I'm Venting.

It's been over a month since I last wrote on here. I know that some of you have been eagerly anticipating my insights into this job, my ray of positivity in an otherwise dimly-lit field and something to make you feel good about as you go on with your day.

I hope that I'll get back to that style of writing soon.

Since I last wrote, a lot has changed. Simply put, things are not going well our here in Washington.

Oh yeah, it's going to be one of those posts. Get out while you can.

I started this blog as a way for me to express my feelings about life, specifically regarding teaching. Today, and over the past couple of weeks, I haven't written a lot because it has been extremely tough out here and I didn't want to bring anyone down with it. However, I need to vent, and I feel like writing, so here it goes.

I will preface this extremely negative post with the following: I have been told multiple times from a variety of sources (all in some way related to education) that November is by far the hardest month for teachers. November has been described as "the terrible month," the time when the new-ness of the school year has worn down, push back from students reaches its peak and exhaustion from the "daily grind" sets in. Mostly, November was a month that we were not supposed to enjoy, but simply navigate our way through. At the beginning of the month, I didn't buy into the hype. Now, I do. November sucks. A lot. However, I feel like a lot of the reasons I'm feeling "blue" are different than the reasons other people in my program are. Listed below are my thoughts and things I just need to get off my chest and onto a computer screen.

My School
Typical urban teacher problems of uncontrolled kids and disorganization at the administrative level are non-existent for me. The school that I'm at is great, on the surface. It posts the best test scores in the city and does a lot of things right. I have not lost sight of those things. However, what it really comes down to is that I wanted to become a teacher to make a difference. Honestly, I don't really feel needed at my school. The school is fine, and is going to be fine with or without me. The role of myself and the other UTC residents at my school is not that of teachers, but instead of interns. While UTC mandates that we were to be teaching full lessons by the end of November, we have not started planning lessons yet. While other UTC residents are doing small-group lessons, pull-outs, parent visits and phone calls home, we are relegated to the occasional introduction to a lesson, grading papers and setting up random events around the school. At other schools around the city, UTC residents are valued for our trained backgrounds, knowledgeable insight and intense preparation and selection to get into the program. I feel like at my school, I am viewed as someone who has no idea what they are doing. I'm not saying that I know it all (not even close), but at the same time I definitely know that I am not someone who can only handle the most mundane of tasks. For not getting paid at all this year, I feel like there are a lot better things I could be doing that would serve as a greater benefit to society. Ultimately, that's what I'm in it for.

I'm 90% sure these feelings will change if I am offered a full-time position at the school next year, but for now, I feel caged (Josh Cribbs reference for you Browns fans - I didn't forget about you). I just want to help. Maybe I am, but I do leave a lot of days feeling frustrated that I can't do more.

In addition to this, the kids are so disrespectful here. So disrespectful. This isn't directly applied to my school, but across all the schools we are working at as a program. I would think that they would have some sort of knowledge that in as little as ten years ago, NO ONE willingly came to these schools. No one. The fact that people are eager to come in and help, to turn it around, and to give them something better than what they have grown up with would seem to be a natural point of respect and humility. Nope. There is such little respect for teachers that I am not surprised that there is such high burnout among teachers in these areas. A lot of teachers here work so hard to do what we came here to do, working longer hours and doing more than you would in schools that are better off - which is fine. That is what we signed up for. What makes it harder is that constant push back to what we try to do to help. A couple days to figure out what you can get from a teacher is natural - I did it, you did it, and everyone in every school does it. But this push back has been going on for months - literally the entire school year up to this point. It's exhausting.

My City
DC sucks. I have never been in a more overrated city in my entire life. Furthermore, I have not spent an extended amount of time (read: more than one day) in a city that I disliked so much. Everyone says, "oh yeah, DC is great, it's so much fun there!" No, it's not. Do not move to DC. The entire city is essentially a power struggle, with people looking to move their way up. In that way, I guess DC would be cool if you had the money for it to be cool. But it's not a city like Chicago or New York, or even Columbus, where you can simply enjoy being in the city without doing anything in the city. If you're not in the know, you're not worth knowing. Everything is extremely expensive - DC has the second highest standard of living in the country outside of Manhattan - but for what? A couple monuments? The opportunity to brush shoulders with some sketchy politician who has spent their whole lives kissing other people's asses to move up the ladder? No, it's for the opportunity to say that you did it and feel a little better about yourself when the guy next to you says he rents out his shitty apartment for only $2,000/month as opposed to $3,000. Haha, he's so poor! The people here are not genuine or even nice, the "social" areas aren't anything special, and there is no sense of identity to the city. Here's a fun fact about DC: NO ONE IS ACTUALLY FROM HERE. Think about it: when's the last time you ever heard someone say, "I'm so proud to be from DC." What other major city in the world does not have an identity? People are not from here, but they come here to make money for 2-4 years, and then they get out, never looking back. This city is not a home, it's a resting place.

Also, I miss buildings. Skylines are awesome. DC has some dumb law saying buildings can't be over a certain height in the city - maybe around 10 stories - because it's a security risk. Yeah, DC, you're so much more important than every other major city in the US that your buildings can't be tall. Why not apply this law to every other US city? Are you really just that concerned about yourself, DC? "Screw you guys, you can be at risk - but we're cool! Now I'm going to sip a $8,000 bottle of champagne while renting out my $4,000/month apartment, just because I can. DC!"

I keep waiting for DC to pop out at me, and to have a moment of realization where I can say, "Oh yeah, THIS is why people love DC." However, I'm pretty sure I've seen it all. I've gone to the museums, monuments, social areas and done everything that is "authentic" to DC. As I do more and more of these things, I'm pretty sure that my feelings about this place aren't going to change. Even better news: I'm going to be here until I'm 26!

My Social Life
I don't know anyone here. I'd say there only a handful of people in DC that I genuinely care about, and only a few I would enjoy having a beer with. I was kind of banking on this program that I'm in to lead me towards expanding my social base, but that hasn't really worked out for me at all. I will say, though, that I need to take it upon myself to be more proactive about being social. It's obvious at this point that friends are not going to fall into my lap out here, so it's up to me at this point if I'm going to stay miserable and lonely in the big city or make some changes. Recently, I have taken to the inter-webs and used social networks like MeetUp and Reddit to try to branch out. The results of these efforts is unclear at this point. What is clear, though, is that I currently don't have an outlet from teaching. One of the best things about college for me was that no matter how bad my day was, I got incredibly lucky to have roommates that I could go home to and just be dumb with - watching awful Netflix movies, playing video games, drinking, etc. We all left our schoolwork in the classroom/library and that was that. Here, that is not the case. I am literally surrounded by people in the field of education wherever I go. I need to find a way to change that, because it's suffocating. Work is taking over my life, and that can't happen to anyone who attempts to maintain a sense of sanity (in my opinion).

Miscellaneous
All the things I have written about before this post come in conjunction to the fact that my dad died earlier this year. Everything I mentioned above, compounded with the death of  your surest sense of stability, biggest role model and one of your closest friends completely disappears from your life unexpectedly is not a good combination. If dealing with my dad dying wasn't hard enough on its own (it is), I'm not happy with anything else going on in my life.

In addition to all of this, I am going through many of the traditional troubles of a recent college grad, including being seriously apart from my family for the first time. While in Columbus, I was only 2 hours away - a very do-able commute. Now, at six hours away, visits home are much more difficult to have. I'm also away from a place where I had a surplus of friends and fun at Ohio State, which I took for granted for four years. It's also the place where I have felt most comfortable with everything surrounding me in my entire life. It was there one day, and gone the next, replaced with DC and everything that comes along with it.

Last Words
So, what it all comes down to is that I'm pretty much living in a worst-case scenario. That is absolutely excessively dramatic and hyperbolic, but I don't care, it's how I feel at this present moment.

