Category Archives: Purpose

“A Great Teacher” is what I want to be…

14 Friday May 2021

Posted by in Actions, Authentic, Character, Culture, Education, Educational Leadership, Effective, Encouragement, Engagement, Heart, Inspiration, Leader, Leadership, Legacy, Memories, Passion, Purpose, Reality, Reflection, Servant, Sincerity, Teacher Appreciation, Teachers, Value

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Do you ever wonder if you make a connection with your students? What will they remember about you? With teaching being as much about classroom psychology as it is knowing your subject matter, how students remember us lasts forever in their minds. In a previous blog Memories so thick…, I mentioned the idea of how educators/leaders can create an atmosphere where students make memories, but today, I wanted to take a different look at the same idea.

One of many joys I have as an educator is being able to adjunct teach at the college level. One of my running statements is that I try to “positively corrupt” future educators on how the educational world actually is. It’s harder than you think, by the way. And then there are those current teachers who are working on an advanced degree in education… more than anything else, I try to convey to them the much-needed characteristic of being a servant-leader.

With saying all of that, I have to be minded of the educator I am as well. In my own mind, I think I know what type of educator I am. However, the students throughout my career are the ones who can testify as to what type of educator I actually was.

I love how movie snippets that can say exactly what you are wanting to say, and I have one for us. I highly encourage you to watch the Emperor’s Club with Kevin Kline, if you have never seen it. I believe it should be required of all educators. There is one scene near the end of the movie that sends a message for the type of educator I hope I am and the type of educator I want to be. The message sent is what I wish all teachers/leaders in education would strive to become and be. Not only for themselves but for their students as well. I believe this one clip to be so powerful; I show it at the end of each semester to the class of future educators in hopes they will understand the passion I have for teaching and educational leadership.

Please take 2 minutes and 4 seconds to watch what I am talking about… Maybe get a tissue ready?

Emperors Club – “A Great Teacher” Clip

Here it is in print…

“A great teacher has little external history to record. His life goes over into other lives. These men are pillars in the intimate structure of our schools. They are more essential than its stones or beams, and they will continue to be a kindling force and a revealing power in our lives.” 

This is about as good as it gets for me. This is the type of teacher I hope I am. This is the type of teacher I want to be. I have been very fortunate to have some teachers and mentors like this and they have had an ever lasting influence in one way or another on my life. This is the type of teacher education needs, now more than ever. As we begin to wrap of this school year, make an effort to be this type of teacher. 

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

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The Value of Educational Standards… Why Do They Seem Not Worthy Anymore?

30 Friday Apr 2021

Posted by in Achieve, Actions, Advantage, Agenda, Attitude, Decisions, Education, Educational Leadership, Effective, Expectations, Ideals, Intentions, Intolerance, Leader, Leadership, Purpose, Standard, Tolerance, Value

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Everyone has an opinion on how education should be defined and what the role of education should be. With that being said, education, as we know it, is being redefined based on agendas set forth by those who want education to be “lessened” based on equality.

Recently, the Virginia Department of Education was reported to considering dropping all advanced math classes below the 11th grade due to unequal representation of minority races and is also considering ending honors diplomas for advanced students due to “inequity.” Fortunately, Virginia’s superintendent of public instruction said a few days ago that the state is not eliminating advanced high school mathematics courses. The decision to eliminate honor diplomas has not made any other news as of today.

With all of the above… It got me to thinking…

What are we thinking? Where is the common sense?

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Take this quote from Dr. Randy J. Guliuzza in an article I recently read… “Today, anyone daring to speak common sense is publicly pummeled with disparaging names (or worse) by members of a rapidly growing deviant movement. They use a hostile crowd to systematically isolate people from each other by making everyone afraid to be associated with the pummeled person lest it also happen to them – a method to strong-arm conformity in thinking and control the behavior of an entire group.”¹

This is how I feel precisely with those who are wanting to destroy the idea and ideals for education. It could also be the question that many students will ask in the future, “Why can’t I be educated?” or better, “Why am I being denied to take a course because there are some who are not capable of doing so?” Hard questions that must be answered on the other side of the conversation.

Those who know me know that I am a huge proponent of education and the right of it for all in the name of equality and equity. I have said before that education is one of the last strongholds that can help society “get better.” And it is our job as educators to do what we can to make that happen.

However, when we begin to lower standards (why would we anyway?), we suppress knowledge and limit the growth of students who will be our future. When “education” wants to “level” the playground, per se, wherever the bar is now set, there will always be some who still have to “rise” to that level. Will we continue to lower the bar until all can have “success?” When the standards are lowered, mediocrity becomes more prevalent and eventually accepted. Students who decide to take advanced classes do so because they want to or they need to in order to foster success for what they choose to do in the future.

Now, for those who are going to say, “Well, some students are not ‘smart’ enough to take advanced classes or get an honor diploma.” That’s true. But why should those who are, be denied the opportunity? There were days when school did not even have those types of classes. When I was in high school, I never took an AP, Honors, or Dual-Credit class, and I feel I received a very well-rounded education. My first exposure to calculus was my sophomore year in college. My only “advanced” course in high school was Advanced Math, and that was because that’s what it was called.

Anyway… my thought on what education is and should be for is to allow and help a person better succeed in society when they enter it. Many say, “School is not for everyone.” I agree; that is why education should provide outlets for students to find their niche and be successful in it. That is why the arts and career and technical programs are such an essential part of education and should be promoted as such.

