My First and Second Days as a Teacher

The students came rolling in about 45 minutes late on Monday to begin our summer school teaching experience here in Philadelphia. Logistically, the system is set up pretty poorly, where kids were still registering on the first day as they arrived at the school. But, we managed fairly well and the first day went off without too many problems...

I teach with 3 other corps members, Colleen, Hayley and Emily, who come from Pittsburgh, LA and Boston respectively. We are responsible for a classroom of 7th graders. On the first day we only had 5 students. My responsibilities for the first day were limited to explaining our Big Goals for the Summer and how we will track behavior in the classroom. I did this during our Math-Literacy Hour where all four of us are in the classroom. After that, we are each individually responsible for a different hour block lesson; reading, writing and two blocks of math. This week I am teaching the first block of math, and on the first day I gave the diagnostic to determine where the students are.

Unfortunately, but to the surprise of few, they are really far behind. None of the 5 students scored above 10% on the pre-test math diagnostic, which dealt mostly with fractions: reducing, representing them visually and on a number line, improper fractions, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. These are all skills which we (my students more affluent competition for getting into college) mastered in either the 4th or 5th grade. This might be disheartening to some for good reason, but it also leaves a huge opportunity for us to make significant gains with our students in the next 4 weeks. After seeing what they could do during a lesson on the second day, we know their potential is definitely not limited.

On the second day of teaching (today) I taught a math lesson on visually representing fractions as parts of a group or as equal parts of a whole. To most, this seems like a minor concept, but for my students, it seemed like it was the first time they were learning this material. By the end of my lesson, which involved counting "smarties" and folding paper, all of my students achieved 100% mastery on our objective; an objective they failed to master just a day earlier on the diagnostic test.

On a more personal note, I can understand when teachers say that after being in the classroom, the students become your children. Elvin, Marie, Ciera, Quan, Michael, Christian, Mary and Anthony (we had 8 students after the 2nd day) are all incredibly intelligent students that each bring a different element to our classroom environment. Marie is an ESL student (English as a second language) whose first language is French. I can't imagine trying to understand a math diagnostic yet alone perform well if it was written in French. Elvin is the smallest kid in the group, yet one of the smartest, asking more questions and raising his hand more than anyone else in the class. Anthony is the "cool guy" of the group. Always slouching back in his chair and trying to dose off, yet willing to learn when he is motivated in the right way with the right tools to do so. I could go on about each kid.

To give you an idea about what our kids deal with on a daily basis, I'll provide you with just a snapshot of what a day is like at Feltonville Middle School. Our kids arrive at 7:30 when classes begin at 8 to eat breakfast: 100% of the students enrolled at Feltonville last year qualified for the free breakfast/lunch program. At the end of the day around noon, we walk them back to the cafeteria so they can eat lunch before they head home. Anthony might at first seem like a kid that doesn't want to pay attention, but at a closer look, he is obviously portraying signs of a lack of sleep and nutrition. Elvin has worn the same shirt the past two days and I wouldn't be surprised if I see it again on Thursday. And none of the kids came "prepared" on the first day of class with even a pencil. When we provided them with brand new notebooks, folders and pencils, you could see them trying to hide the happiness across their faces.

The neighborhood the school is located in is even worse. First of all, its surrounded by a cemetery - every window looks out to it, except for one side of the building, which faces an abandoned warehouse and parking lot where I've seen children play in the past couple days. The drive from Temple to the school in the morning was eye opening at first as well. The neighborhoods we drive through could very correctly be described as slums, with bars on windows and some even covering entire porches. Barbed wire is becoming a common theme on almost every fence you see, and graffiti marks almost every building and abandoned car or home.

But for some reason the drive through these neighborhoods in the morning is a peaceful one. It's not full of tension or nervousness, and while it might not be a place I'd find myself walking alone in at night, it's definitely becoming a place we can begin to understand. When I get stressed out about lesson planning or preparing for the next day, I think about what my students are dealing with on a daily basis, and sitting in front of my laptop in an air conditioned room begins to qualify as a luxury. Maybe this is an over optimistic and positive post due to the fact that I've had a really good experience the first couple days of teaching. I'm sure to have days that are a complete 180 in the days and weeks to come, but I'm beginning to understand why teachers say those days are worth it when I have just one day that really makes a positive impact on my rationale for why I'm doing this. I'll leave you with two responses from Anthony and Christian in our surveys on the first day, when they responded to the prompt: "One thing a person might not know about me from just looking at me is..."

Anthony: "I'm a really smart and thoughtful person"
Christian: "I have anger management problems"

Oh yeah, and whoever said these kids don't want to learn, I would beg to differ. Today, Colleen, one of my collaborative group members who is teaching reading this week checked her voicemail on the way home from school. She got a message from Elvin, the timid 12 year old, at 1:30pm, asking her for help on one of the questions she assigned for homework. It went something like this: "Ms. F... um... hi this is Elvin... I don't really get part of the homework you gave us today and I remembered that we could call you... so... um... could you call me back and try to help me?"