MIA: Busy Being Employed

Hello Readers,


It's been a "minute," as my 10th graders like to say, since I've last written. I'm now curious as to what my few readers/followers might have thought when I suddenly stopped writing last May, but only fairly positive things have happened. I am alive and well.

The highlights to catch you all up:

- Was offered a long term ELA substitute teacher position at one of the schools at which I'd been subbing periodically.
- After being hired for the 2014-2015 school year!
- Teach for America NY Summer Institute, while fasting for Ramadan, was quite the experience
- As was "New Teacher" training at my new school in Washington Heights
- Been teaching (and managing to survive) 10th grade English since September.

I'll try to blog more regularly from now on.

Best,
Fatuma

"Career Shopping" -- Creative Fiction about Choosing to be a Teacher

Tonight I came across a creative writing piece that I wrote two years ago for my Teaching English to Adolescent course. Once again, I was reminded of why I had really enjoyed this piece. Feel free to read it below in its entirety. My favorite lines (bias nonewithstanding) are:

In those eyes—25 desperate hopes, 25 whimsical dreams, 25 inquiring minds, 25 windows—some clear, some dim—to 25 fledgling souls, 25 rare chances for 25 daily successes, beginning with a single line interpreted 25 many ways by 25 unique beings.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Today we’re going to learn…

* * *

Costume Career Shopping

By: Fatuma Hydara

In the middle of Ricky’s Costume Superstore, I stand, arms tender and shaking from the weight of numerous costume choices. With limited vision, I slowly make my way to the dressing room, mumbling “5” to the clerk in answer to her barely audible question of ‘how many items?’ Walking into dressing room 13, my lucky number, I throw my burden onto the seat, before turning to shut and lock the door. Click.

Taking a deep breath, and a quick look at my watch—crap, only have 20 minutes—I quickly grab the first costume and put it on. 

Twisting one way, then the other, the four mirror-covered walls capture the khaki shorts, polo tee, shades and imitation camera around my neck. I stop, lean closer, scrunch up my nose, make a decision. Nature photographer for National Geographic? No.

Costume Number Two: A white coat, stethoscope, smiley face sticker and lollipops as props. Single shake of head. Pediatrician? Nuh-uh.

Costume Number Three:  Business wear, microphone, notebook and pen. …Still not quite right. Journalist? Not happening.

Costume Number Four: Business wear again, more old-fashioned. Silver wire rimmed glasses attached to a sterling silver chain. Pile of books in arm. Closer look in mirror. Nearly, not quite. Love the books, not the rest. Librarian? No way. 

Costume Number Five: Business wear once again. Sigh…but wait? Another look—more casual, comfortable. Grade book and novels in one hand. Apple in the other. Staring intensely, straighten up. Turn this way, turn that way. A smile. It’s perfect. Almost. 

If only I was in—wind, gust, momentarily blindness, ending—in a classroom.

A blink. Another. Gaze clears. One pair of brown eyes meets 25 other pairs in varying shades. 

In those eyes—25 desperate hopes, 25 whimsical dreams, 25 inquiring minds, 25 windows—some clear, some dim—to 25 fledgling souls, 25 rare chances for 25 daily successes, beginning with a single line interpreted 25 many ways by 25 unique beings.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Today we’re going to learn…

How to read, to write, to explore, to live.

How to scream, yell, give voice to pain.

How to survive, to be, to succeed.

How to care, to love, to share.

How to rearrange the letters in D-R-E-A-M and make them R-E-A-L-I-T-Y.

How to fly, to run, to jump.

How to smile, to laugh, to grin, to smirk.

How to…

Sudden wind, gust, momentarily blindness. A blink. Another. Gaze clears. One pair of brown eyes looking at their twin. In those eyes—a single burning flame of passion, a single determination, a single goal to be the greatest English teacher to ever live. 

Another look at my wrist, “Time to go.” Frantic undressing, messy repackaging. One last guilty look at the mess left behind, I unlock the door and hurry to the register. ‘Will that be all?’ ‘Yes, found the perfect one’. Proud Smile. “That’s be $200,000, please’. Cringe, wince. Reluctant handing over of credit card. Deep breath. In six years, it’ll be worth it.

Alternative to Detentions

This week I've been substitute teaching for a Math Special Education teacher. It's always nice being at the same school for a few days in a row. I'm even starting to feel like a member of the team.

Anyway, one thing I've seen one of the other teachers doing that I love is that instead of giving students detention for chewing gum, coming late or whatever, she puts them to work! She's had a stream of students coming in during lunch to help her file papers for 20 minutes each. I think that's genius. Not only is her paper pile shrinking by the day, but the students are being productive.