Stepping away from that, I do know there are a lot of things that I have going for me - I have a job, I have family, and I have friends, even if they aren't geographically close to me. I also have an education food, shelter, and a place to let my feelings to be heard (you guys). That's a lot. However, I did not anticipate so many things going wrong when I came out here, and that is so frustrating. As I said before, the ball is now in my court. I have to decide whether or not I'm going to continue to be miserable or do something about it. There's a lot that has to change, and there's a lot that will need to change. Hopefully, this change comes sooner rather than later.

I will also say that this post is in no way an indication that I am close to quitting my job out here. Am I not as happy as I was at OSU? Absolutely. Am I extremely frustrated with how this portion of my life has started out? Yes, very. However, I refuse to let myself quit half-way through a year, or 1/8 of the way through the program that I committed to. I owe it to myself, my family, and everyone that believed in me and supported me through everything I have gone through to get to the spot I am in now to stick this thing out. Most importantly, I owe it to these kids to give them a sense of stability and someone that refuses to quit on them, no matter how bad it is.

I guess this is what a quarter-life crisis feels like. Or maybe not. I'm not sure. Either way, things aren't going according to plan, and that's bad. If you've made it this far, I've probably put a damper on your day, so I'd like to apologize for that. It was just something I had to get out, and I do feel better about it already even if my situation hasn't changed.

Hopefully, you won't be seeing a post like this from me again any time soon, or at all, as long as I keep this thing up. Here's to hoping the good vibes make their return soon.

BD

Shout It Out

Now to something you've heard many times before and probably will hear many times again, especially if you choose to keep reading this blog...

Teaching is hard. Truly, authentically hard.

I don't say that so much just because I like to complain.¹ I keep saying it to provide a consistent statement of this job. It doesn't get hard for a couple days and then go away. It is hard, always. Sure, there are definitely better days than others. But still, on those days, you are jam packed with things to do. Honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way -- I am the type of person who would much rather be busy than bored -- but I guess that's for another blog post. With all this being said, there's a point when teaching stops becoming busy and starts becoming overwhelming.

As I've spoken to before, there are a lot of schools out there that are aware of this fact but don't really do anything about it. I think this is a big reason why a lot of teachers hate their job. They work really hard, get everything right on paper, and are ready to go. But when it comes to execution time, things don't always go according to plan², and stress comes. Stress is a part of any job, but when it comes to teaching, it's important to manage and deal with that stress immediately, because if you don't, then you go in front of a class of little people without your mind right. Eventually, stress builds up to the point where you hear the teaching horror stories³ that dip into bitching, quitting, and even more serious cases of clinical depression and/or alcoholism. It's real, it's happened, and it will happen again.

So the question becomes, how do we prevent this? How can we turn teaching into something desirable even in the times that it becomes ridiculously hard? How can we turn from those teaching horror stories to the teaching stories that made me get into this profession, where one is able to do this incredibly trying job with ease and a smile, and where we can leave a lasting impact on children for decades and ultimately, have a direct voice in how they live the rest of their lives?

Something that my good buddy Zach Boerger⁴ wrote⁵ recently about the idea that we need to be more conscious about telling people the things we like about what they do, and not to only focus on the negative things that occur. We all fall into the trap: when things are going well, we generally don't say much, because we expect it to go well. However, when things start going in a way we don't like, that's when we make sure our voice is heard. It plays into the "squeaky wheel gets the grease" mentality. The squeaky wheel needs the grease, but the wheels who aren't squeaking sure would like to hear about how well they are doing (assuming wheels have personalities and feelings, which we will for the sake of my argument).

Teaching is the same way. Once the excitement from getting all our new little humans in the beginning of the year has died down, the realities of the job set in. No job is perfect, and teaching is not an exception. In order to not get bogged down by the pressures that this job, and any job really, creates is to make sure the adults are looking out for each other. This comes in the form of shout-outs, which we do every Wednesday at school.

Backdrop: Our school is open 7-4 every day except Wednesday, when we go 7-1:30 and then all staff stays for professional development until 5.

Before our PD starts, everyone gathers in the teacher lounge and we sing our "shout-out" song and we read off 10-15 shout-outs. Shout-outs are written throughout the week and are but in the "shout-out box," from which they are pulled and read on Wednesdays. You can tell that everyone really appreciates these, as they are proudly displayed at all of the teacher's desks. Teachers who receive a shout-out are also given a small prize when their shout-out is read, and the rest of shout-outs that are not chosen are dispersed throughout PD. Having received one or two in my time here, I can say that giving and receiving shout-outs is something I am a huge fan of and will take with me (in one form or another) wherever I go from here in my life.

Shout-outs can be given for literally anything, as long as it made some sort of positive contribution to someone or something at the school. For example: cover someone's hallway shift? Bounce back after a really tough week, or just simply keep showing up even though nothing seems to be going right for you? You got a shout-out! Simply be consistently awesome?  You got a shout-out!

Side note: For some reason, this is the one thing I could think of while writing that last paragraph...

It's easy! Watch.

Shout out to this polar bear for its phenomenal dance moves.

Now, I feel better and I'm sure if the polar bear had feelings it would feel better too. But even though it will never get my message, I feel better for sending all that good energy its way. And now I might keep sending it to everyone and everything around me.

As Zach, a member of the start-up community and co-founder of his awesome pre-release product news site Launchgram wrote, "Startups (hell, life in general) are hard, and a little praise when its deserved could go a long way towards helping someone succeed." Teaching is no different. Everyday life is no different. I would like to challenge everyone reading this to make shout-outs a personal habit of yours going forward. Even if it only starts at one per week, make a conscious effort to let other people know that you appreciate them.

When in doubt, shout it out. I have, and it feels fantastic.

--BD


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1 Unless we are talking about the Browns. Or Cleveland sports in general, I guess.^↩ 2 Insight you won't get anywhere else!^↩ 3 Happy Halloween!^↩ 4 Hey man.^↩ 5 Link to his entire (short and awesome) blog post can be found here.^↩

Carnival Bears

Part of what we do as "residents" at UTC is take classes. The math classes we are taking right now are, in a word, awesome. We are totally re-thinking math, what it is and how we teach it. I posted a little about this in the summer, but it has taken me personally from a stance of thinking math is a "plug and chug" subject to realizing it's more about logic, problem-solving and finding a short-cut. I'm kind of mad that I never experienced math this way before, and it makes a lot more sense to me now why I hated it for so long growing up (even though I was pretty good at it).

In summary, Math is really cool, and I'm really, really lucky to be in a position to teach other people about how cool it is.

Related: I've never felt like more of a nerd.

To give an idea about exactly how we approach math, I'm going to put a problem below. The problem isn't easy, but it's simple. The idea is you want to embrace the struggle that comes along with solving the problem. Once you break through, you have a "mathgasm," as some of the less mature members of our cohort like to call it.¹

Here's the problem. It's pretty standard but I really enjoyed it, and I think you will too. It took a group of 5 of us about 15 minutes to solve it completely, so feel free to kick our butts and then brag about it in the comments. All you need are 7 post it notes to denote equal space, 3 items that are exactly the same (pencils, plastic bears, moldy foods left in the refrigertar, etc.) and then 3 other items that are exactly the same but are NOT the items from the first group. So, a perfect example would be the post-its, 3 pencils and 3 paper clips. However, if you have access to bears or something more concrete, that makes it more fun. Maybe it's time to dust off those old Beanie Babies.²

Also, do this with other people. Good, old-fashioned, fun for the whole family!!³

Anyway, here's the problem:

Connie, Jeff, and Kareem saw bears do tricks. At the beginning of the trick, three black bears were on the left side of a long mat divided into seven squares, and three brown bears were on the right side. Each bear had its own square with an empty square in the middle. The bears could only do two different types of moves:

1.They could slide onto the next square if it was empty.

