Can you FEEL IT?

Momentum! Wilson Middle School Can you Feel it?

Getting students to behave daily is hard work.  We set expectations, listen to our peers, gain insight, seek interest, design engaging lessons and monitor it all.  At times you may feel like you are performing in the center ring of a circus.  However, it is with this hard work and investment in your classroom that you begin to see results.  Time spent up front will pay off ten-fold in the future.  Kids will rise to the level you set.

How change does happen (excerpt from Jim Collins Good to Great)

Now picture a huge, heavy flywheel. It’s a massive, metal disk mounted horizontally on an axle. It's about 100 feet in diameter, 10 feet thick, and it weighs about 25 tons. That flywheel is our school. Your job is to get that flywheel to move as fast as possible, because momentum—mass times velocity—is what will generate superior achievement results over time.

Right now, the flywheel is at a standstill. To get it moving, you make a tremendous effort. You push with all your might, and finally you get the flywheel to inch forward. After two or three days of sustained effort, you get the flywheel to complete one entire turn. You keep pushing, and the flywheel begins to move a bit faster. It takes a lot of work, but at last the flywheel makes a second rotation. You keep pushing steadily. It makes three turns, four turns, five, six. With each turn, it moves faster, and then—at some point, you can’'t say exactly when—you break through. The momentum of the heavy wheel kicks in your favor. It spins faster and faster, with its own weight propelling it. You aren't pushing any harder, but the flywheel is accelerating, its momentum building, its speed increasing.  This is the Flywheel Effect. 

Our daily work can seem daunting.  You are at the beginning stages of the flywheel.  We need to celebrate small victories and large as well.  Take for instance the story of an eighth grade boy who at this time last year had ten referrals to the office.  They varied from minor to severe disruption.  He had a suspension the first week of September.  If we look at this person now, he's being nurtured by his team.  His success being protected.   This year he's earned as many W.O.W. awards as referrals from last year.  He's not perfect; he nearly got into a fight at the football game; but his team and specifically literacy teacher is protecting him, praising him, encouraging him and forgiving his missteps.  They are living the notion that "Kids do well if they Can."   I can see and feel the flywheel moving for this boy.  More importantly he can feel it too!

What will it look, sound and feel like when the flywheel gains it's own energy at Wilson?  How will we know that we are reaching new levels of success?  What will be the naturally occurring payoff?  I look forward to that day!