I Challenge You.

I’m not sure about you, but my Facebook page has been flooded with individuals completing the “Ice-Bucket Challenge” to raise awareness/funds for ALS.  The support for this cause has been unbelievable and it truly shows the nature of the human spirit.  I’m proud to say that I too took this challenge (twice) and became drenched in ice-water.  Kudos to the individual(s) that came up with the great idea.

With that concept in mind I’d like to introduce a new challenge.  I know that there will be many new challenges that feed off of the previously mentioned, but this challenge is free and requires not a single cent to be transferred from your pockets.  It is actually quite simple.  I challenge you to have a conversation with somebody new each and every day for the next two weeks.   That’s it.  That is the challenge.

I presented this challenge to the students, parents, and educators of Griggs County Central during our first teacher in-service and our Back to School event.  I actually challenged them to do it for the entire school year.  A simple conversation with somebody that you don’t normally associate with each day is all this takes.  It can be two sentences back and forth and its over.  It can be simply greeting somebody in the hallway or on the street.  Give a smile and a simple hello.

Each and every one of us has a story.  Each of us wants and needs to feel like we belong.  Every student that walks through our doors has a battle or two or three or more that they are currently fighting.  I challenge you to lend a helping hand.  We all need to feel appreciated, and we all have an obligation to make our society a better place to live.

When you turn on the news you constantly hear the negative things happening in our world.  Whether it be crime, nasty politics, war, etc; we hear it every single day.  Our world is a much better place than what is portrayed in the media.  The Ice-Bucket Challenge is evidence of that.

One of the topics that seem to pop up in the media is the idea that our schools are failing.  Schools are not meeting Adequate Yearly Progress as defined by No Child Left Behind.  It is true; most schools are not meeting this benchmark.  Does one test truly measure a school’s effectiveness?  Has common sense become uncommon?  If you answered “no” to the first and “yes” to the second I think you are on the right track.

Here is how to ensure your school is succeeding.  Have a conversation with somebody new each day.  Make students/teachers feel appreciated.  Show an interest in them and they will show you what success is all about.  Teach real-world competencies such as creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, and communication.  Give them these four tools, and show them that they matter and they will begin to solve some of the problems that we have yet to find the answers.

I recently saw a quote that stated about sixty-five percent of our elementary students today will work at jobs that have not yet been invented when they graduate.  This is a staggering statistic.  The main job of a school district is to ensure students are college and career ready when they walk out your doors for the last time.  This can be a daunting task given the previously mentioned statistic.  Here is the answer.  Have a conversation with somebody new each and every day.  This will show them that they matter.  This will give them motivation to achieve.  Teach students real-world competencies that they will need in every single job when they graduate.  Allow children to be creative.  Ask driving questions (even if those questions yet to have a real answer). Allow students to work together as a team.  This allows them to learn cooperation, and better yet it yields face-to-face interaction (something that seems to be fading us in our society).  Finally allow them to communicate their work to the world.

It’s a simple challenge that requires you to pay nothing but receive the unlimited.  Start the conversation and show people that they matter.  I challenge students, parents, educators, business leaders, community members, and everyone else that has a beating heart.  For the next two weeks have a conversation with somebody new each and every day.   If you’re really brave do it for the rest of the year and maybe the rest of your life.

Disclaimer:  When I blog I simply write my thoughts as they come out of my head.  My blogs are not written to be precise with zero grammatical errors.  When I write for professional purposes I will have it critiqued, but not my blogs.  Sorry if I used the wrong there, or their, or they’re.  I’m notorious for that.  Also a comma here, there, everywhere, or nowhere could have been added or omitted.  My blogs are my thoughts and only that.  Enjoy : ).

Travis Jordan
Superintendent
Griggs County Central
Twitter: @Supt_Jordan

Resolution Day

Resolution Day

Disclaimer:  When I blog at home, I do not have a critiquer (is that a word?).  My grammar could and occasionally will be sub-par. When I blog I write how it appears in my head, not how it should appear in a journal :). 

