What do champions have in common?

This post is a follow up to the previous three that I wrote about Daniel Coyle's the Talent Code.

In this post a synthesis of Daniel Coyle's The Talent Code and Carol Dweck's Mindset; The New Psychology of Success gives deep insights into what it takes to be the best, to be a champion, to be a virtuoso!

What do you think of when you think of those who are head and shoulders THE  BEST in their line of work?  Competitive? Driven? Strong? Smart? etc?  Some excel simply to chase the prize at the summit of the mountain but for those who find greater reward in the effort of making the climb far greater skill is usually the reward.

When we think about those who have achieved unprecedented levels of success in fields that require a tremendous amount of skill and discipline simply to be good, we often falsely believe that it is the result, the win, the ending (...the perfect performance) that these rare individuals were after.  When we study these individuals however, we find that this is not the norm.

Whether it's cellist Yo Yo Ma, basketball player LeBron James, or skate-boarder Tony Hawk, the most common attribute that these 'bests' share in common is NOT a love for the result, but rather a love of the EFFORT.  These individuals enjoy practice as much, if not more than the real event. They lose themselves in their art, time slows down, and they each shun accolades because they do NOT do what they do for attention, or trophies.  They do what they do because they've found something that they love to practice.

Throughout the past few years (see each of the letters I send out that accompany report cards) I've called attention to Carol Dweck's book about Mindsets (Growth vs Fixed Mindsets).  Dweck describes people as having either a mindset that is more a growth mindset (meaning that these people regard success as a byproduct of the effort they put into something) or more a fixed mindset (meaning these people regard success as a byproduct of a finite and unchangeable amount of talent that allows them to be successful).

Examples of a fixed mindset:

• students who believe that it's 'smarts' and not hard-work and effort that determine academic success. 
• athletes who only participate in their sport when they are with their coaches (for every hour great athletes / musicians spend with a coach they spend many more times this amount practicing by themselves).
• students who only remember information long enough for the test (through memorization) only to allow it to erode and diminish in permanence after the test.  Similar to this is the student who asks "is this going to be on the test?"

Examples of a growth mindset:

• The student who continually asks questions seeking to understand, regardless of a grade or if something will eventually be tested.
• The student who yearns for feedback about why she didn't perform well so that she might make her work better (fixed mindset individuals classically avoid feedback out of fear of judgment).
• The athlete / musician who learns to love practice because they realize their own growth through it and simply because they LOVE to PRACTICE.

The nexus between Coyle's Talent Code and Dweck's Mindset is that both have researched and observed that genius comes only from students who dedicate themselves to a practice ethic that yearns for mistakes.  Furthermore, genius recognizes mistakes not as judgments that damage self-esteem but as opportunities that help accelerate us toward mastery.  

Implications for Adults, Teachers, Parents, Coaches...

The results of a survey I gave at a little league clinic this summer to approximately 50 boys between the ages of 6 and 12 demonstrated that every single boy leaned more toward having a fixed mindset, and not a growth mindset about their baseball skill.  These boys spent almost all of their time practicing with an adult reliant upon the adult for their growth.  They saw their prior success (and failures) as a measure of who they were and what their level of skill was rather than a measure of how much they practiced and prepared.  Most of the boys indicated that failure was something that was upsetting and that continued failure would likely make them want to play less.  

What's wrong with this?  It's all fixed mindset thinking!

What chance do students have in a professional field where failure, while not expected, is as much a possibility as success?  If they have a Fixed Mindset, the answer is not much (of a chance at success). 

One of my favorite Sports Illustrated articles documents the story of Chris Jackson (who later changed his name to Mahmud Abdul Rauf).  Born with Tourette's syndrome, his obsessive desire for perfection often caused him dysfunction (read more here), but it also translated into an extraordinary success.  Rauf, who once missed a date with a girl in high school because he was distracted trying to make his refrigerator door make the perfect sound as it closed, turned this obsession to the basketball court.  He would go to the gym and not leave until he made 10 shots in a row, but these shots not only had to go through the hoop, they had to make the same sound going through the hoop.  He'd make 9 in a row but if the 10th, as it was going through the hoop, nicked the rim, he'd start all over.  I watched a game of his (in the NBA) after I read the article linked above and was amazed that every shot he made sounded the same as it went through the hoop!!  Did I mention that Jackson, who stands a little over 5'9" tall, once averaged more than 40 points per game while at LSU in college.  Shaquille O'Neal, who played with Jackson, called him one of the most dominant players he ever played with.

