Kickin it up at Portal Elementary

I was contacted a few weeks ago by Mr. Paul Hudson, the principal of Portal Elementary School, about performing at an assembly that was scheduled for September 26th. I gladly accepted the invitation. This is the school that, on most days of the week, I get to walk down the kindergarten hall with my son as I drop him off for his day at school. So Friday came, and I arrived early to set up some equipment and to talk a little more with Mr. Hudson about the assembly. We had talked before about this assembly being a great way to "Kick Off" the school's success goals for the year. The assembly would address Attendance, Behavior, the Accelerated Reader Program, and all of the rewards that the students would be able to accumulate throughout the year for their achievements in these areas. Mr. Hudson started the event. Dressed in a Taekwondo uniform and a headband (that strangely resembled a necktie), he talked to the students about the various things that they would be able to receive for their hard work and perseverance.

After talking to the students, Mr. Hudson got ready to break a board. More than 450 students laughed and giggled as Mr. Hudson did his "silly" warm ups. He then called two students up to the stage to help hold his board. As he prepared to break the board, he stopped and said that he wouldn't be breaking the board. He had invited a professional to come by and break it. This was my cue.

The students clapped and cheered as I entered the room and proceeded to the stage. My part in the assembly was to reiterate the things that Mr. Hudson had talked about; Attendance, Behavior and Focusing on the Accelerated Reader Program (in an exciting and memorable way). To do this I brought some boards to break. My plan was to talk to all of the students at the same time but to challenge a specific group about one of the success goals that Mr. Hudson talked about. Then I would break a board "for that group".


I talked to the 5th graders first, challenging them to have the best attendance for the whole school year. Then, I broke a board for them - a knee strike. Next I talked to the 4th and 3rd graders. Their challenge for the year was to really work on having the best behavior of any grade at PES. I got Mr. Hudson to help me hold the board for this one, a hammerfist board break. The challenge for the 2nd and 1st graders was to do the best in the Accelerated Reader Program. At this time I grabbed my gearbag and pulled out about a dozen "things" that I like to read. I showed them magazines, newspapers, and several different kinds of books. (I have to tell you that some of the books that I used I borrowed from my son's bookshelf, so I had to clear it with him beforehand - He said it was OK) For the 3rd and 2nd grade break, I got Coach Parker to help hold for a jump front kick. During all of this excitement, the Kindergarten and Pre-K students were really doing a great job waiting for their turn, and it was finally here. Their challenge for the year was the hardest, to work on their focus in 3 important areas: listening, looking and thinking. After talking about how to focus these 3 areas, I broke an "oversize" board with an elbow strike.


The assembly lasted about 45 minutes. All of the students (and the teachers) seemed to enjoy it. Mr. Hudson did a great job as "Master Hudson" and I had a blast, as always.

As an teacher, motivational speaker and entertainer, I always hope that something good that I say or do will "stick" or "make a positive impact" with some in the audience . . . maybe only one. Hey, maybe that "one" is that little kindergartener that I walk down the halls with in the mornings on his way to class.

A Visit From The Boys

Last Saturday, I had the privilege of working out with some of the young men from Joseph's Home for Boys, located here in Statesboro. (Joseph's Home for Boys is a group home that provides a long-term supportive environment for children ages 6-21) This class, like one I did last year with the boys, was set up months ago by a member of the Statesboro Service League.

The class was set up for Saturday at 1:00 pm at our Academy. Members of the Service League arrived first - the boys arrived shortly after. Since the class like this that I did last year, I've been able to work with the boys through a Taekwondo program that we started at the Home, so I knew most of them. But there were three new faces, three boys that I hadn't met yet. I introduced myself to them, talked with them for just a minute, and then got everybody out on the floor to start. It was a great mix of people for the class: members of the Service League, some of their children that had come with them, and of course the boys - in all about twenty.

The class started with group warm up exercises. Then everyone paired-up for partner drills . . . situps, pushups and target kicking. Punching drills came next, followed by self defense practice drills. The class finished with some fun conditioning drills and a game of dodgeball. During all of these activities, we talked about the development and use of Leadership Skills - perseverance, hard work, respect, discipline and focus. Everyone did a great job and seemed to have a great time - I know I did. (I'll try to get some pics of the class posted soon)

Earlier I mentioned a Taekwondo Program at the Home. This program has allowed me to go out to Joseph's once a week to teach Taekwondo and leadership skills. The program has definately been a success. Earlier this year, five of the boys earned their orange belt and had their belts presented to them at our belt ceremony at the Statesboro Mall - they even did a demo at the Mall! Since then, we've changed the program to allow the boys to come to our facility for their classes. Here, they're able to fully participate in the program, with the right equipment and environment. They continue to do well and are looking forward to their next belt promotion.

What I learned from a building . . .

We've got a lot of stuff. Our attic is full of stuff. Our garage is full of stuff. We've got stuff inside, stuff outside. That stuff just keeps accumulating.

So . . . we've taken the leap and bought a 30 by 30 metal building - you know. . . just in case we somehow get more stuff. Anyway, it's scheduled to be delivered tomorrow and for the last few days a crew of workers have been getting the ground ready for the building.

First, several trees and bushes needed to be cleared out. That was easy enough. The guy clearing some land for my dad next door made quick work of the trees and bushes - he's there clearing some land next door that my dad just purchased. From there the crew of workers took over, each one appearing to know exactly what needed to be done to get the ground ready for the concrete slab to be poured - each one moving about with a purpose. I could tell that they'd done this before. They were busy measuring, cutting wood and hammering stakes. It took them about two days to create the wooden form that would hold the concrete slab in place while it dried.

