Three days into Institute and I feel like I’ve been in
Cleveland, Mississippi for 3 years. It is hotter than hot, humider than humid,
and buggier than buggy. The days are long. We have very little free time, lots
of homework, and SO MANY SESSIONS. But I love it. I’m learning so much, the
people are great, and it’s really inspiring to be a part of a group that a) is
so passionate about educational equity and b) actually accomplishing real,
measurable results. Here’s a little about what my days are like.
I wake up at 4:45, get dressed in “professional dress” (so
many pencil skirts! So little time!). I live in Foundation Hall. Delta State
University is actually really nice, and my dorm is new, big, and air
conditioned. My roommate here is named Alex. She seems a little quiet, but
nice.
The dining hall opens at 5:30. I grab the quickest breakfast
ever and get in line to pick up lunch. On the first day, everyone got a big
green lunch bag. We go through the line and pick out 1 entrée (turkey and swiss
or ham and cheddar?), chips or a veggie, apple or a cookie. Grab an ice pack at
the end to keep my deli meat cool.
The buses leave campus for our schools at 6:00. My school,
Greene/McNair, is an hour and 15 minutes from Delta State, in Belzoni (Bel-zo-na).
We are all split up into CMA (Corps Member Advisor) Groups. Everyone in my CMA
is teaching Entering Kindergarten for summer school. Brittany Woods is my CMA,
and she is amazing. Basically she is our teacher/mentor/counselor for
everything at Institute, she reviews all of our lesson plans and observes us
while we teach to give feedback. Summer school has not started yet, so this
week is all about learning how to be a teacher. We have sessions on everything
from behavior management to lesson planning to diversity. In a diversity
session we talk about things like how, as a middle class white girl, I can
relate to impoverished African Americans. Some parents have a big problem with
this, and want their kids switched out of their class, or if their child is not
liking school they’ll say “What do you know about what my child is going
through, you clearly don’t know what it’s like to have their background.” Even
for the other black teachers here, a lot of parents say, “You’re acting too
white.” So it’s important that we talk about how to address things like this,
and what differences are real or perceived. One thing we focus on as teachers
is that everyone, even two kids from Belzoni, MS, will have different life
experiences, but that as humans we have all felt disappointment, all felt hurt,
all been angry, and with that, we’ve all felt joy or known happiness, so
connecting with students on that level instead of more generally.
We talk a lot a lot a lot about lesson planning. Lesson
plans are the hardest thing I’ve ever done. There is a very specific model we
follow, and a lot of new “teacher vocabulary” to learn, like what your assessment is or your key
points. Every lesson plan has an objective. My first objective, that I will
teach on Tuesday, is SWBAT say when objects are different. SWBAT stands for Students Will Be Able To. At the end of
the lesson you give the assessment which a) allows students to demonstrate
independent mastery of the objective and b) aligns with the End of Summer
Assessment, which determines if they have passed. In between there are a bunch
of other steps. You write out everything.
Everything you say, including anything about behavior, goes in the lesson
plan, which is why it takes so long. After we write it out, our CMA looks it
over and says things like, “Re-write this. A kindergartener won’t know this
word. Re-write this. A kindergartener hasn’t learned this yet. Re-write this.
This is too abstract.” Etc, etc. It’s very stressful and takes forever, which
is why we don’t sleep at all.
Anyway, these are what the sessions are. We are in sessions
from 7am when we arrive until 4:30. Then we get on the bus and travel back to
campus, arriving just before 6, at which time we go to the resource center in
the library and find manipulatives and materials for the lessons we’re planning
and check out books. Then we can have dinner. The work day is about 12 hours
long.
At night we work on whatever is due the next day, mostly
lesson plans.
On Friday we will finally meet our babies! We won’t teach
any lesson on Friday, they have to take the DRA, a reading assessment test,
which we administer, to see at what level they’re reading. The academic goal
for the end of the summer is that they move from instructional (they can’t read
and comprehend without the help of a teacher) to independent in their DRA
reading level. Phew!
When we actually start teaching next week, we only teach 1
lesson a day (about an hour). For the first two weeks I am teaching math, and
the last two I am teaching reading. For the other part of the day we’re being
de-briefed on our lesson, observing other classrooms, writing lesson plans,
etc. I’m excited to finally meet the kids and put everything we’re learning
into action. It’s a little hard to know exactly what they’re talking about
without being able to try things out on the kids for real.
So, that’s pretty much the low down on Institute! You never
knew so much went into teaching one lesson, did you? Me neither. I can’t
imagine what it’s going to be like to plan not one hour of my day but 8. We’ll
cross that bridge when we get to it.
Here is a quote that Brittany, my CMA, recited every morning
with her babies (in the south, every teacher refers to their kids as their “babies”),
and I might bring it, or something like it, into my classroom.
"Our
deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are
powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?"
I
think it was Nelson Mandela who said that.
Also, we have to bring in a picture tomorrow of why we Teach for America for our inspiration board, in case days get tough and we need something to look at. Here is my picture.
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| Conner I teach for this baby! |
I think about Conner and all my babies back at Mary Johnson. If I won't teach them and believe in them and love them, who will??
and lastly, please, please, please watch this video clip. The most inspirational 4th grader I've ever heard.
sorry for such a long post! Love to you all!
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