1. They don't have the small school system very developed at all. We'll see how that works out.
2. I meet with the kids 84 minutes every day all year long. Hopefully this will make teaching novels easier!
3. The book room is limited. The school has been in existence for only two years so they haven't accumulated very much. Please give money!
4. They highly value professional development. We don't get out early for it weekly like at my last school but it will be much more structured and hopefully useful!
5. I should keep my mouth shut about district lessons/assessments. Some people at this school love 'em and some people hate 'em. Very different than my last school's passionate hatred.
6. I think I only have one class that another teacher teaches as well. Unfortunately they are very big on teacher independence, potentially to a fault.
7. IB is what humanitas was at my last school. Yay!
8. I should at max have 120 students! That's practically downright normal. (granted I'll have them in three classes.)
Monday, August 31, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Job Received.
And it's at a great school! Highlights that made me know this could be a great fit:
1. The school is a neighborhood school. They take the people from the area into the school and that's it.
2. When they formed they took democracy to the construction process. The community picked the name, the school colors, the mascot, the colors of the building, AND the students picked out the uniform.
3. They have the same small school model that my last school had. I'll be in the Science and Tech one.
4. They have a 1200 person theater. :)
5. Each teacher has an opportunity to apply for a $5000 grant for a project they want to do in their classroom.
6. This is a school that worked hard to keep their laid off teachers.
7. I can take public transportation to work. :)
1. The school is a neighborhood school. They take the people from the area into the school and that's it.
2. When they formed they took democracy to the construction process. The community picked the name, the school colors, the mascot, the colors of the building, AND the students picked out the uniform.
3. They have the same small school model that my last school had. I'll be in the Science and Tech one.
4. They have a 1200 person theater. :)
5. Each teacher has an opportunity to apply for a $5000 grant for a project they want to do in their classroom.
6. This is a school that worked hard to keep their laid off teachers.
7. I can take public transportation to work. :)
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Favorite Interview Questions
I went to a really good interview the other day that reminded me of some of my favorite interview questions. They are favorites because they show the school knows a little something about what they believe in. (You'd be surprised at how many schools do "boxed" questions they pulled from the internet)
1. What did you learn last year as a teacher and what will you do differently? (this includes when they ask you about a specific unit that failed)
2. What specific types of strategies will you use to teach writing?
3. Our school is really pushing _____, how do you see yourself contributing to that effort?
4. We notice on your letters of rec that someone says you do _____. Tell us when and in what ways.
I'll let you know Monday how things went.
1. What did you learn last year as a teacher and what will you do differently? (this includes when they ask you about a specific unit that failed)
2. What specific types of strategies will you use to teach writing?
3. Our school is really pushing _____, how do you see yourself contributing to that effort?
4. We notice on your letters of rec that someone says you do _____. Tell us when and in what ways.
I'll let you know Monday how things went.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Top Ten Reasons to visit Lindsay in Nicaragua
1. Public Transportation is cheap. For a couple of dollars you can ride a bus across the nation.
2. The Pitahaya fruit is amazingly delicious in fruit and ice cream form.
3. Nothing like showering with cold water in a bucket to make you appreciate the joys of running hot water.
4. Your Spanish will improve. Even if you currently don't speak any Spanish.
5. Did you play Amazon Trail as a kid? How much cooler is to actually be in a rainforest.
6. They grow Coffee, Sugar and Cacao. Now I don't like Coffee but those other two make up for it.
7. The way they grow corn will blow your mind.
8. There aren't many countries you can go to that had a major revolution just 30 years ago and are currently very safe to visit.
9.When you try to come up with questions for Lindsay, you can ask the ones relevant to her life rather than "um tell me anything at all?"
10. Lindsay's pretty great to hang out with.
2. The Pitahaya fruit is amazingly delicious in fruit and ice cream form.
3. Nothing like showering with cold water in a bucket to make you appreciate the joys of running hot water.
4. Your Spanish will improve. Even if you currently don't speak any Spanish.
5. Did you play Amazon Trail as a kid? How much cooler is to actually be in a rainforest.
6. They grow Coffee, Sugar and Cacao. Now I don't like Coffee but those other two make up for it.
7. The way they grow corn will blow your mind.
8. There aren't many countries you can go to that had a major revolution just 30 years ago and are currently very safe to visit.
