Game On! (8-21-08)

It's Thursday, it's hot and I'm exhausted. It's amazing how quickly the summer goes and the school year begins. It's as if we never left. Like how quickly Colorado falls become Colorado winters, the school year is in full effect.

Having spent a week teaching both my advisory group and my math classes I must say that I am proud of our start. We may not be off the blocks as fast and fierce as Michael Phelps, but we're certainly taking some solid strokes now that we've hit the water. Already diving into math content, the freshmen seem to be ready to work. I don't remember getting into hardcore mathematics so quickly last year. What I can't figure out is how much of our quickness in engaging kids in real learning comes from the established school culture that we spent over a year developing and how much comes from the incoming class who might just be more ready to learn than last year's group. One thing's for sure...I'm a lot more confident in what I'm doing.

From day one we've reviewed learning outcomes (LOs) for each class, discussed exactly how they're going to demonstrate their learning with proof's of purchases (POPs) and what it means to come into class and get going on your "Do Now." Filling out planners and organizing binders, items that I'm notoriously weak at following through on, have been cornerstones of class thus far. I guess it just took me a year to finally wake up and put my own beliefs aside and instead serve the client's needs. I'm not saying I want the sternness and almost excessive structure of a KIPP school (although it's hard to argue with practices that show results like theirs), but there is certainly merit to not just talking high expectations and instead living them.

Even more so, we've been living proof of our belief in the "do whatever it takes" mission that we preach. Meeting at nearly 6 am on Wednesday morning to revise a schedule that was putting 40 students in some classes and 18 in others we self-organized and solved our own problems. Rob, our principal, loves the notion of self-organization, referencing how small communities pull together when they're trying to get through a difficult time, like the blizzard of 2003 (digging each other out of snow drifts, providing food to one another, etc.) The beautiful thing is that I think the kids are starting to see/understand how we function as a team, as a family.

We've been talking about community, about what it means to work together to achieve common goals. My advisory group in particular seems to have bought into our notion of family. Coming together nearly every day, it's such a pleasure to work on a human level, getting to know students, developing bonds and preparing for a year of ups and downs. On a side note, we've affectionately nicknamed ourselves SQUAD C, for our Community, Commitment to College, Confidence and Courage,

This particular posting may be full of information with no common link or thread, but I guess what I'm trying to say in all this rant is that we're doing better. Students are on board and they're acquiring the cultural values of our school quickly and effectively. My only hope is that we can take this positive momentum and run with it. Let me leave you with a quick anecdote from yesterday's Block 4 math class.

At the end of class I looked at my students and asked how close we were to achieving our learning outcome. Hawa looked at me and without hesitation enthusiastically said, "we're getting there Mr. Singer...I think we got this. I know that we got these fractals down. Aint no thing!."

I love these students!

To see a story about Manual High School and our start to the year check out Channel 7 News...you can even see what I look like. (http://www.thedenverchannel.com/video/17228309/index.html)