Today was going well until about 11:30 when we received an announcement that a streetlight needed repaired. As a result, the electricity at the school would have to be turned off for 6 hours. Students were allowed to call home on their cell phones and instead of teaching we managed the students and stood guard at the doors in case any decided to bolt without their parents. One student did try to leave and he almost succeeded as he was quite quiet and unnoticed until the door opened. He seemed a bit confused and didn't mind that he had to wait until someone came to get him.
I got to teach my lesson in the morning and it was a lot of fun; I taught about simple machines. We had an axle/wheel, lever, pulley, inclined plane, etc. in class. The kids seemed like they were having a lot of fun with using the machines.
We are in an interesting situation here at summer school. The school has a first and second session where the second session is optional for students who have good attendance and/or passing TAKS scores from their summer retake. Come monday, I will have some of my old students, but I will receive new ones. This might not sound like much of a problem as it's really good if a student doesn't have to come to summer school any more, BUT, TFA is collecting ISAT data. This was the test the students take at the beginning of getting a TFA teacher and at the end (two weeks into the 2nd session). If they meet their "growth goals," then it says that the TFA teacher was effective in teaching the students for those 4 weeks (14 actual school days). From the standpoint of many TFA teachers we also want the students to come back so that we can teach them more so that they'll be more prepared for school in the fall.
As a result of this attendance problem, we have to take steps to keep the students invested in our class so that they'll come back when it's optional and not mandatory. One route I and other teachers are taking is making the next two weeks personal for the students. We are bringing in resources and setting aside time for questions about life after high school--the meaning of a college degree, the possibilities in a profession, etc. This part of life is quite vague for many of our students as many are not brought up with these expectations. I will also be bringing in a Houston Kenyon alum as a speaker (and possibly quite a few more once I get the alumni website password in the next few days). I'll also write positive notes home and make sure to offer personalized help for each student's weak areas in what we are learning.
As a science teacher, my job is a little easier in making class interesting through cool experiments/demonstrations. A few days ago we were shown some amazing experiments that even college grads found fascinating such as lighting money on fire, crushing a can just by putting it in water, blowing the top off a film canister, etc. We plan to begin doing a cool experiment each day starting friday and of course following it up with a mini-lesson on the science behind it (5 minute explanation). This is all quite useful for the next two years because some of the same strategies will be used to keep the students invested in their work at school. The idea is that the teacher makes the classroom culture great and makes education meaningful to the students. Thus, the students see the value in school and the work they do each day.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Mostly Good
Today was a pretty fun day for the most part. I taught a lesson on motion and it went really well during first period; however, it didn't go over as well during 5th. It just felt like I couldn't make a good sentence or go in a good order. Luckily, I had a small amount of content to deliver so I was able to reteach the concepts that were a bit confusing at first. Over the next few days I'll also be able to revisit the lesson during the first few minutes of each class to make sure the students understood it.
The better part of the day was the students' behavior during 5th period. This is the last period of the day and thus the students are usually quite fidgety and talkative. Today, each one received his or her job in class and seemed to take to it well. Homework collection, attendance, board preparation, paper return, etc. were all carried out by the students and it made everything much more efficient. It also improved the in class participation of one student who had been giving me some attitude in the past few days. The student no longer had a sour look on her face through class and participated 3 times (which is 3x more than usual).
My Faculty Adviser came through for our collaborative group in a big way, as well. We are doing simple machines tomorrow and Thursday and no one brought his or her incline plane, wedge, screw, or wheel and axle (among others) to Institute. Our FA found the school's incline plane, force and motion kit, and many other cool simple machines for us. It looked like Christmas in the room as we now have some really cool stuff to use for demonstrations tomorrow and Thursday.
The best part of the day, though, was the end. After school ends we usually have another hour at school for various workshops, lessons, or lesson planning clinics. Today we were told we were going to have a session on "work life balance." Most thought we were going to get another Power Point presentation on how we should work to find "me time" while being quite busy. Instead, we boarded the bus and went home one hour early. We were then met by a carnival type setup put on by TFA at Moody Towers: food, massages, DDR, karaoke, a bounce house, and many other fun things to do. It was a really nice gesture as tomorrow marks our half-way point through Institute.
The better part of the day was the students' behavior during 5th period. This is the last period of the day and thus the students are usually quite fidgety and talkative. Today, each one received his or her job in class and seemed to take to it well. Homework collection, attendance, board preparation, paper return, etc. were all carried out by the students and it made everything much more efficient. It also improved the in class participation of one student who had been giving me some attitude in the past few days. The student no longer had a sour look on her face through class and participated 3 times (which is 3x more than usual).