What's the teachable moment for teachers / parents / coaches here?  One of my take-aways is that kids come to us with self-discipline skills that are all over the map (good and bad).  Some are ready to love practice and some are not.  Great coaches and great teachers know how to make learning fun in addition to knowing the mechanics of what they are teaching.

I worry though that as parents read this, they'll think it's a teacher's or coach's responsibility to MAKE a child love math, or science, basketball or the violin.  This is NOT the case because great teachers and coaches also help children in another important way.  They call them out on the level of responsibility they (children) have to bring to learning.  They also point out that their coaching cannot be great if the child isn't committed equally to practicing.

So what do all GREATS HAVE IN COMMON?

It's not that they are more talented than others.  It's simply that their developed love of practice allowed them to expose and hone a talent that was developed out of perseverance, determination, passion.

If you have not read Dweck's book yet I compel you to.  Would you be surprised if you discovered that you, the parent who wants what amounts to a growth mindset in your children, were subverting your own message?  Take it from one who's made this mistake!  I am enormously vigilant about scrutinizing the language I use with children because it not only reveals how I think, but it models for them the ideals we want for them... and I catch myself all the time since I read Dweck's book!

On behalf of our Middle School staff, we hope you are enjoying your time with family!

End of Week Notes

BC's Chess Club is quietly becoming a Regional Draw

• Bethlehem's Chess club has finished in the top three schools in regional competition in the last two years and once again finds itself at or near the top of the regional rankings this year.  The club's philosophy is that anyone can play chess and we take all comers in grades 3 through 12 ... experience not necessary.
• For more info...https://sites.google.com/site/bethlehemschoolschessclub/
• Chess often suffers from geeky stereotypes and many aren't aware of the growing number of college and professional athletes who play (the best known example is men's basketball Coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke, who has his players play to develop their awareness of offensive and defensive philosophy)

Congratulations to our 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade Band, Chorus and Orchestras

• I am continually amazed at the skill of even our youngest musicians.  Their clarity, cooperation (in the way they listen to each other and blend) and their self-discipline are extraordinary.  
• Kudos to all of our musicians for an outstanding set of concerts these last few weeks!

Congratulations to BCMS' Character Lunch Students

• Read and see more pictures here:

BCMS Technology Classes Celebrate Hour of Code to highlight computer science 

• Read more here

Next Week's special Events - Please check the Calendar Below for Fireworks, the Annual 5K race, and our school schedule

THE WEEK AHEAD!

Monday, December 28

• Offices open
• No School - holiday break

Tuesday, December 29

• Offices open
• No School - Holiday Break

Wednesday, December 30

• Offices Open
• No School - Holiday Break

Thursday, December 31

• No School
• Offices CLOSED

Friday, January 1

• No School - Offices closed - welcome to 2016

Monday, January 4

• Classes resume

Have a Happy and Safe Holidays!

The Talent Code Part 3 of 3

This is the last post of a three part series about Daniel Coyle's book The Talent Code

A challenge for any coach, teacher, and certainly parent is how to inspire motivation in children.  How do you motivate a child to know why things like practice, discipline, determination, etc. are important?  The answer to this can be elusive and different depending on the child.

We might be surprised however by what Daniel Coyle’s The Talent Code informs about this.

Imagine the following: every action you undertake repetitively and with concentration gets reinforced in your brain in a way that makes it more likely to happen the exact same way at any later time we need to do it again.  That’s good right!  Maybe not.  The expression “perfect practice makes perfect” reminds us that if we practice something poorly then we are likely to reproduce it poorly, but Coyle offers another premise that, on first glance, is confusing.

In order to achieve Coyle’s “deep practice” (the condition where accelerated learning occurs) one has to make mistakes!  This does not seem to jive with “perfect practice makes perfect” unless you consider how these two things go hand in hand, and it’s in this detail where greatness in coaching and teaching are found. 

Imagine the athlete or musician by himself, practicing one of his sport- or instrument-specific skills.  Let’s say chords for the musician, or free throw shooting for a basketball player.  Next, let's say both simply go through practice for the sake of repetition.  They each go through their routines 200 times without being deeply engaged in their process.  Some might call this "going through the motions" which means that their focus is not nearly as intense as it could be to scrutinize their actions.

