In August, the summer of 2008, in his 20th year of 26 years teaching at "RADIANT" John Ritter Elementary inside the community of Watts, California, Mr. Troy Smith introduced to his 5th grade students on the first day of school a poem or affirmation he wrote 3 weeks before school began. The affirmation was simply titled, “The More I Practice, Practice, Practice” written specifically to inspire and prepare his 5th grade students for the entire year. The poem had an extraordinary effect from PreK to the 5th grade causing students to believe in the power of practice leading them to their academic success. Chanting the poem at the weekly schoolwide Monday morning assemblies led the students in grades 2, 3, 4, and 5 to improve their annual California Standardized Test (CST) scores. However, it was the 5th grade students that stood out the most, excelling 5 years in a row exponentially in language arts, math, and science from 2007 to 2012. He called his students from the community of Watts, the undiscovered hidden treasures in the greater Los Angeles community.
Mr. Smith's teaching routine was simple. He taught with a purpose, focusing on the how and why in each subject, daily. As the teaching became more intense with more details layered gradually into each subject, he gave his students time to study for their practice test scheduled for Wednesdays in language arts one week, math the next week, science the following week, and American history the final week to keep them engaged and prepared for the real test on Friday or Monday, pending on if the kids needed extra time to study over the weekend. On Thursday, Mr. Smith would return the practice test results to each student, discussed with them in small groups their results and showed each student what they needed to study for homework. This would give his students a 2nd chance to succeed on that Friday or Monday exam. As each student took the message to heart to practice, prepare, rehearse, and repeat as much as I can each day of the week, they began to see and feel the results of completing their homework. They eventually began to recognize their own mistakes and held themselves accountable. They understood the benefits of sacrificing their time to study, read, and how to write a minimum of 3-5 sentences up to a paragraph describing and explaining their thinking in how they found the main idea in a text, draw inferences or summarize a text, with proof sentence(s) to support their point in language arts. In math they were expected to show their math work, then describe and explain how they solved the math word problem and/or simple to complex math equations step by step in writing. Likewise in science they were expected to describe, explain, and illustrate taught science concepts in the branches of science; life, earth, physics, electricity, and chemistry. Finally, in American history they were expected to describe, explain, and draw pictures of maps and routes to strengthen their response to the American history questions. In some cases,, they had to support their answers with a fact by giving the definition of a term. Over time, their paragraph writing enhanced their communication skills and critical thinking skills, meaning knowing the “How and Why”. Little did they know, they were developing a life skill called "practice".
Prior to his inspirational poem and lessons taught, the class of 2006-2007 laid down the foundation. They were the first group where data was collected and studied. Based on that data, the 2nd group 2007-2008 were ready to take the annual CST in April and May. Their test results were encouraging and so was the class of 2009-2010. But then something happened in the summer of August 2010. Prior to the school starting up for 2010-2011, Mr. Smith looked at the data from the past 3 years from 2007 - 2010 and behold he saw a pattern of success. He decided to show his incoming students the colorful bar graphs he created featuring the past 3 years. He converted the data into large 11×17 posters and posted them on the classroom bulletin board to remind his students and challenge them to outperform the previous class. The class of 2010-2011 went through the same intense teaching and man did they impress the success of their efforts. The following year, the class of 2011-2012, excelled even higher in the area of mathematics. Conclusively, throughout all 5 years from 2007 - 2012, the students proved that practice don't make perfect. Practice moves you towards self-improvement. Our undiscovered hidden treasures in the community of Watts, California from low performers to above average performers excelled in language arts, math, and science for 5 years in a row led by Mr.. Smith and various 5th grade teachers from year to year. It was from that historical success that led to the birth of the company, Practice U in the summer of 2013.
In retrospect, after looking back at Mr. Smith's 26 years of teaching there were a number of success stories and lessons he says he will always remember. His top 7 lessons are life lessons. He said, "(1) Practice is a choice. You don't have to practice. Just prepare for your consequences and get some bought sense. (2) Practice used in the form of a verb means I have to do the work. No one can do it for me. (3) Critical thinking is knowing the "how and why" (4) Practice is a life skill. There are no shortcuts in maintaining this foundation. (5) I must teach and stand firm on high Morals, Values, and Principles, because kids and adults will copy my high MVP credibility. (6) Rise above the distractions, keep moving towards self-improvement and let your body of work do all the talking. (7) Practice don't make perfect. Practice moves you towards self-improvement." Mr. Smith believed his message was and still to this day is so powerful that it should be shared. Just like birthdays and anniversaries are very important shared events from kids to adults all over the world, so it is true that practice, practice, practice is just as equally important as a shared event and absolutely necessary from kids to adults to have instilled in them all over the world.
Consequently, in 2018, the original affirmation written in August of 2008 was upgraded to a video 10 years later serving as the inspirational universal theme song for Practice U and viewers to share with their family and friends all over the world. We truly hope you enjoy the video and more importantly the message. Thank you for visiting our page to learn more about us and remember to Practice Up with Practice U.