Rollercoaster of a week in the first full week of my long term sub gig. I had the pleasure of having to learn 65 new names, and with the absenteeism that was no small feat. However once getting past that there were several logistical issues that I needed to sort out. First, I realized that there were many things in student teaching that I never really needed to worry about. For example re-taking tests. Now that it was all on me, I had to make more instructional decisions than I have ever had to such as, but not limited to, what the re-take should look like, should I even give a re-take, should the two grades be averaged, should I require them to sign something telling their parents they’re re-taking it, when I should give it, etc. Those were all decisions that I had to make just regarding that one silly thing.

This happened to me in quite a few different circumstances in the beginning of the week as I was trying to establish the routines and such that I wanted to. It is really difficult to come into a classroom at this time of the year when the class culture has already been well established. But I felt that after I learned their names (which was a bigger deal than I thought it would be), and we got into the groove with some of the class routines I wanted to establish (bridge, closure, acceptable behaviors) I felt that the week rolled really well. I felt at the end of the week I actually did some of the best teaching I have all year!

It started off rough at the beginning of the week but definitely picked up toward the end. I’m starting to feel less like a visitor in someone else’s classroom and more like it’s my own. For example, I started hanging up posters that they made around the room. Once you start putting up work that you’ve done with them, I think this is a signal that it’s a space you feel is partially your own. And that makes me pretty happy right now. So it’s been stressful, but in a good way.

Oh yeah, and I got a paycheck for teaching. WHATUP!

Oh yeah- we went there. Portfolio work. It happened. We started to outline what could go in each part and I have to say-it’s quite a bit of work!

Despite Katy best attempt to rouse us for a 9AM meeting on Saturday morning- we ended up meeting at 10AM. Still too early, but worth it! We had some trouble getting started, but once we were we got rolling. It was kinda interesting seeing all the work we had done too. The common refrain was “what would we have done without  the blogging, reflections and innovative unit!” Truth be told, much of the work we’ve done is going to be great evidence for different parts of our portfolio.

First, we decided that we WILL NOT be like some other cohorts that waited until the last minute. You will not see me in the computer lab working on this in late July-early August. It’s in writing- you can mark it down. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

Second- in order to accomplish this goal a few things gotta be set. I have to organize my portfolio folder with the 10 core competencies. Then before even thinking about writing start putting the evidence into these folders. This is crucial- we’re going to need to have all of this set up and planned before even writing in order to make it go quickly. I also think we should talk among the cohort to share the evidence that we’re using and see how it’s being organized in the portfolio itself. Copies are a must-it’s gotta be digitized!

Next- have to make sure that the rubrics are lined up- Warner, NSTA, and CEC all together. It’s crucial that we talk about the overlap between the standards so we’re not writing three separate portfolios.

Then it’s go time- all of this should be done before summer b starts. Then the pressure really gets turned up. 6 weeks to go- but now everything has already been set up. The prep work is done, evidence all lined up ready to be put in. 3 weeks is all the time it’ll take. Few hours every day. The last two weeks of summer b will be smoooooth sailing-and then we’re done!!!!!

As I finished the last week of my student-teaching I found out that the administrator was planning on hiring me for the long term sub position. Which is great in so many ways.

A month and a half of teaching a course where I have other teachers around me who can support me. So now in total if I was to teach LE next year I would have taught 3 and a half months of the course already, which is substantial. There are so many decisions that must be made every day that having the experience in a lower risk setting before even getting my first full time position can’t be understated. I would have made many of the decisions already, know what works and what probably won’t work, etc., etc. The money is also great- best believe it’ll be nice to finally be paid to teach, and that putting some money toward loans will go a long way. It’ll look great on the resume too. Paid teaching experience? Check.

For all of those pros it was a no-brainer. Absolutely I want to do it. It’s not to say that I never though about the downsides of taking it cause I did. But I felt and still feel that the pros heavily outweigh the cons. But man oh man would it have been nice to have that break.

I’ll admit I’m a little burned out right now. All of us are to some degree, which I think is pretty typical of this time of the year in our program. But the thought of having 6 weeks of full time teaching, 4 of which I’m going to have classes as well, is a little daunting. And the more I think about the amount of work I’ll be doing- between planning for teaching and finishing the final projects for my  remaining 3 classes- the more I wonder how it’s all gonna get done.

