Yesterday, I attended a 2010 US Class Chess Championship at the Hilton here in Houston, TX, not to play in the tournament but to discuss something with the coordinator of T.H. Rogers’s Chess Club. It is one of the best chess club in Houston Independent School District (HISD). I was assigned by my principal to set up a chess club in the after school program and I decided to do some benchmarking with T.H. Roger’s Chess Club.
As I was talking to their coordinator, which is a parent volunteer, and not even an employee of HISD, their program is not for free but for a fee. The students are paying just to be in the program and they can afford to hire experts and masters to teach their students. The coaches get paid $100 for a 45-minute chess lesson. Their main sources of income are summer chess camps and donations from corporations.
I was lucky to be able to beat one of their coaches, Life Master Larry Englebretson USCF Rated 2204, in one of the tournament here in Houston. See the related link:
http://web.me.com/fnatividad/Site/Blog/Entries/2010/1/17_MY_FIRST_US_CHESS_TOURNAMENT.html
I was wondering how could I make it a success in our school where most of the parents belong to the low-income group and parent involvement is not that active.
Reading the book, The Art of Possibility by B. Zander & R.S. Zander, makes me think of the questions:
What assumption am I making?
That I’m not aware I’m making,
That gives me what I see?
What might I now invent,
That I haven’t yet invented,
That would give me other choices?
These questions have been going on in my mind about the challenges I am facing now. The only problem I have are getting the resources mostly money to buy chess equipments, Scholastic membership fee to US Chess federation for my students and miscellaneous expenses in joining the tournaments. My first plan is to ask and make letters to different local companies or shops like Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Shell and others to ask for donations. I do not have experience writing grants but this is a good opportunity to practice writing those letters.
I believe the possibilities are endless. I have no problem teaching the kids the chess skills that they need since I have all the books, chess software’s, and some connections to local clubs and most of all the passion and love of the game. I am just worried about the funding. If the funding is not an issue then I can do my job without any hesitations or apprehension.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment