Urban Needs In Teacher Education
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http://urbanneeds.org/Workshops.html
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Please excuse me if my words lack fluidity, it’s a difficult time.
Originally, I sat and thought of the most controversial approach for this blog and decided that controversy is not always the best way to express one’s most deepest and most personal thoughts.
Many times people express feelings that their situation is new and never experienced by any one except themselves. “Welcome to my Pity Party, please listen to me complain about the most recent unfortunate event that will control my thoughts and existence for as long as I can!”
Well in actuality, what ever you are experiencing someone has done it before and sometimes they survived! As a good friend of mine tweeted (verb meaning to send an Twitter update) “Niggaz get shot everyday, B! You ain’t special!” While this may be the truth, when you are experiencing your experience, it sure as hell doesn’t feel this way.
Death is something that we will all experience, (Except for Chuck Norris as my students would say.) whether it is the death of a family member or the death of your goldfish Fred that you forgot to feed for three whole days or eventually your own life; death is a commonality that we all share.
Seeing the fear and mental defeat in the eyes of adolescents breaks the heart of a teacher or any adult. In 2011, students are dealing with things that a 13-15 year old should not have to deal with. Whether it’s the situation surrounding social network bullying, expectations from the government (“We MUST compete with the Japanese and Chinese to be the smartest and highest educators in the world.” -President Obama), pressure to “babysit”/raise younger siblings, and the push and pull system of ganglife, these students are in a world that once was much softer to it’s teenagers. Observing these challenges head on and looking into the watery eyes of a child and tell him/her that everything will be ok, when they have to return to war-torn neighborhood hours after hearing the news that a good friend has lost his life because of ignorance of another radical, revengeful gang member, when you do not know whether it will be or not is a struggle.
Five days prior, I spoke with this student about his progress in school, his family & friends; and now I write and think about the things he will miss. Falling in love, falling out of love, seeing the Bears win another Super Bowl (we may never see that!), etc all because of decisions that were made.
Grief is a part of life. Lost is a part of life. When did it become a norm for children, 15 year old children to leave this earth in a manner that is saved for the worst of the worst adults. To leave the party before the keg gets there, isn’t fair especially when you decided to roll with the “wrong” person/the “party pooper”.
As a former student, he has plenty of friends still in my classroom. To stand next to your friend and see his life end right before your eyes that you’ll never forget. That will shape his future and for that I am terrified and concerned. I want to see my students grow up and I want to see them better themselves but I can only do so much.
Who else is supposed to help these students?
R.I.P Bart
After years of receiving negative attention for it’s “crooked” politics, being one of the most segregated cities in America and Mayor Daley has been in the office the same year Phil Jackson joined the Chicago Bulls, Chicago has elected its next Mayor in Rahm Emmanuel. Many in Chicago are excited others are hesitant to jump on the “Rahm Train” because they fear he will not fix the fundamental issues that plague our city (including high crime rates especially southside’s 20th Ward, where Grammy Winning Che “Rhymefest” Smith was defeated in an alderman runoff election by the incumbent ex-police officer Willie Cochran and the failing in Chicago Public Schools).
As a teacher, I am interested in how Rahm will attempt to improve the United States third largest public school district. CPS will have had it’s fourth Chief Executive Officer since 2007 (Secretary of Education; Arne Duncan, Ron Huberman & Interim Terry Mazany), all of which do not have much classroom experience, if any. I am curious as who Rahm will select as the next CEO of Chicago Public Schools. For the last few weeks, I’ve been following Catalyst Chicago coverage of the possible choices for CEO. Catalyst Chicago has presented some of the following as possible candidates for CEO(Karen Lewis/President of CTU, Genita Robinson/CPS Lawyer, William Ayers/Retired Professor from UC, and Joyce Kenner/Principal of Whitney Young HS).
Review the attached document highlighting the changes and initiatives Mr. Emanuel plans to implement for Chicago Public Schools.
What are your thoughts?
When tough times occur many times people decide to depart for greener pastures and for the last few months I’ve discussed, considered and planned a departure from the school that gave me my first teaching job. (actually second but it hurts too much to discuss the previous situation. SMH) From the endless days of last minute schedule changes that alter my lesson fluidity or the last minute push for completed Response to Intervention paperwork that I had no real understanding of, I would walk out of the school in the afternoons and dread returning 14 hours later.
