language, please visit the Saline Finance Blog. 

Video Game Classrooms

I had an opportunity to hear Preston Swincher, an acclaimed speaker on Gen Y talk today and one particular strand of his talk really struck a chord with me. He recited the quote “Teens who play 5 hours or more of video games per day have difficulty focusing on tasks for long periods of time.” While the audience laughed, he repeated the statement to allow it to sink in, “Teens who play 5 hours or more of video games per day have difficulty focusing on tasks for long periods of time.” Whoever uttered those words surely failed to recognize the irony of that statement.

As educators we should ask ourselves why a teen that can’t sit still for 5 minutes in a classroom can sit in a quiet room for hours at a time without taking time to use the restroom or eat? The answers lie within the design of the games. Here are a few thoughts Preston brought up:

• Video games tend to be self-paced – players progress from level to level on their own.
• When a player achieves the objective of each level within a video game, they are rewarded with the next level of the game being unlocked.
• Should a player fail to achieve the objective of a particular level within a video game, no big deal, they simply play that level again.
• As players get better at the game, each level gets tougher and tougher.

What if schools could utilize those video game strategies in the classroom? Can we:

• Create more self-paced educational opportunities for students.
• Allow achievement and skill mastery rather than a calendar to unlock the next level of education.
• Allow students to continue trying to master a skill before bulldozing on to the next lesson without them.
• Challenge students with increased rigor as their skills progress.

If we could find a way to utilize these strategies on a large scale, (and I believe project based learning encompasses many of the required elements) we may just create schools where teens can focus on difficult tasks for long periods of time.            

30 Years... Where Has The Time Gone?

This Friday night, as part of the 2013 Homecoming activities, Saline High School will be welcoming back members of the 1983 Hornet Varsity Football Team. The '83 team finished the regular season 9-0, won the SEC title, earned the program's first trip to the MHSAA Playoffs and outscored their opponents an astonishing 257-32. To this day, the 1983 team remains the #1 ranked scoring defense in Saline football history.

As a junior on that squad, much has changed for my teammates and me over the past 30 years. We have gotten married, had children, seen our hairlines recede and waistlines grow. Some of have stayed near Saline while others have scattered around the globe. Many have experienced tremendous successes, some have been challenged with difficult circumstances. What remains constant for all of us are the shared experiences and memories created at Camp Killarney, during practice and especially on those magical Friday nights we got to play in front of the Hornet faithful on what is now called Crabtree Field.

In 1983 we were teenage boys living in the moment, soaking up all that an undefeated season could offer. This Friday, thirty years after we played our last game together, we will have one more opportunity to take the field together as a TEAM on a Homecoming Friday night. Once a Hornet - Always a Hornet!

Courage, Faith and Love

I recently had the opportunity to read a letter Nelba Marquez-Greene wrote to the teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary prior to the start of this school year. Marquez-Green's six-year old daughter Ana Grace was one of 20 first-graders killed along with six staff members on December 14, 2012. While waiting to receive word about Ana on that fateful day, Marquez-Greene said that she and her husband made a promise to "face the future with courage, faith and love."

In her letter, she wished the the teachers returning to school those same virtues - courage,  faith and love. Courage to support students who are left out and overlooked. Faith to know that the hard work is having a profound impact on students and a deep love for teaching.

Marquez-Greene concluded her letter to the teachers with the following, "As you begin your school year,  remember Ana Grace. Walk with courage, with faith and with love..."


The complete text of Marquez-Greene's letter to the teachers can be found at: http://bit.ly/13HrnBF