9.When you try to come up with questions for Lindsay, you can ask the ones relevant to her life rather than "um tell me anything at all?"
10. Lindsay's pretty great to hang out with.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
TV shows I wish I could be a part of
There are some tv shows I love to watch and others I really with I could live in. Here is a list of ones I wish I was a part of.
1. Sports Night (by far the one I wish to live in most)
2. The West Wing
3. Pushing Daisies
hmmm... I think that may be it. (Clearly dialogue is a major part of my desire... funny since I don't talk very quickly myself.)
1. Sports Night (by far the one I wish to live in most)
2. The West Wing
3. Pushing Daisies
hmmm... I think that may be it. (Clearly dialogue is a major part of my desire... funny since I don't talk very quickly myself.)
Friday, July 24, 2009
Taking on TFA
One of the causes I had no idea I would get so passionate about is teacher preparation. I do believe that if you want to draw the best and the brightest, the education it takes to become a teacher should reflect a challenging curriculum. Nobody thinks oh I could probably walk into surgery and do just fine but there are many people who hold teaching as something they could just do. I do acknowledge that there are many classrooms that people could walk into and just teach and be just fine, but doing just fine isn't really working for the state of education. If instead we required the level of education it took to be in the medical field or even to be certified to practice law, we could raise the level of discourse and achievement in education.
In order to move towards this I want to do some research about Teach for America, an organization whose hearts I believe are in the right place but whose practice seems out of line with my beliefs. Before I begin my research I thought I'd make a list of flaws/improvements I would make to the Teach for America program based just on my experience and the experience of my friends.
1. Teaching is temporary: I know there is a large amount of TFA grads who continue to stay in the profession, but I also have heard in recruiting material "Hey come be a teacher for a while!" Teaching is a profession and while I'm all for methods to recruit people who would normally go into higher paying jobs, I want to recruit them to chose this as an employment path not view it as something they can just pick up for a while. Plus, acknowledging that even people in the teaching profession cannot handle staying in low performing schools, our lowest performing schools need the stability of good leadership rather than a revolving door of teachers.
2. Smartest minds in their field into the worst performing schools: Our worst performing schools need our best education professionals. In my first year of teaching I rarely tapped the knowledge I picked up from 19th century British fiction BUT I constantly thought about the discussions we had in our education courses and the numerous articles I've read about democratic classrooms, ELL language acquisition etc. In fact I was much more likely to draw from my subject matter courses that were geared towards english ed majors (writing theory, history of language, descriptive grammar) than I was to draw on regular English classes. Put the brightest minds in the field in that field and bring them in as mentors for students who want to go into that field or guest speakers on those subjects.
3.Your teacher education comes with your real experience. Yes I learned infinite amounts of knowledge by being in the classroom. My first year of teaching I had so much to reflect on. Coming from a failing, high-need school I feel I can speak about this- these schools often do not have a solid support for teachers. Sometimes they're working on it, but regularly part of the failing high need part is that they lack the educational support for their teachers. When I go into a classroom I have a lot scaffolded (to use and education term) about educational practices etc. so even if I don't get the support standing right next to me, I've got my professors' voices ringing in my ear. I can't imagine trying to learn the research and be in front of a classroom. It sets people up for failure, burn-out etc. People who could be REALLY good at teaching may not be able to handle this sort of information overload. I would much rather opt for TFA being a nationwide teaching college than the sink or swim in the ocean that it's currently set up as.
4. What's wrong with being a classroom aide? or a co-teacher? Here is my dream for TFA- it's an nationwide accrediation process that teaches you the educational research while lining you up for one year of being a teacher's aide (and getting some GOOD teachers to be aides to... come on they should be able to do that.) and maybe then one year of being a co-teacher or student teacher before you ever walk into your own classroom. I hated having to observe a classroom once a week so my partners and I would very quickly take over the classroom for our one hour twice a week or whatever it was WHICH IS FINE because not only by then did I have some educational research, a professor to help walk us through our practices, and a cohort of people going through the same thing BUT there was also an experienced teacher there to help along the way, watch what we were doing and discuss it afterwards. My best observation times came at my very first observation where we taught one class period, watched our teacher for a class period and were able to discuss with a regular class teacher and a special education teacher what we should be doing to alter our practice. I still obsessively write things on the board because of that experience.