My Faculty Adviser came through for our collaborative group in a big way, as well. We are doing simple machines tomorrow and Thursday and no one brought his or her incline plane, wedge, screw, or wheel and axle (among others) to Institute. Our FA found the school's incline plane, force and motion kit, and many other cool simple machines for us. It looked like Christmas in the room as we now have some really cool stuff to use for demonstrations tomorrow and Thursday.
The best part of the day, though, was the end. After school ends we usually have another hour at school for various workshops, lessons, or lesson planning clinics. Today we were told we were going to have a session on "work life balance." Most thought we were going to get another Power Point presentation on how we should work to find "me time" while being quite busy. Instead, we boarded the bus and went home one hour early. We were then met by a carnival type setup put on by TFA at Moody Towers: food, massages, DDR, karaoke, a bounce house, and many other fun things to do. It was a really nice gesture as tomorrow marks our half-way point through Institute.
Monday, June 25, 2007
A Good Day
7 Hours of sleep and lots of preparation make for a really good day. To cut down on wasting time in class I prepared everything that I was going to write on the chalkboard on sticky easel pad sheets. I was able to have color-coded notes, pictures, etc. The other bonus is that I was able to move around the room. This doesn't sound like a big deal, but for classroom management, proximity is a key factor: the student is many times less likely to act up if the teacher is nearby. So, you just make sure you make it a habit of moving around the room rather than being tethered to the chalkboard/overheard. This way, you are more dynamic and the students know that you can easily move near them if they are getting out of hand.
Both lessons went pretty well because of the preparation and fun demonstrations. We were learning about forces. So we demonstrated gravity, tension (the beginning of tug of war), and friction and did a lab involving friction as well. The students were much more engaged and interested than last Wednesday.
The students also seemed to like the chart and they recognized the need to work hard to get their bars up to our goal of 80%. The jobs went over well, too, as many students were happy to get some responsibilities in class. The result was two fold: class became more efficient and students were better behaved due to having an important role in class.
Tomorrow should go well, too. I do have to end on a funny story. It was just a matter of time until a procedure to get on the elevator was developed. We had a pretty long line today as one of the elevators was broken and many people were taking the stairs. Someone decided to get everyone into two lines--one for the elevator and one for the stairs. I just found it funny as it was one more set of directions to follow, one more procedure, one more way of doing something in a standardized way. Yes, I was looking for someone with a stopwatch and paper to see how long it took to get on the elevator or stairs (luckily, I found no one).
Both lessons went pretty well because of the preparation and fun demonstrations. We were learning about forces. So we demonstrated gravity, tension (the beginning of tug of war), and friction and did a lab involving friction as well. The students were much more engaged and interested than last Wednesday.
The students also seemed to like the chart and they recognized the need to work hard to get their bars up to our goal of 80%. The jobs went over well, too, as many students were happy to get some responsibilities in class. The result was two fold: class became more efficient and students were better behaved due to having an important role in class.
Tomorrow should go well, too. I do have to end on a funny story. It was just a matter of time until a procedure to get on the elevator was developed. We had a pretty long line today as one of the elevators was broken and many people were taking the stairs. Someone decided to get everyone into two lines--one for the elevator and one for the stairs. I just found it funny as it was one more set of directions to follow, one more procedure, one more way of doing something in a standardized way. Yes, I was looking for someone with a stopwatch and paper to see how long it took to get on the elevator or stairs (luckily, I found no one).
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Sunday Work
I feel more prepared for this week than last week. One of our big ideas at TFA is "big goals." Basically we set big goals and track the students' progress toward those goals individually and as a class. So today I created a huge poster detailing the class averages on the diagnostic and on the various assessments I've given. I have "% Mastery" on the Y-axis and "Assignments and Objectives" on the X-axis. Each assignment is color-coded by objective so that the class can see how well they did and if their average is getting them closer to the class goal. Each time we have a new set of assignments, I'll update the chart (although this will most likely be a student's job in the class). Here is a photo to give you a better picture:
The image might look a bit distorted because I had to deal with the screen's angle in order to get a good picture. After dinner I'll be practicing my intros to new material (what most would call "lecture" but the parts of the lesson where you talk and demonstrate the new material you want your students to know). We are doing a week on force, motion, and simple machines, so class will be quite interactive this week.
The whole idea behind the tracking chart is to give the students a visual representation of how they are doing in the class. The idea is to make them work as a team to get the goals up (with the teacher being the leader, hence, TFA's idea of "teaching as leadership"). Students will also have individual tracking systems that tell them how they are doing privately. Tracking is both a learning strategy and a classroom management strategy--you can show the results from various days when the students were disruptive/off track and show how that behavior led to less learning and vice versa. I still have to add the goal for the class and it will probably be around 80-85% mastery on all objectives for all students--seems to be the recommended number.
