Teach For America teacher blogs are on Teach For Us

Some highpoints on the journey

2010 CM — Thu, 16 May 2013 21:59:01 +0100

Administrators at my placement school routinely prescribed "engaging lessons" as a remedy for nearly every classroom problem. Yet so many teachers, who were well-liked and regarded as effective, leaned toward accountability or control as the panacea for off-task behavior, disrespect, or low achievement. Sadly, the children I taught were not accustomed to joy in learning, something that was so often rote, alienating, and painful. Yet, I knew then and know now that "engaging work" is the more enjoyable, more effective (especially in the long run), and more holistic medicine. In Montessori terms, good work normalizes the classroom ("normalization: a natural or 'normal' developmental process marked by a love of work or activity, concentration, self-discipline, and joy in accomplishment"). And so I'm thankful that these last weeks have brought joy not in spite of our lessons and work but because of them: - I've laughed with the children as they creatively illustrated the Bill of Rights: 5 - "Yay! I'll only be tried 1 time for stealing Granny's cookie!"; 6 - Speedy trial depicted by a "vrooom"ing car; 2 - Defending against a scary monster; 9 - "I can eat fish!" (I guess I share the level of humor of my 10 to 12-year-olds?) - We've marveled at the the Guggenheim Museum's $100,000 room, using scale drawings, surface area, and the divisor / dividend relationship to verify the hundred grand tacked on the walls and columns. We even imagined the smell of the room -- gross! - In biology, kids scurried to an online inventory that revealed their dominant brain hemisphere. As a tight-knit and self-aware class, it was awesome to see the kids verify their (and our) predictions about their strengths. - When my kids compared and contrasted three methods for finding sample space (tree diagram, two-dimensional array, fundamental principle of counting) they knew as well as I that they had really understood it! This probability lesson had flopped a year before...just a little reworking, and introducing lots of cognitive dissonance, worked wonders. - I laughed as hard as the kids as they acted out science words including surface tension, carbon dioxide, and nucleation sites to wrap up our study of the ol' Diet Coke and Mento reaction. The kids were well-prepped with two articles and discussion questions that exposed them to the "why" of the otherwise thin experiment. - Kids loved the meaningful task of making their moms Mother's Day plaques from wood, nails, and embroidery floss...a toned-down version of string art. Not a single child missed this deadline, and each gift was so unique and heartfelt. - Keeping a poker-face proved difficult as the kids got invested in a "healthy lunch" debate in a simulation of the separation of powers. The menu writers (Congress) didn't much like to be told that their meal didn't meet the head chef (president's) expectations. And the menu writers liked it even less when the courts ruled their meal unhealthy because watermelon wasn't a healthy enough fruit exchange (apples would have been better...) Is my classroom a wonderful fairy-tale land of miracles? No. Am I learning my role in making it a great place to be? Yes. - I can give my kids as many choices as possible, even when it means they drop one Mento into a bottle of Coke when I know a whole roll would create a more impressive fountain. It's in their hands to correct that choice or stick with it. - When I see a brief, harmless off-task behavior like a silly dance a lunch, I can choose to respond with eye contact and a smile...students redirect just as fast and with less hard feelings. - Importantly, I can rely on others with great content knowledge and special talents in creating engaging lessons (Dan Meyer's three act and blueprint and iCivics What's for Lunch? from this month). And I can look specifically for opportunities for students to engage with emotions, drawing on a sense of wonder or encouraging healthy debate. The classroom is a place for people and should reflect the emotions and needs of people...this is how we learn and remember best. - I can work to the best of my ability to create a classroom that changes my role from an evaluator to an observer and helper, and always strive to observe with the goals of guiding the children and helping students to do for themselves. I can let small errors go, especially when children can correct their own errors. This way of teaching requires patience, humility, and a great understanding that it is the children's time and space, not my own. Of course, the rewards are many...for both me and the children! If Teach for America did one thing great, it was the Culture of Achievement pathway that came out in 2011 (and tormented me at the time because I was, and still am, so far from my goal!). Read, believe, Teach with Your Strengths, seek out professional development (I recommend becoming familiar with Rafe Esquith and Montessori lessons and philosophy), and strive for those moments of joy: "This classroom has an exemplary Culture of Achievement because the incredibly high expectations, effort, and motivation are truly owned by the students. Students are passionate, urgent, joyful, caring, and 'on a mission' toward a destination that matters to them...Students know and trust their teacher and peers because they feel safe, cared for, and valued in the learning environment. They are excited to come to class and genuinely don't want to miss a moment of class time because they feel the joy of learning in a positive classroom community. Students are actively building the intrinsic motivation, confidence, and character that will empower them to achieve enduring success." One day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.

