Superintendent Press Release February 16, 2024
Dear Cedar Bluffs Families,
I have been in education for nearly 30 years, and much has changed but none bigger than how technology has made everything so instant. The newest trend is using AI to help students write papers, do math, create art – it truly is an incredible world we are living in. Most of the experts in the education field are asking us to embrace AI and teach students and parents to not be afraid of it but use it if it is another tool for learning much like the calculator. After all, it still takes great thought and creativity to make sure you are putting in good information to the AI, to get good results out of the AI. If you ask poor questions, you will get poor answers so in one way, AI does help you think deeper and more succinctly. I was recently at a conference, where the presenter said it is like having a conversation with a computer. The more you ask, the more you define what you want, the better the output. However, being old school, I have noticed our students (and I just don’t mean Cedar Bluffs students) but all kids in general seem to want everything instantly. Including instance success. However, for me, one of the things that I can pinpoint that provided me success was perseverance. I often tell the kids; I scored an 18 on the ACT back in the 1980’s. An 18 was considered low, even though at the time that was minimum score to get into a four-year college. Now many four-year colleges want at least a 21. Anyhow, at the time, my school counselor told me if I wanted to go to college, I should look at a trade school but more than likely, I should go in the military or just get a job. It was a stark reality that I didn’t apply myself academically in high school. I loved sports, played everything, was successfully playing in multiple State Championships and sports really drove my world in high school, not academics. So, coming out of high school I had offers to play sports in college and did end up doing that but for only one year. When that was all over, I wasn’t sure what was next. It was perseverance that came to my rescue. Perseverance allowed me to earn my first associate degree, then my first bachelor’s degree, then my first master’s degree, then my second master’s degree, then finally my EdS. In a span of roughly 10 years, I had put myself through multiple colleges, multiple majors and in the end multiple degrees. I was not a good student, and reading was always difficult for me so having to read textbooks and novels, write research papers and complete a dissertation was only done through perseverance. In this fast-paced world we are living where AI is moving even faster, I hope one thing we can instill in our students at Cedar Bluffs is perseverance. Each week, I meet with our administrative team, and we narrow down our goals and set focus targets. Goal setting is a huge part of being successful and we need to start asking our students to set goals too. As we started talking about 2024, I have been reading a book by Angela Duckworth called GRIT: The power of passion and perseverance. Living in this world, I asked AI how we can implement goals for our school around perseverance. It of course spit out 60 pages with 11 different strategies, so I asked better questions, and more succinct questions until it finally told me: “Cultivating perseverance is an ongoing process that requires collaboration between educators, parents, and the broader community. By creating a supportive and challenging learning environment, schools can help students develop the perseverance needed for long-term success.” Thanks AI. I already knew this! Anyhow, as administrators we will persist and as we think about ways to help our students have more perseverance, our hope is that any changes we make will help your child be more resilient in a world where everything may not go as they want, but they still persist and push forward in this world accomplishing their goals. Have a wonderful weekend! GO WILDCATS!