Hero School

Make Your School a Hero School®.

"Tiger Todd has been instrumental in sending the message that education is important to our students. His enthusiasm and quick sense of humor have always kept our students engaged...His motivational message is always right on target, no matter the audience..."' -Dr. Walt Rulfes, Superintendent, Clark County School District

Hero School® For Educational Institutions

No Student Left...Out?

Slogans. We're told we'll have change we can believe in. Then they tell us our children will be ready for life. Some wait for Superman. How much longer will we have to wait? Children need 10-Day Plans to get them engaged in learning, not 10-Year Plans. A quick look around at the increasing dropout rates and decreasing graduation rates, increasing unemployment and decreasing company engagement, and increasing dependency and decreasing independence confirms this. Slogans aren't going to get it done this time.

We need results before we lose any other children to gangs or worse, and we need results fast.

The Hero School Academic Engagement System has been shown to spark engagement and motivate learning in under an hour, and increase attendance and standardized test increases of at least 33% (typical) in a couple of weeks, against historical decreases of 3-5% per year. That's Change. That's fast. And it's unique to Hero School. So now that Superman is here, who has the courage to embrace this kind of change in their schools, with our children, and for our communities?

"In this oh-so-modern life, we have deep-seated desire to quantify the world around us
so that we can understand it and control it. But the world isn't behaving." - Roger Martin, Harvard Business Review 1/11/10

YOU can rewrite the Rules.

 "Man is born to live, not to prepare to live." - Boris Pasternak (1890-1960)

How did we find out what was missing in the education of American youth? We asked one overlooked, yet essential question:

"What do young people today need to hear to become who they can be?"

Students today don't need any more adults telling them how it is. It is clear that many adults in this new generation are revaluing their own values and definitions to see if they hold water. What our youth need are teachers, coaches, and experts who validate what is important to them, and who simultaneously inspire them to learn the life strategies and lessons that will help them synchronize their inner and outer lives. 

Hero School® is that unique communication vehicle that quickly, seamlessly, and painlessly connects the inner needs of today’s young people with the essential lessons taught by educators, employers, experts, and society. Hero School® further optimizes the respective roles of students, educators, and experts within the community as a whole. Hero School® programs rapidly motivate continual learning and character development within and among students, while simultaneously motivating respect and empowerment within and among educators and administrators.

The Research would indicate that more Research is the Problem, not the Solution

There is more scientific research on human education and human behavior than at any time in history. And yet, student engagement, retention, and graduation rates are dropping faster than at any time in history. "So let me see if I understand correctly: the more research we use in public education, the worse our public education system has become?" That is what the research would suggest. At Hero School, waiting is not leading. Educators should lead Education. Research should support Educators.

Replace obsolete Classroom Management with Hero School Classroom Leadership™

Hero School® would never say that research is at fault - blaming inanimate objects like cell phones, TVs, and research is counterproductive. Rather, our human-centered research indicates that the act of serving the research - a learned behavior - is the problem. There is a temptation today to wait for, follow, or "serve" research and scientific advances before we act. This lack of human leadership creates a vacuum in student followership. Scientific advances should be serving humanity, not the other way around. Hero School Classroom Leadership™ keynotes and workshops reverse this trend - and reverse the falling engagement, retention, and dropout rates - by empowering educators to remain in charge, while relegating science to the role of supporting our uniquely-human insights and strengths, not leading them.

 CONTACT Hero School® and empower your educators today!

Keynotes, Programs, and Workshops

MEANING, PURPOSE, AND MOTIVATION: Why am I really here?

CAREERS AND CALLINGS: Declaring a Destination.

TIME & LIFE MANAGEMENT: How to manage our-selves in a 168-hour week.

EMPLOYABILITY: Strategies for being employed in and after college.

LEADERSHIP 101: The FIRST RULE of Leadership.

SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP: Boldly going where few have gone before.

COMMUNICATION MASTERY: Making people want to Hear, Help, and Hire you.

DRINKING AND DRUGGING: Why you drink, and why I should.

and Dozens More.

Public School Workshops: No Teacher Left Behind

Teachers need our support. Overburdened with programs spanning discipline, distraction, and detention, teachers need help becoming free to teach again. And while there is more research available than ever before telling educators what's "wrong" with kids, parents, and society today, few experts have offered effective strategies for making things turn out "right."

