tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62764749179031856552024-02-19T05:31:46.291-05:00Every Student, Every DayHigh School Principal striving to positively impact student lives every day in every way.Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.comBlogger75125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-16160487102796139662016-03-08T22:02:00.002-05:002016-03-08T22:02:26.401-05:00The wonder of it allOh what a difference a few months makes when you have a new baby in the family.<br />
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In the fall we took Marisol to the Columbus Zoo, even in December for the Zoo Wonderlights. She was then 7 months old and thoroughly enjoyed gazing at all of the sights.<br />
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Marisol will be 10 months old tomorrow and what a difference in three months in the life of a baby. Today in wondrous weather of over 70 degrees we ventured to the zoo again. <br />
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To see these zoo through her eyes is truly amazing. Now no longer content to sit in her car seat that becomes her stroller, she now cranes her neck straining to sit straight up in her seat.<br />
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I unbuckled her seat straps and she sat upright in her car seat in the stroller, straightening her neck left and right like ET to view the trees, all of the other babies also in strollers, and anything that moved.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marisol spots the Pronghorns in the North America exhibit.</td></tr>
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Now having learned to wave, Marisol waved to the pronghorns, the cows, the otters, the flamingos, the elephants, the sea turtle, fish, rays and manatees.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The moose moving from the land to the pond drew particular attention.</td></tr>
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Any animal that moved at the zoo not only could she see but it was now a friend.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The beautiful flamingo plumage and loud honking drew our attention.</td></tr>
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I call her mother the animal whisperer, for she too loved any animal or creepy crawler creature that wanted to sit on her to do so. She is the opposite of me, who is uncomfortable in a house with cats or dogs, little alone a Madagascan cockroach crawling up my arm.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We had never seen the sea turtle in a vertical perch before so Marisol gave him a big wave.</td></tr>
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But today Marisol and I both loved the zoo. For her, a new beautiful world is apparent through the wonders of the Columbus Zoo. How blessed we are to live so close. For me? I too have a wonderful world of animals that I now see through the eyes of a 10-month-old. <br />
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The circle of life. <br />
<br />Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-83818481671575459302016-03-07T22:12:00.002-05:002016-03-07T22:12:59.203-05:00"If winter comes, can spring be far behind?""O wild west wind, if winter comes can spring be far behind?"<br />
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I have always loved this ode by Percy Shelley. It is a poem about anticipation, and right now anticipation for spring is great in Ohio. In March, one day may still be winter and the next spring-like.<br />
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I love the lengthening of the days now, and the temperatures this week are climbing from the 60's and into the 70's. Life is renewed, and a fresh start for all living things begins.<br />
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This is our granddaughter's first transition from winter to spring, and today we enjoyed a walk in nearby woods to celebrate the welcome warmth.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marisol enjoying our walk in the woods today.</td></tr>
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I know what being outdoors brings to me, but as I gazed at Marisol today the wonders of the woods intensified.<br />
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On our walk today we paused as the birds' voices swelled around the bends of the path. As a 10-month-old, Marisol loves both seeing and hearing birds and her eyes widen at their joyous sounds.<br />
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Halfway through the walk I took her out of her scarlet and gray stroller so that she could experience the woods firsthand. We patted a shaggy bark hickey tree's trunk and we smiled at its roughness. We then moved to a contrasting elm trunk.<br />
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She twisted her head as she perceived the noise of rustling leaves and watched a squirrel leap from the leaves to a tree. I placed a small twig in her hands and she hesitatingly gripped it between her thumbs and fingers. <br />
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Up and down the hills we traversed, and her head turned left and right as she strove to take in the sights and sounds of an early spring woods.<br />
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Although no leaves block the sunlight from her eyes yet, soon the woods will change from brown to green, and we will be there again and again to see it. Together. <br />
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Through her eyes, I experience the woods anew, just as God intended, for that is the meaning and beauty of spring.Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-27110773600851249012016-03-06T21:22:00.001-05:002016-03-06T21:23:31.154-05:0088 keysPiano: A musical instrument in which felt-covered hammers, operated from a keyboard, strike the metal strings. (courtesy dictionary.com)<br />
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It sounds so simple, yet for me, my piano is a lifetime of memories and at times, a best friend.<br />
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In second grade, I rode in a borrowed pickup truck with my Dad and one of his friends up winding Route 60 from Marietta to New Lexington. Someone was giving away a piano, and apparently, I wanted to play. I don't remember the request, but I remember the trip, for on the return trip the piano started sliding off the tailgate and we had to pull over to secure it. My Dad told that story over and over.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The old Everett piano-- one of my best friends in life.</td></tr>
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We lived then on 8th Street beside a hollow in a rented brick house. I soon started piano lessons with Mrs. Stout, who lived a few blocks away, next to Mound Cemetery. My sister took lessons from my Aunt Kathareen but apparently that didn't go very well, according to my Dad, and so I started lessons with Mrs. Stout. I believe I was a fairly unremarkable piano student though I did enjoy playing, until about 6th or 7th grade. One summer, I decided that the old, used Everett console with dark wood already nicked with time, was my new best friend.<br />
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I played and played, for hours on end. Our family situation was extremely volatile and very unconventional for the 1950's and 60's. My friends had fathers who worked and mothers who stayed home and baked cookies and cleaned house. My father was totally disabled Marine who went in on Day 1 of Iwo Jima and could not work. He was and always will be my hero. My mother was a secretary and registrar for the Washington County Health Department. <br />
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My father fought the Battle of Iwo for the rest of his life with various addictions and mental health issues and my mother never truly coped with his problems. My sister was six years older, and I always felt very different from my friends and very alone at times.<br />
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That piano became my solace and my friend, and gave me companionship and also an opportunity to excel at something.<br />
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Soon after I started taking the piano seriously, Mrs. Stout became too ill and elderly to continue to teach and so I started lessons with Aunt Kathareen. This time, it went very well for me and my family.<br />
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I continued lessons with her until I graduated from high school, and we were both nervous every year about the recitals as I did not want to let her down and she didn't want me to either. But we were both perfectionists who got along great. <br />
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I got to know my Dad's oldest sister well and admired her talent at the piano and organ. She was the organist at the First Presbyterian Church for over 50 years and she also gave me organ lessons on a magnificent pipe organ at the church for two years. I loved taking lessons from Aunt Kathareen and every time I still play some of the sonatinas and sonatas I learned from her I think of sitting beside her on the piano bench at the baby grand in her basement.<br />
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My Dad loved listening to me play, as did my Grandmother, and at times I can still see their faces as I played their favorite songs for them. My grandmother had me play for her church circle at her home and so I became adept at Baptist hymns. My Dad loved anything I played, but when I found his favorite song was Fascination I learned to play it for him, and we danced to that song as the Dad-bride dance at my wedding. If I want to feel close to him I sit down at the old Everett and play Fascination.<br />
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For a while I was separated from my dear piano as I went off to college at The Ohio State University and then lived in an apartment before I got married to my husband Jeff. But the piano played a part in our courtship. When I started bringing him home, we would invariably end up sitting on the piano bench together. I would play classical and pop songs to him, singing the words of "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You" to him. <br />
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He loved it, and so did I. He once told me he had never met anyone who could play and sing the piano. We were young and in love, and the piano made us closer still. That song has remained our song, having it played at our wedding, and we still dance to it in the kitchen. But it all started at that old piano. And yes, I still play that same arrangement for him on the same piano and on the same piano bench.<br />
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As soon as we were married and built our first home the piano left Marietta and we have all been together ever since. I discovered plastic labels under the bench that my niece Lisa and her friend Kathy had decorated as children.<br />
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Through the years I have sometimes still played extensively and some years have barely had time to touch the keys. But the piano always patiently waited for me to return, and I always did.<br />
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When my daughter was a baby, I would sit her on my lap and watch her little fingers strain to press hard enough to make noise. I was delighted when she enjoyed it. She took piano lessons in elementary school and also practiced on it as I did. She then switched to flute and on to mellophone and was a proud member of The Ohio State University Marching Band. I am proud that the old piano provided some of the musical foundation for her also.<br />
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The old Everett has moved two more times and now rests in our den. It needs tuned and has two keys that need glued but emits the same feeling for me as when I was a child. Now a retired high school principal, I find I have more time to sit down with my old friend.<br />
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Have I really played you since I was 7 years old? Through good times and bad? You have been my friend for the bulk of my life, and I still cherish taking even 5 or 10 minutes to play some of the same songs I have for years. I love the connection with classical music the most, for in playing Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Dvorak, I feel not only linked with my piano but with eternity, and with all of those who have played these songs before me.<br />
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And today, the old Everett is still welcoming a new generation of our family to its 88 keys, our granddaughter Marisol. Marisol sits on my lap and puts her tiny fingers on its keys. In just two weeks or so she has gone from not being able to make a noise to pounding it out with feeling!. She especially enjoys the low octaves, stretching her little arms all the way down to the lowest key. Why? Because it is there. And then her face emits the brightest and best smile ever. Just like her mother. And just like I still do in my heart.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marisol and I at the old piano.</td></tr>
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88 keys. Yes, it is a musical instrument with 88 keys. But for me, the 88 keys hold my heart, my deepest emotions, love, and a lifetime of memories. <br />