Detention is pretty useless as far as I'm concerned. It doesn't deter students from repeating the same behaviors. However, putting them to work may be more effective. I mean how much paper filing or board cleaning or pencil sharpening can one student handle before deciding to straighten up. I think system of community service in relation to the violated rule would be a whole lot more effective than detention.

Becoming a Teach for America 2014 Corp Member

Before last December, my knowledge of Teach for America consisted of the following: a non-profit organization that trained college students for five weeks and then threw them into the neediest urban schools. (Not the most positive of viewpoints, I know.) As a student of a traditional teacher preparation program, I was immediately put off by the thought of placing "teachers" with just five weeks of training into the most challenging classrooms. What could they possibly do in that short time that could ensure that these first year students don't crash and burn? Also, I didn't believe that I qualified for TFA as I was already on track to becoming a teacher. I didn't give the organization much thought until I received a random email from a TFA recruiter asking to speak with me about an employment opportunity.

I probably would have ignored the email as spam if not for three things:
1) It was December and I was graduating in three weeks.
2) I hadn't started the job search, didn't know where to even begin and was seriously freaking ou.
3) I LinkedIn stalked the recruiter and he seemed nice (and legit).

And so I scheduled the phone interview. (Personal tidbit: Phone interviews give me hives. I'm not sure why they bother me so much, but I'd take on an in-person interview any day of the week.)

The (Dreaded) Phone Interview:

During the interview, the recruiter gave me some information about TFA and their mission. He painted a picture of the startlingly educational inequality in our country. 50% of American students live in this poverty and only 16% of them graduate high school.

TFA's Mission: 

Teach For America’s mission is to build the movement to eliminate educational inequity by developing such leaders.

After the conversation, I was still unsure about joining TFA. TFA doesn't have the best repution amongst educators who critique their methods of placing recent college grads in schools for two years. " They" accuse TFA of adding to the problem of high teacher turn over rates and the instability, due to constant change, of NYC's education system, amongst other things.

However, at the core I agree with TFA vision of ensuring that all children in America, despite socioeconomic background, receive a quality education.

With the job market the way that it is, I figured that having an entire organization working towards getting me hired couldn't be such a bad thing. Add the other benefits of being a TFA corp member, such as additional support and mentoring, grants for grad school, and more training to supplement what I've already received from Pace, I decided to join. 

The Application Process:

The TFA application is intensive. There's a two hour online application requiring your basic information, course list, transcripts, recommendations, and written responses.There's a phone interview and then a full day final interview (which I skipped straight to). The final interview is 9-5, with the morning dedicated to sample lesson plans and information. For the afternoon, everyone scheduled a 40 minute 1:1 interview. I went first, so I could get it over with. It was also intense and very in-depth. I must have done fine, since I was given an offer.

Concerns:

TFA's biggest concern is the kids, so when assigning corp members subjects and placements, they consider the schools' needs before members' preferences. As I was applying, I knew that despite TFA's stance and due religious and familial obligations, I wouldn't accept an offer that didn't place me in New York City, teaching English 7-12. I was sure that such inflexibility would ruin my chances of being accepted. Imagine my surprise when I'm not only accepting into the NYC corps, but also assigned to English 7-12, General Education K-6, and Special Education K-9.

Wait. General Education K-6? Special Education K-9? Before I could even think about accepting the offer, I had to verify how likely I would be placed in an elementary school or a different content areas. I wasn't willing to work towards a different degree and license. Phone conversations with members of the TFA New York team alleviated those concerns as I was assured that the organization would try their utmost to find an English placement. I could also go to grad school for whatever I wanted (Iona's dual Literacy/Special Education program, here I come!). Apparently, my initial certification was a key component of my application because specific content assignments are supposedly rare. Guess it seemed glaringly obvious to TFA that I am only capable of teaching English.

And so I clicked JOIN on March 23rd, 2014. Since then, I've been hard at work learning about the TFA hiring process (they kind of take over), creating a new TFA-specific resume (as if creating the first one wasn't hard enough), and completing a hiring survey.

The next step is going on intereviews and waiting for offers. Wish me luck!

Until next time,
Fatuma

Sub Adventure #19: 6th and 7th Grade Art in the Bronx

Today's adventure had me doing a little of everything. First, I was proctoring for a student with extended time accommodations. The student had three hours to take the exam, but finished in two. So, I spent most of the morning twiddling my thumbs.

Then, I had two art classes (7th grade, then 6th). The 7th graders were pretty well behaved, but the 6th graders were out of control. They spent the period yelling their little heads off. At the end of the period, I stood by the door and dismissed them by table and only if their table was completely clear of colored pencils and paper.  Lastly, I had a math intervention class with a co-teacher. We spent the first half of the period going over ratios and the second half playing chess. I played against a student, but it's been years since I tried learning how to play chess so I was extremely rusty with the rules. I actually forgot that you could get a piece back if you got to the other side of the board! That could have been useful.

