Finish Strong

re·sil·ience:  ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity,or the like; buoyancy.

Things are winding down for me here at KIPP and it has been a really enjoyable time.  I appreciate the leadership staff here giving me the opportunity to work with the students and implement my leadership program.  My involvement in being a part of the enrichment and discipline committee has been quite a rewarding one.  My focus for the home stretch with my students is to prepare and train them on how to finish strong.  Resiliency is a characteristic that not only these students need strengthening but people in general.   Many times our own lack of confidence as well as not having a resilient attitude can be debilitating and hinder us from reaching our goals.  I feel as though I am able to relate to the kids in reference to this because I have struggled with this in the past and have discovered some really positive ways to deal with these issues.  There is no doubt in my mind that all of my kids will successfully transition out of this program on to the next level.  With only a few weeks left in the school year there is going to be a lot I have to cram in the schedule but we will and must get it done. 

Where am I going wrong?

Effort ↑ + Expectation ↑ = Excellence

Effort ↓ + Expectations ↓ = Failure

Effort ↓ + Expectations ↑ or Effort ↑ + Expectations ↓ = Mediocrity

This week in my leadership group we will only be meeting once because of the school schedule but our discussion on Monday brought out some really good things.  The most insightful in my opinion was the diagram of equations I displayed above.  This was actually something that came to me in the class based on what we were talking about.  This unplanned occurrence was birthed out of discussion based on the students’ definition of excellence.  I asked what keeps them from doing consistent excellent work in their classes. The responses kept circling around feeling defeated before starting the task, low expectations, giving up, and not working hard enough.  Based on what they told me I designed this diagram.  It may not tell the whole story because there are other variables involved but it was the best way in that moment to show them possible reasons for them coming up short so many times.  The purpose of these equations are to show that ultimately when you give your best effort and combine that with high expectations the typical outcome will be an excellent finished product.  The converse is also true when poor effort is put out with low expectations or a combination of low and high inputs the results will be average or below average results.  I’m hoping that these students will begin to recognize that they have the opportunity to control how the story ends.  It may not have started well for them but it’s definitely going to end well if I have anything to say about it.

Reaching Your Dreams

In the picture above is Sheila Fortson & Shay Walker who were guest speakers for our Friday group talk

 

By all accounts last week was really good.  I would like to attribute the success of last week to it being the first week after spring break and the kids were still in chill mode so the amount of disciplinary issues were down dramatically.  The highlight of the week as it concerns the Leadership Training Program is twofold.  First, we had some awesome discussions of what it means to be a mentor and a leader and we also touched on the responsibility of the mentee and followership.  Before you can lead you must first learn how to follow which is the point we tried to drive home as we head into our first week of defining leadership and most importantly self-leadership which is the essential theme of this program.  Second, I had two very lovely friends of mine come and speak to the girls in my group, Sheila Fortson and Shay Walker of the talk radio show “The Ladies Room” with Sheila & Shay on every Tuesday 10pm -11pm on 1460 WIFI AM Burlington, NJ or online at www.wifiam1460.com.  I suggest that you check them out and I am sure you will not be disappointed. They did an outstanding job and I appreciate them taking the time out of their busy schedules to help me out.  They have a passion for helping and giving back to the community and I look forward to working with them again in the future. 

The focus of their “girl talk” centered on developing a realistic strategy for reaching your dreams that is not only attainable but functional.  Some of the highlights of the discussion included asking the girls what they aspire to be in the future.  We had some outstanding responses like a pediatrician and not a typical pediatrician, but one that travels to impoverished places in the world helping children in need.  We also heard things like being a lawyer, judge, entrepreneur and even a fashion designer.  The last one that stuck out to me personally was a young lady that said she wanted to be in the Air Force.  With me being an enlisted soldier in the Pennsylvania Army National Guard I was proud to hear of her desire to serve this wonderful country.  There are two final points that I want to mention in regards to Sheila and Shay’s visit was that although I did brief them prior to their visit about what I have been teaching and the goals of the program they did an outstanding job of reinforcing the things I have been trying to instill in the students without me hitting on specific issues with them.  For instance, they touched on the importance of followership but more specifically shadowing someone that is currently doing something you aspire to do in the future.  The second thing was the importance of investing into your future.  It is good and admirable to desire to be a doctor or a lawyer but these things are not going to just fall into your lap.  You must be proactive about these things and I hope that the young ladies involved really took this discussion to heart and begin to seriously look at what they are doing and if it aligns with where they want to be.  If not, now is the time to start making those changes.

Spring Break

It’s spring break for the kids and I am so glad that I was able to get a break from it all. I have only been doing this for a few weeks now but the mental drain of trying to do everything from scratch has been great. The picture above really summarizes how I have been spending the bulk of my time. With that being said the past couple of days have not been all rest and relaxation. I have been using my time effectively to reorganize my thoughts and analyze the progress we have made thus far so that we can finish the 4^th quarter of this academic year on a high note. I am learning that this work is more like a marathon and not a sprint. There have been days where I feel like I am not getting through to them at all and then there are days when we have incredible breakthroughs and it further motivates me to continue to push on. Keeping my eyes on the end goal is the kind of focus I need at this stage in the game. In our leadership program we will begin to really start to dig into the meat of the program. We will start to define leadership and identify how we can make that definition applicable to our daily lives. Despite the grueling grind of dealing with the work that I do I am confident that we will be successful in getting these students to the next level in their academic career. When I see my students I see future fathers and mothers as well as future doctors and lawyers. In other words I see endless possibilities and what I desire most for them is that they see that in themselves as well. Families are the backbones of our society and building strong families begins by building strong individuals. We have a long way to go but I think we are definitely on the right track.