Have you checked your Lost & Found lately?

My classes watched a short YouTube clip, Lost Generation, today as a prep-set for a conversation on where they want to be in 50 years and what type of impact they want/intend to have on their community. The clip sparked a meaningful conversation regarding principles, motivation, and the ability to effect lasting change. I don’t usually email clips of things to people but felt compelled to share this with several educators I work with.



I was not sure if it was the clip, the conversation with students after the clip, or the combination of the two that inspired me, but I have been thinking about Lost Generation all day. Too many of the young adults I work with identify themselves as lost through their words and actions. Each workday has at least one encounter with a young adult that has given up on school, family, community or the combination of all three. Yet, I still find myself getting excited about the opportunity to interact with young adults each day because I know that each day brings another opportunity to lend a “light and roadmap” to my students. Though it is frustrating and often sad that I don’t reach them all, I take heart and renew my sense of purpose with the examples of “lost” students that eventually find their way.

A palindrome reads the same backwards as forward. This video reads the exact opposite backwards as forward. Not only does it read the opposite, the meaning is the exact opposite:

Lost Generation
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=42E2fAWM6rA

Time Well Spent

It has been a while since my last blog post. It has been a busy and exciting past few months. Besides bringing home our new born daughter Lily last month, the Tahoma wrestling team finished out the wrestling season strong with a district and regional championship followed by a 2nd place finish at the state tournament. Additionally, I have had the opportunity  to share with administrative leaders from the Tahoma School District and also from several other school districts on the One School initiative work that we started last fall to increase student engagement and relationships in our school. The last two months have been incredibly busy and I finally feel like I have the time to reflect on the experiences I have had.


Our daughter, Lily Ann Feist, was born the Monday after the district wrestling tournament on February 8th and weighed 8.6 lb. She is healthy, happy and incredibly beautiful. I had several friends and associates try to explain how special the bond between daddies and their little girls are but until I got her home and held her in my arms while she rested on my chest I did not truly understand the power of this new found love. It has been a wonderful experience that was made even more special by all the friends and family that helped our family transition from 3 to 4. Kerstin and I were over whelmed by the number of people that wanted to help us. Besides the help from our parents and other family members, who were awesome, the Tahoma wrestling community organized and rallied to help Team Feist. The wrestling parents organized over two weeks of dinners that were ready to go for our family so Kerstin and I could focus on caring for the new baby girl and our 3 year old in the evenings rather than cooking. Members of our wrestling family also thought of our three year old and how tough this transition was going to be on him and sent Andrew coloring books and toys to remind him that had not been forgotten in the glow of the new baby. We even had parents of one of my former wrestlers offer to help us with some of the house hold chores since Kerstin was still recovering from her C-section I was still busy with wrestling. The food and gifts did more than just feed our bodies, if helped nourish our hearts and souls. We are very blessed to be loved by so many.

Besides celebrating our new baby, we also have had much to celebrate regarding the Tahoma Wrestling team this year. Our boys wrestled incredibly well and I am very proud of all of them. Our JV and Varsity went undefeated in duals and won the SPSL N dual meet championship. Also, the boys were district and 4A Region 1 champions. The team was gunning for a state championship but came up a bit short and finished 2nd to University of Spokane. Though we had 10 wrestlers at the state tournament with 5 placers and four finalists, University HS wrestled a near perfect tournament and deserved to take home the championship. It was a joy to watch the THS boys set high goals and perform so well this year.

In the days following the tournament, I found myself in a bit of a “funk” and at first I thought it was due to the fact that we came up a bit short in our pursuit to win a championship, but that was not the case. After three days of thinking about the tournament and the season as a whole I realized my “funk” came from the realization that the state tournament was the last time I was going to coach many of the young men on our team. Out of the 12 seniors that were on the team this year, all of them wrestled their final high school matches this past February and our time together as coach and athlete had come to an end. I have been with most of these seniors for the past 7 years of our lives and the bonds and connections we have developed run deep. I have watched them grow from squirrely little middle school boys into confident and motivated young men. I feel incredibly fortunate and blessed to have been able to: teach, coach, mentor and most of all love these incredible individuals. Though I have coached many seniors and am always a bit melancholy to see them go, I have never had such a large number of them move on. I was able to come to peace with this year’s transition when I was reminded of the big picture and great circle by my favorite poem, Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost. Though this year’s seniors are done with high school wrestling and ready to move onto the next phases of their lives, I am thankful for the experiences and time we had together. Additionally, I am energized and excited to work with the many talented underclassmen returning for another exciting and rewarding season of wrestling in 2011.



Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leafs a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

biggest win of the year!

Since wrestling kicked off, I have not had a lot of free time and have neglected to post lately. While reflecting on how the wrestling season has gone thus far, I realized there is a lot to share. Though the varsity is wrestling well and our squad is currently ranked 2nd in state, I would rather share results from a C team exhibition match that was wrestled last Friday night at our home dual with Auburn HS. One of our 11th grade wresters earned his 1st win by pin Friday night vs AHS. Though this young man has been wrestling for Tahoma since the 8th grade, the sport has not come easy for him. This young man has many learning disabilities that have made aspects of both school and sports tough, yet he has stuck with our wrestling team and his persistence paid off in a big way last Friday night. As I watched our wrestler work his best series and eventual find a way to pin his opponent, I was filled with pride as I watched his team mates gather around the mat to cheer wildly and chant his name. The THS wrestling team knew how special this match was and they cheered and hollered as if it were the state finals! When the match was done and the Tahoma wrestler’s hand was raised and the crowd erupted one more time. The mighty Bear grappler rushed the jr varsity team and coach to slap hands and celebrate the awesome victory. Then, when he saw me off to the side with an extend hand for a shake and a congrats, he rushed forward and pushed my hand aside so he could throw his arms around me for a big bear hug and hollowed in my ear, “I’m all in coach, I’m all in now!” As I returned the hug and let him know how proud I was of him I realized that though I have been fixated on trying to help the varsity win state this year, I needed to bring my focus back to facilitating a program that allows all wrestlers to feel that they are “all in”. Last year the same young man that won the big match Friday night told me he was thinking about quitting because he was not any good and would never win. He went on to explain that he was not sure he was “all in with this wrestling thing”. Fortunately some of the upperclassman talked him into finishing the season and coming back out this year.


Recently I have found myself so caught up in thinking about how to push the varsity wrestles conditioning to the next level while improving our hand fighting and bottom position, that I forgot what the most important part of my job really is. I need to make sure that I am leading a program that allows all my boys to feel confident, successful and most importantly “all in”.

Tahoma Style wr 2009

 Day 1 wrestling power pointon "Tahoma Style Wrestling"

Our first day was excellent. We had 67 wrestlers cleared and on the mat today with 7 or 8 more expected to be cleared by mid week. I have not had a squad this large yet and I am excited about the great turnout! I have an outstanding coaching staff of 8 ready to support and teach our athletes this year as we work toward shared and individual goals. It is going to be an exciting year. Go Bears!

Tahoma Style wr 2009

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Identity And Expectations

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Identity And Expectations

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Energized

Last week was busy but productive. Besides doing final prep to get grades submitted on time, I also had several meetings with staff and students that kept me on the move. One of the indicators of a good week for me is when the meetings I attend leave feeling energized rather than drained come Friday; it was a good week.

I was energized by a pre season wrestling meeting I had with the 9th grade on Thursday. I have met with the jr high wrestlers each year before the start of the high school season for the past 7 years, but I have never had such an excellent turn out. There are a larger number than usual of athletic freshman turning out his year! There were over 25 9th graders at the meeting that had wrestled with one of the two middle school teams and there were 45 kids total in attendance! I expect at least 30 of the frosh to turn out and join a senior loaded team that is ready to. THS wrestling team will have large numbers this year.

