Lambs to Lions

Omitting the 2004 Boston Red Sox from a Summer of Thanks for anyone born in New England and raised on the radio voices of Curt Gowdy and Ned Martin would be tantamount to living in New England and rooting for the Yankees AND the Jets.  *shudder* My love the Red Sox started at the age of 8 with the 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox.  That magical year carried me into the cocoon of Red Sox Nation (before it became trendy).  Like everyone else around my age, my favorite players were Carl Yastrzemski and Jim Lonborg.  I remember listening to the radio under my covers past my bedtime, Curt and Ned painted a clear picture of the pennant race to me.  Of course, no one told me that when the magical run ended with a Game 7 loss to Bob Gibson’s St. Louis Cardinals that I needed to assume the “Curse of the Bambino” for the next three decades.  So many close calls after that; the 1972 strike season when the Sox finished 1/2 game behind the Tigers and played one less game due to the strike, 1975 World Series loss in Game 7, the 1978 Bucky “#$%^&*” Dent home run in the one-game playoff game, the 1986 World Series loss that featured the Bill Buckner error in Game 6, and the 2002 playoff loss to the Yankees in Game 7 (aka the Grady Little game).  Every year started with “The Red Sox having not won a World Series since selling Babe Ruth to the Yankees, blah, blah, blah”.

Of course Yankee fans loved to taunt the Red Sox faithful with the “Curse of the Bambino”.  I hated them so much; still do, I am known as a slow forgiver.  That all changed in 2004.  I remember walking over to one of my Northland Street friends house after the terrible 19 – 8 loss in Game 3 and hearing it again; from Colt fans, in a town without a baseball team!  Ridiculous!  Then the comebacks started, highlighted by Dave Roberts’ steal and the Bill Mueller’s hit off Mariano Rivera (who the Red Sox own by the way), the big hits by Big Papi in Games 5 and 6, and, finally, crushing the Yankees in Yankee Stadium in Game 7.  I had reason to hope, but standing in their way were those St. Louis Cardinals; the team from my youth.  Suddenly, after 3 straight wins the Red Sox were on the cusp of victory in Game 4 in St. Louis and there I was on my hands and knees in front of the TV rocking back and forth wearing the string bracelet that Caitlin had made for me for luck around my wrist.  They won.  Game 4.  A World Series victory.  The curse over.  I was crying (shocking to those that know me) and talking to my old friend, Bill Cassidy who at 80 years of age claimed the Sox were going to put him in the grave.  Suddenly, the world was in its greased groves (a little literacy reference).

The Sox have won two more World Series since that time in 2007 and last year, but none are as sweet as that 2004 Red Sox team.

My Summer of Thanks would not be complete if there was not an acknowledgement of the man that took a chance on hiring a 37-year-old first-year teacher.  Roger Norris was the principal at Hamilton Southeastern Junior High School when I student taught there in 1995.  I was impressed that Roger took time with me during my student teaching; I can only imagine the number of student teachers that he had experienced in all his years as a principal and, yet, he took time to give me a teacher evaluation and sit down with me to talk about what he observed.  It meant a lot to me.  One thing that the military impressed on to me was the importance that leadership played in the success of an organization.  Roger was, in every way, an educational leader; he acted in the talent show (swinging on a vine during the Guitarzan lip sync (taught me the importance of being human in front of kids), he supported me in every thing I wanted to try in the classroom, and he would listen and guide; instead of dictate and tell.  On the day he called and offered me a job, Laurel and I were entertaining options of what happens next; Roger’s decision to take a chance on me made that decision easy; we stayed in Fishers, instead of going back to Colorado.  He also was instrumental in pairing Tony Sturgeon and me with Steve Baney on the Globetrotter team.   When an English position opened on the Globetrotter team a couple weeks before school opened, Tony and I pitched to Roger for Tony to take the English position (Tony’s minor) and hire Maureen Randall (she will come later in my Summer of Thanks) in Tony’s vacated social studies position.  Pairing us with Steve Baney would set in motion and define my teaching identity.

My Summer of Thanks goes to a FJH name from 15 years ago.  The Davidson family sent three girls (Rachel, Randa, and Rhea) through our building in the early days of FJH, but the reason he makes my Summer of Thanks is that he taught me how to be a youth coach.  Many years ago our dear neighbor’s, Steve and Diane Hamer, oldest daughter, Stephanie, played softball for Rance.  I went to one of her games and there was Rance coaching at third.  His voice carried all over the field, but it was the tone of his voice.  He only cheered; everything was positive, and he laughed; a lot.  I loved watching him coach, he would have been influential if he limited his cheering to just his team; he did not.  He cheered for both teams; his team more, but both teams none the less.

