A thought for the day...

Too many people
overvalue
what they are not
and
undervalue
what they are.

Malcolm Forbes (1919-1990)
publisher of Forbes magazine

Act As IF...

THE NEW YORK TIMES

March 21, 2009

FIRST STEP IN BECOMING A WINNER: ACT LIKE ONE

By MELISSA JOHNSON

On March 14, 1998, I sat in a dark hotel room with both hands over my mouth to prevent my yelps from waking my teammate in the next bed.

A 6-foot-4 sophomore center at North Carolina, I was transfixed by the N.C.A.A. tournament game lighting up before me, a game that would persuade me to give up my full scholarship, million-dollar locker room, teammates who could dunk and fancy Nike luggage.

Sixteenth-seeded Harvard, a bunch of basketball nobodies, was battling top-ranked Stanford at raucous Maples Pavilion -- and winning.

A veritable banner-making machine, Stanford had produced more N.C.A.A. championships in women’s sports than any other college. It was a surreal and sanguine affair: the Crimson versus the Cardinal. David versus Goliath. Revenge of the Nerds.

No Ivy League women’s team had ever won a game in an N.C.A.A. tournament, and Stanford, though missing two key players to injury, was one of the strongest programs of the decade, having won the national title twice and owning a 59-game home winning streak dating to the 1993-94 season. In her spare time, Stanford’s coach, Tara VanDerveer, had led the 1996 United States team to an Olympic gold medal. She couldn’t have expected much competition from a college known for its SATs, not M.V.P.’s.

“Welcome to real basketball,” an event worker coolly offered the Cambridge women as they stepped onto the court after their cross-country flight. Meanwhile, the news media talked about them like smart little hors d’oeuvres: pigs in a blanket to the slaughter, brainiac bruschetta to whet Stanford’s appetite for the meal to come.

Yet, the Harvard women summoned the performance of their lives, including a 35-point exhibition by the all-American Allison Feaster. Miraculously leading by a point with 1 minute 32 seconds to play, they secured the win with a 3-pointer from a lanky, unassuming future E.R. physician named Suzie Miller, who wore her hair in double braids.

Stanford looked too shocked to be ashamed. With my television muted, the court erupted in silent pandemonium as I jumped up and down on the bed, waking my roommate after all.

The mastermind behind this astonishing victory -- the only time a No. 16 seed has beaten a No. 1 seed in the men’s or women’s N.C.A.A. tournament -- was a scrappy blue-collar Boston kid turned coaching icon named Kathy Delaney-Smith.

Wanting to learn from someone who could pull off this kind of magic, I transferred to play for her the next year, and she told me her secret. Any decent athlete, salesman or Starbucks barista can put on a good game face. But her philosophy, “act as if,” goes much deeper than mere swagger or theatrics. It’s a method -- a learned skill for convincing your mind that you already are what you want to become. The body follows where the mind leads.

“Act as if you’re a great shooter,” she would instruct. “Act as if you love the drill. Act as if when you hit the deck it doesn’t hurt.” Negativity, even in the form of body language, was not tolerated.

What the overly analytical Harvard players might have lacked in comparative speed or vertical jumping ability against Stanford, they made up with their power of belief.

Humor, second only to athleticism, is Kathy’s social currency. She tells recruits with a touch of local sarcasm and a devilish laugh, “What, you need a hard sell? -- it’s Hahvahd!”

In 1969 she picked up the whistle as a favor to a friend. A former synchronized swimmer who hadn’t had the opportunity to play competitive basketball, she was clueless but determined to do a good job faking it. She figured out drills as she ran them, read every sports psychology book available, and went undefeated in her first six years as a high school coach.

“I started out fooling a lot of people,” she said. But the farce became the truth -- she won more games than any other women’s basketball coach in the Ivy League and emerged as one of the longest-tenured coaches in the country. Positive thinking is hardly a revolutionary notion in sports, but her brand has been so compelling because of the authentic and irreverent way she lives it.

Along with scouting reports, wind sprints and endless shooting drills, Kathy methodically conditioned our heads. The regimen included regular meditation sessions in the locker room where we visualized bigger, stronger players in hostile arenas.

My senior year didn’t go how either of us planned. Kathy was fighting breast cancer and I had blown out my knee. We both had surgery. Feeling like a failure, I captained the team from the bench, far from the star player I was supposed to have been.

But I watched Kathy show up exhausted for practice every day, in pain and in a wig, bravely embodying her own mantra like never before. Pretending to be fearless. So I just tried to be like her. We didn’t win the league that year; there was no shot at the tournament. But we both got better.

Eleven years after Stanford, I asked Kathy what happened after the buzzer sounded. She was approached for a postgame interview. Before the camera started rolling, she whispered to the commentator Ann Meyers and asked her not to let her say anything stupid. “I’d never been on national TV,” she confided. “I was desperately acting as if.”

Melissa Johnson is an online director for BBC Worldwide America and an independent filmmaker. Her short documentary “Act as If” will be playing next month in the Boston International Film Festival.

Thanks Dr. Gilbert for the story!

Motivational Speaker Touches a Nerve!

