The Journey of a Lifelong Learner

Becoming an educator is the most challenging, terrifying, exciting, fulfilling journey I have been on so far in life. It can be physically, emotionally and intellectually exhausting. There is so much to know and understand to be effective. This is my second career and I am over ten years in. My first career was in the hospitality and tourism industry. I owned numerous businesses and became a Certified Executive Pastry Chef and Master Baker. Certifications are not everything, but they help push you in excellence and ad value to your credibility. Whatever I do, I want to do well, with excellence. Although I entered the education world with a provisional certification, I have since pursued and attained a B.S. in Family & Consumer Science and Career & Technology Education; M.Ed. in Adult Education & Training and M.Ed. in Educational Leadership. With all of that knowledge I still feel like there is so much more to know and understand. Particularly because I am an entrepreneur at heart. A creator. An innovator. As of late, an edupreneur. Since I come from industry, I have always felt like my students were both my customer and my gross profit. Providing exemplary customer service and providing a pathway to success to them is of great importance to me.

I am driven to create, innovate, collaborate and use technology. I love to learn. I imagine that is another reason I have three degrees now. I like being part of a college campus and being around others who have similar interests and pursuits, but it can be an expensive habit. An effective way to quench my appetite for learning is via the internet. I have made a list (although not extensive) of resources put into environment categories. These allow me to learn when, where, how and in what context I want to. I can learn at any hour of the day and at the optimum times for my mind to consume knowledge. Not necessarily at a time and place predetermined by someone else.

On Demand Learning

These are websites that I can go to

KQED Teach: Sign up for free. I am able to start and stop short courses of instruction to build my technology skills. I create artifacts to demonstrate my skills and knowledge I have acquired.  I use it as a model for designing instruction for my students. It has a community of teachers you can share your experiences with. I love it!

Edupreneur Academy: I just discovered this and signed up for free. So far I am enjoying learning and of course using it as a model for how I might implement digital instruction for my students. My biggest takeaway so far is using a teacher blog for instruction and have students respond in the comment section.

Microsoft for Education: Sign up for free. This has so many things that are useful. There are courses teachers can take for free to learn about endless topics. Resources to provide students instruction using digital technology including virtual field trips and Mystery Skypes. Teachers can receive badges for demonstrating competencies. This is a good model to create gamified instruction. It also has a community so teachers can build relationships.

MOOCs

Coursera: Sign up for free. Choose from courses offered by universities world wide. Complete coursework in the time allotted. Pay a fee for a certificate for professional development.

Social Platforms

Edmodo: Sign up for free. This can be used as an online learning platform. Teachers can set up classes, give grades, award badges, build courses, build a teacher learning network within their school, district and other communities. Teachers can build two way communication with parents. Teachers can share resources in Spotlight. Become certified Edmodo Trainers or Ambassadors. Teachers can also receive badges. Teachers can participate in the teacher learning hub where they can complete daily activities for points placed on a leaderboard that can be used for classroom support.

Twitter: Sign up for free. Follow professional educators and organizations. Engage in twitter chats to learn and grow from others. Build a personal brand. Use as a portfolio.

eMail Subscriptions

Accomplished Teacher: SmartBriefs from the NBPT for National Board Certified Teachers. Full of articles, research, surveys, books etc. to help teachers stay current in teaching trends and certification requirements.

ASCD:The  Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development for current research, books, trends, Educational Leadership magazine and conferences.

ACF: The  American Culinary Association Culinary Insider Magazine to stay up to date on culinary trends, health and safety, certification and networking.

FDA: US Food and Drug Administration to stay current about laws & regulations, outbreaks and safety.

There are many more avenues that I learn from on a daily basis, including my students. Never underestimate a child and what they can teach you.

