Summer 2017

I hope everyone is enjoying their Summer. In less than a month, we will be back at it. Be Strong and Courageous. Besides that being this upcoming school theme, I have been reminded of that a lot this past summer. Whether it has been my training for my full marathon or dealing with my doctoral classes. Few weeks left but you can make it! Can't wait to see everyone!

Teach Students Work Ethic

In today's Elmore Thoughts, https://growingleaders.com/blog/seven-ideas-teach-students-work-ethic/ Dr. Elmore looks at students and the benefits of Work Ethic.  The end result we want is for the students to think you can achieve almost anything if you work hard enough. This reminds me of an old saying at the University of Michigan, What the Mind can Conceive and Believe, the Body can Achieve, and those who Stay will be Champions.

In a recent survey, 23% of parents ask their kids to do chores.  Dr. Elmore list four reasons why parents fail to expect chores from kids, but they all deal with that we feel we're not good parents if we stress them out with chores.

Then, there is a study from the University of Mississippi that state, "chores instilled in children the importance of contributing to their families and gave them a sense of empathy as adults.  Those who had done chores as young children were more likely to be well-adjusted to have better relationships with friends and family and to be more successful in their careers."  The study further states, "asking children to help with household chores starting at age 3 or 4 was instrumental in predicting the children's success in their mid-20s."

HOW PARENTS and TEACHERS can TEACH HEALTHY WORK ETHIC (Beyond Chores)

Dr. Elmore lists 7 items, four of them are: 1) Choose appropriate tasks, 2) Model a work ethic, 3) Offer payment, and 4) Talk about the benefits.   Follow the link above to read for explanations of these four items and the rest of the items that will help your child create some work ethic.

Balancing our impulses and our analysis is tough

This week Elmore Thursday Thoughts is about two extremes we must help students avoid.
http://growingleaders.com/blog/two-extremes-must-help-students-avoid/

Dr. Elmore starts off the article with a lot of scientific information about the "amygdala."  Which is summarized as good decisions are hard for adolescents because they don't have all the tools they need to make wise choices.

Dr. Elmore then talks about two case studies, Trevor and Carly (not their real names).  Trevor doesn't think too long before he makes a decision.  His past has assured him that if he makes a bad choice, his parents (or some adult) will swoop in and save him.  Carly on the other hand overthinks.  She weighs out every option, even paralyzed from choosing at all.  She likes to keep her options open because she is afraid to make a poor decision or to fail.  When she does make a decision, she doesn't enjoy it.  

What Can we Do?

For the Impulsive Student - We must Raise the stakes.

For the Analytical Student - We must lower the stakes.

Continue to read Dr. Elmore's blog to see how we can do that.

Bonus Thought: Studies show K-8 Model beneficial.

In this Bonus thought article, http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/10/05/shorter-school-grade-spans-linked-to-bullying.html  Education Week, a weekly paper I receive, had this article that talked about a recent study that found students that are in shorter grade spans are linked to more bullying among other issues.  Those other issues included math and reading achievement declines, absenteeism rising, and students feel less connected to the school.

This is why we love having a Preschool to 8th-grade option for our parents.  It gives them a place of community, a home away from home.  It is an interesting read that goes a little deeper than what I just summarized here.  We also want to thank you that you are part of our family.

Self Discipline and Willpower

Before we jump into our article for this week, I would like to share with you, our experience this past week for the LEA Convocation.  It was a blast.  There was fun, a lot of it too.  We got to be entertained by Joe Castillo http://sandstory.com/ A sand artist that took 2nd on America Got Talent.  We were also entertained by The Skit Guys https://skitguys.com/ A duo of comedians that perform short skits. Both sets of performers use their gifts that God has given them to help spread His word.  Other fun times were being able to talk and catch up with other Lutheran educators from around the world.  I do mean around the world too, one of my good friends is the Director of Operations in Hanoi, Vietnam http://www.concordiahanoi.org/ He has been out there for the last two years.  We were able to catch up with college classmates, individuals that used to teach and student teach at CTK, and lastly we were able to make new friends/acquaintances.

It wasn't all just fun and games, we learned a lot too.  The sectionals were magnificent and well done.  I don't think I heard a teacher say there were no sectionals for me.  We also had two main speakers.  Rev. Dr. John Nunes (originally from the Detroit area) who is the President of Concordia College New York talked about our Lutheran schools and how diverse our students are. Then the main speaker was Dr. Tim Elmore.  He talked about adjusting our sails in the world of education.  Not that we much change WHAT we teach, but we must change HOW we teach if we want to reach our students.

So, this leads to this week's article from Tim about Building Self Discipline and Willpower
http://growingleaders.com/blog/four-steps-build-self-discipline-willpower-students/

Tim starts out the article quoting (as he often does) a study where the University of Pennsylvania set out to measure self-discipline. Their results accurately predicted student's final grades, class attendance, and standardized test scores.  "Self-discipline accounted for more than twice as much impact as IQ did..."  What a bold statement. What does this mean? Students at CTK can succeed a lot more by just working on those self-discipline / willpower skills.  In my running, I know will power has a lot to do with how good I will do in a race or training.  During my long runs (6 to 10+ miles) there are many factors that make me want to just stop.  It takes willpower to plow through these workouts and races where walking or quitting would be so much easier.

Dr. Elmore does give us four steps to help us build our self-discipline / willpower skills  He also made it a game in a sort of way.  1st Step "DO IT IF YOU HATE IT"  In this game Tim suggest we choose one activity we absolutely loath and then purposefully make it a daily act.  For your child, that may be making their bed or put their clothes away EVERY DAY!  The 2nd step goes with the 1st step "ACCOUNTABILITY BUILDS RESILIENCY"  This is where you pair up with a buddy to keep you accountable.  There are many Biblical principles to this step too.  I have been part of accountability Bible studies in the past.  We checked in with our partner to make sure they were doing what they said they were doing.  Tim concludes this step with these words of truth, "we all do better when we are watched, and we all do better when we are encouraged."  Read the rest of the article for the last two steps.

Have a Blessed Day too!

Seven Different Mentors Your Students Need

I truly hope you are enjoying these weekly Thursday Elmore Thoughts.  It is kinda fitting writing about an article on Mentors, written by someone who is my mentor.  It is important to me, even today, to stay in touch with my mentors.  Which leads to these questions;

1. Do you have a mentor?
2. Does your child have a mentor?

Dr. Elmore explains the reason why our kids should have a mentor and the different types of mentors. http://growingleaders.com/blog/seven-different-mentors-students-need/ Tim has found over the years that majority of students say they desire to have a mentor in their life.  That they want someone they could call and bounce a question off of.  Someone that is slow to judge but quick to offer hope.  For a 1st grade student, that mentor may be just you right now.

Gallup released findings from one of their surveys where they found that "Where you went to college" is not as important in your life, as an adult, than, "how you went to college"  What do they mean?  Tim quotes Inside Higher Ed to saying the two key concepts were, "Feeling supported and having deep learning experiences." Tim, later on, states that students who succeeded were the ones who said, "I had a professor or a staff member who built a relationship with me and offered counsel during my tough semesters or uncertain days." If you change the words from professor to teacher and semester to quarters then I hope you could be talking about CTK.  The teachers and I are working on looking at our Mission, Vision, Commitment, and Goals during faculty meetings. I would love to hear a student say we are their mentors.  

When it comes to the seven different type of mentors Tim asks us to examine them for two reasons; 1) To determine which kind we most need in our life, and 2) To determine which kind we are best suited to be for someone else.  Please read the article and look over the seven kinds of mentors.  Discuss with your children the importance to have mentors and start identifying some in their lives. 

Bonus Thought: Fixate Our Eyes

This is a bonus thought for the week.  Even though we will not have school on Thursday, An Elmore Thought Article will still be published.

The Lutheran school Principals across Michigan are reading the book, "Switch" from Chip and Dan Heath together.  In our regional meetings, we discuss a chapter at a time.  During my read for my upcoming meeting today, a section stood out to me.  It stood out as it is related to some of these Elmore Thoughts we been reading about too. Especially the focus on Growth part.

In this book, the section is talking about how as humans we focus on the bad before the good or that "bad is stronger than good."  To illustrate this point, the authors shared this story with us, as a father, I find I do this too;

"Your child comes home one day with her report card. She got one A, four B's, and one F. Where will you spend your time as a parent?"

Nearly all parents will tend to fixate on that F.  We will even rationalize that thought as; Something seems broken - we should fix it.  Let's get her a tutor.  Or maybe she should be punished - she's grounded until that grade recovers. I know I been there, rarely do we think or say;  Honey, you made an 'A' in this one class.  You must really have strength in this subject.  How can we build on that?

The chapter continues to talk about trying to realign our thinking.  Fixating our eyes on the positive.  As Christians, we are to Fixate our Eyes on the Lord.  Imagine the world in which you experienced a rush of gratitude every single time you flipped a light switch and the room lit up.  For us, husbands, imagine when we forgot our wife's birthday instead of going to the dog house she says, "For thirteen of the last fourteen years you remember my birthday! That's wonderful!"  Hard to imagine, isn't it.  But, it is possible.  I will leave you with this final thought and question to answer for yourself, "What is the ratio of the time you spend solving problems to the time you spend scaling success?"  Fixate your Eyes on the Future, not the past.  Be a solution based thinker,

I hope everyone has a great long weekend!