So I’m trying to find that balance. It was a great find (and a little lucky!) to get the long-term gig, and I’m still glad that I’m doing it. But it’s hard to imagine I could have the next few weeks get all my work done, continue applying to jobs, and relax a little bit before starting the summer classes.

It’ll get done. It always does. Just gotta find the time to do it and push through the next few weeks, cause pros outweigh the cons.

What do the principles of economics have to with education, you say? Glad you asked. This idea for this post was conceived  as I was reading a book called “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind“, and the resulting conversation I had with my CT. In the book, William Kamkwamba who lives in a small village Malawi (a small African country for those of us with less than stellar geography, myself included). While his family is too poor to enroll him in school, he begins reading a science book that he uses to help him build a windmill, which provides electricity for his house.  Oh yeah, and he was like 15. But he was so eager to attend school he used to sneak in and hide in the back of the class because his family hadn’t paid the tuition needed to attend. And it wasn’t one of the nicer schools. I brought it up to my CT and we got into an interesting conversation about the differences in the education supply and demand between countries. Take Malawi for example. One of the poorest countries in Africa, with very little money going into education. But William’s ambition and desire to attend school, even when he couldn’t afford it, is the exemplar of the demand that exists. Now contrast this with their supply. I would venture a guess that we spend many many many times more on education than their entire GDP. Yet despite their lack of supply, the demand for education is incredibly high. I saw the same interesting contrast reading “3 Cups of Tea”. But we compared this scenario with what we see in our school. Disinterest, entitlement, often disrespect. Where’s the demand? This is not just in urban school-it’s everywhere. Being smart, or interested in class is not seen as being cool. In fact, to some extent it’s stigmatized.  But alas, check out our supply! Boy do we know how to throw money at education. Developing countries often have the demand…but no supply. We have all the supply…but where the heck is the demand?

Ultimately it begs the question why this is. I think part of it is the negative association with education that has been portrayed. I think maybe some of it has to do with having free, compulsory education. If we didn’t make people go would they want to go more? Is this the classic case of wanting what you can’t have? Could be a little. But I think it should be compulsory.

So what to do. Little demand. Lots of supply. My suggestions would be to put the supply in the right places, and then there might be more demand. But I’m open to hearing other thoughts as well. Whatdya think?

That one was just for fun. But seriously, as we’re currently starting to talk about evolution I thought it would be relevant to discuss how I’ve had to adapt (see what I did there?) to being in a completely different environment and how I’ve upped my fitness. Alright, I’ll stop, geez. It’s interesting but I think I’m just now starting to feel more comfortable with the curriculum, the age group, the school, and the classroom culture as a whole. At first my thinking was- “Really? It took this long to adapt?” But when I really thought about how difficult it is to come into a completely new environment, I began to realize how long this transition can (and should) really take. We’re also talking about a population of students that doesn’t immediately trust and respect the teacher just because they’re at the front of the classroom. It has to be earned. In some ways I have to be honest, I kinda like this. Teaching in inner-city schools your practice has to always been at its best, because I’m finding you really have to be creative to engage kids who come in unmotivated and disenchanted with school. And to what I was saying before, earning the respect and developing relationships with kids who don’t immediately trust an adult really feels as though you earn it rather than simply receive it because you’re in this position as the teacher. I’ve come to really enjoy many of the students in each of the classes, and feel the most comfortable as I have been over the past 7 weeks. It’s ironic and a little sad that just as I’m leaving I’m getting the knack for my niche (sorry, won’t happen again) but I recognize that becoming a real part of the classroom culture is a process that takes a long time. Just happy to be where I’m at with a week left.

After having the students take the first real test of this unit, I’m thoroughly overwhelmed by how poorly they did, for the most part. 25 multiple choice and 3 short answer questions took them a period and a half to finish, but the time it took really wasn’t as scary as the results.