2.If the next square was not empty, they could jump over one other bear to an empty square. The black bears only moved from left to right, and the brown bears only moved from right to left. When the trick was over, the bears had switched places. All the black bears  were on the right side, and all the brown bears were on the left.

Can you get the bears to switch places?

BEFORE YOU START: Set up a table. Three columns. Column #1 = number of bears per side. Column #2 = jumps. Column #3 = "slides." Column #4 = total moves. You should be able to pick up a pattern after the second or third run through. If you can't figure out the first round, definitely start with 1 bear per side, then 2 bears per side, etc. until you are comfortable enough and find a pattern that solves for every number of bears per side.

Once you solve that part...

How many jumps and slides would it take for 5 bears on each side?

Next...

How many jumps and slides would it take for 10 bears on each side?

We would typically give our kids 30-35 minutes to solve. This is a grade 6-8 math problem, and doesn't really rely on any mathematical prowess at all until you get to the short-cut part, which makes the problem easier.

Guess what - that's math! Math makes things easier. Who knew.

Time to see if you're smarter than a seventh grader.

Enjoy.

-BD

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1 OK, maybe it's just me. I don't want to hear it. ^↩ 2 I always knew they'd be good for something.^↩ 3 I think I've turned a corner. Is this what a quarter-life crisis feels like?^↩

The Power of Positivity

Teaching is kind of a funny profession. There are so many kids out there that need a quality education, because after all, what is the future of our country without well-informed, active citizens? However, this requires a special type of person to lead them that way. Unfortunately, there simply are not enough great teachers out there. So the question is -- why?

Apart from all the things that you probably think I'm going to say (long hours, low pay, etc.) I think that at its core, there aren't enough great teachers because new teachers get overwhelmed. A lot of the time, new teachers can only get jobs in the worst schools because these teachers are seen as unorganized, inexperienced and naive regarding their profession. What happens is these teachers have a terrible experience teaching, with all the things that make bad schools into what they are -- bad leadership, no community, low test scores, behavior problems, and so on. What happens next is predictable: teachers hate the kids, their job, the administration, and then they quit. And a new teacher is hired in their place. And most likely, the same thing happens all over again. This, in a nutshell, is how the Achievement Gap was formed and is sustained, from my very limited vantage point on it.

One of the things that I have realized recently is that when dealing with "children who we love the most" (read: the brats) positivity can go a long way. Take for example, a scholar at APA who I'm going to call Trent, for no other reason than I'm excited about how the new Cleveland Browns' running back Trent Richardson has looked this year. OK, maybe he's on an 0-4 team but he has run with passion, strength and quickness on that team and is a source of hope, which the Browns haven't had in a long time. Yes, I'm excited about an 0-4 football team. No, I don't want to talk about it.

Anyway, Trent has a lot going on at home. He is dealing with a mother who has recently fallen ill, and it has had clear effects on how he acts in school. Every day for the first month or so, Trent has come in without any sort of regard for respect of adults. He doesn't respond well to an adult presence at all, and is easily irritated when an adult even will try to help him with schoolwork. Needless to say, re-directions and consequences are a mess. Trent often "blows up" in class, despite many discussions between Trent and his teachers about what he could do differently and how to keep small issues small issues instead of turning them into big issues. This issue is compounded by a lack of adult presence at home, that we know of. Phone calls home are unanswered so we don't even know if an adult is aware of what's going on at school.

This is a situation that would drive many first-year teachers crazy. Hell, it would throw a lot of 20 year vets crazy. It's almost a nightmare situation, although Trent doesn't yell out frequently in class. It could be worse. But still, it's not good. For the first month, Trent has always been on my mind, and I've tried to find ways to help. Still, it's so frustrating to just want to help and being pushed away, especially with everything that is on the line in these schools.¹

After about a month of pure frustration, I could tell that Trent was getting the better of me. He was changing my mood every day when I came in, and I was constantly watching him in class to monitor behavior as opposed to teaching. I realized that this was not going to fly, so I tried something different. I tried to kill Trent with kindness.

Something new that my host teacher and I have introduced into class within the past week is something called "Homework Heroes." Every day, we go through homework and pick out what we think is the "best" one. This is really just a judgement call, in which we look for professionalism, full and complete work, and clear, correct answers. There are two Homework Heroes per class, and if you are selected as a Homework Hero, you get to wear one of these AWESOME FoamHeads from my host teacher and my respective universities (Ohio State and University of Minnesota) for the rest of class.

Yes, they definitely are that cool.²

Believe it or not, this has actually been a huge source of inspiration to do homework for our scholars. Since we've introduced Homework Heroes, we have seen a lot more buy-in to homework, which is awesome.

When picking our third set of Homework Heroes, I decided to give the Ohio State FoamHead to Trent, who had won the hat deservingly, doing all the things we would want our scholars to do on their homework. Now, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nearly pissing myself as I went over to  hand Trent his FoamHead. There were a variety of things that could have happened here. Trent could have thrown the hat, spit in it, or even simply mocked it, which could have ruined all the momentum we had built in establishing these hats as desirable.

As we called our the day's HHs, there was a confused murmur among everyone in the class when I called Trent's name. I don't think anyone saw it coming. As I went over to hand Trent the hat, I saw something I hadn't all year: a smile. Trent was so excited that someone had finally focused on something positive that he had done -- or at least this is what I'm telling myself. Either way, Trent did not show ANY negative behavior for that class, stayed on task, and had one of his best classes of the year to that point. Even after class, he asked me questions about the hat, what it was and why I loved Ohio State so much. I think I might have even recruited a little bit for OSU that day, even if it was by accident.³

So many times, "problem students" are only shown negativity and re-direction from teachers, which ultimately hurts everyone and benefits no one. I think that it's so important to show scholars that you pay attention to everything they do -- not just the negative. Showing a scholar that you appreciate the things that they do well can make all the difference in determining your experience as a teacher. Notice that you have to SHOW a scholar that you appreciate them, not tell them. These are two very different things. Just something to think about.

Although Trent's behavior has started to slip a bit since the middle of last week, I now know one strategy that I can try to correct poor behavior that has worked before. It is certainly not the only way to do things, and it definitely won't work with every tough situation, but it worked for this one and it will probably work for others too. That's a minor victory that's good enough for me to keep going.

Good vibes, y'all. Keep 'em coming.


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FOOTNOTES!
1 ^↩See previous post.
2 ^↩Side note: Is a Gopher the same thing as a squirrel? I thought they looked more like Prairie Dogs? This has been bothering me way too much every time I look at that maroon and gold mess of a mascot.
3 ^↩Hey E. Gordon, let's talk commission....

Developing 'No-Nonsense Nurturers'

Part of being a resident teacher at APA means doing things outside the classroom to help us inside the classroom. I think this is one of the coolest parts of the UTC program. A lot of time, teachers are thrown into classrooms with no real knowledge of how to run them (by the way, about 70% of teaching comes from your knowledge on how to run a classroom, whereas 30% comes from what you actually know about content -- this is not backed up by any scientific research that I know of, but I think it's true so there it is). UTC gives us opportunities to attend PD (Professional Development) sessions from time to time that are run by some of the best education trainers in the country. That was the case this past Monday, when we attended a Classroom Management workshop in Baltimore.

The workshop was based off the teachings of Lee Canter, who is famous in education for his idea of "Assertive Discipline." Assertive discipline centers around a "take-control" approach to teaching, as the teacher controls the classroom in a firm but positive manner. The approach essentially says that teachers must establish rules and direction that clearly define the limits of acceptable and unacceptable student behavior, teach these rules and directions, and ask for assistance from parents and/or administrators when support is needed in handling the behavior of students.

Those were Wikipedia's words.

