Day One: Push up, Planks, and More

Mr. Inouye's class began the year with what else? Circling up on the lawn outside the Upper School, bouncing together, "Bopping It" (after the strange twisty game popular a decade ago), and doing a collective 500 push-ups. Why? Well, read his August 2014 essay, "The Teacher Has Been Taught," which he read to his class to inspire them to push themselves to be their best selves this year, as they begin their high school (and Upper School English) careers. Here's a snippet:

For the entire month of July and now into August, I’ve been participating in a free, early morning workout program offered in 17 cities in North America, including my hometown of Milwaukee. It was founded in Boston as a way to get people to exercise during the cold winter months–and exercise they do.

It’s called November Project, and it’s gotten me thinking a lot about what else? My teaching.

On Wednesdays at 6:26 am (not sure why, but it’s been said that it’s easier to remember appointments if the time isn’t on the :00, :15, :30, or :45–somehow the novelty sticks better in the neural pathways), 50-100 Milwaukeeans of all shapes and sizes, ages and abilities, gather at the foot of the Abraham Lincoln statue at our War Memorial, a fitting place to celebrate our freedom to gather peaceably, enjoy each other as community (in fact, each city is dubbed a different “Tribe”), have fun, push ourselves and each other to our personal bests, grit our teeth, grunt, and sweat our butts off (well, not literally, because that would be downright weird) for almost an hour.

Each session begins in a circle, shoulder to shoulder (breaking down some people’s comfort zones right away), and the celebration of each new member, who steps into the circle, announces their name, to which everyone else greets them and claps two times (I know, it’s like summer camp all over again–but what fun?). Then warm-ups commence, everything from the traditional to the goofy (we played musical chair sit-ups last time).

We enter into new and crazy challenges each session: one day we’re doing laps that involve five sets of stairs, planks, and push-ups, another we’re racing up hills of various slopes, playing freeze tag, and doing lunges. Sometimes we’re solo, sometimes in partners, sometimes all one Tribe. On Wednesdays we’re at the War Memorial, on Friday’s we’re exploring the city with our feet (e.g., running or leaping like frogs), our hands (e.g., partner push-ups or stair salamanders), and our eyes–each morning this summer has been breathtakingly beautiful, with sunrises over the beach, the highest point in the city, or our River Walk. The time may not allow me to get to school 45-minutes away on time (though I may make an argument to my Headmaster that I should be allowed to be late when I don’t have classes first period!), but I know that the Tribe plays in the fall rain and the winter snow, as well. I will be bummed if I have to miss that (as much as I typically loathe winter).

Our Tribe leaders encourage us along the way, push us harder and harder, constantly acknowledge that we’re all at different levels (I can run 8 laps in 30 minutes, while others are running 4 or 12, for instance), and encourage us when they see us doing something well. (“You look like you run stairs!” Daniel told me the other day. That’s good, because I was, indeed, running stairs very fast, hoping not to take a spill like the days of my cast-and-crutch-filled youth.)

And each session ends with “five sweaty hugs,” lots of high fives and compliments about how well everyone pushed themselves that day, “see you next time”s, the conferral of the Positivity Award (which appears to be a baton), and a group photo (the hour is documented with action shots each time and celebrated on the Facebook page).

So, my teaching. Our teaching. Why can’t all my classes, our classes, be like November Project?

Ms. Costello's class also began the year inspired by Mr. Inouye's essay, so to welcome each and every member of the class, we challenged ourselves to some planks. Each student introduced themselves -- "Hi, I'm Carol!" -- and the class responded in welcome -- "Hi, Carol!" Then, as each student ran around the circle, the rest of the class planked. Some students chose to take that lap very slowly, so we started out the year with some sore muscles. It was good cross training for volleyball and soccer.

Moving forward, we will build on this inspiration and support each other with muscles and brains through English 9. What a strong start to the year -- pun intended!