I just finished my first day of school! It was quite an experience, but nothing too unexpected happened. In the morning my room was randomly assigned to be a holding ground for all of the students with a last name of S, so I was the coordinator that needed to get them the appropriate schedule, etc. They were in my room for a full 45 minutes. It was exciting to be part of the "buzz" that is the first day of school. All of the students were seeing their friends for the first time in months perhaps, anxious to get their new agenda books, and eagerly anticipating the first football game Friday. It was fun to be part of it all. This time, however, I was the man shouting to get to class.
Each period I taught ran really smoothly. My teacher voice helps that I think. I had 30 students in my first period, an SAT prep class. All the students have aspirations to go to college, so they were all invested in what I was saying. I then had a nice long planning period because we are on block schedules. Then my 3rd period class only had 12 students they were all great. My 4th period class had some characters--they were quite chatty, but I managed to lead them through our agenda.
Overall it was a tremendous first day. The students are all great and brilliant in their own ways. It should be an exciting year...
I'll post more specifics once I get to know the students better. I will leave everyone with this line that Briana spoke at the end of class:
"Mr. Athmer, most teachers just come in and get a paycheck. We will give you all we have if you care. If you care to make the class fun and exciting and not just normal."
That is my intention.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Columbia Heights Educational Campus, Washington, D.C.
After Fels High School, I know that the work I am about to start is going to be incredibly hard, frustrating, rewarding, and fun. I am excited to be teaching probability/statistics and SAT prep at Bell High School, which is part of the Columbia Heights Educational Campus (Bell High School and Lincoln Middle School) in DCPS. I start Monday with planning and professional development to get ready for the upcoming school year, which begins August 23. I am excited beyond belief. After seeing what my students achieved in 4 weeks in Philly, I can only imagine what a whole year of instruction will do.
I am fully dedicated to the students that I will meet in a few short weeks. My life is going to be all about them. I am going to push, motivate, push, motivate, and demand greatness from each and every student. The need is so great and the time is so short. I was blessed with the opportunity, which I took for granted, to attend college and have countless professional opportunities and successes. I want to give back to the students that are not given the chance to go to college or get a job that they are passionate about. My goal is for them to realize that they are worth something and can absolutely do whatever it is they set their mind to. It doesn't matter how many people tell them they can't. It doesn't matter how many people disregard them because of race or socioeconomic background. I saw first hand this summer that if you tell people they can, they will.
Our nation's greatest social injustice is that our nation's youth growing up in impoverished neighborhoods are given essentially zero chance of getting out of that perpetual cycle of poverty--they are given no such opportunities because the schools can't provide it for them. I want to provide it. That is what I am in D.C. trying to do. I understand that 100 percent of my students will not become the next president, or even go to college, but what I do understand is that 100 percent can begin to think about their situation differently and take ownership of their education and life. They just need someone to tell them that they can.
I am fully dedicated to the students that I will meet in a few short weeks. My life is going to be all about them. I am going to push, motivate, push, motivate, and demand greatness from each and every student. The need is so great and the time is so short. I was blessed with the opportunity, which I took for granted, to attend college and have countless professional opportunities and successes. I want to give back to the students that are not given the chance to go to college or get a job that they are passionate about. My goal is for them to realize that they are worth something and can absolutely do whatever it is they set their mind to. It doesn't matter how many people tell them they can't. It doesn't matter how many people disregard them because of race or socioeconomic background. I saw first hand this summer that if you tell people they can, they will.
Our nation's greatest social injustice is that our nation's youth growing up in impoverished neighborhoods are given essentially zero chance of getting out of that perpetual cycle of poverty--they are given no such opportunities because the schools can't provide it for them. I want to provide it. That is what I am in D.C. trying to do. I understand that 100 percent of my students will not become the next president, or even go to college, but what I do understand is that 100 percent can begin to think about their situation differently and take ownership of their education and life. They just need someone to tell them that they can.
