The Incredible Color Guard Dog

Sasha takes being a guard dog to a whole new level. You may have seen her in our vlogs, maybe you came across her during a contest and REALLY wanted to pet her, maybe we were at a point where you were even allowed to! No matter what, she's been our most popular member at Spintonix, and it's easy to see why. But why on earth even have a service dog for a color guard organization? This is her story.

To start at the beginning, Sasha was abused as a puppy. Therefore she was stolen from her abusive owner and ended up with me. Some might say she has been spoiled, but with as much training as I put on her, she deserved every bacon snack and snuggle on the couch that she received. As I got to know Sasha better and she grew into a dog with human-like personality, I realized that she was incredibly empathetic. She could tell if someone was ill, tired, or just having a bad day, and she knew exactly how to interact with them. I thought that would be the perfect personality for a dog to become a therapy animal. Thus, the training began. It was not terribly intense, but I enrolled her in obedience class and then did a lot of reading about service dogs and how they should be trained to operate in public. Just working with her once in a while rather than on a daily basis helped her to learn without getting stressed out, and the training ended up lasting multiple years. With me working on my degree and then my career, there just wasn't any real push to complete her training and get her career off the ground.

The one day, she became necessary and we didn't even know it. I lived alone at the time, so I regularly took Sasha to SIG rehearsals with me. I didn't have anyone at home who could care for her while I was gone for the entire weekend, and she couldn't stand to be left alone. But something about having her at rehearsals changed the entire team. She spent a lot of time greeting all of the members, sitting with them, and even "helping" them stretch. When they had bad days or felt like crying, she would simply sit next to them and let them pet her until they felt better. Many times a bad week could be dissolved by coming to Spintronix on the weekend and spending a few minutes with Sasha. On contest weekends she would wait faithfully by the door for us to return and no matter whether we felt joy or utter defeat, she was there to support it all.

A couple of years after Sasha had gotten used to spending all of her weekends with the SIG crew, we had a new member who had a prescription for an emotional support animal. However, this member's ESA of choice wasn't very mobile or portable. This caused us to return home from competitions very early so that the required amount of daily ESA time could be met. However, we learned that the ESA prescription didn't have a requirement of being the specific animal that the member owned, and therefore if there was another registered ESA that could come with us to competitions, the prescription would be filled. Thus began the most intense training in Sasha's life, but she loved every second of it.

After earning her certification as an emotional support animal, Sasha accompanied the team to all of our winter guard competitions. She became a token of luck for our members to all pet her before they took the floor, and she's always there when anyone needs her. She's resolved conflicts and built people up after emotional breakdowns. She's sat through long contest days even though she doesn't understand color guard herself, but she knows what her job is and she does it well. She quickly became a celebrity in her own right, as many of the other guards in our circuit knew her name and wanted to know her story. Most understand that they aren't allowed to pet a service animal, which is good because Sasha needs to serve "her kids" on the Spintronix guard first, but those who hang around long enough know that they can sneak in a scratch or two once all of the SIG members are busy. I even firmly believe that her very presence was the difference that pushed our team to take gold in our class at state championships this year. Having her as a member of the team has been the greatest blessing to our organization.


If you have questions about Sasha, leave them in the comments section! We would love to answer anything about her that you are interested to know! And if you see us at a contest make sure you ask before you call her name or pet her. :-)

Lower two photos are by ©2017 Belinda Johnson.
http://www.bjohnsonphotography.com/

<3 Jackie

Why do students keep quitting my color guard?

It's the beginning of winter guard season!
You've done recruitment, held your auditions, written your warm-ups, selected flags and costumes, and you are ready to put a beautiful show on the floor.
Then you have a student tell you that they can't do color guard this season.
Well, that's fine. You've only invested maybe two audition rehearsals and five minutes in a staff meeting on this kid so far this season, never mind that they are a third year veteran member, at least they quit early enough that you don't have to fill a hole in the show drill.
Then, a couple of practices later, after you've announced the staff's selections for weapon line, you have ANOTHER student quit. It doesn't seem to matter if they are earning points and selling fundraisers and even signing contracts, it just keeps happening.
How long can this go on into the season? What are you doing wrong?