Starting a HUB Quest - Growth Mindset

Here Come the Hub
Becoming part of the Edmodo Learning Hub has to be one of the most impactful events of my teaching career. It gave me the idea of "super chunking" my lessons for students. I teach at an inner city school with a high rate of turnover and a lot of absenteeism. These two things are a problem for student learning. You can't expect to have all learning extend over weeks of time. In the Hub there are mini tasks "super chunked" activities that demonstrate some type of learning or application. This year I have been trying to design simultaneous experiences that will build background knowledge, much like what life looks like. Super chunked experiences that happen each day and build background knowledge you refer back to to deepen learning. So each class period has a little bit of a lot of concepts and experiences. My hope is that when students miss class - they don't miss so much that they can never catch up.
Let's Play
The Hub has also given me more ideas about gamification motivation. When you play in the Hub you get points, rewards, badges and recognition in a leaderboard. These are all part of gamified learning. As I work through activities I can see what motivates me to do more and learn more. I learn new technology, support my peers, use the internet and social media to share and demonstrate digital citizenship and CREATE using technology. This is one of my favorite things. These experiences and models help me to design my classroom instruction, both online and offline.
What about Edmodo
Another thing the Hub does is constantly challenge me to be a reflective teacher. I answer questions about pedagogy in discussions about digital citizenship, project based learning, grade level challenges and opportunities and humanitarian efforts life the recent disasters we have had. The Hub asks me to frequently reflect on how I can use Edmodo both as a teacher and as a learner. I think becoming a reflective teacher, student or individual  is the single most powerful tool to increase personal growth in any area.

Start your Edmodo Teacher Learning Network today



Read more for the Life-Long Learner in You
Gamification of Education
Teaching above the test

A "Normal" Day of Fall Beak

We are on fall break. We get two weeks. What this really means for me is lots of PD, and catching up on all the things in the "I'll get a round tuit" pile".

The piles have started going down and yes that includes grading (LOL). But now there are digital piles - the ones you can't see and they are sneaky little suckers. They hide blatantly right in the open like they can't be tamed. Well I'll tell ya. "I gots me a whip!"

Now, I am from Oklahoma so I could have gone cowgirl, but honestly if I really think about the things I do on a daily basis I am going to just stand up and proclaim right now "I'm Wonder Woman!" I wear a lot more clothes though. Especially today the wind was blowing and it went from 89 degrees yesterday to 35 with the wind chill factor this morning. BRRRR! I am pretty sure some people made some bank on the wind today.

Let me tell you about my day. I got up at 4:19 a.m. this morning. Why? You may ask. Because it's fall break and I have things to do!!! First thing I do for myself to awake up my brain, feel connected, feel celebrated, celebrate my peers,  build my confidence, get inspired, and create is to "play" in the Edmodo Hub. Really, it does even more for me but I don't want to sound unrealistic. Now I realize for many this may seem like work, but for me it is pretty much entertainment. Actually, I am writing this blog which I have been trying to get inspired to do for weeks because of a Hub challenge. I just have not been able to pull it out of me. As you can probably deduce - I am super jazzed and finally feel inspired to write. For me, writing is like painting or any other kind of art - you need inspiration, time and some privacy to collect and organize your thoughts. I played in the Hub until 6 when my husband and the dog got up. Montana - our dog, not my husband is pretty hilarious. As you can see from the photo he has an inquiring mind. I am sure he gets that from me. Had coffee with my husband, chatted and prayed before I left. We have been trying to take time to do that. The day just goes better.

Next I headed over to Harry's (an appliance store) to "dumpster dive. I have their permission and it's just for cardboard boxes for the school garden so don't get grossed out (LOL). Appliance stores have the best cardboard. For those who like good cardboard you know what I mean. It is super big, flat and mostly free from tape and staples so it goes down quick. We have about a quarter acre garden so we need a lot of cardboard. It is going down to hopefully prevent the weeds from growing up. We are going to put wood chips on top. 

After that I head over to a school who had a bunch of garden bricks left from a project and they are donating them to to our garden. Awesome right?! A volunteer and the students went over and picked up around two hundred a few weeks ago. There are hundreds left. Yesterday I got 50 and put them in the back of my van. This morning I picked up another 50, headed over to school and laid them out near where the students are going to build new sections of the garden. The time was now around 8:30a.m. in the morning.

I headed inside to my room and got another jump on those piles of "around tuit's". I kind of work in circles, so I put a load of clothes in the washer, put up dishes, cleaned the tables, hole punched time cards so they would be ready for the students when they come back. I graded they timecards from last week, posted grades, put labels on binders and broke down cardboard. I stopped by the library and the librarian is resetting the library in sections of genres - I am so excited about it! The student council members were helping her relabel books and work on the project for breast cancer when we get back. They needed a glue gun so I went through my things and loaned them one. : ) Had to take off and head to a meeting for our afterschool program from 10-12 noon. The meeting went great. Lots of brainstorming. There were students their sharing their opinions. I feel like student voice is very important. Tomorrow we meet again to create the organizational things everyone agreed on today. It should be good. At 12:13 I headed back across town to a luncheon meeting at with my service learning teacher partner at the school that donated the bricks. Lunch was great, we debriefed about out past two days activities and of course were excited about the outcomes that end in student success. At 1:10 I headed back across their campus to get another 50 bricks. Then I headed back across campus to meet with their Youth Advisory Council as a guest speaker. The youth council is having a canned food drive and I explained to them what students in poverty go through each day. I tried to help them think about what it might be like to be homeless and hungry.