For anyone who wants to either place complete blame our education ills on bad teachers, let this be the exemplar to the contrary. My CT is unbelievably good at what she does. Really…she’s fantastic. But still, 4 marking periods in, the average grades are each class are failing. Now, let’s be frank. This is the result of something much larger and more problematic than a few bad teachers. Indeed, this is the case that says why. It is the combination of 15 years of social promotion and everything that has gone into it allowing students such as these to be in our classes. And the unfortunate (read depressing) part is that no amount of DB miracle working is going to change their grades very much. We’re beginning to talk about “teaching test skills” in a way that she says she never has had to before. I can definitely see how some have to resort to that. When grades are this poor, even after good lessons AND 2 days of review, something has to give. And is APPR going to make this all go away? Get better? Of course not, it’s going to make teaching to the test even more prevalent. And why wouldn’t it, if you have so many students doing so poorly regardless of your pedagogy, AND your paycheck might be determined on it, what other options do you really have?

It’s a depressing thought for me, particularly because I expect to have students who are similar to the ones that I have right now. This is the first time when they absolutely NEED to pass a class and a test to graduate from high school. LE is it, you don’t pass LE you ain’t graduating. But the culture of social promotion has allowed them to get to where they are and feel a sense of entitlement about school. That they’ll graduate just by showing up, as they have before this. Unfortunately I think it’ll be a rude awakening for students in April and May when they realize they haven’t been to class enough to get the lab minutes they need to sit for the LE exam. What does it take to get students to realize this before it’s too late? Some of it is about connecting the dots. The higher achieving students are able to see how their performance today directly impacts tomorrow, next week, next year, etc. But this isn’t the case for many of the lower performing students. I had a girl in class the other day say that she wants to go to Harvard. Another one in the same class tell me she’s going to be a pediatrician. Again, the connection between today and their future has not been seen, and for them to realize even a fraction of their dreams, they need to be able to.

Social media has had an interesting effect on our society I think. It has simultaneously brought the entire world closer together than we ever have been before, as well as created a world in which we don’t communicate well with people who are right next to us. Ironic, isn’t it? I recently watched a powerful viral video about atrocities being committed in Uganda by Joseph Kony. It really got me thinking about how it has revolutionized the way we interact with each other. We are able to connect and share thoughts instantly with people on the other side of the world. I read my cousins Facebook posts, even though they’ re in Italy, and I’m here. I can see what they’re thinking and feeling, at least what they’re sharing with other people. Still it gives a level of insight into others lives that we haven’t ever had before, with so many people, from so many different places. Now, contrast this with two people who are right next to each other, both on the same social networking site I just mentioned, yet neither of them speaking.  My Mom has always been a big stickler for not answering the phone during dinner, or even having it out. So naturally, this pet peeve was passed onto me. The other night at dinner saw a family “out to dinner”. The quotations are necessary because while they were physically all at the same table, all of them were glued to their respective iPhones.

So knowing this exists, and recognizing it, I wonder how this texting bonanza, tweeting frenzy, and Facebook addiction can be used to BENEFIT the next generation of students. I saw some clever ones in Occhino’s classroom taking  picture of the homework, and telling her friends she would post it to a (Facebook?) group they were all part of. Brava. The connection and disconnection students have to those around them doesn’t stop at the school doors. As much as you tell students to put electronics away, that mentality of being plugged in doesn’t just go away. So how do you roll with it as a teacher? How do you use this to your advantage?

Always open to suggestions.

I was thinking about how I could use some of the articles that we talk about, which segued into thinking about a topic/idea/helpful group thinking thing we could do together in class. A lot of the things we do and talk about, common core for literacy, making questions open ended, designing inquiry-based activities, etc. is fantastic, but I find myself running into one of the same issues consistently. That is, so many of my students have been force-fed everything for so long, combined with the fact they are on the whole such low level readers and thinkers  that it becomes extremely difficult to implement much of these without great well-developed scaffolds.

And that’s the rub. This is definitely a skill that improves with time, as well as being able to judge the difficulty level of an assignment before it’s given in comparison to the students that you have. That being said, it would be really beneficial for all of us if we could have a class or group learning session where where take inquiry-based activities and design them for different learning levels with the appropriate scaffolds. For example, if we were each to be given a different assignment (not necessarily one that we created) and then had to change it to a hypothetical class culture. I imagine this type of activity being a great resource for those of us just starting out, as this has been one of the most difficult parts of planning so far, especially for my innovative unit. I’ve found myself adjusting different parts for each class based on their motivation, maturity level, abilities to think critically.

Thoughts on this?