Samuel Fels High School, Philadelphia, PA
One of the biggest criticisms of TFA is that its corps members are not prepared to enter the classroom and actually teach. Most of us are not from education backgrounds, so the criticism is completely fair. But, TFA tries to get us as ready as we can by hosting an "Institute" where we teach summer school and learn about education practice in Philadelphia, PA. It was a 5 week program where I woke up at 5:20 every morning, went to the Temple University dining hall to eat breakfast (horrible food), took a school bus to Fels High School, taught one hour of Algebra II to 13 juniors and seniors, and then sat in on "sessions" for the remaining part of the day--learning about education theory, classroom management plans, personal investment plans, and the best ways to lead our students to academic success. The days were long, but I learned an incredible amount of knowledge and am comfortable heading into the real school year.
Fels High School is located in North Philly. It is the worst performing school in the School District of Philadelphia. With that said, I had the pleasure of teaching 13 students Algebra II for 4 weeks. Every student had failed this course the previous year, so I came in thinking that leading them to academic success in such as short period of time would be an almost impossible endeavor. I was positive and expected great things, yet still had in the back of my mind that success might not come in the form of actual academic achievement. I was wrong.
Each student takes a diagnostic test the first day that contains all the information they should know. The average score on the test was a 23 percent. I was shocked. Several students got less than 10 percent of the problems correct. I proceeded to teach every day for the next 4 weeks in an attempt to raise their scores on the same test that would be given at the end of the summer term. After two weeks I gave them a midterm with half of the material they saw on the diagnostic. The average score was an 84 percent. Wow. Then we went through all the material and I gave them a final exam with all the material they should know. The average was a 70 percent (8 of 13 scored above an 80 percent). The growth was tremendous. I pushed those kids like they have never been pushed before; I expected greatness out of each and every one of them; I held each student accountable for their academic achievement; I communicated the importance of actually doing well at something; I accepted no excuses despite what was going on in their lives; I told them "you can" when they are pounded with "you can't."
I know what I just wrote might sound idealistic, ignorant, and unconventional, but I am a firm believer that every student is capable of achieving results. Great results. When you hold people to high expectations, they respond. It doesn't matter who you are dealing with.
I'll leave you with a few highlights from my last assignment I gave my students. I asked them write what their future goals were, how they were going to reach those goals, and what they learned in the class that will help them:
"I plan on attending Virginia Tech and my future career path is to become a pediatrician, which means I am striving to get my doctoral degree. The one skill I learned in this class that will help me achieve my goals is to believe in myself."
"I plan on going to college out of state because I want to have more opportunities."
"I want to go to college and have a job. I want my diploma and I want to go to a very good college. I learned a lot of Algebra 2 in a month. Because I was in school for 1 year and I didn't learn nothing."
"My goals are to graduate high school and attend college and get my professional degree."
"I know I can do anything I put my mind to and make my dreams a reality. I won't stop until I see myself improving and that's what I learned during this month."
"After I graduate high school, I plan on going to a 4 week nursing programing to earn a certificate. Then in August of 2011, after nursing school, my goal is to go to Morgan State and major in Nursing. I am striving for a doctoral degree after that."
"I'm going to strive for a 4.0 from here on out."
"This class taught me never to give up on myself. I can do it."
Most of my students won't graduate high school.
Fels High School is located in North Philly. It is the worst performing school in the School District of Philadelphia. With that said, I had the pleasure of teaching 13 students Algebra II for 4 weeks. Every student had failed this course the previous year, so I came in thinking that leading them to academic success in such as short period of time would be an almost impossible endeavor. I was positive and expected great things, yet still had in the back of my mind that success might not come in the form of actual academic achievement. I was wrong.
