I’ve decided that regardless of the overall tone of each entry, I’m going to start them on positive notes. The problem is that the urge to write for me comes hand-in-hand with the need to blow off steam, so this will definitely be a challenge for me from here on out. I promise you won’t be subjected to entries like this very often; I only feel like I need to set some context for what I’m dealing with day to day.
Good news first. About half my class has an A or A- for progress report day. Some students have seriously completely transformed their studying and participation behaviors over the short period of two to three weeks, and their written reflective responses to their grades after the first test have been very interesting reads – a few have explained how they originally didn’t want to be at school but now they really care about math and succeeding. Things like that make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
On the flipside, we have six failing grades and a handful more on the brink. Two of our students even got worse scores on their test than they did on their diagnostic test on the first day, even when they were the exact same exams. It’s scary how easy it is to leave someone in the dust and not even know it – especially when the student is quiet enough that they don’t speak up when they don’t understand a concept. Hopefully we’ll make up for lost time with those students this week so that they can actually comprehend the current lessons. I’m actually meeting with one of the students this Sunday for extra time to catch her up to where we need to be. It just would have been nice to know about her learning disability before talking to her mother on the phone about what I can do for her child.
As painful as Institute training is, four weeks teaching in summer school is really not an ample length of time for what we want to accomplish. For one, four weeks isn't even enough time for the school to legally tell us which students have an individualized education plan due to a learning disability. I’ve found that it’s really hard to have the goals of realistic teacher training and student achievement mesh well, because what helps a teacher prepare for teaching on their own doesn't necessarily align with what helps students achieve. For instance, we work in teaching teams, so my students see three teachers each day, rotating through each lesson. However, when I'm not leading a lesson, I have to act like I don’t exist in the classroom anymore. If a student has a question, the lead teacher has to answer it; if the class misbehaves or gets totally out of control, too bad – the lead teacher has to deal with it because “in your region you have to deal with these things alone.” I understand the idea behind this, but ultimately, class time is often wasted just for teacher “experience.”
That being said, Teach For America is one of the most reflective organizations I have ever known. They survey regularly after each procedure or experience is complete – and at the end of every week – to figure out what they can do to make things work for us. They are super receptive and actually send representatives from their operations team to have emergency meetings when surveys uncover corps member dissatisfaction. Already in these past few weeks, there have been many procedural changes and even staff “leaves of absence” as a response to surveys and discussions, so I definitely see the advantages to the high level of structure and organization in TFA. It seems as though their goal is to make it so that corps members have absolutely no excuses during their experience here, and I truly appreciate that. And with that plug, I feel it only fitting to share the video we watched in session a few days ago. It gave me chills. This guy is my new hero: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxsOVK4syxU
On the normal side of life, I made time for a movie and saw “500 Days of Summer,” and walking out of the theater we saw Kate Beckinsdale. Alright, I only saw the back of her head, but everyone else with me saw her face so we know it was her. Anyway, I loved the movie and recommend it to everyone.
Okay, back to lesson plans.
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