A few days ago, Kristen and I came across the following note while rummaging through some of my old school papers. It’s from my first grade teacher, written at the end of the school year:

“I would like to mention again how strongly I feel about involving Lance in some kind of team soccer. In twelve years, I have never suggested to a parent any outside activity that I felt their child could have benefited from. However, it appears to me that Lance needs that extra release I feel he would receive from competitive sports. Lance is a superior student but he also shows talent athletically. Please call if you have questions. Good luck!”

– Mary Kase

Soccer, it seems, was the Ritalin of the 80’s … and I was a prime candidate. We laughed so hard … I guess that explains some things!

During my first year of teaching, we didn’t really recite the Pledge of Allegiance … then 9/11 happened and it quickly became part of our daily morning ritual. Now, seven years later, I often find myself on the other end of the microphone, reading morning announcements and asking our entire school to repeat the pledge with me. And, to be honest, the longer I work in American schools, the more uncomfortable I become with it.

The mere fact that 385 kids are mindlessly parroting those words, with little to no understanding of what they’re actually saying, is quite disturbing to me. The format reminds me of China, where students of all ages are required to do daily morning exercises and spend weeks of their childhood in compulsory military training. It’s mindless, robotic, and completely against the American spirit (in my humble opinion).

[Military Training, by Lance Webel]

Even more disturbing, however, is some of the content of the pledge. What’s so huge about the flag itself? What does “republic” mean? And isn’t our divisibility, the fact that we can disagree and separate ourselves, one of the very foundations of the freedoms that make us uniquely America?

I don’t get it.

A speaker recently came to our school to talk about brain development and how that can inform our interactions with kids. In his workshop, he mentioned that the average American household has 34 seconds of meaningful interaction per day. Yeah … 34 seconds.

Chatting about schedules, what’s going on, current news, menus, and house rules don’t count … he was talking about dialogue that’s meaningful to the child. Here’s something that Janet, another teacher, wrote in response:

He also spoke about home rituals, activities which give to the child a message of your values. What is so valued in your home that it happens first, always, without exception? This part was meaningful to me. What I make important now is not about today, but is an investment in what I hope for them tomorrow. This family dinner—helping with a chore—small things that are always done together.

He talked about having a reading time with his child before bed—but that he allowed it to be interrupted by a phone call, sudden visitors, and so forth—but that he always went back to the reading. He thought that he was okay because he returned to the activity, showing that it was worth finishing. However, what he was showing his child was that reading is important except if these other things happen. He decided to fully commit—and the message of value that gave to reading in his home and TO HIS CHILD was significant. When the phone rang and his wife called for him, he asked to return the call later. When guests came, he said I’ll be down in a little while.

This was a big deal to me as a parent, for I’ve been shuffling the same way—but also as a teacher. What do I let get bumped? What messages of value am I sending my students? What is important, but not important enough to be immoveable. This is not about flexibility—we all need to be flexible—but about ordering my day at work and at home so that my children really do see me living out my values for myself and my family.

I’m so involved in today—and this is like UbD for the home—what is the big picture? Am I more interested in getting them through today or investing in who they will become as adults? In my language arts class, am I more interested in getting them done with a part so we can have the quiz or in helping to make them engaged learners in reading and writing—successful high school and college students (and beyond).

That makes me think … I want to have a home where we constantly talk about meaningful things … confronting difficult issues, digging through relationships, learning about each other’s sphere’s of influence, and being intentional about caring about each other’s stuff.

Cincinnati Hills Christian Academy hired me to produce a video that leverages its unique winter term offerings to attract new high school students to an upcoming Open House.

All of the photos were taken by CHCA students and teachers on previous winter term trips, and the music (”One Big Holiday”, by My Morning Jacket) was produced under the Creative Commons license and distributed on The Wired CD.

Here we go again:

1. A student decides not to sleep during his class trip, depleting his energy and exhausting his body.
2. His parent sees that he’s tired and lets him skip an important commitment the next day, choosing not to communicate with me (the organizer) about the absence.
3. I email the parent afterward to see what happened and to communicate my concern about the child’s commitment level for future engagements.
4. The parent responds with this lovely passive-aggressive introduction:
   

   “I have been quite bothered by the tone of your email …”

5. I briefly wonder how I managed to write an email with “tone”, then subsequently connect the dots between the student’s behavior and the parent’s behavior. Coincidence?
6. I laugh.