It’s January 1^st, and yes, I’ve made my New Years Resolutions.  I saw recently that 90% of New Years Resolutions are broken within the first month.   Unfortunately, I’m one that continues to contribute to that data.

Not this year though…right? Can you feel my energy?  I even made more than one, and that probably had something to do with the fact that I’d already broken the first two.  But this third one I tell you is going to go the distance.  If your not at the edge of your seat reading this yet please get there, because I’m about to tell you all about my untouchable, unbreakable, longest lasting resolution yet.

I have fallen in love with Twitter. It is my greatest resource.  Anyways, if you have not heard of Jon Gordon look him up.  He is a motivator, innovator, and all the rest.  His message is inspiring, and he has created the “One Word” movement.  He has also written a number of captivating books.

We all know times get hard.  We get into a slump.  We feel down, cheated, alone etc.  Lets face it, we all have bad days.  What we don’t realize is that the world is full of bad days, and we are not alone at all.  Everybody has a story, and in everybody’s story are good chapters.  We can all think of something good that we have in our lives.  Why is it so easy though to see the bad? 

It is because we allow ourselves to.   On the bright side, we can control this.

I challenge each and every one of you to find one word that can resonate good in your lives.  Find a word that can take you from the dark to the light.  One word that can turn a frown into a smile, and turn a worry into an opportunity.  Find a word that gives you purpose and jump all over it. If you haven’t already give @JonGordon11 a follow.   You will get inspired.

I suppose you are wondering what my third resolution is.  It is my one word; “blessed.”  My resolution is to always feel blessed.  Why wouldn’t I?  I have three wonderful kids, an awesome wife, and a wonderful family.  I obviously have many other blessings but if I tell you those now, I will not have anything to blog about in the future. 

As we head into a new year, I wish peace and prosperity to each and every one of you.  The world can be cloudy at times, but it is also full of numerous blessings.  Be “blessed” and have a great year.

Blessed, not Stressed

Blessed, not Stressed

As I sat and pondered on what to write about for my next article, the Nightly News was on NBC.  While watching, I noticed that just about everything that was reported on was negative in some way, shape, or form: plane crash in Russia, destruction from a storm in the Philippines, tornadoes in Illinois, etcetera.   The negative continued on and suddenly it hit me.  I have no reason whatsoever to feel stressed.  I soon realized how good I have it, and started to think about all the things that have blessed me in my life.  I couldn’t stop.

Why is it that we tend to be more stressed than blessed?  Why is it that our stressors tend to outweigh our blessors (pretty sure that is not a word, but it works).   Why is it easier to see the negative things that surround us rather than the positive things that stare us in the face?  We can change this.

This time of year is all about family and thanksgiving.  After we feast on our turkeys (or other foods) next Thursday, we will begin to focus our attention on Christmas.  Christmas is a joyous time of year because we get to spend more time with our families doing the things that we love to do. 

This holiday season, count your blessings and be thankful for all of the good in your life.  If you sit down and think about it, you can probably come up with a million and one reasons to feel blessed.   I challenge you to feel blessed and not stressed!

What does this have to do with school?  Why is a superintendent telling you this?  Well, you know the old saying… “If momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.”  The same applies for students.   Stress in the home can directly lead to stress at school.   Talk with your children each and every day about the positives in their lives.  One thing that I’ve started to do is ask my kids the same question every night before they go to bed:  “what was your favorite part of the day?”   Now they go to bed thinking about something positive. 

In any event – I will end with a short poem written by yours truly:

Are you feeling crabby?

Things in your life a little shabby?

Are you walking with a frown?

Well, it’s time to turn it upside down.

                               

Now put on your smile

Even if it’s for a two-minute trial.

You will feel better

And your life will feel like it’s coming back together.

If you are still feeling stressed after reading this article, think of the this:  you could be a turkey!

Proud Superintendent

Proud Superintendent

What makes a school great?  This is obviously an overloaded question, which would most likely yield and overloaded answer.  I will keep it simple.

