Think There’s Nothing We Can Do About Name-Calling? Think Again.

This post was originally published on Pass the Chalk.

It’s no secret that bullying (be it at school, on the playground, or online) is a huge barrier to kids’ wellness and achievement. The data is grim, particularly for LGBT students of color or from low-income backgrounds.

The problem is clear, but the solution is murky. One big step in the right direction, however, is talking about it—more than once, and in a way that’s accessible and engaging to students. I know, I know, small task, right?

As a teacher, I’ve observed too many examples of bullying without having the tools needed to discuss and unpack this behavior with students. As my kiddos’ teacher, nothing hurts more than to be at a loss when one student causes hurt to another.

The GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network) and its national partners are helping remedy this with No Name-Calling Week, running Jan. 20-24.

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Why Co-Teaching Is Twice the Work

This post was originally published on TeacherPop.

For the start of Year Two, I found out I’d be co-teaching. After preening for a few minutes at my good fortune, I thought of all the time I’d be saving by having another person to shoulder the work. After all, I thought, having a second person by me every moment of teaching would cut my work in half.

AHAHAHAHA.

False.

If anything, having a co-teacher has made me work much harder than I did most days during Year One, and definitely not because my co-teacher is lazy. If anything, it’s because she is so much the opposite of that.

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The Final Stretch: Preparing for the Last Semester with TFA

This post was originally published on TeacherPop.

Pro/con analyses have gotten me through some tricky situations. They’ve helped me move forward with things that scared me—joining TFA, applying to the Peace Corps, being in a long-distance relationship, etc.—and have pushed me to be brave.

The process gets much more complicated, though, when children are involved. As I near the end of my two-year commitment (side note: when did having 25% of a commitment left mean that I was near the end?), I am filled with too many thoughts, in and out of my own head, to make sense of it all.

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The Power of Yes: Making Your Classroom A Happy Place

This post was originally published on TeacherPop.

In the urgency and stress of trying to run a college-bound classroom, I’ve often found myself acting as a small “no” factory. No bathroom breaks. No red ink. No choosing your own partners for group work. It’s like that scene at the beginning of Mean Girls, Lindsay Lohan’s character is barraged by negative answers.

Of course, I had a reason behind each one. We don’t have time to waste, I need to be able to grade work, and I know which “work partners” will get off task.

But the power of yes, when wisely used, has infinite potential.

 

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How I’m Spending My Summer Vacation

How I’m Spending My Summer Vacation

This post was originally published on Pass the Chalk.

Letter welcoming 2013 TFA CMs
Photo via Teach For America—Twin Cities Facebook page

“Every bulletin board, every binder, every sign you make, should be thought of with student success in mind.”

As I attended my first staff-training weekend for Teach For America institute in Tulsa, one of my supervisors emphasized the intense focus on student achievement, and I was reminded of just how much responsibility I had gotten myself into for the summer. If I chose the wrong bulletin-board color, student learning could slide! (OK, maybe not—but there was still a lot of pressure!)

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Institute 2.0: A 2012 gets an Institute re-do

Institute 2.0: A 2012 gets an Institute re-do

This post was originally published on TeacherPop.

Pollock Painting
Is your institute experience like a Pollock painting? (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When I finished institute last summer, I knew I’d be working at institute the first opportunity I got. That electric environment was calling my name, even as I swore I was so over it.

There’s something in the air around institute. Maybe it’s the fear excitement of the new CMs, or the supreme knowledge of the veteran faculty advisors and seasoned Institute staff. Or the feeling of community that can be fostered in the copy center at 11:48 p.m. (You know, the early crowd.)

That said, the biggest downfall I found in Institute was the sheer amount of things that were thrown at me. If I could remember half of what I was told, I’d be the world’s greatest teacher.

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Where Are the Veteran Charter School Teachers?

This post was originally published on Pass the Chalk.

Growing up, suppertime was my student teaching. I learned what an IEP* was as an 8-year-old, delved into differentiated instruction** as a middle-schooler, and by high school, knew what a manifestation meeting*** was.

This jargon, and endless knowledge, came from my mom. She’s a career teacher. Years before I even knew what Teach For America was, she provided me with (often unsolicited) guidance about education.

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Are You Failing Your Queer Students?

This post was originally published on TeacherPop.

Take a mental picture of all your students. Say you have 25 students per class and five classes: that’s 125 students. Let’s say, conservatively, that you have 10 students who fall under the LGBT title, and maybe another 10 are perceived to be LGBT by their peers. These students are more likely to have a lower GPA and less likely to aspire to college than their heterosexual peers.