I'm going to start with that, see where the research takes me, and I'll get back to you.
In order to move towards this I want to do some research about Teach for America, an organization whose hearts I believe are in the right place but whose practice seems out of line with my beliefs. Before I begin my research I thought I'd make a list of flaws/improvements I would make to the Teach for America program based just on my experience and the experience of my friends.
1. Teaching is temporary: I know there is a large amount of TFA grads who continue to stay in the profession, but I also have heard in recruiting material "Hey come be a teacher for a while!" Teaching is a profession and while I'm all for methods to recruit people who would normally go into higher paying jobs, I want to recruit them to chose this as an employment path not view it as something they can just pick up for a while. Plus, acknowledging that even people in the teaching profession cannot handle staying in low performing schools, our lowest performing schools need the stability of good leadership rather than a revolving door of teachers.
2. Smartest minds in their field into the worst performing schools: Our worst performing schools need our best education professionals. In my first year of teaching I rarely tapped the knowledge I picked up from 19th century British fiction BUT I constantly thought about the discussions we had in our education courses and the numerous articles I've read about democratic classrooms, ELL language acquisition etc. In fact I was much more likely to draw from my subject matter courses that were geared towards english ed majors (writing theory, history of language, descriptive grammar) than I was to draw on regular English classes. Put the brightest minds in the field in that field and bring them in as mentors for students who want to go into that field or guest speakers on those subjects.
3.Your teacher education comes with your real experience. Yes I learned infinite amounts of knowledge by being in the classroom. My first year of teaching I had so much to reflect on. Coming from a failing, high-need school I feel I can speak about this- these schools often do not have a solid support for teachers. Sometimes they're working on it, but regularly part of the failing high need part is that they lack the educational support for their teachers. When I go into a classroom I have a lot scaffolded (to use and education term) about educational practices etc. so even if I don't get the support standing right next to me, I've got my professors' voices ringing in my ear. I can't imagine trying to learn the research and be in front of a classroom. It sets people up for failure, burn-out etc. People who could be REALLY good at teaching may not be able to handle this sort of information overload. I would much rather opt for TFA being a nationwide teaching college than the sink or swim in the ocean that it's currently set up as.
4. What's wrong with being a classroom aide? or a co-teacher? Here is my dream for TFA- it's an nationwide accrediation process that teaches you the educational research while lining you up for one year of being a teacher's aide (and getting some GOOD teachers to be aides to... come on they should be able to do that.) and maybe then one year of being a co-teacher or student teacher before you ever walk into your own classroom. I hated having to observe a classroom once a week so my partners and I would very quickly take over the classroom for our one hour twice a week or whatever it was WHICH IS FINE because not only by then did I have some educational research, a professor to help walk us through our practices, and a cohort of people going through the same thing BUT there was also an experienced teacher there to help along the way, watch what we were doing and discuss it afterwards. My best observation times came at my very first observation where we taught one class period, watched our teacher for a class period and were able to discuss with a regular class teacher and a special education teacher what we should be doing to alter our practice. I still obsessively write things on the board because of that experience.
I'm going to start with that, see where the research takes me, and I'll get back to you.
Friday, July 3, 2009
On this day
A list of events that happened on this, the day before the day we celebrate our independence:
1. Jim Morrison died.
2. Idaho became a state (Happy Birthday!)
3. George M Cohen (who wrote "You're a Grand Ole Flag" and "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy") was born.
4. Quebec was founded (Bon Anniversaire!)
5. AND the Battle of Gettysburg ended today, considered by many a turning point in the war.
Happy 3rd of July
1. Jim Morrison died.
2. Idaho became a state (Happy Birthday!)
3. George M Cohen (who wrote "You're a Grand Ole Flag" and "I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy") was born.
4. Quebec was founded (Bon Anniversaire!)
5. AND the Battle of Gettysburg ended today, considered by many a turning point in the war.
Happy 3rd of July
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