I love the fact that there are two middle school programs feeding our high school team this year. This is the third year of a multiple middle school sports team system and the Sr. High wrestling team is seeing the positive effect in the number of kids participating and connecting through school sports programs. I do not think I could not work for a district that did not support extracurricular activities. The money and time we invest in opportunities for students to make connections through after school activities are an educational asset and I am sorry other school systems that do not recognize and value extracurricular activities. I was sad to learn that there are many school districts that do not offer athletics and other extracurricular activities at the middle school level. I was also shocked to learn that many school districts have considered cutting all extracurricular activities as a way to balance the budget during tough times. There was a recent report on HBO’s “Real Sports” that documented the effect on a community after the town voted to cut all extracurricular activities for a large school district in Ohio. It was strange to watch as the reporter toured vacant gyms and fields. I tried to image how it would affect Maple Valley if we had to cut all extracurricular activities and it made me sad. It is a hypothetical situation I do not like to think about.

I also felt energized after meeting with a group of educators and students that were visiting our district this week. Student from Black Hills HS in Olympia along with administrators and students from a school district in New York visited THS. The visiting group was also escorted by a program supervisor form the Washington OSPI. The group wads visiting THS to look at some of our classes and also talk with our staff and students about the work we are doing related to student engagement and school culture improvement. I enjoyed listening to the young leaders from other schools as they explained their learning community goals and work. I also was interested in what Greg Williamson, the program supervisors from OSPI, had to say regarding developing sustainable school programs related to a systems level approach. I had a chance to share with the group what the THS learning community has been doing this year in regards to our One School initiative work. I have received a lot of positive feed back from both staff and students at THS regarding our One School work this year thus far and I was happy to share what we have been doing with the visitors. Below is a power point activity that was recently shared with the staff at our last staff meeting. Next week I will share the power point with the student council and asb board while engaging the students in activities and conversation to help the students prepare to lead discussions with in their advisory groups regarding the schools One School winter commitments.

Go Bears!
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

11 5 Slide Show One School

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Dan"The Man" Russell's visits THS and shares more than just wrestling

This past weekend I was fortunate to host one of my personal heroes at my home. Coach Dan Russell visited Maple Valley last weekend to put on a clinic for our wrestlers and help prepare several of my boys for the pre season nationals in Iowa this Saturday. For those of you that don’t know coach Russell I should probably give a brief bio. Besides being a man of faith and pastor of the Four Square Church in Battle Ground Washington, he was a 4X NCAA national Champion for Portland State, Greco Roman World Champion, Olympian, and currently on staff with the USA wrestling national team. Additionally, he is one of the most gifted and animated clinicians in the country and I love watching him work. One of my goals as a coach in our community is to expose our athletes to national and world level coaches. I love the fact that our middle school and high school wrestlers in Maple Valley had the opportunity to not only learn wrestling moves from this world class clinician, but to listen to his stories about believing in your dreams and how to motivate yourself in during tough times. Dan tells great stories about his youth, college and international wrestling career and the tales always comes back to two essential questions that Dan thinks all athletes have to ask themselves: “Have I given my best effort in preparation for this competition and am I ready to go out there and do my best?” According to Dan, if you can answer yes to both questions you have already won and you are already a champion. I love the message related to the questions and one of my program goals this year is to get all coaches in the Maple Valley wrestling community to share the message and questions with our wrestlers. I want our wrestlers to not only take Dan's questions and use them to help prepare for there athletics, but for their challenges and competions off the mat as they prepare for life outside of school.


Though I have seen Dan put on clinics before, I have not had an opportunity to visit and converse with him until last Friday night. After sharing a meal with my family, we sat in the kitchen and shared wrestling and coaching stories for a while. Our conversation started by discussing the upcoming wrestling season and how tough THS wrestling is going to be. Coach Russell follows 4A wrestling in our state closely and wanted to discuss the process that the THS wrestling program has gone through over the past 6 years to be in a position to contend for a state title this year. One of the first things I identified for him is that fact that there is a lot of support for wrestling in our community and we have great programs in place for all ages and skill levels of wrestlers. As I answered his questions and followed up with questions of my own, I realized that we were talking less and less about wrestling and more about making gains and improvements at a systems level. At the end of the conversation, I was energized and excited about the direction of the Maple Valley wrestling program and about the work I am doing as a teacher and leader in our learning community. It is not enough to be a good coach or teacher if your goal is to make significant and lasting gains consistently; you have to have both program support and an effective system. I feel good about the fact that I am in the correct system and programs as a coach and educator in relation to the professional and personal goals I have set for myself.

