La Copa--My favorite community event

For the fourth consecutive year, I was on the committee for La Copa Minnetonka, a community event in which we hold a friendly soccer match between two Tonka United teams with a Spanish-speaking announcer and food trucks that offer specialties from Spanish-speaking countries. The Tonka United teams are guest coached by players from the Minnesota United. We also have a flag parade with all the Spanish-speaking countries represented and a dance to a song in Spanish.

I love this event and have never felt at all reluctant to be on the committee or to spend a couple of hours there on a Friday evening. For me, it is a fun way to connect with students and their families, get some good food, and hang out with some colleagues.

This year, as a part of my work toward my competencies, I chose community relations, and I centered much of my work around this event. I created a survey to get some feedback from the participants. This was the first time we had done something like this during the event, though it should be said that we were doing a good job, as attendance has increased each year. We could then use this information as a part of our reflection when we prepare for next year's Copa.

Then, at the event, I recruited my wife (also an immersion teacher involved in planning) to help me interview participants at La Copa. First off, I have to say that I don't particularly enjoy engaging people in this form, and I sensed suspicious eyes looking at my clipboard as I approached people. However awkward the conversations started, they ended pretty well, and I think it was especially helpful that I wasn't trying to collect personal information or sell them anything. It was a good experience for me to practice how I reach out to unfamiliar people and present myself as a district representative.

After we gathered enough information, we were finally going to be able to relax a little and just enjoy the event. Unfortunately, as I completed my final survey, raindrops plopped on my paper, so I quickly ran everything to the car. We decided to stick it out as long as we could without getting too wet, and we met a couple of parents whose students didn't go to either of our schools, but it was very interesting to learn of their experiences with the program and the some of their history before having kids, which seemed to motivate why they would have their kids in immersion.

The next day, I got to work analyzing the results from our surveys. The information wasn't too surprising, but it was definitely affirming of the work we have done over the past few years. (You can see my analysis here.) Still it was good to have this information so that we can keep these results in mind next year, and I shared the information with the head of the committee, so we can use this in our final reflection on the activity. Perhaps the biggest learning for me was the importance of this activity as a community-builder. Families were very much at this activity for a sense of community, and I think as a school leader, I need to keep in mind how important this is and will need to work towards ways of effectively engaging the community and creating opportunities for people to engage each other.