Next imagine the athlete or musician whose intensity to examine the minutia of every movement through each portion of his practice is maximal.  Imagine also that this student has so much self-awareness that when asked what any part of his body was doing during the motion of practice he is able to describe with exacting specificity and in sequence what his body movements were AND what his thought process was.

The more intense student might make more mistakes than the less intense and his result might even look worse, but as Coyle explores the learning curve of students who are deeply intense about their practice, the ones who are deeply engaged, who have a vision of a perfect repetition, and who recognize how their practice diverges from that exemplar reinforce greater accuracy in learning with each repetition than the students who 'go through the motions.'

To be clear, what Coyle observed is that these students learn more from making mistakes and that IT IS THE MISTAKES that reinforce getting closer to the exemplar.  The moral; learning to attack mistakes, by understanding why we make them, helps us grow past them so they aren't repeated.

I know what you, the adult, is thinking.  This isn't rocket science, but in the mind of an 11 year old, mistakes are things to be avoided at all costs.  They don't talk about them, they don't examine them, and they don't even want to think about them.  And where does this come from?  It can come from their internal stigma, it can come from teachers and parents, and it can come from peers.  That's why culture is so important.  The culture of an educational setting recognizes that all have to be consistent in creating a safe environment for risk taking and that fosters a "LOVE OF LEARNING."

One of my favorite examples of this genius is from the old television sit-com "WKRP in Cincinnati." The episode is titled "Venus and the man."  In the episode, one of the show's characters teaches a young man about the atom.  He makes a bet with the young man that he can teach him the basics of the atom in 2 minutes and convinces him to stay in school rather than drop out.  What's special about the teaching in this video is that it not only backs up its claim of teaching the atom, it reinforces for the students the importance of "LOVE OF LEARNING."  It connects what is (for the student) something that is unimportant with the WHY of why it's important to know it.  Great teaching recognizes this need for fertile ground.

The teacher, DJ Venus Flytrap, importantly knows the content of teaching the atom, but equally, and perhaps more importantly, he knows how to CONNECT the student to the importance of learning.

Of course, the student is also an important part of this equation.  Any parent recognizes how frustrating it can be to want desperately to teach something to a child who has little interest to learn. This is why we speak so often about LOVE OF LEARNING as one of our character strengths.  

'Deep practice' is a condition achieved when:

• the student has a vision of what is the exemplar,
• the student has a model of how the exemplar can be achieved,
• the student acts with determination, focus, and intensity that allows her to use mistakes as stepping stones toward getting closer to the exemplar,
• the student has an intrinsic love of learning that opens up a deep appreciation of self-scrutiny

In next week's post I'll connect this to Carol Dweck's Mindset and I think you'll see why Dweck makes the case that aiming for the exemplary effort is more important than achieving the exemplary result!

End of Week Notes

American Education Week - Wow - Thank you!

• Thank you to all of our parents who participated in our American Education Week celebration.  We take pride in two things; critically reflecting on how we teach to continually improve and being transparent in showing our community how we do this!
• We appreciate your support in so many ways and we are so humbled to be able to work as education professionals in such a supportive community!

Congratulations to Fran Vincent - NYS Health Teacher of the Year

• BCMS' very own Fran Vincent, 8th grade Health teacher, was named NYS Health Teacher of the Year.  Congratulations Ms. Vincent!

Congratulations to our NYSSMA All-State Musicians

• They will be performing this weekend in Saratoga - Congrats and good luck!  BC Proud!

Congratulations to the BCMS History Bowl Team

• The history bowl BCMS team, competing against a group of High School teams in Princeton, NJ, came in 3rd place overall and qualified for the national competition.  Outstanding effort by the team!

Turkey Trot Thank You
Thank you to our PE staff for organizing another successful Turkey Trot and to our 6th, 7th, 8th grade students who participated.  Congratulations to all on a great effort!

Picture Re-Takes are Tuesday, November 24th!

Next Week's special Events - Please check the Calendar Below for Fireworks, the Annual 5K race, and our school schedule

THE WEEK AHEAD!

