Karl Nastrom’s Neighborhood

I was going to write about a situation at my school today that upset many of the MTC teachers, but I think Brent  did it better than I ever could...

This reminds me of the "We are the Fighting Irish" ads they play during ND football games.  Danielle Hall, Notre Dame and MTC alum, is featured in this recruitment/information video about the Mississippi Teacher Corps:

Como Elem.

           Overall, this semester has been good. Things were rocky for about the first month and a half, which was expected, but the whole time I was telling myself things would get better and they did. Getting my bearings in the school and with the students was a process, but I finally feel comfortable where I am, and according to Ben, I have made it through the toughest time of my entire teaching career! That really is a comforting thought–I have made it through the hardest part of the hardest thing I'll probably ever do. One of the biggest reasons I decided to come down here was to challenge myself, and to know that I have been able to get through it is an encouraging feeling.

            One thing I started at the beginning of the semester and have recently kind of slacked up on is planning. I used to spend the entire day on Sunday planning out the whole week, but I've started planning up until about Wednesday and then getting tired and stopping. My lessons are always really good until Thursday, in which they're usually half-put together because I was too tired to put something good together. Come Thursday I'm usually exhausted and have no energy; Thursdays and Fridays are usually the days where "Ms. Levine in a bad mood." That's one thing I want to get better at for the upcoming semester, getting complete plans done ahead of time and making sure I'm getting enough rest all throughout the week.

            As far as my placement goes I feel very fortunate. My school and the students are great, my administration is overall very supportive, especially compared to others I have heard about, and Panola county is right in the middle of two big cities. I'm lucky to have as many teacher corps as there are in my school, it's made this experience a lot more enjoyable. 

Although I am not completely new to the teaching profession, I often feel similar to first-year teachers since I am in my first year at KIPP Delta in Helena, Arkansas. In certain ways (easy and plentiful access to resources, myriad intelligent and hard-working colleagues, high expectations on student behavior and academic output) KIPP is very different from the school I taught at the past two years in Belzoni, Mississippi. In other respects (socioeconomic and racial demographics, general lack of student motivation, administrative acquiescence to parents) it is quite similar to my previous school. In reflecting on this first semester, three major realizations that I have encountered come to mind. I will reflect on each briefly:

1) KIPP students are no different from other students.

The students that I work with in Helena are very similar to my students from Belzoni. If often feel like Helena belongs on the other side of the Mississippi River somewhere deep in Quitman or maybe Leflore County. It would closely resemble other large Delta towns like Greenwood, Clarksdale, and Indianola. Prior to moving to Helena I thought that the students at KIPP were better off socioeconomically than average Delta kids or that they had more committed parents than normal. I found that my students have no silver spoon in their mouth and few doting soccer moms in their house. Students misbehave just as much at KIPP as they do at other public schools. What has actually been even more surprising is the heightened level to which a number of students misbehave as they seem to attempt to either get expelled or get their parents to take them out of KIPP due to our high behavioral and academic expectations.

2) KIPP entails a major commitment on the part of teachers.

The commitment that KIPP teachers make to their students begins early. In looking at my Gmail Inbox, I count over 50 emails sent between myself and KIPP administrators and fellow teachers between the first week of June when I accepted their offer of employment and the last week of July when we began our professional development/orientation. This is in addition to (at least) weekly phone call check-ins while at home in New Jersey that my school director (principal, essentially) and I had regarding my assignments. Yup, assignments. With due dates, criteria and all. On my first day of professional development I had a beautiful new cell phone waiting for me at work. This phone is with all the time and the number goes out all over to colleagues, parents, students, and anyone else who would like to contact KIPP Delta's 7th grade math teacher and debate team coach.

