An Experience Gap

Here I am, 3 weeks from the end of the first term (the signal that 25% of my academic year is over) and I am at a lost for words. I have been teaching for 6 full weeks and in only two short months I have gone from a vibrant, whimsical 22 year old to an intense, focused and driven teacher. As I told one of my friends recently, I have to remind myself every day that I am only 22, because there are days when it feels like I am in my late 20s or early 30s. Teaching has a way of aging you quite quickly. When I get up in the morning and look at the drawn, tired face that stares back at me in the mirror, I often ask myself where this withered and quickly wrinkling skin came from. Maybe it's from the long days of work that never seems to cease, or from the annoyance that builds up inside after being pelted with wads of paper, empty soda cans, pieces of pencils, pennies or those long sticks of glue that you use inside hot glue guns. Where my students get all of this ammunition I am still uncertain but everyday, without fail, something gets propelled toward the front of the classroom (often in my direction). As inexperienced as I actually am at this profession, I feel like every day (whether they are memorable or not) has deepened my depth of knowledge and skill at handling just about any situation that could arrive in the classroom setting.

Everyday there are moments of humor and moments of grief; moments of challenge and moments of triumph, moments of success and moments of failure. But as each day goes forward, I have quickly realized that they are just that - moments. A brief second in time where the events from that day penetrate through the tough teacher facade that I have tried to establish and remind me of the reason why I teach for America. Whether its having a student brush by me as I say good morning to her and she mutters, "Good morning my favorite teacher." Or its that moment as you are grading your student's first exam that you realize over half of them don't understand some of the basic ideas you taught and failed your test. It's that moment when one your macho football player students comes to you after school, with glossed over eyes and a meek sensibility, to admit that he didn't understand something and he has finally built up the courage to ask for help or that moment when you realize you have lost complete control of your class and need to spend the next 10 minutes giving an impassioned speech about education to try and garner back just a percentage of their focus. Teaching is a patchwork of these moments, some momentous and some embarrassing, some frustrating but some enlightening. I am certain that the moments that I have experienced thus far have molded me into the teacher that I am today and the moments that I have yet to experience will sharpen, refine and chisel me into the teacher of tomorrow.

As most people know, TFA, as a national organization, is dedicated to bridging the educational gap between people in the upper echelon of society and the impoverished areas of our country. One of the additional challenges that exists here in Mississippi is the experience gap. It may surprise you but very few of my nearly 200 students have ever traveled outside of their home county, let alone the Delta or the State of Mississippi. These students do not necessarily understand how vast and varied our country is, let alone the world. From what I gather, their daily existence in a medium size town in rural Mississippi is monolithic and uni-dimensional. They spend their days in school and their nights walking the streets - day in and day out. When I prompt them to tell me about their plans for the weekend, they simply reply "sleep". The gap of experiences that exists between the students that I teach every day and the students who I know that are growing up in the North East is truly astronomical. Even though it is basically impossible for me to quantify exactly how large the experience gap is between an average Mississippi high school student and one living in another part of the country (or even qualitatively compare the two experience - I am sure there is not a single high school student in the North East has ever picked cotton, attended a cat fish fry or eaten Kool-aide Pickles), it does make me think that my students are in a system that is setting them up for failure on multiple levels. Not only educationally but experientially as well.

I was reflecting this weekend that I am surprised, with how large and vast Teach for America has become, that their isn't more synergetic relationships between different regional corps. I almost feel like this would aleviate at least a small percentage of the experiential gap that exists for some of my students. I don't know if it is going to work or not (esp. in a math classroom) but I am going to try my best to connect my students with studnets in other corps member's classroom across the country so that they can get a sense of what life is actually like outside of the Delta.

Until next time - peace.