This past Friday, Howard High School invited ELMS 8th graders to come to their auditorium to see John Morello, a motivational speaker, who has created a one-man theatrical production to heighten students awareness of the drug problem facing our country.

According to Morello, "This is a rather serious one man show I wrote in response to things that have occured in my life. Not fully stand-up. Not fully drama. Not really an assembly. Not really a motivational speaker. But a little bit of all those things. A strange hybrid and fusion that works for all ages."

During the assembly on Friday, Morello took all of the assembly participants on a journey following the lives of various people impacted by the main character's drug addiction. The talent of Morello was evident as he skillfully played various characters on stage. He touched a nerve in each audience member as he revealed their inner voices and feelings. By the end of the show, John shares that all of the characters were based on people in his own life and that he, too had been impacted by a person who had become addicted to drugs. His own brother died of a drug overdose.

I want to thank Howard High School for providing this powerful educational experience for our 8th graders. I especially want to thank Ms. Massella, the Principal of Howard High and Mr. Levy, the Assistant Principal of Howard High for working with us to make this happen.

If you are interested in finding out more about John Morello and his show, click on the link below.

http://www.youtube.com/user/johnmorello

ELMS 8th Grader Goes Hollywood!

ELMS's very own Alyssa Shouse just returned from Hollywood after meeting with songwriter/producer Greg Critchley. Critchley heard Alyssa sing on her MySpace page and offered to have Alyssa and her mom come to Hollywood to do a "mic" test.

Greg Critchley, a Los Angeles-based writer/producer has collaborated with such prominent songwriters as Bridget Benenate, Matthew Gerrard and Robbie Nevil. Most recently, Critchley can be heard playing the drums and perscussions on the High School Musical 2 soundtrack.

According to Alyssa, the meeting went well and she had a great time in LA! Way to go Alyssa! Who knows...American Idol? Recording Contract? Radio Play? I think she can do it all!

For more information about Alyssa's amazing talents, please see the links below.

Click here to read the entire article by Susan Lavin

Shouse Wins Howard County Teen Idol: Click here to read the entire article

Maryland Terps (Men and Women!) Are in the Dance!

Congratulations to both the men and women's basketball teams for making
the NCAA tournament this year.

GO TERPS!

Cook-off A Huge Team Success!

IF YOU WANT TO
RUN FAST: RUN ALONE.
IF YOU WANT TO
RUN FAR: RUN TOGETHER.
African proverb

This proverb is one of my favorites. As a middle school educator, it reminds me of the importance of creating powerful teams within a school in order to help students and staff. In order to do this, we sponsor all kinds of activities to reinforce this concept. At our last schoolwide professional work day, LeeAnn Sanna helped to organize our first annual staff one-pot cook-off. Teams of staff members were formed to compete in the following culinary competition:

The Rules:

• As a team, create a one pot meal (soup, stew, chili). It must be a one pot meal that can cook or simmer during the entire morning meeting (approximately 3 hours).
• Each team will have 45 minutes of preparation prior to the staff meeting starting at 8:30. During preparation time all of the ingredients must go into the pots or crockpots. At 8:30, all pots/crockpost must be plugged-in and cooking in the Family and Consumers Sciences classroom.
• Each team, must have the recipe by your "pot".

• Each "pot" will be Judged on:

1. Creativity
2. Taste
3. Texture
4. Degree of easiness it is to prepare and cook

• The "pots" will be judged by guests judges not on our staff.

The competition was fierce! Great food was created, but only one team could win. Eva Soboleski and her band of chefs ended up being judge best this year. While we did declare a winner, I don't believe there were any losers. The team work, friendly competition and wonderful pots of stew that were prepared and consumed will create lasting memories and bonds!

The ELMS staff ROCKS and cooks well, too! Thanks LeeAnn for doing such a great job creating this new tradition for our school!

Term Limits for Principals?

In a recent Howard County Times article by Jennifer Broadwater entitled Union head Seeks Term Limits for Principals, the concept of limiting the amount of time a principal can lead a school is recommended by the President of the Howard County Teachers Association Ann DeLacy. She makes this proposal based partly on her belief that principals become too powerful and less responsive to teacher concerns the longer they serve in a school; and partly on the results of her association's annual job satisfaction survey, which asks teachers and support staff to rate the leadership and work environment at schools in Howard County.

Ann DeLacy, the President of HCEA, said the poor ratings given the same schools year after year lead her to believe the survey is ignored by school system leaders.

"I'm subject to term limits; the County Council is subject to term limits; our county executive is subject to term limits; our president is subject to term limits. So why not principals?" DeLacy said.

Well, this is why I believe term limits are and always have been a bad idea in politics and at the principal level. Term limits assume that all leaders are the same and that they have a shelf-life much like a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread. By enacting term limits, it prevents superintendents and school board members to select the best people for the job. If a school is fortunate to have a really good administrator, term limits would force the superintendent to transfer the principal to another school regardless of whether this was the best decision for the students, staff and community. Like any job, it takes time to be good at what you do. About the time an effective principal understands the needs of the school and is enacting positive change for students, under the rules of term limits, a principal would be removed based on time served not results. This doesn't make sense to me.

What are your thoughts?

