Category Archives: Future

It’s time (once again) to appreciate teachers…

05 Friday May 2023

Posted by in Actions, Appreciation, Culture, Education, Educational Leadership, Encouragement, Future, Leader, Leadership, Reflection, Teacher Appreciation, Teachers, Value

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Well, Teacher Appreciation Week is next week again, that one week where we, as educators, get appreciated and I wanted to get this out this week, so you can be appreciated today and next week…

The funny question might be, how often do we appreciate ourselves? You might ask, “Isn’t that selfish thinking?” I’m not sure, but it seems very hard for others to appreciate you if you do not appreciate yourself. Too often, that seems to be the case. But, nonetheless… as a teacher, we have to appreciate what we do.

So, what does it take for an educator to be appreciated? Numerous studies have been done regarding teacher appreciation, teacher morale, teacher recognition, etc. The literature is full of these topics, and we can’t really add to the literature anymore (sorry future dissertation writers).

Here’s my one-cent answer: Appreciation for teachers should have three major components. One, let teachers teach. Two, it should happen every day of the week instead of one week a year. Three, appreciation should become a habit instead of a forced or obligated “thank-you” so Hallmark can sell cards.

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Appreciation should be a cultural identity of the school, its district, and, most importantly, the community. It should be a reflection of the district’s light that shines so bright that teachers are on the waiting list to teach and they are wearing sunglasses because of it instead of wearing them to hide their faces to conceal that they work there.

Appreciation contains substance and value, not fluff. It’s more than “lip service” and a “box check.” It goes just like anything else in life for people. The more we can show that we appreciate teachers, the more teachers will feel appreciated (duh! moment). When that happens, the paradigm swings in favor of education, and education needs all the help it can get.

Come week after next, the teaching world will wait another year for teacher appreciation to take place. That’s unfortunate. Many communities, districts, and schools get it right, and I am glad I am part of one where all three does that. While at the same time, there are those… you get the idea. No one wants to work at a place where they are not appreciated, but many have to. That’s unfortunate also.

Thank you to all the teachers out there. Thank you for helping our future. As I have said before, “Education is that last one stronghold that we have to help straighten society on the path it should be going.” If we as educators do not, then who will? Find a way next week to appreciate a teacher, better yet, every day; they will appreciate it.

Final thought – Appreciation is in no way a concept that pushes people away from wanting to feel appreciated. Appreciation invites one to come, not drive away. And it all starts and ends with leadership.

Go be a great educator and leader today… Our future needs it…

Remember… Think Leadership and Be For Others…

©2023 J Clay Norton

Want more Leadership Thoughts? Follow me on… Twitter @thebookchamber or follow the blog directly.

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Are You, As A Teacher, An Advocate For Our Profession?

24 Tuesday Jan 2023

Posted by in Actions, Advocate, Appreciation, Attitude, Choice, Education, Educational Leadership, Effective, Emotion, Encouragement, Future, Leader, Leadership, Passion, Teacher Shortage, Teachers, Value

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Question for the week… With there being a teacher shortage, are you, as a teacher, an advocate for our profession?

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First, let me say that I enjoy being an educator. For those who know me, I hope you can say that my passion for education and educational leadership is very high. With that being said, I also know that there are times when teaching can wear you down. The list of items that go to this is endless, but that might be a topic for a future blog. Anyway…

I enjoy seeing teachers who are passionate about their jobs. But how many teachers do we see and hear who are not? That bothers me. For example, a future teacher recently told me that a high school teacher asked what she wanted to do. When she said she wanted to be a teacher, the actual teacher told her, “Good luck with that.” Why would they say that?

For the most part, society does not help advocate the teaching profession. Society will quickly tell us what is wrong with our profession and how we can do it better. I have always said that we are in trouble when we allow non-educators to make educational decisions. If we do not see ourselves as advocates for education, we leave the door open to the outside to determine our standing.

Teachers who are advocates see the end goal of education. They see growing students to become productive citizens in society. They look beyond students being “test scores” and provide an environment that is welcoming and conducive to learning. This is what passion for being an educator is about. It’s about telling success stories that are positive and uplifting. But, as we know, it’s only the negative stories that travel at a great speed…

Take this from one of my go-to “old heads” of education… “There is nothing ever printed or said about the positive aspects of teaching-with those in the profession being the most negative. The intrinsic values are rarely voiced. Being a teacher is the most valuable profession a young person can pursue, but most never hear many positive aspects that make it appealing!!! Just my humble opinion!!!”

