Public Achievement at Minneapolis Community and Technical College

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Permalink Reply by Michael C. Kuhne on May 12, 2009 at 10:54am

I appreciate your wonder and curiosity. I also appreciate how you are writing about public relationships. I find this to be the most exciting stuff that Public Achievement has to offer college students - it asks that you create a web of public relationships through which you can work to get things done. It is the best feet-on-the-ground example of "power with" rather than "power over."

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Permalink Reply by Zack Anderson on May 13, 2009 at 1:13am

stay tuned ladies and gentlemen, you will here from the MCTC Child Care Taskforce in the not too distant future

No doubt. We're getting enough new members that we promoted ourselves to Task Force Coordinators! I'm ready to do big things next semester.

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Mason on May 13, 2009 at 3:16pm

Organize, mobilize, repeat. Keep up your free attitude and desire to make a difference.

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Permalink Reply by Tracy Byrd on May 15, 2009 at 6:03pm

Sit back and picture what we are about to do. Take in all of the detail. If you can see it, you can make it happen.
Let's take this bad boy to tha house! Stay tuned and get your popcorn ready. You're gonna wan to see this!

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Permalink Reply by Michael C. Kuhne on May 12, 2009 at 10:56am

From Lindsey Kish
EDUC/RECR 1900

My name is Lindsey Garnett (Go Celtics) and I took part in a PA class through MCTC as part of my EDU major. My experience with PA was a lot different than I thought it was going to be. I didn't have a clue as to what this class would entail. I thought we'd be doing public work like tutoring because that's what I have to do for service hours and such for all of my other classes. This was by far the best educational experience I've had since junior high when I had a teacher that instilled in me the power of PMA (positive mental attitude). PA was lead by a strong instructor. We had great coaches and a small and intimate class setting where we developed solid public relationships with one another. I liked the way this course made me think with a newer, brighter, more energy efficient bulb. Power is something we all possess and it's amazing how often we overlook this great tool that sits at the top of the tool box. It's a tool that too many people abuse, which is why the word used to rub me the wrong way. I like how this course showed me how I could use this tool towards my advantage. Learning PA sometimes hurts because of all of the thinking that occurs, but I like how it interrupted some of my old thinking patterns and opened so many doors.

My PA team developed a summer program for 11-14 year olds and will launch in a few weeks in St. Paul at a community center. We decided to use power as one of our themes while designing the curriculum. We're going to focus in on building a sense of community, leadership skills, confidence, and power development. It's got lots of potential to be fun and serious, educational and entertaining. I'm excited. The whole process of getting from A to Z was all new to me. It's now an invaluable part of my life.

Some of the more difficult things I encountered throughout this project were communication and accountability with my teammates as well as overcoming (sort of) my phobia of the word public and taking part in a public action group. I was initially really bothered by the lack of time we had to throw down on this project, but we somehow managed to fit it all in.

The good experiences were GREAT, but I learned most from the difficult situations that occurred within my group and within in my own head. All this critical thinking and new thinking hurts I tell you. Luckily I'm an athlete and have a sickness for loving the pain of a good work out, even when it's the brain muscle being targeted. Public Achievement...Just Do It!

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Permalink Reply by Michael C. Kuhne on May 12, 2009 at 11:00am

I am thrilled that you wrote about power and public, because as I watched you evolve over the semester, Lindsey, these were the two core concepts that I could see you experiencing. The other core concept, one that you've been experiencing but not as positively nor as concretely, is accountability and responsibility. The questions, therefore, remain for you and your group: how do we individually behave responsibly within a team? how can we assure the individual's accountability to the group? These are pointed, meaningful questions.

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Permalink Reply by Tracy Byrd on May 13, 2009 at 11:12pm

Lindsey......you are a strong individual with a unique set of ideals and viewpoints. Allow your inner voice to express itself outward!
You have the mindset. Just go for it. What's the worst that can happen?

Tell KG we Celtic fans need him back to defend the championship!

