Imagine

Imagine, by John Lennon, is one of my friend's favorite songs. Everytime she hears it, it brings tears to her eyes. An excerpt:

"Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one"

When will the world ever live as one? As soon as we learn to accept one another's differences and stop picking on people for being different.

Each of us can help make the world a better place. Just learn to get along.

The Rope Warrior

For our last Staff Development day of 2008, we PE teachers went to Reed School in Tiburon to watch another teacher work. The classes weren't very interesting for me, because the whole school is only for grades K-2, which I don't teach. Just before lunch however, there was an assembly. This made the whole day worthwhile.

The assembly was a presentation by a guy who calls himself the Rope Warrior. He was amazing.

Before he demostrated his jump rope routine, he taught a bunch of kids some tricks. He did partner jumping, which is two kids using one short rope, first single file then side by side, and transport jumping, where the jumper moves along a line of people, jumping with each one in turn. Then he did Double Dutch. With Kindergartners.

As he was setting up, I thought "No way." He turned both ropes from one end and used two kindergartners at the other. Four other K's were the jumpers. They all jumped in successfully. Incredible.

Watching him and talking to him later taught me how to teach Double Dutch. I'm definitely going to try it soon.

The reason I'm writing about this is because the whole time I was watching him, I was thinking about you guys and your rhythmic movement project. It's too late for this year, but next year, I'm going to make some of the Rope Warrior's stuff part of my curriculum. That way, when it's time for the kids to invent their routines, they'll have some fresh ideas. In the meantime, here's a link:

youtube.com/watch?v=crohsQIwOiY

The Greatest Player of All Time and The King

As each month passes and another win is posted, it is becoming clearer and clearer that Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer of all time. Last week, he became the 3rd winningest golfer in history by posting his 63rd career victory. He did this in his 12th season of competition. The man he passed and the men ahead of him all took 25 years or more to collect their wins. It isn't just the win total either. Woods is considered to be the best clutch performer, most dominant and most intimidating athlete in the world. But, for all of his accomplishments, Tiger Woods will never be known as The King.

That title will always belong to Arnold Palmer, the man Woods just passed on the all time win list. Arnold Palmer is far and away the most popular golfer of all time. Palmer retired years ago. Yet, whenever he makes a public appearance, he is greeted by crowds of fans. What is his secret?

Some say that is was his dramatic style of play - fall way behind, then make bold, daring shots to come back and win. Others say it is his personal magnetism and charisma. Palmer himself says it something much simpler. It is something he learned from his dad:

"My dad taught me to treat everyone I meet like a personal friend." Palmer often says, "I've always tried to do that."

My parents saw Arnold Palmer play in person once, in the late 80's. They will never forget it.

In an era where professional golfers use body guards to keep the fans away from them, Arnold Palmer walked through the crowd alone. On the first day of this tournament in Napa, my mom, along with hundreds of other people, wanted Palmer's autograph. They waited for him at the first hole.

Most players would use their body guards to clear a path through the crowd, avoiding eye contact all the while. They have to stay focused on playing golf, after all. Palmer didn't.

Palmer walked slowly, shaking hands and signing autographs. When he got to my mom, he said hello and asked what she wanted signed. My mom handed him her visor. Before he signed it, he asked my mom's name.

"Vivian", she said.

"Well, Vivian, here you go," Palmer smiled, handing the signed hat back to my mom, "I hope you enjoy the tournament."

He then turned to my dad and said, "You must be the lucky husband. What's your name?"

"Richard," said my dad.

"Richard, it's very nice to meet you." he shook my dad's hand, looked him the eye, smiled, then, as if sharing a private joke, winked, and said. "I'm Arnold Palmer. Enjoy the tournament."

It is this kind of personal touch that makes Arnold Palmer so popular. That is why he will always be The King

Serendipity

Everybody's heard, used and practiced teamwork. We do it and talk about it all the time in PE. Teamwork simply means a group of people working together to achieve a common goal. But what do you call it when a team suddenly starts achieving more than people think it should?

This goes beyond mere teamwork. This is when a group truly works as one. It takes a special level of belief in each other to achieve this. I call it synergy. This is a story of a little team that was like this, and the one magical moment made them that way.

The Wallenberg High School Lady Bulldogs, a basketball team that I coach, didn't start out very well. We were very inexperienced and I was trying to teach them a lot of things in a short time. Sometimes it seemed like we would never get it, for we made the same mistakes over and over again. Every once in awhile, however, we would do something really good and that would give us hope. Through it all, I told the team that if just showed a little bit of improvement each game we would be fine by the time league play started. More importantly, the girls never gave up on each other and got along really well.

