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

By Nate Reaven

As a contrast to lovely counterpart on the east coast, I too, am going to discuss the Common Core standards recently approved in nearly half the states across the country (and counting). I will provide a similar warning, and say that I too, am a rookie teacher, and so my thoughts, opinions, and beliefs are all malleable. You can talk me into changing my mind on nearly all these points.

1) Common Core CAN HELP fix the national standards problem: Eric brings up an interesting point here. Namely that these standards are unacceptable because of their complete glossing-over of such classes as history, art, music, physical health, languages, and computer science. While I 100% completely agree that these subjects need to be taught in the classroom, I believe that, because of an infinitesimal amount of political, emotional, and ethnic differences, the education community needs to prioritize. My belief is that, without question, math and reading are the two most important subjects in school. When a student does not know how to read, they will not succeed. Beginning in third grade a student switches from learning how to read and transitions to using their reading to learn. This is why as Hilary Clinton said, “There are states in our country who actually plan how many prison beds they will need by looking at third grade reading scores. They look at the failure rates and they extrapolate how many prison spots they’re going to need in 10 to 15 years.”  Math is a similar foundation for the rest of learning. Without math, students are unable to understand science, computer science, and engineering – any of the hard sciences. These two subjects are the basis and foundation to nearly all of our academic learning as students. This is not an argument for staying satisfied with these two subjects, but instead an argument to not nitpick because we haven’t reached the other subjects yet.

2) Common Core CAN improve the current testing situation: While I agree with Eric here, that the current testing practices need to be rethought, I do not agree with him in the how. I believe that ideally, we as teachers, should want to teach to the test. If we as teachers taught to the test, it would mean that the skills the test is assessing are acceptable, they’re meaningful, and give the students the best possible chance of success once they have finished high school. I don’t really care if my students will walk away loving Romeo and Juliet or not, (okay, I care a little), as long as they know how to write well, and are able to think about what they’re reading. Why should that not be our goal as teachers – to give our students the best possible chance at success? And so, I think these standards while not the highest in the country (that would be Massachusetts), certainly hold a large part of our country more accountable – the states with the lowest standards. True testing is based on arbitrary cutoffs, true they are politically manipulated, true four-hour long multiple choice tests were never, ever, ever a good idea. But creating a clear, common standards system can at the very least move us in the right direction of creating an assessment which the entire country can be based upon. How is that not a good thing?

3) Common core CAN affect classrooms in a positive way: Here, Eric and I agree in every way. As I mentioned earlier, I believe that we should want to teach to the test, because that means the test is assessing the skills that we want to give to our students. Historically, students have received vastly different levels of education not only from school to school – but from classroom to classroom. This is unacceptable. Creating a consensus amongst the standards is crucial if we are going to stop large disparities from continuing in our schools (well that, and an infinitely smaller summer break).

4) Common core CAN lead to a more unified reform of education: Again, Eric and I agree. Because the United States is such a melting pot, it is often difficult to find consensus in anything. Democrat or Republican? Gay Marriage? Edward or Jacob? It’s intense! And so, if the country is able to agree on anything at all, we should all celebrate. When we as a country find such a large consensus on something as controversial as educational standards – well that is on par with Moses parting the sea – it just does not happen. If these standards can become more accepted amongst the education community (specifically teachers), the possibilities (sorry for the cliché) are endless.

I too am excited about these standards. I think that they offer great hope to the education community – but far more specifically – to the students who will be affected by them the most. These standards are nowhere close to the final step, but at least we are going in the right direction.

by eric benzel

The biggest news in the education community this week: the adoption of the common core standards has begun! (photo from http://www.corestandards.org/ state adoption tracker) As of this posting, common core has been adopted in half of the states represented on this blog (New York and Mississippi/Arkansas). Colorado and Tennessee are sure to follow once resolutions are passed in their respective legislatures and boards.

What is a teacher to think!? If you, like most of us, are caught somewhere in between the discourses of increased performance/accountability and the outcries against high-stakes testing, I think these standards have enormous implications on our teaching practice.   Here’s my thoughts about what these new Common Core Standards can and cannot do (***warning*** these are all thoughts of a rookie who is still in his pre-service program. PLEASE dispute these claims… part of this posting is for me to explore these ideas more).

1. Common Core CANNOT fix the national standards problem: the standards are targeted (in increasingly national trend) towards two subjects: mathematics and English language arts. This is incredibly important, first of all, because these are the only two mandatory subjects tested on a national level. Immediately, this will tie the passage of the standards documents to the high-stakes funding and evaluation stipulations of No Child Left Behind. The school curriculum is much wider than the standards address. While science standards are on the horizon of common core, over half of our curriculum is excluded: science (for now), history, art, music, physical health, languages, computer science, etc… Having a standards document that focuses on the two nationally assessed content areas will again drive (perhaps undue) emphasis on these subject domains and the high stakes tests associated with them (which leads to two). As a math teacher, I appreciate the new mathematics standards. They are high quality and have a great focus on the process of math as well as the content. However, I am saddened knowing that many schools will necessarily have to focus on these standards in place of rich art curriculums or history courses in order to keep federal funding flowing. So maybe we have higher standards for math and reading within schools but we do not have higher standards for our schools.
2. Common core CANNOT improve the current testing situation: while I agree that having well articulated, high national standards is essential in developing strong local curricula, these standards do not change testing practice. We may see a more clear alignment of standardized testing to the common standards, and with this, there may be a great connection between classroom and assessment. Still, however, our test reports will be based on arbitrary cuttoffs and politically manipulated pass-rates: these are not tied to the new higher standards. Better tests require higher funding, and if we are going to develop high quality assessments, tests that give us rich information about student and teacher performance, we are going to have to spend more than the 1% of our educational budgets allocated for testing. Multiple choice four hour tests that rely on politically determined pass rates will never be a sufficient accountability gauge for the common core standards.
3. Common core CAN affect classrooms in a positive way: that is, if we, as professional teachers and school leaders begin to use the standards in positive ways. If schools have greater clarity and focus in math and science goals and outcomes, classroom practice can benefit in positive ways. I have looked at ways that the NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics) Standards of 89 and 2000 have shaped math education in the US. The resulting curriculum and changes in classroom practice have been widespread. My hope is that the Common Core standards can follow a similar path: improving instruction at a classroom level. This, as many in New York are discussing right now, will be a slow process and one that will take time and by-in from all levels of the system.
4. Common core CAN lead to a more unified reform of education: Several of my courses this summer have looked at the Japanese lesson study model of reform. If you haven’t looked into this at all, please do. It is a reform movement that has started with the assumption that TEACHERS are the professionals who, in collaboration with researchers and politicians should drive classroom reform. Japan has a nationalized curriculum, and this unity has been part of what has made their slow change model effective. The development of exceptional lessons at the local level can be shared nationwide because the nation shares a common set of standards.

I am excited about the idea of the common core standards, and I believe that the math standards that were produced seem strong. However, I think we need caution in making the adoption of these standards the next fix all in our path to reform. They must be viewed as a part of many, much larger, reform progressions.