All praises due to the God of the Universe, the Most High God. Today while sitting in a great assessment/data workshop, a call came in on my cell phone. It was from Creative Mobility (aka The Bike Rack) in St. Charles, IL, the place I went to to customize TT's bike. I've been wanting to get Tamara an adaptive bike for quite a few years now (over four), mainly because TT loves doing three things: eating, swimming, and bike riding. I eat too much as is, I'm not getting into a bathing suit until I shed about a hunnerd pounds (not to mention that I can't swim to save my life), so that left bike riding. Though I can't ride a bike either, I can walk alongside T on her bike and get exercise while she enjoys herself.
Anyway, a bike adapted for TT's special needs costs $3,300. I'd all but given up hope on funding such a bike (after years of petitioning places for scholarships), when my sister J encouraged me to keep hope alive. I listened, and rec'd a $1,000 grant back in January or so. I combined that with my own $500, plus another 500 from J. I intended to use my income tax money for the rest, so I put a down payment at Creative Mobility. Unfortunately, for the first time since I've been paying taxes, I ended up owing Uncle Sam rather than getting a refund. I had to make that dreadful call to the bike shop telling them I wouldn't have their money when they'd have the bike (around March), and asking them to give me a couple of months to save up. Well, it's been almost two months and I haven't saved a penny. And then I get a call today...
The owner and his sister knew my situation, and they had a donor who recently asked to whom they could give a donation for a bike. The two folks thought of TT, and as of Saturday, T will have her new bike. Man, I was blown away by God's sovereignty and generosity. My little one will finally have a bike at home to enjoy on weeknights and weekends. We can finally do something enjoyable together.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Saturday, June 16, 2007
Excitement
Okay, so it is 12:40am (guess it's Saturday) and I am up revamping the tentative daily staff schedule to include two weekdays of extended day for staff development. Wow! My excitement about the start of the school year's really starting to build. And it's a good thing, too, because I have tons of work to do, many miles to go, before I sleep.
I am 'stoked' as they say about having our families come together and create our core values, and having our staff do the same and create our mission statement. I am so looking forward to the team building part of getting to know staff and finding out what their backgrounds and talents are, and where I need to bring them greater support. Many of my families have called me asking when we are meeting next and declaring their support and how excited they are as well. I know this is the honeymoon stage, but it's good to have a nice honeymoon....
I love the time spent with my AP because we are so much on the same page. I worry about being an experienced enough leader for her. I guess all I can do is be myself and lead the way I would want people to do me. And pray like young Solomon did for God's wisdom to lead the people entrusted to me. I love the teachers I have on board as well. I feel they complement each other well, they are good teachers (sound), and they have a love for students and families and are open to growing. I can't wait until next year when we have residents; I feel having teachers in training will add to the excitement and raise the bar of professionalism, though I think this group of staff are already professionals in every sense of the word.
Again, I know our flaws (mine included) will begin to show the more we are around each other, and I know that we will have our conflicts and our ups and downs, but I am really looking forward to this new school start. I believe the people, systems, structures, and support we have in place are all designed to bring to bear a tremendous PUSH for our students to succeed. I know as Sims puts it all the time, this thing is a marathon and not a sprint, but I believe we can look forward to some real gains this school year in our students HOLISTICALLY.
I'm gonna end with this Scripture from the Old Testament. I've been thinking about it a lot lately over the past two weeks. It was the basis for my personal mission statement when I was going through my stuff at Circle. I barely revisited it last year during my principal internship, but now it is resurrecting in my thoughts (coming back up in my spirit, as my charismatic, Pentecostal friends would say.) Here goes...
"Now these are the last words of David. David the son of Jesse declares, the man who was raised on high declares, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel:
The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, and His word was on my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me,
He who rules over men righteously, who rules in the fear of God, is as the light of the morning when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springs out of the earth, through sunshine after rain.
Truly is not my house so with God? For He has made an everlasting covenant with me, ordered in all things, and secured; for all my salvation and all my desire, will He not indeed make it grow?"
--II Samuel 23:1 to 5
This passage is followed by a touching story of David's mighty men (the same ragamuffin crew that earlier in his leadership were in distress, in debt, and discontented - see I Samuel 22:1-2). At the end of his career, David had garnered such loyalty from his crew that when he was in the midst of battle, craving water from his city of Bethlehem, his men risked their lives to push through enemy lines and retrieve water for David from a well in his hometown. Even more poignant was David's response to these men's loyalty and care: David poured the water on the ground as an offering to God, refusing to drink the precious water for which his comrades risked their lives. What mutual care and protection! I aspire to be the kind of leader who inspires such motivated action and loyalty and care from those I lead.