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Permalink Reply by Michael C. Kuhne on May 12, 2009 at 1:21pm

From Elliot Vreeland

I feel like this was the most valuable education class I have taken yet. I really appreciate the experience I gained from this class. When I first began this course I was nervous due to the responsibility that came with the class. As soon as I found out the details of what we were doing throughout the semester I was constantly thinking about how the first day was possibly going to go. I think going to the issue convention was very valuable for my preparation for the first day. Hearing the children talk about their concerns was very moving for me personally. I went home that night seriously thinking about what some of the kids spoke about. It also made me wonder what the most important issues are in my children’s life. I think one of the things that made me nervous about the responsibility that came with this course was the unpredictable things that were occurring in my life.
This course help motivate me to make changes in my life so this class would work. I give a lot of credit to the second and third graders for talking about their issues publicly. Them making their work public I believe made a difference to more than just me in that audience. So the next step when we got our groups it was very exciting. I even recognized some of the names and what they said at the issue convention. This made me feel more comfortable and gave more real context for the first meeting. I think that we spent a lot of time in the begging getting to know the kids. The kids in our group have a lot to talk about during introduction. At first I was starting to feel like introductions were taking kind of long and we should try and focus more. Then I realized after a while how important it is to give them extra time to talk about themselves, no matter what the topic is. This actually helped create a healthy free space and time for the children in the group to relate with each other. I also got to know them really well this way. This also helped me understand what they wanted to get out of the project individually. Some of the kids were motivated differently and had very different goals. It was really cool to see them be able to collaborate and all be willing to work together on the same project. In the beginning I thing we used to much time trying develop rules and consequences with the kids. I wish I would have just stressed the seriousness of this project to them right away, and use what they told me they wanted to get out of the project to motivate them. Rather than making rules and having them come up with consequences. I could have talked to them about how the final presentation will turn out with good behavior and participation. I didn’t long to find that they want to be rewarded all the time. So I started planning to reward their work. If we can get try to get something done we can play a game they like. Even though I know I am going to play the game with them no matter what just so they don’t leave that day with a bad attitude. I can still use it to motivate them. Another thing with the rules is that the consequences can be so time consuming. We have things we need to get done and every five or ten minutes we have to have a child who broke a rule do some exercise they really don’t mind doing anyway. Then kids were breaking rules because the one kid who broke the rule looked like they were having fun. This then distracts me from what I was trying to accomplish with them that day. It didn’t take long for me to act like our rules and consequences didn’t exist. This really helped me focus on the positive things happening in this group, instead of giving all of my energy to the children who are misbehaving. This worked very well for me and helped me develop positive and healthy relationships with my group. I looked forward to seeing them every week without the slightest worry of them misbehaving. I wish we would have thought of what we wanted to do for the final project a little earlier. I am very proud of the kids and our final project I just think we put a little more pressure on ourselves and the children than their needed to be.
I would recommend using the 6-stages of public achievement to the next group I feel like they were very helpful. They help you get a mental timeline for what needs to be accomplished in what amount of time. The other advise is no matter what stage you feel like you are on it is always good to talk about the final project. I wish we would have talked about the final project more in the earlier stages. I felt like I should talk about core-concepts, rules, PA, gang violence and developing a free space. Which was great we talked about all of those things and all of those things hold much weight of importance, but there was no reason we couldn’t have brought up the final project more often? I feel like if I talked about the final project even briefly every week it could help link more of the activities we did in those 16 weeks to the final project itself.
I feel like I learned a lot about myself as an educator though out this course. Not only what I need to do for myself and my life, but things I can do in the classroom. I feel like I am different than many teachers I have seen and worked with. I have always paid attention when working with other educators to see what works and what doesn’t. I think I have strengths in getting along with children and people in general. This makes it easy to create positive relationships and keep from getting frustrated by co-workers. This also makes discipline challenging sometimes. Mainly is that when children feel comfortable they are likely to act out without a lot of worries. Then when I write that it makes me feel like I don’t really want to make children worry, or be afraid of me. I honestly believe that if I can make things fun, interesting and real to them I can be successful teaching them. I have been in situations where I tell a child to do something or else, then they do it and I have to consequence them, then if they refuse the consequence I feel like I am on a power trip or something, and those have been the most embarrassing times for me. Now I do much more redirecting. It is much less stress for me to try and guide a child toward what they could be doing. If a child is already having a hard day why go making it harder by trying to punish them? When you could first at least try and help them get away from what’s bothering them, or making them act a certain way. I don’t have a problem with teachers who are strict; I have seen some great educators who don’t play around when kids act up. Some of us are just not like that. If you are like me without an intimidating bone in your body being really strict may not work so well.
Overall I just want to say this was a great course. I hope it continues and expands to something ever greater. I will take what I have learned in this course and about PA with me throughout my education career. This course turned my nervousness to excitement. I look forward to my first day as an elementary school teacher with a confidence I didn’t quite have before. I also want to continue to be involved with PA. I think more schools should use these kids of curriculum especially in urban schools.