In short, we are failing our queer students. Multiple, recent studies show that they’re less likely to aspire to go to college and they miss school due to victimisation. This is even higher for students who live in rural areas, are of color or are transgender. In total, eight out of ten queer students face harassment.

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Lessons From a Laid-off Corps Member

This post was originally published on TeacherPop.

In the craziness of first-year teaching, losing my job wasn’t something I had much time to think about. Quitting my job, yes. But losing the job that I spent early mornings and late nights at? That thought hadn’t crossed my mind. Not while I led yearbook club, or when I helped a student re-design the school website. Not as I was shuffled to three different classrooms or taught classes when the school was completely out of paper.

I guess I was too busy putting out the small fires.

Either way, I did lose my job, about two weeks ago. My school faced a budget shortfall and laid off two teachers, myself included. The reason I was chosen came down to the fact that I taught the only elective content classes. They couldn’t get rid of any other position without getting in trouble with the state.

Before reading further: Don’t freak out. I’m one of three people I’ve ever heard of being laid-off midyear, and all of us have figured it out (and grown from it, I’d say). If you find yourself in this position (or if the thought of getting laid-off keeps you up at night), here are five takeaways I’ve gleaned from the experience:

1.) Stay hopeful

I’ve truly been blown away by how supportive the educational community is, inside and out of TFA. A day after I found out I was laid-off, my region’s staff was already hard at work finding me another placement. Everyone I’ve reached out to as I’ve observed other schools has tried their best to help me. This includes strangers with no prior experience with me. The team teacher of a corps member sat down and spent her prep to give me advice, a 1991 TFA alum took time from his job at Minneapolis Public Schools headquarters to help with the job search, and I’m convinced that the TFA regional staff told anyone willing to listen how fancy I am.  It’s humbling, and makes me excited for my next educational opportunity.

2.) Think Bigger

It’s easy to take a layoff personally, but remember our educational system has very, very big issues that extend beyond the classroom

I’m not the only teacher to be let go at my school or in my region this year. While getting excellent teachers into the classroom is the quickest way to help students, we need job stability and fair-paying jobs for teachers if we expect them to make a career of it.

3.) Reflection Is Action

While I’m very frustrated to not be in the classroom, I’ve taken this as time to take stock of where I am as a teacher and where I still need to go. It’s given me time to apply for Institute, for scholarships and to observe other corps members in my region.

This isn’t the “fervent note-taking as soft jazz plays” kind of reflecting you may have done to death at Institute. It’s more real-life: In the half-dozen observations I’ve done in the past week, I’ve been able to put into practice many of the skills I’ve been trying hard to master over the last semester. It’s shown me that even if I don’t have “my students” at the moment, I can still make a difference in students’ lives.

4.) Reignite Your Passions Outside the Classroom

Another task I’ve taken to in my newly-found free time is travelling about! I just got back from Atlanta, attending the massive LGBT conference, Creating Change. I was able to meet up with Atlanta and Chicago CMs, as well as talk to a few prospective TFA applicants and talk about LGBT inequality at TFA with some national staff. Win! A week from now I head to MBLGTACC, a queer college conference, acting as advisor for my graduate school. No doubt I’ll run into more folks there who have Teach For America on their minds! It’s a nice reminder that it’s important to make time for your interests when you get back to the classroom.

5.) Remember, You’re Making a Difference

In the average span of five minutes, my students made me feel: shame, joy, rage and a desire to quit. Students broke my supplies, they stole from me, they told me how awful I was. After I came out to my kids, many of my male students refused to shake my hand as I greeted them. Some called me “faggot” under their breath.

But the second they got wind I was being let go, my most-challenging students were the first to give me hugs, behave and ask me not to leave. Since I’ve left, three students – three very, very challenging students- have e-mailed me, telling me how much I’m missed.

Long-story short: You’re making a difference, wherever you are. Leaving at semester showed me this in a super-fast way.

[Postscript: Eight days after losing his job, Blair was hired as an ELL push-in teacher and reading support teacher for a 6th grade class.]

Charter School Funding Poses Complications

Charter School Funding Poses Complications

This post was originally published on Pass the Chalk.

An empty classroom with desks.
Photo by Ildar Sagdejev via WikiCommons

 

When I was laid off from my charter school in the twin cities for financial reasons, my family first blamed, of all people, the president of the United States.

“I thought Obama was supposed to support schools?” my cousin, a Romney supporter, asked me in an angry tone when my news broke.

The past semester has been ridiculously enlightening to the complex and sometimes-unpredictable state of charter school finances. It has been among the most poignant lessons I’ve learned in my Teach For America experience.

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