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Free Falling?

victoria — Sat, 20 Oct 2012 13:22:46 +0100

I finally feel a little settled in here. I’m teaching seventh grade science at a middle school. When I see my friends write about how “hard” college is. I just want to laugh, laugh, laugh. Every single day, I wake up a 6, teach all day, deal with 156 12 year-old’s weird cuts, weird digestive problems, mouth breathing, mess making, and general insanity. Oh and my “break”? I get to each lunch with 12 year olds too. Every day. Lunch with 12 year olds. Think about it for like one second, then say your thanks to the lord. The first nine weeks have been impossibly hard. There were entire weeks where I was so anxious that I could not sleep. There were many mornings of dreading going into work. I remember too many times sitting at my desk before the homeroom bell rang and thinking, oh please no. But things are manageable. I see my self getting better every weeks. This week had some monumental lows and some pretty nice highs. Grades were due this week and so I spent two nights frantically trying to figure out how to organize, grade, and turn in grades for my 156 students. Hectic to say the least. Then on Tuesday a second fight almost broke out in my fourth period. The principle came in to talk to my class afterwards and was clearly upset. She also called all of my students racist. Not in a beat around the bush kind of way, but in a “You all are racist” kind of way. That afternoon she called me into her office. If you think it was scary to be called to the principle’s office as a student, just wait until you are a first year teacher. She told me I was being “too nice” and I should write kids up more. Which caused me to get very, very angry. When the meeting was over, I was seeing red like I had never seen red before. I had been asking for referral forms, to write kids up, for weeks. I asked every person in the office - no, I asked other teachers if they had extras – no, I even threw two kids out and when I called the security guard to get them, asked him if he could please get me some referral forms – no. So to have the principle say I wasn’t writing kids up enough, I lost it. I HAD NO FORMS! When that meeting was over I was in such a crazy destructive anger. You know in movies when someone gets so angry they rip down things and just throw things and break all this stuff. You watch it and wonder why anyone would do that. You wonder if anyone actually does that. I was THAT angry. With out anything to break I just screamed a lot. Which actually calmed me down. The rest of the week, went amazingly. Which was shocking due to my lack of sleep. With my new stack of referral forms and a new attitude about my classroom. Less “Lets all work together. Yay!” And more “HOW DARE YOU ACT LIKE THIS IN MY CLASSROOM.” Things went much better. I spent more time teaching the kids who wanted to learn and ignoring/ removing the students who were not ready to learn with the class. Frequently I would kick students out, only for them to ask if they could come back in. I still had a lot of trouble this week though, kids in my advanced class got into a SERIOUS screaming match over my review game on Friday, but I felt like I knew what I should be doing. Mr. Taylor the teacher next door (ex-military 40 something guy) did not have to come into my class once this whole week to tell everyone to quiet down. This is a major victory both for my classroom and my own ego. Last week he came in about 3 times… The true icing on the cake was my 7^th period on Friday. I finally called home for one of my most disrespectful girls in that class and on Friday she just put her head down. Granted, this is frowned upon in the TFA world, but seeing that the day before she came in thirty minutes late and then got such attitude with me that she riled up three other girls all who had to sit in the hallway with the security officer for the rest of class, this was a win. I also called home for one of my boys last night in that class and I know he was not happy with me for it (I will write about that hilarious/ terrifying parent teacher conference later). So right as class was starting I called him to the back of the class in a really stern “Let have some real talk,” kind of way. When he got back there, I poured on the compliments about his behavior so far in my class. Asked him if he knew why I called home last night. Poured on more compliments about how well he was acting and told him to keep it up. He looked really surprised and then really pleased with himself. He was quiet and on task the rest of the day.*happy dance* My last period class was excited and engaged they followed my directions and I even had some students come to my classroom to hang out until 4:00 as I packed up and cleaned! It was surreal. This first nine weeks have not been easy. My students still don’t really trust me and there is still a lot of work that needs to be done, but now I actually believe it can be done. These first nine weeks I felt like I was in free fall. Flying towards the end of the year, feeling totally out of control. But this week the fall slowed. People had been telling me there was a way it could be done, but I didn't believe them. They told me my free fall could be stopped I just need to trust there was a parachute on my back and pull really hard on the string. This week I found my parachute. I’ve slowed my fall. I'm still free falling like crazy but at least I know there is a way it can be stopped. Maybe I can actually do this!