<br />Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-22997294466943033682016-03-04T21:38:00.003-05:002016-03-04T21:41:21.878-05:00Family lullabies, family legaciesOur new granddaughter makes life better in so many ways, whether it is her hearing a bird's song for the first time or gazing quizzically at a white tail deer eating the end of the squirrel feeder's ears of corn. Life is new and fresh again every day.<br />
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It is also a return to yesteryear. She enjoys some of her mother's same toys saved with hope and prayer for then an unknown grandchild. Marisol, as did her mother, enjoys the blocks that her father lovingly crafted and painted for her, as well as the wooden shape puzzles he also sawed and sanded.</div>
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And me? I hold her on my lap as her tiny fingers play the same piano keys I did, and her mother did, as children. One of our family legacies, that piano made the trip to my childhood home in the back of an old pickup truck, down State Route 60 from New Lexington to Marietta. The price was right --free--for a poor family with a daughter eager to learn to play.</div>
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In addition, each day, Marisol and I sit in the very old wooden rocker that belonged to my grandmother's cousin whom we knew as cousin Jane. Jane lived in a rather dilapidated apartment building close to the river at the corner of Second and Green Streets. I was never sure of Jane's age, though she was older than my grandmother, who was born in 1888.</div>
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As we sit and rock, the old chair, a family hand-me-down with well-worn arm rests, provides the perfect setting for rocking Marisol to sleep with the two family lullabies I learned somehow, at some time from my family. Two of our best family legacies.</div>
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The first is one I remember my Dad singing, the only time I remember him singing anything. I sang it to our baby daughter daily, and I do the same to Marisol.</div>
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"You're the end of the rainbow, </div>
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The star on the tree,</div>
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The Easter bunny,</div>
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To your Mommy and me,</div>
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You're sugar and spice,</div>
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And everything nice,</div>
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You're your Daddy's little girl."</div>
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I change the parental references but other than that sing the same tune. It is special to me, as it not only reminds me of my father, but of singing it to our daughter. Hopefully it will continue in our family, and in the hopes and dreams of future generations.</div>
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The other is one that I remember my Mom singing to my nieces and nephews, her grandchildren. I remember asking her about its origin. She explained that it came from the hills, and she remembers the older people in her family singing it to all the babies in her family. All of her family grew up on Archer's Fork off Rt 26 in southeastern Ohio, </div>
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It goes this way:</div>
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"Rock a bye, don't you cry,</div>
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Daddy's gone a-hunting,</div>
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Up on the hill, beside the mill,</div>
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To get his baby's bunting."</div>
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Even typing the words of these lullabies floods my brain with smells and sights of a time far away. Sitting in the old rocker singing these family songs, I sometimes try to imagine all of the new babies, born in earlier days when life was simpler, being lulled to sleep.<br />
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Collicky babies, smiling babies, grabbing for the hair and necks of their mamas and grandmothers, until finally closing their eyes to the tunes of their families.</div>
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The lullabies of generations. Family legacies.</div>
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For their gifts from God.</div>
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Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-84347194630688777932016-03-03T22:33:00.000-05:002016-03-03T22:33:27.487-05:00My heart leaps up"My heart leaps up when I behold a rainbow in the sky." William Wordsworth<br />
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I have always loved the British Romantic poets, especially those poets dedicated to the beauty of nature. <br />
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I, too, love the beauty around us each day if we choose to see it. My husband and I share a love of nature and the outdoors, having hiked over 40 National Parks.<br />
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But often it is the beauty in our own backyards which brings us joy daily. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCnNnkW9pl75FQV9Xgr9jui8xbzPJc7wXAUAPjK2BEvCb8OmSrnW6IocaZzFKhbBmUukLj64CSolQE3RSYouXim2oOZwyqHE_se1VcQxzALL02NJ39m9aXe3Wxg2zIpjZpeqzhp_3u7rk/s1600/IMG_6778.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCnNnkW9pl75FQV9Xgr9jui8xbzPJc7wXAUAPjK2BEvCb8OmSrnW6IocaZzFKhbBmUukLj64CSolQE3RSYouXim2oOZwyqHE_se1VcQxzALL02NJ39m9aXe3Wxg2zIpjZpeqzhp_3u7rk/s640/IMG_6778.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A hairy woodpecker visits our suet feeder on a snowy day.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiaqLAHHF45RfSOGMxEroS3wzoo2ANqeE_HyGG9wod2-nXbBdiHLnAF1FylWWrtF3GqsA9JtBg4DLz5mR0VMt8HCAo9SqnE39XMQbDxPRCjB8f_8WTh3EB15YRVdURhvxcAqFrQiaIBZs/s1600/IMG_6969.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiaqLAHHF45RfSOGMxEroS3wzoo2ANqeE_HyGG9wod2-nXbBdiHLnAF1FylWWrtF3GqsA9JtBg4DLz5mR0VMt8HCAo9SqnE39XMQbDxPRCjB8f_8WTh3EB15YRVdURhvxcAqFrQiaIBZs/s1600/IMG_6969.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Three white-tailed deer visit our backyard in search of vegetation.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGw-wDYkgHjC__CxiJZpR1ny2_JY8GNIDCQPklecB-NH1ycSfgeKea1ft0Qfnu-r0boRd225say7oroVegHYNi0VlR3m-vmScJOIooq_0o6jGsovuv8BM1NepjWKaqjI5fulCNwZ8Tbjs/s1600/IMG_6774.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGw-wDYkgHjC__CxiJZpR1ny2_JY8GNIDCQPklecB-NH1ycSfgeKea1ft0Qfnu-r0boRd225say7oroVegHYNi0VlR3m-vmScJOIooq_0o6jGsovuv8BM1NepjWKaqjI5fulCNwZ8Tbjs/s640/IMG_6774.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Is there anything more beautiful than a cardinal at the suet right outside the sliding glass door . . .<br /></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihnFXRxzO1c2QKKiJLVodDyFz-OpFjiSTm3W-RntXq7ZwtN9Xr70k-RRzR4OEEJBswn1ExdNSU_jFuzAP3FekthKijDiELb9ocZSN2pQtpaRv0_RsXLSqxT9fNpUJ7CCdFz91R6smt8ds/s1600/IMG_6781.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihnFXRxzO1c2QKKiJLVodDyFz-OpFjiSTm3W-RntXq7ZwtN9Xr70k-RRzR4OEEJBswn1ExdNSU_jFuzAP3FekthKijDiELb9ocZSN2pQtpaRv0_RsXLSqxT9fNpUJ7CCdFz91R6smt8ds/s640/IMG_6781.jpg" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">except perhaps a male Eastern bluebird!</td></tr>
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And so, yes, my heart leaps up, as Wordsworth's, when I behold a rainbow in the sky, and as he continued. . . .<br />
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So was it while I was a child,<br />
So is it now that I am a man,<br />
So will it be when I am old,<br />
Or let me die.<br />
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I hope you find a "rainbow" in your backyard.<br />
<br />Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-19882178276355344642016-03-02T21:52:00.001-05:002016-03-02T21:53:26.824-05:00Meet our joyMeet Marisol! <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFfOGB96p86IKSCAyz64F8D39B52T5-Ub60qJvOq2QXb6QIvcVomGRverhC-NxgNaM1Hre1JzRVDHRF7zcl09I1In5fs9R-ygreVdNG3ZAVzv3hAQLleAD0ieMx1K4WPqx7uwtgtSrnIQ/s1600/IMG_7013.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFfOGB96p86IKSCAyz64F8D39B52T5-Ub60qJvOq2QXb6QIvcVomGRverhC-NxgNaM1Hre1JzRVDHRF7zcl09I1In5fs9R-ygreVdNG3ZAVzv3hAQLleAD0ieMx1K4WPqx7uwtgtSrnIQ/s320/IMG_7013.JPG" width="240" /></a><br />
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Likes:<br />
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Smiling at everyone she meets.<br />
Favorite books-- Baby Ben's Go-Go Book (her Mommy liked it too), Buenos Noches Luna, Wet Willie, The Magic-Bubble Pipe book, Little Sea Turtle and Brown Bear, Brown Bear. Loves all books.:)<br />
Story time at the library.<br />
Tearing paper.<br />
Clapping her hands.<br />
Smiling.<br />
Patty cake, Itsy-bitsy Spider, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Twinkle Twinkle, My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean, and The Ohio State University Marching Band and Alumni Band (especially when her Mommy and Daddy play!)<br />
Standing up as long she is holding on to something.<br />
Smiling.<br />
Being rocked to sleep.<br />
Sweet potatoes, apple sauce, pears, prunes, milk.<br />
Riding in the grocery cart.<br />
Baths and splashing.<br />
Playing with blocks, balls, toys that make music and talk, spoons in a bowl.<br />
Teething toys of all shapes, especially Sophie.<br />
Rattle socks.<br />
Pulling socks off her feet.<br />
Looking at herself in the mirror.<br />
Smiling.<br />
Little tickles under her arms and thighs.<br />
Mommy. LOVES Mommy.<br />
Daddy. LOVES Daddy.<br />
All her grandparents. LOVES.<br />
Birds who come to the feeder. Squirrels running up and down the trees.<br />
Hearing birds sing.<br />
Leaves and trees over her head on walks.<br />
Swinging.<br />
Giving open mouth kisses.<br />
Smiling.<br />
Giggling.<br />
Shopping with Meemaw.<br />
Bubbles.<br />
Life.<br />
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Dislikes:<br />
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Crawling forward.<br />
Getting new teeth.<br />
Carrots.<br />
Squash.<br />
Afternoon naps.<br />
Getting her nose wiped.<br />
Getting her face wiped.<br />
Socks.<br />
Shirts and clothes that go over her head.<br />
Sitting in a car seat that is not moving.<br />
Waiting to eat. (Who doesn't?)<br />
Not getting out of her highchair fast enough.<br />
It depends on the day. :)<br />
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Marisol is the joy of our lives. Our first granddaughter. Every day she reminds us how blessed we are to have her and her Mommy and Daddy.<br />
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More to come . . .<br />
<br />Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-17502145729273220642016-03-01T21:31:00.001-05:002016-03-01T21:39:01.244-05:00I'm out, I'm in . . .She loves me, she loves me not.<br />
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I so remember picking the petals off a daisy as a little girl, siting in a circle with friends in front of the Hobensack's house on 8th Street.<br />
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A similar refrain has been going through my head the past few weeks. First I received the email from the Slice of Life Challenge inviting me again to participate, and then my daughter, the best author in the family, also invited me.<br />
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Last year I was in, all in.<br />
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This year? I'm out. I'm in. I'm out . . .<br />
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And so I decided this year I was definitely not going to participate. And I had a multitude of reasons-- or excuses?<br />
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One of the main reasons/excuses was last year's SOL.<br />
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I was determined to write all 31 days. And I was on a roll.<br />
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Day after day I wrote. I was going to make it!<br />
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And then one busy day somewhere around Day 22 or 23, I woke up one Saturday morning thinking about the busy day to come as a high school principal and it hit me. <br />
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I had not written a post the day before.<br />
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How did I forget? Yes, it was a busy day. Fridays are always a blur in high schools, especially for principals. <br />
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And so my best opportunity to write every day ended just like that. My perfectionism hit me as a train barreling around a mountain curve. Failure.<br />
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And so, that is most likely the reason that I woke up this morning with my decision set. I hate to fail again, and I most assuredly will never make 31 days of writing. I was out. Definitely out.<br />
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And then tonight. What just popped up on my email and Facebook? <a href="http://ihabloespanglish.blogspot.com/2016/03/march-is-here.html">My daughter's #SOL16 post.</a> And she delineated her dilemma-- how hard it is for her to participate. She is a ELL high school teacher with a new baby, Time is extremely limited. <br />
