TJensen's blog

My Teacher Corps Experience

 

My teacher corps experience can be summed up largely by what I have learned: 

Distance from God- We are often so quick to recognize what we perceive to be flaws and inadequacies in the behavior of our students. They frustrate us. They irritate us. They disappoint us. They just seem so distant from the goals and ideals that we set out before them. And we just don't get it. We know that getting an education can open up doors of opportunity for them. We know that success in future employment will require them to stay within certain behavioral boundaries of respect. So why don't they listen to us.... Why can't they see that the answer is so obvious and that ignoring it comes with life changing negative consequences.

 

It took me a while to come to the conclusion, that the distance we perceive between ourselves and our students is infinitely smaller than the actual distance between ourselves and God. God knows what it takes to find happiness in this life and the next. He knows what potential we each have to obtain this happiness. And he knows just how frequently we choose to act against what we have learned to be right trying to act in our own (seemingly) selfish best interest.

 

But like our students, we fall incredibly short of what we know to be right. The main difference is that the gap between us and God is infinitely greater than the perceived gap between us and our students. How frustrated he must be.

 

How we act like our students in class- It is odd how Teacher Corps participants' biggest complaints about their students mirror their own behavior in college classes. We hate it when students are constantly leaving to go to the bathroom, without permission, only to be gone fifteen to twenty minutes during the middle of our lessons. And yet, during Saturday classes I watch as an almost constant stream of (typically the same) Teacher Corps members walks out without permission, during the middle of lessons, only to return fifteen or twenty minutes later. Hmm. It drives us crazy when rather than listening to our lessons we see students texting away in the back of the room or trying to get away with listening to their ipod during class. Yet, during Saturday classes, just look around the room. Most Teacher Corps participants have their Macbooks open playing on facebook, watching a sporting event or online shopping. We can't stand it when a student becomes disrespectful to an important guest that we bring into our classroom. The guest receives no compensation and is just doing it as a favor to us, or because they believe in the students. But instead of greeting the guest our students mock or disrespect or challenge what they are saying just to show out. And yet, I have watched in agony as Teacher Corps participants have offended some of our most high profile guests by asking accusatory ignorant disrespectful questions.... (and by questions, I mean self-promoting ideological accusations) I admit that I have very little sympathy for the classroom complains of Teacher Corps participants who exhibit the same level of disrespect that they lament in their own classrooms. I really thing they should be videoed during a Saturday class and have to evaluate themselves as a “student”.

 

 

Love reciprocity- One of the more powerful lessons with which I will walk away from Teacher Corps is that Love does not have to be returned to be of value. There are some students that are easy to love because they are respectful, hard-working, kind and participating. There are others who are more challenging, that are very disrespectful, rude, lazy and refuse to join the class. Finding a way to genuinely love each of them anyway is a very difficult task,... but it is a worthy one.

 

It is easy to love the loveable students, because to some degree we sense that love to be returned. I suppose that is the reward, a reciprocation of your love. The great task, however, is to love the unlovable... to be kind to the unkind... to be respectful to the disrespectful. Perhaps this is the greatest love of all. Jesus, indeed died for the sins of many who would spend their time on Earth ignoring Him, willfully disobeying him and in some cases openly mocking Him. Does that mean that his love was wasted? On the contrary, I would argue that is what makes his pure love so powerful.

 

Bulgaria's version of Hell- Bulgaria has a version of their culture in Hell that I believe illustrates the tragedy of opportunity at many of the schools we teach. In their version, a Bulgarian dies and is escorted down to Hell. He finds that Hell is full of jars filled with people from various countries. He then sees that on top of each large jar are demons who poke people back down into the jars when they try to escape the torment and sentence of Hell. Each time a person is boosted up by others trying to escape, the demons poke them back down with pitchforks. When they get to Bulgaria's Jar, the man notices that Bulgaria has no such demons and just an open lid. “Why”the man asks. Then he notices that any time a Bulgarian tries to escape the jar, they are dragged back down not by the demons, but by the other Bulgarians who couldn't stand the idea of someone finding a freedom or success that they are to be denied.