These thoughts subsided when I convened with my fellow colleagues and talked about our school, our collegiate experiences, personal stories and our futures. As I am the youngest person on my school staff by at least 5-6 years, many of the stories they reflected on were foreign to me because of my youth. One teacher had played professional baseball before becoming a teacher and has taught at 3 other schools before coming to our school. Another teacher had been an administrator before returning to the classroom; she had also taught every grade except 2nd and 4th. Another teacher discussed her challenges of teaching “special ed” when it’s more of “behavior ed” than special services. Absorbing all this insight and information, I realized that my impatience was causing me to “tweak” and consider leaving the place that has molded my early career.
“Patience is a virtue.” Well if that is truthful than I am the furthest thing from a virtous this side of the Mississippi River. I was impatient in the sense that I want a school that was nearly perfect; SUPERB principal, unlimited copies, collaboration amongst teams, high parental involvement, etc. Of course and when you are looking for something you can look past the great things you have and want the “BETTER”. After the reflecting with my fellow educators, I realized that what makes a school an attractive station is the students that you work with and the people you get to work around.
The relationships that I have built with my students, to where their parents request that they stay with me while in Washington D.C. or the my ex-students that come to visit me every chance they get or the teacher that asked me to stand up in his wedding is what makes the school a fixture in my school, social and spiritual life. Being a teacher is a lot more than paperwork, IEPs and lesson plans; it’s about waking up daily and being excited (at least remotely excited) to battle with your students to push them to become better or to sit in the teacher’s lounge and console a friend that had a bad review or just experienced a divorce.
As many student teachers will begin their job search soon, BE openminded to the schools and neighborhoods that you search in because an open-mind can lead to a happy heart. Find what is perfect for you, test scores and other people’s opinions should only influence your decision so much…find your own internal desire and you’ll find the perfect school.
UNITE hosted the First Annual Grant Writing Workshop on March 17th, 2011 and had student teachers from Illinois State University and many current teachers from City Year Corps in North Lawndale in. UNITE offered a unique experience for young teachers to learn how to effectively find, apply, write grants. Katie Hallberg, a history teacher from Collins Academy facilitated the workshop and helped to design a unique experience for the participants to apply for UNITE $500 classroom grant. Follow CityYear Chicago’s Blog and check out their thoughts and explanation of the Grant Writing Workshop.
Over the last ten years, City Year Chicago has responded to the increasing need serve Chicago Public Schools and children living on Chicago's south and west side communities.
http://cityyearchicago.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/monday-montage-remix-appreciation-special/
Written by: Urbanteecher; fellow CPS teacher & UNITE staff
During my four year social-intellectual adventure (many people commonly refer to this as college), I had the joy of reading James Lowen’s famous book, Lies My Teachers Told Me. This book compares high school history textbooks to actual historical primary documents, calling many of the textbooks inadequate accounts of history and lies of omission. (I am riding in a car right now with no internet access or else I would find a really juice quote from some Harvard dude who wrote a review of Lowens’ book, but I think “inadequate accounts of history and lies of omission” gives you the idea.)
When thinking of this book, I remember how passionate my college professor was when teaching it and trying to instill in me the desire to teach my future students “true history.” But now what comes to mind is how many “inadequate accounts” and “lies of omission” that my college professors told me about being an urban teacher.