The answer….it depends on who you’re asking.  If you ask the legislator’s that passed the No Child Left Behind legislation the answer is high test scores.  If your students do well on the State test; then you are a great school.   We have to focus on the parts that make up the whole in order to achieve such greatness.   

Have you ever made Rice Crispy Bars but forgot the Marshmallow’s?  How about Spaghetti and forgot the sauce?  Do you know where I’m going with this?

Certainly the ingredients to a great school include more than just test scores, and I can tell you at GCC we are whipping up a great batch of school each and everyday.  I’m proud to be the Superintendent of such a great school.  We often focus on the negative in this world and we tend to overlook the positives.  This is wrong.  We should take pride in our positives, and learn from our negatives. 

I recently read a great article about how Golf applies to our lives.  What does a golfer remember after a round of golf?  The simple answer is – the great shot he/she hit on that one hole.  Of course a golfer hits a number of bad shots, but the one thing he/she remembers is the great one, and it’s the great shot that keeps them going back out for more golf.  Why can’t we apply this to our lives today?   The answer is……..drum roll please………..I said drum roll please…………… we can, and we need to start today.  

So lets begin.

The pride that the communities of Cooperstown and Hannaford have in their school goes unmatched by any other.  I’m willing to take bets on it.  If you have ever wondered why students don’t cheer, or even don’t attend school events anymore – wonder no more.  Please come to a GCC event.   Sportsmanship and Pride are two things that our patrons and students take with them to all of our events.    The support that our communities have for our kids, and the support that our kids have for each other is a site to see. 

The Cooperstown gymnasium is maybe the only place where you could play “If your happy and you know it” at a sporting event and the entire crowd takes part (including teenagers :).  Yep, they put their right foot in and then they take their right foot out, and you better watch out because they shake it all about.   They do the hokey pokey and they cheer and support one another. 

What makes a great school?  It is more than test scores.  It is a pride in doing what we do.  We live, we learn, we play.  We lift each other up.  We lend a helping hand, and we take pride in everything we do.  This is what makes a great school.   As for tests scores making a great school…I think of it like this.  Making progress in our scores should be a major goal for our student’s and teachers.  Supporting each other in everything we do is a major activity of reaching that goal.  If we can motivate, inspire, and support each and every day – we cannot do wrong, and we will continue to see progress.

Thank you to the communities of Cooperstown and Hannaford for supporting our students in all that they do.  I look forward to doing the Hokey Pokey with you real soon.

What is Next?

What is next?  I ask myself this question everyday simply because I learn something new everyday.  It seems like education continues to evolve and change at a rapid pace. I fear that in this evolution we tend to forget the real reason we are here.

We hear we must do this and we must do that.  Federal funding has decreased, and the pressures to get students to proficiency has increased. More and more, students are coming into our districts and less funds are available to get them the education that they deserve.  We spend more time as educators learning new technologies and implementing new mandates, that I fear we are doing our students a disservice.  I completely agree that we need to “keep up with the Jones” so to speak, but I also believe that we need to filter down on the "new" stuff and concentrate on the "what is important."   All too often it seems that once we get a handle on something new it becomes the old and the process repeats itself.

Currently, our students take one test which determines if they are proficient or not in English and Math.   Imagine if we carried this same idea to other aspects in life.  I'm sure Michael Jordan has missed a free throw a time or two.  Does this make him non-proficient in basketball?  He could jump, he could defend, and he was quick.  We could apply this or a similar analogy to a student who does not perform well on the English portion of this test.  The student is extremely creative and innovative.  The student has people skills that go unmatched by their peers, but we labeled them partially proficient or novice.  The point is that one test cannot be a significant measure of academic success and school proficiency. We have got to change the way schools and our students are judged by this.

In any event, we cannot forget about educating our children. Technology is interesting and can be very tempting, but we need to make informed decisions about what is important.  We need to focus on the student...the individual student.  The more time teachers spend with their students, the better they will understand how they learn.  If we can turn our classrooms into student-centered classrooms and facilitate learning to the individual child, we will see our proficiency rates rise.  The more time we spend with our students and the less time we spend learning something that will eventually be replaced by the time we learn it, the better off we (and our students) will be.

