Ministry Matters™ | Blog | Why Churches Can't Get (and Keep) Volunteers

Pretty good read here. Now, as a pastor who worked in ministry full-time for a long time I must say that protecting days off is important. However, remember that your volunteers are working outside of their "day job" to help you out...so figure that one out! Read the last paragraph for sure. One thing to know is that people like to be appreciated and celebrate success, and that doesn't mean lining up in the front of a church for a clap of hands or a list in a newsletter. Jesus turned water into wine, the Man knows how to party. Relax and enjoy life churches!!!

Ministry Matters™ | Blog | Why Churches Can't Get (and Keep) Volunteers

Educational Leadership, so far...

Here is the tagxedo of everything that I've written in my blog so far. It sure seems that research is a bit important thus far! Oh well, have a great Labor Day folks.

EDLD 5326 School-Community Relations Week 2

So I'm into class #3 in my Educational Leadership course of study, which is EDLD 5326 School-Community Relations. This week, the second for the course, focuses on the following:

• Identify both the visible and invisible elements of school culture.
• Explain the characteristics of an effective family engagement program.
• Discuss factors that may influence family involvement.

Each week we have a discussion question, and here is the question for week 2 and my response. Let me know what you think!

Mrs. Noland, a popular special education teacher, credits her students' high success rate on the state assessment to consistent parent involvement. Mrs. Cherry, a third-grade teacher, is confused because in spite of an 80% parent participation rate, her student success rate pales in comparison to that of Mrs. Noland's students.

 

What suggestions can you give Mrs. Cherry?

This is multi-facted question with a myriad of answer, or at least suggestions, to the question of "why?". There is no exact answer as to why Mrs. Noland's students score higher than Mrs. Cherry's...you can do a multi-year study and make some incredible hypothesis, but they will remain educated guesses not answers. The extreme bottom line here is that we as educators are educating human beings. Life would be so much more easy for us if we were like dogs, or cats, or giraffes, or ants; but alas, we are humans with a complicated cornucopia of emotions, feelings, and desires. My point is that animals and insects go about their lives reacting as all of their kind react, while each human has a specific set of response factors that make each person different. When we do a study on how students score on standardized tests it can be a study in futility as there are as many answers to the questions as there are students taking the test.
This is the perfect time for Mrs. Cherry to approach Mrs. Noland and talk to her about her best practices and see if there may be parallels that she can implement in her classroom. It is apparent that the parent participation in Mrs. Noland's class is effective. One thing that I believe Mrs. Cherry needs to look into is something that isn't as quantitative: are Mrs. Noland's parents more involved/more focused due to the fact that their children are special education students? This is a qualitative question that can't be delineated or disaggregated, which is what we focus on so much these days, but is extremely real. All of the parents in Mrs. Noland's room have been through ARD meetings, know that their children have special needs, and know that the school will go to almost any length to help their student succeed. Mrs. Cherry has a classroom that undoubtedly includes SPED students, but that sub-group will only be a fraction of the overall class population. Most of the parents in Mrs. Cherry's class will not have been through the ARD meetings, and likely won't be as protective of their child's educational needs and shortcomings as Mrs. Noland's. 

Another tactic that could help Mrs. Cherry out is partnering together parents of higher achieving students with parents of lower performing students. She could put the parents of groups of four or five, mixing the different performance levels together to try and get a higher level of idea synergy between the parents. Keeping an eye on culture, ethnicity, and language would help barriers that might go unnoticed otherwise. The parent groups could then be paired with student groups—Mrs. Cherry would need to decide if parents should be with their own child(ren) or not. 

One last area of focus that I might suggest to Mrs. Cherry would be to take a bit of time to focus to focus on the 20% that choose to not participate in her classroom. The question suggests that there is an 80% buy-in, but maybe it's the 20% that is the "boat anchor" to the test scores. Are the parents of the children that don't perform well the children of the 20% of non-participators? What factors keep the 20% parents from buying into the classroom participation? What forms of parent communiciation has Mrs. Cherry implemented? Are there any opportunities for the 20% to assist outside of the times that the 80% are in class? Can Mrs. Cherry finds opportunities to take her classroom outside the school walls where the 20% might feel more comfortable? Are there any digital/online/video-conferencing type methods that could better serve the 20%?