This will be a three blog series, each featuring a different aspect of urban teaching that I was not taught while in college…
Part I: Traveling the “Extra Mile”
“You need to go the extra mile for your students. It will make all the difference.” What a clique quote… but yet a quote heard by every single pre-service teacher in his or her “education” classes. What the hell does go the extra mile for a student actually mean? This is such a high school history textbook account of teaching. Lowen would encourage my college professors to provide their class of young open-minded pre-service teachers with primary sources, concrete examples, interviews with urban students who need the extra mile, graphs, and data about the “extra mile” instead of simply regurgitating this common clique. I remember sitting in my classroom in Schroder Hall nodding my head and getting that nervous, excited, inspired feeling as I concurred with my professor that I need to “go the extra mile” for my future students. Yet every single future teacher sitting in that classroom- getting that same feeling and nodding his or her head- had no clue what going the extra mile actually meant…
The other night I found myself waiting in line at the FedEx Express on the northwest side of Chicago. I was standing in line waiting to over-night a college scholarship application for one of my high school students. I had never over-nighted anything before, so I was kind of excited to say to the nice FedEx lady, “ Yes, this is urgent. I need to over-night this package.” You know, sound like someone who is really important in the corporate world, like I was over-nighting some new found evidence for a trial that was going to determine whether or not a man would be sentenced for 15-20 or get to go home to his family. My excitement didn’t last long when I realized I had to pay $24.07 to over-night this package. $24.07 that I knew I was never going to get back. Did my student realize what I just did for her!!? I just waited in line for nearly a half an hour, missed the first 12 minutes of the Bachelor (go Emily!), and dropped $24 to over-night her college scholarship application. Would she appreciate me going the extra mile for her?
WAIT! Did I just go the extra mile for my student? Was this what my college professor was talking about when she told me I had to go the extra mile for my students? I didn’t feel all inspired and warm inside… the next day at school I didn’t even get a “Thank you Mr. Urbanteecher! You are the best!” Wasn’t going the extra mile suppose to earn my students’ respect and admiration? Increase their desire to learn and behave in my classroom? If only my college professor had given me a more accurate account of what going the extra mile was…
The other day a fellow urban teacher was visiting my residence. She needed to use my printer to make nametags for her students for their activity the next day at school. The activity challenged the students to identify planets in the solar system based on clues. Then the students got to make their planet using a Styrofoam ball, paint, toothpicks, etc. SWEET! (I should’ve I taught second grade). This second grade teacher wanted to really hype up the activity and get the students excited, so she was going to make each of them “NASA Engineer” color nametags, customized with their own names! (I wanted one!) Back to the story… so she came over to use my colored printer… long story short, we could not figure out the label template and went through about 6 label sheets and half a color cartridge of ink (and 47 minutes) before we figured out the correct size and measurements to print nametags for the NASA Engineers. Then we had to print one for all of her students (and me!).
Extra mile or no? Can second graders really appreciate all that went in to making them each a customized colored nametag? Did this earn the students’ respect and admiration? Or is this just an example of solid engaging teaching?
When does effective teaching turn into going the extra mile? Is there even such a thing as going the extra mile? Can going the extra mile only be done outside of the classroom walls? Maybe that is what being a UNITE teacher is all about. Maybe the only way to be an effective urban teacher is to keep striving for that extra mile. This mile is not 5,280 ft or 1600m. This mile is not just staying late at school to turn your room into a African Safari, spending one’s own money on materials, or taking a student home who lives on the other side of town after a extra long drama rehearsal.
This extra mile never ends. Being an urban teacher means traveling that mile every single day (yes, even weekends) in order to equip your students with the knowledge and skills necessary, so that they can walk a much shorter path- across the stage at their college graduation.
Extra mile (x-tra-my-L) v. To do everything in your power to ensure success for your students.
I’d like to clear something that this is not a chronological recall of events, these are recounts of simultaneous feelings and experience that occurred in 6-8 weeks.
Day in and day out there was a struggle that I faced that caused me to enter a state of reflection. Whether I had 5 minutes to myself as I walked through CVS Pharmacy to grab my daily gummi bear fix or my 12 minutes before Carlos came in to my classroom at 7:38am to ask me questions that are so cute because 4 year olds say the darndest things; the small amount of time I had to myself and my boring thoughts, I spend mentally toggling through every decision, every question, every word I spoke through out a day. My internal boredom lead me to laziness that reflected in my instruction. Sentences choppy, objectives unclear.
While this persisted for days, maybe a week or two…students began more disengaged and more disruptive in class. Instead of becoming more interactive they started to shut down, I ignored the obvious call for change and internalized my emotions and began the denial phase.
I denied that differentiation was possible for 110 students. I denied my attention to details. I denied my work. I denied my focus. I denied my understanding of reality.
