[Student Quotes of the Week]
1. Student: "Why do we always learn more in the summer than in the regular school year?"
Me: "I don't know - what do you think?"
Student: "I think it's because we have Teach For America teachers in the summer who make us work hard."
2. "Mister, we learned good today."
3. "Mister, is this really my grade??" (Grinning) "I've never got an 80 in a class before."
4. "I hate cheesebugers because of the cheese, but I LOVE double cheeseburgers."
Another Student: "That doesn't make any sense at all."
5. "Can you put colors in your beard if we get our goals on the final exam?" (I am growing out my beard until we reach our class goal on the final exam)
6. "That was your boss? I hope we don't get you fired!"
Another week down. We covered a lot of material this week, and the kids hung in there pretty well. I am seeing a lot of growth out of everyone - so much so out of a couple of them that I'm going to have to start challenging 3 or 4 students more because they keep acing my assignments. There is still such a wide range of levels in my class that it is challenging to meet the needs of every student, but this is something that will be a challenge for as long as I teach. I am continually trying new things in class that will help me meet the needs of each kid. I truly believe that a couple of my students are ready for college, and I need to start pushing them to think about different schools, applications, campus visits, etc. On the other end of the spectrum, I need to keep pushing my students who struggle with English in order to get their confidence up. I think the #1 thing holding back a couple students is that they just don't have any confidence in their English abilities which affects their ability to get as much out of class as possible.
My school director observed my classroom on Wednesday. I didn't know beforehand that he was coming, but he walked in during the first couple minutes when I was performing a mock "closing argument" from a made-up murder case in order to introduce our topic for the day (using evidence from text to back up an argument). For the first 25 minutes, class went really well, the kids were getting the material, and I was on top of my game. 25:41 into class, two of my kids walked in late. As they walked in, they were talking to each other and were generally disruptive. I decided I would sternly tell them that they were too late to be counted tardy, that they would be counted absent for the day, that they were taking learning time away from others in the class, and that they needed to quickly sit down in the first row. They continued to be mildly disruptive for the next five minutes -- each time, I would give them a "teacher look" or use proximity to get them back on task. I thought to myself that all days to have a minor problem in my class that has run so smoothly up to this point, this was not the day.
After class I saw my school director and was nervous to hear what he had to say. He told me that the way I handled the situation was exactly how he would have, and that he was really impressed with the personal relationships I had built with my students. He said that he has observed the two kids who walked in late in other classes and that they do much more work in my class than in the others. He said that telling a kid to leave your class should always be the last resort. So, that made me feel better about things (although it is absolutely unnacceptable to walk into my class 25 minutes late...I just won't tolerate it).
We have turned in the majority of our lesson plans already, there are only four school days next week, and only three school days the week after that before final exams. So there aren't a lot more days to push my kids even further forward, but we're going to work like crazy to get them ready for their final. I passed out midterm grades on Friday - 2 A's, 5 B's, and 4 C's. Everyone is passing right now, but I challenged the kids to raise their grades even higher during the next two weeks. It's going to be hard to just get up and leave them on July 10. I pray that I'll be able to stay in contact and follow their progress while I am teaching in St. Louis. All of them deserve nothing but the best.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Teaching
[Student Quotes of the Week]
-"Mr. Brown, since you're from St. Louis, do you know Nelly?"
-"Oh, so you're from the hood??" (after I answer that I live a few blocks from where Nelly grew up)
-"An example of a conflict is between a husband and a wife. Husbands just wanna pay the bills, and wives wanna waste money on shoes and things."
-"Oh, so it's like buying a car?" (after I answered a question on whether it costs a lot of money to adopt a girl from China)
-"St. Louis - that's in Texas, right?"
-"Class was actually kinda fun today."
-"My favorite sport is texting with my boyfriend."
-"Mister, you wanna go clubbin with us this weekend?"
My first full week of teaching is in the books. Easily the best part of this week was getting to know my kids. Spending 80 minutes a day with Fernando, Jose F, Sandi, Gustavo, Yesenia, Jose H, Ana, Rosendo, Matthew, Christopher, and Monica is what I look forward to the most when I wake up every morning. It's all just an idealistic vision until you step foot into your own classroom. It hit me like a ton of bricks when I graded the diagnostic that I gave my kids on the first day of class. Our class average was 18%. Half of the class didn't even attempt to complete the writing section, and several kids had trouble writing in complete sentences. I knew the stats of the achievement gap before, but statistics are just statistics until you have your own kids with their own names and their own stories. I love going to class every day, and I love seeing the effort that my kids put forth. They are bright, and they CAN learn. The week was capped off quite nicely yesterday when our class average on our "conflict in literature" assignment was a 97.
