The Easily Forgotten

This post has been heavy on my heart for about a week now and I finally had the time to sit down and write it out.

I grew up with a family who had a good income.  We weren't rich by any means, but my brother and I always had what we needed in our house.  When my parents divorced, and I went to live with my mom I saw what struggling to make ends meat looked like.  I saw her work countless hours cleaning homes just so we could have decent clothing, food, and a roof over our heads.  I also remember having Ramen noodles many a nights.

But I don't come from extreme poverty.  I've seen it though.  I've done mission trips in the slums of Los Angeles and in the slums of Puerto Rico.  I've seen what poverty looks like.  I've heard the stories of kids from poverty, I've read the studies and stories, I've watched the news.

You see what happens is that people who don't come from extreme poverty don't have that personal association with it so it's very difficult for them to grasp the depth and depravity that these kids are living in.  It's one thing to see it, it's another to feel it.

At my campus, and in my own life, we're always looking for ways to reach every child and we constantly talk about many of the home lives these kids come from.  And it hits us hard in our hearts.

But last week, it hit me even harder.

About 6 years ago I had a student in my 4th grade class.  Formed a great relationship with this student, as well as his family.  I had him again when I moved up to 5th grade the next year.  Over the course of those two years and the two years following I kept in constant contact with the family.  I helped pay for meals, I bought the kids school supplies, I tutored the boy and his brothers twice a week, took the boys to camp every summer, and the father as well as the boys were in my wedding.  I bonded very closely with all of them.  They came from poverty.  Both parents struggled with their health, the electricity to the home was turned off quite often, and some days they didn't have running water.

It broke my heart, but I tried to help how I could.

Then due to some extreme circumstances that happened within their family, I lost contact with them.  Until about two weeks ago.

Two weeks ago I ran back into the little boy (now a young man) randomly at a Navasota Football game of all places!  It was great catching up, and I ended up giving him a ride home.  When I dropped him off at his home, I was broken again.

The conditions that that family now are living in are even worse then before.  And I wanted to do something right then.  I wanted to find a way to help fix this problem in this community.  And that's when it hit me like a ton of bricks,  Sometimes we need that little moment of it hitting us personally to remember the pain and struggle so many families are going through.

But more so I talked with the young man about his struggles and it was incredible to hear his strength and tenacity.  It was even more moving to hear him talk about the impact that I have left on him and how those "little" moments when I helped are what he most remembers.  And how he said many nights knowing someone cared about him and his family helped him get through things.  It also reminds me of the power of connecting and of the power of caring.

Sometimes the best we can do is provide a warm meal or a sometimes even just a hug.  We work as a campus to provide turkeys at Thanksgiving, backpacks full of food every weekend, and even Christmas gifts before the holidays.

There are so many families in need, and not just during the holiday season.  But so often they are easily forgotten in the hustle and bustle of our so busy lives.

Take a moment, drive through the projects, visit your poorest student's home.  See what they're living in and what they go through.  We need to have that personal connection or at least a glimpse of understanding of poverty so that we can work together and work harder to fix this glaring problem.

We expect kids to come to school to learn, but I don't know about you, but it would be very difficult for me to learn on an empty stomach, while I slept the night before in a home with no electricity, and I couldn't take a shower, and my clothes hadn't been washed in a week.  All while I hear mom and dad talk about how they can't afford things.

Together we can work to help find a solution.  Together we must work, for the lives of so many depend on it.  Be the glimmer of hope for these children.

"Never doubt that a small group of people can change the world, when indeed, it's the only one that ever has" - Margaret Mead

That's Not My Job

One of the things that always drove me insane as a teacher was when I would ask a child to pick up a piece of trash off of our classroom floor, and their first response would be "I didn't put it there" or "that's not mine"!  I grew up where we all worked together to get what needs to be done, done.

When Angela Maiers came and spoke to my team back in August, she told us that one of the worst things we could do as a team is to tell someone else that something wasn't our job.  And it's true.  When you work at a school, you do much more than you job title suggests.

We begin to "drop the ball" with things though when we begin to say that it isn't our job to do something.  I remember when I was still in the classroom and hearing teachers say things like "I'm not wiping that table off, that's not my job" or hearing them say "I'm not picking the trash off the playground, that's not my job".

When an outsider looks in at a school, they don't see something and think "I wonder who's job that was?".  They look at a school and expect it to be clean, orderly, and running on all cylinders.  And when it's not, they blame everyone.

As an administrator my job is....well,  everything!  Cleaning, calling parents, filing work, lunch duty, trash pickup, gardening, making copies, you name it!  As educators we have to leave behind that thought of "it's not my job" and remember that we are here to serve kids first and foremost.  That is why we were hired.  So if something happens at that school that needs to be taken care of, that IS our job.

