Are You in the Same Mindset as Our Students?

I always use some of these facts from Beloit College http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2012.php in my opening of school welcome back letter to teachers. I thought I would share the complete list here. Are you ready to deal with their mindset ?

Students entering high school for the first time this fall were generally born in 1986.

For these students, Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead.

Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.
Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.
They have always been looking for Carmen Sandiego.
GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.
Coke and Pepsi have always used recycled plastic bottles.
Shampoo and conditioner have always been available in the same bottle.
Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.
Their parents may have dropped them in shock when they heard George Bush announce “tax revenue increases.”
Electronic filing of tax returns has always been an option.
Girls in head scarves have always been part of the school fashion scene.
All have had a relative--or known about a friend's relative--who died comfortably at home with Hospice.
As a precursor to “whatever,” they have recognized that some people “just don’t get it.”
Universal Studios has always offered an alternative to Mickey in Orlando.
Grandma has always had wheels on her walker.
Martha Stewart Living has always been setting the style.
Haagen-Dazs ice cream has always come in quarts.
Club Med resorts have always been places to take the whole family.
WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.
Films have never been X rated, only NC-17.
The Warsaw Pact is as hazy for them as the League of Nations was for their parents.
Students have always been "Rocking the Vote.”
Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.
Schools have always been concerned about multiculturalism.
We have always known that “All I Ever Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”
There have always been gay rabbis.
Wayne Newton has never had a mustache.
College grads have always been able to Teach for America.
IBM has never made typewriters.
Roseanne Barr has never been invited to sing the National Anthem again.
McDonald’s and Burger King have always used vegetable oil for cooking french fries.
They have never been able to color a tree using a raw umber Crayola.
There has always been Pearl Jam.
The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.
Pee-Wee has never been in his playhouse during the day.
They never tasted Benefit Cereal with psyllium.
They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.
Authorities have always been building a wall along the Mexican border.
Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.
Employers have always been able to do credit checks on employees.
Balsamic vinegar has always been available in the U.S.
Macaulay Culkin has always been Home Alone.
Their parents may have watched The American Gladiators on TV the day they were born.
Personal privacy has always been threatened.
Caller ID has always been available on phones.
Living wills have always been asked for at hospital check-ins.
The Green Bay Packers (almost) always had the same starting quarterback.
They never heard an attendant ask “Want me to check under the hood?”
Iced tea has always come in cans and bottles.
Soft drink refills have always been free.
They have never known life without Seinfeld references from a show about “nothing.”
Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.
Muscovites have always been able to buy Big Macs.
The Royal New Zealand Navy has never been permitted a daily ration of rum.
The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.
98.6 F or otherwise has always been confirmed in the ear.
Michael Milken has always been a philanthropist promoting prostate cancer research.
Off-shore oil drilling in the United States has always been prohibited.
Radio stations have never been required to present both sides of public issues.
There have always been charter schools.
Students always had Goosebumps.

Graduation 2009

Graduation seems like a distant memory even though it just happened on June 4th. The nervousness and excitment of seeing my students walk across the stage is unexplainable. I shook over 700 hands and I made a silent wish as I shook each hand that they would find success in what ever form they choose.

As a principal, graduation is a culmination and a new beginning because you know you have a bunch of freshmen waiting to take the place of those you just said goodbye to and you beam with pride for those who made it. It is a time to reflect on what you did and how will you make it better. Our profession is the only one that gives us the opportunity to start over every year.

I always end graduation with a short story that I hope will stay with them at least for a few hours. This year's story was "A farmer had an odd looking chicken in his backyard. It behaved like a chicken and it pecked like the other chickens. The chicken didn’t know there was a blue sky overhead and glorious sunshine. Until a man came along and said to the farmer, “HEY, that’s no chicken. That’s an eagle.” The farmer replied, “Um, that’s a chicken; it behaves like chicken, it pecks like a chicken” The man took the strange looking chicken. He climbed a hill and waited for sunrise. He then turned the strange looking chicken toward the sky and said, “Fly, eagle, fly.” The strange chicken, shook itself, spread out its pinions, and lifted off and soared and soared and flew away into the distance. Now I say to you, you are no chicken, you are an eagle. Fly! Rise toward the confident, the good, and the caring. Rise to become what you were intended to be!"