Days in my classroom, there were things that took place that I was oblivious to because my mind was elsewhere. My focus was not 100% in the art of teaching. My acrylic strokes of genius had been replaced with washable finger paint spots but I denied it. I was in denial, that a young, passionate, urban educator of my caliber could be to blame for my students sub par performance or my student’s lack of educational excitement.
I blamed the students. They aren’t doing the work, blah, blah, blah. I deflected the attention away from my imperfections and drew attention to something that may be a direct connection to my lack of motivation which is transmitted to them through osmosis. I defined the problem with the high quantity of below average grades, with the students lack of accountability or lack of effort (which is TRUE!! don’t get me wrong!) but what could have I done to make sure he or she does not fall between the cracks and become another part of the 43%?
Or am I being to hard on myself and my realistic expectations of myself as an educator or that my functioning illiterate student will be reading John Grisham books with ease on the airplane trip to D.C. for eighth grade field trip?
Obviously, there are the students that refuse to do anything in class, participate, etc. & I do not expect to save them all but is it wrong to want to? Is it wrong to try? Is it wrong not to try? Teachers are humans too, do we get a break from being someone to look up to? Can we be forgiven for our lazy actions? Am I thinking too much about something that has been a STRUGGLE since the beginning of time. No perfect teacher exist nor perfect class.
I cannot deny my mistakes and deflect those issues unto someone else entirely. My students mess up & so do I. If I was perfect, I’d be Eva Mendes smile or Adele’s singing voice but I am not & neither are my students.
Ultimately, you rely on yourself to stay motivated. Surround yourself with like-minded individuals that will hold you up when you fall and help you to avoid the superficial path that will not assist with your positive development. Find what you love and love it. I DENIED & DEFLECTED; now I must ACCEPT & REFLECT to get there and bring them with me.
Two months absent cannot be explained in a few words, sentences, paragraphs or even a single entry. Just as I discovered through Project 43 this weekend that dropping out is not a event, it’s a process. Not after one single failed test or bad day will a student opt out of their formal education and enter a contract agreement with uncertainity but a series of F-ed up situations. As Tupac Shakur was “murdered” years ago, many speculated that he would “rise” from dead after a 7 years. Obviously, this theory lacks realism but for a delusional teacher at 3:00am, this theory connects so deeply to one’s mentality. To reclaim my sanity, focus and drive; the preceding seven days will feature part teacher revelation, part personal revelation and part conclusion. Each day featuring a new story, a new message, a new word, and a new man behind the MacBook keyboard (Apple Plug; pay me Steve Job; PAY ME!!!)
Therefore, THIS IS PART 1 of 7…
Daily we experience difficulty. Daily we are challenged by traffic, students, friends and family. Most of our daily struggles, we have developed ways to deal with those from previous experience. For example, I have never been an exceptionally well at dealing with traffic. I yell at neighboring cars as if I am playing video games; but after 7 years being on the frustrating roads and expressways of the Chicagoland area, I listen to V103 (oldies) station, which reminds me of my childhood road trips with my parents. While other struggles are brand new and you are floored by the newness of this situation, the overwhelming high quantity of new situations can paralyze someone’s mental stability.
Year 2 of eighth grade education is standardized. Reflecting on your first year, I was “running down hill, just before you about to fall.” My mistakes were legitimized by saying, “it’s my first year” followed by *Kanye shrug*. Year 2 changes everything. Your expectations increase for yourself and the pressure of improving.
Sitting in front of my MacBook Pro (PAY ME, STEVE!!!), I switch from isbe.net to curriculum mapper to basal reader to facebook to isbe.net to twitter to pages (Apple document creator); simply to write a week of lesson plans. The lesson plan is complete. It is printed. It is stored into folder. It is taught. It is observed. Where am I? I am standing in front of a StarBoard attempting to engage my students with thinks that I copied from a website & teacher manual. WTF! I walked through my class giving my students advice about how to write their Extended Responses or how to respond to the science analysis questions, yet uninterested in the topic. Feelings of uncertanity in life choices embodied my soul. Daily, getting out of bed was a challenge because the day ahead of me was not a pleasant thought. The lessons bored me; my own thoughts were boring me; my creativity went the same day I attended a 4 hour performance management or process management session that motivated me to using the standards to drive my instruction. I struggled because I lost the drive to create, the drive to motivate, I was working for the weekend. I struggled with identifying anything of substance.