Tomorrow I am also giving out class leadership roles which will allow students to become more invested in class and it will give the more active students something to do during class. Jobs include passing out papers, passing out the warm-up, collecting homework, supplies manager for labs, etc. This method allows students to feel part of the class rather than people that the teacher "talks at" during class.
I feel pretty prepared for tomorrow, although I still have to practice my introduction to new material a few times before bed (trying for 10pm tonight). I'll update as to how all of this worked out during class tomorrow.
The image might look a bit distorted because I had to deal with the screen's angle in order to get a good picture. After dinner I'll be practicing my intros to new material (what most would call "lecture" but the parts of the lesson where you talk and demonstrate the new material you want your students to know). We are doing a week on force, motion, and simple machines, so class will be quite interactive this week.
The whole idea behind the tracking chart is to give the students a visual representation of how they are doing in the class. The idea is to make them work as a team to get the goals up (with the teacher being the leader, hence, TFA's idea of "teaching as leadership"). Students will also have individual tracking systems that tell them how they are doing privately. Tracking is both a learning strategy and a classroom management strategy--you can show the results from various days when the students were disruptive/off track and show how that behavior led to less learning and vice versa. I still have to add the goal for the class and it will probably be around 80-85% mastery on all objectives for all students--seems to be the recommended number.
Tomorrow I am also giving out class leadership roles which will allow students to become more invested in class and it will give the more active students something to do during class. Jobs include passing out papers, passing out the warm-up, collecting homework, supplies manager for labs, etc. This method allows students to feel part of the class rather than people that the teacher "talks at" during class.
I feel pretty prepared for tomorrow, although I still have to practice my introduction to new material a few times before bed (trying for 10pm tonight). I'll update as to how all of this worked out during class tomorrow.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Week 2 of Institute
Week 2 was busy, stressful, and difficult, but it was also rewarding and sobering. It was nothing close to what Summerbridge Fort Worth was like last year. Supposedly, 35-40 people have already left training/TFA completely at our Institute. Many other corps members voiced thoughts of quitting as well. While this is mostly conjecture, it seems as though they make training difficult so that people who will not persevere through difficult times will quit now rather than after teaching in their region. TFA saves face and the school district isn't left with an unfilled position part way through the school year.
As I wrote before, I am teaching summer school students two periods out of the day. The other periods are taken up by Professional Development and Curriculum Sessions. In the former we do things that help us improve as teachers such as practicing parts of our lessons with others, troubleshooting difficult classroom situations, watching videos of good and bad teaching, debriefing with our observers (faculty adviser, corps member adviser, anyone else who observed us). In the other sessions, we get actual lessons on how to improve our teaching--basically what we had been doing for the past week. Each school day still lasts from 7-4. This may be a southern thing, but teachers are hardly called by their last names by students. Instead we are "Mister" or "Miss." It's quite cute and not disrespectful at all. The students know your last name as I had one student who saw me in the hall while going to and from TAKS testing rooms and definitely made sure to wave and smile and say, "HI Mr. Rice."
The two classes are interesting in terms of how they are set up: collaborative teaching where each teacher has 3-4 students and individual teaching where I have 8 students. Many of the students will leave next friday due to passing the TAKS they just took on Thursday and Friday. It's a weird setup because I am not sure how good it is for the students and for the beginning teachers.
The students are in summer school for a variety of reasons: grades weren't high enough, poor attendance, low TAKS scores. Once at school, they are now taught for 2 weeks by actual teachers and then are taught for 2-4 weeks (depending on how long some stay) by teachers with one week of training. Last year this model worked to an extent (with Summerbridge) because the students were already quite smart/motivated, well-behaved, and the focus was on giving challenging material that was fun rather than teaching stated objectives that would be evaluated at the end of summer school.
I know that all teachers have to start somewhere as first time teachers, but the amount of training and education (maybe more of a student-teaching model for the first year) could be increased before giving us students that we have to teach while we are still learning a great deal about the mechanics of teaching. Sure, the TFA line is that those accepted are able to meet this type of challenge, learn quickly, and overcome all of these obstacles, but we are talking about learning a completely new skill set. One week of training to give great lessons to kids who desperately need them is a disservice. The students know this too--they've gotten TFA teachers in the past and know that we are first time teachers. Of course, I and all of the other corps members are trying our hardest, but I just hate the idea that instead of these students coming to summer school for more education they get to be TFA teacher training wheels. For the students who get the teachers that falter and don't improve or just don't measure up, it just adds to the message that they've already received: the education system has failed you once again.
While I realize the shortcomings of this training, I know that I still have a duty to my students on Monday. I know that I cannot afford to come in less than 100% prepared. There were many good things that happened this past week, but there were too many times where the students deserved better.