A high school basketball team plays two kinds of games; non-league and league. Non-league games are basically practice games, real games that don't count in the standings. League games are the ones that really count. Do well in league games and a team makes the playoffs no matter what they did in non-league games.

Wallenberg had a crappy preseason. We won 3 games and lost 6, including losses in two games that we lead in the fourth quarter. I didn't mind the losing except we seemed to lose confidence at the end of games, as if the girls expected something bad to happen to them.

"Don't give up," I'd tell them, "play as hard as you can all the way to the end, and good things will happen."

"Okay coach," they'd say, but the looks on their faces told me that they really didn't believe me. I knew that they had to learn this for themselves.

League season didn't start too well either. We lost our first two games. One loss, to a school called ISA, was another game in which we lead at the beginning of the 4th quarter.

The turning point of our season came against against Galileo, a school we hadn't beaten in 3 years.

The game started poorly for us. We were really sloppy. Early in the fourth quarter, we found ourselves behind by twelve points. Then, something clicked. We changed defenses. Galileo started having problems. We started to outplay Galileo and slowly began to catch up. We finally took our first lead of the game with 9 seconds left in the game but Galileo immediately took the lead back. It was now our ball but there were only 3.1 seconds left in the game. We had to move the ball 94 ft down the length of the court in order to take a shot for a chance to win the game. In 3.1 seconds.

I called a timeout.

I drew up a play that we'd never practiced before, not a good thing to do in a critical game situation. But, we'd practiced elements of the play many times, so I just combined these elements into one play.

The girls executed the play perfectly. The inbounder threw her pass to the halfcourt line where a girl caught it and passed to another player cutting to the basket. The third player caught it, took one dribble then took her shot. As the ball left her hand, the horn sounded, ending the game. But, the shot was already in the air, so it would count if it went in. The ball hit the rim, spun around it, then dropped through the hoop. We won.

We were lucky. But, it was luck of our own creation. A lot of things had to come together for this to work. We had two make two good passes. We had to catch those two passes. We had to make the shot. And we had to do it all in 3.1 seconds. This is synergy. Add in the luck and it becomes serendipity.

The funny thing about this is how that 3.1 seconds changed the way the team played. The girls now believed that playing hard till the end would make good things happen. After that, each time we took the floor, we felt like we had a chance to win. We did, too. A lot. All because of one magical moment.

I Am Somebody

Believe it or not, teachers actually work during staff development days. For the last staff development day, all the elementary school PE teachers in Mill Valley went to Castro Elementary School in El Cerrito to watch a PE teacher named Calvin Trampleasure do his job. I found it to be very interesting and very inspiring.

Castro School is part of the West Contra Costa County School District. This district is located at the east end of the Richmond San Rafael Bridge, so I'll bet all of you have driven through it. It's less than 30 minutes away by car. The West Contra Costa County School District is one of the poorest school districts in the Bay Area. The district went bankrupt (meaning it basically had no money at all) in 1991 and has been slowly recovering ever since. As part of the recovery, Castro will be closed at the end of this school year.

Just to get an idea of how poor the district is, Calvin teaches PE at 4 different schools and each class he teaches only gets PE twice per week. He only teaches grades 3-6, so the classroom teachers teach PE to grades K-2. All of the PE equipment for Castro school (250 students) fits into one walk in closet. In fact, on the day we were there, Calvin excitedly told us how happy he was to have, for the first time in his career, hockey sticks.

The kids at this school are completely different from those at Park. The first thing you notice is that they are almost all people of color; african american, hispanic or asian. It is also readily apparent that they are not wealthy, for most of the kids wear inexpensive, non-name brand clothing.

Calvin tells us that most of the kids at Castro come from working class families (families whose parents work at jobs requiring little education), because many of the the parents are first generation immigrants who don't speak English very well. One father, for example, was a doctor in Africa who works as an orderly here.

While Castro is peaceful, one of the other schools at which Calvin teaches is in an area where you can often hear gunshots at night. Many of the kids at that school know older kids who are in gangs. As a result, many of the kids want to join gangs when they get older.

The reason these kids want to join gangs, to be real gangstas, not gangsta wannabes like some of you, is because it will give them a sense of prestige and a sense of - power. What the kids don't see is that life in a gang often means a life of crime. Calvin tries very hard to steer them away from that kind of life.