 

Many of us in Teacher Corps have experienced watching students with real potential, ability and desire have their dreams halted by an unplanned pregnancy or trouble with the law. As a teacher it is heartbreaking to watch someone rise above the waves of poor performance and apathy to reach for bigger dreams, only to find them being dragged down back into the jar.

 

The right of the student who wants to be there- In America, every single child deserves the opportunity to grow to their greatest potential. This is why I joined the Mississippi Teacher Corps. It is painfully obvious that in much of America this opportunity is shaped by your zip code and skin color. However, the greatest injustice I see comes in a slightly different form than we typically identify. We spend so much time, money and attention in attempting to repeatedly extend this opportunity to those troubled students who refuse to embrace it and who refuse to work for it. While this is happening, there are a group of eager and respectful students who are losing their right to learn because the learning environment is constantly being interrupted by the behavior of those who don't. In many cases, with hard work and patience, it is able to reach both groups. But when this goal is not attainable, I feel that we should honor the right of the student who wants to take advantage of what you have over the student who refuses. And yet, I feel that in our current system it is those students who act out, refuse to participate and sleep during school who get the most money, opportunities and attention. Compulsory education should not mean that disrespectful students who refuse to participate have the right to prevent those who want to be there from learning. We should defend the rights of the students who want to be there much more aggressively than we defend the opportunities of those students who refuse to embrace them. No matter how badly we want it for them,.... no matter how creatively we can motivate them..... No matter how compulsory we make their presence.... They still have the right to choose.

 

While it is true that you cannot draw water from a dry well, in Mississippi I have found an ocean of talent in it’s forgotten children and communities.  Then if the problem is not in a lack of water, what is it? This well needs to be primed with the talent, leadership and compassion of those who see the potential in these children.  Dr. Mullins and other great leaders have worked hard to create pockets of hope in Mississippi through programs like the Mississippi Teacher Corps.  Though seeing the depth of the problem has been daunting, there is a great hope.  

 

As long as their are people who believe in the miracle of the human soul and the value of every child, we will continue to prime this pump until the waters of success spring up in the neglected communities of the forgotten children of Mississippi .  

 

 

 

 

Free Write-Open Letter to all my former teachers...

Open apology letter to all of my former teachers-

 

Dear Former Teachers,

 

I believe that Karma has taught me a lot about what life must have been like for you with me as a student.

 

You were right. Though a bunsen burner can effectively reheat the frozen pizza I grabbed for my lunch that day, it is probably not the wisest tool in a building with sensitive fire alarms.

 

You were right. Using that girl's arm as a mold for my Spanish II Pinata, though creative, was probably not the most thought-out or considerate design.

 

You were right. Playing floor hockey with the heavy steel shuffle board set on the second level of the gym was probably dangerous. And while that girls ability to grow hair again through the scarring left by 12 head stitches was miraculous, one should not rely on miracles to avoid a negligence lawsuit.

 

You were right. The straightest line between your classroom and the principal's office WAS NOT through the football field. But the weather was so nice at the time and I had no idea how you caught me given that it only took me 47 minutes to make it the 50 feet to his office. You were so wise. .

 

I was wrong. Copying and pasting my biography on Robert Frost from the first link to an internet search of ”biography on Robert Frost” turned out not to be an easy “A”.

 

I was wrong. Remember the time a few of us thought that riding our horses to school and tying them to the bike rack would be fine. What was going though my head when I thought the phrase “free fertilizer” would improve my argument to the principal.

 

I was wrong. Our shop teacher did not find putting his car up on cinderblocks to be as funny as we all thought he would. I suppose we should have thought about that when we signed each block with our names and graduating year.

 

I was wrong. Though skipping class to take a long lunch makes sense to a Sophomore brain.... it does not make sense when you go to the same restaurant at which your Superintendent is eating with your assistant principal.

 

So in closing, I guess what I am saying is that I now understand what it is like to be on the other side of rather poor student decisions. And if I could, I would go back, grow a longer leg and kick my own ass for the stress and headaches I caused you. For now, just enjoy the solace of knowing that karma is teaching me all the lessons that I apparently wasn't learning back then.

 

Sincerely,

Trevor

 

Why you should or shouldn't join MTC

Why should you join the MTC?