As I wrote before, I am teaching summer school students two periods out of the day. The other periods are taken up by Professional Development and Curriculum Sessions. In the former we do things that help us improve as teachers such as practicing parts of our lessons with others, troubleshooting difficult classroom situations, watching videos of good and bad teaching, debriefing with our observers (faculty adviser, corps member adviser, anyone else who observed us). In the other sessions, we get actual lessons on how to improve our teaching--basically what we had been doing for the past week. Each school day still lasts from 7-4. This may be a southern thing, but teachers are hardly called by their last names by students. Instead we are "Mister" or "Miss." It's quite cute and not disrespectful at all. The students know your last name as I had one student who saw me in the hall while going to and from TAKS testing rooms and definitely made sure to wave and smile and say, "HI Mr. Rice."
The two classes are interesting in terms of how they are set up: collaborative teaching where each teacher has 3-4 students and individual teaching where I have 8 students. Many of the students will leave next friday due to passing the TAKS they just took on Thursday and Friday. It's a weird setup because I am not sure how good it is for the students and for the beginning teachers.
The students are in summer school for a variety of reasons: grades weren't high enough, poor attendance, low TAKS scores. Once at school, they are now taught for 2 weeks by actual teachers and then are taught for 2-4 weeks (depending on how long some stay) by teachers with one week of training. Last year this model worked to an extent (with Summerbridge) because the students were already quite smart/motivated, well-behaved, and the focus was on giving challenging material that was fun rather than teaching stated objectives that would be evaluated at the end of summer school.
I know that all teachers have to start somewhere as first time teachers, but the amount of training and education (maybe more of a student-teaching model for the first year) could be increased before giving us students that we have to teach while we are still learning a great deal about the mechanics of teaching. Sure, the TFA line is that those accepted are able to meet this type of challenge, learn quickly, and overcome all of these obstacles, but we are talking about learning a completely new skill set. One week of training to give great lessons to kids who desperately need them is a disservice. The students know this too--they've gotten TFA teachers in the past and know that we are first time teachers. Of course, I and all of the other corps members are trying our hardest, but I just hate the idea that instead of these students coming to summer school for more education they get to be TFA teacher training wheels. For the students who get the teachers that falter and don't improve or just don't measure up, it just adds to the message that they've already received: the education system has failed you once again.
While I realize the shortcomings of this training, I know that I still have a duty to my students on Monday. I know that I cannot afford to come in less than 100% prepared. There were many good things that happened this past week, but there were too many times where the students deserved better.
First Week at Institute
Dear friends, family, past professors and teachers,
(If for any reason you don't want to be on the email list, just let me
know, I won't be offended. I also hope to add more, but I don't have
emails of many people, so please feel free to forward this on to
others.)
This email, and future ones probably, will be written at different
times due to very little free time (as I will explain later). I
apologize for any chopiness or odd transitions. I also divided parts
of this into sections in case you've already heard some of the
information or just don't want to read the whole thing.
I just wanted to say "hi" to everyone and to deliver my promise of
updating you all on my Teach for America (TFA) experience. I just
started my 5 weeks training (in Houston) and I wanted to give you all
an inside (and honest) look of TFA. It's actually going really well.
While we have a lot to do each day, I feel that I will be prepared for
the first day of school in the Delta.
1. Praxis
I arrived in Houston on Friday, June 8th, with my Dad as I had to take
my Praxis 2 (certification) test in Secondary Biology on the 9th. A
car is a necessity in the Delta, so we had to make the trip from Akron
to Houston. The trip from Houston to the Delta will happen after the
Institute finishes. On test day I felt pretty good as I knew what
most of the questions were asking. Each question only had 4 choices
and I was able to eliminate at least 1 in each case.
2. Where I'll be teaching
I will be teaching in the Mississippi Delta region, which is northwest
corner of Mississippi and the southeast corner of Arkansas. It is
called the "Delta" due to the flooding of the Mississippi and the
subsequent fertile land for agriculture. If you are thinking of the
South with lots of cotton fields, then you have the right image. There
will be 90 of us heading to the Delta region; I believe we are the 2nd
largest corps at our Institute. The largest is the Houston Corps,
which has 150 or 200 members (I think). TFA has been in the Delta
since 1992 (I think) and its teachers are very well received in the
Delta. The region does not have as many horror stories about other
teachers and parents being skeptical of TFA teachers.
3. Placement
4. TFA's Mission and Ideology (really helpful for those applying for
TFA next year--TFA pretty much said, "we look for people who believe
things similar to our mission/ideology.")
