WEBVTT

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[Music] Welcome to
Benchmark Madness.

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My name is Jemar Tisby,

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principal of KIPP Delta
College Preparatory School

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in Helena, Arkansas.

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Students so often get excited
about sports, athletics,

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other things outside of school.

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We want them to put just
as much energy and just

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as much enthusiasm
into their education.

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So Benchmark Madness is kind
of modeled after March Madness

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in college basketball, getting
students pumped and excited

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about the Benchmark Test,

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which is the Arkansas
State Assessment.

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So Benchmark Madness is the
kind of big fun push and kickoff

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to the test prep season.

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Simple expectations,
we want them

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to have fun but not be silly.

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And so we want them to laugh

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with each other not
at each other.

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We want them to follow
directions even though they are

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doing a lot of fun activities.

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So we just lay all that out for
the students at the beginning.

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We have lots of different
activities lined

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up for the students.

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We began the night
with a carnival.

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In the carnival we had five

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or six different activities
ring toss, things like that.

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We also had cotton candy
there, popcorn machine there.

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We had inflatable sumo suits

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that the kids could
compete with each other in.

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We had tie-dyeing t-shirts where
they could pick their own colors

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and tie-dye their own T-shirts.

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We had competitive cup stacking
where they race each other

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to see who can do these
formations the fastest.

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Improv drama where they
play all types of games

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with drama and acting.

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Salsa dancing where they can
learn a few of the basic steps.

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Building a tower
out of toothpicks.

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And lots of other different
activities throughout the night.

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It's one of the premier
events of the school year.

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Most kids say it's the most
fun they have all year.

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And we love it because
it's fun and it's academic,

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and we want to show kids
that learning is fun.

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It's not learning or
fun; it's both-and.

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Learning can be fun.

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So it's entirely
worth the effort.

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We think about the Benchmark
Madness event all year long,

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and we spend about a month

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of focused planning
leading up to the event.

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We get dozens of
volunteers to help us out.

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It takes lots of help from
vendors and facilities people.

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So a lot of hands are involved,

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but it's completely worth the
effort because once we do it,

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the kids have a blast and
they can connect the fact

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that the hard work they
are about to do prepare

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for the state test can
also be fun as well.

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We have done this event
for five or six years now,

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and we will keep on doing
it because the impact

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on students is that they
are so much more motivated

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to do the hard work
that it takes to prepare

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for any assessment but
especially the state assessment.

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We can constantly refer
back to Benchmark Madness

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and the activities that we
did there, to show them, hey,

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school can and should be fun,

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and while we work hard
we also play hard.

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So we want the students to know
that it's not an onerous thing

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to come to school and
to do a lot of work.

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In fact, that is the
joy because that's

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when you are really learning,

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that's when you are
really getting smarter.

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And we want them to know
that they should enjoy that

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and have fun with
it, and we call it

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in the KIPP world joy factor.

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So that goes to build
our culture,

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and it makes it lot more fun
to do this very serious task

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of making sure kids have the
college preparatory education

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they need to get to and through
college for the life of value,

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joy, and integrity that
we want them to lead.

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To learn more about using
enrichment activities

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to promote academics, please
explore the additional resources

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on the Doing What Works website.

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[Music]