Achieving Student Engagement
I would like to share some thoughts about and a process that my school is going through to improve student engagement. We all know that to maximize a student’s learning potential, the student must be engaged in the teaching and learning process. It seems that so much of what is happening in schools is either based on old models that are obsolete or so constrained that it doesn’t build thoughtful, responsible young people. Education cannot be about memorizing answers and pleasing the teacher, but must be about critical thinking, collaborative work, and knowing what questions to ask. Learning must be about connecting real world experience to core subject matter.
We, as a teaching staff, are making a concerted effort to provide outstanding instruction to our students. Recently, we asked our students three questions and had small group discussions with all students. Those three questions are: 1. Why do students disengage? 2. How do we improve student engagement? and 3. What can students do to improve engagement?
As a teaching staff, we discussed the student responses and found four common themes as to how students are best engaged: 1. Students learn best from Passionate and Energetic teachers; 2. Students learn best from teachers that are Prepared and Creative; Students learn best when the material is Relevant to them; and 4. Students learn best when they best when they believe the teacher genuinely Cares about them.
Next, when we get back from Winter Break we are going to have all the students to discuss what they can do to improve their own engagement. Those discussion items will then be coded into themes for action points of the students.
Our goal through this process is to unlock every student’s and teacher’s potential to maximize their performance.
Iron Triangle of Higher Education
I had the opportunity to be a part of a group of agriculture industry leaders providing input to Purdue University’s Presidential Search Committee. I took this role very seriously as I saw myself representing both agriculture and education. The Trustee’s and Search Committee’s goal is to match the skill-sets of the top candidates to what Purdue University needs now and ten years in the future.
This is a tall order given the Iron Triangle of Higher Education: Quality, Cost, and Access. Purdue being in a position to appoint a new President is really a great opportunity at a great time. A time when students must thrive in a global market. This will require what Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, just yesterday said will require “Reimagining how higher education does business.”
“My chief message today is a sobering one,” Secretary Duncan told officials from colleges and universities who were gathered this week at the annual Federal Student Aid conference in Las Vegas. “I want to ask you, and the entire higher education community, to look ahead and start thinking more creatively—and with much greater urgency—about how to contain the spiraling costs of college and reduce the burden of student debt on our nation’s students.” Click here to read his speech. Also, click here to learn more about the administration’s pay-as-you-earn proposal.
Given Secretary Duncan’s call for creative thinking and controlling the cost of higher education and amount of debt students incur I would like to provide a bullet list of the characteristics identified for the new President of Purdue University:
- high energy
- long-term
- familiar with the Land Grant University
- passion for Indiana
- appreciation of agriculture and extension programs
- research and acquisition savvy
- international presence
- able to bridge academia, research and applied science
- global stature – we have to do Indiana and the globe right
- its ok to have have someone with a shorter pedigree to have someone who can be longer term
- Midwestern values
- vision for advancing Purdue University
- balance strategic direction set by the board of trustees, but also foster an entrepreneurial approach
- does not change for the sake of change, but understands why
- able to make smart, quick decisions
- surrounds themselves with smart people
- visionary
- public person
- a person who will know how to staff themselves with the right people
- understands the role of delivery, branding, and recognition
- the person is more important than the resume
- understands public/private partnership
- engagement
- promotes Indiana value-added agriculture
- accessible
- transformational leader
- superb organizational leader
I am sure you can imagine the energy of this almost 3 hour discussion. Purdue Trustee John Hardin said at the end of the discussion, “On a bad day this person needs to be God.” Not an easy task to find a person who can do all of the above. Keep in mind the search committee has had 40+ discussions like the one I was involved in.
Personally, I want a transformational, unconventional leader who will think, as Secretary Arne Duncan has called for, creatively and reimagine higher education. Specifically I want Purdue University to be a leader in bridging the gap between p-12 education and higher education. I continue to stress that with all of the great education reforms in p-12 education in Indiana occurring that higher education, including Purdue University, must also make reforms accordingly.
Think about it, wouldn’t it be great if a students circumstance did not determine what type of education he or she received from pre-k all the way through college? Let’s all be unconventional leaders and solve the Iron Triangle of Higher Education – Quality, Cost, and Access.