So I did my first student teaching at a small all boys charter school, in their second year, whereas right now I’m doing my 8 week placement at a big co-ed public high school. Needless to say, they are slightly different. I have to preference this blog with the clarification that had I been in a different classroom in either one of these schools I may have had a completely different experience. Each classroom builds it own culture, and my perspective on the school is absolutely shaped by the culture of the classroom that I am in for each of these placements. Having said that I think there are still some  generalizations that can be from being in each of these schools. After all, each has a school culture that is  a result of its demographics, size, location, public/private/charter designation, administration, etc.

So my experience in my first placement has been radically different. First, let’s take a look at the teachers. The vast majority of the teachers at my first placement at the charter school were in their 20s and 30s. Contrast this to my current high school placement and the majority of the science teachers are in their late 30s and 40s. Why? Well if you haven’t heard jobs ain’t easy to come by in Rochacha and Charters tend to snag those who don’t have any other options (read: job). It’s not always the case. Some are asked to come from surrounding schools. But there’s a reason everyone there is so young. I think that it has several effects as well. For starters, there’s a much different attitude that younger teachers at my first placement had, an optimism and energy if you will. Frankly, in my new placement I don’t see it. Again, to clarify my current CT is probably the most energetic and knowledge teacher I’ve ever worked with. But the overall feeling I get from the teachers of the school is one that makes me hesitant to be a part of a culture like that. They’ve been beaten down with new requirements  to such a degree that they’re frustrated and angry. And it shows.

Also, I found an enormous difference between the testing requirements of a charter school in comparison to those in the public high school setting. Twice so far this year there have been “benchmark” testing days in which the students have been pulled from all of their classes throughout the day and forced to take tests that are (I think) intended to inform future instruction after their tests are “analyzed”. It’s these kind of things that make me hesitant to be a part of a school that is so beholden to test scores. While I have no inherent issue with charter schools (which is a change from the position that I used to take), I am in complete disagreement with this strategy. Because, to be frank, if you truly believed in your teachers and thought their instruction was high-quality and they were doing a great job, would you need to give these? Would you take a week out from actual instruction to do this? No. I don’t think you would.

Of course there are differences with having girls in the classroom now too. I think a lot of times they bring an energy and enthusiasm to the classroom that boys, in many cases, need girls to have. I had a really interesting conversation once with someone about the dynamics of a classroom with only boys, and how often if there were just a few girls mixed in they would be able to convince the guys in the class to be more participatory. It’s my theory that the reason for this is because in schools with a dominant black or latino culture, adolescent males are less able (or allowed?) to have both their educational identity and an identity that conforms to a black/latino culture. Females, on the other hand aren’t forced to choose as completely, and have been more able to negotiate these two identities into one than males have. I’m open to suggestions on this.

On the other hand, I always felt that when I planned lessons for the all boys class it was easier to find a hook- because it was more likely that all of them would be interested in one idea, topic, video, article, etc. A more homogeneous group is easier to plan for.

Lastly, the age difference is huge. The 9th graders are unfortunately on the whole more disillusioned with school, and have a distinct sense of carelessness ( in the “I could care less” sense) when it comes to their education. Kids at the charter school have someone at home who cared enough about their education to send them to a school that they think will result in their child being educated better. They put on a tie to come to school. I think just because of these factors students have more buy-in and investment. Let’s not get crazy- investment for a 7th grader might not be what you think it should be.  But I think the age, and going to a public school, combines to give a lot of the students in my new placement an aloofness that should alarm us…

Thing is that a lot of the time I know the kind of teacher I want to be but can’t always envision what it looks like or articulate how I think it should be. It’s interesting that when it’s seen in the class for me it creates almost an AHA moment. It happened to me this week during a lab called DNA my way. It was a DNA extraction lab which allowed students to manipulate a variable  creating all sorts of interesting combinations in their connicals. I didn’t realize how much this individuality played a role in the ownership they had of their work. All of a sudden I saw kids who were typically disinterested become engaged comparing the amount of DNA he got in comparison to his friend. In my new placement it was one of the first times I saw genuine interest and excitement about learning, and it was a fantastic process to be a part of. That’s the type of excitment I want to inspire. Not just excitement but genuine fun. Just needed some DNA to remind me:)