I coached girls for 10 years and tried to be positive dealing with both my team and the other.

My parents have received their child’s ISTEP results in the past week and before I get sent the information by the district there are a couple things I need to get off my chest.

1.  I make no effort, at any level, to prepare my students for the ISTEP test.  Okay, I said it; it is written in the ‘verse, “nothing can stop the signal Mal”.  Before the “accountability police” send the black helicopters and brand me a “brown coat”  Wow, two Firefly references in one paragraph. I have my reasons.

2.  After serving on two Indiana DOE ISTEP committees to try and improve the test, I reached the conclusion that the test was too wide and contained no depth.  Therefore in the end, the test measures nothing of importance and only takes time away from teaching what is really important.

3.  In reality, the test serves no purpose.  It is impossible to measure growth since it is a test in isolation; meaning that there is nothing to compare the data.  Therefore, there is no way to know if any number is good or bad.  If a student gets a pass-plus, it could mean an improvement or a regression.   The only purpose the SS test serves is to transfer money that should go to the schools to a for profit company and those in government that except the company’s graft.

4.  Honestly, if my kids pass at an 80% that would be about what I would expect.  In fact, I would be leery of any school that scores too high on the SS ISTEP, because that means they spend too much time on things on things with no long-term value and too little time on what should be the taught.  I choose to focus on analysis and thinking; and building within my students curiosity and confidence to take on tough tasks.

5.  I am confident that the best measurement of my student’s learning is still the grade that they received in my class.

You are aware of the difference between lions and lambs if you have been connected to my class.  If not, here is the Reader Digest version: All students walk into my room as lambs (cute, fuzzy, and academically defenseless), about 1/3rd of them will become lions (cute, fuzzy, and academically proven).  I am eternally hopeful by my nature so I offered all of my students from the last year a chance to be “Summer Lion” by completing a series of challenges this summer.

The assignments are not hard and they somewhat relate to our year together.  The first assignment is to watch four TED talks.  I love TED talks and probably showed 5 or 6 of them to my students during the school year.  Next, I wanted them to play in an unorganized way, it corresponds with my instructions to them over breaks and the summer; be a kid and play. I make a simple request for my babies to read one book; I would really like them to read two, but anything is better than nothing.  We talked a lot about increasing human capital and their next task was learn a new skill; or, at least, try to learn a new skill.  The last assignment was for them to make their bed 30 times over the course of the summer; this was inspired by our former math team member who had a “make your bed” contest.  The idea is to be faithful and accomplish one thing every day.  I will make “Summer Lion” buttons for every kid who turns in a completed sheet on preview day.  

My next thank you goes to my mother’s parents; Bamp (the grandkid’s name for our grandfather) and Grammy Lunney.  I loved their little house in Westfield, Maine.  It was the safest place on earth to me.  Bamp taught me to play cribbage and cared nothing about your self-esteem; in cribbage if you don’t count all your points, the other person can take the points; Bamp would take my points, even when I was 7 and 8.  It taught me to pay attention.  My grandfather was a hard-working man of Irish descent, I think in many ways he passed that trait down to his children, which in turn was passed down to me.  His steadiness in my early life filled a void.  He died too young from complications from a car accident where he suffered carbon monoxide poisoning.  I will never forget getting the news when I was stationed at Cannon AFB in New Mexico.  My grandmother is still remembered in my family as a great cook.  Her cinnamon rolls were my FAVORITE thing she made; closely followed by her homemade donuts.  She doted on her grandkids and loved them without limit.  Gram was a reader and a night owl.  She loved old movies and television.  I loved the safety that I always felt at their house as a kid.  The picture below is me and Gram in 1959.

My second social media thank you goes out to the 2013-2014 Fishers High School We the People team.  These kids provided me with one of my favorite experiences in my teaching career.  These kids were already special to me before they ever won state and became Team Indiana.  It is hard to describe to those on the outside what it takes to represent Indiana in We-the-People.  The state is one of the “power” states in We the People year in and year out.  The top 4 teams in Indiana could have finished in the top 10 at Nationals.  The work it takes to be in the conversation with Muenster, HSEHS, Cathedral, and Plainfield is daunting.  Rather than choose between preaching to the choir or confusing people.  I wanted to focus on each of the people involved so that I can acknowledge why they mattered.