The truth is that it can continue to go on indefinitely until you have a core set of dedicated students who believe in what the team is trying to accomplish. Just because students are quitting doesn't necessarily mean you are doing anything wrong, although it's always good to evaluate your techniques in each step of the process, it just means that the students weren't a good fit for the program in the first place.
    For instance, one student might be quitting because their parents don't understand how the process of winter guard works. They think they can wait until AFTER auditions to explain to their student that they aren't going to allow him or her to participate in winter guard until he or she has better grades in class. However, grades came out BEFORE auditions, and the next grade card doesn't come out until AFTER the winter guard has learned the entire show. You can't simply pull a student out of winter guard for the entire time the team is learning their show and bonding and expect them to simply step back in halfway through the season, learn the show, and get along with everyone. But the real problem here is that the parents don't understand that.
    Another type of student who quits is the one looking for self-glory. I have had so many self-glorifying students come through the door at Spintronix that it's pathetic. They don't generally last long, just one or two seasons. They often have a delusional idea that they are better than others at color guard and therefore they simply DESERVE all of the attention, solos, and any other spotlight that can be granted to them. The truth is that while it might be exciting to have a self-glorifying member on the guard who really IS the best performer (which generally happens when a guard program is very young), over time these performers become toxic to the group as a whole. As the rest of the group progresses and grows together, the self-glorifying member generally stays at the same level because they refuse to truly work with the team, stuck in their belief that they are still the best. Then, when they aren't chosen for a select portion of the team, or handed a solo, they will often resort to one of two things; 1. stirring up drama with the rest of the team, or 2. simply quitting. If you've got a REALLY self-involved performer then they will stir up drama with the rest of the team and then finally quit. These are the types who generally want to "go out with a bang" so they will say things they think are cutting, trying to bring the whole team or even the entire organization down to their level, demonstrating how they believe the team will fail without their special talent. In truth, in every situation I have ever had of  self-glorifying member quitting, the team has actually flourished above and beyond their former achievements after that toxic member was gone.
    There can, of course, be a host of other reasons. Students can have a problem with authority, they can be non-conformists who look at color guard as a suppression of individuality rather than creation of art, others might just have a lot going on at home so that they can't handle the stress of being on a team.
    Trying to get to the bottom of these kinds of situations can become time-consuming, and I feel bad because every group goes through this as a stage of their growth. But it's just a stage, and as you learn to simply let these students go rather than worry about the reasons why they are quitting, you will begin to notice more patterns and personality types that don't work well with your program. It makes cutting those students during the audition process easier as the seasons march on, and you will have less quitters in your later years.

The most important thing is to keep things positive no matter what, and deal with the blows as they are delivered. Don't be discouraged over the one student who couldn't hack it and had to quit, focus on the incredible students who ARE there, who are sticking around and have faith in you and your program. Those are the ones who should be occupying your time and receiving your attention! Besides, it's easier to clean a guard of 16 than a guard of 25 anyway...

<3 Jackie

How to be a good parent of your teenager - from their teacher

Everyone wants to be a good parent. And honestly, like any profession or even any hobby in the world, the greatest parents are the ones who are constantly seeking to improve the way they do things. So thank you so much for being a good parent and looking up this topic to begin with! I don't want it to be harsh, but I do want to come across as direct and true because there are some realities that not all good parents want to face when it comes to raising their teenagers.

1. Don't baby them. In all of my years of teaching I have been lucky in that I have only had a few conversations with parents like this; they come to the conferences to give excuses for why their students are the way they are. The truth is this: they are the way you are because you raised them to be that way. Good or bad, it doesn't matter to me. My job now is to help mold them into the best possible human beings they can be. So don't make excuses for them, look at their strengths and weaknesses and ask me how you can help them do better.

2. Teach them to get up on their own. I once spoke to an Olympic athlete and asked him what it took to be in his position. He said "It is all a mental game that has nothing to do with what you choose to be successful at. If you can't even get yourself out of bed in the morning, you've already lost." The same goes for being successful at school; they have to get up on their own.

3. Let them have something to be excited about. If your kid has poor grades, doesn't like school, and isn't involved in any other activities besides going to classes and then going home to play video games, I'm going to push your kid to get involved. There are sports, clubs, teams, and all kinds of activities that your student can do - and he or she needs to find something that he or she enjoys to be motivation to keep on going.

4. Realize that I'm here to help. I know it's sad to say that there are some teachers in the world who aren't terribly interested in whether your kid succeeds or fails. There are teachers who don't care about teaching at all, but what do you expect in such an overworked and underpaid profession? Figure out how to recognize the teachers who ARE interested in your child and who are doing things not only to improve your kid's education but to improve themselves as educators. Simple clues like seeing them admit that they've made a mistake on something like a grade book, or even the fact that they are entertaining a conversation with you about your child, those are good clues into what your teacher is like.

5. Make sure they have responsibilities at home. This can be tough to balance, but students need to realize that they should contribute at home in addition to keeping up their grades and being involved at school. If they don't have home chores they tend to grow up to be workaholics, not caring so much in the running of the household and instead focusing too much on other things like work, social life, and anything other activities outside the home.

These are five things I've noticed are consistent in the most successful students I've had in my classes! Not every single A-student has all five attributes in their parents, but the more of these five they have, the better chance they have of being successful. There may be others who disagree with these five, but these are the points that I've seen in the last ten years of teaching in the areas that I've been in (mostly southern Missouri). If you have noticed other points as a teacher, or if you think any of these should be expanded upon as a parent, please leave them in the comment section! I'm sure more inquiring parents will want to know, and it would be great for other teachers to share!