New Gettysburg alum/TFA blogger

Hi everyone! I am Linda Donatoni, one of the new Gettysburg alum/TFA bloggers. I've never blogged before so you'll have to bare with me as I'm new to all this. I just graduated from Gettysburg in May, where I was a Psychology major and Spanish minor. During spring semester of my junior year, I moved to DC for a "Washington Semester" program at American U. I had an internship at the Children's Defense Fund and worked on their "Health Care for All Children" campaign. It was through a random series of events during that internship and while in DC that I heard about TFA and then decided to apply for the first (summer) deadline in August 2009. In November, I was accepted and joined TFA as a secondary biology teacher in Philadelphia.

I know most other TFAers started school already, but here in Philly, we've only had two days. We went to school last Tuesday and Wednesday and then had off Thursday and Friday for Rosh Hashana. I'm teaching at a new Camelot school called Excel Academy Central. Chamelot is an outside company that the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) hires to run an alternative education program. There are many other Camelot schools in the city, but mine is just starting this year. For the most party, Camelot is for students who were either expelled from or dropped out of the other public schools. To be honest, I was really nervous when I initially found out I was placed in alternative ed but now that I am here, I can't imagine being anywhere else. The support I have around me is absolutely incredible. Camelot seems to do a great job in general with not only supporting teachers but also helping the students turn their lives in a productive direction (99% of the students graduate and 97% go on to post-secondary education...which is so much higher than the district's average). I am so excited to be working with the people in Camelot who have had success in the past and know what works.

Although I have this support, I am also really nervous about how I will be as a teacher in this setting. Our school is based on a completely new model (unlike all the other Camelots). The students come for a half day (one session 8-12 and one session 12:30-4:30) and the classes run for semesters. This seems to be what works best for the students who have children, jobs, etc.; however, it also means much less instructional time because I need to fit in what I would normally teach all year into a half-year, half-day schedule. I'm certified to teach bio but now it looks like I'll be teaching bio, environmental science, and physical science (and maybe kinesiology and anatomy?)...but, besides for Bio which I took my freshman year at Gettysburg, I have never taken any of those others. The alternative ed program that had these students last year really screwed them over. From what I've heard the old program got mad at the kids for not attending school and got mad at the SDP for firing them and so they are holding all the students' grades and credits which means that we can't tell what the students need in order to graduate. My principal has been calling students in to his office one by one to ask them what they remember taking and to see if they have any documentation at home (because most of their records and report cards are blank) but it could be weeks before we have actual schedules and rosters....which is why I say I THINK I'm teaching those subjects, but I really won't know until we get all the kids' credits figured out.

On a more positive note, my students are great so far! On my first day, I introduced an on-going project called "Letters to Lizzie." I realized while teaching at Institute that literacy is a big issue and so as extra credit, I'm allowing students to practice their literacy skills by writing letters to my sister, Lizzie, asking her about college. Lizzie just started as a freshman at Gettysburg (yay!) and so, the students can write to her asking her about dorm life, financial aid, etc. and she'll write back. I very briefly introduced this on the first day and didn't even assign homework but when I saw them on the second day, a few of them had written her letters already and asked me to send them to her!! I was so excited that they were into it! And their letters were great...they asked about having a roommate, how to apply for scholarships, college food, how hard the classes are :)

Anyway, that's about it for now! But, I will try to write as often as I can...but please remind me if you have not heard from me in a few weeks (I have a feeling I may forget with everything else going on). Good luck to all my fellow TFA-ers and I can't wait to read everyone else's entries!

Linda

New Year - New Perspectives

After a year's hiatus, I am going to attempt to restart this blog. My idea has been the same - bring Gettysburgians together that are placed in a variety of placement context and have us share our experiences. Easier said then done. Gettysburgians are busy, but TFAers are even more crazy. Teaching has its high's and low's.

I will introduce 2 new contributors very shortly - or they will introduce themselves. For the meantime I'm going to say that I'm going to do a series of posts in different areas.

"Notes for Policy Makers" will focus on how a classroom issue either fixes a national education issue or brings it into new light. "Strategies that Work" will center around strategies I have found successful in my classroom. "Tales from the front lines..." hopefully will give you context on what kids in the DC region go through.