Monday, November 23

• No Late Buses

Tuesday, November 24

• Picture Re-Takes on Auditorium Stage
• Late Buses

Wednesday, November 25

• School Closed - Offices Open
• Fireworks at MS (7:00 PM) (after Turkey Trot registration)

Thursday, November 26

• Thanksgiving - no school, buildings closed
• Turkey Trot (5K) BCMS

Friday, November 27

• Vacation Day - Offices Closed

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Part II of The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle, implications for teachers

This post is Part Two of a three part series about the book The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle.


Many parents aren't aware of the scrutiny and feedback Bethlehem's teachers receive through our evaluative process. Routinely teachers are formally observed a minimum of three to four times per year, and up to twice this number. Additionally, teachers meet with department supervisors 10 times per year as a department to collectively review data from assessments, review curriculum, and do something called a gap analysis of curriculum.  In a gap analysis, we look at where students commonly under-perform in any one area and adjust our curriculum each year to address these "gaps."

In a recent faculty meeting we discussed student engagement and we have continued to revisit this every year.  Specifically, we talk (annually) about tactics and strategies that increase engagement, but that also teach students how to be more self-aware and self-controlling of their engagement.  

In last week's blog post, I introduced implications for learning that come from Daniel Coyle's The Talent Code.  Coyle introduces a type of practice (Deep Practice) that has the power to accelerate the learning of a student.  In every instance of deep practice that Coyle analyzes he describes situations where learners are so engaged as to be deemed 'enthralled.'  

The author Mihály Csíkszentmihályi ("Sheek-sent-me-high") described "Flow" (the book is titled the same, Flow) as a state of engagement so deep the learner loses all distraction from the outside world including losing all sense of time passing.  

The writings of Coyle and Csikszentmihalyi implore us to teach students about an educational term called metacognition.  Metacognition describes the ability to understand how we learn.  It's understanding oneself and recognizing when we are not at our optimal best AND understanding how to regulate ourselves to change this.

Teachers routinely recognize waning levels of engagement in students.  As a staff, we have norms that we use to drive engagement at both an unsophisticated level (driven by the teacher) and a more sophisticated level (teaching students how to drive this themselves).  An example of one of our more unsophisticated tactics is the demand for eye contact while listening.  It's a norm that exists in all of our classrooms.

A concern that this generation of teachers and parents should have with teens of this generation is they erroneously believe that multi-tasking does not cause a fall off of focus and / or engagement.  Research into cell phones while driving, flow research, and metacognition research all confirm the myth of multitasking.  In short, multitasking is little more than allowing one task to distract from another.  Not a big deal if one is talking on the phone while doing dishes, but when one is actively learning it's a very big deal...and a very big distraction.

Coyle's deep practice does not allow for multitasking.  Csikszentmihalyi's flow does not allow for multitasking.  In some of his examples of flow, Csikszentmihalyi describes chess masters, rock climbers, engineers and surgeons as individuals who routinely enter a 'flow state' consciously because of the intensity of their concentration and engagement with their task.  When we ask ourselves if any of these avocations should allow themselves the distraction of multitasking our immediate and intuitive answer is NO.  

We, teachers AND parents, have opportunity to create conditions that contribute to deep practice.  We create an environment free of distraction and that allows for increased focus. Unfortunately this sometimes means we have to lay down restrictions on distracting influences too. 

It is also important to realize that we all have predisposed passions that are easier to engage with and that the implication of this is that we have to develop in students the ability to transfer the intensity and focus of their passions to other academic, athletic, and / or extracurricular pursuits that they are not as passionate about.  

When we empower students with the ability to self-regulate their engagement, we truly unlock learning potential.

Next week I'll share more about the age-old expression "perfect practice makes perfect" and whether or not Coyle's The Talent Code supports this.  Here's a hint; Coyle's scientific explanation describes a nexus between making mistakes as a pathway toward perfection... an interesting association that is certainly counter-intuitive... but very, hmmm, what's the word... ENGAGING!

THE WEEK AHEAD!

Thank You's

• To all of our parent volunteers for your support in running our Halloween Ball!
• To all of our students who continue to impress us with an ability to have fun (at our Halloween Ball) without doing so at the expense of other students or our beautiful old building.  This respect shown by our students makes us continue to want to run events like this one!