 

Character is forged in the furnace of adversity- Despite the successes you can potentially unearth in Teacher Corps, this work is HARD... REALLY HARD. True courage is not an attribute unto itself, but rather the display of true character when an attribute is pushed to its very breaking point. Your patience, love, creativity, wallet and sticktoitiveness will all be testing to their extremes in Teacher Corps. If you truly want to know what you are made of and if you have true courage... THIS IS THE FURNACE FOR YOU!

 

Education needs spokespeople in all sectors- Participating in Teacher Corps will place the vast inequalities in education out of a numeric recognition in your head and into a deep soulful place in your heart. Whatever you do after Teacher Corps, you will be a qualified friend, defender and proponent of education for the rest of your life.

 

Due to their lack of social life outside of the program, other MTC'ers will likely find you more attractive than you really are. 4's and 5's are consistently fought over like 9's and 10's. So don't worry about the inevitable extra 15 pounds that a poor diet, long relatively inactive days and stress will add onto you.....in the land of the Blind the one-eyed MTC'er is King.

 

 

Why should you not join the MTC?

 

Teacher Corps is a marathon, not a sprint- If you are focused on the end result of Teacher Corps (the degree, how it will look on a resumé, the job you can get when you're done) you will not make it. Sure, you may complete the program, but the impact you will have will be as shallow as your reasons for joining. Day-to-day hard work, not trophy seekers get the real job done in MTC.

 

These are kids, not a study abroad adventure- Teacher Corps is a roller coaster of rewards and challenges, an adventure indeed. But PLEASE, don't join MTC merely because because you are looking for an adventure. These kids have real lives, real challenges and real dreams. This is not a backpacking trip to Europe tied up nicely with a master's degree.

 

One Teacher Corps year = 5 Human Years- Due to the physical, emotional and mental stress that giving these kids you're all every day entails.... realize that 1 MTC year = 5 Human years. If you arrive at age 25, you will leave at age 35. You may also with to add 15 pounds to your starting weight.

 

GRADING--
DO NOW GRADING- During the Do Now I have the first student with a finished correct answer become my DO NOW GRADER. He/She walks around the room and writes in marker a +5 if it is correct, a +3 if it is finished but incorrect and a “0” if it is incomplete or if the student is talking. This accomplishes two things: 1- It motivates students to participate actively in completing the DO NOW as they are receiving instant grading coupled with instant consequences for those not following DO NOW procedure. 2- It saves a lot of time grading as the DO NOW is already graded each day for each class period.
WRITING THEIR OWN QUIZ- When given adequate structure, having students write their own quizzes can be an effective teaching tool. I have students write their own quizzes and corresponding answer key which is a great review for them. Then I have them trade quizzes and take another students. When they are done they grade the quiz that they wrote using the answer key they created. This drastically cuts down on grading and also generates numerous unique quizzes and fulfills the exercise of reviewing. After doing this once, it also motivates them to take better more complete daily notes as their notes are a easy to use source of possible quiz questions.
FOLDERS AND BINS- (SEE ELISE “I went to Yale” PATTERSON for details. )
USE SCAN TRON SHEETS- If at your school you have access to scan tron sheets and grading, use them every single time you have a test or quiz. Grading longer quizzes and tests seems to take more time than just about everything. Take advantage of scantron sheets whenever possible to minimize hand-grading which can take forever. Also students are more eager to see their grades on test than on other graded work. Scantron provides a shorter turn around time.
USE ANSWER SHEETS- If you do not have a scantron machine at your school, create a procedure in which you have your students create uniform answer sheets for quizzes and daily work. Hunting and searching for scattered or nonuniform answers can be exhausting and dramatically increase the time needed to grade a quiz or test.
AVOID SHORT ANSWERS- Though sometimes short answer questions are needed to increase DOK level and to adequately assess a students knowledge of some topics, they are exhausting to grade. Limit short answer questions to those concepts or objectives that require such a knowledge.

