Teachers institute not eclipsed by moon

By Submitted by Carbon School District

It happened the same day as the eclipse, but based on how teachers and administrators felt about the program presented at the Teachers Institute for the beginning of the public school year at the Carbon School District offices, what went on inside the building was every bit as spectacular as what went on in the sky later that morning.
Teachers Institute is held each year for a half day before teachers go to their buildings to prepare for the opening of school and get other training as well. It is usually an introduction to the year with officials and administrators speaking and a guest speaker giving an educational and inspirational presentation. This year teachers got both, as they learned a lot about their new boss, Dr. Lance Hatch, and about another man of accomplishment, Brad Barton who held their attention for almost two hours on a hot late summers morning.
Hatch was introduced by Carbon School District President Wayne Woodward, who talked about his selection and the positive feelings the board has about hiring him this summer.
Then Hatch did his own presentation showing some things about his background. Coming from a very small town, where a half dozen individual pictures showed the entire third and fourth grade of his elementary school he got some laughs out of the audience.
“Four of those were fourth graders and two of them were me and my twin brother,” he said. “I am a small town guy.”
Hatch said that he was an economically disadvantaged child, because his father never made much money as a ranch hand. He said he didn’t know it at the time, but that he basically grew up in poverty.
“LaSal was a great place to grow up,” he said. “I also learned that I could do some hard things. There were a lot of days of long hard physical labor. That was a good lesson for me. There was a time when my family, all seven of us, lived in a one bedroom house and my brother and I slept in a closet. I knew my parents loved me and that we were going to be fine. But poverty has an effect on people. It causes a family to focus on survival. There was no time for academics. The last thing on my parents’ mind was to read to me. The last thing on their minds was helping me to become a Sterling Scholar or to help me to get straight A’s. That was never a conversation. All my experience was on this ranch; we never went anywhere, no vacations or anything. I think we have a lot of kids in this situation. What we know about the brain is that it is hard to learn when one has limited experience.”
He then talked about what public education did for him. He spoke about how teachers affected his life and led him to become the person he is today.
“Is there a way we can break that cycle of poverty?” he asked. “You are the ones who can do that. Through school I had many teachers who took extra time, extra effort to help me. They saw some potential; I don’t some potential; I don’t know what it was but they saw it. The school was my home away from home. It was everything to me.”
He said that while there are programs to help break the cycle of poverty, the only thing in his opinion that can really help are teachers. He then told the group about a teacher he had that saw something in him. The man was a type teacher who took an interest and even forced him to go to a typing test contest at what was then CEU. He took second at the competition and it was then he realized, for the first time in his life, he was in a room of smart kids doing the same thing. He was smart too.
“The cycle was broken for me because I went to school every day, and there were people there that cared about me,” he said.
The superintendent also played a humorous song on his guitar, that he composed, about how he hoped to help teachers and staff at the district do their jobs, and what they could expect of him. The song brought down the house.
Next up was Barton. He is a professional who was a misdirected kid headed for disaster when he was young. He ran headlong into a stern Greek wrestling coach who looked at this skinny little rebel and created a world class athlete. He ricocheted off an English teacher who took the time to read his dyslexic ramblings and created an author and public speaker. He bounced like a positive pinball from mentor to mentor all the way to a successful happy life as a father of six, a husband, a corporate speaker – a life designed for failure but destined for greatness.
Barton mesmerized the audience with not only enthusiasm, but also with illusions that he uses to make his point as he traversed his presentation. Barton was another child with an upbringing including a large family and not much money. He told the group that teachers made a difference in his life, a life that was not easy for a poor, small and skinny kid from rural Idaho.
He pointed out that the illusions he provides for the audiences to make points did not come from him, but from the audience themselves.
“The magic we have is inside ourselves, not external,” he said.
Barton said that it is a teachers job to do three things. One, they should fill a students brain with knowledge. Secondly, they should help a student on how to learn on their own and from others.
“My third point is that you should help students to believe in themselves,” he told the group. “Of the three that is the most important thing you can do.”
He also said that teaching and learning go together for both teachers and students or it doesn’t go at all. And without students believing in themselves learning cannot happen.
Barton went on to talk about individual teachers who had affected his life including a wrestling coach (who had also been the principal of his junior high), a teacher who recognized that he wasn’t stupid but instead was dyslexic and his track coach at Weber State University where he attained national notoriety for his running.
He also did a lot of interesting interaction work with the audience showing how attitudes and impressions can affect a life and decisions people make. He said what teachers say to students is very powerful.
“Perceptions are created with words,” he said. “Words are powerful and they create and perpetuate our attitudes, our thoughts and our behaviors.”
The mornings session ended with everyone who attended receiving special glasses to observe the eclipse while the Carbon High marching band played music and sang to the group.
While that was going on many of the teachers were talking about the mornings program and how good it was. They talked about what they learned and how it brought them inspiration to work toward becoming the best teachers they could be.
“It was the best beginning institute I have ever been to,” said Steve Lasslo, a teacher of 44 years who instructs second grade at Castle Heights Elementary School.
And many in the crowd agreed with him.