TFA believes that its mission is to "close the achievement gap," which
means giving all children a quality education. TFA believes in
"standards based" education, which means that teachers have a set of
objectives they must teach and assess in an objective manner. These
objectives, and whether or not they are met by students, are tested by
the state in those amazing multiple choice tests that are now
mandatory thanks to No Child Left Behind.
While TFA touts standardized education and testing they are very much
behind giving students motivation, using good assessments, and moving
students ahead in their grade levels. TFA believes literacy is
important in each subject and trains its teachers to teach literacy in
any subject (including math). They believe in differentiated
instruction and making sure all students in a class have ambitious yet
feasible goals and that those goals are met. TFA believes strongly in
"fluid intelligence" and not "fixed intelligence." Their teachers
send the message that you are not intrinsically smart but that you
become smart through hard work, dedication, and persistence.
The reasons behind the standards and objective assessments is an
extension of TFA's business management system. TFA continually
assesses itself and changes quickly when given criticism (of course as
long as they accept it). I've had to fill out many surveys for each
aspect--applying, pre-institute communication, stuff going on at
institute, etc. At Institute they time everything. They start out
with a clock set to "TFA Standard Time" and we are expected to set our
watch to this time. Next, almost each activity has a TFA leader
standing nearby to time how long it takes to do it. For example, when
I registered I took around an orange sheet to each station where the
members helping me recorded how long it took. I've seen them at meals
assessing how long it takes people to get through the lines. They
believe heavily in maximizing efficiency.
TFA's belief structure for its teachers has one overarching theme:
Teaching as Leadership. TFA believes that the teacher's actions cause
the students' actions. Most would agree with this, however, TFA takes
it one step further and doesn't take lack of parental involvement,
lack of resources, or any other social causes outside of the teacher's
control as excuses for why students are not achieving. If a teacher
has a student with a different learning mode, learning disability, a
native tongue that isn't english or any other challenge, then it's the
teacher's job and duty to seek out the resources to make sure that the
student makes just as much gains as the others (not the same ones
necessarily but the same proportionately--ie moving up 2 grade levels
in reading).
Their belief is that the teacher leads the class by setting a big goal
and individual goals for students and then teaching according to that
goal. A big goal might be moving all students 1.5 to 2 grade levels
(these students are sometimes entering the late elementary grades--or
later--not being able to read). The teacher also sets individual
goals with the students and then creates their lessons based around
those goals. Next, the teacher motivates the students through
"investment." Basically, the teacher shows the students that he or
she cares and wants them to succeed. The teacher makes phone calls
for good and bad behavior, attends the students' extracurricular
events, uses role models that the students can identify with, develops
a relationship not just with the parents but all of the influences in
a student's life (pastor, coach, cousin, etc), meets with parents on
weekends or any other time that may be good for them instead of
holding one parent conference night where only a few show up. The
idea is for the teacher to motivate students on a daily basis through
positive messages, stories of hard work and dedication, and caring
about the student's life outside of school. Many teachers coach
sports teams and use part of the time for learning (ie football chants
to memorize history dates--real example, no joke).
All of this is able to happen because of the classroom management
system the teacher has set up in the classroom--everything from rules,
to procedure, and the purpose of being at school relates to learning.
An elementary teacher might say, "the reason we have a set way of
lining up is that it increases our learning time"; a middle school
teacher might say to a kid talking, "please be quiet, each time we
interrupt or cause a disruption it leads to losing learning time in
class--we aren't getting any closer to our big goal." We even have
videos of teachers timing certain procedures and sharing those results
with the class with the goal of increasing efficiency each time. TFA
believes that the gains their students need are so important that
every second is important. The main thing behind all of the teaching
a teacher does is the following, "if you do not have a plan for the
students then they will develop a plan for you." Following the idea
of "teaching as leadership," all parts of class--assessments, goals,
management, motivation/investment are the duty of the teacher and must
be planned out ahead of time.
Finally, it all comes down to "expectations." If a teacher has high
expectations for his/her students and works students to meet them,
then the students will. If the teacher has low expectations then the
students will either meet those low ones or even fail to meet those
(this is TFA's belief as to why our public schools are failing). TFA
teaches this to its corps members by setting down expectations and
then when those are not met, they are recorded (you get an update each
week--you might get "written up" for not signing in, missing the bus,
not turning in an assignment, not improving as a teacher, etc). If
you keep messing up, then you are put on an "improvement plan" where
you meet with the staff and you develop a plan to get your act
together. If you are unsuccessful, then TFA has you leave the
organization.
Some might be thinking at this point, does TFA succeed? The data
seems to be "yes." Students succeed not only on standardized tests
but on other rubrics and assessments and many teachers meet their big
goals they've set for the class. A recent alumnus of TFA founded Yes!
