D. A-B. was one of my biggest challenges first semester. She's a sophomore in Spanish II. I chased her down in the halls, wrote extensive comments encouraging her and giving her different strategies to try on everything she ever handed in (which wasn't much), tried calling home multiple times, tried all kinds of different strategies in the classroom... and still, she got kicked out of class time after time (or walked out), never turned in a homework assignment, and never passed a test or quiz. Finally, she started coming to Saturday school when it started in December. She earned a 21% for the semester. She failed 5 of her seven classes and the school moved her down an achievement level (track- there are three, basic, academic, and honors) to basic classes. This rearranged her schedule and she was no longer in my class. I was sad to see her go just when it seemed like maybe I could reach her in Saturdy school, but she continued to come every week and her absence from my 5th period meant one less strong personality to contend with.

Yesterday, during my other Spanish II class (7th period), the assistant director knocked on the door and asked to see me for a moment. With him was D, smiling sheepishly and shuffling her feet behind the door. "D. would like to be moved back to your class. She likes your style more. I just wanted to make sure that would be ok with you." "Of course! I've missed having you in class, D." She came in and I checked her schedule, asking if she was coming to 7th period now or was supposed to go back to 5th.
"Which one do you think would be better?" she asked "Where do you think I would learn more?"
"I think right here is perfect. This class is a lot smaller so we'll be able to work better." She nodded, got a copy of what the others were working on, sat down, and went stright to work, never interrupting the class once for the remaining half an hour. And I overheard her say to the curious person next to her, "I asked to move back. I wasn't learning nothing in the other class."

I've said it before and i'll say it again: relationships are the key to any success I have as a teacher. Working with D. in Saturday school in a class of 6 versus daily in a class of 29 really made the difference. I was able to spend more time one on one with her and also talk to her about things other than Spanish. I've attacked most of my major behavior problems this way (by actively seeking out connections and time to just talk to the students) and had maybe an 80% success rate. This isn't to say I don't have any misbehavior any more. Definitely not the case. But now it is much more minor talking, getting out of seats, not focusing in class, and much less major disrespect.

Another highlight (from Thursday): I was in my room before school started. The students had just been let in and there was a rush in the hallways of kids going to their lockers, shouting their good mornings, and lingering before classes. No one had come in to my room yet. With my door closed, and over all the noise from the hallway, I heard a voice singing " Yo-o, tu-as, ella-a, amos, an"-- the -ar verb conjugation song I had taught the previous week. I smiled and kept working. Then I heard it again, this time with a few more voices, and went to investigate. I poked my head out the door and looked around as they continued to sing, adding their own personality to the tune. Finally I spotted them down the hall, grooving along to my silly little spanish diddy. Totally made my day.

they're talking...

... and I'm taking it as a sign of some success. I usually have a few kids hang around my room after school, whether for tutoring or just hanging out rather than going home. Today, two girls from my advisory who have the other Spanish teacher were looking at the materials I had posted from the day's lesson for Spanish I. One of them spotted the vocabulary list and declared "Man, I'm about to transfer to your class. your class actually learning something."
"No, I heard her class is hard!"
"Yeah, but at least we'd be learning. look at all the stuff they get!"
This signals two things to me: One, kids are talking about my class outside of class. This is the old "any publicity is good publicity" motto. This means the class actually means something to them. Two, it means my expectations are probably high. This is something TFA drills us on (not lowering our expectations) and it's good to have some outside reassurance that I haven't been doing that.

Also, almost half of my students' test scores improved by more than 10% since the first test. One student went from a 34 to a 96! It's good to start seeing them realize this isn't going to be an easy class and start studying for the tests. But it's also good to see that the changes I've made to my teaching seem to be working. Now if only I could get through to more of my Spanish II kids...

Failure

I pinned down today one of the most draining things about this: I'm not used to failure. I don't say this to sound cocky or boastful. I've certainly failed before. But the truth is, I was privileged enough to be set up for success for most things in my life so far. Unfortunately, I am not yet a very good teacher. In fact, I think it would be fair to say I'm a pretty bad teacher. It's not unexpected in this situation, I suppose. Five weeks of training isn't much. It's still not something I'm used to though. And it is definitely draining.

Aside from the small comfort of being able to say "hey, maybe that's why I feel like crap. ok, at least the beast has a face" it's given me a whole new appreciation for some of my students. I can't imagine the kind of strength it takes for some of them to come to school every day when all their lives they've been told they're not smart, they've scored low on tests, they've been afforded fewer opportunities just because of who they are. If you've been set up for failure, and therefore have had less success, think of the strength it takes to continue on with no reason to believe anything is going to change. So, I feel as though I might have some notion now of what it feels like to know you're not doing well but to keep trying, and perhaps this will lead me to some strategies for encouraging those students once I figure out what keeps me going.

