NMSA opening session

Innovate Create Inspire

Dr. Nancy Grazmik Maryland superintendent - One of the top states for education.

“There is an argument if the middle grades should be handled like a high school or an elementary school, no. it should be handled like a good middle school.”

College and career ready and successful

John Lansbury- one of the founders of the middle school movement. Middle school – a set of principles and practices that are proven – the middle school reform has been one of the greatest changes in education. At this point, there is acknowledgement of the NMSA awardee – Ed Bresie (?) – A leader in middle level education.

Also presented distinguished educator award- - focuses on education for all, we don’t all learn the same way, but we all can learn.

Maryland education

To be truly great takes parents, businesses, community members, etc.

All middle schools closed for all teachers to be at conference (now that is dedication!)

Must be relationship based, must use data for accountability, most important to be collaborative!

Dr Ben Carson

Pediatric surgeon at John Hopkins. Has received innumerable awards, recognitions, and has done amazing things. He has done ground break surgery (separating conjoined twins) has written books (dealing with risk and inspiration)

Coming from a single parent family whose mother had a 3^rd grade education- pretty amazing growth.

Always had the dream to be a doctor, that is what pushes you on when the times are tough. Conjoined twins- from middle-east, educated, law degree, etc. Would rather die than stay conjoined. Its hard to understand until you think
about their situation. 50 hours of surgery, the team was almost done and ready to celebrate… but complication developed and they bled to death.

A tragedy, but its how we learn and develop in medicine. You have to persist. We have to learn from out mistakes, learn from experiences in the past.

Mom (1 of 24 kids) married at 13, he was a bigamist. Left to live with other family in poverty working multiple jobs. In 5^th grade, he was a terrible student. Called “dummy”. He was great at getting other kids in trouble – push their buttons until they blow, set up to blow at just the right time. He tried to do this with ms goodie. She didn’t explode, she said… you and me at recess. Obviously that strategy wasn’t going to work with everyone… need to move on.

How many of you can name 5 basketball players? NFL, baseball, etc. Most everyone can. Name 5 Nobel prize winners. Not.

We are in the age of technology- need to place emphasis and resources behind education. Most of the engineers we produce are foreigners. China produces far more than us. We spend money on building a new sports stadium, but not to a school. We really need to put more in to math and sciences.

Mom was a domestic and observed what others did. She realized that successful people were reading. She made the kids read books and write reports (even though she couldn’t read it).

By time he reached the 7^th grade, other kids came to him for help. Science teacher showed him that he thought he was smart- inspired him by having him help take care of critters. Went back to visit teacher, and wanted to see the critters, but they are all gone. Too much liability now. Someone might get scratched. How sad that we have lost those things that can inspire because of fear of our litigious society. What have we come to?

Our country has been through so many changes. For thousands of years, life and the world has been consistent. But the world is changing so fast, especially here. Our country when only 50 years old, was competitive with nations that had existed for thousands of years. (Are we the heart of change??)

The beginning of socialism? We had the wealth- enormous fortunes developed with these early entrepreneurs. They put the money back into the society, unlike what other countries wealthy does. The charity is still there, but there is also the selfishness, as in the money grab
of Wall Street. We need to reach that generosity and compassion in our students, not selfishness. Even his music teacher made the point of keeping him on track to be a doctor, over the needs of music.

Some of the teachers spent more time in discipline than in teaching. He went afterschool to learn what he needed to learn. The teachers looked forward to him, because they knew at least one student would learn.

Had the same brain all along. The difference was his attitude.

Went through the process of raising hand to answer a simple question. Pretty complicated stuff. If that is instantaneous, what can you do when you put effort.

High school, found peer pressure. Grades started to drop, called names. Rebuttal- let’s see what I am doing in 20 years and where are you in 20 years. Those who aren’t going anywhere don’t want others to go anywhere either.

Watched a tv program (college bowl) that had competing colleges. It included the arts. So it inspired him to learn about classic music and fine arts. Only could afford one college ap, so applied to the winning school.

Wanted to become a brain surgeon, Hopkins was the best place, but they only took a couple of students with hundreds of applicant. Was able to discuss the arts with the key people. There is no wasted or useless knowledge/learning. We all need to learn as much as we can, including tech. Most importantly is learning how to think out of the box. That is a founding principle of our nation. This is what we really need to teach our kids. No one has ever done it before until someone does it.

Sometimes what is unorthodox is what is most efficient.

We are guaranteed a position if we make ourselves valuable.

When he visits a school, there are trophies for the sports teams. What do we do to acknowledge the honor rolls? Put them on the pedestal equally with
the sports or the entertainer. Who is going to make our future…. The kid who can shoot a free-throw or the one who can solve the quadratic equation? Rewarding those academic skills inspires others as well. They start doing it for the prizes, but they start to do it for itself later

is what made it a success, because they could do it without all the tools and extras that fancier places have.

Think Big!

Honesty

Insight. Look for new ways to see life

Nice- think about others first

Knowledge- makes you a more valuable person

Books- even his mom learned to read and finally earned a doctorate too

In depth knowledge – don’t just cram, need to really learn

God- who is now politically incorrect

At the beginning of our nation, they prayed… they turned to god for support and guidance.

What happened to values? There is nice and nasty, right and wrong. We need to remember this again.

If we remember this things, we can remain a pinnacle nation, but also a united nation under god.