Helping students find and follow their dreams!

zacksg1 — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 22:32:06 +0100

Is anyone familiar with the kids' book The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Pinkwater? The main character lives on a very boring, uniform street. One day, a bird drops some paint on the roof of his house. Instead of painting over it, he supplements the Big Orange Splot on his roof with lots of other beautiful artwork all over his house and yard. His neighbors, one by one, become persuaded to take similar steps to make their own houses "look like all their dreams." I think this story provides a useful lens through which to view current efforts at education reform. Here is an allegory of the current education reform movement through the perspective of The Big Orange Splot: The Education System Needs a Seagull Carrying a Bucket of Paint

A vacation from a vocation?

2010 CM — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 16:33:35 +0100

It's spring break! I always enjoy the change of pace and chance to recharge come this time of year. As in past years, I've spent large parts of my spring break on school-related items: attending a national conference, writing my summative reflection for administration (why is our school a better place because you are here?), completing an excellent school visit, making new materials. That commitment has me thinking...can you take a vacation from a vocation? I consider education my vocation, for which I have "a strong feeling of suitability." It's that arena to which I can answer yes to the crucial triage of vocation questions: Yes, it brings me joy. Yes, it serves a need. Yes, I have ability or the ability to grow. And, perhaps as importantly, I can push through the difficult pieces for the moments of joy...like a conference report season laden with bureaucratic changes, contrasted with an open house in that same time. As I talk with prospective families about the Montessori Method (I recommend Montessori: The Science Behind the Genius), I forget the progress reports and uncooperative computer systems that complicate the task. Like a snowy 2.5 hour drive to observe in an excellent school...and the immediate feeling of wonderment on entering that classroom, as I set about identifying the best elements for replication or adaptation. Like the continuous cycle of parent conferences and pointed questions...that push us to be better observers and more compassionate and effective teachers. I will say at this point that these "challenges" may seem benign or quizzical to many Teach for America teachers. My own TFA experience was rife with challenges that at times seemed much more consuming and troubling than the ones I name. The important piece is whether you emerge with the same, or a heightened, passion for educating our children. I was tenacious because I cared and believed we could do so much more for children in Atlanta and beyond. I am drawn not only the equity vision of "One day all children [in this nation] will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education" but also its vision of quality. I am thrilled to work in a Montessori school environment which views the child as "naturally eager for knowledge and capable of initiating learning in a supportive, thoughtfully prepared learning environment. It is an approach that values the human spirit and the development of the whole child—physical, social, emotional, cognitive" (American Montessori Society). Good teachers everywhere believe in these principles but are mismatched with an environment and culture that promote teacher-led learning, extrinsic rewards, conformity, and rote learning. It takes courage and vision to transform these environments into more effective ones of community, empowerment, and joy in learning. A Montessori classroom looks so unfamiliar to some. Why are children walking around and appearing to choose materials off shelves at whim? Why are twelve-year-old children playing with blocks on the floor? Isn't the abacus a relic of an earlier time? What are today's objective and standard? What is all this talking, and where is the teacher, anyway? However, look a little closer and you will see a child mastering mixed numbers using fraction circles, a boy explaining integer addition to his teacher whose eyes dance as he gets closer and closer to articulating his discovery, friends researching Native American warfare and the origins of lacrosse, a child persisting on a challenging algebra puzzle, a boy and girl measuring the capacity of a conical glass and checking their calculation with water, fifth-graders taking the square root of a five-digit number using colorful pegs, winded children graphing their heart-rates after physical activity, a teacher and student editing his report on the Boston Massacre, wide-eyed children learning that one in five people suffers from hunger and responding with a school-wide food drive. You will hear laughter, conversation, problem-solving, maybe a little hormonal banter, questions, hypotheses, and project proposals. Montessori is my vehicle for realizing equity and quality in education. A warm and engaging Montessori environment challenges the status quo of education. The method provides an actionable blueprint for a thoughtful, effective classroom where adults and children can learn and live their vocations. One day, all children in this country will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.

