With each school year comes the opportunity to wipe the slate clean and begin again. Over the past few days I have spent some time setting goals for myself and for our students for the 14-15 school year. What dawned on me is that even though it is a chance to wipe our slate clean of past projects, failed ventures, the stress of a long school year, etc, I believe that we should each take the time to fill our slates up with the messages and goals we want to showcase to the world.
At ISTE in Atlanta this summer, I had the opportunity to once again hear +Adam Bellow (@adambellow) speak. During his session he asked each of us to snap a selfie and use the hashtag of #TYIW (This Year I Will) and post something that we will challenge ourselves to accomplish professionally. If you have ever had the chance to hear Adam speak, you know how motivational he can be, but even more importantly you know how impacting his comments are. It is not surprising that his challenge was one of the things I am going to work on bringing back to our school.
In my mind the real power of this is not just writing down a goal. It is hidden power of social pressure. My artifact found at the top of this page is not one that I have hidden. I have it posted outside my office, posted above my desk, and I am sharing it via social media. My hope is that others in our school will do the same. Posting and sharing these goals publicly and permanently will allow us to hold each other accountable throughout the year and focused on what we said we would achieve.
I am choosing to fill my slate with several new initiatives this year. Fortunately, my Principal Mr. Beckenhauer (@B_Beckenhauer) and Superintendent Mr. Applegate (@applegate_joel) have given me the professional latitude to pursue many if not all of my professional goals. Without their support, the things I write on my 'clean slate' would be little more than just more scribbles. Just as important as having supportive leadership is to be surrounded by great teachers and I truly feel that I am surrounded by a World Class teaching staff who will be instrumental in helping me accomplish my goals.
Because I am pillar of moderation (read that with a sarcastic tone) I took this challenge to heart and created a large set of goals and initiatives I will work to accomplish this year for the benefit of our students. I am willing to share my large working document with anyone who wants to take the time to read it. So if you are interested in reading it, shoot me an email at dustin.favinger@cozadschools.net and I will share it with you. The document I am willing to share elaborates on each of these ideas that I am listing below.
Here are four of the things I will work to accomplish this school year:
Host an innovation week where students drive their own learning
Work to organize a school-wide day of service where students and staff volunteer in our community
Organize a college week with activities for students and staff to increase our college going rate
Continue to work on growing the ‘Genius Hour’ initiative for our students
If you see me out and about feel free to ask me about my progress in achieving these goals. Here is to a great school year!
A couple of years ago our district changed its name from Cozad City Schools to Cozad Community Schools. This was prompted by the closing of our rural schools whose attendance had declined. For those of us who have always worked in the city (I use that term loosely as our population is just over 4000), we didn't notice much change other than the name. However, this year many of the new initiatives we are unveiling are touching on this theme of putting the 'Community' into our school.
It is an exciting time to work in our district. We have always had a very strong educational system here that has been well supported by our community. In my tenure here, we had not been proactive in forming new partnerships to increase educational opportunities for students. Maybe this was due to the standards and assessment movement gaining steam or from complacency. Neither of which are good reasons. As the winds of change have began to blow, our school started to realize that we had student needs that were going unmet. Not in the traditional academic way, but in the real world skill sets they would be required to demonstrate after graduation. Some of those skill sets are soft skills, and others are the certifications and connections they will need to have a leg up on the competition in this global economy.
Enter the 'Community' in our school. This fall we began discussions about ways to improve the relations with our community to gain support for new projects. The logical conclusion was to invite the community into the schools to share with them what we are doing and ask for some feedback of what we could do better. Through this process of engaging some of our community members, we made the decision to look into partnering with businesses to help us prepare our kids for the real world with more than just a diploma. For the backstory on the declining value of a high school diploma, see my previous blog post by clicking here.