Updates from Huntsville!

marycatherineboschini — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 02:19:19 +0100

Tomorrow will mark the end of my very first week living in Huntsville. It has certainly been a crazy busy week with lots of learning, changes, and so much anticipation building for that first day of school! Although I would have loved more than just a short week to soak up Fort Worth, I have been so pleased with all my new hometown has to offer. A super target, brand new chipotle, and a Lily store... I am set! Huntsville really is a neat town, especially with the huge influence that the NASA space and rocket center (where our nations first rocket to the moon was constructed) and the 39 thousand acre Red Stone Arsenal (where a lot of weapons that I don't really understand are housed) have. A really smart town and a ton of opportunities for kids in terms of science and math exploration. (please come visit!)

This past weekend I got to meet with my principal and finally see my school!!! I love it! Here are some pictures! Wish I had time or energy to write more, but everyday this week I have had long days of Professional Development... Last day of Huntsville City Schools orientation tomorrow! Then time to make this EMPTY classroom come alive!

My roommates after signing our lease! (finally)

Officially Official !

marycatherineboschini — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 01:51:48 +0100

Well I am back in Birmingham now for a week of vision and goals setting as well as intensive planning for my first 9 weeks in the classroom! I miss all my kids from Institute so much and will start crying if I go into much detail about leaving them.... It is still too soon for me to reflect on what I was able to do for them and the areas in which I failed them.... I cannot believe some of them will be going onto 2nd grade next year unprepared. I cannot believe how they have made it this far without someone intervening on their behalf. I makes me sick to think of how the 'system' is so drastically failing them. ITS OFFICIAL!!! According to Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary website, Ms. Boschini is a Kindergarten teacher!!!!

Exciting news!

marycatherineboschini — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 02:46:01 +0100

So today was a very exciting day! I got a call from my lovely new principal at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary school in Huntsville Alabama. She was calling to welcome me and offer me a job as a KINDERGARTEN TEACHER!!!! Finally I have all the information I could ever want- I will be teaching Kindergarten in Huntsville Alabama! Wow, I cannot believe it, I am SO excited!!! I think it is so neat that I will most likely be these little students first teacher and have the important job of setting them up to be ahead of the game instead of already falling behind. It has been so long since my last post... The past 3 weeks have been crazy! There have been many ups and downs along the way, but ultimately I have seen so much growth in my little Life Long Learners that it truly warms my heart. I cannot believe that I have just one week left with these kids :( Some highlights and fun stories: I switched from teaching reading the first two weeks to now teaching math. I never thought I would, but I have actually loved teaching math. I think because it is very concrete (2+2 is always four, you are either right or wrong) the kids can easily see their progress and so are much more confident in their math abilities than their reading skills. I love seeing them so excited to learn and really proud of themselves. I also had arrival/dismissal and lunch duty the past week which was interesting. Unfortunately sometimes what I see at summer school doesnt really line up with what I have learned in Child Development as best practices for kids. Yes, everyone is here first and foremost for the kids, but its sad when state testing and benchmarks cloud a schools ability to put the kids best interests at the top of their lists. Our children arrive at school by bus from 7:00-7:30, eat a silent breakfast, go sit silently in a line in the gym until 8 then 2 blocks of reading, 1 block of math, then a silent TEN MINUTE lunch, then 1 more block of math, then back to silent lines in the gym to wait for busses. Wow, wears me out just thinking of all that silence, I cannot imagine how my 7 year olds do it!!! No wonder why they are so energetic in the afternoon! Trying to motor silence in the gym at 7:30 AM is nearly impossible on a Friday morning. We do everything from math flash-cards to rock, paper, scissors, games. But, the one thing that does the trick is the, "everyone gets to pet a slice of ms. B's hair" game. haha twisting and petting could keep them amused and quiet for hours...! One of my boys told me that my hair "smells like...like.. a summer breeze!" (when asked exactly what was a summer breeze? he wasnt too sure...!) Later that same day while motoring silent lunch, my one little girl waved her hand "ms. B, Ms. B, Ms. B" I walk over, "yes ma'am?" as shes looking around the room at all the TFA teachers with their classes she proclaims, "There are a lotta white people in here!" I just love their honesty! Wish our classroom luck as we enter into our last week of summer school! Reading and math end of summer assessments are taken on Wednesday and will give us a good picture of how much we were really able to teach them (yikes!)

