Week in Review
It seems like I haven't written in ages, but I suppose it's really only been a few days. This has definitely been one of the busiest (not to be confused with most stressful) weeks of my life. After the first day with the kids on Tuesday, our evenings and days began to fill up quickly. We now have 21 students on our roster and love (practically) all of them. This week was unfortunately filled with assessments, diagnostics, and catching people up who were absent. A big part of Teach For America is data-driven instruction. This means that kids get tested a whole lot, but they are also taught exactly what they need to learn and therefore usually learn a lot more.
Of course, I already have a few favorites. Moses and Gilberto are the brightest, most attentive, while Christine, Destiny, and Jeffrey have great smiles and so want to learn how to read. Many of them are on a kindergarten or first grade reading level, which means we have a lot of work to do with them this summer. We have set a BIG Goal for our class and the kids all know that they will have to "strive for excellence" to reach that goal. They love doing our class chant and silly little attention getters like "Hip Hop Reading Rocks!"
On Wednesday, I actually began teaching a lesson and found it was a little harder than I thought to stay on track with time. Every day I had to cut some things from my lesson plan and, by the end of the week, I realized that I needed to add a lot more modeling. These kids really need you to show them exactly how to do something, and probably need you to do that about three or four times, before you ask them to do it as a group or on their own.
My evenings were also very, very busy this week. On Wednesday night all 800+ of us gathered to watch a documentary called "The Color of Fear". Despite my extreme exhaustion at the 9 o'clock hour, I found it a truly moving experience. We were asked to pair up with someone we didn't know before the film began and then discuss our reactions with this person after. I had sat with a tall, handsome Black man who, when we were asked to share our ethnicity with one another, told me he was Black/African-American, Native American, English, and Romanian. When we began our discussion after the film, tears were streaming down his face and he was obviously angry. I sat and listen and took in all he said. As I watched the film, I had began to understand something very important - that I am privileged, that no matter how wrong it is or how much I don't want it to be so, I am a perpetrator of a racist society. This man shared with me how he has to think about racism all the time - not just in diversity training sessions or contrived conversations, but every day he must recognize that he lives in a society that does not recognize the injustice that it creates. The white privilege, as I understand it now, is being able to see yourself as an individual and not recognizing a race that puts you in a group. It's thinking that everyone should think like you and just treat everyone else like another "human being." It's so much more than I ever thought about before.
I cried with Paul and told him how I would never be able to understand what it feels like to be a person of color. He just nodded his head and said thank you, "thank you for not saying 'I understand' I'm just so tired of hearing that." I left the session physically and emotionally drained, but perhaps a little more aware of who I am and how I fit into this complex world.
On Thursday evening, I rushed to the computer lab to finish my lesson plans and turn them in before 7:30, I ran to dinner, and then trekked across campus to my required learning team meeting on ESL and Bilingual education. I then attended a professional development workshop given by the Institute director on effective classroom management techniques. At this point it was 10:15 pm and I had been up since 5 am! Still, I'm having a good time and even managing to take pretty good care of myself.
I love seeing the kids every morning and getting their hugs and smiles. I love seeing their face light up when they finally understand what a context clue is and how to use it. And more than anything else, I love being challenged by my peers and advisors as I learn to be a teacher and, hopefully, a fantastic educator.
Of course, I already have a few favorites. Moses and Gilberto are the brightest, most attentive, while Christine, Destiny, and Jeffrey have great smiles and so want to learn how to read. Many of them are on a kindergarten or first grade reading level, which means we have a lot of work to do with them this summer. We have set a BIG Goal for our class and the kids all know that they will have to "strive for excellence" to reach that goal. They love doing our class chant and silly little attention getters like "Hip Hop Reading Rocks!"
On Wednesday, I actually began teaching a lesson and found it was a little harder than I thought to stay on track with time. Every day I had to cut some things from my lesson plan and, by the end of the week, I realized that I needed to add a lot more modeling. These kids really need you to show them exactly how to do something, and probably need you to do that about three or four times, before you ask them to do it as a group or on their own.
My evenings were also very, very busy this week. On Wednesday night all 800+ of us gathered to watch a documentary called "The Color of Fear". Despite my extreme exhaustion at the 9 o'clock hour, I found it a truly moving experience. We were asked to pair up with someone we didn't know before the film began and then discuss our reactions with this person after. I had sat with a tall, handsome Black man who, when we were asked to share our ethnicity with one another, told me he was Black/African-American, Native American, English, and Romanian. When we began our discussion after the film, tears were streaming down his face and he was obviously angry. I sat and listen and took in all he said. As I watched the film, I had began to understand something very important - that I am privileged, that no matter how wrong it is or how much I don't want it to be so, I am a perpetrator of a racist society. This man shared with me how he has to think about racism all the time - not just in diversity training sessions or contrived conversations, but every day he must recognize that he lives in a society that does not recognize the injustice that it creates. The white privilege, as I understand it now, is being able to see yourself as an individual and not recognizing a race that puts you in a group. It's thinking that everyone should think like you and just treat everyone else like another "human being." It's so much more than I ever thought about before.
I cried with Paul and told him how I would never be able to understand what it feels like to be a person of color. He just nodded his head and said thank you, "thank you for not saying 'I understand' I'm just so tired of hearing that." I left the session physically and emotionally drained, but perhaps a little more aware of who I am and how I fit into this complex world.
On Thursday evening, I rushed to the computer lab to finish my lesson plans and turn them in before 7:30, I ran to dinner, and then trekked across campus to my required learning team meeting on ESL and Bilingual education. I then attended a professional development workshop given by the Institute director on effective classroom management techniques. At this point it was 10:15 pm and I had been up since 5 am! Still, I'm having a good time and even managing to take pretty good care of myself.
I love seeing the kids every morning and getting their hugs and smiles. I love seeing their face light up when they finally understand what a context clue is and how to use it. And more than anything else, I love being challenged by my peers and advisors as I learn to be a teacher and, hopefully, a fantastic educator.
posted by Sarah at
6:10 PM
1 Comments:
Well, now that we're friends on Facebook and in the city, let me know if you want to meet up some time and hang out!
Traci K.
yellowcupcake@gmail.com
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Anonymous, at 4:09 PM
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