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Permalink Reply by Michael C. Kuhne on May 12, 2009 at 1:23pm

Elliot mentions the Six Stages of Public Achievement. I agree with him - these are incredibly helpful, and they can be found on the Public Achievement web site at http://www.publicachievement.org/TeacherGuide/SixStagesIntro.html.

Be sure to follow the links in the left column for more detailed information about each stage.

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Permalink Reply by Michael C. Kuhne on May 12, 2009 at 2:14pm

From Iris Dixon

Iris Dixon
Instructor- Michael Kuhne
Public Achievement

My name is Iris Dixon I am a student at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. I am majoring in Education which will earn me my two year associates degree. This spring semester at Minneapolis Community and Technical College I registered for EDUC- 2600 and got the opportunity to Coach a Public Achievement team at Interdisrict Down Town School, the children I worked with are some wonderful second graders, we were on a mission, to find better ways to make the lunchroom behavior better within the school, we had tools to work with that would help us in our sixteen week journey to become successful. There were twelve core concepts to help educate us through our process on what public work is all about. we not only used the concepts to help shape our project we exercised them to use them in our everyday life, learning how to be good citizens inside the school with our team and other classmates, and teacher the Public Achievement class at Interdistrict Downtown School was a learning experience I will remember. The team taught me the power young people have inside of them. As a coach I had to step back and allow the team to make there decisions on what Public Achievement meant to them and how we were going to accomplish their goals.
I have worked for Minneapolis Public Schools for eleven years five as a educator assistant, now for the last six years as a Family Liaison, coaching this team has been one of the most rewarding, working in the schools system everything was under control and I had curriculum to use, but coaching was much more challenging for me I was no longer the one in control. I had to allow the team to do the work and be there to support their decisions. Which was a very humbling process for me, to watch the positive energy they have helped me to be a better parent with my young child, he is in the same age group as my team and helping coaching the team made me realize that there are areas in my son’s and my life that we could work on as a team I had to learn to let go of all the power and allow him to be heard and exercise his strengths more. We are working on strategies to help him be more accountable for his actions, in school and at home these children helped me to let go a little and see the growth me and my son could strive for in learning patience, and respect for one another, the freedom to express himself the team expressed themselves every meeting which challenged me to have a open ear hear them and be responsible for being a part of their visions and goals.

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Permalink Reply by Michael C. Kuhne on May 13, 2009 at 10:42am

From Cornelius Irby in EDUC/RECR 1900 and the EMPOWER-U PA team
Hello, my name is Cornelius Irby and this is my second semester at MCTC. I am attending MCTC to attain an A.S. in Recreation Studies. It's funny that I ended up being in this class when this is not my normal way of interacting with people. Before I was in this class I really didn't have to make relationships with other students in my classes if i didn't want to. This class at first made me feel uneasy and nervous at first and the readings seemed pretty comprehensible. After about the third week I began to feel comfortable with Professor K and the other students in the classroom and I think I realized the need for me to be a part of this class. I learned that many people in this world want to see things make a change for the better but don't know or have the proper skills or resources to do so. I learned all it takes is an idea and after that the will and drive to carry through with it win or lose. All I know is that I always wanted to make a difference since I was a very young person and even though I am much older now I believe that through this class I finally have the proper tools to help me in my journey. My PA team name is Empower-U. We designed a program to focus on reaching out to at risk youth. Rather than explain the program that we started I kind of just want to go into the developing stages and the feelings that were felt during the process. In the beginning we all were a little soft spoken trying to be as polite to each other as wecould by trying to agree on a common theme and established our goal. Then we chose our core concepts. After that was when everything got a little messy as we learned that is always a factor in displaying true democracy. Come to find out we all had the same goal but all of our interests were different and that made it hard for us to come together as one. There was a sort of internal rift or communication gap between my teammates and I which blocked our way towards moving on in our project. I will also admit and hold myself accountable for not showing up on time or unprepared at times but toward the end of it all I saw the concept of power and how it can be shared as well as coveted. I also realized the call to urgency to make change. Besides the PA project I also learned to approach people easier and ask questions tactfully doing "one- to- one" relational meetings. I enjoyed these a lot an learned to really listen to people and their stories to get a genuine sense of who they are. I also learned to differentiate the different types of power and when it was appropriate to use them in their different forms. Now the semester has come to an end and all I can say is that Public Achievement really opened my yes to the world and helped me to focus and find clarity when communicating with others personally and professionally. The skills I have learned in PA make me feel more passionate and confident in my work at the rec. center and I can actually apply most of the principals and training in my day to day work performance. Also I have learned not to become complacent in my position in life. I have been asked to consider changing my major to the "Urban Teacher" Program and wonder if that's something that I really want to do and if so will I hold up to that commitment. I have come to wonder if what maybe it's not what you make out to be your destiny but rather it's your destiny that makes you what you were meant to be.