Regional Food Bank

Their teacher had been inspired by a Padlet I created for our 9/11 Day of Service and Remembrance. She searched online to learn how to use the online tool and then I helped her finalize it so she could share with her students and they could use Padlet as an accountability and reflection tool for their food drive. I left there at 1:50 to head back to school for a meeting with a garden volunteer at 2p.m. She showed up close to 3p.m. with a donation of plants and flowers for the garden. We took a quick walk around the garden. I thought bunnies were eating our greens and it turns out there are cabbage worms scarfing down out greens. Well, not anymore! They have been found out! I wrapped up things in my room and headed to UCO. I am conducting research about the relationship between student motivations and learning styles. It also has something to do with gamification which I got my first taste of on Edmodo from a class I took with Christi Collins. 

I was supposed to be ready to go to conduct research in a specific classroom management class at 4:30. I was there at 4:25 and started to pass out the resources to students so I would be ready to go at 4:30. At 4:27 a lady walked in who I didn't recognize. I asked her if she was the professor and guess what? I was in the wrong room and building! I looked at my schedule and was supposed to be in a building across campus. The professor in the room texted the professor across campus I was on my way and I ran (walked fast - too old to run like that : )) across campus. The professor had a technology situation so I was fine. After she solved the problem she gave the floor to me and I conducted my research. It went well. I was supposed to drop off a research kit to my professor in her office by 5p.m. At 5:03 I made it to her office and alas - everyone was gone so now it has to be delivered by 8a.m. in the morning. Thankfully I live nearby so I was home by 5:20 which is quite early. When school is in session I haven't been getting home until 7p.m. When I got home my husband was at the gym so I pet Montana for a moment and of course thought I would see what was happening on Edmodo: ). This is when I writing this blog. My husband got home around 6 so I had to put my writing aside. I warmed up some dinner for us, we ate and I cleaned up. He took a shower and I wrote  a bit more and then it had to go to the side again as he rented "The Pirates of the Caribbean" to watch for fun. The movie ended around 9. It was a pretty good show. I would recommended it. I took a shower and hit the hay (so to speak). 

It was a good day: )

Building Rome

According to Wikipedia, technology is the making, modification, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems, methods of organization, in order to solve a problem, improve a preexisting solution to a problem, achieve a goal or perform a specific function.

Contrary to popular belief, technology is not necessarily something having to do with computers or electronics.

In prehistoric times fire was used to create charcoal. This new technology provided an avenue to express thoughts and tell stories in caves to pass on for generations to share the history of a people.

Sometime later the pencil was constructed using graphite, which soon gave way to fountain pens, ballpoint ink pens and typewriters. Who knew those typing skills aimed at training young women to be secretaries would become a standard and a necessity for the future of civilized mankind?

Today, the amount of storage space once contained in buildings can be found in a handheld cell phone. The television series Star Trek had futuristic depictions of many cordless communication devices and the Borg were people who had technological implants that are now commonplace in the medical field. “We’ve come a long way, baby” is an understatement.

Morphing Education

After some thought, I came to the conclusion that over time, all technology has one thing in common – man’s ability to use our hands to build, deconstruct, fashion, create, solve and achieve mighty fanciful things. With that in mind, when we use “technology” in the classroom, it could be the use of a pencil, which is technology, just old technology. Using current technology is more of the challenge to educators, and the rate of change in technology is increasing exponentially – at WARP speed! It is nearly impossible to keep up with the technology advancements.

Many teachers feel overwhelmed with the need for professional development like never before. No longer can teachers depend on the techniques and strategies of the past. We are teaching to a new form of student – a child of the technological age who has a personal cell phone or computer before the age of five. Just as they cannot imagine a world without computers, many teachers cannot find a way to grow as an educator in the “Brave New World” of education full of data, analysis, technology, and now accountability to the nation.

