Hidden Behind the Financial Crisis

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/08/education/08educ.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=arne%20duncan&st=cse

As I was sitting down to my usual breakfast and paper reading, trying to find something somewhat upbeat to read I came across this article. Hidden on page 10 of the NYtimes I found out about this new piece of legislation that is sure to change accountability standards nationwide.

I know we are in a crisis, but I don't want this to go unnoticed.

Faces of My Students

I officially miss all of my students. After a pretty challenging year I was not sure that this was going to happen, but it hit me over a week ago and I can't quite shake the excitement to see them again and to meet my new students. Over the course of the summer I have gotten texts from a few students, 1 prank phone call, tutored a student, and even ran into one of my students in person. Today I found a note in a pair of pants (that apparently need to be dry cleaned) that said, "Ms. S my favorite teacher "

I knew that teaching was an important step in my career as I fight relentlessly to close the achievement gap, but it was not until this summer that I realized the meaning that it would have for me. As I observe people who work at the district level it seems that each one of them has a story about their past students that informs their daily decision making. I got to experience this first hand as I sat at a luncheon for the Freedom Schools two weeks ago. The summer school students were all at this lunch with tons of big donors and other influential people in the district and halfway through the event the students broke out into this great song

http://youtu.be/cyVzjoj96vs

Aside from the song being moving, especially when sung by disadvantaged students of all ages, I could not help but see my students' faces in the faces of the students before me. My eyes welled up with tears as I watched one student who looked so much like a student of mine from the MS Delta, and then looked over to another student who was a younger version of one of my most challenging students this year. I tried really hard not to embarrass myself in front of all of the influential people (or the students), holding back tears with all of my might. Since this happened it's happened in almost every meeting, interview, or conversation that I get to be a part of. I can't help but put a face to everything that I am doing this summer and it all becomes so much more relevant.

Student advocacy has been a big topic in the news lately, or it is "trending" right now. In this article in the NYtimes the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is referenced multiple times as supporting grass-roots advocacy groups and even providing grants to encourage advocacy. I keep finding myself talking about advocacy after reading this article and thinking about how much it would help our school system if we just picked a few students (in my case many more than a few) to advocate for. I feel that if we focus on advocacy and the power that people have, a powerful movement will begin. So get the ball rolling, think of your children/favorite student/cousin/neighbor and start to advocate for him/her/them for a better education, and if they don't need an advocate then I have many students that do, so call me up and I will share a story.

Summer Off?

So you may all be thinking to yourselves, "what do teachers do during the summer?" Well, hopefully I will do a whole lot more blogging! Many teachers take the entire summer off in order to refresh themselves for the new school year, many of my teacher friends will spend the summer traveling, sitting by the pool, and trying out new recipes. I, however, will be spending my summer a little bit differently. I was given an amazing opportunity to work for Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools this summer shadowing a district superintendent. The superintendent who I am working for oversees 49 of the Title 1 elementary schools in the district. I will spend the summer going to meetings with him, and also working on a project that will hopefully have some impact on the district in the future (more on this next post). I started this week after a very nice week off visiting friends and family in Philly and NYC. We work 10 hour work days during the summer so that we have Fridays off! I spent most of my time this week getting to know the staff in the office, and observing how things run.

In addition to work life I also signed up for my yoga studio's summer challenge. If I do 50 classes in the 70 day time period I get 3 months free. I am going to think of it as replacing my crazy equestrian life with yoga. I am really looking forward to this summer challenge, and I am already 4 classes in. I also will be doing a lot of cooking this summer, and exploring my inner vegan. I've been a vegetarian since I was six so I am going to attempt veganism. This is partially motivated by my beautiful sister who will not be able to stay true to her veganism this summer, I am going to try to stick to it for her.

Please stay tuned and keep me motivated to blog throughout the summer. I will not be able to share all details of my internship, but can't wait to start blogging about lessons that I learn! Happy Summer Everyone!

Judgement Day!

Tomorrow my students take their North Carolina reading EOG (end of grade) assessment. We have technically been preparing for this all year. I say "technically", because for a very long time I was very against this frequently debated idea of "teaching to the test." I also have tried very hard this year to create a curriculum that is based on the study of literature and not so much the study of the End of Grade reading EOG. A lot of this was motivated by college discussions when we studied how teaching to the test leads to low student achievement, and boring curriculums, and how limiting it is in a classroom setting. I've learned throughout this year that in reality test preparation needs to happen so that students are given the chance to be successful on the test.

My PD and learning team leader for Teach For America both worked with me to develop a strong plan for test preparation and my students and I have stuck to that plan from spring break until now. I gave students a diagnostic EOG before spring break and then had them grade them when we got back and create mastery plans for themselves based on which objectives they missed. I then created 6 tutoring sessions that were based on different skills that students needed to work on and personally invited students to these (luring them there with snacks of course!). Students followed a rigorous schedule, taking two practice tests a week, a concept quiz, and a number of skills-based warm ups everyday. I never thought that I would spend three weeks on test prep with my students, but it seemed absolutely essential for them to get that review and practice with multiple choice (we've been taking short answer assessments all year long).

I call this post "judgement day" because that is what tomorrow truly is for me. The reading EOG is really the biggest measure of success for me for the year. The goal is for all of my students to ultimately show strong growth on the test from the scores from previous years. We have predicted growth that the students should make based on their past scores, and students who have scored similarly to them in the state. Unfortunately, this test is what tells me if I have helped those students grow. I have already had my year-end teaching evaluation and all of that went fine, but at the end of the day I joined Teach For America to make a difference in students' lives and this test tells me whether or not I made that difference.