 Unit 1 was as close to a perfect team composition as you could create; their steady development and domination at nationals reflected that perfection.  Each of them played a different role and these different notes struck harmoniously by the end.  You could normally count on Elliott to be the first to answer a judges question.  Describing Elliott is difficult; part Tibetan monk, part computer programmer, and part renaissance thinker.  He is not of natural strong opinions, because he will wait until he has explored and discussed every nuance and angle before forming an opinion.  Once he has internalized the understanding, he can apply it globally.  Plus the ponytail and fashion sense play to the persona.  Meghan is the glue to the unit.  She brings the quote, the reference, and the direct response to the question.  There is no one that worked harder to understand and contribute than Meghan.  She would take a question and build a web of references to the question.  Her contributions always seemed to bring depth of understanding; she clearly demonstrated that she had researched for beyond the text.  Lastly, there is T.J., the unit closer.  He was responsible for cleaning up four responses at Nationals that took the team response from good to great.  My friend and fellow advisor, Geoff Tease, commented over and over again about how T.J. would speak last and give a response that directly answered the judge’s question.  ATDQ!  T.J. has this forward lean and eye contact thing that would charm judges; if he goes into sales he is a shoo-in for setting sales records.  On Sunday nights in my basement these kids would be one of my favorites to “argue/debate” with because they hated to lose and finally figured out how to fight back.

Unit 2; my unit. *sniff*  I love these kids. *tear* In the beginning of the year I was not sure why Paternoster hated me so much since two of my three did not talk.  I had some worries going into Regionals, but then something happened.  I would take credit for it, if I knew what happened.  Suddenly, the entire team found its voice.  Sally is my lead-first, feisty historian.  Talking is NOT a weakness.  She was made for We the People.  The fact she could probably teach APUSH provided the team a core of knowledge that was so valuable in competition.  Every group has to have that person who breaks the awkward silence and that was Sally’s role.  At Nationals her personality clicked with one of the judges and they had a little intellectual exchange that deep down I knew would win us that day (and it did).  Jeremy was our unit’s bullhorn.  His marching band-trained voice was a weapon.  We used it for every quote, because his voice demanded the judge’s attention.  Where he made the biggest jump was when he decided to dig deeper into Alexis de Tocqueville.  Something changed in Jeremy.  Now he did not become a one-trick pony, but it gave him a professorial depth to his responses; any question, any challenge he could support himself through this lens.  He drove himself to be better; he has “grit” to him.  He caused me more than one teary moment at Nationals with his demeanor and understanding.  Janka; my Hungarian, German-speaking, one-time mute who rose like an academic phoenix who discovered that she could bring forth knowledge.  Janka made Jeremy look talkative in the beginning.  When we were just talking together she would contribute, but in a front of a judge…no.  Going into state Janka changed; she decided to take responsibility for her contribution.  She was really good at state; but, during the lead up to Nationals and at Nationals she was the unit’s philosopher.  She could was link Madison and Patrick Henry to current events; talk intelligently about state conventions, but her moment came when the “cool” judge talked to her in German and she answered him back.  When he talked to her in German (her third language), Janka sold the moment…a slight hesitation, a smirk, and then she answered; in perfect German.  It was a golden ticket moment.  This unit was easily the most improved unit from Regionals to Nationals.  On the last day, in the longer discussion, they were the best they have ever been.  I could not be more proud.

Unit 3.  I loved these kids.  Jessie is the one I have known the longest as I had a hand in coaching her in softball years ago and her dad is someone that I have worked with on We the People.  Jessie does not lack for conviction (at this moment everyone who knows her is shaking her or her head in the affirmative).  Strong passions and a fearless heart make for entertaining theater.  At state competition Jessie went toe-to-toe over gun rights with a deputy prosecutor for the city of Indianapolis.  It was epic.  Jessie likes to bait judges to debate her so that can win the argument.  She makes me laugh, because I like to ask her questions during follow-up that I know will raise her blood pressure.  Caroline is the group wordsmith; a born English teacher.  She has a aura about that makes you believe her and trust her sincerity.  She took a while to find her voice, but by Nationals she was a full-time contributor and held her own on the biggest stage.  Caroline has another quality that is defining and that is her heart.  She cares deeply about people; it is written on her face when she listens.  The last member of the triad was Jake Patterson; another philosopher-king.  Jake is even more Tibetan Buddhist than Elliott.  Jake can philosophize in one moment and go straight math formulas the next.  Jake is unconcerned with the flow of the current; he is interested in the source of the water.  He wants to understand ideas at an organic level.  He does not parrot opinions; he forms his own.  Jake also rocks an interesting hat that with the US Flag sunglasses cuts quite a dashing figure.