21st Century Chunking

Television uses commercials to chunk up sitcoms and game shows. Every 12 minutes or so, they show an engaging commercial that can give the viewer a chance to stretch their legs, grab a snack, chit chat, etc. Our classroom can be modeled in the same way with commercial breaks, using Internet videos connected to the lesson to chunk it up and engage students with substantial conversation.

According to brain research, the human brain works best with extra boosts of dopamine, which help students stay engaged and learn. Principals of physical movement, music, visuals, and conversation build an atmosphere that contains these “boosts” for a classroom of learners.

Use short internet clips, videos, pictures and paintings to help students analyze, compare and contrast information. For example, take a commercial clip for one of those sleep aid companies. First let the students only listen to the audio – block the picture from their view. Have the students write a few short sentences on what they hear the commercial saying. Discuss for a few minutes in class.

Then show the clip again, but mute the sound and have the students write what they see; then discuss as a class. Next, show the clip with sound and picture and have the students write what they believe the commercial is saying and discuss as a class.

This is a powerful tool, and if you do it for yourself first, you will uncover very interesting perceptions that you have. This technique can be used to teach a multitude of ideas and lessons but immediately correlates with standards about communication and the use of advertising or media to lead us in the direction the advertiser want us to believe.

The Edmodo online learning platform is a great place to do this. When designing a lesson or course, include a series of videos, articles, photos and activities to engage students brains. Great news too! Now once you develop a course in Edmodo you can copy the course saving lots of time.

Here is link to a great resource to help you use Bloom’s Taxonomy and technology in your classroom from Kathy Schrock. These tools can help you link apps, computer sites and iPads to technology resources to empower both you and your students with 21st century technology tools in the classroom.

As teachers, we need to face our fears and integrate technology one step at a time. Rome was not built in a day, and you can’t do everything, but you can do something.

Eject the Core

Eject the Core?

Although the core gives life, it is not very palatable on its own. The flesh is where the meat is, the tasty, fiber filled, crunchy, sense-pleasing part of an apple that we long for, and of course the skin that wraps and protects the apple as we are lured into tasting it from the vibrant and varied colors.

I think that many students feel like they want to eject the core – in the U.S. they are not able to see how knowing the three R’s will benefit their future, particularly students in low SES environments. Self, survival and pleasure are the motivating factors for my students. Interestingly, it is the contrary for students in countries with extreme poverty – they know that the success of their future lays in the understanding and completion of educational pathways.

A Strong Foundation

When I was growing up, I had opportunities in school to learn and apply foundational knowledge in classes that created something – architecture, welding, woodwork, home economics – where has all the creation gone in public schools? There is so much focus on the core academically and political red tape that it feels like all the children are being left behind and that it has come down to numbers – not in the classroom, but on papers and in computers that fulfill government requirements as evidence for learning. The “Einstein’s” and “Van Gogh’s” are being neglected and cast down as invaluable because they can’t record evidence of their brilliance on a bubble or click test. This makes me sad.

Starry Starry Night

There has got to be a way to prove to the world the value of students who are able to create and apply knowledge in ways that are not able to be measured by national testing. My philosophy about my students is based on a quote by Paul Cezanne who said, “I will astonish Paris with an apple”.  I believe that I can use educational tools to develop my students into outstanding and diverse “apples” that can affect positive change in the world they live in.

Scotty! Engage The Warp Drive!

After attending college and learning about teaching and learning, I wrote a mission statement to drive my teaching – to Engage, Enlighten, and Empower my students. Most of the time my students, who come from low SES environments, could care less about being enlightened. I decided to try and create situations so that they would first become engaged, because they are living in a society full of engagement and activity. If they come in my classroom and I don’t engage them first, they have a hard time getting to the enlightened stage – it’s not impossible, but somewhat difficult!

I am participating in a project with one of our universities in Oklahoma to develop scenarios for activities that use authentic strategies for students to construct knowledge, learn through meaningful questions, substantive conversation, have value beyond school and are student-centered. I worked with an 8th grade science teacher who is part of the same project, and we developed sister lessons that were similar but different, and students could see a clear connection from a core science class and an elective Family and Consumer Science class (the old home economics on steroids!). She had students develop a fair way to analyze UFO cleaning solutions and create a way to compare, contrast and analyze and assess data. I had students investigate cleaning solutions that could be made with baking soda, vinegar, rubbing alcohol or water. Once they found a formula, they had to prepare it, perform a cleaning comparison test, collect data and present it in a table, do a cost comparison analysis, reflect on the product they would use based on economic impact, opportunity cost, environmental impact or convenience. Afterwards they researched MSDS sheets and created one of their own.

