Day One

I did it! I am a teacher.

My day was, overall, anticlimactic. Nobody threw a chair at me. The classroom time went well, in general. I think I will be able to follow my plans pretty closely. The big problem was logistics.

Lunch was overly complicated. The way lunch works is that I receive a class, take them to the cafeteria, and then eat lunch in the teacher’s lounge for 20 minutes. I then take my class back up to class for a full period of teaching. Of course, that full period of teaching didn’t happen today, because it was a half day, so we brought the kids back up to our room so they could get their things and sent them back to homeroom for dismissal.

At the assigned dismissal time, I took my class to the assigned dismissal location. I did some awesome “You’ll be have if you want to go home” management in the stairwell, which was complimented by a really cool teacher, and took them back to a different location, which was where we were really supposed to be. It then took forty-five minutes to shuttle kids onto their proper buses for the ride home. Since the school is in the temporary location, most kids ride the bus, which would not normally be the case. Much of dismissal time was spent chatting with other teachers, wondering how we could improve this process, whether this was a half day for teachers, and whether we had a faculty meeting after school.

I also learned, halfway through the day, that we need to line the kids up before we push them in the direction of their next class. Oops. I’ll have to try that tomorrow.

The kids were nicer than I feared they would be. No one was aggressive, although each class had a table of chatty girls in the back. I can deal with that later.

The classes were also much smaller than I expected. I know that the rosters are not set in stone yet (and far from it), but I caught a glimpse at an updated roster for my class this morning and was shocked to see 19 names on it! I ended up with 21 in my homeroom and 14 in my other class. At least it’s not 30! The way my schedule works, I see four of my five classes every day, and one of those is for a double period to facilitate labs. The only exceptions are Wednesday, when I only see three classes, and Friday, when I see all five. That leaves me teaching five periods every day except Wednesday (four) and Friday (six).

Of course, the half day did not mean we get shorter periods. It means we got (and will get tomorrow) full periods up until 1 PM, at which point we bring our class downstairs for dismissal. That means that periods 5-7 are forgotten. Today, I only got to meet two of my classes. I get to meet the other three tomorrow. I can’t wait.

The full periods meant that I could follow my initial lesson plan, which involved a quick ice-breaker (with varying degrees of success), and a lesson on entering and exiting the classroom. I made sure that the students knew if they mastered these procedures right away, I wouldn't have to keep going over them. Let's see how that one works.

For the time being, though, I think I have this thing under control. Now it’s time to rest my voice and drink some tea. I might even get running.

Oops...

So, I forgot to check the district website regarding school closings. There was no school. I didn't know that there was no school until I got to school, and no one was there. Oops.

I went back to sleep, and unpacked a little more, and went to Target. I accidentally bought a slow cooker, and I'm cooking eggplant today. I'll let you know how it goes.

I had a meeting regarding my benefits as a teacher (which are quite nice). All in all, an anticlimactic day. Fortunately, I think I ran out of anxiety last night (yeah, right), so tonight shouldn't be too bad. School starts tomorrow!

T-minus One

It's almost here, and I've been exploring. In fact, you might even say I've been running and doing. I'll save the teaching for tomorrow.

I went jogging around my apartment community yesterday, but only found about a mile of sidewalks and parking lot loops. Not great, but it worked to control my Irene cabin fever. Today I found the holy grail of jogging trails. It's about a five minute drive from my apartment, but get this: free parking. None of that $8 parking fee that Nassau County pulls. The trail is partly paved, but mostly packed dirt, which is softer and safer. The trail was a mess today, covered in leaves and branches, so I only jogged a mile. According to a man on a bicycle, the trail is 3.6 miles from trailhead to the first major road crossing, and continues more beyond that.

Sweet. I think I've found my first challenge: build up to 7.2 miles (round trip) before the weather drops below freezing. I think I can do that. It's about 12 weeks until Thanksgiving. I'll make that my goal. I'm planning on starting at 2 miles, 3 times a week. I'll build up one run 1/2 mile at a time, which should get me to 8 miles by then. Or, I could add some rest weeks in there and make it up to 7.2 miles. Either way, doable, but I have to force myself to go jogging despite exhaustion.