Hence, my personal mission statement. Wanna hear it, here it go....
I want to live with God's glory* as the controlling desire of my heart.
I want to fully and mutually engage with loved ones (face to face/heart to heart), discovering what matters to them and working towards what's good for them.
I want to work with and manage people as God's agent, doing the best for them and inspiring the best from them.
I want to have a redeeming impact on others, helping to cultivate what God has placed in them.
*to express God's supreme worth and glorious nature and deeds to others, by word and deed
I am 'stoked' as they say about having our families come together and create our core values, and having our staff do the same and create our mission statement. I am so looking forward to the team building part of getting to know staff and finding out what their backgrounds and talents are, and where I need to bring them greater support. Many of my families have called me asking when we are meeting next and declaring their support and how excited they are as well. I know this is the honeymoon stage, but it's good to have a nice honeymoon....
I love the time spent with my AP because we are so much on the same page. I worry about being an experienced enough leader for her. I guess all I can do is be myself and lead the way I would want people to do me. And pray like young Solomon did for God's wisdom to lead the people entrusted to me. I love the teachers I have on board as well. I feel they complement each other well, they are good teachers (sound), and they have a love for students and families and are open to growing. I can't wait until next year when we have residents; I feel having teachers in training will add to the excitement and raise the bar of professionalism, though I think this group of staff are already professionals in every sense of the word.
Again, I know our flaws (mine included) will begin to show the more we are around each other, and I know that we will have our conflicts and our ups and downs, but I am really looking forward to this new school start. I believe the people, systems, structures, and support we have in place are all designed to bring to bear a tremendous PUSH for our students to succeed. I know as Sims puts it all the time, this thing is a marathon and not a sprint, but I believe we can look forward to some real gains this school year in our students HOLISTICALLY.
I'm gonna end with this Scripture from the Old Testament. I've been thinking about it a lot lately over the past two weeks. It was the basis for my personal mission statement when I was going through my stuff at Circle. I barely revisited it last year during my principal internship, but now it is resurrecting in my thoughts (coming back up in my spirit, as my charismatic, Pentecostal friends would say.) Here goes...
"Now these are the last words of David. David the son of Jesse declares, the man who was raised on high declares, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel:
The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, and His word was on my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spoke to me,
He who rules over men righteously, who rules in the fear of God, is as the light of the morning when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springs out of the earth, through sunshine after rain.
Truly is not my house so with God? For He has made an everlasting covenant with me, ordered in all things, and secured; for all my salvation and all my desire, will He not indeed make it grow?"
--II Samuel 23:1 to 5
This passage is followed by a touching story of David's mighty men (the same ragamuffin crew that earlier in his leadership were in distress, in debt, and discontented - see I Samuel 22:1-2). At the end of his career, David had garnered such loyalty from his crew that when he was in the midst of battle, craving water from his city of Bethlehem, his men risked their lives to push through enemy lines and retrieve water for David from a well in his hometown. Even more poignant was David's response to these men's loyalty and care: David poured the water on the ground as an offering to God, refusing to drink the precious water for which his comrades risked their lives. What mutual care and protection! I aspire to be the kind of leader who inspires such motivated action and loyalty and care from those I lead.
Hence, my personal mission statement. Wanna hear it, here it go....
I want to live with God's glory* as the controlling desire of my heart.
I want to fully and mutually engage with loved ones (face to face/heart to heart), discovering what matters to them and working towards what's good for them.
I want to work with and manage people as God's agent, doing the best for them and inspiring the best from them.
I want to have a redeeming impact on others, helping to cultivate what God has placed in them.
*to express God's supreme worth and glorious nature and deeds to others, by word and deed
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Akanksha
This week I had the privilege of meeting and talking with Shaheen Mistri, a woman born in Mumbai, India (who lived in 13 countries growing up) who, at age 18, started a center for Indian children who are underserved by their country's public school system. Now about age 29, Shaheen has started over 50 of these centers, which run after school, parallel educational and social programs for children (from those entering school to those graduating from grade 10, their highest grade before two year college). I was struck by the similarities of issues faced by Shaheen and her team that face those of us in urban education in America, as well as a whole host of different conditions that make their job harder in many ways.
