Gold Medal Blog

 Anticipation: the art of knowing expecting something to happen.  When I look at the idea of anticipation, there are two main elements.  To accurately anticipate something, you have to have some knowledge of the subject.  Because my kids have a tendency to drop food at dinner, my dogs know who to sit by when we sit down to eat.  A good quarterback that studies film and practices well can anticipate a receiver coming open.  If he waits until he is open, it is too late.  As a cautious driver, I expect the cars around me to do something they shouldn't.  As a result, I am constantly on the look out to ensure my safety.  The key element in all these examples is that in order to effectively anticipate, I have to acquire some knowledge.  I new dog doesn't know where to sit at dinner so if something is dropped they may miss out.  A quarterback that doesn't prepare properly may misread a defense or overthrow his receiver.  A driver dist...

Yesterday I had the privilege of watching my son play football.  In fact, we have quite a few of our 5th and 6th graders on this team.  Our boys won the game comfortably 48-0.  In fact, the other team didn't even make a first down the entire game.  Our boys played a great game!!  The success of this team comes down to the fact that these boys had to listen to their coaches and then implement the game plan when they got onto the field.  The preparation, the practice and then the execution of the plan work together so that our kids and our team are set up for success. School success is the same.  If we get all the way to game day (tests, STAAR) and we haven't practiced well, the our chances of being successful go down dramatically.  Our kids have to prepare, practice and then execute, just like they do on the field or courts.  But so many times our kids are willing to put forward the effort and persevere in our athletics endeavors but they are ...

 Like so many others from my generation, I remember where I was on September 11, 2001.  It was actually my first year in teaching.  I taught Algebra 1 first block at Airline High School in Bossier City, LA.  The truth is I didn't know anything had happened until another teacher came into my room and told me.  And then, there was silence.  We didn't learn a whole lot about Algebra the rest of the day.  It was too surreal.  President Bush, who was in Florida when it happened, left and came to Barksdale Air Force Base about 5 miles down the road from Airline.  The rest of the day Air Force jets crossed the skies above us to keep the President safe.  The whole scene was surreal. While we didn't learn much about math that day, many of my students got a lesson in heroism.  They saw and heard from first responders that were on the scene in New York and Washington D.C.  They heard the stories of people enlisting in the Armed Forces to ...

Hope.  We use this word a lot.  I hope I get that new job.  I hope I do well on this test.  I hope I make a lot of money one day.  The problem with this type of hope is that it is passive.  We see this so many times with our students.  They want so many things, they hope for so many things.  They hope to play in the NFL.  They hope to be a doctor or a lawyer.  They hope to be a Youtube star.  While hope is vitally important for our students, it is the action associated with that hope that is key to success.  We want our students to have hope.  In fact, I would argue, that this foundation is necessary for any success for our students.  They have to have a goal.  They have to have a dream.  That hope in a bright future is what is necessary so when the work gets hard, it is that hope that will sustain them.  But then we have to put in the work.  We talked with students this week about two things: resp...