Life Long Learners in Action!

marycatherineboschini — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 22:55:04 +0100

Thank you so much for all the encouragement! Today was just my third day in the classroom and my little Life Long Learners (Our classroom theme is becoming LLL's!) have made SO many huge improvements! Through a ton of re-teaching and practicing acceptable behaviors (sitting criss-cross applesauce, zip it up before you raise it up, Life Long Learning position, a million others) my CoLab of 4 teachers is so excited with the progress we have seen! Our sweet little learners are finally beginning to look, sound, and act like second graders! yay! Here are a few of the weeks highlights: While I was introducing our lesson on identifying physical traits, I told them this was an important thing for second graders to know about. Who wants to be a second grader? All hands went up. Who wants to be a FIFTH grader?? again, all hands. Who wants to go to HIGH SCHOOL?? hands. Caleb (clearly too excited to zip it up and raise it up..) yells: "un-uh miss, I'm gonna go to COLLEGE!" the class all cheers! Janiya- our only girl- is a sweet as can be and holds her own with all the boys. Janiya has so many difficulties in school. She is unable to recognize all letters of the alphabet, very rarely can match a letter sound to its letter name, and will ask to draw a picture instead of write whenever possible. Still, she doesnt let it get her down, she participates in class, tries her hardest to make letter sounds, and smiles constantly. I am SO proud to say that Janiya now knows that the letter T says tttt and is not an A (her previous thinking...), the letter S says Sssss not mmmmm, the letter B says bbbbb like in bed (which she said she does not sleep on), AND the letter M says mmmm like mom (which, she does not have). She is rocking it! Another daily routine, groping my hair... "Miss. B your hairs so soft", "Miss. B I love your hair", and today, the best, "Miss. B I found this piece of your hair miss" (as he's handing me a strand of my hair off the ground)! Our favorite class cheer= What are we?? LIFE LONG LEARNERS!

Exciting news! not so exciting news...

marycatherineboschini — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 23:42:19 +0100

Quick updates: Very little sleep... No free time at all... For example, been up since 4:00AM this morning, got on my bus to go to my school at 5:30AM, at School site all day testing kids and in sessions learning and just got back from school now, 6:25... starving, exhausted and a million things to do before tomorrow. Tomorrow my group and I have full reign of our class of 13 rising 2nd graders. After we spend the first hour on our class goals, basic rules and daily procedures, we each have our individual teaching time. Tomorrow I will be doing our reading comprehension lesson. Leo the late bloomer and making predictions... I cant wait! Exciting news! I got placed!!! Finally I have an answer to where in Alabama will you be? HUNTSVILLE! I will be in Huntsville teaching elementary (unfortunately I STILL dont know what exact grade... but learning to work with what I've got!). Not so exciting news... Today we did some reading/spelling assessments on our kids.. wow, the results were not so exciting to say the least. We have been talking about the daunting 'achievement gap' since we arrived at training this summer, but today we experienced first hand its tragic implications. Out of the nine kids we tested in our class (remember, they just finished 1st grade) only 2 of them could spell B-E-D correctly. That was the easiest word on the test. Not only can the others not spell it correctly, many of them did not even demonstrate their understanding of the beginning letter. [caption id="attachment_19" align="aligncenter" width="223" caption="Demonkus's spelling assessment"][/caption] After grading their tests (the most words out of 10 that anyone got right was 3) I didnt know what to think. Should I be mad at their Kindergarden and first grade teachers? What have you been doing the past 2 years in school? Did anyone sing you your ABC's? Do you know which sounds the letters make? 4 weeks.... thats all Ms. Bradford, Ms. Gallagher, Ms. Marsh and I (Ms. B) have with you, what can we do?

