Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

Coach Ken Carter on Education

Coach Ken Carter shared the opening TCEA 2006 keynote presentation. The movie “Coach Carter” is about his life!

We have technology going wild at this conference. The coach is about go wild today! You all can be in trouble giving a coach a microphone

Preso today will like a lady’s dress: long enough to cover all the basics, but short enough to keep your interest!

I was born in a huge town called McComb, Mississippi.. as you are exiting the freeway / road, there is a sign that says you are entering McComb, MS, and at the bottom of the sign it says “you are leaving McCo

I have 7 sisters. I was wearing pink and lavender shorts before they become fashionable. My 7 sisters were my first team.

Accountability, integrity, being a great follower before you can be a great leader: teamwork, what it takes for your team to win and move forward.

We are are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings having a human experience. My mother when I was

We must always do more than what we are paid for, you get paid by the value you bring to the hour. We must do more as an investment in our future. Everyone in this room needs to be validated. No one in this room can be successful alone.

The only difference between a big shot and a little shot: the big shot is really just a little shot who kept on working and praying. Everyone in this room today have lived a movie. We have to each decide how we want it to end.

We must all begin our lives with accountability.

In Richmond High School, 50% of students dropout, 80% chance of going to jail. But all the students on Coach Carter’s team have graduated from high school and went on to college.

You can panic now and avoid the rush. Talk about technology going wild?

You have to prepare to be accountably. My plays on my basketball team are named after my 7 sisters and their personalities.

There is a different between broke and being poor. Being broke is a temporary condition, but being poor is a disabling condition of the mind. It is OK to be broke.

I had a vision when I went to coach at Richmond HS. I used a contract that each child, parent, and even grandparent signed.

The people who are most successful in our society have access to great information.

I tell my players I am going to love all of you the same. But I am going to like some better than others. Be one of the players I really like.

We are talking about integrity and accountability here.

You need access to information to be successful. Integrity: When all else fails, simply tell the truth. 4 words to improve the lives of every man in this audience: “Listen to the woman.”

Access to good information is key. My 7 sisters are probably a better coach than I am. Ladies will actually tell you the truth

Winning Texas football team watched the movie “Coach Carter” each year. I am from California, but USC watched some other movie.

When you talk about success (and all of us are coaches, we are sharing information and ) we want to move information and their committment from their head to their heart, and have it show up in the work they do.

You must always do more than you are paid for, as an investment in our future.

An entrepreneur is someone willing to work to get a JOB (just over broke.) We don’t want jobs, we want careers. We didn’t have

Our kids looked like losers, they acted like losers. I talked sometimes to the back of the students’ heads

The contract held everyone in our program accountability. We showed them how to be great followers first. I couldn’t lead my 7 sisters!

If you believe the messenger, you will believe the message. The message: we are real people, with real problems, and we’re looking for real answers.

I just had one rule: I just believe in holding people accountable. I gave large amounts of pushups because it made kids become leaders and have to bring others

My teams just have a habit of winning. Average is not good enough. When we start transforming kids in their minds: when you can see it, you can be it.

Kids will learn as many languages as you will teach them. We talk ourselves out of success all the time. “We’re not tall enough, not smart enough, not fast enough.”

Our only fears as a baby: of falling, and loud noises. As we grow up, we learn all kinds of other fears. You have to have access to great information to get over those fears.

Coach’s only rule: Never be on time for anything. Always be early.

Challenge of getting team members into the library solved by paying some of the most attractive girls in the school to study in the library. Once we got those boys in the library with those girls, they become student athletes.

My goal when I started teaching was just getting kids to their next class: it was not help

You cannot solve a problem if you are at the same level of the problem. You have to have your team! I had my 7 sisters!

After going 16-0, kids became like rock stars. They forgot about going to school and just wanted to be NBA stars.

Stats: only 1 in 500,000 kids will get chance to play professional sports.

Do you want to be like Shaq? No, I want to be like the person who pays Shaq. That is entrepreneurship. My definition is: someone who is willing to work 16-18 hours a day to keep from getting a JOB.

The magic in information, accountability and integrty, being a great follower, being a part of the team: YOU HAVE TO WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS, because they crystalize and become real.

My family was broke but not poor. Being poor is a disabling frame of mind and a depressed condition of the spirit. My mom would sing a lot of spiritual songs.

At 8 years old I told my mother one day they would make a movie about th. It took 35 years for it to happen! Made his kids forfeit 6 games till they brought up their grades.

I was organized: I had accountability, I had integrity, I had my team. A deal breaker was my 7 sisters, mom, my ex players, their moms, my ex players, and my cousin too! And we need Samuel Jackson to do this.

We all will have some trials and tribulations, but you must turn those difficulties into opportunities. If you are winning, people don’t care about the kids grades. But I wanted to win outside the court. Those statistics are real. We took 45 kids and turned around our kids, our community, they had to be respectful for all the girls. They had to all say yes ma’am, yes sir.

Story of fighting bullies to defend his sisters: I kept coming back. When you love something enough, you will fight to the very end to defend it.

How much enthusiasm do you bring to your classroom, your church, your environment?

Are you a chronic complainer? 80% of the people don’t care you have a problem.

We are talking about the ultimate winner. “Worm” was a student on my team and the film. He was enthusiastic. You have to give people opportunities.

One of my sisters said you don’t play well in red, so we were like Diana Ross and changed clothes at halftime into our blue shirts.

I am not a motivational speaker, I am an inspirational speaker.

It takes more to motivation to be successful, it takes inspiration, and that includes an ACTION step.

Last of game, all-american fouls out, looking on the bench for someone who is ready to play. Worm said, “I am ready to play. Put me in the game.” I told him to get ferocious. Worm ran out and asked, “Is Ferocious on our team? What is his number?”

Worm went in and stabilized the team, went into the game, held their best player to zero points in the last 4 minutes, and scored 10 points himself.

I learned that winners will go from one failure to the next enthusiastically. When you are a winner, you are going to fail sometimes, but you have got to stay enthusiastic. You cannot let others who are toxic people drain that energy out of you.

We are all built to win!

I can’t take the credit for helping these boys change their lives. They wanted to change their lives, many were the first in their families

Things you perceive as problems are just another opportunity.

After scene of team helping player

“We are all meant to shine. And as we let our own lights shine, we give others permission for them

A lot of people in the US think you make money, but what you have to do is earn money. The only way you can do that is with the ability to think. So I taught the entrepreneurship class for students.

There are player-haters everywhere. They are not going to believe.

A great team and a great family are like angels. They will lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.

Success is when everyone is a little mad. You are never going to have everyone at your school agree with you. Looking at our school, if no one got killed that day, it was a good day. As teachers and educators we must be good examples.

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3 responses to “Coach Ken Carter on Education”

  1. Christopher Harris Avatar

    AASL (American Association of School Librarians) had Coach Carter for a keynote as well. What made it even more interesting was that his former high school librarian was in the crowd!

    He did give a rather inspiring talk.

  2. Wesley Fryer Avatar

    I wish I could have recorded it. His presentation was so high-energy, later in the conference I really felt more obligated to get excited about my topic instead of drone on in a less passionate way!

    I love how Coach Carter told stories throughout his presentation. That is what good speakers do well, I think, communicate effectively through stories about their own lives and the lives of others. I really enjoyed his message of hope. At the end of the day, he basically was challenging everyone to have high expectations for their students, and find creative ways to help motivate them. I think that is a needed message for teachers at all levels.