HOPE FOR THE NORTHEASTERN ELITIST

Many Amherst (please, the “h” is silent) and Yale-ish Northeasterners come into the Mississippi Teacher Corps, resume and daddy's money in hand, prepared to fix the backwards and far inferior Southern world with their awesomeness. Surely my mediocre grades in “Gender Studies” will solve poverty and illiteracy, they think to themselves. Unfortunately, when the first “F#$% YOU” comes flying their way after a sympathetic but stern bathroom break refusal, no amount of “but I was the president of (insert liberal cause group or general access sorority here) seems adequate to turn the tide of first year frustrations..... but there is hope.

Despite your inability to drastically change hundreds of years socioeconomic problems in the rural South, you can still have a dramatic impact on individual students. You may have to redefine your notion of success. You may even have to make this not about you.
I hope you will find some of that hope in one of my favorite stories:

One day an old man was walking along the beach. It was low tide, and the sand was littered with thousands of stranded starfish that the water had carried in and then left behind. The man began walking very carefully so as not to step on any of the beautiful creatures. Since the animals still seemed to be alive, he considered picking some of them up and putting them back in the water, where they could resume their lives.

The man knew the starfish would die if left on the beach's dry sand but he reasoned that he could not possibly help them all, so he chose to do nothing and continued walking.

Soon afterward, the man came upon a small child on the beach who was frantically throwing one starfish after another back into the sea. The old man stopped and asked the child, "What are you doing?"
"I'm saving the starfish," the child replied.
"Why waste your time?... There are so many you can't save them all so what does is matter?" argued the man.

Without hesitation, the child picked up another starfish and tossed the starfish back into the water... "It matters to this one," the child explained.

Now, before you oversimplify this anology into a message about reaching individual students during your time of service.... I invite you to consider that perhaps, you are the starfish.

3 "teacher skills" to work on for Summer School

BREAKING DOWN LESSONS INTO SMALLER SEGMENTS-  How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.  I find that my best lessons were those in which I not only planned every 5 minutes out, but those in which I broke down the lesson into very small 5 or 10 minute segments.  In teaching 9th graders specifically, student attention spans are very short, especially if the material is challenging.  There were a few times that I would lose an entire classes attention by having given a lengthy and difficult set of independent questions, where I was unable to walk around and give sufficient help to individuals before others would become discouraged and give up, which typically lead to behavioral distractions.  By keeping segments of my class shorter and more pointed, it also made class seem to go by much quicker for my students who ultimately were completely more work than on days that seemed longer due to longer segments.  This kind of teaching requires a lot more preparation and planning, but the rewards are immense.  It also allows you to reassess students progress more frequently thus allowing you to differentiate instruction more easily and consistently

RETURNING GRADED WORK IN A TIMELY MANNER-  Though I only taught one prep at a time this year, my classes were on such different levels, and were filled with students on such varying levels that I almost always had to plan multiple, very distinct lessons based on their way of learning.  As a result, if often took me a long time to grade and return independent work.  I learned that students really thrive on knowing consistently where they are at grade wise and also enjoy the feeling of accomplishment when they do well.   Of course it also is extremely valuable to grade work frequently as another tool for assessing my students progress and to tailer future lessons based upon the grading of independent work.  I want to schedule a short time each day to grade the work from the day and make it a habit.  

MAKE-UP WORK-   Due to the fact that I never really came up with an effective way of compiling and providing makeup work for students, I ended up using a lot of time and exhausting myself trying to help students makeup zeroes and missing assignments.  I was simply unprepared for the number of students who would be out sick or in ISS or suspended on a consistent basis.  I have to admit I was a little shocked by and definitely unprepared for the number of days many students would miss.  I am going to work on getting some ideas and creating a workable system for me next year to provide meaningly makeup work for absent students.  

Response to Josh's testing blog

I believe that the person who says it can't be done, is usually interrupted by the person doing it...... unfortunately, I find it impossible to agree with a Yankee's fan.  Josh, you have probably never even seen the Mississippi State Business Computerations test have you?  

Josh touches on two issues that I think in fairness have to be in some way separated for discussion: State Testing and Teaching.  