The chinese food isn't that terrible

victoria — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 01:53:18 +0100

My Cousin Vinny is a family favorite. If you haven't seen it, you need to. The culture clash of the fast-talking northerner and the rural southerner really hit home with my family because we lived in New Jersey, but visited Tennessee often. We love it. To this day, my family still quotes bits of it to each other. When I received my placement teaching secondary social studies in Alabama, it felt like destiny. The Jersey girl down in Alabama asking where the nearest sushi place was and lamenting over the lack of WaWa's - that was me. My life has finally come full circle. Most of my friends who found out I was not just visiting Alabama but actually moving there for two whole years were confused. And honestly at first, so was I. What was I thinking?! I love the mid-atlantic region! I hopped on the internet and frantically searched. Were there any Whole Foods in Alabama?! (2) What about Chipotle? (again, 2) Trader Joe's? (Zero) How close was the nearest IKEA? (6 hours) As I began to discover what I was like not living in the megalopolis that stretches from DC to NYC, the panic set in. I hadn't ever truly realized how lucky I was to be living in this part of the country, and now I was signed on to two years being far away from it all. But all that being said, I am ridiculously thrilled to be here. From what I have seen, people are as sweet as the tea and there are tons of museams and restaurants that are "hidden gems" just waiting to be discovered. Alabama is a whole new part of the country and a whole new adventure. I know more people who have been to London, Paris, and Rome than have ever been to Alabama, let alone Mississippi. I feel like an ambassador, not only for the state of New Jersey (I'm the only one in the 'Bama Corp from the dirty jerz - crazy I know) but for the state of Alabama to my homeland, filled with people who cannot fathom my desire to go below the Mason-Dixon line for anything other than Disney World. I am so very lucky to be given this opportunity. I wish I could express in words the amazing feeling you get by doing such meaningful work, every single day. But this work is hard as TFA says, I need to "buckle up." I cannot wait to get all strapped in and enjoy this crazy, wonderful ride. An no, the chinese food isn't terrible.

Catch Up, Logistics, and Goals (long post...)

marycatherineboschini — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 04:26:02 +0100