Prep in Houston and while it's maybe 5 years old is now ranked as one
of the best public (charter) schools in Houston and one of the top in
the country (#30 by Newsweek--this is what we were told at our
induction ceremony). I wish I had other data to share, but I'm sure
most of it could be found on: www.teachforamerica.org. The
organization seems to have changed alot from the earlier years where
it received many articles and some books criticizing the organization.
5. Institute--what it's been like
Everything is very structured. There is always a procedure to be
followed, a set time, and activities always go for the scheduled time.
This is why I have not had much time to write or do much online--my
day starts at 5:30 am and I get back from school at 4:30 pm. Next, I
get food and do the work they've assigned for the day. I try to be in
bed by 10 or 10:30 pm to start it all over again.
The dorm is named "Moody Towers" and it's like two really large Caples
dorms put together. 2 towers, 17 stories, symmetrical layout with a
common room, store, and dining hall. Our rooms do not have "beds."
Instead, they have "bouches": a combination bed and coach. The seat
is the bed and it can be pushed in or pulled out and there are pads
for back that can be pulled up for small storage spaces. The
mattresses are pretty horrible--we found one tag that said,
"correctional facility supplies." Luckily I've got a pretty good
mattress pad that is quite comfortable.
As for the food, we get the wonderful cuisine of Aramark Food Systems.
I'm sure most from Kenyon are grinning as this was our food service
for our first two years at Kenyon. We do not have nearly as many
choices here as we did in either dining hall at Kenyon. We only get a
hot breakfast on Wednesdays--all other days it's the standard fruit,
cereal, yogurt, bagels, and hard boiled eggs.
The way our training works is one week of classes and preparation and
4 weeks of summer school teaching (Houston Independent School
District); although we only teach for 14 days because 5 days are taken
out for testing and one for July 4th (we'll have morning classes to
attend and the afternoon off). I will be teaching 7th grade science.
I'll be teaching objectives mandated by the Houston School
District--objectives that they see as needing the most work by Houston
Students. The students are at summer school for a variety of
reasons--they might have failed one or a few parts of their TAKS test
or they are there for enrichment (very few though). The objectives we
are teaching are somewhat related, we have to teach about graphing and
representing scientific data, photosynthesis, and then basic physics
such as simple machines, forces, and gravity. The students are given
a diagnostic at the beginning of the 4 weeks (6 multiple choice
science questions covering the objectives) and then are given the same
exact test at the end of the 4 weeks. After the first diagnostic, the
results are entered into the ISAT tracker--an excel document created
by TFA based on data created by their New York Institute which aims to
predict how much certain students can improve in a set summer school
period. These results give each student an "individual growth goal"
and it's our job as teachers to get each student to make this growth
goal. For example, if a student scored a 35% on the diagnostic test
then he or she might need to score 70% (these numbers are determined
by the excel sheet) on the final test to consider the goal "met."
The next 4 weeks will consist of one period of individual teaching
each day coupled with another period of my collaborative (3 other
teachers) teaching together. No, we don't "tag-team," but instead
work with small groups of students in the same room--we are able to
split up groups based upon different needs of each student and
different teacher strengths. If we are not in class then we are
attending lessons about teaching, talking with those who observed us
about our performance, watching videos of our performance, meeting
with our faculty advisor (a teacher at the school), and doing anything
else that can improve us as teachers.
The school I am at, is a pretty nice middle school and its staff is very supportive of TFA (it has a few TFAalumni in it). The students do not have a single uniform, but the
dress code is quite restrictive to prevent the wearing of gang
insignia in its many forms (colors, pants style, jewelry, etc). The
kids seem to be quite well behaved given the stories I've heard from
other teachers at the other elementary, middle, and high schools.
(If for any reason you don't want to be on the email list, just let me
know, I won't be offended. I also hope to add more, but I don't have
emails of many people, so please feel free to forward this on to
others.)
This email, and future ones probably, will be written at different
times due to very little free time (as I will explain later). I
apologize for any chopiness or odd transitions. I also divided parts
of this into sections in case you've already heard some of the
information or just don't want to read the whole thing.
I just wanted to say "hi" to everyone and to deliver my promise of
updating you all on my Teach for America (TFA) experience. I just
started my 5 weeks training (in Houston) and I wanted to give you all
an inside (and honest) look of TFA. It's actually going really well.
While we have a lot to do each day, I feel that I will be prepared for
the first day of school in the Delta.
1. Praxis
I arrived in Houston on Friday, June 8th, with my Dad as I had to take
my Praxis 2 (certification) test in Secondary Biology on the 9th. A
car is a necessity in the Delta, so we had to make the trip from Akron
to Houston. The trip from Houston to the Delta will happen after the
Institute finishes. On test day I felt pretty good as I knew what
most of the questions were asking. Each question only had 4 choices
and I was able to eliminate at least 1 in each case.