WOWOWOWOWOW!! The students had so much fun, were working together, having great academic conversations and learning powerful foundation concepts and vocabulary throughout the task. Since then the science teacher discovered that information the students learned were on an EOI for another class, so she and I were able to have students learn curriculum about our class as well as other class – integration at its best!

We don’t have to eject the core, we just need to be creative and DESIGN lessons that will integrate the core as well as empower students to become 21st Century learners by giving them tools for investigation.

The Art of War

As we begin our growth process through life, we encounter challenges that exhaust us as we struggle through, and challenges that energize and motivate us along the way to continue in pursuit of the answer. A productive classroom is one that gives opportunities to enjoy the struggle. I believe that a classroom practice that is underutilized is “The Art of War”.

I don’t mean a literal war, I mean a friendly war or challenge with ourselves or others that causes us to grow in knowledge and skills. Friendly banter helps students to build relationships, trust each other discover and build knowledge together. When students build something, they take pride and ownership of the construction of that knowledge or skill. They become problem solvers and 21st century learners who start believing they can do anything, if the obstacle looks insurmountable. We surely need these kinds of attributes in those who we look to lead our tomorrows.

Consider planning lessons with a problem or scenario first. Let students brainstorm their way through to an answer and create strategies and rules for their solution. After a short time, regroup and do round robin responses by first having students write down their explanations and then share them with the class one by one. As the instructor you can take this time to ask probing, big idea questions so that students can begin to construct clear and concise understanding of new material and misconceptions can be cleared up.

Allowing students to have authentic learning experiences by discovering knowledge and engaging in substantive academic conversations is a way to have a classroom of inquiry where students are continually wanting to know why – and willing to search for the answers.

MORE - MORE - MORE!

     As educators, it just seems like we are asked to do more and more with less and less. Expectations are high for teachers to meet the needs of the nation's children. The lense into the future is where k-12 educators live. They are in the trenches of creativity and innovation. We are ahead of the curve. Why? Because we get the learners first. Higher education needs to go into the k-12 classrooms in their cities and states and see first and how educators are using innovation and technology to teach the "new learner" The new learner has never existed before. They have never known a world without technology. They are "on" all the time and connected. They want to be given an outline of what they need to do with an outcome and then work their way into the answer. It is about the experiences. These learners don't want to be lectured to or hovered over by a teacher. They do want to know the teacher is there to help scaffolded them through struggles - the zone of proximal development. Millennials are many of the new educators and the iGeneration just started college. Who is next? Time will tell, but there is no time to lose and we have to think about the "more" differently - more positively.

Teach More

     If we think about teaching more, it sounds like it could be more work. But more is a big picture idea. It is how the world really is, not separated topics, like math and science. If you think about your content, ask yourself how can I teach more of the big ideas. How is my subject connected to real life. Some might call this project based learning, service learning or learning by design. It really is designed you know. We have to purposely create instruction for learners to experience why the heck it matters. If you don't get buy in for why it matters "to me" then you lose the learners of today. 
     For me, Edmodo online learning platform is more than a classroom for students. It is a fairyland of new ideas and resources for teachers in the Edmodo Spotlight. I have taken courses like the CTE Workshop Course created by teacher leader Christie Collins for Gamifying Instruction with Google that gave me training, experiences and, opportunities to apply learning and create artifacts all for free at my leisure. I used what I learned to integrate new ways for students to show mastery using technology.  During our mid-year break I discovered another learning opportunity in Edmodo Spotlight shared by Mariana Garcia, another amazing educator, the 5-day Photo Challenge to improve Your Skills This Winter Break. I took the challenge and was entertained over break and realized, students are taking pictures all the time. But are they the right pictures for a portfolio? I created a course in Edmodo using the 5 day challenge as a model for students to learn how to apply some basic photography concepts in portfolio development. This was a great activity to get back into the swing of learning after winter break. Students were engaged and finding out that selfies don't really meet the standards for quality photography. Since then, they are more aware of photos they take, apply principles and are beginning to create professional portfolios of their artifacts. Through this, I discovered KQED another Edmodo Spotlight resource for teach professional development. I love it, because it has courses for free chunked instruction in learning digital media literacy skills. 

