http://teachforus.org/region/milwaukee/feed/ Wed, 22 May 2013 15:14:57 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2-ppt (info@mypapit.net) http://emmavierheller.teachforus.org/2013/05/08/thankateacher/ What a day.  Teacher Appreciation Week and the day of a local levy for my hometown school district in Ohio.  As I see people coming out on social media to thank their teachers or argue in favor or against this levy, I reflected on my day.  Below will be an outline of my school day.  Before you look at it, I want to make one thing clear--I'm no saint.  I'm never the first teacher in my school and I'm never the last one to leave.  I have the fewest classes to prepare and the most off hours of anyone in my school because I'm a new teacher and so that I can craft a curriculum from scratch [thank you!!].  So read this thinking about the time you spent with your teachers--the moments they weren't paid for, the time you asked for help, when they attended an academic game or event.  That's why I know I'm nowhere near special--because I work with the most self-sacrificing individuals every day and was fortunate to have been taught by these superheroes as well. 6:15 AM:  An iced coffee from Starbucks.  Get those caffeinated juices flowing! 6:25 AM:  Walk into school, finish preparing the day's lesson by adding some completed problems to my power point. 6:40 AM:  A senior who is finishing a math course online to graduate comes in.  We work through some problems for about 40 minutes until the daily staff meeting. 7:50 AM: One of my favorite parts of the day.  Daily chapel!  Unfortunately, one of my homeroom girls is out of uniform.  Again.  After chapel, I walk her down to the office.  I tell her if anything is going on she wants to talk about, she should let me know. 8:55 AM:  My first 100 minute block of geometry.  I've had the last 40 minutes to work on tomorrow's lesson and I'm psyched to see my kids.  They aren't happy that they aren't working in groups as much, but some of them understand that we aren't being very productive. 10:45 AM: Prep hour!  I work through tomorrow's word problems, trying to scaffold them so my lower level students can still work with them.  I call 2 parents about their child's detention that afternoon. 12:00 PM:  Study hall with my lovely home room girls.  These ladies go through things at home that I can't dream of.  So they're usually grumbling about the amount of homework they have or staying after school.  However, they are trying pretty hard to get along with one another.  My chapel girl comes to collect her work--she's having a tough time and I'm pretty sure she hates me right now.  But she's got a great heart and has SO much potential. 2:15 PM:  I say goodbye to my second geometry class and make 3 more phone calls.  More detention!  Although I can't complain.  None of them try to fight the consequence, and almost every student finished their exit ticket.  While my classroom has improved x 100 since September, I'm still pushing them to complete more difficult problems and some of them are struggling. 3:20 PM:  After 15 minutes of home room (we're doing surveys), I check in students for overtime and detention.  I change into my running clothes--one of my more challenging ladies hasn't gotten kicked out of class in a week and loves to run, so we head down to the park. 4:30 PM:  In my classroom grading the day's practice.  I try to make at least 2 meaningful comments on each paper, but it doesn't feel like enough.  We have a quiz tomorrow and we're still struggling with absolute value equations. 5:05 PM:  Out the door! Heading to the gym to lift weights. 7:00 PM:  Finishing up tomorrow's lesson and submitting my final paper for a graduate class at Marquette.  Law and Order SVU is on my Hulu Plus as I work [a guilty pleasure]. Once again, this isn't NEAR the amount that some of your teachers put in.  I fight the feeling each day that I'm not doing enough, that I'm not good enough yet.   I watch my colleagues go above and beyond every single day and to be honest, that's why inspires me more than anything. Thank you, THANK YOU to my teachers, professors, administrators, and support staff at Orrville City Schools and Marietta College.  The countless hours I spent seeking the counsel of my teachers on their off hours or after school, the van rides with sports coaches to extra track meets, the celebration with my college professors when I got this job after graduation.  It's immeasurable.  These are the experiences that money cannot buy.  You're more than appreciated...you're cherished.     ekv001 Wed, 08 May 2013 01:08:12 +0100 http://emmavierheller.teachforus.org/2013/01/29/the-winter-blues/ It was so nice to go on a field trip today. During the school week, its a rarity to see the sun.  I arrive at school before the sun comes up, and don't make it out until the sun goes down.  So, taking two campus tours today was just lovely.  