We'll start there. Maybe I'll add some more titles. Hopefully these quick tidbits will give you a glimpse into the dilemma I refer to the achievement gap that I feel so strongly about.

It's back!

Welcome back to the Gettysburg College Teach for America blog....back for a brand new year, with some brand new voices and some brand new perspectives on teaching America's children. As someone who was fortunate to attend Gettysburg College for my undergraduate education, I am stoked to share this blog with a lot of my friends who have joined the ranks of Teach for America all over the country. Though many people tend to paint all of TFA with the same broad brush, I hope that the insights shared on this blog over this next year will accentuate the differences between each of our placement regions. Some of us teach in sprawling urban cities and others in spacious rural communities, but we each get up every day with the same goal in mind: to entertain, engage, teach, and inspire our students onto greatness.

Let me take a quick moment to introduce myself. I am a 2010 Gettysburg College graduate who recently joined Teach for America in the Mississippi Delta. I have been teaching math at a rural high school in Mississippi for the past month. I would be lying if I told you that this experience has been a walk in the park. Everyday has been a struggle and every moment in front of kids is an opportunity for me to flex my newly founded teacher persona - sometimes it succeeds and sometimes it miserably fails - but everyday I wake up and tell myself, "Today is going to be a good day".

If you would have asked me just a year ago where I thought I would be after graduation, living and teaching in one of the poorest regions in the country definitely would not have been the answer. Though much has changed about my life, I have quickly embraced the uniqueness of the region that I live in and all of the pleasantries that it has to offer. I tried fried pickles for the first time and have developed an extreme appreciation for the miles and miles of open fields and the slower pace of life. Having grown up in the North east my entire life, my transition to living in the deep south has been an interesting exercises in immersing oneself in a new culture.

Everything about the delta fascinates me. During one of our initial TFA meetings, one of the community members told us that Mississippi is filled with extremes: there is poverty and opulence (and many times they live only blocks from one another), there is entrenched racism (though Brown v Board of Ed officially desegregated schools, the Mississippi schools have been resegregated by design because of the distribution of wealth - the white students - who can afford it - go to private school and the black students attend the public schools), but also a deeply rooted sense of community (I can't tell you the amount of conversations that I have had with random people around the delta - they welcome me to the community and always show a genuine interest in what I am teaching). There is a strong faith community (this area is sometimes considered part of the bible belt) but it also has one the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the country.

At times it feels like I am living in a completely different country then the one that I grew up in. For example, recently I found out that in the county that I am teaching in here in Mississippi, over $1 million is filtered through the food stamp program every month. Every month. As one of my roommates' ignorant friends recently put it, "It would just be easier if there was a flood in the delta that would wipe them all out so they would stop draining our welfare system." Comments like this one (and there are plenty of others that I have heard since making the decision to move down here and join TFA) are extremely frustrating - especially to someone who is working to provide better educational opportunities to the children of the delta. As I drive around the streets of Mississippi, I do not see a society that is draining the welfare system, instead I see a community that is ripe for opportunity. And it is this sense of opportunity that I hope to instill in my students so that they will embrace all of the educational opportunities around them and then work to improve their own community.

As I look forward to this academic year, I am excited to share with all of you my insights, experiences and thoughts about education, transitioning to teaching and specifically teaching in the Mississippi Delta.

Until next time - peace.

Aye...one of the problems of urban school districts...

Prince George's County made the front page of the Washington Post:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/27/AR2009082701518_2.html?sid=ST2009082601838

This is one of the many challenges to a large urban school system that make it difficult for teachers to do their job.

From Teaching Bootcamp, to Classroom Teacher: A Metamorphesis.

If you asked me several years ago about the probability of me teaching in public school, I would have said 0%. Now in two days, I will embark on teaching a group of talented future citizens of the United States. What happened you might ask...