Each student takes a diagnostic test the first day that contains all the information they should know. The average score on the test was a 23 percent. I was shocked. Several students got less than 10 percent of the problems correct. I proceeded to teach every day for the next 4 weeks in an attempt to raise their scores on the same test that would be given at the end of the summer term. After two weeks I gave them a midterm with half of the material they saw on the diagnostic. The average score was an 84 percent. Wow. Then we went through all the material and I gave them a final exam with all the material they should know. The average was a 70 percent (8 of 13 scored above an 80 percent). The growth was tremendous. I pushed those kids like they have never been pushed before; I expected greatness out of each and every one of them; I held each student accountable for their academic achievement; I communicated the importance of actually doing well at something; I accepted no excuses despite what was going on in their lives; I told them "you can" when they are pounded with "you can't."
I know what I just wrote might sound idealistic, ignorant, and unconventional, but I am a firm believer that every student is capable of achieving results. Great results. When you hold people to high expectations, they respond. It doesn't matter who you are dealing with.
I'll leave you with a few highlights from my last assignment I gave my students. I asked them write what their future goals were, how they were going to reach those goals, and what they learned in the class that will help them:
"I plan on attending Virginia Tech and my future career path is to become a pediatrician, which means I am striving to get my doctoral degree. The one skill I learned in this class that will help me achieve my goals is to believe in myself."
"I plan on going to college out of state because I want to have more opportunities."
"I want to go to college and have a job. I want my diploma and I want to go to a very good college. I learned a lot of Algebra 2 in a month. Because I was in school for 1 year and I didn't learn nothing."
"My goals are to graduate high school and attend college and get my professional degree."
"I know I can do anything I put my mind to and make my dreams a reality. I won't stop until I see myself improving and that's what I learned during this month."
"After I graduate high school, I plan on going to a 4 week nursing programing to earn a certificate. Then in August of 2011, after nursing school, my goal is to go to Morgan State and major in Nursing. I am striving for a doctoral degree after that."
"I'm going to strive for a 4.0 from here on out."
"This class taught me never to give up on myself. I can do it."
Most of my students won't graduate high school.
My Teach For America Experience
This post will explain how I became involved with Teach For America and also a little bit about what the program actually does.
How did I get involved?
Teach for America is a nonprofit organization that places recent graduates in struggling school districts across the country. I applied in August of 2009, was accepted into the program, and was placed to teach secondary math in the low-performing D.C. Public Schools system (DCPS) for the 2010-2011 school year. The application process was grueling and extensive, but my experience with students from low-income backgrounds in Kettering proved to TFA that I could potentially succeed in the classroom.
Why did I want to do this?
My experience as a site coordinator with the City of Kettering is the sole reason I want to continue the work of leading students. I was blessed with the opportunity to work with 25 young Kettering students for 3 summers. I created a relationship with every student, was able to forge a relationship each family, and provided a summer shelter where they could grow personally, and intellectually, in a safe environment. Every student lived in Kettering's Section 8 housing facility and had more personal tensions, community distractions, and broken family situations than most of us could ever fathom. Given the difficult lives of most of my students, it was incredibly gratifying work--learning about every student's life, leading the group to new experiences, providing an amazing safe haven for these kids--so I applied to Teach For America to lead students from similar backgrounds in D.C.
What is Teach For America?
Teach For America's mission is that "one day all students will obtain an excellent education." TFA puts its "corps members" in the most struggling, underachieving districts in the country. The school districts are bad. In D.C., only 1 out of 10 high school graduates attend college and the on-time graduation rate is below 50 percent. These are mind-blowing statistics. This link summarizes TFA's reasons why they place where they do: http://teachforamerica.org/what-we-do/the-challenge/
This was just an introductory post, so new posts will go more in depth with, what I believe, is our nation's biggest social injustice.
Welcome
I thought I would start a blog about my experiences in Washington, D.C. with the Teach For America program. I was hesitant at first, but now am certain that this is the best thing for me to do. I want to advocate on behalf my my students and push people to think critically about the public education movement that is becoming a major issue across the country in both urban and rural school districts. Welcome, and I hope that these posts will help you follow what I am doing here in D.C. and also make the education movement relevant to you.
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