Seeing the sun this afternoon was amazing. And, as I was recruited to join 3 different student organizations at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (and contemplated the fact that many of the students recruiting me were at least my age), I realized how different my life is now.  Not being a full time student (well, I'm a full-time student still technically, but my own school work never makes it off the back burner), donning professional clothing and drinking my coffee at 5:30 AM, and being seen as the "teacher" in parent-teacher conferences has given my life a fundamentally different focus.  I wake up early on weekends.  Instead of procrastinating, I just plow through work--because not even my worst 19 credit hour, waitress working, track coaching semesters can lay a finger on my life now. Okay, well I still procrastinate. Anyways, the winter time can be a tough season for a first year teacher.  The school year is reaching its halfway point, and even though time has FLOWN, the allure of the end of June is still far, far away.  Even the most wonderful of my students can grate my nerves, and its not because I don't love them.  We've just spent lots of time together.  Graduate school classes are back in FULL swing, and while our professors are aware that we're struggling new teachers with bigger worries than their assignments, it still doesn't mean we don't have to do them...and do them well.  By this time of the year, I've learned that its really easy to be a bad teacher.  Show up, don't implement a management system, and try to work through a couple of handouts.  On the flip side, its almost impossible to be a good teacher, especially when you're new.  So I'm spending time tweaking lessons, finding supplies to put my discovery lesson ideas into action, and fine-tuning the feedback I give students.  It takes hours to grade a short answer/essay exam well.  On Sunday, I spent 6 hours at Alterra (a fine coffee shop) and over an hour was spent creating a power point for a game that will only last about thirty minutes!  Oh, the humanity!! All this aside, there are some sneaky golden rays of sunshine.  While I walked around college campuses today daydreaming about trucking from the Sigma Kappa house to Rickey one more time for a bad joke at the start of Abstract Algebra, my students learned that they get to pick their own classes in college, choose who to live with, and that curfew doesn't exist in the strange world of residence halls.  I guess I'll try my darndest to make sure they get to have the memories and happiness that come with attaining a college degree. Besides, I keep watching that "Pep Talk" video from Kid President.  My half hour respite on Thursday nights will come back as there is a new Big Bang Theorey episode...and Doctor Who has announced its spring return!  There are some things to look forward to.  And maybe, just maybe, next year I won't be all by myself in Milwaukee.  [Fingers crossed]   ekv001 Tue, 29 Jan 2013 02:45:44 +0100 http://abmilwaukee.teachforus.org/2013/01/06/recommendations-and-surveys/ At the beginning, middle, and end of each year, Teach For America sends a survey to its corps members and asks us to rate a number of areas with regard to our performance as teachers and the staff's performance as guides to our professional development. While some of the questions change from survey to survey, a handful remain the same. One that stands out in my mind is how likely I would recommend TFA to a prospective candidate. I always save my survey responses, and, in this case, I have noticed that my response to this question has steadily declined over the past year and a half. It's ironic, too, because this past week a friend's daughter, a very intelligent young woman at one of our nation's top universities, asked me about the program and if it might be right for her. Last year, regardless of how she felt about education, I would have said "Look into it! It might be a fit for you!" Over the summer, I probably would have said "If you're interested in teaching, this is a great way to get your certification." But, this past week, my gut told me not to subject another human to the TFA sales pitch. Instead, I asked her about her interests and what she wants to do with her life. She sounded very passionate about education, so, since she is a math scholar, I referred her to several programs and highlighted the Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship. As I think about this devolution of my opinion of TFA, I realize that it has little to do with the core of the program. I think TFA is a decent program. It connects the dots for prospective teachers by finding them a job and enrolling them at a university to ensure they are eventually certified for the job. That's amazing. Also, considering the fact that it gets drawn into political crosshairs every day, I think the organization does an outstanding job staying non-partisan. Even when it comes to pro- and anti-union rhetoric TFA largely stays away from the political arena. What irks me about