My words: assertive discipline pretty much says you have to make sure that all student's are given a fair opportunity to learn by correcting misbehavior early, often and consistently.

I really think this is the biggest thing I need to work on before I have my own classroom. In the summer, I felt like some times I was too focused on being "liked" by the children I was working with as opposed to making sure that they were learning. Although what happened in the summer didn't really count, because there weren't any assessments, tests, etc. this is a behavior I definitely need to change before it does. I think my problem is that I always want to have fun in class and make everyone feel comfortable. On the surface, this sounds great. However, what happens in classrooms like these is scholars push back more and more, testing teachers to see exactly how much they can get away with. That's not negative, it's just reality. Everyone remembers that one class where they goofed off and didn't really get much done. It was a great time, but it didn't really accomplish much.

In the 'burbs, having goof-off classes and getting set back a year might have meant getting a 3 instead of a 4 on your AP test, or missing a scholarship to college instead of getting one. In the areas I'm working in, we talked about how what's at stake is literally life and death. Children in these areas that fall behind have incredibly high rates of drop-out, and children who drop-out are over 90% certain to end up in a box, either in the ground or with bars.

No pressure, though.

Pretty much what this means is I have to get this whole teaching thing right. It's bigger than me and the consequences are bigger than what I've ever had to face before. This PD session talked about how the research of the Center for Transformative Teacher Training "CT^3" has proved that there are generally three types of teachers -- Unintended Enablers, Negative Controllers, and No-Nonsense Nurturers.

Unintended Enablers have their hearts in the right place, but their heads in the wrong place. They often allow their students to engage in behaviors that are not in the students' best interests because they either feel sorry for them or their situation. Unintended Enablers make excuses for students like, "They can't do it because of their home situation" or "These kids just can't read because of the areas that they're from." The main motivation of Unintended Enablers is to be LIKED by their students and this desire often results in the students' not respecting them.

I don't think I was an Unintended Enabler in the summer, but I definitely possessed qualities of one. And that's not OK. It's great for students to enjoy your class, but not at the risk of being off-task or having other activities that are going on that are preventing students from going to college. The risks are too high.

The second type of teacher we talked about is a "Negative Controller." These are the teachers who never permitted talking, always felt the need to remain in control, etc. They respond to students' action or inaction with a negative, angry, shaming or sarcastic demeanor. Negative Controllers have high expectations for their students, and sometimes meet those expectations, but place their need to shine as an educator ahead of the need of their students to succeed. Control and structure are most important in these classrooms.

So, those are your BAD teachers. What is a good teacher? Lee Canter's research labels the best teachers as "No-Nonsense Nurturers." No-Nonsense Nurturers are strictly business in large group instruction, but nurturing while working with students one-on-one or in small groups. These teachers have high expectations, demand 100% of classroom participation 100% of the time with a "no-excuses" attitude.

Side note: Are no-nonsense nurturers to teaching as mullets are to hairdos? "Business in the front, party in the back." No-Nonsense Chuck Norris? Too far? I digress....

I think if I was to classify myself this summer, I would be closest to a No-Nonsense Nurturer. However, I definitely possessed too many qualities of an Unintentional Enabler, although those qualities were reached unintentionally (who woulda thought?). I know I need to be more explicit and have higher expectations 100% of the time, but I also need to be careful not to slip into the "Negative Controller" territory. This balance is exactly what makes teaching so hard. I've realized that it's really easy to say these things on paper, but once you get up in front of 25 little humans, everything changes.

Like Mike Tyson said, "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."

My goal is to improve a little bit every day this year, so that next year when I'm all on my own, No-Nonsense Nurturing will be second nature. Either that, or I'll keep getting punched in the mouth until I get it right.

I have to.

BD

In the Swing of Things

The past two and a half weeks have been devoted to figuring out exactly what my role in the classroom is going to be this year. What's different about APA (my current school) compared to Higher Achievement in the summer is that I'm not the lead teacher. This is based off the UTC model that says all first year teachers start off their academic careers not as a lead teacher, but instead as more of a "support" role to start, with increased responsibility as the year goes on.

UTC's cheesy way of selling this idea on us is by saying it's exactly like medicine. In medicine, you wouldn't send a brain surgeon in to do surgery on their first day. Instead, they have to go through residency, learn from other awesome doctors, and then gradually incorporate those effective practices into their own. UTC says that we are also doing brain surgery -- except not in the physical sense, but the psychological sense. We as teachers perform brain surgery every day, by controlling what goes into a child's mind and what they are capable of learning. Because of that, we are simply not ready to go in and perform surgery from day one. Instead, we have to follow this model of being a resident for a year and then, fellows in years two through four. At that point, we'll be ready. But for now, we need to be hands-on learners in our schools.

That's the idea, at least.

And for the most part, that's how things have gone at APA. It's been somewhat awkward, because a situation like this doesn't arise often in a classroom. The past two and a half weeks, I've been doing a bunch of different stuff in classrooms. I started out mainly just observing, leading into walking around and helping with small group instruction. I have gradually come to hold more responsibilities, such as grading homework and tests, doing handshakes at the threshold (every scholar is met with a handshake and a good morning/afternoon [insert scholar name here] at every class they go to) and next week I am going to start doing the Q^2 (Quick Question) portion of class, which is the same thing as the "Do Now" that I described over the summer (Remember: "Good Vibes" Do Now?? Good times.).

However, because this is my blog and I can do whatever I want on it, I am going to vent now. DISCLAIMER: IF YOU ARE ONLY IN THIS FOR THE GOOD VIBES, SKIP OVER THE NEXT THREE PARAGRAPHS.

Things haven't always been great. I've been frustrated with the amount of direct instruction I have been able to do so far. I'm OK with this, though, because I know that this amount of time will increase as the year goes on. This is simply a "growing pain" of the job that doesn't fit my general mentality of wanting to get my hands dirty, mess up and get better as soon as possible. My "secondary" role is, for the most part, understandable and necessary, no matter how frustrating it can be.

Something that is of a bit bigger concern is the school's 5 UTC residents (including myself) in the school. The UTC model stresses hands-on learning at all times from "master" teachers who have proven to be great at what they do. Unfortunately, it's hard to be a hands-on learner when we are often pulled out of classrooms to do, for lack of a better term, busy work. There have been times where the school needs something done, such as stuff envelopes for parent letters home, collect and organize materials, setting up the DREAM store (where scholars can cash in their DREAM dollars every week - see previous post for clarification) etc. where the UTC residents are called upon to do this work - alone.

I understand that the school is busy. I know that they have a lot done and I am willing to help in whatever way that I can. I also understand that there are a lot of new teachers at the school that administration has to focus on developing as full-time teachers first, because they are the ones at the forefront of direct instruction. This all makes sense to me. However, I feel like sometimes we are viewed more as interns than teachers. This might be a case of us having to earn our stripes at the school, or maybe just a really busy time in the school year, but I hope that this changes over the course of the year. I'd really like to get to the point where all teachers are contributing equally in all aspects of maintaining the physical as well as the psychological work of teaching, but so far, I can't really say that this has been the case.

Phew. OK, sorry. Had to get that off my chest. I'm sure that things will change soon, and I knew I was going to be frustrated at times this year, so this is all just part of the process. Good vibes, good vibes...

Luckily, this has been my only real qualm with the school so far. Everything else is great. As the year goes on, we all need to focus on the "Joy Factor" that we as teachers bring to the classroom. If we don't have a little bit of fun with it, this work can and will become overwhelming. I can already tell that if teachers are losing that Joy Factor already, it's going to be a really tough year. Teaching is kind of an unforgiving profession, in that way. There's so much to think about that goes into a classroom, and unfortunately, if you don't get everything right, it'll eat you alive. I think that's why there's such a high rate of teacher turnover in this country. Unfortunately, there aren't enough schools out there like Achievement Prep that provide the structure and resources necessary to help develop teachers into Platinum Teachers. I got really lucky to be placed where I am, regardless of the growing pains that come along with getting acclimated it.