Catch-Up: SO, it has been one crazy week and I have a TON to share! Last Tuesday through Sunday was my Induction week located in beautiful Alabama. My 82 2012 Bama corps members and I spent the week getting to know each other, exploring the state, and being so graciously welcomed by the various communities in Alabama. We received warm welcomes by way of community celebrations honoring US. I can’t believe it. I can definitely speak on behalf of my entire corps when I say that WE are SO honored to be welcomed into Alabama and WE are the ones who should be thanking the community members. Alabama is wonderful, and, after spending time all over the state, I can confidently say that I will be so happy wherever I am placed. Maybe Birmingham…Maybe rural Marian… (two stoplight town, see below). Logistics: SO, now that our fun week of welcoming and reflection is over, all 82 bama corps members are in the Mississippi delta staying in the dorms at Delta State University. We are here along with corps members from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. All together there are over 1000 of us here in the Delta this summer working for one common goal: close the achievement gap and help ALL students achieve academic excellence. WOW, powerful stuff… just being here is incredibly motivating and inspiring. This is all becoming very real. This month and next we will be real teachers, working with real students, who are in real need of academic growth (most summer school students are there because they did not pass their grade level exit exams and risk being held back). This will be tough. After this week of instruction and seminars, we will have just 5 short weeks with our kids to reach necessary student achievement. There is obviously no time to waste. I woke up at 4:30 this morning… enough time to get ready, go to the cafeteria (feeding time at the zoo) to get breakfast, go through the assembly line to pack my lunch, and then make it to my morning school bus by our departure time at 6:00AM. Headed off to our school sites! Then the best part of my day happened. I was welcomed to Akin Elementary, which will be my home for the next 5 weeks. Home of the Akin Owls!! (Chi O or Die O). I also learned that for the summer I would be working with rising second graders (my favorites)! YAY YAY YAY. Goals: I am on fire with this mission of all children accessing transformational education opportunities. Over the past two weeks I have at times been shocked, appalled, unnerved, angry, and truly overwhelmed with the striking statistics that low-income children face. Racial stereotypes little assess to necessary tools, and lowered expectations plague low income kids on a daily basis and inhibit them from outperforming their higher income peers. I cannot WAIT until next week when I will meet my summer kids and families and be able to set our academic growth goals for the summer. I know (without having seen their faces yet) that my summer school kids CAN and WILL achieve, and I cannot wait to do everything in my power to make that happen for them this month. Tonight was the opening ceremony for the Delta Institute. All the regions got to show off their region pride (Bama may be the smallest corps here, but we certainly made up for it in spirit)! All I needed to get pumped up was to listen to the story of Mrs. Matt who sat beside her own Mississippi delta student. Aurora Williamson gave us her heartfelt story of the challenges of race, poverty, and lowered expectations that she faced growing up. Then, she discussed the impact that her transformational TFA teacher, Mrs. Matt had on her life. During her jr year of high school, with Mrs. Matt’s relentless aide, Aurora increased her ACT score from a 14 to a 26 in one year!!!! She graduated a week ago and starts college on a full ride scholarship in the fall.

Bama Bound

marycatherineboschini — Sun, 03 Jun 2012 02:42:54 +0100

Wow. I cannot believe the time has finally come to put this dream in motion. I have thought about this day since november when I signed on with TFA and now it is finally here... Monday. Monday I'll drive the 10 hours to Birmingham where this new chapter will begin. I will be in Birmingham for a week. This 'Induction' week will consist of meeting the other Alabama 2012 corps members, learning about my region, and interviewing with principals from around the state. yikes! Then, I will head to the Mississippi Delta for my 'Institute' where I will be teaching summer school while learning the in's and out's of being a teacher. I don't know what to think at this point. I am nervous! Nervous to met the 80 other people in the 2012 Alabama corps, the people I will work alongside to reform education in Alabama. I am anxious! Anxious to dive in and get my hands dirty. Mostly I am excited! Excited to begin this brand new adventure!!! Thanks for joining!

Cairo...not Egypt, Cairo in Southern Illinois and why it should be saved

amartin — Tue, 03 May 2011 03:51:15 +0100

I think this quote pretty much sums up my feelings on this situation in Southern Illinois:

"Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing."

If you are not aware, just google "Cairo flooding" or even better go to youtube and put in Tilley reacts to flood plan to hear from an elected official. It is so very sad that people are arguing over what is more important, thousands of acres of farmland for crops or a small town with the homes of thousands of people...since when can someone put a price on the value of a human life and history? Or even tell someone that their homes and belongings are not worth saving for the sake of something else? I even majored in agricultural sciences and I still feel that this choice should be very clear...yet to many it isn't.

Cairo is an area in Southern Illinois that is full of history and more importantly people's homes, memories, belongings...but to many these things do not have a value because this is a poverty stricken area it should be flooded, it is not worth saving or even rebuilding. This eerily reminds me of a city I love...New Orleans. I wish that sometimes people could take a step back and walk in someone else's shoes. Keep in mind these are people's HOMES--everything they own and have worked for. Not to mention...how would you explain to a child that everything they knew as their home (their school, their life, their friends, their things) was not worth saving....

Sorry for the ramblings...but these stories are what motivate me to believe in the change that America needs. That we can reach out, that we have to reach out, to the youth of our nation and let them know no matter where they come from, they are worth something and capable of everything...that they are worth saving.