My work day usually begins at 5:30 and I'm usually at school sometime between 6 and 6:30 a.m. I'm rarely the first (or second or third) teacher there. Prep periods are scant and I'm one of the lucky few teachers with a morning AND afternoon one. Multiple teachers have NO PREP PERIOD. I'm also fortunate in that I only teach one core subject. Other teachers teach two (i.e. math and science or English and social studies) and some teach two strands of a core subject in the same classroom (i.e. algebra to 20 kids on the right side of a classroom and geometry to 10 kids on the left side...simultaneously). Although the regular school day ends at 4 p.m. (recently shortened from 5 p.m.) most teachers are expected to do an hour of an extracurricular activity and/or an hour of tutoring in their subject area each evening. Thus, my work day usually ends at 5 p.m. due to daily math tutoring and on Tuesdays and Thursdays it ends at 6 p.m. due to my coaching the debate team. I'm usually home about an hour after my work day ends...although I live only a few minutes' drive from my school. Saturday school occurs bi-weekly throughout most of the school year and a three-week long summer school is mandated as well.   

3) KIPP is the most innovative educational environment I have ever been a part of.

If you are psycho about teaching (and yes, essentially all MTCers fit into this category...at least all of those who last a year) then you will fit right in at KIPP. Far too often I felt that I was working much harder than my colleagues at my previous school. I would literally be laughed at for grading papers (even EXAMS). I was often the first teacher there and the last to leave. Students complained that my class was harder than their others. And on and on and on.... At KIPP, more or less all teaches are crazy, hard-working beasts. Almost everyone on the faculty is 20-something or barely in their 30's and from all corners of the nation. Together we are part of an amazing educational experiment that allows us to choose our own books and curricular material, teach using innovative instructional strategies, change the schedule on a daily basis as necessary (need an extra half hour for math? Just send a text to the phone of the ELA teacher), and sometimes even kidnap kids to get them to achieve at the very highest levels possible (ask me for stories). Where else could you have a school director mandate that teachers jump on a table in the cafeteria in front of the entire student body and sing and dance on cue or enter a classroom where intense pre-algebra instruction is occurring and mandate that every student smile at him while telling the teacher to hold up the arms of students who refuse to smile so they can be tickled into submission (both have happened to me this semester)? Anything but ordinary. Simply extraordinary.The movement is moving.   

Chimaobi Amutah
EDSE  647
Book Review

Is Bill Cosby Right?: Or Has The Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind?
by Michael Eric Dyson

    Each year in cities and towns large and small throughout the United States races for municipal office seem to boil down to two dominant, pervasive, and recurrent political issues: public safety and public education. Crime and education are so important to citizens because they concern not only the voters themselves but, most often, their invaluably precious children. Whether one looks at statistics outlining arrest and incarceration rates or dropout and literacy rates, the racial group doing the worst across the board is Blacks. Myriad theories have been put forth as to why this is the case and a plethora of articles and books have been published based on formal, scientific research as well as informal observation and reflection. In the book Is Bill Cosby Right?: Or Has The Black Middle Class Lost Its Mind? by venerable Georgetown University professor of sociology and cultural commentator Michael Eric Dyson, Dyson reflects on Bill Cosby’s take on why the community that he is a part of seems to fare so poorly in this society.
    The book’s antecedents lie in a highly controversial speech that Bill Cosby delivered in May 2004 after receiving an award at a commemoration event paying homage to the historic Brown v. Board Supreme Court decision of 1954. In his speech, Cosby decried the state of Black youth today who speak improper English, fervently pursue careers as athletes and rappers, and lack the basic self-discipline and motivation to make anything of themselves, their families, and their communities. Cosby’s comments sparked a firestorm of responses, most critically from other Blacks who felt as though Cosby’s age, wealth, and fame have left him out of touch with the current youth of the Black community and thus disqualifies him from making such generalized and hyper-critical statements. Michael Eric Dyson was one such critic who has made a point of combatting Cosby’s harsh rhetoric.
    In his book, Dyson, in true social scientist form, makes the case that extrinsic issues are more to blame for the myriad issues facing urban Black youth of today than a lack of quality parenting as Cosby professes. Dyson points to still-present and documented institutional racism that accounts for police arresting and charging Blacks at rates much higher than other racial groups as well as prosecutors seeking trial and incarceration more often than plea bargaining and judges issuing lengthier prison stays for Blacks. Dyson places Cosby in the same tradition as other elitist Blacks throughout U.S. history who were heavily critical of Blacks who they felt embarrassed the race, particularly in front of Whites--the “Afristocrats” as Dyson cleverly deems them. He makes these points all the more personal with regards to Bill Cosby by pointing to Cosby’s own struggles as a parent such as fathering a daughter out of wedlock and having another daughter publicly struggle with overcoming a drug addiction.
    This book is highly pertinent to the work that we as educators do, particularly at my current school. The KIPP network of charter schools in general and KIPP Delta in particular prides itself on working in rough inner-city and rural communities with majority-Black and Latino students from low-income backgrounds. One of the hallmarks of KIPP is discipline and the lengths to which we go to have our students speak, sit, walk, and even read with proper etiquette is amazing. Visitors to our school from local farming groups to the Governor of Arkansas remark at how amazingly well-behaved, courteous, and well-spoken our students are. This behavior seems to fly in the face of their preconceived notion that our students would be the type of students that Bill Cosby lambasted so passionately back in 2004. Our poor, Black students are expected to be loud, speak improperly, get into fights, and not have high standardized test scores. Far too often, students internalize these expectations and they morph into self-fulfilling prophecies. Thus, Dyson is correct in saying that low-quality parenting is not the predominant factor contributing to the state of Black youth today. Sadly, a lack of exposure to their own possibilities and a dearth of self-esteem are more deserve a greater share of the blame.