As for Institute in general, last week was a challenging week for everybody. A fair amount of people have decided that the workload is just too much and have quit. A lot of people are under a great deal of stress, which leads to a lot of emotions running high. Last Wednesday night was the toughest night so far at Insitute, as three lesson plans were due the next morning and a lot of people didn't sleep at all. But, I think I have handled everything pretty well. I am trying to use my weekends to get a little ahead so there isn't as much work during the week. The latest I got to bed last week was 1:30 (I probably averaged about midnight), and I actually got to sleep at 9:30 on Thursday night!! The 5:25 wakeup calls aren't too awfully bad after you get used to them, and my 30+ ounces of coffee usually help keep me awake throughout the day.
The most challenging part of the daily routine is how often we have to "switch modes." We will go straight from a session learning different aspects of teaching, straight into actual teaching, straight back into another session. It is very, very difficult to change your mindset from student, to teacher, and back to student again. But this is what has to happen in order for us to maximize our five week experience here. Being able to remain positive has been the biggest help for me so far, and I have found that I love helping other people on their lesson plans and teaching strategies when they ask for it.
Last week my class learned about similes, metaphors, personification, homonyms, synonyms, antonyms, analogies, main ideas, and the different types of conflict. This week we will be focusing on summary, supporting detail, using evidence to defend an argument, thesis statements, and organization in writing. As you can see, we are scaffolding our way up to more complex concepts. The next week, we will embark on a week where we set out ample time to practice our writing skills. During the last week, we will tie up some loose ends and review for the end of the summer final exam. Next weekend I hope to have an SAT prep session at a local McDonald's near Davis High School if I can get enough student interest.
But until all that can happen, I need to finalize Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday's lesson plans and begin working on Thursday and Friday. Please leave a comment if you would like, and I'll try to respond when I get the time. Until next time, Adios from Houston!
-"Mr. Brown, since you're from St. Louis, do you know Nelly?"
-"Oh, so you're from the hood??" (after I answer that I live a few blocks from where Nelly grew up)
-"An example of a conflict is between a husband and a wife. Husbands just wanna pay the bills, and wives wanna waste money on shoes and things."
-"Oh, so it's like buying a car?" (after I answered a question on whether it costs a lot of money to adopt a girl from China)
-"St. Louis - that's in Texas, right?"
-"Class was actually kinda fun today."
-"My favorite sport is texting with my boyfriend."
-"Mister, you wanna go clubbin with us this weekend?"
My first full week of teaching is in the books. Easily the best part of this week was getting to know my kids. Spending 80 minutes a day with Fernando, Jose F, Sandi, Gustavo, Yesenia, Jose H, Ana, Rosendo, Matthew, Christopher, and Monica is what I look forward to the most when I wake up every morning. It's all just an idealistic vision until you step foot into your own classroom. It hit me like a ton of bricks when I graded the diagnostic that I gave my kids on the first day of class. Our class average was 18%. Half of the class didn't even attempt to complete the writing section, and several kids had trouble writing in complete sentences. I knew the stats of the achievement gap before, but statistics are just statistics until you have your own kids with their own names and their own stories. I love going to class every day, and I love seeing the effort that my kids put forth. They are bright, and they CAN learn. The week was capped off quite nicely yesterday when our class average on our "conflict in literature" assignment was a 97.
As for Institute in general, last week was a challenging week for everybody. A fair amount of people have decided that the workload is just too much and have quit. A lot of people are under a great deal of stress, which leads to a lot of emotions running high. Last Wednesday night was the toughest night so far at Insitute, as three lesson plans were due the next morning and a lot of people didn't sleep at all. But, I think I have handled everything pretty well. I am trying to use my weekends to get a little ahead so there isn't as much work during the week. The latest I got to bed last week was 1:30 (I probably averaged about midnight), and I actually got to sleep at 9:30 on Thursday night!! The 5:25 wakeup calls aren't too awfully bad after you get used to them, and my 30+ ounces of coffee usually help keep me awake throughout the day.