The first step
The first partnership was to approach the Cozad Community Health System and Central Community College to be able to offer a Certified Nursing Assistant class to our students. Lyle Davis, the hospital administrator and Central Community College have always been very willing partners and have offered great support to Cozad Community Schools. With a little legwork, several phone calls and a couple of meetings, I am proud to say that we have twelve students who are working through the CNA course and will earn their state certification this semester.
This first win, helped us overcome the inertia of complacency. Our next partnership was with the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture, part of the University of Nebraska System. Utilizing our Dawson Area Development coordinator, who was previously an employee at NCTA, we brainstormed a 'wish list' of ideas and then approached NCTA about entering into a conversation about ways we could make that list of dreams a list of realities. Our first meeting involved our high school administration and our career and technical education staff at the college and several of their administration and team members. From this meeting I can tell you that, Ron Rosati, the Dean at NCTA, is a progressive forward thinking man. Long story short, no obstacle too big, no challenge too hard. Our next meeting is scheduled for February 6th, 2014 and will be to begin working out the logistics of how this partnership will work. To sum up what this partnership will offer is this: NCTA wants our students taking their classes through synchronous and/or asynchronous methods utilizing adjunct instructors. The best part of this is that much of these college classes and certifications will be offered to our students free of cost and the potential exists for our students to earn nearly an associates degree and several industry level certifications prior to graduation. This is exciting to say the least!
While the ball was rolling, it just so happened that we were approached by a large cattle feeding operation here in our area to explore the opportunities that may exist in the area of agriculture. After part of a day touring their 'high tech' facility we began to brainstorm some ideas of how we might be able to work together to provide greater leadership skill experiences, technical skill set attainment, and skills in applying academic concepts to the real world in the agriculture industry. We were quite impressed with their operation and willingness to engage us in conversation. We are looking forward to these talks continuing. I won't name the operation directly because these talks are still in the preliminary stages, but to say the least, we are excited to dream about how this partnership could bring yet another great experience to the students of Cozad Community Schools.
Whats next?
As we continue to steamroll through this school year, we are already looking to expand these partnerships in our community and surrounding area. Each month our high school's 'Ed Tech' team meets with the executive board of the Cozad Development Corporation. Robyn Geiser and her team have been instrumental in helping us connect with other 'movers and shakers' who are looking make a difference in the next generation of our citizens. Our plans include the placement of twenty five high skill students into meaningful work experiences next school year. Our three year goal is that every student in our senior class is matched up with a business mentor where they can gain some real world skills and networks to potentially bring back our best and brightest after graduation. Other plans include the beefing up of our CNA class so that next year students will also attain their Medical Assisting (CMA) and Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) certifications as well. We are looking at several technical certifications and partnerships where students could CISCO, A+, Windows, and other technology related certifications. We are also tentatively looking into the logistics of offering a Commercial Drivers License (CDL) program and Pesticide Applicator Licensing to our students. For the sake of space I will omit the other twenty-some ideas we are mulling over as well.
As our partnerships mature and our 'Community' is more fully integrated into our schools, I am sure that I will report on those successes. Until then however, we will continue to dream big, think outside the box, and welcome the ideas and input of our community.
As the school year begins students, teachers, parents and the community are filled with excitement and a willingness to try new things. A new year is a new opportunity for success.
As the year starts, students and teachers are motivated to make the most of this opportunity on their way to earning their diploma. Recently for me, this has begged the questions of "How can we make the most of this opportunity while earning a diploma" and "What is the value of high school diploma?"
Is a high school diploma worth anything? Now, before you react viscerally, humor me for minute to consider if it really prepares kids to function in a global society where skills are key rather than knowledge. Times have shifted where the knowledge we possess is only as good as our ability to translate that to action through our skills.
Last week at our first in-service day, our new superintendent addressed the staff and spoke about his past experiences which have prepared him to lead our district in this very dynamic time in public education. Mr. Applegate has a very diverse background that will be a tremendous asset to our district. During his in-service address he posed the rhetorical questions of "What does a diploma allow a kid to do? What does it qualify them to do? " Now, we as educational masses have always responded with "It gives you the skills to be a functioning member of society," or "It will allow you to secure a job where you can live a comfortable life". Recently I have started thinking that these may not be sufficient answers anymore.