That's all folks.

Until next time,
Fatuma

Project: Personal Common Core ELA Standards Document

I know that my next post was supposed to be about my decision to join Teach for America, but as we educators are acutely aware of--plans change. =)


Instead, let's chitchat a bit about the common core.

As someone who recently graduated, I was introduced to the common core standards before entering the classroom. (Thank God.) While I've studied them to a certain extent, I recently made a new discovery that I hadn't noticed before.

In the past whenever I looked at the common core standards, I looked at it from a grade-specific viewpoint. Choosing the grade I needed and looking at all (or some) of the standards for that grade. However, a few months ago I thought to myself: If the purpose of the common core is to prepare students from K-12 for college, how do the standards become increasingly more difficult as students progress through the grades? So, I sat down, chose a single standard and looked at it from K-12. I was stunned by how much sense the progressive made. The common core standards do clearly show how students should increasingly develop particular skills. I got to thinking some more. How can this new discovery help me and other teachers?

By understanding what is new in terms of skills for each grade level, it makes it easier to discern students' grade levels (in terms of the common core) and how to get them to grade level. It also makes clearer for teachers what skills from the previous year they will be building on in the current school year. This inspired me to create a new document that would present this progression of the skills more easily. While it's still a work in progress, here's a glimpse of the first reading standard for grades 6-12.

As you can see, it's the same anchor skill, but students are expected to utilize the skill in a more sophisticated way each year (see italics). Students progress from simply stating evidence, to evaluating evidence, and evaluating text.

Some questions still remain for me in regards to the supposedly increasing difficulty of what's expected of students.

• In what way(s) does textual evidence that "most strongly" supports an analysis (Grade 8) differ from simply citing "strong and thorough" textual evidence (Grades 9-12)? While in grade 8, the student is evaluating which piece of evidence is the strongest, who is deciding that a piece of evidence is "strong and thorough" in the high school grades? The student or the teacher?
• Why are grades 9-10 and 11-12 lumped up together? I've always wondered at this. Do they expect it to take two years to master these particular skills? 

I just wanted to quickly share some of my thoughts and I started working on this document tonight. I'll post the full document when I finish.

Laters Gators,
Fatuma

Sub Adventure #18: 9th and 10th Grade Art in the Bronx

Thursday's adventure was one of the best that I've had yet. It was the first day of a four-day assignment as I'm covering for a teacher who is attending an art education conference in California (lucky her!).

There was a bit of a hiccup when I arrived because apparently the school put in the order for a sub twice and School Professionals sent two subs. Fortunately, I was the one who got to stay and he other guy went home.

I met the teacher who was leaving later in the day. She left excellent plans and made sure I was prepared before she left at 2:30. The last two periods I had after were great. The students were mostly on task and cooperative, except for a few. I put on some Adele and joined the students by beginning the same art project. (Not only was it fun, but it helped me to better help students who were having trouble because I understood it myself.)

After the school ended I faced a dilemma. I had an open house at a charter school that I'm very interested in and I had two options.
A. I could go straight there and arrive an hour and a half early.
B. I could run home, chill for 30 minutes, and arrive on time.

I chose option two. Big Mistake. It took longer than expected to arrive home and I only had enough time to toss my shoes (I had changed shoes because my wimpy feet were paining me) and uneaten lunch onto the table. "Hi Mommy, bye Mommy," and I was back out the door and running for the next scheduled train.

By the time, I came home at 9pm, I was exhausted. I think it was worth it as I was able to leave my name and inform them that I was a 2014 TFA corp member and requested that my resume be sent to their school. The recruitment person assured me she would discuss with her boss whether a particular TFA member could be requested for interview. Score!

Have I told you guys about my joining Teach for America? No? Well, look out for the next post. I'll be sure to tell you the story.

Til then,
Fatuma

Sub Adventure #17: 7th Grade Math & 11th Grade English in the Bronx

As you can possibly deduce from the title of this post, today's adventure was a crazy one, putting me in both a middle school and high school.

Everything started perfectly enough with a shorter day schedule at a school where I had previous subbed. The first period, I was free. Things took a turn for the worst during second period. Apparently, the 7th graders were scheduled to go on a movie trip. However, the HS principal decided that they should go later in the day so as not to miss important classes. Unfortunately, none of the teachers (including the teacher I was subbing for) had plans. Add in the fact that I was subbing for a sub who didn't have a set curriculum in place, the students didn't have a math textbook, and many of them left their books at home thinking that they wouldn't need them, I was a little lost as to what to do. I did have a game planned (SNAKE), but I was unable to get the students' cooperation as they were already in the "triptriptrip" mind frame and there was no going back. I had to call for reinforcement who helped straighten everything out. This meant switching me with another sub in the high school. So, off I went to cover a high school English class. Thankfully, this teacher left very clear plans and there were no other issues.