Communicate/Collaborate More

     The 21st century skills for communication and collaboration are critical for educators and students. Edmodo can help apply these skills. Professional Learning Communities (PLC) are a way for learners to gather together to discuss, share, problem solve, analyze and create together. These can be done face-to-face or digitally. Edmodo can be used to network, create small groups, share resources and create resources. There is a new PLC button for all your connections in Edmodo so you can message and collaborate with each other. District PLC groups can be automatically generated. The site manager could create PLC small groups for grade levels and content to share resources, voice concerns, have discussions and do book studies to name just a few ideas. Small groups can be created for professional development training for the school or district. Teachers can use small groups within a course or project to put students together for activities or differentiated instruction. Co-teachers can be added to a small group for Special Education intervention and scaffolding. Google tools can be integrated into the small groups and activities for students to collaborate and create artifacts. Teachers can make connections with educators in other countries by learning about them through Spotlight or in the Topics are of discussion and build relationships of collaboration for themselves and for student projects.

Listen More

     When we think about listening more, it can be in discussions, which we are used to, but it can also be "listening" to a story such as A Day in the Life shared by Global Oneness, an Edmodo Spotlight publisher resource provider and still free. When we listen to people's stories from around the world it helps us to develop empathy. When students discuss these stories it helps them develop understanding and awareness. Hopefully igniting a desire to be a part of change in the world. Another publisher The World's Largest Lesson has many lessons available on Edmodo Spotlight to address poverty, sustainability and climate change. The world has many voices, but educators have to take a moment to listen and help students listen so that they can hear what part they can play in change. Edmodo helps to break the barriers of new learning opportunities. 

So What More Can I Do?

Well, consider Edmodo for teaching, collaborating and listening more...differently:)

Power Lifting - The Heavy Load for Athletics Programs

“Straight from the horse’s mouth” 

What Coach Instructors Think At An Inner City School

Athletic programs across the country are facing challenges like never before. Finding cutbacks are causing loss of programs and a need for external support from the community and fund raising. Students are “couch potato laden” because of technology and health issues related to inactivity. Students are facing big health concerns at younger and younger ages with diabetes, high cholesterol and other medical concerns. Mental and emotional problems are rearing ugly faces with suicides up in the early teen years. Physical Education programs can be a “dumping ground” for schools with regular classroom sizes exceed capacity due to teacher shortages and funding cuts. Some physical education classes may have over 100 students making it a challenge to do effective instruction with limited resources and classroom management obstacles. These classes might possibly just be a holding tank until the bell rings. Physical education classes are the training ground for future athletes and they are struggling. Here are the thoughts from coaches at an inner city school.

1. What are problems/challenges that our athletics programs face?

·         Lack of participation for most sports

·         Principals not hiring teachers that also coach sports (so, low number of qualified coaches)

·         Parental involvement

·         Transportation home after practice

·         Snacks and pregame meals to provide athletes who stay to participate

·         Adequate facilities

·         Student and parent commitment

·         Community involvement

2. How does it affect student education?

·         There is data to show students who participate in athletics are more motivated and perform better in academics.

·         Behavior improves and referrals decrease when students participate in athletics.

·         Students are more motivated who participate in athletics.

·         Students who are not participating in athletics but normally do don’t care about their academics

·         It’s a vicious cycle of participation and motivation

·         Athletes become a family which is important for students who don’t have one or don’t have support or push from parents to be successful in school

. What are ideas for solutions?

·         Provide an activity bus for after practice to take kiddos home

·         Create a full-time athletic director position at each school to fund raise for snack and meals

·         Create corporate sponsorships (it's a full-time job)

·         Get the principal at each site to understand the more teachers that coach sports the easier it will be to reach the students academically

·         Partner with the community to help with facilities

·         More encouragement from school and parents

·         If more teachers and administrators attend athletic events and support the students, the students will feel like someone cares and maybe the support and enthusiasm will catch on with the parents and community and student body.

           The thing to remember is education is a circle of relationships that support or hinder student success. The athletics programs are necessary for students to be healthy; they supply motivation, stamina, foster teamwork, problem solving, grit and perseverance.  These programs might be the anchor or turning point for many inner city students to graduate and pursue careers or college.