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And then her post also detailed all the steps she has taken to inspire her own students to participate-- to motivate them, as she always does. She is a special teacher and her students' world stories are also special. I read it. And then I read it again.<br />
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And that is that. My daughter inspires and motivates me. And so does #SOL16.<br />
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I am in. . . .Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-29348419722195884692016-02-25T22:27:00.003-05:002016-02-25T22:41:41.057-05:00Be Our Guest"Be our guest, be our guest, put our service to the test."<br />
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Most of us can sing or hum the words to this popular Disney song from "Beauty and the Beast."<br />
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For those of us who have been fortunate to visit Disney World and Disneyland, we know that Disney is world-renown for its customer service, the ability to create magic and memories over and over again for little kids and big kids such as us. Walt Disney's ability to do the "impossible" has been sustained over time through generations with the implementation of unique business principles.<br />
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As educational leaders devoted to serving our students and families, what can we learn from Disney's service model?<br />
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In a recent Disney Institute blog post, Bruce Jones discussed the Disney principles of "Doing Things Right" and "Doing the Right Thing."<br />
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As a programming director for the Disney Institute, Mr. Jones discussed the singular mission of Disney: "striving to create happiness to begin forming life-long relationships with our guests."<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghg3YFMW7XEf_4zzB3So9mIlPICx3fzk4fh20mjyCu2_nOgOWZejR0D7QsRBqu1vHd8ofs-7LvmG5fVnT8aItBMAdORGYTPHEiZAWmBhREWit6qg2G02KiyX82ELuWDjUGYOIzkxkSXiM/s1600/ID-100159727.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="206" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghg3YFMW7XEf_4zzB3So9mIlPICx3fzk4fh20mjyCu2_nOgOWZejR0D7QsRBqu1vHd8ofs-7LvmG5fVnT8aItBMAdORGYTPHEiZAWmBhREWit6qg2G02KiyX82ELuWDjUGYOIzkxkSXiM/s320/ID-100159727.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of David Castillo Dominici via Free Digital Photos.</td></tr>
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Think of even that one word-- "guest." Other theme parks, organizations and businesses aim to attract visitors, but at Disney we are all "guests."<br />
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Mr. Jones explained that guests are different than visitors. In our homes, we invite and welcome guests. We do special things for our guests-- the best towels, the best sheets, favorite meals and desserts. "If someone is your Guest, don't you feel a greater obligation to ensure his or her happiness?" Mr. Jones posed.<br />
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So what can we learn from Disney. Mr. Jones stated that Disney provides a script to each "cast member" (employee), for common questions or occurrences so that guests can have a high quality consistent experience. It is important for each staff member to "do things right." The Disney way.<br />
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Are there instances where we can provide better support for staff by providing guidelines on how to handle certain situations. How do we want our secretaries or teaching staff to handle a parent who insists on seeing a staff member unannounced? One who wants to visit classes during the school day? What about how to handle an irate phone call or nasty email? How about a parent-teacher conference? The more help we can provide our staff with common situations should provide a better experience for all of our key stakeholders.<br />
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In addition, Disney, according to Mr. Jones, also empowers their cast members to "do the right thing."<br />
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In solving problems for guests, and in daily interactions, Disney encourages and promotes staff members to go off script in order to "empower people to intervene and own the common purpose."<br />
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A current TV Disney commercial shows a family excitedly at their first day of Disney and the cast members suddenly grows pointed ears in making all of their dreams of happiness at Disney come true. Disney also empowers staff to do whatever it takes, even if it has never been done before, to make the Disney magic real.<br />
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Do our staff members feel the same way? In this ever-changing educational landscape, the true work of every teacher, building and district has to be to individualize and personalize education so that each child can learn. Our shift continues to be from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning.<br />
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Do we empower our staff to be creative in approaching each child in our classrooms? When we were early in our <a href="http://www.allthingsplc/">Professional Learning Community</a> journey, we discussed strategies that were uncommon in our district and building?<br />
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Re-does, test re-takes, differentiating reading assignments, flipped classrooms, grading practices, extended time for learning, homework-- all of these became same-subject team and whole-staff discussion points. <br />
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Teachers at first were hesitant to individualize and personalize without making sure we were fine with it. Clearly, change requires the culture and climate to empower and encourage staff to "do the right thing." How empowered is your staff to try something never tried before? <br />
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Disney fosters creative problem-solving within a culture and climate where personalization ensures happiness and success. <br />
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Can we-- for every student in every classroom in every building every day? If Walt Disney actualized making the impossible possible, we can, too.<br />
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<br />Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-75492837597375616152016-01-26T18:03:00.001-05:002016-01-26T18:05:37.376-05:00Have the courage to doIn our professional and personal lives one very clear truth exists. We often know what to do, but we don't do it.<br />
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People know not to text and drive, or do the other myriad of distracted driving tasks we see every day, but they still do it.<br />
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We know that we should eat fewer carbs, lower our salt and sugar intake and exercise every day. Yet few do it. And every year in January, new year resolutions are made, yet few are sustained.<br />
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How about our work as educational leaders? What do we KNOW that we should change? How often do we do it systemically and with sustainability?<br />
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Many of us are involved in the important work of improving our schools to improve student learning, whether as an educational consultant, teacher, principal, district administrator or superintendent. Think of your own building or district. What are those things that you know need changed? Are there sacred cows that inhibit student learning that have been in place over time?<br />
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Richard DuFour, Robert Eaker, and Rebecca DuFour present the four essential questions of a Professional Learning Community in <i>On Common Ground</i> (15). If we, as educational leaders, examine our practices through the lens of these four PLC questions, we clearly can identify what we know needs changed every day in the classrooms of our respective buildings and districts. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgajDXQilNCU2FLwaER08_sc96FOLHJ86h_QHmg68diV_cJcvscjUZUFMVLV93zLuLXKXE55sXZCqKWAaWaOJ0HY4eZm70CAROLbBN97BCFP482dH5IxL8OZeetjRzn_wag8Sx122FtxbA/s1600/ID-100264503.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgajDXQilNCU2FLwaER08_sc96FOLHJ86h_QHmg68diV_cJcvscjUZUFMVLV93zLuLXKXE55sXZCqKWAaWaOJ0HY4eZm70CAROLbBN97BCFP482dH5IxL8OZeetjRzn_wag8Sx122FtxbA/s320/ID-100264503.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Graphic courtesy of Stuart Miles via free digital photos</td></tr>
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PLC Question1: "What is it we want all students to learn?"<br />
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Too often, we know that in many classrooms, every student is not learning essential identified learning targets. Teachers who work in isolation often end up teaching what they know or what they like. There is the hidden curriculum, intended curriculum, and the delivered curriculum. The result is that students are often left behind, and when this lack of learning compiles over the course of a year, students actually lose any learning gains they may have had with a more effective teacher. Are we certain that the teacher in the classroom is the best teacher for that grade level/subject area? Or are they there because they have been there the longest? We know this may be the case, but how do we respond?<br />
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PLC Question 2: "How will we know when each student has mastered the essential learning?"<br />
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How to measure student learning is a widely discussed topic in professional development sessions, workshops, conferences, and on social media. Why? We know that every assessment that is given in every classroom is not a valid and reliable measure of student learning. Certainly assessment creation and data analysis are now essential teacher skills. But we also know that in every building there are still teachers who do not utilize student assessment as feedback on their instruction. We know this, but how do we respond?<br />
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PLC Question 3: "How will we respond when a student experiences initial difficulty in learning?"<br />
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This is indeed the separator of good teachers from great teachers, good teacher teams from great ones, good buildings from great ones and good districts from great ones. Excellent teachers, teams and buildings support re-teaching and providing students multiple learning opportunities. If in our buildings we do not have a systemic focus on intervention, and if our districts do not value and support time and staffing for intervention, this is the question on which we fall short the most. <br />
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Most students are either lucky or unlucky on which teacher they have if learning becomes the constant or time. How do you respond, how do your teachers respond, and how does your building/district respond when students are not learning? Many good instructional leaders know what gaps on student achievement and growth they have, but they often do not address it systemically or systematically. We know, but we don't do.<br />
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PLC Question 4: "How will we deepen the learning for students who have already mastered essential knowledge and skills?"<br />
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As educational leaders we have often interpreted this as the enrichment we provide at the building level. Particularly at the high school level, we have often identified our enrichment as our honors or advanced courses, such as AP and IB classes. <br />
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But just having students in these courses does not mean that students are learning what they are supposed to be learning or that the instructor is providing enrichment. We know that differentiation should occur in every class we have, as students are unique in their ability to learn. We also know, however, that it is not occurring, and that the best students in regular or advanced classes are often unchallenged.<br />
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Certainly the most encouraging work going on in America today is the monumental shift in many schools from teaching to learning. Indeed schools committed to Professional Learning Community principles work on this every day, and many students are more successful in learning than ever before. Richard DuFour states in many sources that the four PLC questions should be answered collaboratively by teachers in teams and that buildings, districts and administrators must strive to support teachers in this best practice work.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtdH780LqeDN6hNiQt3XO666QIShAM8sQlV2MMCfY2cvo0XQu81VOV-AVW1GRlP11uVRzsJxW4UXk_hNMSA4XhikLs5CJDyzO0b9rowbKerZW5HoZsCPgelp-sGbiPvARJw-ngS6qbmh8/s1600/ID-100146283.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtdH780LqeDN6hNiQt3XO666QIShAM8sQlV2MMCfY2cvo0XQu81VOV-AVW1GRlP11uVRzsJxW4UXk_hNMSA4XhikLs5CJDyzO0b9rowbKerZW5HoZsCPgelp-sGbiPvARJw-ngS6qbmh8/s320/ID-100146283.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Graphic courtesy Stuart Miles via free digital photos</td></tr>
