Greetings
I’d like to acknowledge everyone's effort toward providing a quality academic environment for all children at
Greenvale Park. This continues to be one of the best years ever. Have you ever noticed that children rarely get
credit for this sort of thing? It’s easy for principals to thank adults for helping to produce a quality educational
environment. That said, time and time again I am impressed with the effort our children produce to selfadvocate for their own needs and at how they can be tenacious at making their great, greater and their greatest,
better! Way to go Geckos! I really think the message of perseverance is sinking in, don’t you?
School Improvement Design
There is another reason this is going to be one of the best years ever at Greenvale Park. On October 24, 2016,
at a School Board meeting, we presented our School Improvement Design to the public. Within the context of
that plan our Climate Committee quietly made a shift in our goal setting per school climate.
Psychologists tell us if parents want to bring out the best in their children their positive/negative language ratio
should be 10 to 1. In educational parlance, research tells us, in our classrooms it should be 4 to 1.
Our Climate Committee is committed to 4 to 1. Some of the ways you might see this commitment are:
1. We are encouraging all faculty and staff to ramp up the distribution of Caught Yous to children for
modeling BELONG RESPECT and WORK with an emphasis on belonging.
2. Beginning at our November building-wide meeting, we are asking that all classroom teachers bring their
monthly Caught You buckets to the meeting. Each classroom will dump their bucket into a larger school
container with a clear window. Our goal is to fill it by the last building-wide meeting!
3. In November we will begin recognizing Goal Getters individually in classrooms in order to increase the
number of students we can recognize for setting goals. We will live stream these recognitions on our
Twitter page using the Periscope app. In this way, parents who cannot attend our building-wide meeting
can witness their child being recognized.
4. We will live stream our building-wide meetings for parents who cannot attend them.
We’re going for it at Greenvale Park! Tell us if you see a difference.
The Importance of Positive Attention and Affirmation
In the past our goals were centered around reducing fix-its and bottom lines and indeed we have successfully
done so. This year we are shifting from reducing negativity to increasing positivity. In other words, we are
making a commitment to drawing positive attention to what defines us as opposed to drawing negative
attention to what we’re against. I feel strongly about this shift in our thinking. I haven’t always felt this way.
When I was a younger man starting out in the profession I cut my teeth in Minneapolis. In that day, I struggled
with drawing positive attention to children for doing what is expected.
Then I joined a bowling league.
No joke. We bowled three games per night. At the end of each game the bowling alley attendant would write
on a chalkboard, for everyone to see, the name of anyone who bowled over a 200. Then one day it happened. I
bowled a 200 something. Having forgotten about the chalkboard (because I rarely bowled over a 200) I was
surprised to see my name where everyone could see it. More importantly I was surprised to feel what I was
feeling. It… felt… REALLY… GOOD… to… see… my… name… on… that… chalkboard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dave Craft, 286 I was euphoric!
In passing, I probably bowled a 201. I just can’t remember what I bowled that day and feel that a little artistic
license is well within my right to make a point
The next day at work, when my students arrived I began my normal routine of writing WARNINGS on the
chalkboard for students who would not comply with reasonable requests today (with the added ignominy of
numerous checks if someone didn’t get enough sleep last night). And it hit me. Seeing their names on the
chalkboard had to have an impact on my students as it had for me the night before.
Euphoria did not come to mind.
Sometimes the Authors Are Wrong
What a horrible legacy I would be leaving at the end of the year. Although my strategy of writing names on the
board was a widely accepted pedagogical practice of the day, I felt miserable coming to work. So much of my
time was spent telling parents what was wrong with their children. So much of my time was spent telling
children what was wrong with them. The frame of acknowledging poor behavior in a very public way was
demeaning and it created bitter children. In my classroom you were either on the board; really on the board;
or one of the endless rabble of nameless students.
(Okay. I admit that this last sentence is dangerously close to a movie quote from, A Christmas Story. Did anyone
pick up on that?)
A Turn of Events
Bowling a 201, however, was the best thing that could have happened to me as a young teacher. The next day
I prepared my room as I did any other day. Except this time, I wrote WARMINGS on the board. My students
were shocked when they’re names began going up. Incredulously they began to ask, “What did I do?!” I simply
continued to write more names on the board under the term WARMINGS as they moved about the business of
getting ready for the day. It wasn’t pretty. They were getting really upset. One child left a tapestry of profanity
that still hangs above Lake Harriet. (Okay. Again. A Christmas Story).
Somewhere within the wailing and gnashing of teeth though, I heard, “Look! It says WARMINGS with an M not
an N!” After I talked a number of students away from the edge of the cliff, we all sat down on the carpet. I
shared my epiphany and I good naturedly took an appropriate number of barbs for even stepping into a bowling
alley in a parlance only an urban child could produce I told my students that if I felt that good about my name
being on a chalkboard in a bowling alley, they certainly deserved the same. I explained for the future that a
name on the board meant I would call parents to talk about what a great day their child had today.
The Healing Touch of Affirmation
The lesson for me was this:
I could get results by creating bitter children.
OR
I could get results by imparting the healing touch of affirmation.
Robert Collier put it this way: One comes to believe whatever is repeated often, whether the statement is true
or false. It comes to be a dominating thought in one’s mind. In the end I should have also remembered
something my University Advisor told me 32 years ago. She challenged me.
Whenever you say a child’s name, include it in a sentence that communicates something positive. For when we
overuse a child’s name in ways that somehow neutrally or negatively states their humanity, they begin to see
and hear themselves as unworthy because they can only see themselves through your eyes.
I think about this now and then in my own home. It’s not easy. As I reflect on it I see myself using the names of
my own children when I want something done, or I’m not happy. When I’m on the top of my game I purposely
use their names in affirmation of something or simply in laughter or good news.
When I do, I feel good. And I imagine they must feel like they bowled a 286.
Up on the Roof
I’ll be sleeping on the roof tonight, November 3, 2016. Congratulations to all Geckos for making their goal.
Picture Retakes
Friday, November 4th. Anyone who was absent, or who doesn’t like their original picture, or who has moved in
since picture day can have their picture taken.
Recycle at Cub
Greenvale has the recycle bin at Cub Foods for October, November and December. Bring all of your recyclable
materials to Cub!
Math and Science Connection
I am attaching a primary and intermediate monthly periodical for your use at home. It includes fun family
activities in Math and Science. Enjoy!