Also, as an educator, I know all schools are not equal and how I wish they were. All schools do not, cannot, or choose not to have the same classes and perform academically as other schools (and there are many reasons for that which can be discussed later). However, I will say that you can find one success story after another of young people who defied the odds and bettered themselves because they wanted to. They decided not to hold themselves back due to whatever reasons and succeed. That is what education provides; an opportunity to succeed for any student who wants to at any academic level.

And let’s add this one other thought… There are many areas of life that we want standards to be kept very high. Just for the sake of conversation, how about these occupations… airplane pilots, medical doctors and surgeons, architects, etc. Let’s also not forget sports. No one ever said they want mediocrity and lower standards there. 

If we start limiting the education of students based in the name of equality and equity, we go against the very definition of what both stand for. This we all know, there is always someone more intelligent than you and those who are not as intelligent as you. Neither case disqualifies one or the other from being a quality individual. In almost every case of life, we choose who we want to become. Let’s continue to let education be a vehicle that helps determine that.

1Guliuzza, R, J. (2021). Refusing to live by lies. Acts & Facts, 50(5), 5.

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…

The 4th Nine Weeks Stretch…

26 Friday Mar 2021

Posted by in COVID-19, Deciding, Encouragement, Intentions, Leader, Leadership, Momentum, Motivation, Purpose, Teachers, Useful, Value

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Well, here we are. We have made it—the 4th nine weeks. Just like the 7th Inning stretch in baseball, the end is in sight. For 27 weeks, educators have taught like they never have before. In our teaching, we have dug deeper, gone further, taught harder, and almost exhausted every bit of teaching methodology we know. And, one more thing… most educators have now perfected what I call “Eduzoomcation.“

With all of that being said, we are still not done. As I have spoken with other teachers, many are trying to fit lessons in on top of regular lessons just to get their students where they need to be to progress to what they need to know. The idea of incremental development of lessons has never been more important, but the time factor has many teachers pressing.

More importantly, what we cannot do is compare our teaching and pacing of our subjects to years past. If you do, it will devalue what you have done and accomplished this year. It may not seem as much, but considering everything, it is much. Many teachers have turned into accepting minor roles of psychologists while they teach, asking themselves what they can do to reach one more student and trying to figure out the best way forward. As I told someone the other day, teaching this year during the COVID pandemic is worthy of a resume bullet.

This time last year, we found out that we would not be coming back to school for the 4th nine weeks. Now here we are at that same point one year later. The good news… we still have an opportunity as educators to make good on what we do. It does not matter if students are still on Zoom or in the classroom. What matters is that we stay committed to the values of what education should do… to help better society by educating students for the future.

The 4th nine weeks stretch… Go ahead and stretch… but know, like baseball, there are a few more innings to play, and they matter. If you get complacent, odds are your students will also. And please do not get into what I call the “hook-slide.” While we are rounding third-base, per se, beat the throw at home plate. Don’t try to “hook-slide” in; you might just get tagged out.

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

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Time to Detox Your Mind…

05 Friday Feb 2021

Posted by in Actions, Choice, coronavirus, COVID-19, Crisis, Detox, Future, Kindness, Leader, Leadership, Memories, Purpose, Thankful, Useful

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The other night, Heather asked me to order her some more “detox” herbal tea. We will detox our bodies to get the “bad” stuff out (and go major hungry at the same time) and cleanse for so many days. Why? So we can believe the labels that we will feel better and be healthier. After I placed the order, I started thinking about the detox idea and our bodies (I didn’t think long), which lead me to think about detox and our minds.

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But what about our minds? Do we ever detox them? Do you know what all we have stored up there? Yes, much of it is needed as a reservoir to glean from for the future. There are also many happy memory moments. But do you also know what we hang on to? (This is where I tell you, I am really good at this part. Not something I should probably be airing out anyway).

Nonetheless, it happens for all of us. More damaging than that is putting all the negatives that are happening in society in our minds. Now I believe we have to be well-versed on current topics to know what is happening, but if the negatives are all we dwell on, what chance do we have to emit positive leadership?

Think about this for just a moment… We are almost a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, our country is divided, some voices are shouted while others are muzzled, businesses are closed, school is Zoomed, events with little or no spectators, etc… Normal as we know it is not happening for the foreseeable future. TALK ABOUT NEGATIVE!

I guess I am just rambling… that’s what blogs are for anyway, right? Somehow, we have to detox and reset our thinking. If not for ourselves, then especially for others.

So, I figure here are a few things we can do to detox our minds… and yes, it will take a few days…

Hang out with “real” people.
Stay current on what’s happening in the world, but don’t read the threads…
Find something positive to read. By the way, if you are going to believe everything you read, start with the Bible. 
Be thankful about something.
As much as it causes distress when your favorite sports team does not win, it is not the end of the world.
Just be kind (see last week’s blog for this).

Nothing you have read today is a new or original thought. That’s the funny thing about writing a blog on leadership. Almost everything has already been said over time. The only “newness” comes from a different perspective or a twist on how something is presented. However, the problem lies in the fact that there is still “not good” leadership from many. Leadership conventions and seminars are still selling tickets. Books, papers, blogs are still being written. Surveys are still being conducted, and stats are studied to tell us what good leadership should look like.

So… why don’t we know, or why have we not figured it out yet? Your guess is as good as mine, but I will always believe it hinges on the idea of selfishness and what we put into our minds. We could all use a little detoxing; our minds and, I guess, our bodies too.

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

Remember… Think Leadership and Be For Others…

©2021 J Clay Norton

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