The 2014 EduBlog Awards

Every year the EduBlog Awards come along.  They recognize different aspects of the online community of education.  If you haven't heard of them or seen some of the awesome things they recognize please go check them out!

I was a little shocked, but totally humbled to see "The Summer Learning Series (#SummerLS)" That I did this past summer was recognized for "Best Open PD/Web Conference/Webinar Series."

That was a labor of love of mine.  But I am so proud of that little learning series and how quickly it took off.  And I am so absolutely grateful for all the people who helped by submitting content.  They are the true source of learning that took place!

Amazing people like:

- Olympic Gold Medalist Steve Mesler

- Teacher/Blogger Erin Klein

- Administrator Amber Teamann

- Sophia

- Teacher Chris Kesler

- Campus Technologist Stacey Huffine

- Teacher Arin Kress

- Speaker/Motivator/Educator Angela Maiers

- Administrator/Writer/Trainer Eric Sheninger

- Teacher/Author Dave Burgess

- Administrator Ben Gilpin

- Administrator Brad Gustafson

- Teacher Emily Swenson

- Teacher Michael Medvinsky

- Technologist Jessica Allen

- EduAllStars

- Librarian Jennifer LaGarde

- Teacher Pernille Ripp

- Administrator Daisy Dyer Duerr

- Education Advocate Tom Murray

- Remind

Voting is open until December 15th and I would love to encourage you to vote (Deadline is Monday Dec 15)!!   It's super easy...

Here is how you vote

Click on THIS link to go to the correct page.

Find the Summer Learning Series 2014 (the photo isn't correct about our series, but they are supposed to be changing it)

Click on the thumbs up symbol

Then it will ask what platform you'd like to use to sign in.  Choose one.

Then the most important part, you'll have to click the thumbs up AGAIN to actually vote!

Thanks guys!  And to celebrate this nomination, I'd like to formally announce that the Summer Learning Series is COMING BACK!!  It will start again in January and run all year (hopefully!!) So get ready for January 2015 when the Educator Learning Series launches!

Meet @BoswellAllison, The Officer of Optimism

In my effort to recognize the amazing members of my staff, I've dropped the ball the last few weeks....so now, it's BACK!

And this week is a great one.  This week I'd like to introduce you to one of my rockstar 4th grade teacher, Allison Boswell.

Allie is one of those teachers who surprises me every single day.  She has an incredible sense of humor and a great wit.  Anytime I come in contact with Allie I leave laughing.

I love that as her genius she chose the title "The Officer of Optimism" too!

Another thing I really love about Allie is her creativity and heart for kids.  She cares so deeply about her students and it's evident in everything that she does.

She recently adopted a bunny from a local shelter.  The bunny has "special needs".  The bunny had it's teeth taken out.  It's been so amazing to watch her students bond with that bunny.  Dunkin is his name.  Dunkin jumps all around the room, the kids rotate through his station and teach him lessons, and the coolest part???  Dunkin has a BLOG and a TWITTER!!  How amazing is that?

Allie also is great with getting her kids to fall in love with reading and with learning.  We have seen tremendous growth with her students in such a short time.  She also has two students who have special needs or requirements.  Allie has bonded with those kids and made them feel so special that they have bloomed more than anyone expected.

A campus exists and thrives based on it's teachers, and Allie is one of our best!  I'm so honored to work with someone who works tirelessly and creatively every day and someone who is here 100% for those kids!

1,000 Times

Music is another passion of mine.  At one point in my life I even thought about becoming a radio DJ, haha!  While driving in the car yesterday I heard a song that had a line that really stuck out to me.  The verse said "I don't mind, I would still come back 1,000 times.  Push me away and I will still come back 1,000 times".

I heard that line and I thought about us as educators.  How often do we have those students who just push us away.  Those kids who hurt so incredibly bad that their only safety lies in not getting to close to any one individual.

We can't give up on those children.  Those who push our buttons, those who drive us insane, those who need us the most.

On the same hand though, we have to come to the deep and hurtful truth that we can't save them all.  Yes, it's true.  Sometimes we think it's our job to fix and save every child.  I was just talking with my friends Chris Kesler and Josh Stumpenhorst about this exact concept.

Sometimes when we feel like we weren't able to break through to a child we think it's our fault.  We think we didn't try hard enough.  We think we didn't love enough.

But you see, that's not always the case.  Some children come from such painful existences that a years worth of love from one teacher may not be enough to break through right away.

And there's the catch with education.  We are never truly aware of the impact we have on a child because we typically only see them for one school year.

But something you say today or tomorrow could be the words that break through that broken and hardened heart.

So don't give up on a child.  Go back and try to reach them, again and again.  Even if it takes 1,000 times of telling them that they're valued, in the end the one time it gets through to them makes it all worth it.

photo credit: Thomas Ondrey, Plain Dealer File