Shaheen visited many elementary and high schools during her visit here (AUSL and San Miguel elementary schools, plus quite a few charter middle and high schools, like Noble Street, Young Women's Leadership, and Perspectives). She participated in a roundtable of education leaders (with the likes of New Leaders for New Schools founder John Schnur, San Miguel founder Bro. Ed, Teach for America and IL Network of Charter Schools E.D.s, Joyce Fdn rep, charter school founders, plus principals like myself). I felt really out of my league, and I believe I gleaned just as much from Shaheen's visit than she did. What I took away in terms of inspiration and motivation for the work of providing quality education to traditionally underserved children and youth was invaluable. Observing what obstacles she faces compared to what we face, and yet how much progress she has made over the last decade, encourages me in the start of this new high school.
Here are some details:
India has a private school system that serves the elite (plus a couple of tiers of schooling like Catholic schools and very few public schools serving the wealthy) that function relatively well, but the public system serving the overwhelming majority of the public is challenged in terms of conditions and outcomes. Teacher quality is an issue, since teacher training is weak, teacher pay is low, people pursue teaching when they cannot do anything else so prof. prestige is low, and unions protect teachers (sound familiar?). This situation relegates poor children and families to cycles of poverty in their future since education, which could give them the means to change their social condition, is not as effective as it could be. Also, parents are largely uneducated, though enthusiastic about their children having a future (many volunteer at the centers). So the problems we see in American inner cities are not just American problems; they sound like class and city problems.
What's different than here (but actually similar in some respects) is that the undergrad programs that prepare teachers and the government that certifies them need significant work, plus about 70% of teachers are not even certified by government standards. There is not a single graduate program for principal training, so there is no leadership to recruit, select, and train teachers. Principals tend to be veteran teachers who may or may not have the ability or interest to lead a school, and in some cases the prinicpal might be a leader from another industry (like railway) who has no experience in instruction.
Another issue is facilities. School buildings need a great deal of work and often don't have adequate restrooms. Schools often consist of one or two rooms, and there may be 100 students in a class. Shaheen's organization, which cannot afford better or even separate school facilities, uses schools for free after school lets out (2 to 6pm).
In terms of results, Shaheen's teachers have made great strides comparatively but, like great cultural changers, they are not satisfied because the work is still great. In India, there is primary school (grades 1 to 5), followed by grades 6 to 10, after which you take a major test to determine eligibility for a two year college. Your performance in the two year college decides if you go to the three year college, so kids have a 15 year educational program if they are fortunate. There are teachers in the system who have gone only to grade 5. Only 10% of student make it to grade 10, whereas 65% of students in Shaheen's program attend the two year college. Some have even graduated and returned as teachers in the program, which is really exciting. In addition, other results abound, like the hope children are given for the future, the spirit of volunteerism and service that are instilled in so many of the kids there, and the holistic growth of the students.
In addition to trying to figure out how to recruit and train high quality teachers, Shaheen's group is struggling with how to expand. Whether or not or how much to join govt schools in some way is a question, as well as how to replicate what they are doing without losing the level of quality they have.
Hearing Shaheen share challenges, successes, and the resilience of the Indian children and families was tremendously encouraging, and reminded me of the situation of my African brothers and sisters in their country. I was also deeply saddened and sobered regarding obstacles the poor face everywhere, not just in America. But more than anything, I was emboldened that the work I do here of working to create real futures for urban minority youth through a strong academic and social-emotional foundation is truly needed and a worthwhile goal. It helps to know there are folks doing the same thing in very different cultures.
You can check out Shaheen's organization at akanksha.org. Peace.
Shaheen visited many elementary and high schools during her visit here (AUSL and San Miguel elementary schools, plus quite a few charter middle and high schools, like Noble Street, Young Women's Leadership, and Perspectives). She participated in a roundtable of education leaders (with the likes of New Leaders for New Schools founder John Schnur, San Miguel founder Bro. Ed, Teach for America and IL Network of Charter Schools E.D.s, Joyce Fdn rep, charter school founders, plus principals like myself). I felt really out of my league, and I believe I gleaned just as much from Shaheen's visit than she did. What I took away in terms of inspiration and motivation for the work of providing quality education to traditionally underserved children and youth was invaluable. Observing what obstacles she faces compared to what we face, and yet how much progress she has made over the last decade, encourages me in the start of this new high school.
Here are some details:
India has a private school system that serves the elite (plus a couple of tiers of schooling like Catholic schools and very few public schools serving the wealthy) that function relatively well, but the public system serving the overwhelming majority of the public is challenged in terms of conditions and outcomes. Teacher quality is an issue, since teacher training is weak, teacher pay is low, people pursue teaching when they cannot do anything else so prof. prestige is low, and unions protect teachers (sound familiar?). This situation relegates poor children and families to cycles of poverty in their future since education, which could give them the means to change their social condition, is not as effective as it could be. Also, parents are largely uneducated, though enthusiastic about their children having a future (many volunteer at the centers). So the problems we see in American inner cities are not just American problems; they sound like class and city problems.