Calvin does this by emphasizing Character Education in his curriculum. Calvin teaches his kid about things like: Responsibility. Respect. Honesty. Cooperation. Loyalty. Compassion. He also does a lot to try to build each student's self-esteem. He wants them to learn to believe in themselves enough that they won't feel the need to join a gang.

One thing Calvin did on the day we were there was have his classes recite a poem. Listening to 36 kids say it aloud was a very powerful and moving experience. Here's the poem:

I Am Somebody!
By Calvin Trampleasure (inspired by civil rights history)

I am somebody!
My heart is a diamond shining bright
My spirit is an eagle taking flight
My mind is a pearl strong and bold
My body can travel the roughest road
I am somebody
I can be what I want to be
I can learn what I need to know
I can always try to do my best
I am somebody!
I am somebody!
I am somebody!

As the kids recited the poem, you could actually see them stand up straighter and hold their heads higher. It was awesome.

If you ever feel down, try reading this poem aloud (slowly and with feeling!) to yourself. It'll make you feel better.

Positive Self Talk

Positive self talk is a tool many successful people use to keep themselves focused and on the right track despite facing hardship or criticism. A great example of a famous person who does this is Tiger Woods.

If you ever get a chance to listen to a Tiger Woods interview, especially after he has a bad day on the golf course, listen closely. It's very interesting, because he never complains and never makes excuses and always talks about something he did well. For example, he might say something like: "the conditions were a little tough, and I wasn't driving the ball as well as I'd like, but, I was really putting well and my distance control was good." See? Even when he talked about something he wasn't doing well, he talked about it in a positive way ("I wasn't driving as well as I'd like," instead of "I drove poorly") and he finished his comment on a positive note, giving himself something to look forward to the next day, instead of something to worry about.

I once had an incredibly confident student at Park named Kristin. One of the secrets to her confidence was her natural way of using positive self talk.

When I'd introduce a new PE topic, like say, Ultimate Frisbee, she would analyze the skills needed for the game and say something like: "I can do this, I catch well." Or, "I should be good at this, because I'm fast." She would say these things to me, but was really saying them to herself to build her own confidence. And sure enough, she would do really well.

Each of you can do the same thing. In fact, this can be a healthy habit.

At the beginning of a challenge, like a math test, tell yourself something that will help you get through it. Examples: "I've worked on all of this before, so I'll be fine." or "I'm good at math" or if math isn't your best subject, "if I relax and take my time, I'll be fine."

Try it. It works. I do it all the time.

Social situations can be more difficult especially since your priorities, needs and interests will change as you get older. Old friends won't be any more. It happens to all of us, so try not to fret too much. In times like this positive self talk is a great tool, and what you tell yourself doesn't have to be complicated. It can be something as simple as:

I Am Somebody!

Power

Heard an interesting comment yesterday. At recess, a group of kids were talking to me about the new student. One person said "I see she's already gotten in with the power people."

Power people? Who are the power people and why do they have power? And power to do what? Determine who you are and where your place is? This is nonsense.

Here's a secret to happiness and success in life: People only have power over you if you give them power. If you don't like how people view you or categorize you or treat you, ignore them. Don't give them power.

The people who truly have power are those who share and those who care. People who truly have power are those who have the respect of others. People earn the respect of others by treating others with respect. People who truly have power don't take it, they earn it. People who truly have power are those who consider other people's interests, not just their own. People who truly have power listen to others and work with others towards a common goal. People who truly have power are willing to share it. People who truly have power are not bullies. They are leaders.

Why is Barack Obama gaining so much popularity? Because he has a vision in which we all work together to create a nation and a world which is a better place for everyone.

On the other hand, people who give you a negative label, like "weirdo" or "nature freak" are, guess what, bullying you. They are trying to take power from you so they can feel powerful. Bullies take many forms. They can be very subtle and do little things like criticize your clothes, or your interests, or your friends or make fun of how hard you work in school. But, in the end, all bullies have the same objective: they're trying to make you feel small so they can feel big. They're trying to take power from you. Don't give in.

Here's a secret about bullies: their behavior is the result of their own uncertainty. They are unsure of themselves, so they take actions to make others feel that way too. Unless they change their ways, bullies are rarely successful in life.

Don't give power to bullies. Don't be a bully yourself. Be a leader.

Look to the Left, Look to the Right, Shake Your Booty and Hike, Hike, Hike!

Even coyotes look before crossing...