Culture lessons

I've decided to teach my culture lessons on Wednesdays because of my school's crazy schedule. I have all 5 of my classes for half an hour each on wednesdays. This week we defined culture and identified parts of American culture. The homework assignment was to choose one element that they thought represented all of American culture. I got some good answers- the flag, fast food, etc. This one was my favorite:
The American culture has to deal with jeans and shirts. We all deal with jeans and shirts because we all where clothes like crazy. I love clothes I hope they never leave me. God Bless America.

They crack me up sometimes.

Transition and beginning

The last month has been one long transition and I'm ready for things to be routine. After Institute, I had a day at home before taking the train down to Urbana to begin packing up everything in my apartment. I was able to sleep, pack, and visit with friends one last time. On August 3, I took the train home so that I could go to the first in a series of Teach for America orientations for charter school teachers on August 4. It went from 8-4:30. While I know a lot of what they gave us was valuable, I couldn't help but reschedule all the day's events to figure out that we could have done in 2 hours what we instead took 8.5 to work through. On Sunday, Mom and I got up early and she drove the rented van down to Urbana to get my stuff. We were back in Hyde Park by 2:30, where my dad, Uncle Gerry, Brian, and David met us to unload and carry everything up to the third floor. I was not to stay in my apartment that night though, since my bed delivery was mis-scheduled. I spent the week at home before another entire Saturday of Teach for America planning time. The following Tuesday I started professional development at the other high school operated by the EMO (Educational Management Organization) that runs the school where I work. Our building wasn't ready yet. Sidenote, my "chain" of charter schools is known as Chicago International Charter School (CICS). It is actually one large school with a charter to open different campuses. There are twelve, I believe. Those are then divied up among different EMOs. Mine is called Civitas. You can read more about them at http://www.civitasschools.org/home/. My school's official name is Chicago International Charter School, Ralph Ellison Campus.

PD was roughly 8:30-3:30 everyday for two weeks. Last Thursday, we finally got to go down to our building, which meant I moved in permanently to my apartment Wednesday night. This helped with the feeling that I have just been spinning my wheels for a month since Institute, trying to start something huge but not really doing anything new. But what I'm really looking forward to is getting into a routine at my school. I met my freshmen Friday for their orientation. I have an advisory of 21 freshmen girls who are just fantastic. I see them half an hour a day. I have three sections of freshman Spanish I and two section of sophomore Spanish II. I also moderate a study hall. I'll see each of those classes 4 times a week- three one hour blocks and one half hour class each on Wednesdays when they are dismissed early. The school operates with a sort of hybrid traditional/rotating block schedule, so I won't actually have the same routine every day since the classes switch times each day. But start, lunch, and end times will be consistent and as I get to learn all 138 names I'm sure it will feel more like home.

I asked all my kids to fill out a notecard with parent contact information as well as reasons why they are at a charter school (students have to apply, though we are non-selective- if too many apply there is a lottery) and one great thing about themselves. Some of my favorites:
"I know a little Japanese."
"I can dance really good and I do hair. (I know you said 1)"
"I love to learn new things."
"I'm ambitious."
"I am ready to learn and to make it in college and in life."
"I am fully successful."
"I love to read."
"I love to participate."

The makings of a great year...

Causes

We had a session today about getting parents involved in students' school lives. It opened with a Gallup poll that said that most of the general public blames school failure on parents; they aren't doing enough, aren't encouraging enough, don't care. I never really believed that, probably as a result of my own experiences with many kinds of families. Simply put, with a few rare exceptions, parents care about their children. But I can say confidently that by the end of the first week I was absolutely convinced that it is not the parents who are to blame for student failure- it is the schools. This is not to say that schools aren't up against innumerable challenges. They have budget constraints, endless rules and regulations to follow, and other obstacles. But what I have seen so far in the school where I work this summer, and what I have heard from people working in other schools, confirms that the schools are not at all focused on how well students are doing and what they are learning, but on how well they function as bureaucracies.

An example: The principal wants every student to pass summer school. An admirable goal. Rather than running her school in such a manner as to facilitate students learning the material to earn passing grades, she "unofficially" declares that no student can fail and any student determined to be "in danger of failing" is to be given remediation work until his/her grade has been sufficiently boosted. In the rare event that a student is allowed to be marked as "fail" the grade must be at least a 60% so as not to weight down the schools average.

I was trying to play devil's advocate in this and say that maybe she does this because she doesn't want the school that allows Teach for America (read: rookie) teachers to control its classrooms to look bad. That might endanger the program. And I suppose there could be some element of that. But the truth is, our kids, the ones we teach, failed under the guidance of experienced teachers. If we can guide even a marginal percentage of them towards success, that should be evidence that we're doing something right. I'm not the only one to have heard in my classroom "man, if my regular teacher taught like this I wouldn't be in summer school."

sleep

Last week I got 13.5 hours of sleep over 5 nights. On Friday, I ate dinner with my friend Rachel, giggled through most of it because I was so loopy, came back to my room, showered, bought an episode of Law & Order SVU from iTunes, got in my bed with my laptop and was asleep before the opening credits. I slept from a little before 7 until 10 the next morning. Glorious.