Gearing Up for Greatness

I’m On The Pursuit Of Happiness/ And I Know Everything 

That Shines Ain’t Always Gonna Be Gold/ I’ll Be Fine Once I Get It; I’ll Be Good

- Kid Cudi 

Our goals this year: 

* Retain at least 75 students from Fall to Spring

* Improve attendance 4 points to 91% 

*  Push Literacy in all aspects of our program ( improve from 56% in ELA)

* 1/4 of our students in the Junior Honor Society

* Celebrate our children success at every opportune moment! 
* Plan a huge end of the year trip to Boston, MA    

So after being away for two weeks in Boston for Summer Institute. We return back to Henderson to set up our office and begin our campaign of another Citizen Schools School year.  Summer Institute is an annual conference that Citizen Schools has in Boston, MA where all the leadership of the organization meets to recommit to the organization's goals and do some professional development. The week was very inspirational and allowed for us to see where we need to get to in order to run a very high quality program.  Check out this video (made by yours truly). 

So we get back to HMS.. and our office was cleaned and furniture out of placed. We realized that we needed to change the office up so that it breathes and feels welcoming, its clean and we take ownership of it. The classroom is messed up... the Chalk boards were unusable and wall near the windows is falling apart and is probably asbestos ridden.  Ants nest are in all parts of the wall... need I say more....

  

 

            We've made several complaints and it seems that the school can't get the maintenance crew to fix anything... so we are taking matters into our own hands... The pictures below are what I would like to say is apart of Operation: Inside Man.... We are planning to fixed the Chalk boards and work on that side wall.

Last year I think we were all new to Henderson and were trying to get adjusted and figure out running program.. but this is our year to do big things. Along with Classroom repairs, we are also trying to recruit Citizen Teachers so fill our Apprenticeship roster.... 

                                         

"Do you want to give back?" or " Do you want to expose middle school students to what you do for a living in fun and exciting ways?"  Share your passions and interests and become a Citizen Teacher!!! More Information on Volunteering

We are all Witnesses to the Exodus of Lebron from Cleveland!!

 Here is an article/ note I posted on Facebook, about 24 hours after Lebron had made his decision to leave Cleveland and head to Miami

Dear Facebook,
I want to publicly apologize to Lebron for my several hundred hateful and spiteful comments yesterday. I'm not mad at Lebron... I guess I'm mad at the sport of basketball and the harsh ushering in of a new generation. I would like to consider myself a basketball purist (though I probably halted in skill after 7th grade). I hated the Lakers when they got all those guys back in the day to win a NBA (Championship) Malone, Horry, Payton, etc, or the Boston 3 Party! This just seems like teams would rather just assemble players like Voltron than develop the players that are there. While this takes time and years, I guess I'm just fearful of the Yankee syndrome hitting the NBA...

I'm also fearful... of the lack of loyalty that is in sports these days! To me it it all started when Deion Sanders made his debut with Dallas against the Falcons (anybody remember that!) or when Horace Grant left the Bulls to go play for the Magic!( I'm sure we can dated the oldest move back to the Babe Ruth Trade (lol) ) Or the more recent stab in the back... Johnny Damon going to the Yanks.

Sports Loyalty along with ideas of "Love" have been twisted and misinterpreted by movies and popular culture! We watch movies like Any Given Sunday, Major League (though its a comedy), 61, Field of Dreams.. and in these movies there's a theme of loyalty... you have fan favorites stars whom stay with their team for a lifetime. You had Capt. Rooney, Jake Taylor, Roger Maris, and all the great baseball players that haunt Kevin Costner.

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As I look at the list of movies I just rattled off I realize that there isn't a basketball movie that I can put there.. Hoosiers is a college basketball movie. Could it be that basketball is the only sport where that type of loyalty isn't the norm? We have living examples of it, Jordan, Magic, Bird, Ewing, Erving, Robinson, Olajuwon, etc... While all on this list for exception of Ewing have NBA championships, most of these players made their career in one place.

While people HATE Kobe..and I did too for a hot minute, you gotta appreciate what Kobe does. Kobe waited!! I'm sure "JUST" like Jordan he probably year end and year out gave management an earful about the talent on the team... It's his team! Everyone dissed him when Shaq got traded.. but then again if its his team.. why are people heated!! But he helped develop those players. During LA's off years, while we looked at the San Antonio's and Boston's and Detroit,the Lakers were getting their shit together! That's the loyalty and the leadership that I believe is lacking in the NBA today. Some would Argue that D.Wade understands that which is why we have this trifecta heading to Miami... but does he? Being the Franchise player means that you have to do more than hit buzzer beaters and dunk on everybody in the NBA (which is nice and forces me to waste valuable time on you tube), but you force your organization to build around you! Why couldn't D.Wade go to Cleveland? Because he's the franchise in Miami, Why didn't Kobe get traded to Miami, because he's the franchise in LA. Lebron you gotta make pieces fit around you not vice-versa!

Am I just writing because I'm little upset that he didn't come to Chicago... a little who wouldn't be?? But, I'm more upset for the fans of Cleveland who thought they had a leader who could return the game of basketball to its once glory! Now I guess the people of Ohio will have to root solely for the Buckeyes again and pray that their state doesn't become the country's saving grace for an election like it did in '04!

Lebron I'm disappointed...but then again who am I, and I'm sure I'll buy a ticket to see you, Wade, and the other guy you picked up in this fiasco free agency draft...


Sincerely,

Angelo Cross