New child, new world

2010 CM — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 23:03:39 +0100

Two years and some odd months later, I'm back! Those were some long months of learning myself and the prevailing methods of the American education system, at least through the lens of my Atlanta middle school placement. Much of my reflection was turned toward action-oriented classroom items, many of which were difficult to write about...the problems of poverty and schools manifested in ways much different than I expected! Only after being out of my school do I understand better my experiences (and the children's experiences) there. It is a continued journey. While many attribute my struggles to "classroom management" I feel that academic expectations and philosophy play a larger role. In particular, I tried to implement constructivist learning with students who hadn't been allowed to make many choices or discoveries in school experiences. I expected greater levels of independence, problem-solving, and academic resilience than existed and so did not scaffold tasks sufficiently for my students. I don't know that I blame the achievement gap, either. As a whole, I think young people learn more about how to play the educational system than to take joy in learning. A novice teacher who focuses on the latter encounters a host of challenges that began far before she stepped foot on campus. I am fortunate to now be working at a Montessori school, where education looks, feels, and indeed is very different than in a traditional setting. The tangible differences between a Montessori and traditional classroom are telling of the underlying intangible differences. Children work at work tables or on rugs on the floor rather than in solely individual desks; there is no teacher's desk or large blackboard. Manipulatives are not stored away for some later date, but always available and freely accessible to the children. As such, children learn that they are in control of their learning, not an adult at the front of the room. Their needs and interests matter more than what is convenient to me, their families, or the state. Best of all, they come to me having had this experience of responsive schooling for five to six years. There are great traditional teachers who do as much and more, but why let the exceptional classroom experience remain the exception? So many solutions within our schools are well-intentioned, but piecemeal, attempts to inject research-based findings into an ineffective system. Teachers should be supported to implement a constructivist, system-wide method of education that responds to children, and children should spend their days moving, discovering, learning with and from peers, making choices, and learning about their world. Children want to experience success and learn the wonders of the universe, not to earn rewards and esteem or avoid punishment. Let's rethink how we educate children. What do children learn about themselves through the ways in which we structure their experiences and spaces? Do they know they play a pivotal part in the world not just in the future but today as well? Young people are powerful, curious, strong, and invested. As educators, let's do our part to preserve those gifts.

Score!

txtogamath — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 05:30:35 +0100

I passed both of my GACE exams with over 250 on each of them (above 85%)! It's actually getting real that I'll be teaching math now. Time to write an Instrumental Analysis pre-lab and head to bed.

GACE

txtogamath — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 18:10:39 +0100

Today is the day I get my GACE (Georgia Assessments for the Certification of Educators) scores. Sometime between 5 and 10 PM I'll have an email in my inbox as to whether I will be teaching secondary math in June or if I'll be paying a ton of money to go back to Georgia to take the exams again. I'm pretty nervous. Each exam consists of 60 multiple choice questions making up 80% of the score and 2 short answer questions combined to make up the remaining 20% of the score. On one exam I feel like I got most of the multiple choice questions easily, but I know I messed up one of the short answers (I've never taken a statistics class...). On the other, I feel like I did relatively well on the multiple choice and only missed a few pieces of the short answers. I'm just praying I scored the 220 out of 300 needed to pass. That's all I need....

Guns, Grandma, and My Perspective on School Violence and Gun Control - Part 1?