Mountains of Thanks
Thanksgiving Reflection!
I have several big projects I am working on right now, and yesterday for some reason at the end of my emails to my collaborators I started typing “We have a lot to be thankful for.”
Then I got to thinking that I was typing it, but had I stopped to reflect on all I had to be thankful for? Well, here goes my attempt at doing so. My top ten list to be thankful for:
#1. Isn’t it cool that we serve a God that shows grace, continues to put us in the right place at the right time, puts the right people in our lives at the right time, and all the other great things even though, in my case, we fail miserably at serving him?
(The gap here is to emphasize how much more important #1 is than anything else I have to be thankful for!)
#2. An incredible wife and son. They make me better everyday.
#3. Great leaders who I consider coaches, mentors, and great friends. Such as Dr. Tony Bennett, State Superintendent of Public Instruction; Kevin Eikenberry, The Eikenberry Group; Dr. Dale Whittaker, Purdue University; Dr. Jay Akridge, Dean of the College of Agriculture at Purdue University, Dr. Pamela Harrison, my Doctoral Committee Chair at Walden University; and Dr. Hobe Jones, retired Purdue University Professor who got me into teaching.
#4. The greatest Agriculture Science Teaching Staff in the country: Stacey Hartley, Ambra Tennery, and Kristen Scott.
#5. Outstanding students that are all ROCK STARS!
#6. Outstanding teachers to teach with.
#7. Outstanding school to teach in.
#8. Incredible corporate partners that help me be an effective teacher like SMART Technologies, Apple, Steelcase, Pasco, and many more.
#9. Community that cares about our school and education.
#10. The ability to DREAM BIG & HAVE ZERO FEAR OF FAILURE!
There are things I am sure I will think of after I hit “Publish,” but as I always say, “Don’t let perfection get in the way of a great thing.” I am so glad I took time for this reflection & encourage you to do the same.
Passion is Tough Work!
Me passionately teaching Adhesion & Cohesion
The word “Passion” comes from the Latin word “pati,” which means to endure, submit, or suffer. This past week I was really able to make the connection between what we usually think of passion being and the Latin word pati. We did a professional development that involved our entire student body providing a list of reasons why students were unengaged. One of the top reasons was some of our teachers having a lack of passion. Interesting that our students realize it, but some those very same teachers don’t see it in themselves. Gives validity to doing 360 degree evaluations.
It really saddened me to hear that said about teachers in our building because I consider myself very passionate. Then when I started thinking about it in light of how I view passion – powerful or compelling emotion and having a strong desire to accomplish something – I thought, wow, passion is really hard work. If we have passion it is really intense. It drives us and sometimes its painful. Sometimes it even eludes us.
Our professional development exercise reminds me, however, that it is important to our students to come to our learning environment prepared and with passion every day. This past week I finished reading the incredible book, Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America’s Schools by Steven Brill. In this book, Brill really drove home the fact that, “Truly effective teaching, could overcome student indifference, parental disengagement, and poverty – and, in fact, was the key to enabling children to rise above those circumstances” (2011, p.1). When I see that in print it really drives home the importance of what I do every day.
Brill (2011) went on to say, “successful teaching is grueling work. It required more talent, more preparation, more daily reevaluation and retooling, more hours in the class day, and just plain more perseverance than many teachers, and most teachers’ union contracts, were willing or able to provide” (p. 2). After seeing the thoughts of our students I would say Brill is spot-on right.
All of this reminded me that my continued passion is important, and all teachers need to self-evaluate and see if they have the passion it takes to do the work of educating our students. Guess what? If not, it’s probably time to find something else to do. It’s not an easy profession, but an important profession that deserves to be done by only the best and most passionate professionals.
Brill, S. (2011). Class warfare: Inside the fight to fix America’s schools. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Marine Lessons on Veterans Day
Today I had the honor of introducing Corporal Austin Scott for our Veterans Day program at Lebanon High School. Austin was a student of mine and graduated in 2007. Austin was a Marine and served in Afghanistan. During my introduction I read this email that I would like to share with you.