Just last week President Obama initiated a conversation centered around skyrocketing college costs and how to control those. As college student invest tens of thousands of dollars (and sometimes more) into a college degree, they have a sense of entitlement to higher paying jobs to justify the cost of a post-secondary education. I can empathize with that entitlement, but the reality of the situation is that many times even a college education is not enough to equip them with the skills they need to earn those large salaries. Employers want kids with certifications, skills, and competencies specific to their industry. Employers are often forced to make large investments in new employees to bridge that gap between formal education and the real world skills they need to function in the working world.
Here is where I believe schools have a golden opportunity to serve students better. For many years we have known that in order to work your way up the proverbial promotion ladder, it is imperative you obtain more education or higher certifications. As school systems, why can't we use our Career and Technical Education programs to do just this? How can we personalize these programs to the needs of our students to provide an opportunity to earn industry specific certifications prior to leaving high school?
A logical step in that direction will be to partner with business and industry stakeholders to bring the experts in those fields into the process of preparing kids for life beyond K-12 education. For far too long, we as schools, have been forced by the circumstances of the standards, assessments, and accountability policies to close the doors to local stakeholders with respect to real world problem- based learning because of the time demands of the aforementioned policies. The time has come for us realize that this has not been positive for our students, schools, or communities. Education is a diverse endeavor where the 'product' we produce is not truly quantifiable. We produce a qualitative 'product' to meet the demands of the world. This standards movement is founded upon lower level thinking skills and facts that are 'Googleable'. I believe that by reconnecting education to the real world we can make our 'product' quality higher by giving students skill sets and credentials to be better prepared to enter the real world.
This idea of partnering with local stakeholders and leaders can be a powerful tool to engage kids in learning content and skills. This past week I initiated a conversation with Central Community College and our hospital administrator about the possibility of offering CNA/CMA (Certified Nursing Assistant/Certified Medical Assistant) classes to our school and community. During that conversation Lyle Davis from Cozad Community Health System welcomed this idea and will be a key player in this idea coming to fruition. While this partnership may be in the infancy stage, we hope that this will become the model for a number of other partnerships we will look to forge in the coming months. In just a few moments of conversation with our Superintendent, we have already identified the possible certification/partnerships for several areas in which we have potential resources and experts in our community. Some of these certifications will be for those who will directly enter the workforce after graduation, while others will be geared toward students who may go onto earn advanced degrees from a post-secondary institution. Our tentative plan is to bring together many of these industry and community stakeholders in the fall to determine what partnerships are possible to best serve and prepare our students for the real world.
It is an exciting time to be a Haymaker. It is even more exciting to consider the possibility of bringing local support and ownership of educational ventures back to our school and community. We owe it to our students to work together to do everything within our power to fully prepare
them for the world beyond K-12 education. I have little doubt in my mind that our stakeholders will be tremendous assets in these future endeavors.
Dustin Favinger
9-12 School Counselor
Cozad Senior High School
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With each school year comes the opportunity to wipe the slate clean and begin again. Over the past few days I have spent some time setting goals for myself and for our students for the 14-15 school year. What dawned on me is that even though it is a chance to wipe our slate clean of past projects, failed ventures, the stress of a long school year, etc, I believe that we should each take the time to fill our slates up with the messages and goals we want to showcase to the world.
In my mind the real power of this is not just writing down a goal. It is hidden power of social pressure. My artifact found at the top of this page is not one that I have hidden. I have it posted outside my office, posted above my desk, and I am sharing it via social media. My hope is that others in our school will do the same. Posting and sharing these goals publicly and permanently will allow us to hold each other accountable throughout the year and focused on what we said we would achieve.
