Eleven

I'm going to start thinking about eleven as a magic number. I hope that when you finish reading this, that you also think that the number eleven is significant.

Let me start by saying that yes, I knew Kenny McKinley. He was in my beginning class and once you're a part of Eagle TV, you're always a part of Eagle TV. I even remember where in my classroom he sat. Just like everyone else, the most prominent thing I remember about him was his manners, incessant smile and seemingly constant happiness. I marveled one day to him about how I couldn't get over how he was so happy all the time and he said to me, "there just isn't anything to be unhappy about, ma'am." I used to joke with him about how he must be up to something to just sit in class and smile all the time. When I was teaching, if I caught his eye, he would just smile wider, right at you. He knew all along about a life skill that making others feel good around you makes you more interesting a fun to be around. Kenny had a lot of friends, not because he was a wide receiver for the Denver Broncos, but because he made people feel good when they were around him.

I have a poster in my classroom that says that you should smile at everyone you come in contact with because you don't know what kind of day they are having. It is based on the premise that everyone can make a difference in the lives of others, just by how you look at them.

The one life skill that Kenny didn't remember in his darkest hour, however, was the notion that we all have choices. Many of them. And, even when you are at your darkest hour, or having such a bad day that you can't imagine climbing out, or when you feel stuck, you always have choices. You might just have to ask for help or list them in order to see them.

Kenny's choice has affected others. His mom and dad and sister, his 1-year-old boy, his Bronco's family, his South Carolina family, his South Cobb family, his fans and this teacher.

Nothing in this life of yours is too hard to recover from. I promise. Even severe depression. You just have to ask for help. Please just remember this trick: write down your choices....write down eleven of them...whenever you feel stuck or have to make a decision. Ask for help if you need to, but the important thing to remember is to reach out; to a person, or the universe or whatever.

Everything you do, apart from a reflex. is a choice. Everything. When you get up in the morning--choice; opening your eyes when you wake up--reflex. Pulling your hand away from a hot stove -- reflex; turning on the stove to make breakfast, choice. Completing your homework -- choice (a good one); cringing when you stub your toe -- reflex. Saying something nice to someone, or choosing not to say anything if it might come out mean might be a choice that would influence someone else's day.

Here is an example of how I might write down eleven choices I have about what to do on the weekend:

1. Sleep in

2. Wake up early

3. Sleep in then pad out to the living room and turn on the TV; watch TV in pajamas

4. Get up, take a shower and go hang out with friends.

5. Get up, take a shower and chill around the house.

6. Wake up early, walk the dog, feed the cats, go to the arts festival

7. Wake up early, decide I'm too tired and go back to bed. Sleep 'til 2 pm.

8. Wake up at 2 pm and call my dad to say hello. Finally get a shower and get dressed.

9. Sleep in, do homework in pajamas, watch TV in pajamas, take a nap.

10. Stay up all night Friday night, go to bed at 4 am Saturday morning. Sleep until dinnertime.

11. Sleep in a little, hang with friends a little, do a little homework, spend time with family.

I have been wrestling with a personal decision for a long time. This past week, I took the time to go to Florida to see my dad and the beach and list my choices. Putting them on paper or talking them out always seems to help when things don't seem too clear. It has put things in perspective for me and has made my life a little brighter knowing that I DO have choices. It was on this trip to Florida that I heard about Kenny.

If there is anything that you take away from this is the following: as human beings we need and influence each other more than we realize and we ALWAYS have choices. Be kind, help people, tune in to others, and be there for someone who might need help seeing that they have choices. Remember that you, too, have choices and you make them everyday. Make good ones and when you have trouble seeing the forest for the trees, ask for help. I wish Kenny had.

Please respond that you read the blog and that you acknowledge the advice I have given you.

American Idols in Eagle TV!

The outgoing American Idol judge, Simon Cowell, has the right idea.

Life is tough. Not everyone is perfect at what they are doing. You have to practice, practice, practice to get better. You also need a coach along the way.

That's where I come in.

I've never held back my comments with my students when they don't give me their best work. I can see right through it when they "phone it in" and I let them know. Most of my students think I'm too critical, but how will they get better if I don't set the bar high?

I try not to be mean about it, and with the constructiveness comes a suggestion or an idea for improvement or the offer to help. Here is where most teachers fail.

It is our job to make students better by holding the bar just out of reach until students can hit it. I'm not about to appease a student and his/her efforts just to make him/her feel better. I want to be brutally honest with them. They deserve that from me. If they are receptive to it, it makes them better.

I'll never forget a teacher I had in college, Dr. Jane Bick. She was one of my journalism professors and a teacher I had over the course of several semesters. She had given us an assignment to write a 20-page paper on an overview of a career field from a public relations-management point of view. I chose the airline industry. With my parents having been in the industry for many years, I felt as if I knew a little about it. I was flying on planes from the time I was months old. Many a summer was spent flying around the country visiting family, friends and even to New York city for a haircut!

When it came time to get feedback from Dr. Bick about our paper, she was brutally honest with me: "you are not the writer I thought you were, " she said. I deflated like a popped balloon. It was crushing to me. I left school that day so mad and upset that I wasn't sure how I was going to handle all my rage. I wanted to just give up writing altogether. Maybe I had picked the wrong thing to major in. I'll just go confront her on Monday and give her a piece of my mind about what an insult that was! I was ready.

In the meantime, I worked and worked on that paper over the weekend until I thought I had it so fine tuned no one could find fault. I was ready to turn it in. It was, now that I looked at it, much better than it was the first time I handed it in.