Veteran's Day

• As an FYI - the building is closed all day

Monday, November 9

• No Late Buses
• DC Trip in Progress

Tuesday, November 10

• Late Buses
• DC trip in progress

Wed, November 11

• Veteran's Day - Building closed

Thurs,  November 12

• Late Buses
• BOU Talking with your Teen
• The intended audience is Middle School students

Fri, November 13

• FASS (Friday After School Support) 3:00 - 5:00 PM
• 7th & 8th grade Social

Have a great weekend!

"The Talent Code" by Daniel Coyle

This week's post is the first in a three part series.

My latest educational read is The Talent Code, by Daniel Coyle. The book explores hotbeds of talent development from Brazilian Soccer, to virtuoso's on the tennis court and within orchestra camps. What is fascinating about the book is that it focuses on the stimuli that drive learning rather than proposing that genius is the result of some inbred genetic disposition. Translated, the book's premise is that genius can be taught and developed through practice.

Coyle explains that for far too long we have thought about the brain and memory as a "tape recorder, but that's wrong.  It's a living structure, a scaffold of nearly infinite size.  The more we generate impulses (nerve signals), encountering and overcoming difficulties, the more scaffolding we build. The more scaffolding we build, the faster we learn."

So what's the big deal?

The big deal is that there is a substance that wraps itself around nerves in our brains called Myelin. As Coyle describes, "Every human movement, thought, or feeling is a precisely timed electric signal traveling through a chain of neurons - a circuit of nerve fibers.  Myelin is the insulation that wraps these nerve fibers and increases signal strength, speed and accuracy.  The more we fire a particular circuit, the more myelin optimizes that circuit, and the stronger, faster, and more fluent our movements and thoughts become."

Coyle introduces researchers who demonstrate that a type of practice, called deep practice, causes myelin production to speed up and accumulate around the nerves being used for that practice. In other words, if you "deep practice" the violin, you'll speed your learning and mastery of the violin, but there's a catch and that catch is in understanding what deep practice is.  Simply picking up the violin and going through a dull, unchallenging routine does not begin to even scratch the process of "deep practice."  Similarly, trying to conquer a piece or fundamental that is too far beyond one's level of skill removes one from "deep practice."

So, if this were an old-fashioned book report I'd stop here and make you read the book but because I REALLY want you to read the book I'm going to sweeten my anticipatory setup.

What is Deep Practice?  It sounds like some sort of 'goldilocks' zone where amazing things happen.

Coyle describes 'deep practice' as being "built on a paradox: struggling in certain ways - operating at the edges of your ability, where you make mistakes - makes you smarter.  Or to put it a slightly different way, experiences where you're forced to slow down, make errors, and correct them - as you would if you were walking up an ice-covered hill, slipping and stumbling as you go - end up making you swift and graceful without your realizing it."

So here's just one of my a-ha moments.  (I'll share more in subsequent blog posts.)

As a hobby, I work with my son's baseball team and I constantly remind them that if I do the best job a coach or teacher can do, I will have taught them to love practice as much as they love games.  You see one of the other conditions of "deep practice" is deep engagement by the learner to scrutinize, dissect, and replay their mistakes.  Coaches cannot artificially give deep engagement, it has to be an investment made by the learner.  Students, athletes, and musicians who have an aversion to attending to their mistakes in this way do not enter the "deep practice" zone and while they will increase their skill, they will not accelerate at the same rate as a learner who truly becomes a student of practice!

In next week's post I'll discuss the implications for teaching from this science and in two weeks I'll share more about the implications for learners.

Have a great weekend and if you're 'trick-or-treating' please have a safe Halloween.

Mike Klugman

End of Week Notes

BCMS' Costume Ball

Tonight's costume ball promises to be a fun night for our Middle School community and I'd like thank in advance all of our high school and parent volunteers.  At the middle school we believe that including our high school students in our volunteer efforts is a win-win.  Our high school students engage in service orientation and our middle students have great models to emulate.  I also want to thank Mr. Warford and Ms. Canuto who organize our decorating crews, our custodial staff who work around our decorations, and our PE staff run our Haunted House each year.  In each of the last three years we have exceeded 900 student participants!

Congratulations and Thank You... to all of our Fall Athletes and Coaches

Our Fall athletics seasons are winding to a close this week and I'd like to congratulate all of our student-athletes on successful seasons simply based on their participation.  I'd also like to thank all of our coaches whose commitment teaches so much more than sport-specific skills.