What's different than here (but actually similar in some respects) is that the undergrad programs that prepare teachers and the government that certifies them need significant work, plus about 70% of teachers are not even certified by government standards. There is not a single graduate program for principal training, so there is no leadership to recruit, select, and train teachers. Principals tend to be veteran teachers who may or may not have the ability or interest to lead a school, and in some cases the prinicpal might be a leader from another industry (like railway) who has no experience in instruction.
Another issue is facilities. School buildings need a great deal of work and often don't have adequate restrooms. Schools often consist of one or two rooms, and there may be 100 students in a class. Shaheen's organization, which cannot afford better or even separate school facilities, uses schools for free after school lets out (2 to 6pm).
In terms of results, Shaheen's teachers have made great strides comparatively but, like great cultural changers, they are not satisfied because the work is still great. In India, there is primary school (grades 1 to 5), followed by grades 6 to 10, after which you take a major test to determine eligibility for a two year college. Your performance in the two year college decides if you go to the three year college, so kids have a 15 year educational program if they are fortunate. There are teachers in the system who have gone only to grade 5. Only 10% of student make it to grade 10, whereas 65% of students in Shaheen's program attend the two year college. Some have even graduated and returned as teachers in the program, which is really exciting. In addition, other results abound, like the hope children are given for the future, the spirit of volunteerism and service that are instilled in so many of the kids there, and the holistic growth of the students.
In addition to trying to figure out how to recruit and train high quality teachers, Shaheen's group is struggling with how to expand. Whether or not or how much to join govt schools in some way is a question, as well as how to replicate what they are doing without losing the level of quality they have.
Hearing Shaheen share challenges, successes, and the resilience of the Indian children and families was tremendously encouraging, and reminded me of the situation of my African brothers and sisters in their country. I was also deeply saddened and sobered regarding obstacles the poor face everywhere, not just in America. But more than anything, I was emboldened that the work I do here of working to create real futures for urban minority youth through a strong academic and social-emotional foundation is truly needed and a worthwhile goal. It helps to know there are folks doing the same thing in very different cultures.
You can check out Shaheen's organization at akanksha.org. Peace.
Saturday, June 02, 2007
DA T.R.U.T.H. and Friends Live
Just a word about the new Truth DVD (title above). It's off the chain! Just ordered it online this week and watched it yesterday, and it was awesome. It was taped at the last IMPACT Conference, and it features Da T.R.U.T.H. (rappin' w. a live band). Just a wonderful time of hip hop worship!
Guest appearances by Trip Lee, Flame, Ambassador, and CM really round out this dynamic DVD. I was encouraged, too, by the fact that CM has successfully made Bible centered, Christ centric hip hop a staple now, having passed the baton on to Truth, Trip Lee, Flame, and others. Not only that but it's powerful seeing and hearing these godly young men rap about God, putting the Lord on a pedestal, and living lives that testify to God's awesome power and grace!
Only one question: Where are the strong Christian FEMALE emcees?
I have a 19 year old special needs daughter who has multiple challenges (non verbal, developmentally delayed, incontinent, physical anomalies in fingers and hands, and so on). I tell her jokingly a lot what I want her to be when she 'grows up': a Christian female emcee. Now I've taken to telling her that in heaven I want to see her rock the mic for Jesus, and I'll be in the audience nodding my head. :-) I would love to see some daughters of Abraham, so to speak, who can flow with the same skill yet the same biblical soundness as the brothers above....
Guest appearances by Trip Lee, Flame, Ambassador, and CM really round out this dynamic DVD. I was encouraged, too, by the fact that CM has successfully made Bible centered, Christ centric hip hop a staple now, having passed the baton on to Truth, Trip Lee, Flame, and others. Not only that but it's powerful seeing and hearing these godly young men rap about God, putting the Lord on a pedestal, and living lives that testify to God's awesome power and grace!
Only one question: Where are the strong Christian FEMALE emcees?
I have a 19 year old special needs daughter who has multiple challenges (non verbal, developmentally delayed, incontinent, physical anomalies in fingers and hands, and so on). I tell her jokingly a lot what I want her to be when she 'grows up': a Christian female emcee. Now I've taken to telling her that in heaven I want to see her rock the mic for Jesus, and I'll be in the audience nodding my head. :-) I would love to see some daughters of Abraham, so to speak, who can flow with the same skill yet the same biblical soundness as the brothers above....
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