I must start by saying that as I have matured over the past 3 years, I've been able to understand and respect the value of my education in a very new light. The value of having a rigorous education cannot be undervalued in our world. The age we live in requires more and more citizens that have sharp critical thinking skills, high literacy rates, and mathematical skills. Without these basic skills, our next generation will be in a world of trouble.

I became even more committed to education when I attended a Teach for America recruiting event at Gettysburg College last December. I became enraged at the outlook for educational inequality in our country. In the richest country in the world, we live in a nation that defines educational opportunity and the prospects of a future, based upon the zip code you that you reside. The bureaucracy is slanted in a way that ill-equipped schools continue to receive less resources because of the funding structure, while their suburban counterparts often have less of an issue since the tax structure is skewed toward equipping these districts with additional resources.* Furthermore, this disproportionately affects minorities, African Americans and Hispanics, and low-income communities. This is the achievement gap. My friends, this achievement gap is the future of our country and world. We're not even equipping them with the most basic of tools to flourish.

Jessica Gasper, the TFA recruiter, laid all of this on my heart and, in many regards, she convinced me that I could assist in alleviating the achievement gap. Fast-forward to January: I was accepted into the Washington, D.C. corps as a biology teacher and had to make the decision about the next 2 years of my life. I guess it's pretty obvious the direction I chose.

My training started in June. It was several weeks of intensive teacher training that attempted to teach myself, and a group of about 800 corps members from the DC, Philadelphia, and Baltimore regions, to become effective teachers. Keep in mind that many of us never had any formal training to become teachers; we were chosen based on our academic history, leadership record, and critical thinking skills, which they say were the most important assets to become effective teachers who make significant gains in partnership with their students.

I taught physical science with a team of 3 marvelously talented, committed individuals, and under the auspices of a veteran teacher from Central High School in the Philadelphia City Schools system. Our summer "home" was at South Philadelphia High School.

My month of July was un-officially teacher boot camp. I woke up at 5:15AM in my dorm at Temple University and departed for breakfast. I was on the bus by 6:45AM--or it would leave without me. About half an hour later, I arrived at my school site and taught Physical Science to a group of students from 8-10AM, followed by classes the rest of the day. At 4PM, I headed back to Temple University to lesson plan, practice teaching, group work, parent calls, and other duties as assigned. I usually went to bed around 11PM.

After all of this, I have come to appreciate the amazing dedicated work professional teachers do year after year, day after day.

To cut to the chase shortly, less than 2 months after I began this quest toward educating students, I'm completing lesson plans for the first 2 weeks of my new job. I've already unit planned, set large goals, and set my expectations high for my students without ever meeting them. I guess Monday will be the exciting day: Day 1. I'll be a biology teacher in Prince George's County Public Schools neck-deep in the battle against the achievement gap.

To my future students at Forestville - I believe that you can achieve your dreams. I am the instructional leader of the classroom. I will do my part to lead you there by learning biology, critical thinking, literacy, and appreciation for learning. I hope you will enjoy me on this journey. You will learn to love me as a compassionate person, hate me as a rigorous teacher, and, hopefully in the end, appreciate me for the small impact I hope to make on your life.

* Read Jonathan Kozol's Shame of the Nation for more details. Or you could just surf on over to www.teachforamerica.org.

Jackson Elementary

I just wanted to let you all know that I was hired yesterday! I was switched from special education into 1st grade gen. ed at Jackson Elementary School. I already met some of my kids at their summer school and met other CMs who are working at the same school. My boss cooked etouffe (sp?) and no-bakes for us as a celebration, but I still haven't experienced any crawfish. I'll keep you posted on that.

Louisiana is so wonderful, and extremely humid! I swam with a bullfrog at a CM's house the other night and heard stories about armadillo crossings and hurricanes. I am expected to close on an apartment with a really lovely fellow 2009 CM by tomorrow - rent is $250/mo. TWO. HUNDRED. FIFTY. As a girl from New York, my jaw just hit the floor. This place is so different from home!!

I'm loving it out here, even though I'm constantly exhausted from being in sessions all day. I hope you all are well!