I also stopped by school this morning, even though we weren't required to. I used the opportunity to set up a few last-minute things, including putting out a bathroom sign-out log and organizing my desk. I found that I can finally log onto the computer network. Now I just need to figure out how to access the district webmail and the student attendance tracker program.

My apartment is almost unpacked. I've completed the IKEA table-building and I've unpacked boxes. I only have a few bags to unpack, and it's the hard stuff to do. The stuff that was never really unpacked thoroughly in my last apartment, but I don't really want to throw away (e.g. extra ethernet cords, miscellaneous school supplies). I'm pretty sure I have enough clothes to last me a lifetime, and I even filled a large storage bin with clothes that will probably sit in my front hallway until I take it to Goodwill some weeks from now. Fortunately, my nerdy, teacherly fashion sense in high school will come in handy, as I now have a wealth of sensible skirts and dresses.

Now I have to figure out what to wear on the first day of school. I'm nervous. I have no idea what will happen. I've found a pretty comfortable place in planning, in that I've planned every minute of the first 2 weeks, but I'm prepared to take 3 or 4 weeks to do it. That's what I've been told to expect. I'm waiting to plan the following week, so I can see what my classes are like.

On another note, I found this link to a description on the less commonly used English units of measurement. Thank goodness I'm a science teacher. We only use powers of 10.

Paper

Today started out really well. I sat at my desk and worked on planning all morning. The principal came in to my room and complimented me on how ready my classroom was. I learned I was getting a free iPad.

Then the day took a turn for the...stressful.

It was announced that school is canceled on Monday due to the storm. I spent about two hours trying to rearrange my unit plan so I didn't lose any time, before realizing that I need to be more flexible, but by then it was too late--I had already changed some lesson plans. I guess I'll be flexible next time.

Then, our faculty meeting ran two hours. And those two hours were spent discussing things I didn't understand. Things like: getting kids from buses, feeding kids breakfast, sorting out the grade tracking system that I didn't have access to yet, and class schedules. The schedule is pretty complicated and isn't the same every day of the week. I was really getting worried about logistics when a teacher next to me said to not worry about that stuff, just focus on the lesson planning. That helped a lot, but I still have a lot to worry about.

I will have 5 classes, but they're no longer full at 28, they're over 30. 31. 32. I will have about 160 students total.

Then, I couldn't figure out the copy machine. Eventually, I figured out that the feeder was broken and that I had to copy each page on the glass by hand. There were also no staplers, so I have to staple about 500 packets now. It also turns out that we are allotted two reams of paper per month and everything else we need to provide ourselves. I used 2.5 reams for the first two days. It's a lot of first week stuff, but I think I am going to go through a lot of paper. Two reams per month is roughly six pages (front and back) per student per month. There's no way I can limit my packets, homework, and tests to that. I guess I'm going to win some rewards points at Staples.

I got home and had a nice phone chat with the previous science teacher at my school, also TFA. He will be a great resource of knowledge, lesson plans, and school gossip. He gave me some good advice. He told me that the kids are great, but they need to know that you care about them. He told me that the first month will be awful. The first month is for the kids to test the new teacher. They need to know that I won't let them get away with anything and that I won't run out when the going gets tough. I can do that. I think.

T-minus four days now. I have the long weekend to work and unpack. Cautiously optimistic?

Dear Apple,

I offer my condolences on the resignation of your CEO, but most importantly, I would like to say thank you. Thank you for making awesome toys. Thank you for leading the field in innovative technology. Thank you for teaming up with Teach for America to provide all of its teachers with FREE IPADS. I understand that when I receive my FREE IPAD at your Greenwhich, CT in-store event, it is neither brand new nor the latest model. However, it is still FREE and an IPAD and it will belong to me. My only obligation is that I must use it to improve my classroom.
Thank you.

Sincerely,
Ms. RTD

Memory Lane

My new town has a Memory Lane. Also, a Rainbow Road.

Today was a long, long day. I started off by meeting all of the staff at my school at our first faculty meeting. We attempted to watch a simulcast of the superintendent speak, but the principal couldn't figure out the sound until the last thirty seconds. Otherwise, though, the principal is great. I'm excited to work with her. Not only is she really nice to me, she also has a reputation for keeping the kids in her school in line. I'm happy I was placed here.

