KIPP

Class this week was pretty awesome as usual. This week we learned about K.I.P.P, a public school that is starting to gain steam across the country. KIPP stands for Knowledge is Power Program. Essentially this is a more strenuous school, however with this extra work comes more successful students.

Hailing from a small, conservative community I had always just assumed that you either went to the local elementary school, or your parents were rich and sent you to a private school. I was pretty sheltered from any program like KIPP. However, upon learning about the program, I am excited about the possibility of what an organization like this could do for our Education System.

I have always thought that competition is a good thing. The fact is, public schools don't have sufficient competition. Sure students could go to private school, but only if their parents have enough funds to put them there. The bottom line is that public schools can continue to be mediocre because there isn't really an alternative, well until Now.

So that is what excites me the most about KIPP. Not necessarily that it will grow and take over the current education system, but more that it will cause the current education system to step up to the plate.

So we got called out

Monday of this week, Dr. Feinberg called all of us leaders to the front of the class to try and make us feel bad about the way we have been leading so far. The main point he was trying to relay was that we did a poor job of selecting our groups. He said that to have the best group we needed to get the 4.0 students and the students that could meet at a specific time. I'll have to say that we'll just have to agree to disagree on that one.

To an extent I understand where he was coming from. I mean it is our group and theres no reason to not have the best kids. But the real question here, is are the 4.0 students really the best students? I mean congrats on working hard in school and being book smart, but does this mean that you have the social skills to be effective in a group setting? Again I'm not trying to rag on 4.0 students. Infact, I strive to get all A's each semester. Of course I've fallen short, but does this really mean that I'm not one of the best students in the class?

The fact is, that I wanted my group to be full of students that I enjoy being around. I didn't necessarily want the 4.0 kids because they may be wired different than the students that aren't as successful. I feel that to be a good organization you need to have a collection of people with different skills, of which when combined, eliminate all weaknesses.

Does my group have this? I'm not sure yet. However, so far I'm happy with our selection process and feel that I can be successful with the group I was assigned.

Tower Champions

Yea we won the tower building contest. Was a I surprised we won? No. Was I surprised that my group gelled as well as they did? Yes. My group really did an amazing job today. I cant even take credit for how well they worked together.

I can take credit for the tower idea though. Late last night I came up with the idea of making a water tower. I decided that everyone else would probably make a useless tower, so I would one up them and make a water tower. My inspiration for this was my hometown water tower.

This morning in class, I asked a former student of this class what the towers were judged on, and he said that height was one of the requirements. Knowing that our tower wouldn't be that tall, I went to work trying to think of a way to make it taller. To be honest I didn't come up with anything, and instead sent out an email to my group telling them to bring extra supplies to help in this regard. Man did they come through.

I'm not entirely sure who brought the duct tape and cups, but they no doubt won us the contest. In the end, we didn't have the prettiest tower, but it was the tallest and the most unique. Our group really did a great job coming through in the clutch.

The best thing that our group did, was divide into three groups. One was a creative group, one was the water tower group, and the other was the height group. Each group did a great job. I kind of assigned a leader to each group, and then just overlooked the height and tower groups. In the end we won, so obviously what we did worked.

Again I cannot stress how awesome our group did today. They really came through.

My Group

So this weekend us group leaders divided everyone up into groups. I didn't completely agree with the way we went about doing this, but its whatever. The route we ended up going was for everyone to meet at the doors and find where their assigned seat was. This didn't work out quite as planned.

The problem with all of this was that we simply didn't have enough time to get everyone in their seats. This left a few students in the dark as far as their group goes for the first few days. But none the less, as far as I know, everyone is in a group, so I'd say the group allocation was a success.

Also this week, I started reading Tony Dungy's book, Quiet Strength. I know this doesn't have anything to do with the class, but I found a lot of good leadership traits in this book. Tony Dungy is a great leader and a great man. Reading about him has not only given me new leadership ideas, but has also made me a better person. The main thing that I learned so far from the book is that there is no place in this world for excuses.

I really like Dungy's thoughts on this. A lot of times when we fair we jump to try and find an excuse, but why? I mean an excuse doesn't justify losing. And is sure as heck doesn't change the fact that you lost. So why even make an excuse. This is something that I took to heart and will try and use as I continue to grow as a leader.