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But truly, even in the best schools, and certainly those schools in challenging circumstances, the problem of doing, not just knowing, is not being addressed in many cases. Sometimes educational leaders are not even fully aware of their students achievement and growth data. But certainly, we also have educational leaders who know their data, but lack either the professional development, the motivation, the support, or the courage to make the changes in their schools to improve student learning. <br />
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Indeed the problem is that the knowing/doing gap is one of the largest gaps we have in American schools. We know what needs to be done, but for varied reasons and barriers, many of them our own making and keeping at either a building or district level, we lack the courage to make the changes we know we need to make.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Graphic by Stuart Miles via free digital photos</td></tr>
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And until we have the "courage to do," we will never embrace or reach our goal of ensuring learning for every child in every classroom in every school every period of every day. <br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Dufour, Richard and Robert Eaker and Rebecca DuFour, "Recurring Themes of Professional Learning Communities and the Assumptions They Challenge." <i>On Common Ground</i>. eds. Bloomington: National Educational Service, 2005. Print.</span>Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-90890033875192735322015-12-17T10:58:00.000-05:002015-12-17T10:59:54.439-05:00The 3 C's to being an effective leaderWhat does it take to be an effective leader? Countless articles and Twitter chats explore this topic daily. Why? Because those of us who have dedicated ourselves to improving ourselves and our organizations every day seek the most effective strategies to achieving excellence in ourselves and our work.<br />
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As a building principal the past 9 years and a high school administrator for the last 15, and now as a passionate educational coach, I, too, have been, and will continue to be on this journey of leadership learning and discovery.<br />
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How do we ensure we are the best leaders we can be, as well as empower others in leadership?<br />
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The 3 C's.<br />
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We must each be a highly effective communicator, catalyst and cheerleader.<br />
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Communicator: We must be the most effective communicators in our organizations with all key stakeholders. Sounds simple? This may be the most difficult of all tasks of a leader. If you are a principal of a high school of 1600 students, you most likely also have a staff of at least 150 and well over 3000 parents and extended family. You also may have a district with multiple high schools or buildings and a central office with whom to also communicate. <br />
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Every day you have key stakeholders with whom to communicate. Do you? Is every staff member in your building clear about the day, the week and upcoming events and goals? Is every student? Every parent? Every other administrator that needs to know?<br />
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What about the means of communication? On any given day, you will need to communicate in person, through email or enews, on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook with your stakeholders, not to mention your PLN, and through handwritten notes and letters.<br />
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The Why? Dedicate a portion of every day to communication with all key stakeholders. Principals and leaders determine the culture and climate fr their buildings/organizations and realize their mission/vision in every communication and interaction you have each day. Students, parents and staff may remember that one interaction with you for the rest of their lives. A powerful opportunity. Don't miss it by not making time for it.<br />
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Catalyst:<br />
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Leaders MUST be the catalysts for the change every building and organization needs. To be a catalyst in education you must be the best learner in the building. Read widely all of the best educational research you can find. Be a student of education in order to be a leader. <br />
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Henry Ford once said that if he had asked everyone what they wanted they would say a faster horse. Henry Ford had a vision that no one else and revolutionized lives. Do you? Principals have the power to revolutionize lives every day for the better. Are you working on actualizing your vision every day with your key stakeholders. By reading, attending workshops and institutes, immersing yourself in a PLN and participating in Twitter chats with other like professionals, you can become an expert in professional learning community work, formative assessment, a focus on learning, visible learning and a number of other best instructional practices that will improve your building. <br />
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Then collaborate with other administrators, teacher-leaders, students, parents and staff to develop timelines and action steps. But the catalyst has to be you. In science a catalyst is a substance that causes or accelerates a chemical reaction without itself being affected. Be the change you wish to see. Accelerate the learning while remaining strong in the process. Leading without being a catalyst is not leading at all.<br />
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Cheerleader:<br />
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At first glance this one may be a puzzler. But truly, it doesn't matter how well you communicate or how good your vision and action steps are if you are not a cheerleader for your your students, parents, staff and every aspect of your building. Cheerleaders are visible and enthusiastic supporters of teams no matter how big or small they are or what the score is. When the team is down by 5 touchdowns the cheerleaders don't pack it in and go home. Rain?-- let it pour and the cheerleaders are still smiling and still cheering.<br />
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And that needs to be you. No matter how bad the day is, how dismal the funding is, how badly the levy fails, you need to stand at your front door every morning and smiling broadly, greet each student who comes in. You need to do the same thing for your secretaries, custodians, cooks and teachers, and have ongoing positive interactions with every stakeholder you encounter. If you are smiling on the outside, even though the stress of running a high school is killing you on the inside on that day, then that is what your students and staff will remember. <br />
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Attend every school event you can. Drive to the mock trial competition at the courthouse as well as to the basketball game. Go to every play and every concert, sit down with your students at their lunch tables, and sit with the parents at away sporting events. Why? Because an important part of being a leader is being all in, every day, with every member of your school family.<br />
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Actively engage every school day at every school event with every person you can. Be a cheerleader for your school-- it will show that you care about every person, and that is one of the most important roles a leader has.<br />
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Being a leader today in education is not easy, but it is the best job in the world. By being effective communicators, catalysts and cheerleaders, we can enhance learning for every student, every day, and change lives. And very few people get to do that for a career.<br />
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<br />Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-64477646822565090402015-10-25T13:38:00.002-04:002015-10-25T13:38:23.476-04:00100% Can and Should Be the GoalEducation in the US has undergone tremendous changes in the last 5 years. Two significant ones are the greater accountability for teachers for student learning and the implementation of Common Core. Having been a high school administrator for the last 15 years and high school principal for the last 9 prior to this year, I have led and been involved in a number of discussions on these changes. <br />
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One common theme in the discussion to some of this educational reform from educators is that we should not be expected to adopt a business model because we are educators. Some educators have felt that accountability is fine for businesses who can seemingly control their factors, but we should not be expected to adopt such rigorous reform that includes accountability standards for teachers, administrators, buildings and districts. <br />
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As a 30-year public educator, both as a high school and middle school teacher and as a high school administrator, I certainly understand some of the concerns, including educators being held accountable for assessments for which the state government has provided little time or support for administration and that teachers have never seen.<br />
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It is difficult to prepare students for assessments with which educators have very little experience. And these assessments are extremely arduous for special education students and English language learners who are not starting on an even playing field. We certainly need to re-look at the graduation requirements for these students and mandated expectations.<br />
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But I also believe that we are responsible for a lack of establishing our own accountability for student learning for much of my career. For too long, schools and teachers taught what they liked to teach with little or no focus or accountability to student learning.<br />
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I also believe that our educational systems have been plagued by low standards and expectations of our work, and that we should adopt much more rigorous expectations and goals, just as other professionals have for years.<br />
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The business world's ability to align staff and whole organizations to very high standards and a common mission and vision is what educators and schools can and should emulate. Our students deserve it, just as consumers of business organizations deserve it. A life-changing event in our family illustrates our appreciation for an organization with extremely high expectations for its consumers-- patients.<br />
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Almost two years ago my husband suffered a debilitating medical condition, a detached retina. He had suffered no injury and had no precursors or warning. One morning he woke up and an hour later his retina detached in his right eye.<br />
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Twenty-four hours later we were in emergency surgery which ended with a daunting post-surgery regimen. He had to keep his head down for 24 hours a day for two straight weeks. After the surgeon reattaches the retina, he inserts a gas bubble into the eye. Staying face down causes the gas bubble to rise and floating on the back of the eye, rubs and helps heal the attached retina. And we thought educators' jobs required high expertise. My husband is the runner, biker, skiier-type and an automotive crash research engineer. Our lives as planned came to a stop. He could not work, drive or do any normal activities.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy Idea go, free digital photos</td></tr>
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As a high school principal I continued to work, meshed with putting three drops in his eyes before work, coming home to prepare his lunch and three more eye drops, and then home for dinner and more eye drops. It was difficult to see him face down while trying to pass the time, even while sleeping. I would come and go to various school events and return to him, still face down. He was a good patient and followed all of the post-surgical regimen.<br />
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After these long two weeks, we returned to the surgeon, hopeful to hear him say that his eye was healed and our lives could return to normal. As the surgeon peered into the eye we waited for what we hoped would be positive feedback. Silence. <br />
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Then he hesitatingly stated that he was concerned about fluid in the eye and he wanted to watch it for two days as it could indicate there was still a hole in the retina. After two lengthy days we returned and, alas, there was too much fluid and indeed, either a new hole had developed or the first surgery had not found this hole. <br />
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This news was devastating, as the surgeon had explained at our first surgery that while first detached retina surgeries are often successful, each failure leads to a more invasive surgery with more negative results for vision. Retinas that are unable to be attached lead to blindness in that eye, a life-changer.<br />
