What We Learned

One of biggest critiques of TFA is that corps members learn on students.

We do. (Student teachers do, too.)

Fortunately, the middle schools at my Institute site run enrichment programs over the summer, which means that students are previewing material that they'll see the following academic year. I really appreciated this model because it prepared us a little bit more for the learning curve we'll see when we start teaching during the school year. Summer school was also low-key and low-pressure for the students; they knew that if they struggled with a concept, they would see it again in a few months. I was going to say that the pressure was lower for us, too, but I'm not sure that's accurate because we were being observed constantly by CMAs (corps member advisors), our SDs (school directors). other CMs (corps members), and whomever decided to drop by the school that day. (The director of Institute visited my classroom! I got accolades on my lesson plans, but she was not too impressed with the fact that my INM lasted 25 minutes. Oops.)

I'm not sure whether the teachers or the students learned more this summer.

- I learned the most from video feedback. Until last year, I really struggled with talking too quickly and not enunciating well. After a year in Germany, I've gone too far in the other direction: I talk way too slowly and pause way too frequently.

- My students learned exponent rules and why they are the way they are. They really liked exponents, and they rocked that unit. They weren't pleased when I taught them the rules after making them show all of the work the long way, but I think that's for the best: now they know why the rules work!

- I learned that I'm really, really good at writing lesson plans (the director said I wrote the best LPs that she had seen at Institute!) and that I'm good at presenting content at an appropriate level.

- My students learned about malleable intelligence, and they were really motivated by the phrase "get wrinkly brains."

- I learned that I'm not very good at investing students. In fact, I can be downright boring when I talk too slowly. Several people commented that my students were more invested in me than in the material.

- My students learned one-step equations. (100% mastery of one-step equations with multiplication!) They still struggle with two-step equations (they learned two-step equations the same day I introduced one-step equations), but they understand the concept behind one-step equations.

- I learned that students work really, really hard on problems when you jazz up a worksheet. Give them a marker and call it math art... turn a worksheet into a detective story... write questions on construction paper and post them around the room... students do the exact same work (probably more work because they're happy!), and they like it a lot more! :)

- My students learned that being good at math is something you should celebrate! One of the girls wrote: "I learned that I am really smart and shouldn't hide it just show anybody." Even though the grammar is a bit lacking, that's a powerful statement from a 12-year-old girl, especially considering that she was talking about math class. This is the age where girls start to fall behind boys in math, and I hope both of the Ms continue to rock it. (I hope the guys continue to rock it, too, of course.)

My students were incredible. I wish I could teach five classes of identical students. The class changed a few times-- students started late; others left for vacation after a few weeks-- and I ended up with a class of 2 girls and 9 guys. They were funny, smart, insightful, and all-around great kids. We did an activity where they had to write one suggestion for changing their school, their community, and the world, and at the end, they had to write one way they could "be the change" in their classroom.

I'll be the first to say that we didn't make it to long-term transformational change this summer, but there was some great stuff happening in the room. We had a safe and supportive classroom. If a student answered a question incorrectly, I never worried that another student would make fun of him or her. Students asked each other questions, and they were expected to listen to each other's answers. Every person contributed to the physical classroom, which also made them respect the room. Students designed the welcome sign; teachers made posters. Class was fun, and the activities supported their work! Almost all of the students made dramatic academic growth (almost 50% higher than last year's average!).

Good times.

Also, I just have to say that TFA made me an immensely better teacher. It did. 5 weeks made more of a difference than 9 months of mentoring at My Gymnasium and 4 semesters of UAing with a faculty mentor. There is a lot to criticize about the training model, but I don't see how I'm doing worse than any other 1st year teacher at this point. (When my department chair peeked in, I apparently was holding up a stopwatch and telling my students to Do It Again.) More to come about week #1 in my new full-time position...

Survived Institute!

I wish I had a catchier title, but I guess this one will do.

We finished Institute about a week ago and moved back to our regions to prepare for the upcoming school year-- ahhhh!

So how did Institute work? I had 90 minutes of lead teaching and an hour of co-teaching every day, which means that over the course of Institute, I led-taught the equivalent of a week and a half in the 'real' teaching world. All of my kids were at grade level or above in math. My kids were awesome, adorable, and brilliant, and I miss them very much, but they probably weren't the best models to learn on. (On the other hand, a challenging class might have thrown me over the edge with the lack of sleep, so it might have worked out for the best.)

My class reached 92% of their growth goal, and the average growth from last year was only 63%! Could it have been higher? Oh yeah, but they went a 48% on the pre-assessment to a 74% on the post-assessment in 18 days. They hit 82% mastery of negative powers (pre-assessment score: 0%), and I was most proud of their 100% mastery of one-step equations involving multiplying and dividing integers. (I *cough* cried *cough* after teaching that objective.) Did I secretly want the highest growth of my school? Yes, of course-- I got into TFA; I am incredibly competitive-- but my kids rocked it, and I don't think anyone has any regrets.

Well, that's not entirely true: I do regret not asking for more help. In terms of seeking out additional resources, I think I did as much as I possibly could have, given my time constraints... I went to 2-3 workshops every week, visited the resource center a few times, and asked CMs and CMAs what had worked or hadn't worked in their rooms. My CMA wrote one AIT plan for me and gave me word problems for quite a few objectives because there was no way I was going to have time to write 60 word problems over the course of a weekend. However, I could have used a lot more help with writing problems for INM, GP, and IP (I had to write my own exit slips). I was allowed to ask other CMs for lesson plans toward the end of Institute, but it just so happened that most of my last objectives were the first objectives that the other CMs had taught. (In other words, the first LPs are uniformly pretty awful, and the only things I could take from them were problems.) (There were three other CMs at my school without partners, BUT someone provided them with the additional LPs. I was not amused when I heard this.)

The benefit to planning and teaching a double block is that I definitely got to hone my skill in writing lesson plans. While the others were working on CFUs, I was working on writing CFUs for particular students. While they were making sure their exit slips were aligned, I was scaffolding my exit slips so I knew to what extent the students had mastered the objective. (The same material that other CMs got at a recent "rigor in mathematics" discussion was material that I got during the third week of Institute. I still have a long way to go in pushing the rigor during instruction and on assessments, but I actually tend to overdo the conceptual material and forget to leave time for students to work on the procedural part. Most CMs privilege procedural knowledge over conceptual. This might be the English major in me coming out.)

The downsides to planning and teaching a double block at Institute? You don't sleep, and you don't get to take days off. When everyone else had TFA (Totally Free Afternoon) Day, I was in a workroom writing two lesson plans. My CMA tried to give me a bedtime at the beginning of Institute, but let's face it: if everyone else is up until 11 PM working on one lesson plan, I'm not going to be in bed by midnight. I worked every day of Institute until the last weekend, when my CMA forced me to take a day off after I cried for about an hour and a half at school. (An IL leader who shall remain anonymous told me that I should drink more beer and do yoga to relax.) Was that day off refreshing? Yes. Was I up until 2 AM on Sunday night/Monday morning to compensate? Yes. (Just for the record, even with that meltdown, I cried less than pretty much everyone else at Institute.)

I'd go through Institute again... but only with a normal workload. But hey, I survived, and I'm more prepared because of it.