If you guys ever want to hear about anything specific, let me know in the comments. I don't really know what everyone is interested in, so I just kind of type aimlessly. Any constructive criticism or suggestions on how to improve my blog voice (doesn't it feel a little dry?) would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I saw this picture yesterday and it made me happy. It has nothing to do with teaching, but I hope it makes you happy too. Have a great day!

BD

Classroom Formation, Prep Academy, Returning Scholars

So, yeah. A lot has happened since I wrote last.

Life out here is crazy busy, to say the least. I really did want to write before now, but it has been much harder to find the time to do so than I previously anticipated. Between waking up at 6:00 AM every day and going to bed around 10 every night, I am at APA (Achievement Preparatory Academy - my new school) every day by 6:45 and do not leave any earlier than 5:30 at night. In the past few weeks, I've also had to find a new apartment, furnish it (still in progress), pack, unpack, decorate and take care of all other daily tasks (eating, showering, falling on my bed in exasperation, etc.). So, it's been a pretty big adjustment moving out here.

Here's a very brief overview of everything that has happened since my first week of PD at APA

Week of 8/13-8/17

Build, lift, organize, decorate, sweat -- rinse, lather, repeat. This whole week was dedicated to getting classrooms ready for our "Prep Academy" week, in which all new scholars to the school are given an additional week before the returning scholars come back to become "initiated" into the school culture. But I will discuss that later.

This week was actually kind of ridiculous. I never knew how much time, effort and energy went into preparing a classroom. And especially at APA, where deatil and cohesion is everything, I did not know what I was getting into. We had to build all new binder racks, chairs and tables from IKEA, organize materials tables in every class, and get binders together for every scholar in every class with name tags. Then we had to check to make sure those name tags were right, double check to make sure every scholar had a binder and TRIPLE check to make sure every classroom had every binder that it needed. Even with all of that, it wasn't 100% right on the first day. In addition to all of that, the "Platinum Teachers" at this school (everyone is a Platinum teacher) pitched in to create teacher work stations with new desks, make bulletin boards, and throw together everything else that goes into making a school work successfully. My brain hurts just from thinking about it.

Week of 8/20-8/24

Prep Academy.

This was amazing. As I described before, Prep Academy is an entire week that is devoted to new scholars at the school to learn exactly what it is like to be an Achievement Prep scholar. APA only accepts new 4th, 5th and 6th graders as a 4-8 school, so these were the only scholars we were working with. Every day, scholars wore plain red t-shirts and jeans. The idea was that scholars had to "earn" their uniforms that would be presented to them at the end of the week, because at the beginning of Prep Academy, they did not really know what it was like to be an APA scholar. The daily schedule looked (roughly) like this:

7:15 - Greeted by Mrs. Wright (Head of School) in front of school on staircase
7:20 - Enter doors, greeted with a handshake and a "good morning" from a member of Oxygen (APA support staff)
7:20-:45 - Breakfast in cafeteria (about 90% of scholars are on free/reduced lunch)
7:40-8 - Breakfast clean-up and restrooms
8-8:45 - Culture of APA, led by Mrs. Wright. Every day, Mrs. Wright would lead a session about different things that are different about APA, reiterating to the scholars that "THIS IS NOT YOUR OLD SCHOOL!" Topics included: how to walk in the halls (ninja feet/straight lines/edge of the blue [right side, hugging the wall], 100% involvement, Paychecks [Reward/Punishment system], DREAM values [Determination, Respect, Enthusiasm, Accountability, Mastery] and their accompanying motions, and APA's unique way to spell college [future blog post teaser!])
8:45-12:15; 1:35-2:35 - Class. Scholars learned about the different procedures of APA classrooms, including:

• how teachers get the class' attention
• how students are supposed to sit --> "scholar position" with hands locked, all feet on the floor, legs under the desk, sitting up, facing forward, elbows out, head up, and tracking the speaker
• bathroom procedures --> APA has designated bathroom times every day to eliminate scholars continually asking to go to the restroom in all of their classes
• Noise Meters, with levels of
• Silent
• Library Level
• Soft Voices
• Productive and Professional
• Daily Schedule
• classes --> APA scholars take twice as much math and ELA as other schools
• lateness
• expectations -- every scholar is expected to turn in cell phones in their "AM Prep for Prep" session (it works) which also checks for homework, pencils and proper uniform. Again, it works. Scholars that do not comply receive deductions on their Paychecks (described above).
• Homework collection/expectations with examples and student work to show what is and is not acceptable
• DREAM Blocks - Checked at the end of every class, which go towards a scholar's paycheck (collected weekly).
• Grading and Promotion
• Academic Integrity
• I'm getting tired.

12:35-1:25 - Lunch. Even in lunch, everything is so thought out. Every platinum teacher has a role he/she has to fill. Scholars enter the cafeteria and sit down until instructed to receive their lunch. When they get their lunch, they do it quietly. After they get their lunch, they stand behind their lunch until every member of their table has something to eat. Then they sit down, but everyone stays silent until all members of the cafeteria has a lunch. The idea behind this is that at APA we not only teach academic skills, but life skills as well -- such as not to eat at a meal before everyone else receives their food. This could be the difference between a scholar getting a high-achieving high school and a "typical" SE DC school (read: bad).

2:45-3:30 - Most fun part of the day. APA stresses "Joy Factor" -- the desire to want to be in school. At APA, we devote time to having fun, because for how hard we push our scholars, we believe they deserve to be rewarded. Also, it's important for them not only to see school as a place of work, but also as a place where they can have some fun. So, every day, we learned different APA songs at the end of the day. There isn't a really good way to describe these songs unless you actually experience them, but they work. I even find myself singing them when I go home every day. The songs promote scholar spirit and also, teach math lessons (we "roll"/count our numbers) while creating remixes of a lot of popular songs that scholars know.

3:30-4:00 - Daily awards and close out. At this time, we give daily awards (complete with certificate and APA wrist band) for a variety of categories to scholars who embrace the ideas we throw on them fully. When scholars are called, there are not cheers, but instead "SILENT ENTHUSIASM." Another life skill we teach is that scholars do not have to yell in order to get someone's attention, contrary to what they might be experiencing at home. Instead, when they are happy or really want to answer a question, we tell them to shoot all their energy through their arms, hands and fingertips. Following awards, we let scholars go, either through pick-up, walking home or taking public transportation - no school buses.

In addition to all of this, at the beginning and end of every day, platinum teachers gather for a meeting at 7:00 AM and then from 4-5, with teachers staying an extra half hour (or more) to prepare for the next day. I always knew teachers worked hard, but the hours that are required to do what we're doing are far more than I ever imagined. It's working though.

At the end of the week, we had the uniform ceremony. I want to write more about it, but honestly, there is so much to say that it deserves its own post. That will come (hopefully) soon, with an accompanying video that someone did when they came in. Stay tuned.

Yesterday and Today

Returning scholars are back. I'm working with 7th and 8th graders - the "Legacy" group. They are called "Legacy" and 4th-6th grades are called "Foundation" -- building a "Foundation" to leave a "Legacy" at APA. The 7th and 8th graders have been at APA longer, so they know what's going on, but they also don't have the same enthusiasm as the new scholars do, as it isn't new to them. So it's been different.

My host teacher for this year is amazing at what he does. Last year 100% of his scholars scored proficient or advanced on the DC-CAS (standardized test) to help make APA into the best school into the city. This is pretty much unheard of. Although it's going to be frustrating not being completely in control of a class, I know I'm going to learn so much from him.

Again, there's so much more to this place than what I described above. But that's a lot of it.