Blogging while teaching

It's great to blog and teach an in-service session, especially when your friends are texting you to "wrap it up" because they want to leave and watch video from last night's scrimmage. Thank you, Woods!

EDLD 5301 - Week 5 Blog Submission: "What I learned"

I learned many things in this course:

• Dr. Abshire respects honesty and candor.
• On a side-note, she gets things DONE in a timely and succinct fashion!
• The resource section is the Holy Grail.
• Section ANE doesn’t like to respond to posts on the discussion boards.
• Action Research can be invigorating and intriguing.
• Many of my classmates like to post on their blogs Sunday afternoon and frantically ask for comments.
• Daniel’s Blogger Buddies are the BEST!
• The Harris, et al, textbook is a marvelous resource.
• Vertical alignment is an issue in the program, but that it's a lot better than it used to be (thanks Dr. Perez, my LFS).
• Dr. Ashford is a great I.A.
• Getting straight answers can be tough to do.

Here are some highlights of the course in a few areas:

Lectures

Drs. Arterbury and Jenkins are like the Laurel and Hardy of Educational Leadership.  They are masters in their field, but they never fail to bring the laughs to the party. I can tell that each of these gentlemen love what they do, and are very invested in the Lamar Educational Administration program. “That’s a great question, Dr. Jenkins”, and “Thank you for asking me about…”, are two of my favorite quotes from the good Drs.

Readings

As I stated above I am grateful to Dr. Abshire for selecting Examining What We Do To Improve Our Schools: 8 Steps From Analysis to Action, by Harris, Edmonson, & Combs. This text was more of a “how to” type of manual with many great research instruments included. The Dana text, Leading With Passion And Knowledge: The Principal as Action Researcher, was also a great resource. She laid out a great map for future administrators to follow. I especially liked the last chapter which focused on where we will be as a “Head Learner”…always looking down the road!

Searches, like electronic searches of topics and questions

No real highlights here. I have been using the internet since the early 1990’s. I was the host of an online chatroom moderator (something some of the younger folks in this class most likely have never heard of) in 1993-1995, in the area of Contemporary Christian Music Composition for AOL & Prodigy. What I’m saying is that I feel rather comfortable in my skin as far as these types of things are concerned.

Assignments and activities

The assignments in this class were good. The creation of the ARP is the main crux of the class and I really appreciate it. The week 4 assignment was good for me as well. I didn’t mind posting to TK20, but I am still a bit unsure of what should be on TK20 and when. It seems that we’ve been asked to answer the same thing about three weeks of this course: “What did you learn?” etc. At some point we’ve put what we learned, how we’ll revise, and what is best. At some point you just have to let it go. The activities, I’m referencing the online chats here, are fine, but they drag a bit for my taste. The same questions get asked about 100 times, and it drives my ADD mind crazy.

Discussion Board

The discussion board is sweet and sour to me. I am up to discussing most any topic at any time. As my late father-in-law used to say, “I don’t have an answer for you, but I have an opinion!” It is in this spirit that I always jump into the discussion boards. The topics of the discussion boards are usually awesome, and they make me think. My concern here is that my section (I’m in section ANE) doesn’t reply to my posts. In week four I replied to five or six blogs, and I had one reply on mine. It’s a bit frustrating to say the least.

Blogs

Here we go, now! I love to blog; it’s like an open invitation to put my thoughts in the ethos. I am a performer; it’s what I was created by God to do. From the age of 18, I’ve been a professional musician. I recorded with Warner Brothers as a studio musician at the age of 20. I have given talks, sermons, seminars, and trainings to tens of thousands of people in three continents. Needless to say, I’m ready to offer my opinion, with as many words as I can, at any time. The use of a blog offers the perfect opportunity to ply my trade. Being able to read my classmate’s blogs has been eye-opening for me. I love reading the blogs and seeing what others are doing, how they are doing it, and what the leading edge of education is thinking. The use of the blogs is an invaluable tool in EDLD 5301!