The High School Wrestling Season is only 18 days away,

GO BEARS!

Tahoma Sr HS Maple Valley Wa Homecoming Week 2009

THS homecoming is this week and there is lots going on in our school. Today was our annual coronation assembly and I was excited to see what the staff and students put together for the community. This year’s theme is Harry Potter. Each year our activities coordinator and a horde of student and parent volunteers transform our gym into something from another world. This year was no different; the coronation assembly went well and the students did a great job decorating and scripting the coronation. Our staff was well represented in the production as well. Ann Hobson and Mike Jackson were excellent MC’s and Mr. Hagg made a great Haggert from the Harry Potter series. All three teachers made their characters come to life.

For me, the students’ musical performances put this year’s coronation over the top. I told our activity coordinator, Dave Peters, and several students that this was my favorite homecoming assembly in the nine years I have worked at THS. After reflecting on why I enjoyed this assembly so much I realized that all the effort and energy I saw displayed today was an affirmation that we are moving in the right direction as we try to improve the levels of respect, engagement and relationships.

Two student musical groups performed together today and I feel like the musicians were a great example of the “One School” message and initiative students and staff are working toward this year. "Afterward" is a rock/punk band and "Knuckles Impact" is a rap group that at first glance does not seem to have much in common besides a love for music. Last year both groups performed separately and did so very well but this year we were surprised with a collaborative effort. Though the groups taste in music and other interests are very different, they took the time to develop relationships that allowed them to take something that was already good and make it even better. I really appreciated the risk they took and the energy they committed to homecoming week.

Tomorrow is Toga day and we have the Fall Fling celebration to support homecoming week. I am looking forward to the staff Sumo wrestling matches that are going to take place in the name of “One School”.

Thank you to the graphic arts students that worked on the "One School" logo at the top of this post.

power point for Deliberate Practice- Moving from Good to Great!

I forgot to add the power point that I referenced in my last blog . Here you go.
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Level Of Practice

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Deliberate Practice- Moving from Good to Great!

I spoke to two different coaches this week regarding what it takes to move a team forward and to accomplish shared goals. Both coaches’ answers were influenced by the work that has been done within our school system to move closer to classroom 10 learning. The 1st coach shared his new practice template with me and I was surprised to see that he had basically taken the classroom 10 handout that we all received at THS during our last half day and reworked it so it applied to his basketball practices. Pretty cool stuff!




I was even more impressed the next day when another coach sent me a power point to help me answer the question of “how do we move from good to great?”



During a conversation I had with Coach Burnham last week while we were driving kids to Ellensburg for a practice, we identified our athletes’ practice effort and intensity as an area that we would like to improve. Don’t get me wrong, I was pleased with our team's 4th place finish at the state wrestling tournament last year but we can do better. If our boys are truly going to have the opportunity to win it all this year, changes to my practice plans and coaching style need to be made. During the drive to Eburg( GO WildCats!), Doug pointed out that the technique we teach is good but we had neglected to teach them skills that will elevate their level of practice to a championship level( aka Tahoma Style practice room )



Three days later I received an email with an awesome power point presentation on Deliberate Practice from Doug. The power point presentation is going to help both the wrestling team and a group of student athletes that our athletic director and I are working with this year on leadership and influencer skills.



My point is, both the practice plan and power point that the two educators/coaches created were influenced by the “planning templates, influencer strategies, system thinking, and the capacity to engage in skillful conversations” that are a major piece of what makes us Tahoma.



GO BEARS!!!!

special thanks to my friend coach Burnham for creating the poster on this post and also for inspiring me to be a better coach!