I'd like to give a shout out to YOU, the reader, for making it this far. (You got a shout-out [1!] You got a shout-out [2!] You got a shout-out [3!]....)
It's an APA thing.

BD

Edit: Just realized that I probably need to clarify why I'm not in complete control of a class. The first year of UTC is a "residency" year where we are placed with a master teacher at a school. The idea behind this model comes from a medical model, where brain surgeons do not learn how to do what they do whilst in the midst of surgery. Instead, they observe what's going on from a distance, while also being right on top of everything, to get a better feel of what's going on. UTC also believes that we are performing brain surgery in a way, although not in the traditional mindset. So, we also have to learn how to do brain surgery properly, as opposed to simply jumping into it and learning on the fly.

First Week at APA

Wow. OK, so, lots to talk about here. I started out with Achievement Preparatory Academy in Southeast DC, which for my sanity’s sake, I will hereon refer to as APA. I talked a little bit about APA in a previous post (Placement Day) so if you want more info on the school, you can find it there, mostly because I’m too lazy to type it all out again. I’m not really sure how this post is going to come out, because there is so much to cover, so I’m just going to type and see where this goes.

It’s only been a week that I have been there with three other UTC Fellows, but it’s amazing how much we already feel like a part of the community. This was really cool especially considering that we came into the teacher’s training two weeks later than everyone else, but were still not only welcomed, but embraced. I can’t count the number of times teachers went out of their way to make myself and my fellow UTC residents feel like we belonged. The community at the school among the adults feels infectious, and I could even feel myself buying into it fully by the end of the week when a new teacher joined us.

To give an idea about how the school works – we got in at 8 AM on Monday and found ourselves in the middle of a circle of 50 “Platinum Teachers” (plug: APA’s teachers are better than gold, they’re “Platinum”!), leading school spirit songs by lunch time. At APA, we learned a lot about the “Joy Factor” that students and teachers alike must carry with them everywhere they go. A big part of the reason “J-Factor” is so heavily emphasized at this school is because it is an extended school day, with every day starting promptly at 7:00 AM and concluding at 5:00 PM. It’s kind of amazing though how this past week, we put in a 40 hour week of professional development (PD), but it felt so much shorter than pretty much every week of my previous jobs, which were usually at or around 30 hour weeks.

The jist of our first week of PD was: its about you, but its not about you. Let me explain. Everything at APA begins with adult culture. So, for example, every teacher uses the same non-verbal cues in their classes for restrooms, pencils, etc. Every teacher uses and implements the same reward and deduction system. Every teacher begins and end class in the same way (for the most part – you’re still allowed to put your own personal spin on it). There is literally a system in place for EVERYTHING at APA. I mean, everything. This includes:

• closing binders as a class
• rounding corners at the end of a hallway
• responding to teachers
• responding to each other
• how to line up at the door
• a lot of other stuff I can't remember right now

The thing about it, is that APA does all this without a) signs on the wall saying what to do, and b) having a "military" feel. It's honestly just kind of something you have to experience.

The idea behind this is consistency. Many of the kids that we are going to be working with do not have a model of consistency in their lives, so our job as teachers is not only to prepare them academically for the real world, but also with general life skills. In the same vein, teachers are expected to have rigid dress standards, to set a standard of professionalism for the scholars (not students and DEFINITELY not kids at APA) because many do not know what someone working in a professional environment looks like, unfortunately. That means I’ll be spiffing it up in shirt and tie all day, every week day (and some Saturdays) from the end of the month until next June. Now if only I knew an affordable shirt and tie place….

So, it's about you. It's about making sure you're accountable and on top of your business. It's about knowing that if you mess up, you not only mess up for you, but you mess up for a system of 50 other adults who are all leaning on each other. But, at the end of the day, it's not about you at all. It's all about the scholars, and getting them where they need to be: the best high schools in the city and colleges in the country. APA is about every adult being accountable and responsible, but at the end of the day knowing exactly why we are doing what we do. We do what we do not to feel good about ourselves, but to empower our scholars and prepare them for life outside of APA.

That felt good.

(Realized I needed to clarify that statement. In DC, after middle school, scholars apply to high schools around the city not only from APA but from every school. It's actually really similar to the college application process.)

In addition to all that, we also learned about a variety of different classroom management techniques, many of which we learned about in the summer at UTC. (Plug #2: This book is a must for any educator, in any context.) The big difference is that at APA, with every technique, we practice it, either in small group (5-7 people) or medium group (~15 people) instruction. I really like this, because it's one thing to learn about a strategy, but it is a completely different thing to actually practice it. I think that this is a really important idea not only for us to remember, but for our scholars as well.

There's so much more that I would love to talk about but I guess that will come in later posts. This year I'll be working in a seventh grade math classroom, primarily in a support role. I wish we were playing a bigger role, but this is how it's going to be. Hopefully, I will look back on this year as providing me with great support to be the best teacher I possibly can be. Not going to lie, though, I already know I'm going to be frustrated a bit with not being in full control at times.

And now, some pictures of Achievement Prep! By the way, this school is literally surrounded by housing projects. And still produces some of the highest test scores in the city. Incredible.

BD

Justice League...ASSEMBLE!!

On Friday, the kids at Higher Achievement participated in the first annual Olympics of the Mind. At "OOM," students participated in a variety of activities that were supposed to gauge what they learned over the summer at HA. There were three categories: MathQuest (all math questions), BrainBowl (a mix of science, literature, and social studies questions) and Field Games (relay races, capture the flag, etc.). This was an event that everyone at Higher Achievement was really excited for, especially because it was the first time they were ever trying it in Baltimore.

Some of us decided to take things to the next level. We made a rap video that we thought would get the kids pumped up before the day started, and it was an incredible success. At the beginning of the video, when they realized what was about to happen, kids started getting out of their seats, yelling, oohs and ahhs -- the whole thing. I think that what surprised most people (kids and staff alike) was my verse. After the video was over, and we were fully participating in OMM, there were a bunch of "I didn't know you could rap like that Mr. Brad" and "I see you Mr. Brad" comments thrown my way. I just told them that this was one of the many tricks I had up my sleeve. Pretty awesome feeling, not gonna lie.

The idea for the Justice League video came from a couple different sources. At UTC, we created the "Justice League" as a group of guys who took on a professional identity during the day (i.e. Bruce Banner, Peter Parker, etc.) during the day but then had the ability to transform into something completely different at night, when the situation was appropriate. Some of the Justice League members were placed at the South Baltimore site (I was at East) and incorporated the Justice League idea into their morning meeting every day. The skits, which were completely improv, pitted two Justice Leaguers (Hulk and Captain America) against another resident, Lucian, who went by the name of Dr. Pollution (Po-lucian -- get it?) and his minions, whose only goal was to corrupt the minds of the South Baltimore kids. On Friday, the skits concluded with Dr. Pollution realizing the evil of his ways and transforming into Dr. Solution. This was the perfect segue into our video. A picture from a "typical" morning meeting at south is below:

Following our music video's world premiere, the entire Justice League was brought up on stage. One of our superheros, Segun (aka The Incredible Hulk) took the mic and talked about how even though kids were coming from a completely different school to join the scholars at South, they still were fighting for "justice" and equality, and they were seen as friends. I honestly think things went so well between the two schools at OOM (read: no fighting, name calling, etc.) because of this skit, speech and video. The Justice League, as they were presented on stage, is shown below:

*From L-->R: Iron Man, Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Thor, Wonder Woman, Captain America w/ Hulk on the mic*

I was going to explain all the lyrics on here but I found a great site that allows you to break songs down line by line called "RapGenius." To find a meaning behind a lyric, click on one of the yellow lines. This will lead you to a pop up of a text, video or picture explanation. The lyrics, explained, at RapGenius can be found at this link:

http://rapgenius.com/Justice-league-where-my-scholars-at-the-higher-achievement-anthem-lyrics

And finally, as it was presented to the children of Higher Achievement on Friday at Olympics of the Mind, I present to you: "Where My Scholars At (The Higher Achievement Anthem)" by the Justice League

BD

Last Day at HA

Today was our last day in class at Higher Achievement, our summer school program.