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And then, the surgeon uttered these words that us hope. He told us that at his retinal surgery group, their goal was 100% re-attachments, and that he intended to reach that goal with us. The second surgery would be more difficult, and vision may be more compromised, but he intended to attach the retina.<br />
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My husband underwent the surgery, missed eight weeks of work, but has an attached retina in his eye. We appreciated we were part of the group which had 100% of successful surgeries as a goal.<br />
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I often now use this example in my presentations to educators, now as an educational consultant/presenter and a retired high school principal. What if every teacher set a goal for every one of his or her students that 100% of them would be successful? What if every school set that goal for every student, and more importantly worked toward it every day and communicated it with every student and parent?<br />
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Would every teacher instruct differently? Would every school respond differently? The answer is yes.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy Stuart Miles, free digital photos</td></tr>
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I know that some educators, both teachers and administrators, feel that 100% is an unrealistic goal. That we have too many students with external issues. Is every patient the same? Do surgeons have perfect and healthy patients or those with diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure that makes them more difficult to heal, whatever the ailment?<br />
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What if my husband's automotive crash research facility had less than a 100% goal for crash test safety? Do you want the surgeon with less than a 100% success goal? Do we want to eat at a restaurant with less that a 100% sanitation/safety goal?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Graphic courtesy of Jayme Linton via Twitter</td></tr>
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Certainly some students are more challenging than others, but schools with effective pyramid of interventions can respond more appropriately, just as physicians respond individually to patients. High schools can be caring cultures and climates with dedication to 100% of students' success. How? Through professional learning community work and alignment of all key stakeholders to a focus on learning.<br />
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Our school is a <a href="http://www.allthingsplc/">Professional Learning Community</a> that focuses every day on learning, aligning every practice and aspect to a goal of 100% learning for every student every day with every teacher every class period. Every staff member focuses on the four questions of PLC work collaboratively in same-subject teams. It has transformed our school into a true learning community, and high expectations yield high results. <br />
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In trying to attain perfection, we achieve excellence. Put simply, you hit what you aim for, so aim high. And it has brought us success in a number of external indicators-- National Blue Ribbon School, National Model PLC at Work School, #88 in Newsweek rankings of America's Best High School, and outscoring Shanghai, the highest performing school system in the world, in reading, math and science on the PISA, the international assessment that ranks the world's best schools.<br />
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If you are satisfied with a goal of 85% of student success, or a 77% goal, or a 95% goal, ask yourself if that would be good enough if you were choosing a pediatric surgeon or oncologist. The answer would be no, for the failure rate is a life-changer, particularly if it is you, or your child. <br />
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Now picture your child in a classroom. What would be an acceptable student success percentage that you would want his/her teacher to set? <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy JSCreations, free digital photos</td></tr>
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You see, that is the "why," the most important question that separates high-performing schools from average ones. Shoot high, for if you fall short, you will have still achieved greater than your goal. Do we attain 100%? Not necessarily, but do we exist in order to work towards 100% to change students' lives every day? Yes. And that is the growth mindset that is and will be the difference in education.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Graphic courtesy of Twitter</td></tr>
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<br />Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-27289137072991477322015-09-21T13:59:00.001-04:002015-09-21T14:00:01.109-04:00Paradigms for every educator: Microscope and TelescopeFor those of us who are involved in improving student learning for every student in our schools every day, we have a myriad of research available to us, whether we are teachers, administrators, educational staff, or consultants.<br />
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Having served as a high school principal for the last nine years, I have not only read widely and deeply in educational research such as Professional Learning Community principles, Marzano, Hattie, Stiggins and other educational researchers but helped facilitate its implementation with our staff since Dublin Jerome's inception in 2004. Now an educational consultant working with a variety of educators in diverse districts, I know that educators are working hard to digest research and implement effective instructional strategies to positively impact student learning.<br />
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This summer I read <i>Training Camp </i>by Jon Gordon, and one of the life lessons a football coach teaches the protagonist discusses the advantages of looking at life through both a microscope and a telescope.<br />
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I couldn't help but think how we, as educators and educational leaders, would also benefit from looking at our work through both paradigms.<br />
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Why? As educators, whether it be as a classroom teacher, building principal, central office administrator, or consultant, we benefit from looking at our practices and data both with a microscope and with a telescope.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Photokanok</td></tr>
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Our data analysis often needs a microscope, making sure we "put the faces on the data," as Stiggins exhorts us to do, and digging deep to ask those "I wonder why" questions to give meaning to the data. But we would also benefit from using a telescope, a longer range and bigger picture of our data. This big picture gives us the opportunity to look at data longitudinally as well as conduct comparison analysis with same-subject team members and alignment with building and district data goals.<br />
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School districts often find classrooms teachers or individual building principals constantly using microscopes as they are laser-focused on their immediate student needs, with all of the daily stress, pressure and emotions associated with it. Conversely, we associate telescopes with district administrators who must often analyze mounds of data from multiple buildings while always keeping a big picture in mind.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzmRKFGpjbXuGQdb-0-_ohibttjLfw0aXi13IXl9pVCScu6zPCe4Ua37R2bu7RzOfgD5B1PmttJWCiq0TL0nP6xCxn0rDV0F-LpqfF2xNEvRifSp-G4q1bKIiPTyHnXldG1jzArAo4cDQ/s1600/ID-10026598.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzmRKFGpjbXuGQdb-0-_ohibttjLfw0aXi13IXl9pVCScu6zPCe4Ua37R2bu7RzOfgD5B1PmttJWCiq0TL0nP6xCxn0rDV0F-LpqfF2xNEvRifSp-G4q1bKIiPTyHnXldG1jzArAo4cDQ/s320/ID-10026598.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Idea.go</td></tr>
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The most effective way to truly impact student learning, however, is for every educator-- classroom, building or district, to analyze data utilizing the paradigms of both the microscope and the telescope. A balance of paradigms in data analysis truly leads to more effective and aligned instructional strategies and a positive effect on student learning.Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-73623170144646539142015-03-31T21:24:00.001-04:002015-03-31T21:27:46.650-04:00Live, learn and hopeAnd so it is March 31, the end of the Slice of Life Challenge for this year. I remember at the end of last year, my first Slice of Life, I had a great feeling of exhilaration and relief.<br />
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Although I didn't write every day, I felt proud of my participation.<br />
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This year was different. I truly believed that I could indeed write every single day, a bold and challenging yet thrilling prospect. And I was proud of my progress and confident. Until March 20. I am not even sure what happened that day. <br />
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It was spring break and I had worked every day, and so since it was Friday afternoon I longed for some relaxation and recreation. I drove to Easton, a local shopping district, entered Brio's and watched some NCAA March Madness. I thought to myself as I walked around-- Is this what people who are not high school principals do on a Friday? Sit in a bar and drink wine and beer? What a strange paradigm. <br />
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After walking to Nordstrom's, Coach, Clark's Shoes, Crate and Barrel and a few other favorite window shopping stores, I returned home and relaxed prior to going out for a rare Friday night dinner with my husband since I work most Friday nights.<br />
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Ahh-- our favorite restaurant, great lobster, chopped salad and potatoes au gratin and back home.<br />
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Relaxing on the couch, we watched a few of the TV shows we record, especially Hawaii Five-O and slept soundly. It was just a beautiful evening.<br />
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And then when I woke up, it hit me. I had not written on Friday. As I became more alert, I reviewed it in my head. I mentally re-wound Friday and yes, realized again, that after 19 straight days I had missed my first day, ruining my perfectionistic goal of writing every day.<br />
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I was simultaneously angry and disappointed in myself. How could I let this happen?<br />
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I had written when I was overly tired, I had written with a high fever from the flu, and yet, in one day, without even thinking about it, I had just forgotten to write.<br />
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I actually thought about just ending the challenge there, but I found a way to write again. And enjoy it again.<br />
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Did I write every day the rest of the month? No-- it does seem that once you miss one day it is easier to miss another. And so on a trip to Indiana and spending four days with the best educational leaders, researchers, authors and educational practitioners in the United States, I then missed four days of writing. And I was OK with it, whatever that shows.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdccx3eOZyv8p0Plnufbd5qVfl0Yv0yVtWugrMHltGe1jGbQpI6ZdhZgKXPx-2MXe8gapoHpehVnXmxTqT7hpqf49rwE8lJc_qpf7D7Go1VEdE2PlTIf6sKr_nxP7X4ahscS8SOlS-gAo/s1600/FullSizeRender+(72).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdccx3eOZyv8p0Plnufbd5qVfl0Yv0yVtWugrMHltGe1jGbQpI6ZdhZgKXPx-2MXe8gapoHpehVnXmxTqT7hpqf49rwE8lJc_qpf7D7Go1VEdE2PlTIf6sKr_nxP7X4ahscS8SOlS-gAo/s1600/FullSizeRender+(72).jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Graphic from Page-A-Day Calendar.</td></tr>
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But tonight, I just could not skip writing on the last day.<br />
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Why? Because the Slice of Life Challenge is just that. A challenge. And I love a challenge!<br />
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Perfect last year? No. Perfect this year? No. Back next year? Absolutely.<br />
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Why? Because I have discovered that I can enjoy something and be imperfect.<br />
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And that is a great thing to learn about yourself. I learned that on some days, you just have to live. And I learned that there is always hope for tomorrow. Or for next year's Slice?<br />
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Isn't that the real reason for the challenge?<br />
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<br />Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-32794207681664868722015-03-25T21:18:00.002-04:002015-03-25T21:18:57.311-04:00Hundreds of channels and so little to watchWe have hundreds of channels on our cable service, and I am sure many of you do also.<br />
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And yet, night after night we struggle to find something on to watch. We dislike reality TV-- so what do we watch?<br />
