HARRIETT BALL
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=7943163Harriett’s teaching has been showcased on Oprah, BET, The Early Show, the Apollo Theater, the Republican National Convention, 60 Minutes, CNN and C-SPAN. She has been nominated for the Brock Award twice and was recently inducted into the National Charter Schools Hall of Fame.
Years after starting her teaching career, Harriett Ball discovered what she calls a God-given talent to use rhyme and music to teach just about anything. While teaching in Houston she mentored David Levin who, along with Mike Feinberg, have gone on to start over one hundred of the most celebrated charter schools in America. The KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) schools get their name from Harriett’s song, Read Baby Read.
What do you want your legacy to be?
Harriett: I want to be remembered that I made a difference in the lives of students and teachers. I hope they see me as someone who unveiled the genius that was within them. I want to bring the joy back to teaching for the new teachers and the old ones that have lost their joy. I want to inspire those teachers who have been stifled by the cookie-cutter initiatives of school districts. I want to be remembered as someone that helped create schools that kids enjoyed attending. I want kids to say that school is a good place to be. I want kids to have the attitude of I can’t wait to show what I know. That was our morning chant. I would ask the kids “What class is this?” They would say:
This is the class
That has the kids
That want to learn
To read more books
To build a better tomorrow!
Hey! Ho!
Because the more I read
The more I know
The more I know
The more I grow
And the more I talk
The less I know
Because knowledge is power
And power is freedom
And I want it!
What do you want?
I want knowledge!
Another chant I used went like this:
I can’t wait to get to school
To see what I can see
I want to learn all I can learn
So I can be all I can be
If I have the right attitude
And stop being so rude
Bring my tools and follow the rules
I can set myself free
Yea, free to be anything I want to be
We’ve got hard working teachers here
Who do more than their share
What is it that makes me to act like hmm,
I don’t care
I’ve got to do my part
And I’m talking to you straight from the heart
We will be working with charts and graphs
And converting wholes to halves
We will be reading and writing
Boy this is exciting.
I’ll be all I can be
Yea school is the place for me!
Wow! You are showing the world how we can bring that positive spirit back to teaching and getting kids pumped about learning.
Harriett: It can be done. It can be done without a book if you know your stuff. You don’t need a book. Use the book for homework after you have taught. Don’t give homework on anything you have not personally taught yourself. All kids don’t get taught and all kids don’t learn the same way. I want my legacy to be that I made a difference. I really want to be like Martin Luther King in that everybody knows that Harriett Ball made a difference in that schools are using my techniques so that all students and teachers can enjoy school and have better products, meaning the kids. I want the kids to come out inspired, doing well, and college bound. There will be no doors closed to them. Now that’s a legacy.
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