I know it's been a while since I last posted, so this blog post will be a little different from my others in that it will just be a quick summary of the last month. I wish I could have spent more time capturing the many funny and insightful moments that occurred over the course of the last month, but summer training at Teach For America and the transition to my fall placement took up so much of my time that I had to put updates on the back burner for the time being. Anyhow, here is a summary of Institute, my fall placement and what I've been doing as I transition into full time teaching in NYC.
Most of July I spent teaching 8th grade English Language Arts at M.S. 331 in the Bronx. My first month of teaching was challenging, exciting and an incredibly unique learning experience. Throughout the summer, I poured hours into lesson planning, discussing management with co-teachers, attending training sessions and brushing up on my ELA skills. And although there were some very trying times, including being sworn at, having to break up a fight, dealing with several extreme behavior problems and having some tough conversation with parents, I really enjoyed coming to school each day. Throughout the summer I witnessed my students really holding high expectations for themselves. Their reading and writing skills improved tremendously and they grew an average of 45 percentage points on the ELA portion of the NY state regents exam. They also made me laugh every week whether it was as they told me about their very serious 2-month-relationships or as they taught me how to "dougie" or as they learned symbolism by singing John Lennon's "Imagine" very expressively. And although the school administration has the final say, I believe that all of them will have reached their summer goal of graduating 8th grade and going to high school.
During the last week of institute, I interviewed and was placed at Voice Charter School in Long Island City, Queens. This Fall I will be teaching Special Education on the intervention team at Voice. The school is a new school that opened in 2008 as K-1. Each year since then, they have added a year with the ultimate goal of reaching K-8. The school is now going into its 4th year and has grown to 250 students, 50+ staff and two buildings. I have just finished my first week of professional development at Voice and have two more to go before the students arrive. So far everyone I've met from the principal to the assistants to the other teachers, has been really awesome. I've been able to get a sense of the school culture and I really like what I see so far. Over the course of the next few weeks I'll try to discuss the culture at Voice in more detail.
Later days,
Allen
Most of July I spent teaching 8th grade English Language Arts at M.S. 331 in the Bronx. My first month of teaching was challenging, exciting and an incredibly unique learning experience. Throughout the summer, I poured hours into lesson planning, discussing management with co-teachers, attending training sessions and brushing up on my ELA skills. And although there were some very trying times, including being sworn at, having to break up a fight, dealing with several extreme behavior problems and having some tough conversation with parents, I really enjoyed coming to school each day. Throughout the summer I witnessed my students really holding high expectations for themselves. Their reading and writing skills improved tremendously and they grew an average of 45 percentage points on the ELA portion of the NY state regents exam. They also made me laugh every week whether it was as they told me about their very serious 2-month-relationships or as they taught me how to "dougie" or as they learned symbolism by singing John Lennon's "Imagine" very expressively. And although the school administration has the final say, I believe that all of them will have reached their summer goal of graduating 8th grade and going to high school.
During the last week of institute, I interviewed and was placed at Voice Charter School in Long Island City, Queens. This Fall I will be teaching Special Education on the intervention team at Voice. The school is a new school that opened in 2008 as K-1. Each year since then, they have added a year with the ultimate goal of reaching K-8. The school is now going into its 4th year and has grown to 250 students, 50+ staff and two buildings. I have just finished my first week of professional development at Voice and have two more to go before the students arrive. So far everyone I've met from the principal to the assistants to the other teachers, has been really awesome. I've been able to get a sense of the school culture and I really like what I see so far. Over the course of the next few weeks I'll try to discuss the culture at Voice in more detail.
Later days,
Allen