Due to the TFA/CT certification process, I won't be officially "hired" until my cert goes through, which will be another couple of weeks. For now, I'll be paid as a sub. Once the cert goes through, I'll get back pay and benefits. Money makes the world go 'round. Fortunately, I get really nice discounts at Staples.

Those discounts are important, since the school provides me with very limited copy paper. I get two reams per month, which is 1000 sheets of paper per month. With about 150 kids, I get 6-7 pages per student per month. That includes weekly quizzes, worksheets, labs, and tests. Not gonna happen. Fortunately, Staples has sales on paper pretty often.

I also printed out big posters for the classroom with the rules, consequences, and our class motto (7th grade: "Ask and Investigate", 8th grade: "Be A Scientist"). I also printed out a poster that says "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." I think this is going to be my class theme for the year. I want to teach my kids that they can do well in life if they start working hard now.

That quotation helped me get through the day today. I unpacked about two dozen boxes in my classroom of lab supplies and textbooks. I think that the previous science teacher backed up the classroom with the knowledge that he was not going to be unpacking them himself. I had a mess of glassware, scales, goggles, chemicals, and other lab supplies. It's exciting, but overwhelming. I wish I knew what to do with them. I also have a TON of textbooks. Literally (definition 2) a TON of textbooks. I had to go through all of them and figure out which textbooks are plentiful enough to give each student to take home, and which textbooks are for in-class assignments. I ended up with a Life Science (7th Grade) textbook for each student (I think--60 textbooks for 2 classes of 28) and a Human Body (7th grade) textbook for each student. There aren't enough 8th grade textbooks for all of the students (probably because there are so many 8th graders -- 3 classes worth), but I have one class-worth of about 6 different textbooks, including Physical Science and Electricity.

With hard work and some pulled muscles and a couple of scrapes and stubbed toes, my classroom is unpacked. Tomorrow, I will begin decorating. And the planning continues.

T-minus 4 days until school starts!

Internet

I have internet! And cable! I will never be productive again.

This morning we had the last session of orientation. I am all oriented.

I have been really busy planning. Today I went to my classroom and realized how much work I have there. I need to unpack boxes, decorate boards, and learn how to use a Smartboard. Since the school is in a temporary location, my entire classroom is in boxes. I unpacked a few and then raced home to collect the internet.

Along the way, today, I've encountered a bunch of teacher at the school, all of whom are happy to have me and help me. I'm too overwhelmed to have specific questions, but it's nice that they're there. I feel welcomed.

I've got a handle on things. I have lesson plans for the first three days of class, and an agenda for the first two weeks. My next project is to work on a unit assessment for the first unit and then plan the rest of the unit.

The first week or so is mostly classroom policies and procedures. For example, the first day, which is a half day (~30 minute periods, I think), includes: How to Enter the Classroom, How to Exit the Classroom, and What is a Scientist. You might not think that it's that important to spend time on these things, but a few minutes spent making classroom entry on day one will save a few minutes on getting started every single day of the year. Time adds up. Every veteran teacher will tell you that there is no such thing as too much time spent on classroom procedures.

I have the first day entirely scripted out, but I'm still nervous. What if it doesn't go correctly? What if the kids just don't listen. What if they never stop talking long enough for me to teach them that they have to be quiet? I have 28 kids in a class! It's a crowded room with kids sitting right next to each other. It can get really loud really fast. I need to make sure to control the class consistently from day one. All I have to do is figure out how to control the class on day one.

Welcome to Bridgeport Public Schools

I had a helluva of an introduction to Bridgeport Pubic Schools. If this is any indication, this is going to be an interesting.

I started off the morning by arranging electric, gas, and water service for same-day turn on. Done by 8:30 AM. Move into the apartment at 3:30, and mattress delivery at 4:30.

Then, we had our first day of new teacher orientation. We sat for about three hours listening to an explanation of how great unions are. They then had us sign away $850 of our annual paycheck (pre-tax).

Then the fun began.

Our sessions ended at noon, and my friend and I headed to the school to look at our classrooms. We walked into the school, introduced ourselves, and followed directions to our respective classrooms (she had the library, I had the science room). The classroom has a Smartboard! And computers! It’s small, but with only twenty kids in a class, it should be fine.

