Ray Moore's Blog (14)

The fact is that this generation -- yours, my generation ... we're the first generation that can look at poverty and disease, look across the ocean to Africa and say with a straight face, we can be the first to end this sort of stupid extreme poverty, where in the world of plenty, a child can die for lack of food in it's belly.   …

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Last year Huntington High School (West Virginia) and Salem High School (Virginia) partnered in the Walk for Africa - One Life to Make a Difference. This walk was the service project for freshmen at both schools. We shared with each other through video conferencing and through a common One Life to Make a Difference ning. The freshmen raised over $12,000. By partnering with World Vision, we were able to donate the money to funds that were matched many times over by the U.S. government and…

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The joint service project by freshmen at Salem and Huntington High Schools still have some significant donations coming in. Sponsorships now are approaching $10,000. A few teachers sponsored many students and have not made the final tally to write their checks. Also a donor agreed to match teacher and staff donations at the two schools. We are now expecting to top $12,000 between the two.



By channeling those donations into specific funds that are matched five times by the U.S.… Continue

If you think your school might like to become a part of The Walk for Africa – One Life to Make a Difference in the future, look for the contact information at the bottom of this blog.



Freshman at Huntington High School in West Virginia and Salem High School in Virginia are partnering to answer the call to save suffering children. As many as 700 ninth graders will be walking on November 25, the day before Thanksgiving, to raise thousands of dollars to serve children in Africa… Continue

Alertness and Initiative were two of the “lost blocks” for me for many years. Along with Friendship, Loyalty, and Cooperation, they failed to capture my attention like the other ten blocks. As you will see, that was "my bad” rather than any fault with the blocks. When I would teach these two blocks, I gave John Wooden’s definition and his thoughts about them to the students, but I really failed to do an adequate job of selling the importance of these blocks to my students.



In this… Continue

All blocks in the Pyramid of Success rest upon the blocks below, so a review of the cornerstones of the first two rows is an appropriate beginning to a discussion of the middle three blocks. Start with just a reminder of what those blocks are: Industriousness and Enthusiasm, and Self-Control and Intentness. As you discuss the middle three blocks. students will clearly see how important all four cornerstones are in supporting the acquisition of Condition, Skill, and Team Spirit.



From… Continue

Competitive Greatness is the top block in the Pyramid of Success. Don't wait too long in the study of the Pyramid before giving students a vision of where the Pyramid can take them in life. You will probably have your own stories, but here is the way I begin to explain Competitive Greatness:



When I coached Little League baseball, I learned that there are two types of hitters. Consider this situation. It is the last inning of the game, and your team is down by one run. There are two… Continue

John Wooden describes success as the Peace of Mind that comes from the Self-Satisfaction in knowing that you did the best that you are capable of doing. Anyone can find success according to that definition and the journey through the Pyramid of Success can change everything in a student’s life.



I teach the blocks in small chunks. The first are the cornerstones of the whole Pyramid: Industriousness and Enthusiasm. It is appropriate that Enthusiasm be taught first because the whole… Continue

When I was a second-year teacher, I was asked to coach the 0-10 tennis team at my school. My only qualification was that I once had seen a tennis racket. Being an English teacher, I went out and bought a book on tennis and also stumbled across a book called They Call Me Coach by John Wooden. The book changed my life as a teacher and as a father. The main theme of the book is that the way you conduct yourself off the court has everything to do with the way you conduct yourself on the… Continue

Do you ever feel like you are teaching in some alien culture where the sun rises in the west and sets in the east?



Our classrooms are filled with students who don't understand that they have a responsibility to their community and to their world to become productive members of society. I often talk to them about the little old lady who lives on the street next to our school. I ask them if they are giving her a good return on the investment that she is making in them through her tax… Continue

Billy grew up in the days of segregation, and he lived on the south side of Main Street. The big, white Baptist Church was on the north side. First Baptist, the black church, was much smaller and just down Broad Street about two blocks on the south side. He lived on south Market Street just a couple of blocks from the newly integrated high school and the intermediate school, which just a couple of years before had been the black high school in our town.

Some days, he was not in school or… Continue

On Friday, I introduced my students to Matt as a Do Now assignment. I related the following story and asked them to give at least a 10-word summary of each the two “chapters” involved in Matt’s story. As a homework assignment, they were to relate the story of someone they knew who had been knocked down, but who got back up.



Matt graduated a little over ten years ago from our school. He had academic struggles, but he was the best basketball player in his class. He also worked hard at… Continue

I am not sure if anyone is interested in hearing about some of the students that our school helped nurture, but I intend to post the stories of some of them. Some are recent graduates, but some graduated before I ever began teaching decades ago. One place that I intend to look for ideas is our alumni association Hall of Fame.



The one former student who is interesting me tremendously right now is 85 years old. He is fairly unknown to many who… Continue

I am concerned about the belief systems that so many of my students have. The vast majority of them sell themselves short. They lack the concept that their life is a gift to the world. They think they are ordinary and that they do not make a big difference in the world.



The result is devastating. That is why many don't try. It is why they indulge in a whole spectrum of risky behaviors. They don't take the kind of risks that we would like them to take either. That is the kind of risk… Continue