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We record Hawaii 5-0 and sometimes binge-watch catching up. Big Bang Theory is a big hit, both in syndicated reruns and new programs, again set to record. I love Blue Bloods and also record it to watch later, and do the same with NCIS and NCIS New Orleans.<br />
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We don't get Showtime or HBO but will record old movies from some of the other movie channels, especially Indiana Jones, Star Wars and the National Treasure series shows.<br />
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During college football and basketball season we watch Big Ten and Ohio State games especially and have it on when we are doing other household tasks and also do the same with some pro football games, especially the Browns. Yes-- we are long-suffering Browns fans.<br />
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I drive my husband crazy going up and down the Guide finding nothing or little to watch. On the weekends we watch the morning news shows and when I am doing school work I will watch CMT for the country music videos.<br />
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Occasionally I record really old sitcoms such as Andy Griffith as it reminds me of watching these wonderful episodes over and over again with my Dad. Throw in Matlock, Hogan's Heroes and Gomer Pyle for the same reasons. I can still hear his laugh.<br />
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Apparently we are still among the few who watch evening news shows when we are home, mostly CBS, and since we are creatures of habit, follow that with honing family not-so-friendly competition in viewing Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.<br />
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And that is pretty much it for us in the course of the week. We watch very few shows when scheduled and have about 10 regulars. So glad we are paying for hundreds of choices. :)<br />
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<br />Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-21707076659862958882015-03-24T20:33:00.002-04:002015-03-24T20:33:24.220-04:00Why don't you "google" that?It is hard to imagine life without Google. How much do you "google" each day? <br />
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When did Google become a verb. Rather than say we are going to look up something on the internet, we say we will "google" it. It's become the "Kleenex" of the internet. Very few people ask for a tissue-- but many of us ask for a kleenex.<br />
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We don't research on the internet-- we google.<br />
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Since our district transitioned to being a Google district, I have to admit I have become an ardent Google fan. I love the email and also Google Chrome, easily rotating between personal and work email.<br />
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One of my favorite Google tools is Google Forms. Have you tried it? In an extremely short time, you can develop a survey with any type of question, choose what kind of answer and whether it is required or not, choose a cute theme background and share it with your entire staff, contact list or even small group.<br />
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It compiles the results in two different formats which you can also share with the recipients or anyone else you want for great transparency to survey takers.<br />
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Our staff uses Google forms to collect student data and we utilize it to solicit important input and feedback, documenting collaboration and SMART goals for same-subject team or departmental PLC work. It can be shared among teachers, among teachers or administrators, or even with Central Office, a great documentation tool of teacher and student work.<br />
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Don't know how to repair your washing machine?<br />
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Don't know how to post a youtube video?<br />
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Don't know how to do a Google form?<br />
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Just Google it.<br />
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<br />Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-12861810712108884182015-03-23T17:43:00.000-04:002015-03-24T20:13:20.677-04:00"Knee-Defender:" What do you think?I was reading the Columbus Dispatch before dinner and read an article entitled Viral Victories, how internet fame has helped create riches for small businesses.<br />
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Among the examples was the the recent internet-famous dress which viewers couldn't tell whether the dress was blue and black or white and gold. While I never fully understood the furor or the explanation, I am not surprised that the viral attention generated increased sales of over 600% for the small company.<br />
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Three other examples were also highlighted: the Cronut, a cross between a donut and croissant; a Ti-shirt with three wolves howling at the moon, and the Knee Defender.<br />
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I am not at all familiar with the Cronut or the Howling Moon T-Shirt, but I clearly remember the media fervor by a brawl on a commercial jet over the Knee Defender.<br />
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If you remember, the Knee Defender is a $22 device that a passenger can attach to his/her airline tray table to prevent the person in front of them from reclining the seat in front of them.<br />
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It caused a huge blow-up on the jet and tons of publicity, with many people siding with either the guy who invented it or the passenger who wanted to recline her seat.<br />
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Apparently US airlines prohibit its usage but it is not illegal. I never understood that if the airline prohibits it why didn't the flight attendant ask the person using it to remove it, but that is a different story. Obviously the publicity generated more business for the Knee Defender company, but I think it also launched a debate among air travelers.<br />
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I have to admit that when I fly I rarely recline my seat and when I do I do it only slightly. I try to be very cognizant of the person in back of me. I also hate it when the person in front of me reclines it as far back as it goes, as I really feel they are infringing on my space at that point, especially since the airlines have greatly reduced the seat size and leg room on flights to make more money.<br />
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However, I don't feel it is right to completely use a device that prevents someone from reclining at all.<br />
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What do you think? Would you use a Knee Defender? If you were in the front seat and tried to recline and couldn't, what would you do if the person was using the Knee Defender?<br />
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<br />Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-88007972219685815952015-03-22T11:04:00.002-04:002015-03-22T11:04:27.415-04:00Hats, hatsEveryone collects something. At our house we have developed an unintentional collection of hats. I say unintentional because it wasn't a collection that we focused on developing such as many other people intentionally develop, such as collections of fine art, patches, or golf balls. <br />
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No fine art adorns our walls, but our closets boast hats.<br />
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My husband and I both like hats, and as we traveled we would see hats that we liked and each purchase them, whether we were traveling together or separately. Over the years it has turned into a collection of hats focusing on some of our favorite places, concerts, and teams.</div>
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Is this a valuable collection of any kind to anyone else? No. But to us, our hats are filled with great memories of some of our favorite times. And that makes each one special to us, and when we wear the hat, some of those memories are with us.<br />
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Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-38096611403107611952015-03-21T10:31:00.003-04:002015-03-21T10:32:00.253-04:00Fast Food possible effects on academicsIt's a slow start to the day on a Saturday morning and I am glancing over the The Ohio University Alumni Association magazine.<br />
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One article catches my eye, a nationwide study on the effects of fast food.<br />
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I expected to see stats on obesity and how fast food may be contributing negatively to our nation's overall health.<br />
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But this article was different, quoting instead the negative effect that eating fast food could have on reading, math and science test scores.<br />
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As an educator, I find it extremely interesting to be aware of all of the external factors that affect students' ability to do well academically since we work very hard to foster a professional learning community culture and climate focus on learning. <br />
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According to this study, the more frequently students report eating fast food in fifth grade, the lower their growth in reading, math and science test scores by eighth grade. In fact, students who ate the most fast food had test score gains up to 20 percent lower than those who never ate fast food.<br />
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Another starting statistic in the article stating the 10 percent of students in the survey reported eating fast food every day and another 10 percent ate fast food four to six times a week.<br />
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Think of the students in our classroom every day and think that at least 20 percent of them eating fast food at least four times a week or more often.<br />
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Now think of the possible negative effect on their academics.<br />
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The study did not articulate what kind of food is designated fast food or any certain fast food brand, but certainly we can most likely name the fast food restaurants in each of our geographical regions.<br />
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In fact, look at some of the fast food breakfasts that our students come into school with every morning, driving through on their way to school.<br />
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Although certainly we have all been aware of the negative effects of fast food on overall health, it is interesting to now be aware that fast food may also have a negative effect on academics.<br />
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<br />Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-51476514965212177192015-03-19T16:12:00.002-04:002015-03-19T16:12:30.216-04:00How tired are you? Does it really matter?As a high school principal I see it on the faces of our students. They are tired, really tired. AP courses, IB courses, athletic practices and contests, community service, plays, concerts, homework. With seniors, throw in college applications and essays and our students suffer from sleep deprivation.<br />
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We have all read the research on sleep and teenagers and how they would benefit from delayed school starts. In fact, our district has adjusted high school times with first period starting at 7:55 AM. While students would like it even earlier it has helped students. On our one-hour delayed starts on Wednesdays for staff PD, students greatly enjoy classes starting at 8:20 AM and it is clear on their faces how much another 25 minutes benefits students.<br />
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But what about everyone else, even adults who consistently get insufficient sleep night after night?<br />
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How much sleep do we all need? The National Sleep Foundation recommends seven to nine hours of sleep a night in order for the body and mind to function well.<br />
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What does that mean? What is function well? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declared insufficient sleep a public health epidemic, affecting negatively every aspect of our lives, from our relationships, to our work performance, and our health.<br />
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Car accidents, hypertension, diabetes, depression and early death are all related to a lack of sleep. Cancer in mice, weight gain and other health hazards are also related to a lack of sleep. The University of Rochester research states that during sleep the brain does maintenance, clearing itself of chemical waste products.<br />
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Do you want your child taking the ACT on sleep deprivation? Driving home from a waitressing job? What about the surgeon doing your heart surgery? Your child's teacher supervising them on the playground? Grading their essay? Valeting your car? Testing your child's car seat as an automotive engineer or testing your air bags? Monitoring your house alarm?<br />