The most challenging part of the daily routine is how often we have to "switch modes." We will go straight from a session learning different aspects of teaching, straight into actual teaching, straight back into another session. It is very, very difficult to change your mindset from student, to teacher, and back to student again. But this is what has to happen in order for us to maximize our five week experience here. Being able to remain positive has been the biggest help for me so far, and I have found that I love helping other people on their lesson plans and teaching strategies when they ask for it.
Last week my class learned about similes, metaphors, personification, homonyms, synonyms, antonyms, analogies, main ideas, and the different types of conflict. This week we will be focusing on summary, supporting detail, using evidence to defend an argument, thesis statements, and organization in writing. As you can see, we are scaffolding our way up to more complex concepts. The next week, we will embark on a week where we set out ample time to practice our writing skills. During the last week, we will tie up some loose ends and review for the end of the summer final exam. Next weekend I hope to have an SAT prep session at a local McDonald's near Davis High School if I can get enough student interest.
But until all that can happen, I need to finalize Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday's lesson plans and begin working on Thursday and Friday. Please leave a comment if you would like, and I'll try to respond when I get the time. Until next time, Adios from Houston!
Sunday, June 15, 2008
One Week Down, Four to Go
Well, the first week of Teacher Boot Camp is over, and I'm still alive. A typical day has been like this:
5:25 ... wake up
6:00 ... breakfast
6:45 ... depart for Davis High School
7:00 - 4:00 ... Sessions, sessions, sessions, sessions, and sessions on learning how to teach
4:30-6:00 ... take a nap or start on some work
6:00-6:30 ... dinner
6:30-11:30 pm/1:00 am ... sessions and/or work
As you can see, they keep us pretty busy here :). But I can honestly say that I am 100% positive I have learned more this week than any week prior. I would even venture to say that I haven't learned more in a month than I did last week. As the week went on, people became more and more sleep deprived, and coffee became more and more of a hot comodity. But it was definitely worth it because the amount of information I was able to take in last week was absolutely enormous. My Corps Member Advisor (CMA), Genya, has been hugely helpful and extremely encouraging this week. We pretty much see our CMA all day every day, so it's nice to have one who really cares about the well-being of her advisees. Our Curriculum Specialist (CS) at Davis High School, Arriana, is one of the best teachers I have ever been around. She is a Wash U grad, so it's nice to be able to talk about the best college in the world with her every day. Our School Director (SD), Shannon, is an awesome guy as well - he is a former Division I national champion sprinter. Shannon is one of the most captivating speakers I have ever seen, and I am sure he is an unbelievable AP US History teacher.
Monday is my first day in the classroom, and I can't wait. I got my class roster last Thursday -- 13 students, who are mostly re-taking Sophomore English so they can move onto the next grade. I actually got to observe my actual class of students last week, and they left me with a really good impression. Davis High School is almost fully composed of Hispanic students - and my entire class is Hispanic - so I'm excited to learn about their stories and heritage as well as share my story a little bit with them. Monday's lesson plan is centered around Brooklyn and why she inpsired me to teach. I will then transition into my definition of success (actually, Coach Stiles' definition of success) that will be the cornerstone of our classroom for the next four weeks and the cornerstone of my permanent classroom beginning in the Fall. I'm giving a diagnostic test on Monday as well in order to get a baseline of my students' knowledge and to set growth-oriented achievement goals for the summer. (And, oh yeah, I'm not shaving until we reach those goals as a class.)
One last thing before I wait in line for an hour to make copies. Several of us went to a Methodist Church that was close by this morning for services. I have never felt more welcome at a new place in my life. I have always wanted to go to a mostly African American church service, and the experience didn't disappoint. The music was great, they gave us all goody-bags full of stuff, and the sermon was tremendous. The pastor gave a Father's Day sermon challenging fathers to become more invested in the lives of their families. She gave some unbelievable statistics about how much better life prospects are for children who come from a two-parent home. Her refrain was: "We need more courageous men." She closed by saying that we need more full-service fathers instead of the millions of reservist fathers that we have out there -- we need "a few good men" she pleaded. I thought it was refreshing to hear that. I also thought to myself that I'm pretty lucky to have a good man as my father. I wish every kid in my classroom on Monday had the same.