the program is the idea that it is a movement. On every survey I am asked if I feel part of a movement. So I feel the need to say that I have studied movements, I have been part of a movement, and from my perspective Teach For America does not look or feel like a movement. Movements have leaders who reach out and care for those within the movement. Throughout the entirety of my placement in TFA, I have felt like I have had to be the one to reach out and say that I wanted to be part of the corps experience. I have had to be the one to make the connection. Yet, there are people hired to run this "movement" and who should be connecting with corps members individually on a weekly basis if this is to be a true statement. Look at any community organizer and look at what they do. Whether they organize church groups or student groups, labor unions or block clubs, community organizers go out and connect with the people of their movement one-on-one and ask "How are you doing?" and "What can we do together to make things better?" Community organizers don't simply send a blast email. Community organizers don't simply come into a room and observe. They roll up their sleeves and they get to work alongside the people they aim to aid. If TFA is to make any corps member like me feel more personally connected in the future, then staff--in particular MTLDs (aka our mentor teachers)--must roll up their sleeves. Maybe I am getting this wrong. Maybe the movement is supposed to be this corps of teachers creating communities within their schools. If that's the case, then yes I organize events at my school and yes I connect weekly with my students' parents, but I was busy getting my bearings in year one--learning about my school, university, families, new city, and teaching in general. Now, as I approach this period when I can organize my school community, I am practically out the door and I can tell you that there are plenty of other second-year corps members right there with me. I am proud to be a teacher and I know that regardless of what I do next year I will be working to make this world a better place, but part of me feels like a victim of fraud. I did not expect my work in Milwaukee to be easy and I did not expect anyone to be sympathetic. I did, however, expect to be part of something bigger, and all I have seen is a skeleton that connects several working parts. Teach For America is good for putting great people in great places, but I have yet to see great things from the organization itself. Mr. Milwaukee Sun, 06 Jan 2013 17:40:22 +0100 http://emmavierheller.teachforus.org/2012/12/03/temple-geometry/ I do forget sometimes that people read this.   This Wednesday, my students will be embarking on a proofing adventure.  I'm going to set the scene with some East Asian music and we're going to work through a proof.  A real one.  It's going to be hard.  But so, SO great. I've realized (or I always knew) that the biggest excitement that I get over teaching is that I get to teach math.  I know, I know... I'm teaching children, not just the subject.  But there's something about the fundamental inequities in mathematics education and the tremendous potential that students who receive a proper math education are privy to that are just astounding. Teach for America, and the accountability movement in general, like to boil things down to the "numbers".  Its why my school and other schools align to the ACT College Readiness Standards--because students who do well on the ACT do well in college.  Now, my allegiance to this system will not be discussed today.  There's a bigger number that I want to talk about. That, my friends, is calculus.  And the undeniable correlation between students who complete calculus and students who complete a 4 year degree.  Math is the key.  GOOD math is the key. I want to shout this from the mountaintops.  A mathematics curriculum rich in problem solving, proofs, justification, and independent learning is what will make or break college success for my kids.  This is what i want for Christmas. And while I can't give them that, I can give them an exercise in proofs.  A little taste of what their lives would be like daily if they went to a suburban school.  And I know its only just one step, but I'm learning quickly that step-by-step is the only way things ever progress in the world of education. Short post this time around.  Sorry, beloved fans. ekv001 Mon, 03 Dec 2012 01:35:13 +0100 http://emmavierheller.teachforus.org/2012/11/18/reflections-on-choice-the-good-and-bad/ So. The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program.  The reason my lovely school exists.  What a tough idea to grapple with.   The good: --without it, would my students be at  less effective MPS school? --Christian and character grounded education for students who wouldn't otherwise get it (while this isn't a goal of the choice program, I think its one of the things that keeps my school pushing forwards) --no red tape.  