an all-important update on my life

HEY! Sorry for the extended pause in blogging. I was distracted by a trip to our nation’s capital and its wonderful museums. The museum gift stores provided me with a wealth of new books and assorted fun stuff for my classroom (Flip book on the First Ladies, wassup!). Of course, before that I was kickin’ it at the KIPP summit in New Orleans. There were 1100 people there! It was amazing to meet so many teachers and administrators willing to put in the hours and effort to help kids. Here are some of the results of that effort.

At the Summit we also heard from Don and Doris Fisher, the founders of the Gap clothing store (Don’t worry, I told them that sometimes their jeans make us look fat. They are going to rectify the problem immediately.) They contributed a lot of money when KIPP was starting out to help the KIPP idea spread. With their help, KIPP established the Fisher Fellows program to train new KIPP leaders. If you know someone who is an excellent educator and who you think might be ready and interested to open a KIPP or KIPP-like school, send them to this site. It’s a year-long program now based out of Stanford Business School, and I hear it’s a great experience.

The best piece of advice from the Summit came from a businessman who is a significant donor to the KIPP Schools in Washington DC. He said something like, “Drag rich people into these schools. They will write you checks because this really works.” I’m into dragging rich people around, so I’m going to try this one.

–Guestblogger Newoldschoolteacher

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