As we were walking out of the school, we were called over the loudspeaker to the office. Uh oh. In trouble, and we haven’t even started yet.

We sit in a conference room in the office for a few minutes, and the principal walks in. She tells us she wasn’t expecting us today, and she writes down our full names on a blank piece of paper. Then she explains, it’s not that she wasn’t expecting us today, it’s that she wasn’t expecting us. As in, she didn’t know we worked there. Fantastic.

We ran outside and called the TFA placement lady, who said that my friend was definitely working there…but I might not be. And that I should call Bridgeport Public Schools HR to confirm.

I called HR, but the person I had to speak to wasn’t there, but would be back within a half hour. Ok, relax, don’t cry.

I dropped my friend off and drove in the direction of a place I might be able to get a haircut. When I was about halfway there, with a dying phone and malfunctioning GPS, I got a phone call from the mattress delivery guy called and asked if he could get there at 2:30 instead. Uh, sure. I called the leasing agent and left a message asking if I could come in earlier. At this point, it is about 1:30.

I turn the car around, and then get a call from BPS HR. I do have a job, but it’s somewhere else. And they didn’t get a chance to call TFA. Ok, I called TFA back, and updated them. They told me to go to the school and introduce myself. Alright.

I plugged it into the GPS, and noticed that it’s really close to my almost-apartment. On the way, I leave a message for the mattress delivery guy that I can’t be there yet. I hope he gets the message.

Then I get the school…and they’re doing construction on it. Like, big construction. The parking lot is accessible, so I drive in and ask if the school is open. Nope. Closed for the school year.

I google the hell out of the school, and find NOTHING about a new location. Or the construction. I call TFA again, and they don’t know anything. I then call BPS HR, and get a new address. On the way other side of town. At least I can take the highway there in about ten minutes.

I arrive at a beautiful new-looking building, with no markings of any sort other than the address number. I walk in, and see school things. Oh good.

I find my way to the main office. No one is there, except the principal in her office. She is on the phone. I wait patiently, and realize that she is frantically talking on the phone about trying to hire a science teacher. Who isn’t me. I wait until she is done, while trying not to completely burst out into tears, and walk into her office to introduce myself.

“Hi. I think I’m your new science teacher.”
“Um, what?”

She calls BPS HR, and gets confirmation. Oh good. She talks to me for about ten minutes – she seems pretty awesome – and then takes me on a tour around the school. I enjoyed meeting her and I got to look at the classroom. A lot of supplies are still in boxes, but there are supplies. I have textbooks, lab ideas, plastic beakers and graduated cylinders, flashlights, and miscellaneous office supplies. And, a Smartboard! It’ll help for teaching two classes of 7th graders and 3 classes of 8th graders, each packed full of 28 students. Relieved, I trudge back to the car.

Next, time for an apartment. I sign the lease in my car and then drive over to the complex, just in time to see a Sleepy’s truck enter the gate. Oh crap.

We rush through the paperwork and keys and key cards and mailbox keys, and open the apartment to get the mattress. I lie down on the bare mattress and take a few minutes to relax. It’s a nice mattress and a nice apartment and I have a job and it’s okay.

Then I actually got some planning done before my parents arrived with a carload of stuff, including my incomparable recliner and a bedspread. The rest of my stuff arrives on Saturday, as well as a new bedroom and living room set and an order from Peapod. It will look like home soon enough.

Internet comes tomorrow afternoon!

Home

Ok, one more thing checked off the list: I found an apartment! It's a nice one-bedroom that is about 15 minutes away from my school. Perfect. Next steps: IKEA, Sleepy's, Bed Bath and Beyond, Stop and Shop.

Homework

I completed my first assignment for class at SCSU:

I grew up in Roslyn, New York, a suburb of New York City that is located on the North Shore of Long Island. It wasn’t until I attended college that I realized excelling at school is a valuable skill. I explored my love of science further, receiving a Sc. B and Sc. M in Biology from Brown University in 2009 and 2010. I had initially planned on pursuing a career in biomedical research, but by the time I graduated, I realized that neither the professor nor industry career track was for me. After wracking my brain for days and weeks and months, I realized that I wanted to be a teacher. Not only that, I had been meant to be a teacher my whole life, I just didn’t know it yet.
I joined Teach for America for two main reasons. First, and perhaps selfishly, I wanted to start teaching as soon as possible. I didn’t have the patience to sit in class for a year before beginning to teach myself. I wanted to teach sooner. Second, I wanted the challenge. I wanted the opportunity to teach in the high-need schools, where I was needed most, and could be challenged in a different way every single day.
One of my major reasons for wanting to teach is because I love science. I love the formalized process of inquiry and exploration. I love learning details about the way the world works, why things happen, and finding the answers to unanswered questions. I want to teach middle school science because I want to be the first science teacher that my students have. I want to inspire them to love science as much as I do. I want them to avoid ever learning that they are bad at science or don’t like science.
As far as what I have to offer the teaching profession, above all, I am passionate. I love science. I want to share this enthusiasm with my students. I am creative, constantly coming up with new ways to share information with the people around me (whether they want to hear it or not). I am determined, rarely letting anything go without a fight. Lastly, I love performing. I love speaking in front of a group of people, especially when the topic is the thing I love most, science.
Though I have had less-than-exemplary teachers, I have learned from all of them. I know not to be The Lecturer, the teacher who talks and talks and talks, and leave it to the students to find interest in the material. I won’t be the teacher who doesn’t control the classroom and spends so much time managing the students that they are left to learn the material on their own at home. As a teacher, my goal is to be my sixth grade science teacher. She is responsible for my interest in science. She made everything about it exciting, from learning the scientific method by testing the relative strengths of various brands of paper towel, to connecting examples in current media and fiction to the coursework. I want to be her. I want to have that effect on others.

Victory!

I have won the Teach for America Game!

Finally, I have a placement. It's where I expected, at the school in Bridgeport where I interviewed a few weeks ago. 7th and 8th grade science. Salary starts in the $42,000 range. I will teach two classes for each grade, for a total of four classes a day. I will have about 20 kids in each class.

Now I can stop worrying about placement and start worrying about EVERYTHING ELSE.

First order of business: find an apartment. I'm looking in the Bridgeport area, including Black Rock, Fairfield, and Milford. I'm hoping for a commute under 20 minutes to work. I also hope I can get moved into an apartment before school starts. There will be a lot of unpacking to do in a hurry. And that's only if I can find a place that is available before September 1. The hunt begins this weekend.

We also have our first day of classes at Southern Connecticut State University (it is a real place, I went there last week) on Saturday. We will be beginning work to get our CT teacher's certification. My assignment for the first day of class is to write a page about myself and why I want to be a teacher. Cut-and-paste, cut-and-paste, cut-and-paste.

Other things on the to-do list:
1. Complete my Vision and Big Goals for 7th Grade Science.
2. Complete my Vision and Big Goals for 8th Grade Science.
3. Create/borrow Unit Plan for 7th Grade Science.
4. Create/borrow Unit Plan for 8th Grade Science.
5. Write first week lesson plans (LPs) for 7th Grade Science.
6. Write first week LPs for 8th Grade Science.
7. Make/find posters for classroom.
8. Develop diagnostic assessments for 7th and 8th.

Sigh. Overwhelming, but I'll take it one step at a time. At least now I have a concrete to-do list. And there's nothing I love more than to-do lists.

...And Then There Were Two

More news as the placement process continues:

School 1: Bridgeport, expecting news Monday.
School 2: Another CM got the job. It's a good fit for him.
School 3: Another CM got the job, as expected.
School 4: Phone interview didn't happen, school never called. Not too upset.
School 5(!): Interview for a 7/8 Gen Sci position in New Haven on Monday. As far as I know, I'm the only CM interviewing. Who knows?

There are only two science CMs left still unplaced, another girl and me. The other girl is hoping for high school biology in Hartford. The number of positions available appears to have exceeded the number of unplaced CMs, which is good (for us, I guess, but not for them).

This week has the potential to be really stressful-busy or really stressful-boring. It is possible that I won't be placed, and I'll spend the week in a Connecticut hotel room waiting around or planning for a job I might get. On the other hand, I might get placed tomorrow and spend the week hunting for an apartment.