Not many of the teachers at my school have Wisconsin teaching licenses or administrators licenses.  But mark my words, the state of Wisconsin is LUCKY to have such dedicated educators in their state --no red tape (again).  Parents/guardians sign the handbook and agree to come to conferences, accept our school wide management plan, etc.  They get mad about waiting for an hour 'cause their kid is in detention?  They signed on to this. --No Wisconsin state standards here!  My students laughed at the WKCE on Friday.  They're getting a richer education.   The bad: --what about the kids whose parents don't care? (It happens). --Segregation: my school is 99.9% African American.  Which is fine, but I want their eyes open to a diverse range of experiencse --Community activism:  in a neighborhood school, the school becomes a rallying point, a place to hold meetings, a place to organize movement.  My students are dispersed throughout the city (although HOPE has more of a community feel than most) --long term investment.  A parent gets mad?  They take their kid out of the school.  They don't like that school?  They move again.  Kids change schools here like I changed hair color in college.  Instead of choice causing competition, it can feel like a bad election when you pick the "best" of the worst.   A bunch of mediocre schools with students moving in and out.   While I may not be a relentless supporter of the "choice movement", I know that my kids are better off right now.  This isn't even scratching the surface of an expansive issue.  But I figured I would jot some ideas down (especially since I'm planned for the week! Only 'cause its Thanksgiving).  Thoughts about how you've seen school choice work in your community is welcome :) ekv001 Sun, 18 Nov 2012 21:21:52 +0100 http://emmavierheller.teachforus.org/2012/11/07/i-resisted-but-they-were-right/ I was forced to bond with Lee Cantor this summer, as all 2012 Corps Members were.  We learned to give explicit directions, narrate the positive, and then redirect.  We all felt SO silly to recognize students who were on task... "____ is writing his name on the paper, ____ is working on the first problem", etc.  I remember thinking that these people were crazy!  No one narrated my behavior when I was 16...how would this ever work?   Fast forward.  I gave positive narration to redirection at a 2:1 ratio last Friday...and I'm still not being positive enough!  I've started writing post-it notes before class with praise to give students during class and try SO HARD to redirect individually rather than a bunch of "Ladies and gentlemen, you're not doing ____".  It seems so silly, but its the BEST teaching trick I've picked up so far in terms of classroom management.  I haven't sent a single student out of my class in the last two days (a typical consequence in my school is to send students into the hallway).  I've also called 18 parents so far this week.  Sure, not all of them picked up, and it might not work...but I actually feel like I'm nearing 100% compliance.  Sometimes. On another note, I'm crazy frustrated with the standards that I work with in my school.  Its SO HARD to transform them into critical thinking tasks when the true "requirement" is to memorize a set of steps and regurgitate them.  I can't wait to ask family and friends for resource books from NCTM for Christmas.  The holidays will never be the same. My final reflection in this disjointed  post is how happy I am to be working at HOPE.  Its CERTAINLY not perfect...but I can't believe I'm working with people who are trying their absolute hardest to be as close to perfect as possible.  My school LOVES kids and no matter how many years they have taught are working like crazy to make themselves better.  Wow.  It's hard not to give it 100% with colleagues like this. I'll be at the airport headed back to OHIO 2 weeks from this very moment.  YESSSS!!!! ekv001 Wed, 07 Nov 2012 23:26:05 +0100 http://emmavierheller.teachforus.org/2012/10/25/why-im-not-thrilled-to-vote-this-election/ Well, I'm about to turn off my television because I can't deal with any more political ads.  The political scientist student in me thinks that the election cycle is extremely interesting, but the teacher in me is a little exhausted by both sides (or any side) using nice phrases and emotional ploys to think that they alone care about improving education in our country. I watch the Mitt Romney ad slamming small class sizes as a trick created by teacher's unions and explaining in the first debate that schools should be rated simply as A, B, C, D, and F regardless of the resources each school does or doesn't have.  I admit, I scratched my head.  Clearly University School, a private school with tuition costs that rival my undergrad institution, will receive a higher garde than the school at which I teach.  If my students had the option to attend a phenomenal school, programs like choice and charters wouldn't have to exist.   