As we look forward, I just simply ask that we continue to keep the students in the forefront of our minds.  A decision that does not positively affect our students is not a good decision.

Travis Jordan

Superintendent

Griggs County Central School

Academics vs. Activities

This time of year is extremely busy.  Students who participate in spring activities
often seem to be gone from school more than one day a week (sometimes three and four times a week).  Because of this, the question arises every year (mostly during this time of year)…What are the kids learning?

Many people like to compare academics and activities - and obviously one probably out-weighs the other.  However, a closer look might surprise you.  The truth is that both of these work hand-in-hand to provide our students with the best education possible.

I was blessed to be a basketball coach for 11 years of my life.  I've also been blessed to be an educator for about 10 years.  I've seen the best of both worlds, and I've seen some troubling times as well.  Through it all I’ve gained a deeper understanding of the importance of both the academic curriculum and the social curriculum.

The academic side of school offers our students a curriculum that is not only challenging and worthwhile, but it also gives them a recipe for the future.  It gives our students a solid knowledge base so that they can begin to tackle the world after they graduate.  Mastery of the academic side of school is measured by a grade-point system (look for major changes to this in the future).

The activity side of school offers a social curriculum that teaches students some very valuable life lessons.  It teaches our students the importance of hard work and dedication.  It teaches students the values of team work and perseverance.  It provides students with a social dimension, which requires interaction and dependability.

Both of these educational entities allow for success and failure, and in most circumstances, you cannot have one without the other.  Most successes come directly from failure.  So whether a student fails a test or misses the game winning shot – the values learned in both circumstances help determine who our students become.

So yes, this is a very busy time of the year but it is also very important.  Students who are currently juggling academics and activities are just getting a taste of what life is like when they enter the real world, when all of the sudden they are juggling family, job, finances, and possibly, school and more.  The next time you hear somebody say, “What are our kids learning,” you can tell them that GCC Students are learning life.

Social Media and Education

I can remember the phrase vividly.  I swear that my mother must have said it so many times that she had to have dreams about it.  “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.”  Have you heard this?  I can remember growing up and fearing the moments that I made my parents mad.  I can also remember the one time I had to visit the Principal’s office and crying before I even got half way there.  The weird thing about that – is that I had no clue why I was even being called there.

In this day and age it seems as though that fear has subsided and the consequences of wrongful behavior no longer outweigh the repercussions that come with it.  Students these days are exposed to so much more than you were as a kid.  When I was in school there was no Facebook.  There was no Twitter or SnapChat.  If you had something to say to somebody, you said it to their face or mailed them a letter.  Students now believe that they can write or post what they want on social media sites and not have to live with the consequences.  We as a society need to change this way of thinking.

As an educational entity it is our job to reinforce the morals and the character that students are being taught in their homes.  Obviously it is also our job to provide an enriching and engaging education which is gained in a safe, but yet welcoming environment. The main focus of schools is to provide a curriculum that students can take with them when they leave and put it to good use as productive citizens. I understand that not everything that goes on in a school system is perfect – but we must keep striving for it.  I have been told that perfection is unattainable but the pursuance of such a feat can lead us to excellence.

The curriculum is not my worry.  Social skills are what I continue to worry about.  It’s not just Griggs County, but yet it is our entire society.  We continue to say that it is ok for people (adults and children) to write what they want on social network sites and not be held accountable for it.  It’s ok for political parties to hold debates where the sides bully each other.  It’s ok for local media outlets to create Facebook accounts where people can write in and complain about anything and everything.  Do you see a problem here?  We as a society have an obligation to make things right.  We have to teach our students moral and ethical behavior standards and we have to all be on the same page doing it.  Albert Einstein said it best: “I fear the day when technology will surpass humanity…..”  If we all lived by the phrase my mom engrained into my head a million times, maybe we could put a dent into social media ridicule.