I’ll go on and say this, if you are a teacher who cannot speak positively and advocate for our profession, please leave the profession and let those who want to be educators set ablaze the way that will light the way for many others. Yes, there are things wrong with education, just like any other business, but I get sick of hearing the statement, “You signed up for this.” That’s just bad leadership all the way around. These negative nay-sayers teachers are a disease to the profession and will create sores that fester and affect everyone around.

By nature, passionate people inspire. Why not do that for future educators? As I said in last week’s blog The Lengthening of the Teacher Shortage… Is there an end?, “We must give those who are even remotely thinking about becoming an educator a reason to be one. However, if our future teachers are in our schools today, and they are, how do you think they look at the teaching profession when they see us and what we do? It’s a question worth asking and, more importantly, answering… We must give teachers hope, for we are the only model future teachers see.”

Educators today have a choice, do we promote our profession, or do we sever the connection and let society or even other teachers determine our value? Do we love teaching to the point where we believe all children should be afforded equal learning opportunities? Or will we be defined by negative comments made by some in our profession who see teaching as a lonely, lowly job?

Punt that, I’m choosing to be an advocate and a leader of the profession that I love.

Let’s go fight the good fight of leadership. Someone has to…

Go be a great educator and leader today… Our future needs it…

Remember… Think Leadership and Be For Others…

©2023 J Clay Norton

Want more Leadership Thoughts? Follow me on… Twitter @thebookchamber or follow the blog directly.

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Being a #girldad and Women Sports Equality

25 Friday Mar 2022

Posted by in Advantage, Agenda, Choice, Expectations, Future, Honest, Humility, Influence, Intentions, Opinions, Power, Value

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I’m a #girldad and very proud to be one. I love Breana with all of my heart and then some (ya’ll know what I mean). However…

In recent events, the NCAA allowed Lia Thomas, swimming for the University of Pennsylvania, to swim in the NCAA D-1 Women’s National Swimming Championships. HE won the 500-yard freestyle event… you see, Lia was biologically born as a male… and there lies the issue. Interestingly, Thomas competed for the men’s swimming team at the University of Pennsylvania for three years before transitioning, undergoing hormone therapy, then switching to compete for the women’s team in 2020. Thomas finished the 500-yard freestyle final in 4 minutes, 33.24 seconds, just over a second faster than second-place finisher Emma Weyant (University of Virginia), while Olympian Erica Sullivan (University of Texas) touched the wall next to take third place. Title IX was established to promote and advocate for equality in women sports, but it seems that is no longer the case. 

Men-VS-Women

Breana played tennis in high school and is a pretty good tennis player (she takes after her mom). They played mixed doubles, but she never had to compete in singles against a boy. Girls played against girls, and boys played against boys. As a #girldad, I’m proud of Breana’s effort in competing. However, as the future begins to change, how would I go back and explain to her that she had to compete against males. At some point, right is right, and wrong is wrong… but that seems to get lost in translation. Some will say it becomes relative, but then…. whose relativeness do we believe? 

I’m not sure where society took a wrong turn, but I don’t think it was when I was growing up. If it was, we didn’t know about it. How do we tell our children not to cheat, stay honest and honorable, while others will literally try to change their gender or call themselves what they are not in order to compete? In the spirit of “political correctness,” I’m sure this becomes an obtuse thought. However, when we tell our girls not to compete, we stifle or limit their competitiveness nature in order to take a stance. 

If we see this now, where will it be later on? We say, “It cannot get worse,” but then something more asinine happens. When we say, “The audacity of…,’ the gravity of the situation does not carry the weight. I will say I admire the actual girls who swam in the meet. I also admire that they spoke out about it afterwards. I wish one of them had won. But then we know they actually did even though no trophy or medal was given. 