It's kind of amazing how emotional the day was today. We have only known these kids for five weeks, but it was still really hard to know that after tomorrow, they will be out in the world on their own. I will likely never see them again after tomorrow.

Today, the kids presented their science fair projects, which we have been working on for the past two weeks straight. Every single group finished, and covered topics ranging from tornadoes and gravity to black holes and the asteroid belt. There were some really cool models (examples here and here) and it was great to see everyone get up and present in front of the entire program. Not going to lie, their presentation skills need some work, but you have to start somewhere!

The coolest part of the day came in between our 2nd and 3rd period presentations. Every day, at this time, we have a "Community Meeting" or CM for short. At CM, the site director stands in the middle and leads various "brain break" activities including games like Four Corners, Big Wind Blows or 123 Clap. Today, however, our site director (whose name is Corinthian) decided that the kids would participate in a special shout-out session. Kids normally give "shout-outs" at the end of each day, in which they shout out each other or the staff for exceptional behavior. However, because today was the last day in the classroom, Corinthian decided that the kids would do their shout outs at CM, and more importantly, all shout outs would be directed at their teachers from UTC. During shout outs, kids are not required to speak if they would not like, but today, about one of every three kids stood up and wanted to say something.

Today gave me the feeling that I pursue every day in education. Kids were throwing shout outs everywhere, and it was so cool to see them expressing how they really felt about all their teachers. It was at this CM that you could see who really made a difference. Some of the things the scholars were saying was truly unbelievable -- talking about how they will always remember a specific lesson that they did, such as a mock trial in their social studies class, for example, or how they will remember us when they are in college or successful in life. These statements were especially powerful considering the circumstances that many of them are placed in every day when they leave school, and the odds that are stacked against them simply because of the area they are growing up in. As the kids went around the circle, I got a pretty good amount of shout outs. I was not the most shouted out teacher (that belonged to the 7th/8th math teachers) but I definitely got a ton of love from the kids, and a lot of it was specific praise, recalling help I gave on projects during the year, sometimes going back to the first couple of weeks. It was so awesome to hear this and know that I truly left an impact on the kids. It's really hard to remember that you're doing this some (read: a lot) of days, but today reiterated the belief in my mind that what we're doing out here is really special.

Tomorrow is our "Olympics of the Mind," in which kids compete in games and show off what they have learned all summer. However, we have a little surprise for the kids at the beginning of the day tomorrow. I won't give too much away, but I will give a couple pieces of foreshadowing:

-this music video

-this picture

Will DEFINITELY be posting about it this weekend. Turn up!!!

BD

Placement Day

On Friday, UTC had its Placement Day. On Placement Day, all the residents find out which city they're going to be living in, and if you're lucky, you get a school placement. Twenty percent of the cohort ended up not having a school placement, which sucks, but fortunately was not a problem for me. I was assigned to live in Washington D.C. for the next four years, and will be starting out at a school called Achievement Preparatory Academy (Achievement Prep, for short).

I initially put Washington D.C. down as my city preference blindly in March, having never visited the city before but hearing great things about it from everyone who has visited here. I also knew a few people out here, so it seemed like a relatively smooth transition from college. When I was assigned D.C. on Placement Day, though, I was definitely a little let down. I really warmed up to Baltimore while I was out here. The city gives off a great vibe, it's MUCH cheaper than D.C. and most of the people in my cohort that I spent a lot of time with are going to be staying in Baltimore. However, any pessimistic feelings I had about getting out of Baltimore were alleviated when I found out more about Achievement Prep.

Right now, Achievement Prep seems to be the perfect situation for me. It provides me with an opportunity to work in the worst area of DC, while also providing incredible structure. Achievement Prep is what people in education like to call a "90/90/90" school, meaning that more than 90% of students are eligible for free and reduced lunch (indicating low-income in a student's family), more than 90% of students are from ethnic minorities, and more than 90% of students met or achieved high academic standards according to state standards.

Achievement Prep is located in the worst part of DC, Ward 8, which is in the Southeastern corner. Ward 8 is home to one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, as about one of every three people in this part of the city are without a job. Poverty rates in Ward 8 consistently hover around 35%, and the average family income is about $44,000, which doesn't sound completely terrible until you consider the fact that DC holds the second highest standard of living in the country behind Manhattan, and the average household income for the city is about $115,000 for a family.

Still, Achievement Prep perseveres. Test scores are among the highest in the state, with 77% of "scholars" (what students are referred to at A. Prep) scoring proficient or advanced in reading, and 80% scoring proficient or advanced in math. The school  currently holds a "Tier 1" ranking, which is the highest honor a school can get in the state. In short, this school is constantly proving that all students can achieve high standards in the classroom regardless of race, Socio-economic status or school location. Kids come into Achievement Prep from the worst parts of DC, but leave with an incredible education.

I can't wait to get in there. In the first year, I will most likely be co-teaching math for either 6th, 7th or 8th graders (the school is 4-8 and I am looking to obtain a 6-12 degree). Judging by their website, Achievement Prep's main focus seems to be on college preparation. Team names in classes are not named after sports teams or celebrities, but instead, prestigious universities such as Howard University or University of Virginia. Quiz grades are returned with marks for a bachelor's degree (80%+), Master's (90%+) or PhD (100%). However, in addition to college-readiness, Achievement Prep puts a ton of emphasis on fun and community. Achievement Prep is also not only willing, but anxious to go the extra mile,  having an extended school day and Saturday Academy to help provide as much structure to their students as possible.

I tried my hardest to describe Achievement Prep, but I think this video will do a much better job of doing it than I ever could.

Finishing up summer school and classes this week/early into next week. I'm trying to come up with a witty joke to finish this thing off but it's late and I'm tired, so this is all I've got.

BD

Good Vibes Only!

Today, I tried something new in class.

Every day, the kids are instructed to come in and do a "Do Now." Every teacher at our summer school implements the Do Now, which is a 5 minute short activity that the students are supposed to complete every day coming into the classroom. The Do Now is used for review of a previous lesson or to prepare the students for the lesson that particular day. For example, if the lesson for that day concerned the carbon cycle, the Do Now would read something along the lines of: What do you know about cycles? (More info on Do Now's can be seen here.)

Today, I tried something different. This was for the benefit of both the kids, myself and my co-teachers. I felt that the kids needed a "brain break" -- they had gone through two or three periods straight of work prior to entering my class (science) and over the past four weeks, had been used to direct instruction from their teachers at the beginning of every class. While this is important for structure, it can also be a bit suffocating. I also felt that my teaching tendencies had become too up tight recently, and wanted to find a way for both the kids and myself to unwind and just have a little fun for five minutes before they got into their lesson of the day, which was researching science fair projects.

For all these reasons, the "Do Now" for science today was to simply get up and dance, sing, or laugh at my bad dance moves. For kids that didn't want to dance, they were told to write about what they liked about Higher Achievement (the name of the school) or anything else that made them happy. During this five minute stretch, I played a clean version of "The Show Goes On" by Lupe Fiasco. The idea behind this Do Now was written next to it on the board: GOOD VIBES ONLY! I wanted the kids to get into a good, positive mental state before getting into their work, even if it didn't have to do anything with science. My board, as the kids saw it, is posted below:

It could have went better, especially initially. I tried the Good Vibes Do Now in two classes. In the first, the kids got up and immediately started playing tag, roughing each other up, etc. This was my fault, as I didn't put any real rules for their free time on the board and just told them to have at it. Following this, many were off task and seemed distracted. In the second class, I made revisions, posting comments such as "hands and feet to yourselves," "no running," etc. I think that after this activity, I had the best class of the summer for this particular group of kids. Everyone was smiling after the Do Now, but then got a ton of work done for their science fair projects which are due next week. Some even came up to me and talked about how much fun class was today. Because this was my last class of the day, I came away thinking that today was a good day.