Unit 4; the “man group”.  This is the other group that I worked with a lot because Geoff Tease and I work together with our units.  This group became a powerhouse as the year went on.  They became a ballet of leading men; each taking the lead, but dancing different steps.  Brady will be the youngest elected President in history; and I would vote for him.  He understands the moment and how to bring his audience (the judges) to his side.  Brady likes to utter the phrase “If I understand what you are asking” and it has the effect of bring the judges to his level in the conversation.  Every time he would do it there would be a little internal chuckling.  The “Colin Burke Show” featured our team’s favorite Canadian (Halley might also be Canadian, but I call her the “sassy French girl” so she doesn’t count).  Colin’s development was so fun to witness as he progressed into this calm talk show host persona with a wealth of knowledge.  He made the judges his audience and somehow made you feel like he was interviewing the judges and that Colin had the script for the discussion.  He was a joy to watch and gave Geoff and I a couple great moments at Nationals.  The member of the “man group” is someone that came out of nowhere; it is hard to describe the pre-district Ryan, let’s just leave it with you would have given long odds that he would become one of the strongest members of the 18 keys.  Ryan and I share a bond over military service; there is a special place in my heart for people that choose to follow that path.  Ryan started to show himself in the roll up to state competition.  He began to pull and incorporate knowledge that could only be done through his own personal study.  Every deep conversation in the basement seemed to weave itself into his responses; he understood, he understood everything.  We walked together at Arlington National Cemetery and talked about the responsibility of leading men; he gets it.  I am proud to know him.

Unit 5. Wow.  Tough unit in the first place; case law and more case law.  But what really makes this group is the need for feisty, argumentative, knowledge pit bulls; they had it and more.  The glue of this group was Jake.  He was the conservative platform surrounded by intelligent individualists who possessed Rocky’s “Eye of the Tiger”.  Jake was not a pushover; just the opposite he was calmly aggressive in his disagreements with teammates and judges.  We like units to have creative tension; this group has it is spades.  The feistiest member of was Abigail.  She jumps into fire pit feet first; articulate and polished, she could command the entire room.  Abigail would remind you of the successful TV lawyer whose personality was as big as her ability.  Watching Abigail compete made me glad every time that I had not committed a crime and she was not prosecuting me.  Abigail is the reason that I recruited junior high speech team kids for next year’s We the People 8th grade class.  Her polish stood out to me during the entire year; we did not have to teach her how to be polished in front of an audience.  Halley Rose.  *sniff*  I helped recruit her to the We the People team, because I believe in her.  She was my Student of the Year back in 7th grade, my NJHS President, and the editor of my yearbook.  She is so…European; and I mean that in the nicest way.  She is a philosopher, educated, and cultured.  Blessed with deeply held beliefs that she will defend.  When she talked to the judges she would bring a deep thought or obscure reference that told everyone in the room that she was someone to be attended to in the competition.

Unit 6.  “Let it go, let it go”   This unit was so much fun.  Xiaohong singing only 8 words from Frozen’s big song on the bus ride to and from Nationals.  This group was a constant in my basement on Sunday nights.  They worked so hard to become better.  Dimi reminds me of a college professor; he even has the best beard, he just needs the pony tail and the earth shoes with a sports jacket and he is ready for the classroom.  By his nature he is soft-spoken, but when he talks he has something to say; unlike some folks in put words in the air and hope some of the words make a point.  Dimi offers a solution to gerrymandering that is a mathematical model that takes politics out of the discussion.  Xiaohong cannot be described very easily   She is brilliant in so many areas and could probably get stuck on an escalator.  There is no one on our team that worked harder and studied more (well maybe Meghan) to improve.  I thought her responses to judges’ questions on the immigration paper at Nationals and the civil disobedience paper at State were her best moments; both moments showed how much worked she put into understanding the material.  Lastly, Jason brought about one of my favorite moments of the year when after Dimi and Xiaohong introduced themselves in their native tongue and English, Jason introduced himself in English, twice.  It was a light moment in tense situation that put everyone at ease.  Jason was made for We the People.  He is passionate about study of government and history.  He could be counted on to fire out first.  So many times, just when it appeared the unit was stuck, Jason would save the day.

My last part of the thanks go to Geoff Tease, Taylor Schueth, “Dr.” Dyson, and Liz Paternoster.  Geoff and I worked side-by-side with our units for the last 5 years.  We coached softball together before that.  He is my friend.  There are few people who understand the Constitution and the history surrounding it like Geoff.  He is also a Red Sox fan which says something about his character.  Taylor is known to me at many levels; a student in my building, a terrible Camp Tecumseh counselor, and a one-woman force of nature in We the People.  She is tough and passionate; her units always improve and excel.  She cries as easy as I do; which is saying something.  “Dr.” Dyson knows more about the Civil War than anyone I have ever met; his clever quips and spot on questioning as a judge helped prepare this team at every level.  Lastly, Liz.  Thanks for trusting me with your kids at Nationals; thank you for getting me involved when my schedule should have told me to say “no”; and thank you for your passion for civics. Wow that was a long thank you.