Football & the Weight-Loss Journey

It's football time again! Two-a-day workouts, sweat, and sun. This year we have a great class of seniors playing for the Friona Chieftains.

These young men come to work every day with a great attitude and provide great leadership for our team.

Our coaching staff is doing great things with the boys, and it's fun to work with them each day.

As I looked at the picture I felt I needed to lock back and see where I was at this time last year. I started my weight loss journey in mid-January 2013. I've lost in the 80 lb area, and the picture below shows a good comparison. Top left is October 2012 (455-460 lbs). Top right is August 2012 (not sure). Bottom is August 2013, not sure of weight. I haven't weighed in about a month, I was getting obsessed with the weight loss and had to chill. I was at 385 in early June 2013, and I'm slimmer now, clothes fit better, etc. Anyway, it's getting better every day. Never give up, never surrender!

EDLD 5301, Week 4 - The Revision

We are charged with blogging about any revisions in our ARP in this week's post. Well, Monday morning at 6:00 AM, I dropped my wife, the district Director of Technology, off at central office where she and all other district administrators took off for a C-Scope conference (WOW, so sad I missed that 8^)...), then I drove to the locker room to set out agility 1's for the first day of two-a-day football practice. Needless to say, this week has been busy! Also, my site supervisor is my campus principal and she was in San Antonio, at the C-Scope gathering. I have talked to a number of fellow teachers about my ARP, and none have suggested changes. One of our assistant coaches is on my team, and he felt that things look great, as did three other team members. 

I appreciate all of the comments that I received on my ARP! The one suggestion that I had for change was implemented: "regular education students" was changed to "students not in any extracurricular activities".  I'm excited for my study, and happy that I have such a great cohort to work with.