5:25 ... wake up
6:00 ... breakfast
6:45 ... depart for Davis High School
7:00 - 4:00 ... Sessions, sessions, sessions, sessions, and sessions on learning how to teach
4:30-6:00 ... take a nap or start on some work
6:00-6:30 ... dinner
6:30-11:30 pm/1:00 am ... sessions and/or work
As you can see, they keep us pretty busy here :). But I can honestly say that I am 100% positive I have learned more this week than any week prior. I would even venture to say that I haven't learned more in a month than I did last week. As the week went on, people became more and more sleep deprived, and coffee became more and more of a hot comodity. But it was definitely worth it because the amount of information I was able to take in last week was absolutely enormous. My Corps Member Advisor (CMA), Genya, has been hugely helpful and extremely encouraging this week. We pretty much see our CMA all day every day, so it's nice to have one who really cares about the well-being of her advisees. Our Curriculum Specialist (CS) at Davis High School, Arriana, is one of the best teachers I have ever been around. She is a Wash U grad, so it's nice to be able to talk about the best college in the world with her every day. Our School Director (SD), Shannon, is an awesome guy as well - he is a former Division I national champion sprinter. Shannon is one of the most captivating speakers I have ever seen, and I am sure he is an unbelievable AP US History teacher.
Monday is my first day in the classroom, and I can't wait. I got my class roster last Thursday -- 13 students, who are mostly re-taking Sophomore English so they can move onto the next grade. I actually got to observe my actual class of students last week, and they left me with a really good impression. Davis High School is almost fully composed of Hispanic students - and my entire class is Hispanic - so I'm excited to learn about their stories and heritage as well as share my story a little bit with them. Monday's lesson plan is centered around Brooklyn and why she inpsired me to teach. I will then transition into my definition of success (actually, Coach Stiles' definition of success) that will be the cornerstone of our classroom for the next four weeks and the cornerstone of my permanent classroom beginning in the Fall. I'm giving a diagnostic test on Monday as well in order to get a baseline of my students' knowledge and to set growth-oriented achievement goals for the summer. (And, oh yeah, I'm not shaving until we reach those goals as a class.)
One last thing before I wait in line for an hour to make copies. Several of us went to a Methodist Church that was close by this morning for services. I have never felt more welcome at a new place in my life. I have always wanted to go to a mostly African American church service, and the experience didn't disappoint. The music was great, they gave us all goody-bags full of stuff, and the sermon was tremendous. The pastor gave a Father's Day sermon challenging fathers to become more invested in the lives of their families. She gave some unbelievable statistics about how much better life prospects are for children who come from a two-parent home. Her refrain was: "We need more courageous men." She closed by saying that we need more full-service fathers instead of the millions of reservist fathers that we have out there -- we need "a few good men" she pleaded. I thought it was refreshing to hear that. I also thought to myself that I'm pretty lucky to have a good man as my father. I wish every kid in my classroom on Monday had the same.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Houston
Well, I'm writing to you from my dorm room at the University of Houston. I arrived yesterday afternoon, and today was the first official day of Institute. The day began with a 5:25 alarm, and it's been full of actitivities ever since. I am excited for tomorrow, as it is the first day we go to our school site where we will be teaching for the summer. I'll be teaching English at Davis High School with 3 other corps members - I can't wait to actually get in the classroom!
Last week's Induction in St. Louis was a lot of fun. They wined and dined us the entire week, and they tried their best to prepare us for Houston. Tonight's activities include dinner (after I finish typing this) and the opening ceremony where I think Wendy Kopp (TFA founder, one of TIME Magazine's 50 most influential people) will speak. Tomorrow will begin with another 5:30 wake-up call, and I'll spend the day at Davis High observing classes, attending sessions, and meeting with my collaborative teaching group.
I'll try to update the blog with more specifics once I begin actually teaching in the classroom. We have about 1.5 hours right after we get back from school that serves as our free time (which really is just dinner time), so I'll try to write some blog entries then.
1 day down, and a whole lot more to go.
Last week's Induction in St. Louis was a lot of fun. They wined and dined us the entire week, and they tried their best to prepare us for Houston. Tonight's activities include dinner (after I finish typing this) and the opening ceremony where I think Wendy Kopp (TFA founder, one of TIME Magazine's 50 most influential people) will speak. Tomorrow will begin with another 5:30 wake-up call, and I'll spend the day at Davis High observing classes, attending sessions, and meeting with my collaborative teaching group.
I'll try to update the blog with more specifics once I begin actually teaching in the classroom. We have about 1.5 hours right after we get back from school that serves as our free time (which really is just dinner time), so I'll try to write some blog entries then.
1 day down, and a whole lot more to go.
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