txtogamath — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 17:51:27 +0100

Yesterday I sat in my fiancé’s living room with his roommate and my good friend J. We were celebrating the coming of the weekend (no Friday classes) and lightly discussing our plans for after graduation. J had finally sent his résumé to Oscar Myer – we’re all crossing our fingers that he becomes a Weinermobile driver. I sighed and explained that my grandmother, who is very cautious to let me teach in a low income, (and what she considers to be) high violence area like Atlanta, would probably try to force me to stop participating in TFA if another school shooting occurred. There has been so many in the news I figured one more would send her over the edge. Given the heightened media attention after the tragedy in Newtown, CT on December 12, 2012, gun control has become a major issue in political agendas. Since Newtown, multiple school violence incidences have gained mass media attention. January 10, 2013 Taft Union High School January 15, 2013 Stevens Institute of Business and Arts January 15, 2013 Hazard Community and Technical College January 22, 2013 Lone Star College And, to shock my system not an hour after I told J about my worries considering TFA January 31, 2013 Pierce Middle School, Atlanta GA And so I sat there, now at the kitchen table playing cards with J, reeling with questions. Does TFA send corps members to that school? Were there current TFA corps members at the school when it happened? How were they prepared for this incident? I'm glad to hear that the student who was assaulted is expected to be released to go home this evening from the hospital, but it still leaves a mark on my conscious as to whether I would be fully prepared as an educator to handle such a stressful situation. When the gun debate began, I was asked many a time how I would feel if I were responsible to operate a handgun given a situation where a gunman was threatening the lives of my students. The "give the teachers a gun" argument has been heavily debated, including by my state Governor, Rick Perry. Within this debate there are those arguing to mandate teachers with weapons (in their minds "protection"), while there are others that suggest the idea that teachers have the option of carrying a concealed handgun. Either way, this makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. I understand that Atlanta isn’t the safest place in the universe. (#6 on Forbe's Most Dangerous US Cities List, 2012) I also understand that Teach for America does an incredibly good job at not working with schools with high violence. Now, I get that past numbers on safety mean nothing when “nut jobs”, as some say, lose their cool and blow through a what was deemed safe school with a semi-automatic…but the point is I'm not worried about my safety when it comes to my job. At least I was less-so before yesterday. I might come back to this later, I might not. All in all I just really feel like arming a teacher would be an extreme distraction in the learning environment. As the teacher, you must always be on alert for when a situation like that occurs and then be able to react properly given that situation. As a student, I would not feel comfortable knowing that my teacher had a weapon, regardless of whether they had been trained to use it in life-threatening circumstances or not. You never know when the teacher will be the one to let loose with their government allowed/mandated triggers.

Yes, many adults can correctly use fractions

zacksg1 — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 16:08:41 +0100

I recently read a post by a teacher who was concerned about the Common Core's apparent focus on making sure that kids are understanding the math they are learning, as opposed to simply being able to just calculate correctly right away. I have a strongly differing interpretation of a story she shares about her son solving a division problem. He gets an answer only after several minutes have elapsed and he has created his own (correct) method for solving it. She thinks this is an epic fail (why didn't he just long divide?!), but I think this is an epic educational victory! Here is my full response: http://havingneweyes.com/2013/01/26/adults-can-calculate-with-fractions/

TFA's advertising strategy compared to City Year's

zacksg1 — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 02:16:38 +0100

I currently serve with City Year and I taught as part of TFA last year. On my way to the airport for winter break, I saw public recruitment advertisements both for TFA and for City Year. The City Year ad was on the public bus I took to the airport. The TFA ad was glued to the bottom of all of the bins at airport security. I wonder if these are purposeful efforts to target distinct demographics of potential recruits... http://havingneweyes.com/2012/12/27/what-can-we-infer-about-city-year-and-tfa-based-on-their-different-ad-strategies/

Yes, actually, math IS more than just plugging new numbers into the same problem we just did!

zacksg1 — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 01:30:10 +0100

It is very frustrating to me that many students (and an apparently-increasing number of administrators, politicians, text book authors, and even teachers) seem to think that the most effective way to learn math is to have students practice problems that are the same as problems that the teacher has already shown the class how to do (just with different numbers). My school's current algebra 1 textbook takes this to a whole new level. For many of the problems for students to work on, there is a box in the margin that lists the exact page number and example number for a worked-out problem which is structurally identical to what is being asked (just with different numbers). This explicit encouragement to just plug new numbers into a worked-out problem is pretty disappointing. This kind of thing doesn't encourage students to actually understand what they're doing. Even when trying an "I do, we do, you do," there has got to be some novelty in the later problems that students will be working through. Students need to learn to expect that in EVERY LESSON they will need to apply the procedures they are learning in a NEW way in order to solve deeper questions. Thinking they understand the material when they are just able to replace the old numbers in the problem with new numbers is NOT a good sign. This particular textbook worsens this issue! Here's my rant: http://havingneweyes.com/2012/11/29/just-mimic-the-example-in-the-book-thats-learning-right/