When it comes to teaching, I believe that Josh is absolutely right.  A teacher who is good at coming up with excuses is rarely good at anything else. When there is evidence of teachers helping failing classes to achieve amazing results the only real excuse we have is ....."obviously I'm not doing something they are doing" or "clearly, I lack something they possess".   I have seen many peoples' lives stall in mediocrity because they get caught up focusing on the obstacles in their lives that they cannot fix or control.  Their obstacles are very real and often times extremely heartbreaking, but the real tragedy is when they waste their time and energy and sometimes lives in being defined by that obstacle.  It's true, many of our schools are broken.  Many of our administrations are unsupportive, inept and disorganized.  It's true, many of our students do not want to work and preform the "full body eye-roll" when asked to complete even basic tasks.  BUT, guess what's also true????  OTHER TEACHERS H AVE SUCCEEDED IN THESE SAME ENVIRONMENTS.  CONSISTENT STRONG TEACHING RESULTS IN IMPROVED TEST SCORES.  THE OBSTACLES WE FACE WILL NOT BE CHANGING ANYTIME SOON, SO ONLY WE CAN CHANGE. A BAD STATE TEST DOES NOT HAVE TO EQUAL BAD TEACHING.  

Now on to what I believe to be a topic that should be addressed separately, current state testing.  I strongly feel that some poorly written state tests don't perform their proposed function of tracking student achievement and teacher quality....  in reality, they only show that the state was able to distribute a very poorly written test.  Generally I agree with what Josh says, that our students are capable of great success when consistent good teaching without excuses takes place.  Then unfortunately, I think Josh gets roped into the same arbitrary line setting  in which many states find themselves.

Josh states,

  Every teacher should be able to at least get seventy to eighty percent of his or her students to pass the exam.  

I agree that teachers should be drastically improving student performance void of excuses ... but where do the numbers 70-80 come from?  It think it should be 82.  Josh is an amazing teacher and his staff raves about him.  (despite the fact that he supports a no-good elitist side-burn shaving biggest budget in baseball gutter team like the Yankees) but be careful..... if  this year you don't have 80% of your students pass the state test... I will be writing a long and pointed critical blog about you that will be read by all 2 of the people following the great writing and wisdom known as my blog.  

What makes a great teacher (cat posters)

I once had a certain Mr. Bonds tell me that "what makes a great teacher" was a steamy romantic interlude between his parents a few decades ago.  Right now I am trying desperately to remove that image from my mind and focus on my own thoughts.  

While I quickly tire of Teach for America's seemingly endless and unabashed self-promotion (especially by those "attempting" to appear unassociated with their program) it is undeniable that increasingly every year TFA has been able to recruit a pretty impressive cadre of talented ambitious new teachers.  And likewise, while I didn't fall in love with this article, it is refreshing to see a more substantive paradigm for pinpointing specific traits that increase a candidates likeliness for success in the classroom.  

One of my biggest complaints is that Schools of Education, and the "academic" field of education in general, take such an unacademic approach to guiding their teaching strategies and programs.  They seem to rely heavily on anecdotal solutions, status quo repackaging and empty "feel good" mottos (you know, the kind that typically can be found on a glossy poster with a comically posed cat and really "cute" font. "hang in there", "working together" or even "bad hair day?"...... ..shudder ...........

There are clear examples of teachers in critical needs schools across the country who appear to have been able to far exceed the status quo by bringing their students' grade levels up multiple years in a single school year.  I suppose the question is one of replicability, sustainability and scale.  How do we replicate this? How do we spread this in large measure across the nation's failing schools? and how do we assure that these successful teachers will keep teaching.

Though impossible to legitimately quantify, as were most proposed TFA predictors for success, a quality they deemed "grittyness" stood out to me as having real merit.  Grittyness- the ability to overcome great obstacles and daily stress with a sustiainably high level of optimism, creativity and hard work.  Let's be honest,... we've probably all poured our hearts and every waking moment into a successful unit or lesson plan and yet found ourselves not fully able to replicate or sustain that kind of effort into the following week.  We have probably all lamentably produced a lackluster lesson after burning ourselves out or letting the obstacles and our students apathy wear us down.  Can you imagine how different our impact might be if we were able to replicate or at least mimic our best days.... our best lessons.... our greatest successes every single day in the classroom.