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One 2003 study showed that losing two hours of sleep in one night had the same affect of drinking two to three beers.<br />
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"Cyber-loafing" is a new term, referring to people with inadequate sleep affecting their ability to do their job, instead visiting entertainment or social media sites instead of being able to be productive and engage in professional decision-making. Is that you? One of your colleagues?<br />
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Are our students tired? Yes. But what about our staffs? What about us as parents? As doctors? Truck drivers? Bankers? Engineers? Architects?<br />
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If a lack of sleep negatively affects all of our performances what can we do to be more productive and make better decisions at work? Research states we need to get healthier by getting more sleep every night. And encourage our children to get more sleep also.<br />
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Leave our electronic devices out of our bedrooms and focus on our sleep health. According to the research, our lives depend on it.<br />
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<br />Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-74631137057622248552015-03-18T20:44:00.001-04:002015-03-18T20:44:47.153-04:00What does your car say about you?When I growing up, I learned a lot about cars from my Dad. He told me to keep the oil changed, make sure the radiator had water in it, remember it won't run without gas, and if you have to drive anyway, convertibles are a lot of fun.<br />
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Other than a VW bug that my Dad got only to drive in the "winter around town," in order to preserve his last convertible, my Dad owned either a Pontiac or Oldsmobile convertible from 1963 to sometime in the 1990's.<br />
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He ordered one of the last Delta 88 convertibles, silver with red interior, to roll off the assembly line I think in 1987. You see, for a while the automakers stopped making convertibles, breaking my Dad's heart.<br />
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He kept the last one until it needed more work than the old Marine could afford. By that time he was too old to do his own car work and was "confounded" by the car computers. When I was growing up there wasn't anything his convertible needed, from an oil change to a new alternator or spark plugs, that he couldn't fix himself.<br />
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Those Pontiac Catalina, Oldsmobile Delta 98 convertibles were the size of a river barge, and were so much fun on which to learn to drive.<br />
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I can still out-parallel park anyone because I learned to parallel park a car that was the exact size of the parking space. Wide bodies and the length of two cars today it seems. <br />
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I could fill it up with the entire senior play cast with the top down and cruise all over Marietta, one arm on the steering wheel and one resting out the window. The cool way to drive.<br />
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When my daughter was in elementary school and a Girl Scout, we took her troop to Marietta to earn a history badge by going to Campus Martius museum, visiting Mound Cemetery, riding the Becky Thatcher sternwheeler and going to Fenton's Art Glass across the river in Williamstown.<br />
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But the most fun the seven girls had was all piling into Dad's silver convertible and going to Broughton's Dairy with the top down.<br />
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The girls hooted and hollered at traffic lights and waved as if they were in a parade, even taking the car downtown to visit the Mayor of Marietta, one of Dad's Marine friends.<br />
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While those big old convertibles with a 407 engine exist only at Classic Car Shows, I have carried Dad's love of convertibles over to my life.<br />
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My last three cars have been red convertibles, one soft top and two hard tops. I wonder what Dad would think of the hard tops. My current one is a VW EOS with a sunroof in the hardtop-- I think Dad would love it.<br />
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Every time I drive to Marietta, this time to visit Mom and Dad's graves, I can't wait to put the top down as soon as I can after arriving, and soon I feel almost like I did when I was riding up Route 7 with Dad. Up the wide Ohio River, around the bend to Newport or New Matamoras, Dad loved riding in his convertible and waving to the little kids in the yards who would stop playing ball in the yard to point and wave, for convertibles were a rarity.<br />
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My Dad loved convertibles because I think they fit the way he loved life. He went in on Day 1 of Iwo Jima and was shot in the spine by a Japanese sniper on Day 8. He barely lived and lost many, many Marine buddies and friends. He lived paralyzed for the remainder of his life, plagued by physical and mental war demons.<br />
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When you come that close to death and see the horrors of hand-to-hand combat, I think the rest of his viewpoint on life was completely changed. He lived the rest of his life with reckless abandon, and his convertibles fit his love for the wind blowing through his hair and speeding down the highway with the top down with the "pedal to the metal." Seat belts? He hated them so much he cut them out of the first cars they came in. <br />
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He loved loud clothes, big poker games, Swisher Sweets, and yes, big convertibles. Live hard and run fast, and he did until he died.<br />
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What does your car say about you?<br />
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<br />Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-43285559498575845972015-03-17T14:50:00.001-04:002015-03-17T14:51:54.625-04:00Is it your lucky day?Do you feel lucky? After all, it is St. Patrick's Day! The day where everyone is Irish.<br />
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Did you know it was St. Patrick's Day? Is is a big day where you live? Are you sporting something green today?<br />
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Our city's name is Dublin, and so it is hard NOT to know it is St. Patrick's Day. In fact, when you live in Dublin you are lucky every day as the Irish influence is everywhere.<br />
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Each of the three high school's has green as one of its colors and the team names are the Fighting Irish, the Shamrocks and the Celtics.<br />
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Many of the street names or neighborhoods have Irish influences, and every year Dublin holds a St. Patrick's Day parade on the Saturday before the holiday with over 100 parade units. Think your legs look good in a kilt? Then enter the Best Legs Contest. Reddest Hair? Most Freckles? Yes. You too could win a prize. <br />
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Hungry? Come to the Lions Club Pancake Breakfast before the parade and top your all-you-can-eat pancakes off with green syrup. Mmmmmm.<br />
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And it seems the whole city is wearing something with Kelly green on it, whether it is a green lei, green socks,green mittens, a green scarf or a green top hat! Over 20,000 people line the parade route to watch the three high school bands, sporting green uniforms, the large inflatable green shamrocks, Irish Wolfhounds and hundred of other city trucks, convertibles, Girls and Boys Scouts, or little majorettes, all with green decorations.<br />
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In fact Dublin loves Irish music and all things green so much that at the beginning of August the city hosts the largest Irish Festival in the world outside of Dublin, Ireland. For three days we go to enjoy authentic Irish music -- yes, many of the bands travel from Ireland and some of the best Irish dancers in the world. <br />
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Over 100,000 attend on acres of a city park and Killian's flows from the taps while attendees enjoy bangers and Irish Stew, along with traditional summer fair food such a funnel cakes.<br />
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And yes, even lighted Shamrocks decorate home windows and Shamrock place mats adorn kitchen tables with Shamrock green bears as centerpieces.<br />
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Twice a year our city lives up to its Irish name and we couldn't be luckier to live here, especially on St. Patrick's Day! As for me, I am Irish on both my mother and father's side of my family. We have even traced our family tree to Francis Marion Creighton who immigrated from Dublin, Ireland! Top of the mornin' to you! May the luck of the Irish be with you! Happy St. Patrick's Day!<br />
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<br />Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-54304410078716042942015-03-16T16:05:00.003-04:002015-03-16T16:07:11.232-04:00A working spring break; an empty buildingFriday was a flurry of activity around school, our last day before spring break. Staff members and students excitedly counted the hours and minutes down to 2:42, the end of the school day.<br />
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Bits of common destination sites filled the air. Orlando, Key West, Bahamas, New Orleans, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Scottsdale, West Palm, Tampa, Vail. . . .<br />
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Smiles, excitement, flight days and times. Saturday at 10 AM, Monday at 1:20, Sunday at 8:15 and so on.<br />
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It is especially fun if you can respond as well with your destination and travel plans.<br />
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It is different if you are staying home.<br />
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It is even more different if you are working spring break as my admin team and I are.<br />
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In our district administrators work spring break unless we take vacation days, and for many reasons, our entire team is working.<br />
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One of my assistants is attending a two-day local conference and then working the rest of the week, and another one will be giving Ventures interviews to prospective teaching candidates for the district. The other assistant is moving into a new house and so is working each day and moving at night.<br />
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And me? I am catching up on evals, looking at staffing numbers, and finishing some letters of recommendation.<br />
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While it is not unusual to welcome a work time to catch up this time of year, one of the most unusual aspects of working during scheduled school breaks is the emptiness of the building.<br />
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I have never gotten used to seeing, hearing and feeling an empty school building.<br />
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I am convinced the buildings mourn the loneliness and emptiness of missing students and staff.<br />
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Every day about 1700 students and staff enter our front doors and pour into our foyer and cafeteria, awaiting the start of the school day. The sights and sounds of student and staff laughter, bell tones, conversations, late feet running to first period, binders hitting cafeteria tables, and muted conversations bring a building to life.<br />
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Today the building seemed sad and cavernous. At any given time there were no more than six to eight people in it. The lights stayed off except in the custodial working areas and the main office and the only sound was the occasional ringing of the office phone and quiet conversations.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The building is too empty and quiet without the family that gives it life.</td></tr>
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No excited voices. No enthusiastic greetings. Just a few adults working mostly in isolation.<br />
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And while for the admin team it will be a productive work week, it is never the same to be in this workplace without our students and staff, the very integral family members that bring our building to life.<br />
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I prefer our family being together and will eagerly await their return next Monday where the building will once again be happy and alive.<br />
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<br />Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-22512442302339367842015-03-15T13:44:00.004-04:002015-03-15T13:45:20.759-04:00Do you tweet? If not, give Twitter a chanceDo you tweet? Don't know what that is? Then you are not a Twitter user or follower.<br />
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On March 21 Twitter will celebrate its 9th anniversary. The founder of Twitter posted the first tweet and now Twitter has 288 million active users posting 500 million tweets a day. Wow!<br />