Where have I gone? Where are my interesting concepts and ideas that I once embodied in my mind, heart and shared those with my students; regardless of how ineffective my lesson may have been, they were challenged.
Weeks would go by without a truly enlightening thought. My thoughts became concrete and slender instead of the abstract and curvaceous. Waking up in an emotional rut and a series of confusing dreams followed by a conversations that frustrate, followed by a day filled with students doing/showing things that 13 year olds should not do. I struggled to mentally and emotionally handle the new expectations that I placed on myself, the new situations that are new to my mental psyche.
Instead of talking about them, I bottled. They exploded. I lost wallet. I broke car. I broke phone. Everything came down. I regret that. I made changes. It snowed. Packers WON! I changed. I will implement. I expect fluidity. I pray.
Where will you meet your struggles? How will you embrace them? Will you rationally analyze them?
Today marks the beginning of the 2nd annual Project 43. Project 43 is an event that brings college students & student teachers together in Chicago to tackle the issue behind the dropout rate, as well as other urban education issues.
This year the participants will be creating a video blog as they experience the different workshops. Follow the video blog this weekend, leading up till highly anticipated Green Bay Packers versus pittsburgh steelers Super Bowl.
We are so excited for the arrival of all UNITE Members from Illinois
State University, Indiana University, Michigan State University, and
Northeastern University! Project 43 starts in less than twenty-four
hours! Get ready for an intense weekend of community building,
workshops, and empowering yourself to become a better educator!
Thank you to all who have donated to the weekend and sponsored
individuals as they go on this 43 hour journey. A great thanks to all
who are persevering through the blizzard to make it this weekend!
To follow participants along the weekend, please visit our video blog
at http://urbanneeds.blogspot.com
By Urbanadvoate
Dear Teacher in training,
I’ve been thinking lately…more of listening I guess. Have you put your ear to ground lately? There is a rumbling about – low, dark, and ominous but a rumbling that will soon grow to a roar. I’ve been trying to listen and while the messages come from all directions, in different tongues, I think I am beginning to see the writing on the wall.
Greg Michie, author and good friend of UNITE writes:
Meanwhile, Celine Coggins from Teach Plus writes:
Think back with me when you decided to start your training to become a teacher. Was it because of a teacher of your own who influenced you or because of your love for learning and children? Why did you choose this profession? Now envision yourself in the classroom, with your students. What does it look like? Smell like? Where are your desks? Rows, pods? Chalk or dry erase board? Lastly, think about when you go home or on your prep period? What are you doing? Grading papers maybe? Planning for tomorrow? Going over progress monitoring data to tweak your instruction?
I will tell you what you are not seeing. You are not seeing yourself creating budgets. You don’t see yourself writing lawmakers or reporters to influence education policy. In fact, you probably don’t see yourself reviewing education policy at all until your principal is telling you what new (or not-so-new but renamed) reform is taking place.
That is the writing on the wall. The reasons you became a teacher, the things you envision yourself doing, is not what you should be doing according to non-educators. The writing on the wall is telling you to go and get a double major in business. Take a look at those leading our nation’s largest school districts and what do they have in common – an MBA. Next time you run into a principal or department head, ask them what bogs them down the most. It isn’t classroom observations of the teachers they supervise, it is the purchasing acquisitions, funding cuts and budget assessments they tediously go through.
Here is my last comparison. Remember when you wrote your first lesson plan? It took how long… 3 maybe 4 hours? How about the first time you filled out the FAFSA or prepared your own taxes? It takes forever. But, each time, you get faster and more effective. You are a learner after all…
The writing on the wall is telling us to go and get some business background. We can fight the movement to run our schools like businesses but we can not create change until we understand business. We tell the business world that they do not understand education and they same the for us. This banter is not getting us anywhere. Listen to Greg Michie’s words and become a reformer. Read Celine Coggins’ words and prepare yourself to enter a seniority driven occupation. You can only beat them by putting your ear to the ground and preparing yourself. Go get that MBA, take that course in accounting or quantitative methods. I promise you, you’ll need it.
Sincerely yours,
A fellow listener
