Bearcat Wrap-up Podcast - Week 19: Three Constants

Episode Date: January 20, 2023

Happy Friday!Thanks for all you have done this week to improve our district goals. Of the three goals we have, we are making strides in two areas of emphasis - behavior, and reading. Attendance is still lagging. We reported these results to the board at Wednesday night’s meeting and you may read more details in the board minutes that Mr. Hobson released yesterday. The spring semester is well underway and so is our 94th General Assembly of legislators in Little Rock. I would like to use this Wrap-up to set some tone for the semester and provide you with some insight into the happenings at our state capitol. Three ConstantsThere is a documentary on Netflix titled Stutz. It is a documentary by Jonah Hill about his therapist, Dr. Phil Stutz. I have not finished the entire production but I have gleaned some good things from what I have watched and the best of what I have seen is Dr. Stutz’s three constants in life - the things we cannot escape: pain, uncertainty, and constant work. He explains that acceptance of these constants will help us deal with problems and I found them to be simple and profound in how we deal with the problems we face when working in the school business.PainWe understand this in the physical sense, especially as we get older and physical activity and age begin to work against each other. But in our roles as educators, emotional pain is definitely a constant. Whether it is from the struggle of maintaining positive relationships with coworkers, students, and parents or dealing with the disappointment of witnessing the failure of our students, pain is with us always. There has been much reported lately on the science of stress and how teachers vicariously experience the pain of their students and carry it with them in their personal lives. We have to recognize this as a constant and that it does not go away. But we counter that constant with the joys of education to keep balance in our lives. This is why it is important to use our PLC time to celebrate successes in the classroom and to talk about disappointments or problems and how to overcome them as our common enemy. We cannot use pain as an excuse to avoid solutions or a way to place blame on others. We call it out for what it is and face it. Just by doing that, we diminish its impact. UncertaintyNo one knows the future and this is why we find comfort in predictable routines. However, nothing is certain and routines can lull us into complacency and even create more pain when the results of routines are not productive. Knowing and accepting that uncertainty is always present is a good tool for dealing with surprises. We want to know what will happen before it happens. This is the primary reason you all ask for communication from your administrators. We can never communicate enough but that is because with our communication there is always uncertainty. We can never express ourselves with full confidence because of uncertainty and neither can you. By embracing and accepting this constant, we can improve our relationships and improve our understanding of each other. This constant also reinforces the need for a mission and vision. We may not be able to predict the future but we all should agree on the reasons we do what we do.Constant WorkMost of us will admit that this is a given throughout our lives but there is a part of each of us who expects to reach a point in our careers where everything is easy. I am afraid that that will never come to pass. I think that this is best explained by Kara Lawson, the Women’s Basketball Coach at Duke University. Here is a video of her explaining to her team that things never get easier. She says you overcome that fact by getting better and better at doing hard things. We have to be resolved to the fact that constant work will always be a part of our careers and really question ourselves and each other when tempted to make things easy. Are we really benefiting our students when we do?Little RockThanks to whoever it was that took the time to comment on the Thought Exchange related to the Governor’s LEARNS initiative. I have opened it back up and will keep it open throughout the legislative session to gain insight into thoughts and opinions as different bills on education come to the forefront of debate. I will not list all educational bills but you can go to the legislative homepage to view them. I will focus on bills that are consequential to your roles as teachers in the classroom. I will link the bill along with a brief description and let you know how our administrators’ organization stands.* HB1091 is a bill to treat a nationally recognized high school equivalency exam the same as a high school diploma for purposes of employment in Arkansas. We have not taken a stance on this until we understand the full intent of the sponsors.* HB1104 requires Arkansas to adopt Daylight Saving Time permanently if the Arkansas Secretary of State determines that federal law has been amended to allow such a change. We have no position on this bill.* HB1122 requires that the first day of school for public schools be on or after the Monday of the week in which August 19 falls, not earlier than August 14, or later than August 26. We will still be allowed to structure a calendar based on hours instead of days. This bill is supported.* HB1152 provides that the first $50,000 in income received by a public school teacher or open-enrollment charter school teacher is exempt from income tax. This bill is supported.* HB1156 requires public school districts to make certain designations regarding a student's gender in certain settings. It is to ensure that when students are taken on trips that they are grouped in rooms, such as a hotel or dressing room, according to their gender given at birth. My understanding This bill is supported.ClosingCongratulations to the artists at Holly Harshman Elementary who won awards from Economics Arkansas for their artwork. I received their artwork in frames to hang in HHES along with some prizes.We ask that all employees complete their notice of intent before February 18th. Here is a link to the form. This is not a binding document but it helps us plan for next year. Our PPC is still working on the calendars for next year and those will be sent out for a vote by the staff once the options are fully developed.Again, thank you for all you have done this week, and have a nice weekend! At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bearcatwrap.substack.com