PTO Save Around Coupon Book Sale

Your student was given an envelope with a coupon book that serves our region.  All of the proceeds of this fundraiser come back to students from our PTO.  For those who may not be aware, our PTO is a volunteer organization that has no administrative fees.  When they do fundraisers all of the proceeds from the fundraisers come back to school programming.  Thank you for your support of our PTO and our programming!

Eagle Auction

For all of our Eagle Elementary alumni - the Eagle Elementary Auction that supports their PTO's efforts is Tuesday, November 3 (next week)!

Tuesday, November 3 - Election Day

All BCMS students will dismissed @ 11:10 AM.

We also want all in our community to know that the Middle School is NOT a polling place this year.

Winter Athletics Participation Paperwork

All students who intend to participate in a winter sport are reminded that the deadline to submit your paperwork is Friday, November 6!

The Week Ahead

Monday, November 2

• No Late Buses

Tuesday, November 3

• 1/2 day dismissal ALL Students (11:10 AM)

Wed, November 4

• Late Buses
• Board of Education Meeting (High School 7:00 PM)

Thurs,  November 5

• Late Buses

Fri, November 6

• FASS (Friday After School Support) 3:00 - 5:00 PM
• Deadline for winter sports paperwork

Have a great weekend!

Swindoll's Attitude and My Gratitude!

Thankfully, it's been awhile since I was up all night.  A week ago Friday, I had the "opportunity" to do it again but for a GREAT cause!

Our BCMS "Awake for a Cure" event was so much fun and what made it such a great success was both the participation of so many from our community (students, parents, staff, and special guests) and how amazingly responsible our students were throughout the evening.

I love the this quote by Charles Swindoll:

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company ... a church ... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude ... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me, and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you ... we are in charge of our Attitudes."

We had so many great experiences...

• We had three Siena College Baseball players talk with over 100 students about working hard academically, athletically and to be a good person.
• We had teams play exciting and LOUD 3 on 3 basketball games and despite a knockout format I didn't observe any poor sportsmanship.
• We had over 100 High School students help us lead more than 25 events
• We had more than 100 Adult volunteers stay with us from 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM
• And we had more than 125 8th graders make it all the way through the night

... but most of all I am reminded by a very special student about attitude, perspective and strength.  

FOP (Fibrodysplaysia Ossificans Progressiva) is one of the worst conditions going and yet our student who inspired this event, who was diagnosed with this condition last Spring, and whom I have grown to admire tremendously is always smiling and a joy to be around.  Her emotional intelligence, her resilience to remain emotionally strong, and her fortitude to "choose her attitude" every day are all off the charts.

In the coming days I will be working with our tech department to post a thank you letter to the Aspen accounts of all students who participated in the event and in the letter we will let you know the names of all online donors and the amounts they contributed.  We are waiting for the final tallies from the FOP organization and once received these should be up within 2 to 3 days.

Thank you on behalf of so many for all of your support in this event!

Mike Klugman

Weekly Notes

Thank you's

• Our grand total of funds raised was over $30,000.00
• To all of our staff and students who helped to build our Scarecrows - outstanding!
• Thanks to our 7/8 student council for the Tailgate party - another great turnout!
• Thanks to all of our Fall Coaches and club moderators for creating such a vibrant and positively structured extracurricular program for our students!
• Getting students healthy social opportunities at the onset of the school year has such a profoundly positive impact on their academic success and their overall well-being!
• Thank you to our PE staff for once again graciously supporting our Picture Days! ...and to our front office staff for coordinating these!
• Thank you to Team Leaders and Ken Rizzo for coordinating our 1st Character Lunch.  
• These groups of kids are always charismatic and have a pull on us that reminds about the best of what we do!
• To all of our students who VOLUNTARILY attended Friday Support this past Friday from 3:00 to 5:00 PM!  A special thank you to our four High School student tutor volunteers!  
• The ability to prioritize academics first is truly impressive

Quote of the Week

“Today’s adolescents generally perceive their external environment as harsh, unpredictable, and unsafe. Terrorism, Facebook envy, and cyberbullying are all part of their daily reality.”

            Ruby Payne
“Keeping Students Safe from Harm” by Ruby Payne in AMLE Magazine, October 2015 (Vol. 4, #3, p. 36-37), no free e-link available; Payne can be reached at rpayne@ahaprocess.com. 