He tells students to borrow money from their parents, and I look at my students who have no such option.  "Borrow what", they ask.  I worry he is so far removed from the issues that plague my students that he can't fathom what it will take to improve their trajectories in life. President Obama has raised Pell Grant money, and for that I'm grateful.  Thankfully, waivers for NCLB are coming through.  However, the past four years has seen little change in the standardized testing frenzy and has not tackled some of the most fundamental issues that plague our schools.  Race to the Top is an interesting idea, and certainly the funding during a recession was helpful, but it's not promoting the kind of positive change we need.  Thanks to his elite university education, Obama shows he has cultivated the thinking skills required to be a global leader--but hasn't used his position to ensure my students receive the opportunity to fine tune those same skills. So, I will explain what a candidate would have to do to have my full support.  That candidate would support moving away from local property taxes as a means to fund education.  I know it sounds great to be contributing to your "local" school instead of a state or nationwide pull, but it is fundamentally unjust for students like mine.  Next, my ideal candidate would promote teaching as a profession--by championing raising standards of schools of education, raising teacher salaries so they would attract the best candidates (why is it OK for companies to offer ludicrous packages to lure in CEOs, but not okay in this instance?  In this case, let schools run like a business!).  When the title of "Teacher" comes with the same respect that is associated with "lawyer" or "doctor", then the best possible potential candidates flock towards the profession.  Finally, my ideal candidate would look beyond the four or eight years of his or her administration.  Education is a phenomenal investment, but it takes time to see the return on that investment.  Promoting early childhood education may not win you points politically, but students will be prepared for school and learn the language and reading skills that can make or break their future before they step through their first grade door.  Understanding that education cannot be measured in temporary test scores, but the cultivation of thinking skills over one's academic career might not sound great in an ad or speech, but it will make the difference in years to come. Right now, I can't find my ideal candidate.  So keep your politics out of my education, candidates.  Don't use it as a pawn.  We KNOW what works.  I just haven't found anyone with the guts to put it into policy yet. ekv001 Thu, 25 Oct 2012 23:20:17 +0100 http://emmavierheller.teachforus.org/2012/10/23/neither-here-nor-there/ I received my first quarter evaluation from my administration today.  I'm so thankful to have honest and supportive administration backing me at my school--they're pushing me to make me better and provide extremely valuable resources.  All the same, though, as I walked into my evaluation I knew I could do better. Of COURSE I can do better.  I've been at this for 8 weeks.  I know my weaknesses.  I struggle following through with consequences and I'm having problems breaking down material for students--I studied math, but I've never taught it to someone who didn't understand.  i'm not realizing the vision I had for my students.  Yet. Sometimes I feel stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place.  I expect such big things of myself--my students don't have time for me to figure out how to be a better teacher.  At the same time, I want someone to pat me on the back for working harder than I've ever worked.  For occasionally getting SOMETHING right in my classroom.  But in this end game, my students don't succeed because I "tried my best".  Their education can't be put on hold until I figure out HOW to educate them.  Their clocks are ticking.  They succeed if I've done my job well. So, I'll keep trying.  I'll identify my weaknesses and game plan to fix them.  I will plan better lessons, hold my students to the highest expectations, and find a way to achieve better results.  I'll keep demanding more and not relent until I have found a way to open pathways for them.  