Some Pictures from Summer School

I'm back home in Grosse Pointe right now. Left Philly around 2pm today. It's good to be home. I had a nice home cooked meal with my parents... the house still feels empty though with Jenny in Ireland. I am only home for just over a week though, as I will be driving out to DC for good on August 6th. Here are some precious pictures from summer school at Feltonville School of Arts and Sciences in Philadelphia:

Here is our 7th grade class. Our Faculty Advisor Lisa is in the back along with the other teachers on my collaborative team, Colleen, Hayley and Emily. Some of the students don't look to thrill. And I'm sure you can pick out the "rascals" from their facial expressions...

Helping two students during our Math-Literacy Hour first thing in the morning. We had a chance to differentiate and give students extra one on one attention to fine tune the skills they needed help in, both in reading and math.

Our classroom from the back right corner. We were in the first floor science lab, so we had lots of space, which was nice.

This is my CMA group on our last day at Feltonville. Don't ask about the hand gestures... Also, aside from all the useful teaching knowledge I gained in this group, I was fortunate enough to be exposed to many "girl conversations". So lucky I am.

Three students and I after the promotion ceremony on their last day of school. What characters.

That's good enough for now. I might post some more pictures on facebook, who knows. Might be going out tonight in GP, unless I sink into my living room couch again and pass out, which is a very good possibility.

Learning to Laugh with My Students

I apologize for not posting on a regular basis, but there really wasn't anything "blog-worthy" to post, so I didn't. But today was a different story. It will probably be one of the memories of teaching summer school in Philly that I'll never forget.

So I started off my reading lesson today per usual - trying to get the students engaged by talking about something that would interest them. The lesson objective was to be able to compare and contrast main ideas between two passages, so I chose to read two contrasting movie reviews of the summer blockbuster Transformers. I started by asking the students what movies they have seen recently.

Everything was going like it usually does, but I happened to notice that two of my students, Michael and Anthony were unusually giggly for this hour in the morning. I asked them if everything was alright a few times, and they would start to pay attention. No more than 10 seconds after continuing my lesson each time, they would start giggling again. Our room is a science laboratory with a big desk in the front, so to engage the students I usually step around front of it and walk around to keep their attention on me.

Well, Michael and Anthony continued to have these impromptu laugh sessions throughout the first ten minutes of my lesson and I could NOT figure out what was so funny. I looked to my FA (the faculty advisor who monitors our class) and my CMA (corps member advisor) for some direction, but just got blank stares. So I continued.

Finally, Anthony BURST out laughing and I had heard enough at this point, so I turned to him and firmly asked what is so funny and informed him that I would not continue the lesson until we all calmed down.... Anthony: "Mr. McGraw... you got a tail!"

I look around and stuck to my "behind" is a strip of paper that I was planning on taping to the board during my lesson. Must have attached itself to me at some point. Pretty funny. My face got red, I walked around the room proclaiming that they sufficiently embarrassed Mr. McGraw and went on to have a pretty good laugh about it with them. It's all about being able to laugh with your students (when it's appropriate) apparently, I just need to be informed about what the joke is.

The Highs and Lows of My Second Week in the Classroom

Well, I can definitely say that the second week did not run as "smoothly" as the first. There weren't any major issues, but as the students got more comfortable with us as teachers, they began to test our limits and see if we really would hold up our end of the bargain on classroom management.

On Tuesday, I was teaching a pretty easy lesson on comparing fractions with the same denominator by using greater than, less than or equal to signs. I had predicted that the students would have at least seen this before, so I had planned a couple games to keep them engaged and not lose focus. The first game involved them lining up in two lines that faced the front of the classroom, where I had a piece of chart paper with two fractions on it. They would compete against each other to see who could say which fraction was bigger or smaller first. Sounds like a pretty easy game, right? Well what I didn't mention was that even in 7th grade, students need expectations of them clearly defined, or else things can go terribly wrong...

So, after bringing the students to the front of the class, we started the game just around the same time as a staff worker from TFA came in to take pictures. That's one thing about TFA summer institute - there are always people walking in and out of your classroom to observe, and it's really hard to keep the students focused. So, just about the time when this guy is ready to start snapping away for the next perfect photo for TFA's website, the kids decide to go loco. Ciera slaps Michael for some comment made as my back is turned to the class. Anthony proceeds to push Quan and laughter and screams fill the classroom. At this point, the game was lost, and I needed to regain control of the class.

In my most "teacherly" voice, I demanded that the students stop what they were doing and return to their seats (which amazingly they did with very little protest). Side comments were made as they were taking their seats, and I was furious. I asked them what behavior expectations we had for students that were going to be 8th graders; if they thought it was acceptable to hit and push each other, after we explicitly have a classroom rule that says keep your hands to yourself. The students could tell I was disappointed, which was the point. They ended up spending the last 20 minutes of class writing about the lesson I had prepared, everything they knew about it using key terms I had put on the board. I felt terrible and it really ended the day on a bad note, but hey, I guess some days are like that.

I was worried that the next day was going to be a struggle, expecting my students to be upset with me for disciplining them. However, my lesson went off without a hitch for the most part, and this was with 6 people observing in the back of the classroom at one point! I have an corps member advisor (CMA) that regularly pops in, along with my curriculum specialist (CS). They were both there. On top of that, my school director (acting principal) walked in with 3 unfamiliar guests. He informed me later in the day that one of them was a senior vice president from the TFA national office, second in command after Wendy Kopp, CEO and Founder. I didn't know what to think! But Mike (my school director) said I did great and they were really impressed with the rapport I had with my students and good management I had for the classroom overall (if only they had seen that very same class a day earlier... yikes).

It could be worse. Earlier in the week, one of the other classrooms had to call in security because the teachers suspected a group of their students were high. As a result, the security guard came in and searched each student to no avail, but the teachers are positive that this group of 6th graders had done a little pre-school extra curricular drug use before coming into class. Unbelievable. I guess on the same day, a student in an 8th grade class was kicked out of summer school for having drug paraphernalia on him. Oh, and you know the security guard I mentioned? He has a station or desk that is right at the front door of the school when you walk in. At his desk, he has a huge monitor that is split up into different video feeds from cameras in every hallway. You can't go anywhere in the school without being watched.

To end on a positive note, we gave our students their mid-summer assessment for math today. We were so proud of the results this assessment produced. On the diagnostic we gave on the first day of school, the highest score was a 30% (and yes, this is for basic fractions operations) and the other scores ranged from 11% to 26%. Today, we tested every objective that we have taught up to this point, which numbered 11 in 8 days of school. I am so proud to report that not only did the student who scored a 30% earn a 100% on today's assessment, but other students that scored in the teens and twenties had earned scores ranging from the 70s to 90s. We were ecstatic. Our teaching for the last two weeks had had an effect on our students achievement, and we can't wait to share the good news with them tomorrow. Some students were still scoring in the high 30s, but to keep that in perspective, they doubled their score in two weeks from their initial diagnostic. Today definitely ended on a high note and we are hopefully going to be able to ride this high for the last two weeks of summer school.

On that note, I got 3 hours of sleep last night and will be calling it an early night tonight. All the hard work and long hours are definitely worth it though. This weekend we are going to a TFA sponsored Phillies game against St. Louis on Saturday, so that should be fun. I hope everyone that reads this is doing well and if I haven't kept in touch recently please accept my apologies, I really want to know what's going on with everyone. So, whenever you have a free moment, or whenever I do, I will try to get in touch. Goodnight -

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?"