Friends, families, and visitors.

For the past couple weeks I have experienced many stories in my new field. However, I did not want to rush telling any of the stories because I believe they deserve to be fully articulated…not thrown together. I will begin next week with detailed stories on my adventure, but for now, here is my roommate’s adventure. His blog is
http://tomgiar.wordpress.com/ if you would like to read more from him.

Here is Your Life, Part Two
By Tom Giardino

Here is your life, young teacher:

It is 8:26AM, on August 24th. There are 7 children in your classroom. None of them are your actual students.

It is 8:29AM, and there are 34 children in your classroom. 29 of them are your actual students.

It is 8:33AM, and there are 28 children in your classroom. All of them are your actual students, but you are still missing one, who chased a boy down the hallway. When she returns, you’ll tell her that she’s tardy. She will care none. How much care will she have? None care.

***

Here is your life:

It is 11:23am. Your 2nd block class consists of 24 girls and 4 boys. A cockroach the size of Danny Devito just scurried across your classroom floor.

Good luck regaining control, sucker.

***

Here is your life: An assistant principal has asked you whether or not you’d be interested in being the faculty advisor for drama club. Your athletic director just dropped in to inform you that unfortunately, as it turns out your coaching job will not include a stipend. The Greenville Arts Commission has emailed you, asking if your theater class is interested in putting on a play for the local elementary school children.

You look up “overwhelmed” in the dictionary and find a photograph of yourself, disheveled but smiling. You put the drama/theater stuff on the back burner for now.

Coaching for free seems only fair, considering how outrageously overpaid you were for coaching soccer back in Seattle. It dawns on you: that particular avenue of employment will eventually turn into a zero-sum game.

***

Here is your life:

It is now 2:12pm. There are about 18 students in your classroom. Some of them are probably your students, but you have no way of knowing because you are too busy herding children away from the massive fight that broke out down the hall. Police officers are hurling teenagers into offices. Administrators are slamming doors. Must be Tuesday again.

After gathering up as many of your students as you can, and attempting to start class in spite of the ruckus on the other side of your door, your principal pokes his head inside your classroom. Because of the overflow of students being detained and parents being called, your classroom has been requisitioned. This is war, martial law is in effect.

You don’t complain. These things happen. You woefully escort your entire class down the hall, up the stairs and into another teacher’s empty classroom.

This is really not that big of a deal, you realize, as your Theater I students perform their own carefully crafted mini-skits.

Grateful that none of your children were involved in the actual fighting, you breathe a sigh of relief when the bell finally rings.

***

Newspaper story about the fight:

Click to enlarge.

Lockdown — Click to enlarge. I really recommend you read this newspaper article. “A centralized location” = Mr G’s classroom

***

Here is your life:

It is 4:18pm. The school day has ended. Three items are sitting on your desk.

One is a small scented candle from Wal-Mart. The next is a tupperware container full of candy. The third is a spicy pickle in a plastic package.

In your exhaustion, you are utterly befuddled by these objects. A beat passes, and you remember that they are presents that other teachers gave you throughout the day.

Because today is your twenty-second birthday.

You remember your 17th birthday because you kissed a pretty girl that night, and your friends threw you a surprise party. You remember your 21st birthday because you were in San Francisco, en route to Big Sur on the road trip of a lifetime.

Will you remember this birthday? Maybe. Maybe not.

***

It is 10:18pm. You fall asleep with a stomach full of cheescake and a heart full of regret, missing your old life and cursing your new life.

But you wake up realizing that you wouldn’t trade this new life for anything in the world. Not even a spicy pickle in a plastic package.

***

My roommate works with a student after school

The view out my bedroom window.

Today marks my 8th day in the classroom as an urban educator! Within the first two weeks, I experienced all of the craziness of schedule mistakes, mis-communication from administration, and new classes beginning on the second week (yes…our schedule was switched and we began a brand new class on the second week of school…), but the most amazing part of the first two weeks was my wonderful students. So far, we have had insightful discussions about the goodness of life, whether or not certain wrongs are unforgivable, and whether or not hate speech should be regulated. I’ve been amazed by how much students enjoy sharing their opinions on topics such as philosophy and politics. Not only do they enjoy sharing their opinions, they have very good opinions to share!

However, I’ve also been amazed by how low skilled some of my students are. In reading their reflections and grading their pre-year assessments, I’ve recognized a huge gap in my students’ skills and knowledge. On their practice ACT exam, the average score for my seniors was a 13. I definitely have my work cut out for me this year.

As a teacher, I have become a person of influence in my students’ lives. They want to know my opinion about everything from movies to religion. Furthermore, my opinion about who they are matters to how they see themselves. Today, the class was participating in a Socratic seminar about The Kite Runner. All of the students had written a reflection and I was walking around the room, monitoring who was contributing to the conversation and who was zoned out. One of my students, M, has a lot of behavior problems and is constantly distracting other students. I walked around to his desk, asked to read his reflection, and whispered to him, “You know, this is a really good reflection. You should share this with the class!” Less than a minute later, M raised his hand to contribute his opinion with the class.

Later in the discussion, I walked to another student, S, and asked to read his reflection. S is always quiet during class, and I know that a lot of the time he checks out of the discussion, even though he’s very smart. I read S’s reflection and said, “S, that’s an awesome opinion. I know that everyone else would like to hear it too.” Once again, a couple minutes later, S raised his hand and contributed his opinion to the class–which everyone clapped and cheered for, because it was really good.