though i think arne duncan's speech on "teacher colleges" was pretty well-crafted, i don't know if i truly still understand the concept of a teacher's college.  before i get into explaining why perhaps the most important thing could be to fund these institutions, i think i need to see if i actually believe in what they are aimed at doing.

In response to: this speech.

I am really happy I chose an alternate-route program. I can’t help but think how horrible it would be to spend four years learning what we learned in a couple classes over the summer. I have learned to teach the way I learn best: being thrown into something and having to play guess and check until I get it right. I still haven’t gotten it right, but I don’t feel like the things I’ve gotten wrong are things I could have picked up in a classroom setting where I wasn’t at the front of the room.

This speech claims that education programs aren’t adequately preparing their students for real-world teaching positions. A society where the most needy students are taught by either the worst or most un-prepared teachers is only perpetuating our country’s public education problems,  and it is embarrassing and pathetic. A realization of this as a national concern is a crucial step that many have not taken. The idea of education as “the civil rights issue of our generation” is why I became so passionate about teaching in a critical need district. The status of public education is a problem that a) no one knows about, and b) no one is fixing. I would forever feel guilty if I was given the opportunity to make a change and passed it up.

That being said, I can’t help but question my own performance as a teacher. I am doing the best I can, but what I have seen is that the students in our schools don’t need first-year teachers that barely know what they’re doing, despite the enthusiasm and creativity that the baby boomer generation teachers may lack, they need the best of the best to come in here and lead a major reformation in our small schools. These students need more than they are given; I think this everyday.

At the same time, this speech evokes a sense of urgency and a sense of possibility; this is step one. Step two–action, a bit more difficult, but it can happen. Despite how deep in the mud so many of our communities are, people like us-recognizing the problem and working toward a solution- is a step in the right direction.  I may not be great now, but I want to be. 

...once again, mixed feelings toward EVERTHING down here. This has been a reoccurring theme. (see below post)

 On another note, I like the quote this speech ended on: "A teacher affects eternity—he can never tell where his influence stops."

 I think I will post this on my desk. 

In response to: this!

I have days where I feel really good about teaching. I feel like I’m good at it, I feel like my kids have learned something, and I feel like I’m making the impact I came down here to make. This feeling is usually on a Monday or a Tuesday.

Early in the week I’m always fully-planned: I have the most energy, my lessons are the most creative, and the kids aren’t too tired of the week yet. By Friday, I don’t know why I’m here. By Friday, my class has failed the quiz I have just given them and made me feel that I wasted my whole week because they didn’t learn anything. By Friday, I don't want to be at school and I count down the minutes more than my kids do; I feel useless. It happens every week. 