I've stocked up on clean workout clothes, for dealing with both the stress and downtime. I'm slowly getting my run back, at much shorter distances and slightly faster speeds. I'm still lifting weights, although not as enthusiastically as I was during Institute. It's hard to get motivated to work out when I'm not squeezing it in between other obligations. I have too much time to sit around and procrastinate going to the gym. It's also hard maintaining a lifting routine when I'm spending time in many different gyms with different equipment and weights.

Working out, interviewing; it continues.

Hopefulness

One more interview down, one more scheduled.

Today’s interview went really well, until the point at which the interviewer casually mentioned that he can probably get back to me as soon as tonight, because they pretty much made their final decision already. Great.

I did get the opportunity to observe a little bit of life in Hartford, though. I entered the building with a woman who had just moved to Hartford with her children. She was registering her children at this school.

The way Hartford Public Schools works is with something called School Choice. This means that HPS students enter an elementary (K-8) or high (9-12) school that is chosen for them by a lottery, based on their top choices in the school network. The better-run schools are more difficult to get into. A student may choose to attend their neighborhood school at any time.

The woman I saw in the office was being told that even though her children had been chosen to attend this school, HPS would not provide transportation because it was not her neighborhood school. She had to decide right then to provide transportation for her children every day, or choose a different school. Of course, it would be impossible for her to take her kids to school every day, so she asked what her neighborhood school would be. This led to a chaotic discussion among high school staff about which school was in her neighborhood, whether that school was still open, whether it was closed for renovations, and ultimately that it had been re-opened as a magnet school and was no longer considered a "neighborhood school" that accepted any neighborhood resident. At that time I was called in for my interview. What a different world this inner-city Connecticut is.

In happier news, I have a phone interview for a different HPS 7-8th grade science position tomorrow evening. Updates to follow.

So, I now have 4 open possibilities:
School 1: Bridgeport, interviewed last week, will hear something when principal returns from vacation on Monday. Very hopeful.
School 2: Super fancy magnet school in Hartford, intense interview Tuesday, just found out that one girl has already been contacted for a "callback" interview. Less hopeful.
School 3: Plain school in Hartford, interview today, previously made a decision, will contact me tonight/tomorrow. Not hopeful.
School 4: Other plain school in Hartford, phone interview tomorrow. Hopeful.

Upon my return from the interview, I dove into a long-term planning session. My assignment was to guess what class I would be teaching (I chose 7th grade science in Bridgeport) and make a year-long unit plan for that class. This has probably been my favorite session so far this summer. I had to sift through the Bridgeport 7th grade science curriculum and count the school days on the calendar to create a schedule of units. The only thing I love more than science is scheduling.

90 Days

Yesterday’s interview was challenging. I think that the interviewers were under a lot of pressure to condense what is usually likely a multi-week interview process into a few days, as a result of a last minute vacancy. The interviewers threw challenging questions at me in rapid-fire, many questioning my intentions as a TFA CM and why I would want to be a teacher. I held my ground, didn’t flinch, and only panicked once I was already in my car again.

However, it was an awesome school. It is a Hartford magnet school with an emphasis on social justice. How cool is that? Each student is required to embark on a year-long project on an aspect of social justice. Students are required to engage in after-school activities. Most importantly, students are split into four houses that compete in academics and sports. Yes, like Hogwarts.

If that doesn’t work out, I’ll be disappointed, but I’m still waiting on the Bridgeport interview, and I have another Hartford one tomorrow. I’ll just sit and patiently wait for the job offers to roll in.

This morning, we had a(nother) discussion on racial biases, but the discussion went remarkably well. We were in small groups that were allowed to freely discuss, which is vastly different that what we’ve seen in the last six weeks. It was interesting and even useful.

What followed was a discussion on communicating with families, that was very, very similar to conversations we’ve had before.

In the afternoon, we had a wonderfully depressing session on all the things that can go wrong. First of all, principals have the option to release a new teacher within the first ninety days without going through the union or any other lengthy process. Usually, there is some warning and opportunity to improve, but only usually. In addition, a first-year teacher is under a one-year contract, which can be “non-renewed”. If either of these things happen, TFA will drop you. You will be done, with no opportunity for recourse.

We were told that only a few people have this problem, but it’s still alarming. I don’t think it will be an issue for me, but it’s something to worry about.

Now we get to create a management plan. It’s exciting, but it would be nice to have some idea of where I’m working, because many schools already have standardized management plans that we have to follow. It's still fun, though, trying to figure out how I'll communicate to my students the importance of working hard and behaving in class.