I went to class a little earlier than usual, hoping Dr. Bick would get there early too and I could have a few minutes with her alone. She did. I started to speak and told her that I was completely taken back by her brutally brutal criticism of my paper and my writing. She responded in a way I will never forget: "Lisa, you are one of the best writers in this class. If I don't hold the bar higher for you than I do for others, you will never realize your full potential. My criticism of you and your writing, I hope, will make you a better writer, not give up."

I've never forgotten those words. I saw Dr. Bick later on in life when I worked at the TV station and she told the folks I worked with that I was one of the best writers she had ever seen come through her program at Georgia State. I never expected that! She was incredibly critical of me. I didn't even think she liked me! I dreaded her classes because she was so hard, but over time, she and I became friends. I'll never forget her pushing me the way she did. She pushed me because she knew I had it in me to be excellent and I just wasn't giving it my all.

So remember that even though I may be hard on you (my job as your teacher) it is because I have faith in you and your skills. Blog about a time when you might not have done your best and I caught you. How did it make you feel? Did it help you to improve, or just get you down? What motivates you to get better at whatever you're attempting? How can a little reality check be good for you?

Because just appeasing you and filling you with sugared praise is not doing you any good. Simon has the right idea.

Cagle's Family Farm

Lions, Tigers and Bears...oh my! Well... not really, but lots of animals.

Four generations of the Cagle family have kept Cagle's Family Dairy Farm going, just north of Atlanta with cows, goats, a huge vegetable garden, ducks, cow-herding dogs, a sheep who gives back rides to chickens and a 5-acre corn maze.

Although no longer a working dairy farm, the current, twenty-something owners, Ben and Vicki Cagle and their brother, Levi, have redefined their farm to educate people about what working on a dairy farm really is like.

Rosie the cow is kind enough to offer us a demonstration of milking techniques, old and new, and Tip the dog, rounds up the herd to say hello to the hayriders at the end of the farm tour.

The baby animal barn includes a shy calf, a bunch of ducks, chickens and roosters galore and Mabelline the black sheep who gives rides on her back to chickens who perch on top of her.

Office manager, Isaak, has been working at Cagle's since he was thirteen. Now 19, he enjoys every minute of it.

((I love working here. The Cagle family really know what they are doing to re-define the farm and make it more attractive to the younger crowds.))

An enormous bounce pillow offers the young and old alike the opportunity to feel like they are jumping on the bed and a corn launcher shoots corn cobs way off in the distance. The 5-acre corn maze's two routes challenges visitors to lots of dead-ends and false turns, but it is not impossible to exit the maze. Usually, however, you are greeted by energetic, cheerleaders in the form of farm employees, encouraging you to explore all the routes.

The tours have been going on since the early '90s. The Cagle family thought it was important that everyone should know where their food comes from.

((Every urban child should learn that their food, including milk, is produced on a farm and not just a product of the local grocery store.))

Fall tours include a pumpkin patch and a haunted barn. Cagle's Family Farm is located in Hickory Flat, Georgia, just north of Canton.

I hope you enjoyed my story.... now tell me one! I hope that your stories are informative and entertaining with amazing video and great soundbites. What is the next story you plan to tell? How will you tell it? What video will you have? Start thinking about your next package now.

Expecting the Unexpected (or how to keep from pulling your hair out)

We've had some surprises this semester. How do you keep from going crazy when the unexpected happens? Well, you plan for it....the worst-case scenario. You plan for setbacks. That way, when they happen, it's not such a big deal because you have a back up plan.

Let me digress. I certainly didn't plan to have a flood in my room on Monday. And, certainly didn't expect it to happen again on Thursday. But instead of throwing up my hands, my (lesson) plans adapted well to the situation. We worked exclusively in the edit rooms or went out to shoot more footage (that you evidently needed anyway). Beginning class went out to do more interviews and I turned the dehumidifiers and fans on "stun".

So, extended deadline in place, talk about what set you back during this assignment and how you plan to keep that from happening NEXT time. What will you do in order to cushion yourself and your group from getting trapped by the ticking deadline clock? How will you work next week on your next assignment? What, to you, is the value of getting a project finished early instead of past deadline? How do you make that work? Please give me at least a paragraph of reflection here for your blog; but don't waste time staring at a blank page...you've got work to do!

Wasting Time

Allow me this observation before you accuse me of being critical; I noticed this week that you're wasting time. What I'm talking about is that instead of chewing on your stories to see what they are made of, you're spending time viewing them from afar. As a result, many of you....halfway into your allotted time before deadline...have decided to change stories.

There is one big problem with this. If something is wrong with equipment or your tape, or your edit bay, your interview doesn't come through etc., you don't have time to fix it before you reach the eleventh hour. Most professionals I know begin working as soon as they get the assignment BECAUSE there is likely to be problems. That way, they can account for that time lost and still come in on deadline.

I'm sure it's my fault, so here is what I want you to do: when you come up with your story idea (on the first day of the assignment...because you have been looking all week for story ideas, right?) I want you to begin asking yourself some questions. Does this story have visual elements? Are the experts that I want to interview for this story likely to be available in the time I need? Are there local experts available at all? Is there someone at the school who I could ask about this story? Are there any students at the school who have experienced this? How can I find out if there are? What do I want to accomplish with my story; entertain, inform, create action, manifest empathy? What will be the element in the story that will tell your audience something that they didn't already know about your subject?

Talk to me about your story. What have you been thinking about it over the weekend and what are you going to do this week to make sure that is it a well-done, well-researched, tell-me-something-new story. Will there be surprises in your story? Will your photography be different and artsy? What will make it stand out? What will make it the best? Time is NOT a renewable resource. Once it's gone, it's gone; make the most of it!