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About three years I embarked on my first social network, Twitter. I had never had a Facebook account and still don't, and really had no desire to get one. I was wary as a high school principal about even the possibility of being so public and could see no professional reason to Facebook.<br />
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As I heard more about Twitter though I had become very curious about creating a Personal Learning Network (PLN). <br />
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I wanted to interact with educators in order to learn from those with similar interests, such a focusing on student learning and professional learning communities. A PLN is an informal learning network of people you connect with for learning, and now I cannot imagine functioning as an educator and high school principal without Twitter and the other educators who make up my PLN, such as Steven Weber, Dwight Carter, Bobby Dodds, Wes Weaver, Penny Kittle and many other substantive educators. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Notifications on Twitter lets you know who is recently following you as well as re-tweets to your tweets.</td></tr>
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One of my favorite learning networks is #atplc, short for "all things professional learning community" an intense interest of mine. By searching this, or whatever interest you may have on Twitter, you can easily link up with others of the same interest and garner excellent ideas and information.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYwzw8ado8C83-WCAaL4IceoHf6f6O90rZJkwTD7RdASJLCtQglsbuiaY4-mbhEhTgIQ2nQrOT_jnKl612LF5ZIwNi7q-ekBkLBKG-tlGDCeIGiiDhA_fRtLrHIQkBahmdikhewTf22N4/s1600/IMG_4011.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYwzw8ado8C83-WCAaL4IceoHf6f6O90rZJkwTD7RdASJLCtQglsbuiaY4-mbhEhTgIQ2nQrOT_jnKl612LF5ZIwNi7q-ekBkLBKG-tlGDCeIGiiDhA_fRtLrHIQkBahmdikhewTf22N4/s1600/IMG_4011.PNG" height="320" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My Twitter PLN reflects others educators that I learn from every day.</td></tr>
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I also wanted to establish my own digital footprint as positively as possible before someone I didn't know established a negative one for me. I remember talking to another educator who reminded me that all of us already have a digital identity. Whether we establish it or someone else does is up to us.<br />
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In addition, I had a professional goal of utilizing social media for better communication with our high school's families and students, and after investigating Twitter thought its brevity of 140 characters per tweet would lend itself to fast and direct communication.<br />
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In other words, I wanted to provide quick and important updates to families and students without spending a lot of time doing it.<br />
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So I contacted one of our district's tech specialists and she came over to my office and helped me establish a school Facebook (mostly for our parents) and Twitter (mostly for our students) accounts. Hootsuite manages both so I make one post on both Facebook and Twitter simultaneously.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimJddEjrHKUWvLapEHnc5qM8gghhuz2BZnTGnXh_ueO4ELAiapCLHWcowvPQ4HaviL7KHuZtd1WMxu-eoP2OJVdBoRfsaxxWGPzmewEyyCxZ3oW_Nt6ZbLLmgETlkJKb-H1z4hGupqtQA/s1600/IMG_4013.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimJddEjrHKUWvLapEHnc5qM8gghhuz2BZnTGnXh_ueO4ELAiapCLHWcowvPQ4HaviL7KHuZtd1WMxu-eoP2OJVdBoRfsaxxWGPzmewEyyCxZ3oW_Nt6ZbLLmgETlkJKb-H1z4hGupqtQA/s1600/IMG_4013.PNG" height="320" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our school Twitter account reflects our direct communication to our stakeholders about school events and accomplishments.</td></tr>
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It has greatly increased school-home direct communication. We have 1818 followers of the school account while only following 12 accounts. The school account follows other school Twitter accounts, such as our student section (@jeromejungle) and many of our sports teams, such as basketball, football and hockey also have Twitter accounts and so when we tag their accounts their followers directly receive our Tweets. These thousands of followers have thousands of followers themselves and so we reach a great number of our school community with just one tweet.<br />
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As for my personal Twitter account (@cathysankey) I am well aware that many students and parents on Twitter certainly also follow my personal account and so I am cognizant to use this account mainly for PLN purposes. I never put anything personal on the account that I would not want to see on the 6 PM newscast-- a good rule of thumb for anyone on social media.<br />
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Now I cannot imagine life without the school Twitter and Facebook accounts and my PLN. I learn so much every day about education and also follow famous quotes and beautiful photo sites that help alleviate some of the stress of being a high school principal.<br />
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Don't Tweet? Give Twitter a chance to learn and grow as a professional every day.<br />
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<br />Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-69819946890917726142015-03-14T15:48:00.000-04:002015-03-14T15:48:01.427-04:00A different kind of addictionDo you remember when addiction meant a dependence on drugs or alcohol? Today in the news, experts speak of a very different kind of addiction affecting men and women of every age, even children and teenagers.<br />
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What is our society's new addiction?<br />
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Addiction to technology, specifically smartphones.<br />
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Are you addicted to your phone? How can you know?<br />
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Beginning in 2012, according to Nielsen polls, phone users spent an average of 18 hours per month on their phones.<br />
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Beginning in 2014, phone users spent an average of 30 hours per month on their phones, and that number is increasing.<br />
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To help users assess their own usage, or addiction to their Smart phone, two apps have been developed. The fact there are apps that can track our own addictions to the very phones we are using is somewhat ironic, but users believe the apps are helping curb phone usage.<br />
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One app is called Moment. Moment tell you the number of minutes you use your phone. Users can set a daily limit for themselves and Moment notifies you if you reach your limit.<br />
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The other app is called Checky. Checky monitors the number of times you check your phone, even the number of times you unlock your device.<br />
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It allows users to share their score on social media as well as tracks locations where you check your phone. Some people report checking their phone 200 times a day or more, and even locations such as the freeway.<br />
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The belief of each of these app developers is that once users have awareness of the amount of time they are either using their phones or checking their phones, with being able to set daily limits or goals, users will spend less time on their phones unnecessarily.<br />
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Do you believe you are addicted to your phone? Maybe one of these two apps can help you spend less time on your phone and more time on what really matters to you.<br />
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<br />Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6276474917903185655.post-37980413999828714522015-03-13T16:26:00.001-04:002015-03-13T16:26:49.533-04:00A familiar face in a different lightEven though I have been married for almost 38 years, today I saw my husband in an entirely new way.<br />
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Because of the nature of our jobs, we rarely see each other in our unique workplaces. Because I am a high school principal, he really has no reason to come to my school, except when he chooses to attend one of our events.<br />
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During the school year, I am rarely home in the evening, attending theatrical productions; band, choir or orchestra concerts; or one of our 27 varsity sports.<br />
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Because he enjoys watching football, and because we do not see each other for dinner on Friday nights, he walks the two miles to my building and sits in the stands for our home games. I know his seat or row and am able to look in the stands, catch his eye and wave. I love the familiarity of his face.<br />
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Today was different. He started the day at our district's technology center as a guest speak for the Chinese I classes. We teach Chinese I in a blended format with one teacher for the first period beginning Chinese classes. Having made four trips to China on business as an automotive test engineer, he presented a Powerpoint with photographs and videos from his trip.<br />
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Next, he traveled to one of our district middle schools for their Career Day. One of the standouts of the visit is the crash dummy he brings, this time wearing one of the school's shirts. The middle school students also love the crash videos and learn much about the automotive engineering career field.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTHoLtMoY5OYCAZlb-m4K03_Zv_OQPeAfuvcbn4qdcAM2kGwy63M0gWPDwdk9e_dnpfnr44rQIBh7YffS4JhAvGgRtAGORXTsBdVGmnvRe489R1LXwdsx63dbso4Ccr_hwiAvQT3O6awQ/s1600/FullSizeRender+(55).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTHoLtMoY5OYCAZlb-m4K03_Zv_OQPeAfuvcbn4qdcAM2kGwy63M0gWPDwdk9e_dnpfnr44rQIBh7YffS4JhAvGgRtAGORXTsBdVGmnvRe489R1LXwdsx63dbso4Ccr_hwiAvQT3O6awQ/s1600/FullSizeRender+(55).jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Small child crash dummy.</td></tr>
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And then, for the first time, he traveled to my high school to give a presentation in person to the higher levels of Chinese about his business trips to China.<br />
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And so, there he was, signing into our building as per as security procedures and stopping by my office before the presentation to our students. On a daily basis I meet with a variety of parents and staff in my office, but as I sat and talked to him about our days, it was different.<br />
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He looked so much different than he usually did if we were talking at home about our day. <br />
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As he left with the teacher to make sure the presentation would work in the classroom my mental notes were taking in his shirt, his shoes and his very kind and caring nature he shows to everyone he meets. I just don't tell him that enough.<br />
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About 10 minutes into the class period, I decided to go visit the class and sit in on the presentation.<br />
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And that is where I really saw it, a familiar face, but in a very unique light. His patient voice now instructing our students, pausing to answer their questions as he sometimes would our daughter when helping with her homework.<br />
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As he went from one slide to another, viewing his photos and videos, he brought to life the bullet train, the foods and the Chinese companies as only he could.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvIMJPXlSUV2rKHk0YIMFoGsyARoRb4BcLQ9-IlqaIgqt22xJjJgyo21ODfKmx-ych8e-SBaouywd67pgAZE1u3a_6rGALL_27rhrivvTh2_V6bsOPHMXDqxONeuPZgDeWJwpHt9l5UJ0/s1600/FullSizeRender+(56).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvIMJPXlSUV2rKHk0YIMFoGsyARoRb4BcLQ9-IlqaIgqt22xJjJgyo21ODfKmx-ych8e-SBaouywd67pgAZE1u3a_6rGALL_27rhrivvTh2_V6bsOPHMXDqxONeuPZgDeWJwpHt9l5UJ0/s1600/FullSizeRender+(56).jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Husband giving presentation to Chinese class students.</td></tr>
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A guest speaker is certainly not an oddity in a high school today. But when the guest speaker is your spouse, in the building in which you are the principal, you look at them differently.<br />
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And today, I saw all of those good qualities that reinforced why I married him and hadn't thought of recently, including that he is bright, patient, enthusiastic about learning, kind and willing to serve others.<br />
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Sometimes we just need to see a familiar face in a different light to see and reinforce all the reasons they are special in our lives.Cathy Sankeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16155723793891983903noreply@blogger.com10