“Hello Mr. Ernest, haven’t talked to you in a while but I wanted to let you know I’m in Afghanistan and that the welding you taught me came in handy for a mission. We only have one certified welder in our company and he was falling behind on getting things done. So I went to him and told him I knew some stuff and jumped on some projects for multiple missions. Now we are all caught up until the next mission comes down. Other than that I am good. I have seen some crazy stuff, but staying safe. Hope all is well with you and thank you for what you taught me. In a way you served the Marine Corps without even enlisting. You are a great man Mr. Ernest. Have a good one.” Austin Scott
How about Austin learning to be a servant leader and using the skills he has wherever they were needed. He spoke today about how you never know where the things you are learning in school will be used. His email reminds me every day how important it is to form the relationships and to make education relevant so that all students, just like Austin did, can apply what they are learning to real life.
Austin, thanks for serving our country and for reminding us how to be a servant leader!
Action: Turning Dreams & Thoughts Into Reality
I heard the words on a song this morning, “Why do we dream, when our thoughts mean nothing?” I really got to thinking about this and it is so true. Think about it, if there is no action our dreams and thoughts really do mean nothing. This really hit home with the two books I read this week – It’s Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy by Captain D. Michael Abrashoff and What to Ask the Person in the Mirror: Critical Questions for Becoming a More Effective Leader and Reaching Your Potential by Robert Steven Kaplan. I learned so much about what both authors call actionable leadership. Captain Abrashoff’s ship the USS Benfold is pictured above.
When coaching and leading those we serve have dreams and we must give them the actionable feedback necessary to enable them to carry out the actions of making the dreams happen. As Kaplan stated, “Is your feedback specific, timely, and actionable?” This question is very important to me as a teacher and department head. As I coach younger teachers on effectiveness I must always remember that the feedback must be constant, not just when I have time and it must be actionable. If someone I am coaching can’t act on the goals, then my coaching has no value.
Another point Kaplan made that was of particular interest was when he said, “Excellent companies view being a great coach as a criterion for promotion to higher managerial levels, as well as an important determiniant of compensation.” I believe that with the implementation of Senate Bill One in Indiana under the leadership of State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Bennett and Governor Mitch Daniels dealing with teacher effectiveness we have also made this a criterion in education. We cannot look at teacher evaluations as a once a year punitive act, but a yearlong coaching opportunity to move all teachers into the category of highly effective.
When we think of using actions to turn dreams and thoughts into reality we must also do what Captain Abrashoff recommended, “Now more than ever, we must stop preparing for past battles and prepare for new ones.” So my final thought for this post is let’s keep dreaming ourselves and encouraging those we lead and c0ach to dream and let’s provide others and seek for ourselves the actionable feedback to make those dreams a reality.
Put Your Thumb Print on Someone
Winston Churchill once said that he had become a little bit of everyone he had ever come in contact with. How true this is. Today marks the last of our activities we are conducting for our FFA Chapter’s October Anti-Bullying Campaign. If you remember last week I wrote a post “What If We All Wore White T-Shirts.” This week everyone was to take their white t-shirt from last week and decorate it to show their own personality. Let me tell you it has been fun to see everyone’s shirt today.
For my shirt (see picture), I chose to have all of my students (161 to be exact) put their thumb print and signature on my nice white button-down shirt. I wanted this to represent, and for them to understand, that I believe, as did Winston Churchill, that we all become a little bit of everyone we associate with. We can choose for that influence to be negative or positive. By placing their thumb print on my shirt I wanted them to realize what influence each of them has on me and anyone else they come in contact with is as personal as their thumb print.
So please remember that you are putting your thumb print on everyone you come in contact with, teach, mentor, lead, or coach. Make sure that thumb print is one that is helping to lift that individual to a higher level.
What if We all Wore White T-Shirts?
Last week I wrote about our Anti-Bullying theme of “Accepting and Appreciating Differences” for our month’s campaign to make bullying extinct. Well this week my students had another great idea. Today, all students were asked to wear a plain white t-shirt and jeans to school. We also had many of our staff who wore white shirts and blue dress pants/skirts today in honor of this endeavor. This was to represent how vanilla the world would be if we were all exactly the same.