I just hope that I can do it before time runs out. ekv001 Tue, 23 Oct 2012 22:01:36 +0100 http://abmilwaukee.teachforus.org/2012/09/18/why-do-we-need-unions/ Every now and then I'll be talking about the teachers strike with someone and they'll say something along the lines of "I understand why they're doing this, but why do they need a contract?" or "Why do they need a union?" It is something I haven't asked myself since taking U.S. History in high school, but is certainly worth revisiting today. The greatest need for unions is in service and trade industries. We're talking about people who do manual labor and put their bodies on the line when they go to work. If there is a high level of risk involved with your job--perhaps as a construction worker, factory worker, custodian, maintenance worker, baker, chef, or waiter--you should have a contract which says your employer isn't going to cut you loose if you get hurt on the job. Especially when working with a full-scale industry like automotive plants, construction firms, big office firms, and schools, your employer should be willing to offer you some kind of benefits since you are putting much of yourself on the line. It isn't right for them to hire and fire folks simply because the type of work prevented you from continuing on the job. If you're injured and you've worked for a company for some time, you should be entitled to some kind of job-retraining or severance pay. The next area where I think of needing unions are our hard-working public--and increasingly private--emergency personelle. I'm picturing police, firefighters, medics, hospital doctors, and nurses. These are folks who have high-intensity jobs and whom we rely on for many on-call situations. They're jobs require more than your average worker and, again, these brave men and women should be provided reasonable working conditions. They're able to fight for these working conditions as a union. The next category I think of are professionals who are given a certain level of autonomy but are directed to do very specific things. This includes teachers, paraprofessionals, administrative staff, and municipal workers. These people are hired en masse to do particular jobs and they should not just be thrown out like cogs in a machine when someone points out there needs to be more time for sick leave or there needs to be an increase in health care coverage. Which gets me to the main point: workers deserve to be treated like people. That's why we need unions. Because, particularly in public jobs, we deserve some freedom to point out what isn't working or what isn't right without running the risk of being fired because we're at-will employees. I get it, if you're a private business you can do what you want, but in the public sphere we should be fighting for the very best. If teachers in Chicago are pointing out the fact that roofs are leaking and class sizes are too big, then they shouldn't be told to shut up. They should be able to walk off the job and say something isn't right. Unfortunately, they can't even do that, because that's not considered cause for a strike. Fewer than 12 percent of Americans today belong to a union, and I think it is a big part of why we're seeing a decline in customer service and an increase in the gap between rich and poor. I believe that if we're going to move our country forward, we need workers to band together and improve the quality of life we have in this country before it's too late. Mr. Milwaukee Wed, 19 Sep 2012 02:39:34 +0100 http://abmilwaukee.teachforus.org/2012/09/17/its-a-different-kind-of-nervous/ Two weeks ago, on the eve of my second first day as a teacher, I was a different kind of nervous. Last year I was worried about my classroom not being ready for my students and I was worried about whether or not I would be able to handle the responsibility of my role. This year, I was ready to roll, but I was worried that what I have to offer my students isn't enough to launch them on a long-term path to success. I know that my students from last year are more than ready for first grade, but are they ready for the future? Are they ready for the world? I guess I can't really expect to prepare them myself, but then I wonder if I invested their parents enough. Did they make the right school choice? Will they be taken care of by their new teacher? I hope the answers are yes, but I really won't know for several years. So when I walked into my classroom on Tuesday, September 4, 2012, I wanted to know that I was going to change my students' lives and put them on a sure path to success. I can say that I'm trying, but I'll never be sure. I do know that I have a better-behaved batch of twelve boys and girls, and I think we're going to do a better job covering material than I did with my last class. This is because, for the most part, we've all been in the school for two years now. All but two were enrolled in K4 at the school, and we know I made it through a year of K5! We're ready to take on K5 standards and "buzz" to first grade--my new classroom theme is built around Kalamazoo College. I'm excited to talk about the election with my students. I'm excited to go on more field trips. I'm excited to teach! So, part of my mind tells me this year has to be better, but I don't think I'll ever shake this nervous feeling deep down inside that I will fail. That I won't be enough. I guess a little Marianne Williamson is in order. "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people, permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." As I enter week three of year two, it's time to shed the fear and just do my thing. I think we're going to be fabulous. There, I said it. Mr. Milwaukee Tue, 18 Sep 2012 00:05:29 +0100