2. Where I'll be teaching
I will be teaching in the Mississippi Delta region, which is northwest
corner of Mississippi and the southeast corner of Arkansas. It is
called the "Delta" due to the flooding of the Mississippi and the
subsequent fertile land for agriculture. If you are thinking of the
South with lots of cotton fields, then you have the right image. There
will be 90 of us heading to the Delta region; I believe we are the 2nd
largest corps at our Institute. The largest is the Houston Corps,
which has 150 or 200 members (I think). TFA has been in the Delta
since 1992 (I think) and its teachers are very well received in the
Delta. The region does not have as many horror stories about other
teachers and parents being skeptical of TFA teachers.
3. Placement
4. TFA's Mission and Ideology (really helpful for those applying for
TFA next year--TFA pretty much said, "we look for people who believe
things similar to our mission/ideology.")
TFA believes that its mission is to "close the achievement gap," which
means giving all children a quality education. TFA believes in
"standards based" education, which means that teachers have a set of
objectives they must teach and assess in an objective manner. These
objectives, and whether or not they are met by students, are tested by
the state in those amazing multiple choice tests that are now
mandatory thanks to No Child Left Behind.
While TFA touts standardized education and testing they are very much
behind giving students motivation, using good assessments, and moving
students ahead in their grade levels. TFA believes literacy is
important in each subject and trains its teachers to teach literacy in
any subject (including math). They believe in differentiated
instruction and making sure all students in a class have ambitious yet
feasible goals and that those goals are met. TFA believes strongly in
"fluid intelligence" and not "fixed intelligence." Their teachers
send the message that you are not intrinsically smart but that you
become smart through hard work, dedication, and persistence.
The reasons behind the standards and objective assessments is an
extension of TFA's business management system. TFA continually
assesses itself and changes quickly when given criticism (of course as
long as they accept it). I've had to fill out many surveys for each
aspect--applying, pre-institute communication, stuff going on at
institute, etc. At Institute they time everything. They start out
with a clock set to "TFA Standard Time" and we are expected to set our
watch to this time. Next, almost each activity has a TFA leader
standing nearby to time how long it takes to do it. For example, when
I registered I took around an orange sheet to each station where the
members helping me recorded how long it took. I've seen them at meals
assessing how long it takes people to get through the lines. They
believe heavily in maximizing efficiency.
TFA's belief structure for its teachers has one overarching theme:
Teaching as Leadership. TFA believes that the teacher's actions cause
the students' actions. Most would agree with this, however, TFA takes
it one step further and doesn't take lack of parental involvement,
lack of resources, or any other social causes outside of the teacher's
control as excuses for why students are not achieving. If a teacher
has a student with a different learning mode, learning disability, a
native tongue that isn't english or any other challenge, then it's the
teacher's job and duty to seek out the resources to make sure that the
student makes just as much gains as the others (not the same ones
necessarily but the same proportionately--ie moving up 2 grade levels
in reading).
Their belief is that the teacher leads the class by setting a big goal
and individual goals for students and then teaching according to that
goal. A big goal might be moving all students 1.5 to 2 grade levels
(these students are sometimes entering the late elementary grades--or
later--not being able to read). The teacher also sets individual
goals with the students and then creates their lessons based around
those goals. Next, the teacher motivates the students through
"investment." Basically, the teacher shows the students that he or
she cares and wants them to succeed. The teacher makes phone calls
for good and bad behavior, attends the students' extracurricular
events, uses role models that the students can identify with, develops
a relationship not just with the parents but all of the influences in
a student's life (pastor, coach, cousin, etc), meets with parents on
weekends or any other time that may be good for them instead of
holding one parent conference night where only a few show up. The
idea is for the teacher to motivate students on a daily basis through
positive messages, stories of hard work and dedication, and caring
about the student's life outside of school. Many teachers coach
sports teams and use part of the time for learning (ie football chants
to memorize history dates--real example, no joke).
All of this is able to happen because of the classroom management
system the teacher has set up in the classroom--everything from rules,
to procedure, and the purpose of being at school relates to learning.
An elementary teacher might say, "the reason we have a set way of
lining up is that it increases our learning time"; a middle school
teacher might say to a kid talking, "please be quiet, each time we
interrupt or cause a disruption it leads to losing learning time in
class--we aren't getting any closer to our big goal." We even have
videos of teachers timing certain procedures and sharing those results
with the class with the goal of increasing efficiency each time. TFA
believes that the gains their students need are so important that
every second is important. The main thing behind all of the teaching
a teacher does is the following, "if you do not have a plan for the
students then they will develop a plan for you." Following the idea
of "teaching as leadership," all parts of class--assessments, goals,
management, motivation/investment are the duty of the teacher and must
be planned out ahead of time.