Action Research Plan - J. Daniel Hutchins

Action Planning Template
Goal: "What is the correlation between GPA, SBA results, and days missed from school, as it pertains to extracurricular activities?"
Action Steps(s):	Person(s) Responsible:	Timeline: Start/End	Needed Resources	Evaluation
Present the Action Research plan in detail to teaching staff and activity coaches during teacher in-service.	Daniel Hutchins	August 16, 2013	-        Hand-Outs of plan highlights -        Power Point presentation -        CPU -        Projector	Hand-Out of presentation posted on EDMODO site and high school website
Define Research Team – (Proposed Team) -        Daniel Hutchins, Lead, Fine Arts, Athletics -        Dr. Pam Ray, Principal -        Karen Langford, Counselor -        Cindy Alexander, English II -        Patsy Allen, Family & Consumer Science & FCCLA -        Tracy Blount, Vocational Agriculture & FFA -        Tammy Gammon, Physics & Math Models -        Allison Johnston, Choir & Band -        David Towner, Computer, CR, Athletics	-        Daniel Hutchins -        Darla J. Hutchins, District Director of Technology	August 19, 2013 – August 23, 2013	Class schedules and activities of team members so that planning sessions can be scheduled cohesively.	Class creation in EDMODO for the study to include – -        Master calendar -        Event Updates -        Data storage -        Blog updates -        Discussion -        Interaction -        Posting of ARD instruments -        Other information as needed
Define Student Groups – -        Extracurricular students o   Athletics o   Band o   Cheer o   Choir o   Drama o   FCCLA o   FFA o   One-Act Play o   UIL Academics -        Students not in any extracurricular activities   ·     Each Student Group will be comprised of a number of students that represents 10% of the overall student population.	Daniel Hutchins Dr. Pam Ray, Principal Karen Langford, Counselor	August 26, 2013 – September 6, 2013	-        School roster of all students -        Lists of students in all extracurricular activities	Student groups posted on ARD EDMODO site, in spreadsheet format
Send list of student groups to all teachers, extracurricular coaches, and administration.	Daniel Hutchins	September 9, 2013	-        MS Excel -        MS Outlook	Spreadsheet with students in groups sent so that all staff will know who is involved in the study.
Gather all students contracts associated with extracurricular activities from all coaches.	Daniel Hutchins Patsy Allen (FCCLA) Tracey Blount (FFA) Allison Johnston (Fine Arts) David Towner (Sports)	September 9, 2013 – September 13, 2013	-        MS Outlook -        Photocopier	Contracts will be scanned/uploaded into the EDMODO site for reference.
Conduct student interview and survey with all student group members. Survey questions -        What is your favorite thing about school? -        What is one thing you would never give up about school? -        Besides the law or your parents, what motivates you to be at school? -        What motivates you to make good grades? -        What is important to you as far as school is concerned? -        Is coming to school important? Why? -        Aside from your family, who inspires you to succeed?	Daniel Hutchins	September 16, 2013 – September 20, 2013	Student survey	Student survey and results (will be posted on EDMODO)
Compilation of 1st six weeks data: -        Attendance -        Tardies -        Discipline action -        Extracurricular activity -        Assessments (tests taken, any results received) -        Awards/Rewards/Recognition	Research Team	October 7, 2013 – October 11, 2013	-        Grade reports -        Attendance report -        Discipline report -        Local news media report -        Assessment report	Six weeks report created and uploaded on EDMODO
Compilation of 2nd six weeks data: -        Attendance -        Tardies -        Discipline action -        Extracurricular activity -        Assessments (tests taken, any results received) -        Awards/Rewards/Recognition	Research Team	November 11, 2013 – November 15, 2013	-        Grade reports -        Attendance report -        Discipline report -        Local news media report -        Assessment report	Six weeks report created and uploaded on EDMODO
Compilation of 3rd six weeks data: -        Attendance -        Tardies -        Discipline action -        Extracurricular activity -        Assessments (tests taken, any results received) -        Awards/Rewards/Recognition	Research Team	January 6, 2014 – January 10, 2014	-        Grade reports -        Attendance report -        Discipline report -        Local news media report -        Assessment report	Six weeks report created and uploaded on EDMODO
Compilation of 4th six weeks data: -        Attendance -        Tardies -        Discipline action -        Extracurricular activity -        Assessments (tests taken, any results received) -        Awards/Rewards/Recognition	Research Team	February 18, 2014 – February 21, 2014	-        Grade reports -        Attendance report -        Discipline report -        Local news media report -        Assessment report	Six weeks report created and uploaded on EDMODO
Compilation of 5th six weeks data: -        Attendance -        Tardies -        Discipline action -        Extracurricular activity -        Assessments (tests taken, any results received) -        Awards/Rewards/Recognition	Research Team	April 7, 2014 – April 11, 2014	-        Grade reports -        Attendance report -        Discipline report -        Local news media report -        Assessment report	Six weeks report created and uploaded on EDMODO
Compilation of 6th six weeks data: -        Attendance -        Tardies -        Discipline action -        Extracurricular activity -        Assessments (tests taken, any results received) -        Awards/Rewards/Recognition	Research Team	June 2, 2014 – June 6, 2014	-        Grade reports -        Attendance report -        Discipline report -        Local news media report -        Assessment report	Six weeks report created and uploaded on EDMODO
Investigation of all inquiry evidence	Daniel Hutchins	June 9, 2014 – July 11, 2014	All evidence gathered during Action Research	-        Written report of findings including necessary graphs and/or charts -        Power Point presentation of findings -        All reports, presentations, and results posted on EDMODO
Dissemination and sharing of research results with building administration. The following will also be discussed: -        Approbation -        Reflections -        Sanctions -        “Next Steps”	Daniel Hutchins Dr. Pam Ray, Principal Erica Montana, Asst. Principal Karen Langford, Counselor Michael Prokop, Athletic Director	July 14, 2014 – August 1, 2014	-        Printed handouts with results of action research -        Power Point presentation -        CPU -        Projector	Handouts for administration
Make formal report at Board of Trustees meeting	Daniel Hutchins	August 11, 2014	-        Printed handouts with results of action research -        Power Point presentation -        CPU -        Projector	Handouts for Board of Trustees and Superintendent

 

Format based on Tool 7.1 from Examining What We Do to Improve Our Schools
(Harris, Edmonson, and Combs, 2010)