I obviously need to tinker with this approach, but I think there's a solid base here. Sometimes, I think teachers forget what they were like when they were kids, and do not provide time for the kids to be themselves, even if it's only for a couple minutes. There obviously has to be more structure than there was today, and I could have probably incorporated more science into the Do Now, but at the end of the day, kids were smiling and got significant work done (especially in the second class). There's something to be said for that.

By popular request, here's an albino pug. (Hi Beth!)

BD

Daily Rap

Hey y'all,

It's been a while since I posted. I know that every single one of you has been checking the site every day for new updates about my life out here, only to be disappointed with the same 25 page math article that I posted about last Sunday. I'm sure some of you have spent sleepless nights staring at the ceiling wondering why this is the case, and for that, I'd like to apologize. However, to make you feel a little better, I'm going to write for a really long time right now.

Not much has changed out here, but I mean that in the least boring way possible. After going through the last week, I'd say I'm averaging about four hours of sleep per night. Typical day: summer school, lunch in the car on the way back to campus, 5 hours of classes, dinner, 3-5 hours of homework, try to fit a workout/something resembling a social life in there, sleep --> repeat. We're really getting into the meat of the summer program now, with a lot of our final projects coming up. The first of those is on Thursday, and includes a 7 minute lesson in front of all our fellow cohorts in our section (mine is secondary math -- 19 people), our hardass classroom management professor and some of the higher ups from the UTC program. No pressure.

Apart from all the routine (for lack of a better word) things that are going on out here, one of the coolest things we have done throughout the course of the program took place last Monday. On Monday, we participated in something called "Daily Rap." Daily Rap is a way to build a community within schools in a creative way. If anyone has ever seen "If You Really Knew Me..." on MTV, it's really similar to that. If you haven't, this is what it is:

In Daily Rap, everyone present sits in a circle with no barriers in the middle. This can include teachers, administrators, students, etc. -- anyone who wants to talk, can, and everyone is treated as equals. School staff transforms from authority figures and directors to more of a guide or supporter. The is one of the main keys to daily rap -- creating a vibe that is seen as "safe," building relationships and trust with one another. One member of the staff takes on the role of leader of the group, who starts the conversation with something simple, such as, "What's your favorite flavor of ice cream?" Everyone goes around the circle, says their favorite flavor (or whatever the question is) until the leader answers for him/herself. However, as members of the group gain comfort with each other, topics increase in intensity. Topics such as current events, concerns, achievements and other important things in students' lives are brought up, and depending on how the session goes, a much deeper level can be reached. For example, in our daily rap, we got to the question of, "What was the best day you ever had?" This got really deep, and really intense. I loved it.

The key to Daily Rap is to keep it consistent. It is likely that in the first session, people will not be willing to divulge all their personal secrets. They told us to expect that the conversation might even feel awkward, clumsy or uncomfortable for the first couple of sessions. The hope is that over time, Daily Rap will serve as a way for students to talk and get off anything that's on their chest. For that reason, the ideal Daily Rap "setup" would be to start it at the beginning of the year and set a time/day/location for every week when it would be held. The other really cool thing about Daily Rap is you can say however much you want -- you could say a one word answer or tell a five minute story. Whatever you would like to share is absolutely up to you.

I have no idea when and how I'm going to implement Daily Rap into my classroom yet, but I know that I definitely want to. Schools that have implemented Daily Rap have consistently shown gains in academic achievement and reductions in behavioral problems at the school. For anyone that would be interested in implementing this at their schools, or even for using it at work or a nice, old-fashioned bullshitting session among friends, I'd be more than happy to pass along some of the questions they gave us in the pamphlet. There's a ton, but if you want the questions, just let me know.

Because you made it this far, here's a picture of an albino zebra. Have a great night.

BD

One of the most interesting articles I've ever read.

We were instructed to read "A Mathematician's Lament" by Paul Lockhart for my math immersion class today. Honestly, this article was mind-blowing for me. It is long (25 pages) but is extremely thought provoking. I would recommend anyone that is interested in mathematics instruction, or why they hated it growing up, to read it, if you have time. To steal a review from the Mathematical Association of America, "It is, quite frankly, one of the best critiques of current K-12 Mathematics instruction I have ever seen."

In short, this article expresses why our current system of mathematics is a nightmare, and goes on to explain why. The article accomplishes this by providing analogies to other art forms in the world, and how they operate in comparison to mathematics. It also provides examples of what math really is, not what we are trained to believe it is in schools. Brilliant stuff.

"A Mathematician's Lament"

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

Another Sunday, another chance to procrastinate all day on hours of homework. Biggest difference I've seen between undergrad and grad school: in college, when you were assigned reading for homework, the response was something along the lines of "Awesome, no homework tonight!" Now, if/when we are assigned reading for homework, the reaction is something along the lines of "Stock up on the energy drinks, I'm going to be up all night."

This weekend we had our last day of Saturday classes! This Saturday, we had an adolescent development class from 9-noon. Although it sucked to wake up for class on a Saturday, it had nothing on our two previous Saturdays, in which we had to wake up at nine and stay through the afternoon to do math. That's right, 6-8 hours of math in a row...on Saturdays. I physically had headaches walking out of those. However, now that Saturday classes are a thing of the past, my reaction is something along the lines of this. (NSFW - language)

Last post, I talked about a rant one of my professors had against us in which we were called out. In our next session, we had a 25 minute group discussion about the speech, which is something I really never thought would happen. I have to give my professor credit for doing that, and even though I was still a bit irked at what he said, I think our class has collectively put it in the past. Can't linger on the small stuff too much - not enough time.

Another busy week ahead. A couple two-hour panels on Tuesday/Thursday, meaning we will be out of the dorms from 7 AM-9 PM each of those days, with homework to do afterwards. Really getting into the heart of this summer program now.

BD

Grindin'

Fourth of July was awesome - shared some drinks with the residents and then went to fireworks on the Chesapeake Bay. Honestly, I'm not even that much of a fan of fireworks but even I thought this was amazing. We were on a huge man-made hill, right on the corner, where we could simultaneously see fireworks over the water on our left and another fireworks show on the right. Combined with all that were multiple (6ish) shows that were going on in the suburbs of Baltimore, far away from where we were. Still, we probably saw about eight fireworks shows total last night for the time it would spend to see one. I wasn't mad about it.

Back to work today. I was evaluated at my school doing a lesson on the composition of Earth's atmosphere, relating both to its chemical composition and the different layers that make up our atmosphere. I had the kids do a "popcorn" reading of an article related to it, then we spent time drawing models (pie graphs, pictures, etc.) that demonstrated their knowledge of the subject. I thought I did pretty well, but rumor is the UTC rubric is a pretty strict one, because they really want to push us. With that being said, I'm not expecting the most glowing review ever, but I figure I probably shouldn't be getting one after only a few lessons in the classroom. Teaching is so much of an experienced-based profession that this is just how it is sometimes.

We also had class afterwards. I won't say much about it besides in one of our classes, one of our professors called out the whole class for not caring enough because we were not showing enough energy for him, sitting in an 85 degree classroom (no AC) after going through a morning of teaching at our schools. Needless to say, some of us were not to pleased about it. I suppose someone has to push us even when it would be easy to make excuses, but we all thought he could have done a better job of phrasing his rant. Alas....

Reading, reading, reading tonight. Placement and two classes tomorrow. Another day, another (lack of a) dollar.

BD