I understand that there are plenty of qualitative factors that exemplify the difference that I've made, but quantitatively this test is what matters. I have some pretty bad testing anxiety already, and I am not even taking the test tomorrow! In order to calm my nerves (and my students) we are going to meditate before the test tomorrow. I am bringing a delicious and healthy breakfast for my homeroom (these are the students who I am with for testing). I also purchased bottled water which I am labeling with each student's name and a motivational message to help them get through.

So as you conclude your weekend please hold me and my students in the light tomorrow and wish us luck! In the meantime I will be labeling water bottles and baking.

Feeling Appreciated

A few months ago I decided to call the local art museum in Charlotte (http://www.mintmuseum.org/mint-museum-uptown.html) and see if they would donate tickets so that I could take some of my best students to the museum as a reward for good behavior and hard work. I requested 5-10 tickets and they gave me 20 student tickets and 5 adult tickets for free! The power of just asking was astounding to me in this situation. I could not be more grateful for their generosity.

Yesterday was the big day. I brought two other teachers and my TFA program director to help me out, and the students were all dropped off on a Saturday morning at the museum. The day went flawlessly. The students were so engrossed in the tour, answering really high-level thinking questions, and asking questions. Their appreciation seeped through the whole museum. For many of the students this was their first trip to an art museum, and for some of them their first trip to a museum in general!

Sometimes teaching is a thankless job, student progress towards objectives and mastery does not happen as fast as I would hope, and many days the comedy show that is my job ensues. Yesterday the students thanked me in so many ways, by being engaged, behaving appropriately, and being appreciative.

I believe that there are many reasons for the achievement gap, but one reason that I frequently come back to is the gap in cultural capital. Yesterday as I watched my students engage in such deep thinking simply motivated by a piece of artwork my conclusions about this factor in the achievement gap came to fruition. My other belief is that the culture of a student's surroundings teaches them how to act. KIPP schools (http://www.kipp.org/) pride themselves on having a culture of achievement and discipline, and the result of this is that students behave and achieve at high levels. At the art museum people were quietly milling around the art work, appreciating its beauty, and respecting the individuals around them, my students did the same.

America's schools have a lot of growth to make, especially our lowest income and lowest performing schools. I think yesterday I found a place to start, simply exposing students to what high income students are exposed to: a culture of discipline and achievement, and different types of cultural capital (art, music, dance, etc.). The students appreciate it.

Kids Will Be Kids

The life of a first year teacher is constantly exciting. At this point, I feel like I have enough humorous stories to host my own comedy show. My life as a teacher recently has been pretty crazy, but after some of the silly things that happened in my classroom this week I could not help but share.

1. Early this week as I was lecturing my students on creating introductory paragraphs I noticed that there was a very crumpled note being passed around my classroom. I quickly grabbed the note, much to the students' dismay. A bunch of my students' eyes were really wide as I was going to open it, but I didn't really think twice about it because this has happened before. As my students got started on their group work, I opened the note. Only to find that one of my students had drawn a pretty detailed naked picture. I almost guiltily looked up at my students, now my eyes were as wide as theirs.

2. Yesterday close to the end of the day my students were again working in groups, and I was walking around the classroom to check in on their progress. I noticed that one of my students had something very odd in his pencil case: powdered vagisil. Hesitant to interrupt their work I did not investigate further. About ten minutes later I pulled up a chair to work with a different group, accidentally turning my back to some of the students in the classroom. Chaos erupted behind me. Next thing I knew students had powder all over them and my classroom was a dust bowl of vagisil. Students with asthma had to leave the room. It was disgusting, chaotic, and absolutely hilarious. I could not do anything but laugh. None of them have any idea what vagisil is and I think that this was the best part!

Over winter break my sisters suggested that I write a partner blog to this blog called "Happy Hour with the Teacher," after this week I am seriously considering it.

Stay tuned!

Thank You John Legend!

Maybe this blog post should be titled "The Power of Celebrity Endorsements," but I think it will be even more powerful to publicly post my thank you letter to John Legend for joining Teach For America's Board of Directors and performing last night at the TFA 20th Anniversary summit with KIPP NYC's orchestra in front of 11,000 people. So here it goes...

Dear John Legend,

Your performance last night brought tears to many peoples eyes, and it was not solely because you are an amazing artist, or because the music you were singing was so powerful. Instead I believe that it was because you truly took time to understand the movement that is TFA and the impact that the organization has the potential to have. For this, I thank you. In order to make long term change in America's public schools every single person in America must feel the same understanding that you showed last night. You powerfully addressed the notion that we are doing an injustice to our children by offering so few opportunities to children in poverty. I think that Waiting For Superman was a small foot in the door in introducing this national issue to the public, but with endorsements and understandings like yours from yourself and other celebrities we could really begin to make transformational change. Wendy Kopp, the founder of TFA, speaks about the importance of Transformational Leadership. People who are transformational leaders, not only lead people in a direction towards positive change, they mobilize people, they are innovative and they start the ripple of change simply by being an empowered leader. The story you have to tell about your own education, and journey towards stardom is a powerful one, and I believe that with your support great changes can be made. The conference yesterday consisted of 11,000 people who are all working towards a common goal, or who at least believe in that goal. Some of them, however, have been working towards this goal for 20 years! With your help, and the help of national figures in spreading the importance of the movement, we CAN make a difference with a greater sense of urgency. So thank you John Legend, from the bottom of my heart, for helping a cause that I think is one of the most important of our time.