I believe that finding teachers who have overcome great tragedy and have a history of finding success under extremely difficult or stressful situations  will produce teachers who have a much better chance of replicating successes in the classroom than those who have not.  As to how you find those teachers and ensure that they stay in the classroom (unlike the model teacher from the article who is already planning to go into administration) I am thinking of another cat poster with a cuddly calico asleep in a flower pot with the cutely fonted mantra... "DREAM BIG".

Testing Requirements for Graduation

Why the push toward state testing?  Is it for accountability, student assessment or perhaps a way to “stimulate” secure job growth in the “doubled in size under the Bush presidency” Federal bureaucratic hydra, the Department of Education?  With increased competition from overseas and a dissolution of the U.S. manufacturing sector, hopefully we can all agree that better preparing our students for the future through increased school accountability is a necessary thing.   Perhaps then, the real question is for what are we preparing these students?  College?

 

The truth is the dysfunctionally inept U.S. high school system is doing little more than mirroring the archaic system of real world preparation that a liberal arts college path provides.   Who knew that the only thing necessary for your future career following $45,000 in debt to complete your Philosophy of Art Education degree would be mastery of the line, “Would you like fries with that”?  Colleges and Universities continue to model themselves one after another with little thought to real job market application.  Now don’t get me wrong,… I believe that a solid background in liberal arts coursework still serves as a strong foundation upon which to build an education.  I just don’t think that America’s future job market is begging for millions of sociology majors… and yet rather than truly designing their programs for the needed training for specific future job markets, they continue to expand and even subsidize flailing liberal arts programs in the name of tradition and status quo. 

 

 

As the pressure for states and schools to perform under the accountability requirements of high stake testing, it appears that most states are opting to bend their test to their students level rather than lifting their students’ abilities to be proficient on the tests.  Few states seem to be testing with any real purpose, but rather simply out of forced Federal obligation or a desire to appear “accountable”.   Whereas Universities, especially private, still enjoy the freedom and autonomy necessary to build programs out of innovation rather than statute, I hope they lead the way in shifting the way high schools test accountability and prepare students for college.

 

Rather than simply going through the motions of testing or writing tests simply to fulfill a Federal “guideline”, schools need to find ways to best prepare all of their students for the jobs and challenges of the 21^st century.   This means much more than a solid background in liberal arts education.  I believe that states should abandon this notion of state testing all together unless they are prepared and adequately equipped to gather testing information objectively and apply it to real solutions for improved scores.  It’s time both high schools and colleges act out of real purpose.  

Why You Should Join the Mississippi Teacher Corps

1.)  If you really want to grow as a person, you will need a task much bigger than yourself.  Teaching in a Mississippi critical needs school will require you to learn a new set of skills.  It will require you to work far outside of your comfort zone and to grow a love for those you serve that is bigger than the daily obstacles you will face.  Taking a more comfortable path will not create the depth of challenges necessary for the growth opportunities that this program will provide you with.  

2.)  The greatest strength of the Mississippi Teacher Corps is in its participants.  You will surround yourself with a compassionate talented group of people (I'm kind of a big deal) who are driven to make a daily small difference in the lives of those students they teach.  As a group, we share one another's burdens, encourage those that are struggling and celebrate the successes we experience.  You WILL get discouraged some days, but you will not be alone.  

3.)  The South has a unique rural beauty that is warm and inviting.  You will not be prepared for all of the crazy cultural and social adventures you may experience in the rural South.  Clear your mind of all stereotypes and expectations.... and just enjoy the journey.  

4.)  Don't you get sick of people stopping at just words when discussing the problems of poverty and inequality in education??  This program puts you on the front line of being a part of the solution.  The experiences you have will shape your thoughts and attitudes for the rest of your life.

5.)  This is a true adventure.  All of the "easy" things in this life have already been invented, said and conquered.  It is very exciting to be a part of a working on a problem that has found no true solution.  In fact every single day is a new challenging adventure.  

6.)  Be an answer to these kids often unspoken prayers.  Many of these kids have so little that they have no idea of what opportunities are out there for them.  You have the chance in this program to be perhaps the only person involved in their lives who can open their eyes to their true worth and potential.  

7.)  You should definitely join if you have the desire to gain 15-35 pounds during your first year.  Southern cooking is amazing and bountiful.  Sadly, I am allergic and it makes me swell up.