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Permalink Reply by Michael C. Kuhne on May 14, 2009 at 9:48am

Hi my name is Charmaine Terrell. I am currently attending Minneapolis Community & Technical College. The name of my team for public achievement is the clean crew. I came up with the name for the public achievement project because our team name is clean city. I coached at the Inter District Downtown School located in the downtown area in Minneapolis. I have learned as a citizen the rights of individuals and contributions to his or her community. This has given me the power and the ability to braoden formal ideas citizenship by viewing any individualof any age groupor legal status as a public co-creator. My public life is good public service. I have volunteered at Whittier park last semester in 2008 for my UPRY 1900 seminar 2 class. The project issue is to empower children in creative activities. My self interest in the project is to help children learn different activities and also engage in activities to help focus on recreation and other productive activities. It also is a way to help supervise children while they make decisions and choices on their own. ( All of these experices gives me the power to teach and help guide children to a better future). This summer i volunteered at the YMCA for some of the programs such as basketball, softball, baseball, tutoring,homework and also group leaders. I am on the women's basketball team for MCTC and my coach Mr. keith lindahl convinced me to play last fall in 2008 in his education 1000 career in education child youth and development class. I decided to go ahead and play college basketball. I would like to coach someday and also teach as well. My coach is a very good example of my carrer for the future. My recreational field of interest comes from the park district. I started playing tag foootball for loyola park district which is located in Chicago IL. We won the championship game at soldiers field in Chicago IL in 1993. I started working for loyola park the summer of 1994 with the children's day camp as a recreational leader. My Recreational and my UPRY teachers and my Education teachers such as Kathy Korum, Diane Scovill, Michael kuhne and also Keith Lindahl and last but not least Kim Jackson in the Education department has influenced me each day to really keep using my experiences as a tool for my career in some Profession. Accountability & responsibilty is being accountable for one's actions or words. Being accountable & responsible to the group & the public world. Citizenship refers to the stitue of being a member in a community and to the quality of individual rights. Democracy literally means rule or work of the people. Diversity is the fact of public life in the public world one encounters a variety of different people ideas, histories, and cultures. Freedom- we are free if we live under the laws, society, or world that we haave made for ourselves. Interest- what makes a particular person or group connected to (or interested in) an issue or problem. Politics is the practice of power and governance that is how public decisions get made. Power- is the ability to influence other people, institutions, or processes. Public - as a group of people, a kind of space and common interest such as creating a project that is public. Public work - The organizing work of ordinary citizens, who together, solve public problems and create things of lasting importance in our community, nation, or world. Relationships - the understandings that you have with one another a state of being mutually interested or involved as a social or commercial matter. Being accountable & responsible to my group was very important that i came to the IDDS to coach the group to show leadership to the group. "Without a leader how can you follow". We togheter as a group solved some public problems by creating and following a No litter pledge fo the group the clean crew. That's public work in our communuty, nation, and world. It hasen't been frustrating or confusing for me it was a challenge for me to experience different ways to accomplish public achievement in different areas. It has broaden my views and ideas with different cultures and different citizens of any age or public co-creator. To have the power to influence others such as my group the clean crew. I influenced them as a group and as a team to help clean the city and made them realized the importance to our environment and how to keep a clean city for everyone. The childeren aked me after the public achievement celebration were we still going to go to Loring park and help clean the park. That was one of our plans for the clean crew. I told them that i would try any see if we could go and walk over to loring park and clean the park up. This is a process for me as a leader to try and accomplish as a group leader to help and influence other people and help empower others to develop advocacy skills and help keep a CLEAN CITY.

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