Yesterday, I got a call from the boss man who said that because of the slope on our land we needed some dirt brought in to level it up. He explained that it would be a whole lot cheaper to bring in some dirt than to fill it with extra cement. And so that's what we did. At about 2:00 today, a huge dumptruck full of dirt was pulling through our yard to get to the building site. He unloaded in less than a minute and was on his way. For the rest of the day, the crew worked to spread and compact the dirt. What started as two big piles of dirt was soon spread over the whole area. By six o'clock, the dirt was spread, compacted and ready to accept the truckloads of cement scheduled to be delivered in the morning.

What intrigues me most about the whole process is the care that is taken to prepare the foundation for this building. I can't help but think of the Bible verses that talk about building on Rock, a solid foundation, one that won't get washed away. As I go back and think about the process, I remember the boss man saying that the footers on one side needed to go a little deeper because of the sandy ground on that side. He said that they needed to go deeper to get on a little firmer ground, so everything would be stable. When I asked him about what kind of dirt to get to fill-in with, sand or some other kind of dirt, he said to order dirt - not sand - because it would pack better and hold stronger. That makes sense. At another time we were talking about the concrete slab itself. He told me that a slab of that size would crack, that's just how it goes, but they would put some "lines" (can't remember what he called them) in the concrete that would help control the cracks. I thought that was a pretty cool idea.

After all that I've seen the workers do over the last few days, I have a newfound respect for the whole process of installing a concrete slab. Great care and time goes into making sure the foundation is solid and sure. And, knowing that the slab will crack, steps are taken to help minimize and control them. It sounds like a great parallel to life, don't you think?

We should all take great care and time preparing ourselves - our attitudes, our education, our skill set, etc. - so we have a firm, solid base to build any endeavor upon, whether it be a way of life, a career goal or a hobby. And, because we're human, we know that we will have faults - our foundation will probably have faults - but we take steps to prepare for those faults - to help control them. It's impossible to know how many faults will come or when they'll come. We just hope that we've prepared our foundation, our life, as best we can and that when challenges come, we plan - and actively work - to overcome them. What do you think?

Competition, Crabs and Go Carts . . .

We've just returned from a tournament down in Panama City Beach, Florida this past weekend. This particular tournament is held each year on Labor Day weekend and is a very popular tournament on the ATA Tournament Circuit, drawing over 1,000 competitors from as far away as San Diego, California. However, most - like us - were from the southeast region, a little closer to home.

Like for most of us, vacations are hard to come by - at least good ones are. So, we took advantage of this tournament by extending our stay. The tournament was being held at the Edgewater Beach Resort, right on the beach, and we booked our stay at the Resort so we would be close to the beach and the tournament. We arrived on Thursday night and left on Monday morning.

We left Portal around 3 o'clock, after picking up Braden from school. From there we traveled through Pearson, GA to pick up my mom and change vehicles (my dad let us use his Escalade) and then went on toward Florida. We arrived around 9:30 pm -after the time change. Not much to do when we got there: checked in the resort, checked out the beach, unpacked our stuff and settled in.

Friday was a fun day. We spent most of the day on the beach - swimming, playing and building sand castles.



After the beach, Braden and I checked out one of the pools at the Resort while Jamie and mom went to the room.

Later that day, I was scheduled to compete (4th and 5th degree competition took place the night before). The tournament started around 6:30 pm and my group was assigned to ring number 3. Jamie and Braden got front row seats and my mom was able to watch from the nearby secretary's table. Forms competition was first. My scores were a 9.8, 9.8, 9.9 - good enough for 1st place. Weapons were next, but I didn't compete in weapons this time. Sparring was last. I made it to the final round, but lost by one point. . . so I got 2nd in sparring. Overall, I felt good about my performance and - like all things that challenge us - walked away knowing that there's still a few more things to work on!




Saturday was spent at the tournament. The morning started off with the Black Belt Judges Meeting at 7:30 am. Tiny Tiger competition started around 9:00 am. Opening ceremonies were around 10:00 am. From there, competition continued throughout the day, starting with the youngest competitors and working up through the age and rank divisions until everyone had competed. The tournament finally wrapped up around 4:30 pm that day . . . a very long, hot day. [We had five competitors from our school in Statesboro competing in the tournament. Their results will be posted in the next edition of iVision, our weekly e-newsletter.] Later that night we went out for dinner and then headed back to the room.

On Sunday, we went back to the beach. By then signs of Hurricane Gustav were evident - higher winds, bigger waves, looming clouds and the threat of rain. The two red warning flags were out so we couldn't swim in the ocean, but we still had fun at the lagoon pool. After swimming for awhile, we went out for lunch and then went to ride go carts. Now that was fun! The boys rode in the 2-seater and mom rode in the single seater -- mom says she won -- Braden says that the boys won -- I think the boys won. Anyway, after that we went shopping for some Hermit Crabs to replace one that we lost (for more on that story check out Jamie's blog). We ended up buying 3 crabs and a shark-tooth necklace for Braden. When we got back to the room, we contemplated leaving early because of the approaching hurricane, but after studying The Weather Channel every chance we got, we decided to stay. So later we went back out to the pool and had some more fun, got take-out from the restaurant by the pool, and ate dinner in the room.

Deciding to stay turned out to be good. The hurricane missed Florida and the "outer bands" didn't have much effect on the weather where we were. The weather on Monday was actually better than the weather on Sunday. So we got up, packed up our things, checked out, stopped at the local Waffle House for breakfast (closer to lunch on "our time"), and headed home.

It was a good trip. We had fun on the beach, competed in a tournament, rode go carts, ate some great food, bought some Hermit Crabs, and was missed by a hurricane. Not bad for a Labor Day weekend in Floriday. It's something we'll look forward to next Labor Day - minus the hurricane of course!