Finally, it all comes down to "expectations." If a teacher has high
expectations for his/her students and works students to meet them,
then the students will. If the teacher has low expectations then the
students will either meet those low ones or even fail to meet those
(this is TFA's belief as to why our public schools are failing). TFA
teaches this to its corps members by setting down expectations and
then when those are not met, they are recorded (you get an update each
week--you might get "written up" for not signing in, missing the bus,
not turning in an assignment, not improving as a teacher, etc). If
you keep messing up, then you are put on an "improvement plan" where
you meet with the staff and you develop a plan to get your act
together. If you are unsuccessful, then TFA has you leave the
organization.
Some might be thinking at this point, does TFA succeed? The data
seems to be "yes." Students succeed not only on standardized tests
but on other rubrics and assessments and many teachers meet their big
goals they've set for the class. A recent alumnus of TFA founded Yes!
Prep in Houston and while it's maybe 5 years old is now ranked as one
of the best public (charter) schools in Houston and one of the top in
the country (#30 by Newsweek--this is what we were told at our
induction ceremony). I wish I had other data to share, but I'm sure
most of it could be found on: www.teachforamerica.org. The
organization seems to have changed alot from the earlier years where
it received many articles and some books criticizing the organization.
5. Institute--what it's been like
Everything is very structured. There is always a procedure to be
followed, a set time, and activities always go for the scheduled time.
This is why I have not had much time to write or do much online--my
day starts at 5:30 am and I get back from school at 4:30 pm. Next, I
get food and do the work they've assigned for the day. I try to be in
bed by 10 or 10:30 pm to start it all over again.
The dorm is named "Moody Towers" and it's like two really large Caples
dorms put together. 2 towers, 17 stories, symmetrical layout with a
common room, store, and dining hall. Our rooms do not have "beds."
Instead, they have "bouches": a combination bed and coach. The seat
is the bed and it can be pushed in or pulled out and there are pads
for back that can be pulled up for small storage spaces. The
mattresses are pretty horrible--we found one tag that said,
"correctional facility supplies." Luckily I've got a pretty good
mattress pad that is quite comfortable.
As for the food, we get the wonderful cuisine of Aramark Food Systems.
I'm sure most from Kenyon are grinning as this was our food service
for our first two years at Kenyon. We do not have nearly as many
choices here as we did in either dining hall at Kenyon. We only get a
hot breakfast on Wednesdays--all other days it's the standard fruit,
cereal, yogurt, bagels, and hard boiled eggs.
The way our training works is one week of classes and preparation and
4 weeks of summer school teaching (Houston Independent School
District); although we only teach for 14 days because 5 days are taken
out for testing and one for July 4th (we'll have morning classes to
attend and the afternoon off). I will be teaching 7th grade science.
I'll be teaching objectives mandated by the Houston School
District--objectives that they see as needing the most work by Houston
Students. The students are at summer school for a variety of
reasons--they might have failed one or a few parts of their TAKS test
or they are there for enrichment (very few though). The objectives we
are teaching are somewhat related, we have to teach about graphing and
representing scientific data, photosynthesis, and then basic physics
such as simple machines, forces, and gravity. The students are given
a diagnostic at the beginning of the 4 weeks (6 multiple choice
science questions covering the objectives) and then are given the same
exact test at the end of the 4 weeks. After the first diagnostic, the
results are entered into the ISAT tracker--an excel document created
by TFA based on data created by their New York Institute which aims to
predict how much certain students can improve in a set summer school
period. These results give each student an "individual growth goal"
and it's our job as teachers to get each student to make this growth
goal. For example, if a student scored a 35% on the diagnostic test
then he or she might need to score 70% (these numbers are determined
by the excel sheet) on the final test to consider the goal "met."
The next 4 weeks will consist of one period of individual teaching
each day coupled with another period of my collaborative (3 other
teachers) teaching together. No, we don't "tag-team," but instead
work with small groups of students in the same room--we are able to
split up groups based upon different needs of each student and
different teacher strengths. If we are not in class then we are
attending lessons about teaching, talking with those who observed us
about our performance, watching videos of our performance, meeting
with our faculty advisor (a teacher at the school), and doing anything
else that can improve us as teachers.
The school I am at, is a pretty nice middle school and its staff is very supportive of TFA (it has a few TFAalumni in it). The students do not have a single uniform, but the
dress code is quite restrictive to prevent the wearing of gang
insignia in its many forms (colors, pants style, jewelry, etc). The
kids seem to be quite well behaved given the stories I've heard from
other teachers at the other elementary, middle, and high schools.
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