Monday, October 19

• No Late Buses
• Aspen Training for Teachers after school

Tuesday, October 20

• Aspen Training for Teachers after school
• Late buses

Wed, October 21

• Late Buses
• BOE 7:00 PM

Thurs,  October 22

• Late Buses

Fri, October 23

• FASS (Friday After School Support) 3:00 - 5:00 PM

Have a great weekend!

Awake for a Cure Closing in!

BCMS Parents;

In a word... WOW!

The response from the Bethlehem community to supporting our "Awake for a Cure" event coming next weekend has been overwhelming!  I know I speak for the 100+ volunteers and all of our students when I express our gratitude at how grateful we all are.

We created this website to share more information and answer parents and students questions:
https://sites.google.com/site/awakeforacurebcms/

Parents and students can find the following on the site above:

• Itinerary of events (it's changing daily so check back often)
• What To & Not To Bring
• Attendance Rules (like "8th graders are not required to stay through the night")
• and more...

I will formally thank our sponsors after our event but I also want to thank the many small business owners who have stepped up in a huge way with thousands of dollars in donations.

We are so excited for next weekend's event!

Have a great weekend on behalf of all of our BCMS staff!

Mr. Klugman

End of Week Notes

Annual Statewide Emergency Preparedness GO-HOME-EARLY Drill

Next Friday, October 9th, all students will be dismissed at 2:31 (buses will roll out at 2:38).  This Drill is mandated for all public schools in New York State in an effort to ensure that all students and schools have a routine in place for a severe emergency.  ALL STUDENTS (including students who normally walk) will take buses home.  

IMPORTANT - Please read carefully...

We ask that NO PARENTS PICK UP their children on this date.  In the event of a real emergency students have to know this procedure and as such the only students who will be allowed to leave at dismissal with parents are those who have to attend medical appointments or previously scheduled commitments.  We appreciate parents' cooperation with us to prepare students for an eventuality that we all hope never occurs!

Farm to You Festival Week

BCMS under the facilitation and leadership and support from our District-Wide Green Team (led by BCMS Assistant Principal Mark Warford, Science & Technology Supervisor Jen Gonyea, and Operations and Maintenance Director Gregg Nolte), and our Healthy Kids Committee celebrates local farmers who provide our Bethlehem community so much.  Next week features daily trivia about New York's harvest, a Guess the Weight of the Pumpkin contest, and culminates on Friday with our Salads for Kids day.  All the ingredients (other than dressing) come from our very own, 100% organic middle school gardens!

FASS - Friday After School Support

Every Friday we have FASS, which is an opportunity for any student to stick around to get work done in our library from 3:00 to 5:00 PM.  I supervise this and I enjoy assisting students with any work they need help with but we often have math and ELA teachers present to assist students also.  A reminder that there is no late bus on Friday so if students want to stay they have to do the following:

1. they have to make sure parents know they are staying

2. they have to have their own transportation home

Some students may be 'assigned' FASS by their teams if they fall behind in their homework completion.  At each FASS we routinely have about a 50:50 mix of students who have to attend with those who opt to attend

The Week Ahead

Monday, October 5

• No Late Buses
• 6th grade Mohawk picture day 
• 7th & 8th grade students that have PE Picture Day

Tuesday, September 6

• Late buses
• OPEN PTO Meeting 7:00 PM

Wed, October 7

• Late Buses
• Guess the Weight of the Pumpkin Contest

Thurs,  Oct 8

• Tailgate for BCMS football 2:46
• Late Buses

Fri, Oct 9

• Salads for Kids Day (during lunches)
• NO FASS this week due to Go Home Early Drill
• Q1 5 week period ends

The Most Important Middle School Skill?

I am asked often what our most important charge is as a middle school.  Writing skill, numeracy (for math), problem solving and love of learning are all great answers, but they're not what I think is most important.

Help-seeking is a skill that lasts students forever and one that applies in every domain in their lives. Our staff spends a lot of time discussing and honing how we teach students help-seeking behavior. We want to be strategic and intentional with our 6th and 7th graders giving them constant encouragement to seek help during class (raising a hand, answering a question, indicating when we don't understand something) and outside of class (help studying, getting caught up after absences, reviewing notes every day they're given and coming to class with questions).