Much of Pete’s speech is about the impact we make in the classroom, and the fact that we’re making an impact even when we don’t feel like we are. This is something I have had to continuously remind myself in order to not get discouraged in this job. Pete talks about how one of the most challenging aspects of teaching is coming from a background where if you work hard enough you will get want you want, but realizing that there is no formula for getting what you want out of teaching. Sounds like a Friday. 

He speaks of the frustrations unique to our situation. One frustration I didn't expect–the ambiguity that comes with everything; specifically measuring my progress.  If my kids fail, then I’m not sure whether I failing them for not teaching them well enough, or doing a good job for pushing them. If the students say I’m an “excellent” teacher, even though they don't have "excellent" grades, does it mean that they really think I’m a good teacher or are they confusing “excellent” with “easy” “fun” or “cool?” Is it even a compliment for a kid to tell you you’re in excellent teacher? I almost feel like I'm clueless at how to gauge things. If my principal never talks to me does that mean I'm in the clear or that he doesn't like me? These unexpected concerns are weird things I feel I only have in common with other people in the program.

            Pete speaks highly about the high caliber of people that join the teacher corps. My experience has been similar. My class is made up of some of the most diverse yet most impressive people I have known. They are kind, quirky, and have made me love a state that I never thought I could enjoy in the least. 

           I really like it though. I like the state, I like the school, I like the program and I like the people. These annoying obstacles and the challenge behind everything is the reason I came down here. I am very appreciative to be where I am right now, so I can’t say Pete’s speech was the eye-opener I needed or anything, but it was definitely a nice reminder.

No, it doesn’t have to. No matter how constrained a teacher is, I’ve determined that school does not have to be a creativity killer. To apply some ancient, wise words (2 Corinthians 4:8-9): “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; … struck down, but not destroyed.” In other words, NCLB and the obsessive, accountability-driven administrative directives it begets cannot single-handedly kill creativity in the classroom. Sure, state tests “stigmatize failure,” as Ken Robinson states. Teachers, though, do not have to stigmatize failure.

Take a measure as simple as rewarding students for non-academic feats, for instance. Awarding Student of the Month to the most spirit-lifting comedian in the classroom validates him as much as a good grade. Teacher-initiated rewards address and negate Robinson’s contention that school only the intellectual successes at school are the winners. He contends that “the whole purpose of public education …is to produce university professors. … We shouldn’t hold them up as the highest form of achievement…they live in their heads.” Nay! The purpose of school is to make something productive out of young peoples minds and hours. Sure, there are ugly class wars circling around how those minds and hours are spent. But ideally, school is for producing more productive (emotionally, spiritually, vocationally --- not merely intellectually) members of society. School is where students have training wheels for how to function as adults. It’s a mini-society. I think Robinson would be a huge fan to Rousseau’s anti-social, child-centered vision of education. Unfortunately, as pastoral and sweet as this vision is, it falls short of what humans were created for: to serve and better each other.

No, schools do not “squander” the innate creativity in children wholesale, as Robinson overconfidently asserts. Schools are the environment in which time is set aside for creativity to be required. Without the structure of school, creativity wilts. Robinson is right to point out the paradoxical nature of creativity, such as that we do not mature into creativity, but rather we outgrow it, but he misses this important paradox about it: creativity needs structure just like fire needs oxygen. Without the push and the constraint to fuel creativity, or the probing questions of the teacher, or the small encouraging remarks along the way to the final creative product, a child’s creativity will be stifled. Also, in a school functioning properly, in which reading aloud and extolling reading should be a daily activity, the imagination will find no lack.

As to Robinson’s allusion to Picasso’s quote that we grow out of creativity, neither do I fully agree with this. Older children (teens) can use colors, tweak words, arrange sounds, plan projects and papers and speak more eloquently and purposefully than their younger counterparts. Who has the authority to say that creativity with more direction and eruditeness is somehow weaker than the innocent creativity that streams from a little mind? Classifying creativity in an hierarchy (eerily akin to what NCLB test standards do—classify schools and student achievement) and judging creativity as “the production of something both original and useful” (paraphrase) is rather utilitarian itself. Robinson defines creativity to uptightly, I’m afraid.