Hoedown

All the 2012 residents moved in at the beginning of June and we welcomed them properly with a Hoedown, MTR-style.

Appropriate attire was required and we provided BBQ, Cotton Candy, Corn Hole, a photobooth, 3-legged race, country line dancing, urban line dancing, and prizes (dates with graduates).

And, these are two of my fellow Power Center Academy 9th grade team members! Stu is teaching history and Erin is teaching art. I'm really looking forward to working with them!

Martha the Triathlete

On our way back from the wedding in Cookeville, we stopped in Nashville for Martha to complete her 2nd triathlon.

She rocked it (well, except for leaving a few necessary things in the car, so I got to make just a few extra uphill trips to the car).

Yay Martha!

The Ordu's I Dos

Brittany, a fellow 2011 MTR graduate (doesn't that sound better than resident?) got married a few of weekends ago in Cookeville, TN. Her husband Kelechi played football for Tennessee Tech. I saw him play versus Arkansas last fall.

Kelechi is Nigerian, and they did an awesome job of integrating Nigerian customs with American during the ceremony and reception.

We had a caravan from Memphis and stopped to change clothes and eat at Chick-fil-a.

Brittany's Initials went from BS to BO. What an improvement!

Congrats Mr. & Mrs. Ordu!

MTR in the Commercial Appeal

The day of graduation, The Commercial Appeal printed an article in the Faith in Memphis section about the MTR. David Waters has written about Neighborhood Church, and was present when David came to NC to share more about the vision of MTR. He interviewed me along with David and Robin to write this article.

Here are a few exerpts:

Virginia Boyd wants to serve God and Memphis by becoming the best math teacher any city school kid has ever had.

David Montague and Robin Scott want to serve God and Memphis by helping Virginia do that.

"You don't have to talk about the love and compassion and mercy of Christ to demonstrate it," said Montague, a former stockbroker turned public school evangelist. "Becoming the best math teacher a kid's ever had is a valid response to the gospel."

Montague and Scott are leading the Memphis Teacher Residency, one of many nonprofit organizations that have responded to the Gates Foundation's $90-million challenge to put an effective teacher in every Memphis City Schools classroom.

Like Teach for America and the Memphis Teaching Fellows, MTR seeks to recruit, train and support outstanding urban educators in Memphis. What makes MTR different is its mission to do that "within a Christian context."

MTR's "Christian context" comes in the motivation, not the implementation.

"It's a shared mission, that's the heart of it," said Scott, a former Indiana public school teacher and MTR's director of education. Teaching in large, urban systems "is too hard, too demanding not to have a sense of mission about it," Scott said. "You have to see urban education as a calling."

MTR recruits and accepts only candidates who believe that teaching in large, urban public schools systems is a Christian calling, not just a career. But candidates also must believe they should not discuss their faith in a public school setting.

"America is not short on information about the gospel," said Montague, a former Christian missionary who directs MTR's work from offices in the basement of Union Avenue Baptist Church. "It is short on demonstrations of the power of the gospel."

....

"So far, we can't prove that MTR has any value whatsoever, but I swear I believe what I'm about to say," Montague said.

"What's happening in Memphis City Schools is the greatest opportunity to bring glory to God since Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. Everyone really is watching Memphis. The president is watching. Bill and Melinda Gates are watching. The whole nation is watching.

"I believe the MTR has this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform education one school and one feeder pattern at a time. And in doing so, we have the opportunity and potential to transform and redeem public education in Memphis for God's glory. We have the opportunity to do the impossible, and by doing so, prove that God is real and powerful and faithful to His promises to those in need.

"And the whole world will know of it."

Masters Graduation

Now that I have completed my Capstone Project:

My students have thrown me a surprise party:

I have chaperoned Senior Prom:

Friends and Sisters have come into town to celebrate...

My Masters Graduation!

As I told my sisters, just call me Master V!

Grit and Grind

I believe you will remember this Memphis Grizzlies team for the rest of your days.

I believe the community needed a run like this.

I believe it's about more than basketball.

I believe in Memphis, in its people, and in its ability to surmount its problems with faith, joy and hard work.

FedExForum brimmed with Memphis in all its diversity, black, white, yellow and brown. The place rocked. Never mind the rising Mississippi. Come hell or high water has never had quite the same ring.

I believe that Tony Allen is an example of what can be done through hard work.

I believe Zach Randolph is living proof that you can overcome past mistakes.

I believe in grit and I believe in grind.

I believe the Grizzlies won more playoff games than any No. 8 seed in history.

*Text from Geoff Calkins column after the Grizzlies lost round 2 game 7 in OKC.

Hello Memphis...

That is how President Barack Obama greeted the crowd at Booker T. Washington High School's graduation today. BTW was chosen last week by the president from the top three finalists of a video competition. It was another exciting event for Memphis. We've had just a few of those lately:) I love this fans sign from Friday night's round 2 game 6 that the Grizzlies won:

Today is the first time Obama has been to Memphis since becoming president. Although the news media covered excitement about his visit, a few of my students shared some apprehension about his visit. They were worried that he would get shot like MLK, Jr. did when he visited Memphis. Their fears confirm that race is still an issue in our city.

We watched Air Force One land live and then took the entire school across the street to a CBU auditorium to watch the ceremony. It was definitely a day that makes me proud to be a teacher in Memphis.

BTW senior, Christopher Dean, introduced the president and after joking that everyone knows the biography of the president said, "Maybe I should just tell what the president speaking here today means to me. Our president speaking here today means that someone who looks like me can go to Columbia, and to Harvard, and become the president of the United States of America."

Two things Obama shared that I want to share with students in the future:
1. Despite adversity, every single one of you stood tall and said, "Yes, we can. Yes we can learn, yes we can succeed. You decided you would not be defined by where you come from, but by where you want to go, by what you want to achieve, by the dreams you hope to fulfill."

2. You learn how to learn. How to think critically and find solutions though unexpected challenges. I remember we use to ask our teachers, "Why am I going to need Algebra?" You're not going to have to solve for x to get a good job or be a good parent, but you will need to think through tough problems..." Math teachers you can tell you students that the president says you need Algebra.