Hero School® puts the educator first, and research last, after students, parents, community members and every other human being necessary to a child's "more fully human" development. When did research become the "boss", anyway?

Hero School® is essential, but only one of many components is today's education equation. The good news is that the other components are already in place, from everyday heroes including committed teachers and support personnel, to community partners whose strategies, structure, and support complete the educational Circle of Life.

The mission of Hero School® for Education is to produce and deliver its unique holistic strategies, programs, and character-based solutions for fostering continual learning and human development with young people, while also motivating and empowering youth and educators to work together to become responsible, purposeful, and high-achieving role models, partners, and community leaders.

 "I think your Hero Class should be mandatory in every school class for young (people)

so they can stop the 'repeat' life I have lived for 36 years..." - Adult Student

What will Hero School® do for Your School?

Hero School® for Education answers and remedies two of the fundamental problems in public education today:

No Student Left Behind

1) Like no other time in American history, most children today don’t know “WHY” they are in school. Elements of legacy American educational values have become less apparent in mainstream society today and have created a vacuum within our public education system, leaving a chasm between our qualified teachers and our children's achievement, behavior, and future productivity. Hero School® bridges this chasm.

Hero School® first connects with today’s young people at their level and with their language, and then makes them aware of their unique human power to change through education. Finally, Hero School® motivates students to take action by respecting and learning from educators, employers, and community leaders.

No Teacher Left Behind

2) Like no other time in American history, teachers today do not understand their role as human Change Agents™.
Hero School® empowers teachers to become the essential change agents in every young person’s life, reinspiring them to teach, while simultaneously relieving them of the burden of being reduced to assessors and disciplinarians. Hero School® delivers unrivaled strategies for leadership and communication that produce immediate and lasting results.

How Hero School® Can Help Bridge the Chasm

Hero School® for Education programs can be implemented easily at public middle and high schools to swiftly and significantly increase student attendance and effort, dramatically increase global CRT and HSPE scores, significantly reduce dropouts, and free up much-needed resources often consumed by non-educational programs geared toward discipline and behavioral management. Imagine a classroom of students who want to impress the teacher, even when he or she isn't looking, instead of children who are always trying to "get away with something." This is the world of Hero School®.

A typical Program for accomplishing these objectives in a single school year may include the following:

Hero School® Motivation with emphasis on “Why am I Here?”

• SEPTEMBER: 50-minute Hero School Motivational Assemblies for each group of 250 to 500 at-risk students
• Program Coordinator/Project Manager/School Liaison
• Individual Research/Focused Program Development
• Hero School® Educator Workshops for each group’s teachers
• JANUARY: Hero School® Motivation For Successful HSPE/CRT/AYP
  
• Summary Meeting each Semester at Conclusion of Programs for Reflection/Best Practices
• Hero School® Intellectual Property Site License for school or district
  

Students will:

1. Learn the need for character change, making school immediately relevant.
2. Learn the value of teachers and community experts as their essential Change Agents, making  school work and learning through teachers both relevant and a priority.
3. Learn the role of “student” in today’s society, as well as help them better define their purpose and their role to the global community and future generations.
4. Be motivated to take action toward their own education, behavioral management, and character change.
5. Begin to respect students and adults who are different than they are.
6. Gain strategies for achievement, including setting character, community, and career goals
7. Grow their brains, including those areas associated with responsibility, goal-oriented thinking, and delayed gratification, such as the frontal lobe, prefrontal cortex, and corpus callosum.                                                   
8. Increase their CRT scores by 33.3% on average (among low-performers).*
9. Develop a desire to study, take tests, and achieve, increasing attendance on test days by as much as 30%.*
10. Double their numbers meeting AYP*

Data collected from Hero School’s decade-long research with over 100,000 students in the Clark County School District, including youth in Juvenile Hall, Foster Care group homes, and homeless programs, supports these outcomes as well as establishes the critical need and value for its Change Initiatives.

Measurement can be performed through various instruments and means, including but not limited to post-treatment surveys, reduction in disciplinary events over time, and marked improvement in the treatment group’s High School Proficiency Exam (HSPE) and Criterion Reference Test scores. Latent increases in HSPE scores by students not involved in the treatment will be a result of the program’s long-term “Stickiness” when used in conjunction with the Educator Program. New outcomes and achievement-based metrics are subsequently codeveloped with each school's staff and administration.

* Results from 2009 Pilot Study; Results may vary by school culture, staff development, and commitment