Inquiry-based Science Education

First, good news!

The science jobs are opening up right and left. I have a phone interview at a fancy magnet school in Hartford and an in-person interview at another nice school in Hartford on Thursday morning. I’ve officially taken my phone off silent for the week.

Today, for the first time in six weeks, I was allowed to direct my own learning. I was given a packet on inquiry-based science, and given 10 minutes to read it, keeping in mind our goal of designing a classroom vision. I thanked the instructor for letting us work independently, and he said with a smirk, “You are adults.”

While I love the ideas raised by the packet we read, I would prefer to call it “inquiry-based science education”. Inquiry-based science is redundant. Science is inquiry-based. Science, by definition, is a standardized form of inquiry. The scientific method is everything. It tells us how to inquire, in a standard way such that our results are then trustworthy (ideally).

Inquiry is evaluating, exploring, questioning, doing, processing, analyzing, and investigating.

This is important for our vision and goal because it is the way science works in the real world. It holds kids accountable for their learning. It promotes learning, making knowledge more “sticky”. It teaches skills like critical thinking. It provides opportunity to learn from mistakes. It allows students to become scientists.

We need to teach kids that there isn’t necessarily one right answer. There may be two answers. There may be none. My mentor at Brown always emphasized that experiments that don’t work give us more interesting opportunities, because we can learn something we didn’t initially plan on learning.

To quote a TFA ’09 CM, “I’m not gonna teach you stuff, I’m gonna teach you how to figure out stuff.”

Unfortunately, though, there are also standardized tests. We also have to teach them how to successfully regurgitate material in addition to teaching them how to inquire. And we have to do all of this in one school year.

So, we have to prioritize what’s most important for our kids to learn and know. We need to “spiral” in scientific inquiry, incorporating higher level skills into each unit until we end the school year with a classroom full of scientists.

The big challenge will be teaching them how to think.

Real-time Reflection

So begins Round Zero. We've done the "Basic Training", took a week off, and are now beginning orientation to Connecticut TFA. Now that Institute is over, we can be social human beings again, with priorities other than sleep, lesson planning, and coffee (though I avoid coffee).

We meet again at the Sheraton conference room in Meriden, CT. Some of these people I saw every day at Institute, some of them I didn't see once. Some people I may have seen a couple of times but probably didn't recognize. After a breakfast of some sort of delicious eggy quesadilla-shaped breakfast burrito, our first charge is to reflect. Independently. Without a template!

What do I teach for? Why do I do this?

I do this because there are people out there who do not look at the world analytically, who do not ask questions. There are people who do not look for evidence, who accept ideas blindly, and who do this because they were never taught to "Be a Scientist."

I do this because students are not comfortable asking their teachers questions, and grow up into adults who are not comfortable asking their doctors questions.

I do this because when the media announce that new data show that cell phones cause cancer, people panic before thinking to look at the data, and at research methods. (I prefer the XKCD explanation about this particular phenomenon.)

I do this because even though I was not a particular good teacher at Institute, because I'm new at this, because I don't have the experience and the instinct, I still had a student follow me into a bodega around the corner from the school one day just to tell me thank you for being the nicest teacher he ever had.

I do this because they deserve better teachers, and I am not that better teacher yet. But I will be.

Gap

The results are in, and it shows that the education gap is alive and well in Connecticut. The article is worth reading.

It makes me angry, and it makes me want to do something about it. I think I'll be a teacher. Maybe in Bridgeport.

Interview #3

I had the interview this morning, and it went okay. The principal that interviewed me was tired and not very interested. I'm not sure if that is a result of me, or of the school. I spoke to the last science teacher there (2009 CM), and she had nice things to say about the school, so I wouldn't hate to work there. It's in Bridgeport, and definitely in need of help. As the state takeover begins, there is debate over whether to close this school. The principal is confident it will stay open, though. It would be fun to teach 7th- and 8th-grade science!

Of course, I probably won't hear back from them before right-before-school, but TFA will hopefully send me on more interviews in the next few weeks. My fingers are crossed.


This describes (in a video game fashion) how I feel now.

And something to think about:
This heartbreaking photo proves that racism isn't born, it's made.