Lastly, during a debate we were having in class, one of my lowest students, R, was having a hard time grasping the argument of the reading, so I read it with him and the rest of his group. I asked R to paraphrase the paragraph that he read and then asked him to pull out the argument. With just a little bit of prodding, he articulated a well-crafted argument. In many classes, R would have not contributed his opinion, but today he chose to stand up three times during the debate and argue his case.

I’m learning that everything I do in class has an effect on my students–everything. I have to choose to be intentionally positive with my students, vocalizing their strengths and when they do things well. From what I’ve seen, students respond so well to positive praise, even the kids that are the hardest to reach. If these kids can start to see their self-worth in the first two weeks, imagine where they’ll be in the first two months!

by Garrett Hedman

Throughout all of institute, Teach for America has taught me a lot about being a teacher: management policies, incentive systems, lesson planning, and diversity awareness. Many of these tools TFA provides help me be an outstanding teacher because when I mess up, which this past week believe me, I did, I had a vision of what my class should look like and the appropriate tools of how to get there. However, even with all this knowledge TFA has bestowed on me, there is one gift that supersedes everything else: a community.

The first few days of school was no walk in the park. Ninety minutes of instruction time is not an easy allotment to keep people busy, working, and learning the whole time. Also, I’ve never worked a full day job before. The hour class I taught over the summer was wonderful, but in reality, one hour is MUCH different then a days worth of teaching. These two factors of time, the length of a class and the length of the day, had me a little uneasy the first few days. Now, although many students and myself had an enjoyable time and learned a lot, the process didn’t feel natural.

The discomfort in the situation was alleviated by my peers. That is, after a long day, twenty of us teachers gathered in a small house to talk about the stories, to talk about the troubles, and to talk about the successes of the day. Just walking into a house and seeing so many familiar faces made me feel human. As a teacher I have to be strict and constantly enforcing policy, but around friends, I could be myself.

I truly can’t imagine coming into my class, by myself, leaving, by myself, and going home in a state I hardly know. Teach for America has brought me into a challenging profession, but the support the people give me has truly helped make this challenging profession completely feasible.

by eric benzel

Peer observation can be a powerful thing. I had an experience this last week that gave me a little hope for student teaching this fall, and I thought I’d share it here.

My classmates and I have been observing summer school sessions in a couple different middle and high schools throughout the city. This particular morning, several of us had the chance to observe two different teachers teaching algebra review for students who had failed the regents.

The first teacher we observed was turned out to be a NY Teaching Fellow who was teaching for the first time in these summer classes. This was slightly ironic since 1) we are also in the first summer of our program and 2) she was much better than the second veteran teacher we saw. It must have been a little intimidating having some random students from another university observing your first teaching experience (even though we were there mostly to observe the school)!

I wanted to tell this story because it was clear, watching these two teachers, how much passion and preparation matter in teaching. The NY Fellow had a thought out lesson, seemed comfortable and prepared, was excited to be there that morning, and had an overabundance of energy. Her students left the class noticeably more confident and prepared. There were clear expectations and goals hung up in the room and the class knew what they were learning during the lesson. The second, vet teacher we watched seemed underprepared, was shaky on the math she was teaching, and obviously thought that lunch time couldn’t have come sooner. My guess is that this teacher would be phenomenal if she would have been dedicated to the class that morning. I left the school more inspired by the NY Fellow in her second week of teaching than the 5th year teacher.

This peer observation, seeing a first time teacher succeeding, helps me feel better about teaching this fall. Like Janessa so wonderfully shared last week, we all are going to fail at times this coming year. Seeing the fellow teach though helped me remember how important passion, dedication, and preparation are in effective teaching. I made sure to let the fellow know that we thought she did really well teaching, and I hope it was a chance for her to be affirmed in the middle of all her hard work. There is an energy and dedication in the first years of teaching that some teachers sadly seem to lose.

Lets keep reminding each other throughout the year when our hard work does pay off! We all need a little hope now and then:-) I think that is one strength of being in cohort type programs: we have the chance to watch and help each other grow.

By Garrett Hedman

I’m here to inspire students to become learners, and starting Wednesday, I will be a full time inspirer. I’m going to center my class around the theme of “One Step”, and to explain the theme I will say this poem I wrote a year ago. I hope you enjoy!

One Step

It’s when you see a baby—a bluberous, bulge of a being
Making the effort to go against all odds and conquer the pull of the earth
To reach the first step
The step that makes people cheer because the baby
Stepped into a new way of life.

It’s when you see hero—an American story, an American legend
Who captivates the attention of millions of people across the nation to go to a place beyond all imagination—the moon.
To take one small step for man kind.

It’s when you see a stranger—a dirty, society claimed outcast
who is the only one that sees a friend out cold on the ground
so he takes a step of desperation and 10 more into a run to help the rejected
A step to help an invisible man.

It’s when you see a man take one step forward and bow down on his knee
To look at his partner in the eyes and see the future ahead of him
To see that love conquers all
After a step forward is taken.

Whether it’s a dancers beat of life or a baseball player’s step to the plate
A step can be the start of change, a start of something new
And to only wonder what steps could have been taken, haven’t been taken, will be taken
By me, by you