Good afternoon and welcome to the Week 19 wrap-up entitled Three Constants. There are three constants we can expect to impact our work and private lives, and when we resolve to face them every day, things get better and the people who depend on us benefit. Happy Friday. Thanks for all you've done this week to improve our district goals. Of the three goals we have, we are making strides in two areas of emphasis, behavior and reading. Attendance is still lagging. We reported these results to the board at Wednesday night's board meeting, and you may read more details in the board minutes that Mr. Hobson released yesterday. The spring semester is well underway, and so is our 94th General Assembly of Legislators in Little Rock. I'd like to use this wrap-up to set some tone for the semester

and provide you with some insight into the happenings at our state capitol. The Three Constants. There's a documentary on Netflix entitled Stutz. It's a documentary by Jonah Hill about his therapist, Dr. Phil Stutz. There's a link to more information in the text if you're listening. I've not finished the entire production, but I have gleaned some good things from what I've watched. And the best of what I've seen is Dr. Stutz's three constants in life, the things that we cannot escape, and they are pain, uncertainty, and constant work. He explains that the acceptance of these constants

will help us deal with problems, and I found them to be simple and profound in how we deal with the problems we face when working in the school business. Pain. We understand this in the physical sense, especially as we get older and physical activity and age begin to work against each other. But in our roles as educators, emotional pain is definitely constant. Whether it's from the struggle of maintaining positive relationships with our co-workers or students or parents or dealing with the disappointment of witnessing the failure of our students, pain is with us always.

There's been much reported lately on the science of stress and how teachers vicariously experience the pain of their students and carry it with them in their personal lives. We have to recognize this as a constant and that it does not go away. We encounter that constant, we counter that constant with the joys of education to keep balance in our lives. This is why it's important for us to use our PLC time to celebrate successes in the classroom and to talk about disappointments or problems and how to overcome them as our common enemy. We cannot use pain as an excuse to avoid solutions or a way to place blame on others. We call it out for what it is and face it. Just by doing that, we diminish its impact.

Uncertainty. No one knows the future and this is why we find comfort in predictable routines. However, nothing is certain and routines can lull us into complacency and even create more pain when the results of our routines are not productive. Knowing and accepting that uncertainty is always present is a good tool for dealing with surprises. We want to know what will happen before it happens. This is the primary reason you all ask for communication from your administrators. We can never communicate enough, but that is because with our communication, there's always uncertainty. We can never express ourselves with full confidence because of uncertainty, and neither can you. By embracing and accepting this constant, we can improve our relationships and improve our understanding of each other. This constant also reinforces the need for mission and vision.

We may not be able to predict the future, but we all should agree on the reasons we do what we do. Constant work. Most of us will admit that it's a given throughout our lives, but there is a part of each of us who expects to reach a point in our careers where everything is easy. I'm afraid that will never come to pass. I think that it is best explained by Kara Lawson, the women's basketball coach at Duke University. There's a video link in the text of her explaining to her

team that things never get easier. She says you overcome that fact by getting better and better at doing hard things. We have to be resolved to the fact that constant work will always be a part of our careers and really question ourselves and each other when we're tempted to make things easy. Are we really benefiting our students when we do? That's a question. Now to Little Rock. Thanks to whoever it was that took the time to comment on the thought exchange related to the Governor's Learns Initiative. I've opened it back up.

That's the thought exchange, and there's a link in the text. And we'll keep it open throughout the legislative session to gain insight into thoughts and opinions as different bills on education come to the forefront of debate. I will not list all educational bills, but you can go to the legislative homepage to view them. I will focus on bills that are consequential to your roles as teachers in the classroom. I will link the bill along with a brief description and let you know how our administrators organization stands on it. The first one is House Bill 1091. This is a bill to treat nationally recognized high school equivalency exam the same as a high school diploma for the purpose of employment in Arkansas.

We have not taken a stance on this bill until we understand the full intent of the sponsors. House Bill 1104 requires Arkansas to adopt daylight savings time permanently if the Arkansas Secretary of Education determines that federal law has been amended to allow such a change. We have no position on this bill. We have no position on this bill. House Bill 1122 requires that the first day of school for public schools be on or after the Monday of the week in which August 19th falls. Well, that's confusing. Not earlier than August 14th or later than August 26th. This bill is supported. We still have the flexibility to use hours instead of day or minutes, hours instead of days and have our modified calendar like the one we are using this year.

House Bill 1152 provides that the first $50,000 in income received by a public school teacher or open enrollment charter school teacher is exempt from income tax this bill is supported House bill 1156 requires public school districts to make certain designations regarding a student's gender in certain settings this bill is supported in closing congratulations to the artists at Holly Harshman who won awards from Economics Arkansas for their artwork. I received their artwork in frames to hang in Holly Harshman Elementary along with some prizes today.

I'll be handing those to Ms. Smart sometime soon. We ask that all employees compete to complete their notice of intent before February 18th there's a link in the text to the form if you've not completed it already this is not a binding document but it helps us plan for next year our PPC is still working on the calendars for next year and those will be sent out for a vote by the staff once the options are fully developed again thank you for all you've done this week have a nice weekend sent out for a vote by the staff once the options are fully developed again thank you for all you've done this week have a nice weekend at Mena Public

Schools our students are prepared our staff is supported and our community is confident thank you