I am calling the event a success. I do not know official data on the entire school, but my classes had 76.8% participation and I had one class that had 100% participation. Let me tell you it was very interesting to look at the class and have them all look exactly the same. Actually, a little boring. In fact we got into a discussion about how great it is that we are all different.
With his passing, Steve Jobs has been on our minds a lot this week. He certainly was different. In fact there were those who called him one of the crazy one’s. Think back, however, to his advertising slogan for Apple back in 1997 – “Think Different.” In fact in the commercial they showed pictures of Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Branson, John Lennon, Buckminster Fuller, Thomas Edison, Muhammad Ali, Ted Turner, Maria Callas, Mahatma Gandhi, Amelia Earhart, Alfred Hitchcock, Martha Graham, Jim Henson, Frank Lloyd Wright and Pablo Picasso.
I don’t know about you all but when I look at that list of names I am sure glad they were exactly what the first three stanzas of the voice-over said, “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The one’s who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for status quo.” You can see the whole commercial here.
I am proud we are “Accepting and Appreciating Differences” and I for one want to facilitate learning in such a way that all of our students “think differently.”
Lesson of a Pin Oak
Last year my son, Heath, received a small Pin Oak tree to plant at home as part of a fourth grade project. We planted the little 18″ sprig and it is now a little over five feet tall (see attached picture). Heath is proud of his Pin Oak tree and and has watered it every day, has kept it staked and even put in tree fertilizer stakes for it. Needless to say, it might be the healthiest tree in Indiana.
I know there have been lots of writing using trees as the analogy, but I couldn’t help sharing my son’s reflection. This weekend he was standing next to his tree and he said, “Dad this tree and I are about the same size. I guess I have done a good job of taking care of it. You told me if I did everything right that it would put down good roots, grow fast, and be strong enough to last for my kids to see someday.” Then he made the profound connection. He said, “I guess that is really what you’ve been doing with me, huh?”
This became one of those “Touchpoints” for learning as Douglas Conant and Mette Norgaard called them in their book Touchpoints: Creating Powerful Leadership Connections in the Smallest of Moments. As Conant and Norgaard (2011) pointed out, these interruptions (or little conversations) can be both planned and unplanned, but give us the opportunity to lead. For these touchpoints to be effective Conant and Norgaard (2011) posited that leaders must “listen, frame, and advance.”
I did the listening, and Heath had framed the learning perfectly. All that was left was to advance. So we talked about how this nurturing did not just apply to father son, but to any time we are able to help someone, whether it be a classmate, teacher, or anyone who needs our expertise to be lifted up. We discussed how he has the chance to be a role-model and how others can learn from his example.
Finally, I learned from Heath that, “the action truly is in the interaction,” as pointed out by Conant and Norgaard (2011). So let’s all make sure we take time to listen so we can make something of our interactions.
Different As Dilly Bars
So here’s the deal, October is our FFA Chapter’s Anti-Bullying Month to lead anti-bullying activities in our school and National Anti-Bullying Month. Here’s what we did today:
Our FFA Officers got our local Dairy Queen (thanks Jeff & Carol Whitaker) to donate 900 Dilly Bars in a selection of all five flavors (chocolate, butterscotch, cherry, mint, and Heath). Our theme for our month is “Accepting & Appreciating Differences.” Appreciating that everyone has different tastes, makes different choices, and we are all different.
Then during lunch all students got their choice of Dilly Bar. How cool is that?
What was really appropriate was this morning’s reading in John Maxwell’s The Maxwell Daily Reader: 365 Days of Insight to Develop the Leader Within You and Influence Those Around You. The title was “Accepting the Fact that People are Different.” How appropriate for today!
John Maxwell summed it up best. He said, “you cannot win with people if you secretly harbor the belief that everyone ought to be more like you. Accept that people are different, and celebrate that God made us that way.” If we all practiced this wouldn’t bullying become extinct? Let’s try!
Byron's Babbles 
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