My daughter is now grown but still plays league tennis. As a #girldad, I’m passionate about and for women sports. For all the future girl athletes, I wish for them the opportunity to be able to compete at their level. But it needs to be at their level. We can get into the science of it, we can get into the biology of it, we can… get into it. In the end, how one is born is what they are. Allowing a male to compete with females does not create a venue of equality. 

It seems equality is no longer equal. However, to quote Gavroche in Les Misérables, “Here is the thing about equality, everyone’s equal when they’re dead.”

Go be a great educator and leader today… Our future needs it…

Remember… Think Leadership and Be For Others…

©2022 J Clay Norton

Want more Leadership Thoughts? Follow me on… Twitter @thebookchamber or follow the blog directly.

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A text from my mom and the thought of influence…

08 Wednesday Sep 2021

Posted by in Character, Compassion, Decisions, Encouragement, Essence, Expectations, Future, Influence, Inspiration, Kindness, Purpose, Relationships, Teachers, Value

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This past Saturday, Heather and I were on the patio drinking coffee, and I get a text from my mom asking me to read something on Facebook. For some reason, I could not open the link (technical difficulties), so I call mom and tell her. Well, one thing led to another, and she ends up reading me the below post. For those who know my mom, she is not one who always shares her feelings. But, she was excited about this. Mom stated it was one of the best things she has read of late and thought about us since we are teachers and the value of influence we have. 

As she was reading it to me, I looked it up online and actually found the post. What was interesting, it was posted on my 7th grade English teacher’s page. The story, as far as I can tell, has an unknown source. By nature, I try to be conscientious about my blogs and wanting them to be “original thoughts,” but I believe this post is worth reading…

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The Teacher and the Stolen Watch

AN OLD MAN MEETS A YOUNG MAN who asks;
“Do you remember me?” 

And the old man says no.  Then the young man tells him he was his student. And the teacher asks:
“What do you do, what do you do in life?”

The young man answers:
“Well, I became a teacher.”
“Ah, how good, like me?” Asks the old man.
“Well, yes.  In fact, I became a teacher because you inspired me to be like you.”

The old man, curious, asks the young man at what time he decided to become a teacher.  And the young man tells him the following story:
“One day, a friend of mine, also a student, came in with a nice new watch, and I decided I wanted it and I stole it, I took it out of his pocket.

Shortly after, my friend noticed his missing watch and immediately complained to our teacher, who was you. Then you went to the class:
“This student's watch was stolen during classes today.  Whoever stole it, please return it.”

I didn't give it back because I didn't want to.  Then you closed the door and told us all to get up and you were going to search our pockets one by one until the watch was found.  But you told us to close our eyes, because you would only look for his watch if we all had our eyes closed.

So we did, and you went from pocket to pocket, and when you went through my pocket, you found the watch and took it.  You kept searching everyone's pockets, and when you were done you said:
“Open your eyes. We have the watch.”

You didn't tell me and you never mentioned the episode. You never said who stole the watch either.  That day you saved my dignity forever.  It was the most shameful day of my life.

But this is also the day my dignity was saved and I decided not to become a thief, a bad person, etc. You never said anything, nor even scold me or took me aside to give me a moral lesson, I received your message clearly.

And thanks to you, I understood what a real educator needs to do.  Do you remember this episode, professor?

And the professor answers:
“I remember the situation, the stolen watch, which I was looking for in everyone’s pocket, but I didn't remember you, because I also closed my eyes while looking.”

This is the essence of teaching:
“If to correct you must humiliate; you don't know how to teach "

Credit - Unknown

As I read this again, I agree; it is pretty good. As educators, we really never know the power of our influence. Just like in the story, there will be plenty of students we cannot remember – if you teach long enough, it will happen. However, little things matter. One little thing here or there. The things we do or say that inspire. How we communicate and make others feel. Showing students that there is a better way. You never know, we might just save their dignity. You might not remember them, but they will remember you. Yes, to teach is to educate. But I will add this to the last line of the story – To influence and inspire… An essence of teaching that can only be measured with time. 

Who will you influence and inspire today? 

Go be a great educator and leader today… Our future needs it…

Remember… Think Leadership and Be For Others…

©2021 J Clay Norton

Want more Leadership Thoughts? Follow me on…

Twitter @thebookchamber

Want to share this leadership thought with others? Click on one of the social media sharing buttons below and help spread the good…