What Can Parents Do?
Parents should be aware that no matter what your child's elementary school experience, s/he likely has a stigma associated with seeking out help from a teacher outside of class.

Consider:

• Science and Social Studies change dramatically in middle school.  Instead of 3 discrete units like students experience in elementary school, both are cumulative and the concepts build through the year.  There is no possible way a student relies on memorization can succeed in middle school like they might in elementary school.  Scroll to my post from February last year about 'Brick Masons' to read more about this.
• Foreign language is exactly that... Foreign!  Students have never taken a language before and for us parents who've been through this we likely forget the enormous amount of dissonance that comes learning our first foreign language.

Parents, like our teachers do, should encourage your students to teach you what they are learning and where they present gaps, or where you can find them you should compel your student to seek the teacher out for help.  Ask your child the next day if they did and do not be surprised if they are reluctant.  If you discover send the note below to your teacher:

• Dear (Teacher - insert name)
• (My child - insert name) and I were reviewing the notes from class and we discovered that s/he did not understand (insert whatever they did not understand).  I compelled her / him to make you aware of this and when I followed up to find out if s/he did, I found out s/he did not.  I don't think this is anything personal but rather that s/he is intimidated to ask for help.  Could you try to draw him / her out to discuss (insert the thing they did not understand).

I don't have any data to support how many students have to be taught how to seek help from teachers but my ballpark estimate would be 100%.  

We want our middle school students to know that every day, our high school is full of classrooms after school full of students following up with teachers.  We use our homebase for this but it's not the best time to get 1:1 support.  The best time is before or after school and our teachers will tell students each week when they will be available on various days (before or after school).  At any time if a student is unsure they are always encouraged to ask teachers when they can come to see them.

Our most successful students are NOT students who get everything the first time.  They are the students who recognize (sometimes) that they need help!

End of Week Notes

Awake for a Cure

• Every day this week we will be reminding students to register for our event that is on October 9th. When students register they should stop into our main office to pick up their wrist band.  Students can register online below, or bring back their paper form to the Main Office
• Students can sign up to raise funds for this event at this link:  http://www.ifopa.org/calendar-of-events/icalrepeat.detail/2015/10/09/236/49/bcms-awake-for-a-cure.html

• High School Students who want to volunteer please email:  frizzyisy2000@gmail.com or tklugman@rocketmail.com
• Parent Volunteers and Business Sponsors please email: fopashleyscurebc@gmail.com
• We announced last week that we will be having our first-ever 3 on 3 basketball tourney during the event.  There will be two divisions; a combined NCAA division of 6th & 7th graders and an Olympic Division that includes all of our 8th graders
• We also will be having many local college athletes coming to share with students how to be a successful student-athlete at the college level.
• A gong show, games, contests, DJ's and more - SIGN UP TODAY!

FASS - Friday After School Support

Every Friday we have FASS, which is an opportunity for any student to stick around to get work done in our library from 3:00 to 5:00 PM.  I supervise this and I enjoy assisting students with any work they need help with but we often have math and ELA teachers present to assist students also.  A reminder that there is no late bus on Friday so if students want to stay they have to do the following:

1. they have to make sure parents know they are staying

2. they have to have their own transportation home

Some students may be 'assigned' FASS by their teams if they fall behind in their homework completion.  At each FASS we routinely have about a 50:50 mix of students who have to attend with those who opt to attend

MOHAWK Open House Thank You
Many parents offer our staff gratitude after our Open House presentations but I know I speak for our staff universally when I say how grateful we are to have such an engaged audience.  It is this partnership that continues to propel our Bethlehem success and we are aware of this all the time and remain grateful to our parents for all you do.  We genuinely appreciate all the support you provide to your children / our students! 

BCHS Homecoming
I want to thank all of our middle school students who attended our homecoming events this past Saturday. Their behavior was outstanding and their spirit as well.  Very Well Done!

The Week Ahead

Monday, September 28

• No Late Buses

Tuesday, September 29

• Late buses

Wed, Sept 30

• Late Buses

Thurs,  Oct 1

• Scarecrow Building... postponed until October 14!
• Late Buses

Fri, Oct 2

• FASS (Friday After School Support) 3:00 - 5:00 PM
• School Pics - staff can take today too!
• (The 2nd day of pics is Monday, October 5)

Have a great weekend!