Click here to read the entire article.

Family Fun Night Is A BIG Success!

The ELMS Student Services Team hosted our school's first Family Fun Night this past week to promote positive communication between home and school and between parents and children. Through out the evening, families participated in team building activities that were designed to promote effective communication, reinforce the value of creating a supportive learning community that embraces asset development and to review the ELMS expectations as set forth in our Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework.

We had over 70 parents, students and staff participate last Thursday evening. The activities ranged from a blind obstacle course, balloon games, PBIS Jeopardy, role playing and trust circles. Here are some of the comments we heard:

"Thanks for helping me talk to my mom!"


"Wow, I didn't know my son was so insightful!"


"It was really fun spending time with my whole family...and learning new ways to have fun!"

The evening culminated with an ice cream sundae party and a raffle to give away various prizes. I want to commend the ELMS Student Services Team for organizing this wonderful evening and thank all of the parents, students and staff who participated. A great time was had by all!

Priceless!

Baltimore Sun Photo

Game Tickets: $75.00 each

Parking: $20.00

Popcorn and a Coke: $7.50

TERPS beating Tarheels: PRICELESS!

An Amazing, But DIRTY Artist!

Meet Scott Wade. He is a Texas artist who creates works of art out of the dirt that collects on the back of his car window. A truly amazing story and fun to view. Beware...it is slightly
dirty! ; )

Click here to see the full story!

Thanks Frank for sharing this story with me!

Paulus Named Howard County 2009 Outstanding Technology Leader in Education

Two years ago, the digital generation gap was alive and well here at Elkridge Landing Middle School. Most of our students were light years ahead of our staff in their ability to use a variety of computer hardware and applications available in our school. While most of our teachers had mastered the basics of point-and-click, they were not effectively leveraging the potential of technology to enhance student learning.

Wow, what a difference two years can make! Especially, when you have a talented and dedicated person working exclusively on providing a comprehensive, school-based professional development plan that includes the training of staff on how to use various computer applications and hardware, sharing the latest trends in the tech world and co-teaching with teachers as they implement lessons that infuse technology to increase student motivation.

Therefore, I am very happy to announce that Ms. Geordie Paulus, the ELMS Technology Support Teacher, was recently named Howard County’s 2009 Outstanding Technology Leader in Education. Ms. Paulus has been a pioneer here in Howard County and at our school by being the first Technology Support Teacher at the middle level. In this recently created pilot-position, she has been responsible for creating and facilitating professional development activities to increase the use of technology by our teachers and students; collaborating with our school leaders to create a comprehensive technology plan that maximizes the use of the hardware and software provided by the county; and modeling the integration of technology into all aspects of our school’s culture to increase student engagement and staff productivity. Without question, she is most deserving of this honor. Way to go Geordie!

Interviewing Tips

Interviewing Tips For Teachers

This past Friday morning, a friend of mine at Johns Hopkins University, invited me to serve on a panel with other educational leaders responsible for interviewing teacher candidates. He asked the members of the panel to share interviewing tips with his graduate students who will entering the job market in the near future. Serving on the panel with me were two hiring specialists from Howard County, Maryland and an elementary school administrator from the same district. After hearing the practical and valuable advice each member of the panel gave, I thought it would be worthwhile to share it with you.

Do your homework!
Review online student performance data sources about the school system and the particular school where you will interview. Visit the school’s website to gain information about the school’s mission and programs. Gather printed materials at the district office. Inquire about the school system’s major goals, programs, demographics and student achievement data.

Prepare a portfolio!
Most administrators appreciate seeing examples of lesson plans, student products, notes from parents/students, letters from mentor teachers and colleagues, pictures of you in the classroom, and digital resources you have created. During the interview, use the portfolio as a tool to illustrate answers to the questions you will be asked about instruction and classroom management.

Dress for the success!
Dress professionally. Your choice of clothing tells a lot about you, and as they say, you don't get a second chance to make a good first impression.

Be on time!
Make a trial run to the district office/school the day before your interview and organize any documents you may have been asked to bring along, including extra copies of your resume and application.

Accentuate the positive - the interview!
Most districts have a multi-level interview process. Typically, the first interview serves as a screening to eliminate those candidates that don’t meet minimal requirements. Once you make it past the first interview, you meet with a curriculum specialist. The final interview is with a school administrator and possibly other members of the school’s staff.

Treat the interview as a classroom situation; project your sincere enthusiasm for teaching and pleasure in communicating with others. Answer questions specifically, using examples from your own teaching experience and using artifacts from your portfolio.
Be prepared to talk about your classroom management skills. School administrators want teachers that are highly competent and know how to handle kids with minimal support. In addition, you should have at least one or two questions for the principal.

Exit strategy
At the end of the interview, thank the person or committee members before you leave, and write a follow-up letter or email expressing your continued interest in the position.

5 Deadly Interview Mistakes

1. Criticizing your previous school or other work experiences.
2. Name-dropping
3. Dressing inappropriately
4. Not mentioning your passion for teaching and helping kids learn
5. Coming empty handed

Thanks to Dr. Bill Sowders, Kim Mahle, Rob Bruno and Amy Green
for providing such great insight.