I spent all week at PVM for our fifth annual Sixth Grade Camp … well, technically I was only out there Wednesday through Friday, but I spent the first couple of days preparing for it, so I’m counting that.

Rather than take the time to tell you all about it here and post the 91 photos that I took, let me just refer you to the Sixth Grade Camp website … I blogged about our experience there all week. Enjoy!

Albert Einstein, the author of this quotation, was a smart man.

[original photo]

“Mr. Webel, aren’t you the new school psychiatrist?”

– A seventh grader

I woke up this morning, a scant two hours after going to bed, and watched the video. And I wasn’t satisfied. So after going to school and quickly setting up for chapel, I rushed up to my office and did some editing, cutting out about a minute of footage and rearranging it with a narrative that I thought was much more dramatic and compelling.

The result? When we showed it in chapel this morning, the kids were totally entranced. They cheered for their favorite athletes, gasped at the failures, and went absolutely berserk at the end of the video. They had no idea what “CHCA Olympics” are (we didn’t intro the video at all), but they went crazy anyways.

Here’s what they saw:

Yeah, this is gonna be a fun year. Oh, and incidentally … this was my first time using Vimeo to upload videos. It simply blows Youtube out of the water.

One of the first things I’m implementing here in my new job here at the middle school is a giant competition called CHCA Olympics. It should be a great opportunity for the students (and teachers) to connect with each other, use some creative energy, compete in a safe and fun environment, and build a more positive and encouraging culture throughout the year.

In short, CHCA Olympics will be like one big year-long Field Day. All students in the building will be divided up into four “countries” containing students from each grade level. Starting on September 1st, then, each country will collectively pick a national anthem, create a national flag, choose a theme verse, and come up with various other ways to identify themselves (cheers, tshirts, mascots, etc). These choices will all be revealed during the Opening Ceremonies on September 12th, when we’ll also have a Torch Relay and a Parade of Nations.

Throughout the year, then, we will have CHCA Olympic Events … competitions where countries can earn medals for their team based on their skills, craziness, dedication, knowledge, spirit, service, and whatever other criteria we come up with. For example, we might have events called “Rock Band Tournament”, “Capture the Flag Extreme”, “Bible Memorization Challenge”, “Intentional Acts of Kindness”, or “Weird Food Breakfast”. Events will sometimes happen during advisory time, sometimes for a few minutes during chapel, sometimes as an ongoing weeklong competition, and sometimes for an entire Friday chapel.

To build excitement and suspense, I created this teaser trailer tonight to show to the whole school at chapel tomorrow:

But YouTube not only limited the file size to a measely 100mb … it also somehow also stripped out all of the fades, leaving my work jerky and incomplete. Needless to say, I’m pretty dissatisfied and will soon be switching to Vimeo. But right now it’s 3:40am, and I have to wake up in a little more than 2 hours to get ready for school … so that’ll have to wait!

“Can you imagine him being in charge of discipline at the middle school? He’ll be like, ‘You stole food from the cafeteria? Ok, you’re wearing a dress to school tomorrow.’”

– Ellen a former student/camper, talking to her friend at church

So I guess I’d better explain yesterday’s post.

I’ve been offered an administrative position at my school, one that would take me out of the classroom and away from technology and place me smack-dab in the middle of student life (student leadership, spiritual life, and day-to-day discipline issues). There was a similar position a few years ago, but it’s mostly a brand new gig … and I’ve chosen to accept it!

It’s actually kinda cool … I wasn’t pursuing or even considering this sort of thing, but the leadership at my school saw where my heart was and matched it up with our school’s needs. And I’ve known for a couple of years that God was preparing me for something like this, something with more leadership and leverage and influence … so it’s really affirming to see it become a reality.

So, starting August first, I’ll be diving in headfirst. It’ll have its uphill battles, that’s for sure … I’m quite young for something like this, I’ll be dealing a lot more with complex family issues, and seriously … I’ll be doling out discipline to 400 middle schoolers? But once the details start to materialize, this job should provide a lot more freedom, quite a few challenges, and the chance to actually focus on what I’m really there for … connecting with and building into young lives.

Bring that!

I’m not a teacher anymore!