Tomorrow, I'm off to start a four day assignment substituting for high school art at the same school from Sub Adventure #4.

Sub Adventure #16 - 11th and 12th grade History in the Bronx

This was one of my easiest, most laid back adventures. 1) I've been to this school before so the usual anxiety wasn't present. 2) The teacher left clear plans. 3) 90% of the juniors were gone on a college trip. I had about 25 students altogether in five periods. 4) Students simply worked independently on a project as I supervised and wrote blog post drafts.

Other items of note:
- I should have eaten more than yogurt for breakfast. The teacher I was covering (poor guy) teaches four periods straight after a 1st period prep. I was starving by 6th period lunch.
- The seniors were a hoot. They were reliving/retelling some while night they had. The bits and pieces I heard worried me and I told them so. (A man with a pitbull, a random building, a person trapped, a life saved, a bag of Cheetos eaten, jelly beans eaten, and an arrest.)
- I dunno how I feel about one of the female seniors saying that I'm so "cute" after Chatting with them a bit about my Nerd status and non-participation in Pace party life.

Well that's that. Don't know where I'll be tomorrow. No assignment as of yet.

Til the next adventure,
Fatuma

TCRWP 86th Saturday Reunion Part 1: Ideas and Quotes Worth Mulling Over

The TCRWP's Saturday Reunion began with education historian, Diane Ravitch, as the featured speaker. Titled, Rescuing Education, her presentation focused on the issues in education from teacher ratings to the constant reforms.

While Ravitch shared insightful information about the abysmal state of education in the United States, her speech came across as sometimes harsh and unyielding. She made strong comments about Teach for America and first year students that instinctively put my back up. Though her conclusions were based on research, she didn't follow up with the positive sides, leaving both populations potentially offended.

#ThatAwkwardMoment when you're listening to a speaker denounce TFA and you're considering accepting their offer.

#ThatSecondAwkwardMoment when the speaker claims that (according to research), first year teachers are so poorly trained that they actually harm students and you've only been certified for 45 days.

Nuggets of Enlightenment from Ravitch:

• The common core violates the requirements for writing standards as laid down by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Read more about Ravitch's ideas on this here.
• Reformers are trying to create a universal outlet for learning, but "students are not appliances to be plugged in and teaching cannot be standardized. Just let us teach!"
• Standardized tests have no diagnostic value as they only measure the achievement gap, instead of actually close it.

Ravitch suggests that:

1. Teacher-made exams replace standardized tests to increase diagnostic value.
2. Standards be made more user/student/teacher friendly and are constantly reviewed and revised as necessary.
3. Teachers should teach what they love. The choice should lie with the teachers, not "them."
4. Create authentic assessments that test real-world skills.

After the opening presentation, hundreds of teachers made a mad dash for the Session I workshop of their choice. A full workshop meant another dash to your next choice. It was both exhilarating and terrifying.

I strategically chose Mary Ehrenworth's workshop, The Project's Latest Thinking on Essay Writing, as it was in the same room as Ravitch's. Ehrenworth began with defining the illustrious essay. Back in the day, the essay was a space for writers to come to new understanding about a topic. As such, the thesis was often towards the end or even only implied. However, our concept of the essay has changed. Now, essays are meant to inform express opinion, persuade, or present an argument.

It's clear that there is a need for strengthening student writing, especially when it comes to essay writing. In her workshop, Ehrenworth shares a few strategies for raising the level of essay writing in schools.

See the Strategies part of this TCRWP series here.

For Session II, I found myself in another writing workshop with Ms. Ehrenworth. In Increasing Cohesion or Transference, the focus was ensuring the skills/knowledge from previous grades are enforced and strengthened in the next. Click the link above to see the strategies for this workshop as well.

Espana, Center.

I was especially excited for session III, as I looked forward to Carla Espana's Ten Culturally Relevant Read Alouds. This workshop was mostly a list of resources and suggestions for how to use them in the classroom. See the Resources part of this TCRWP series for a list of books here.

However, Espana began with presenting the positives of using culturally relevant texts in the classroom:

• increase reading proficiency
• increase engagement
• connection to students' cultural background knowledge/schemas
• actively moving beyond tolerance to affirmation, solidarity, and critique of diverse cultures

I burned more calories trying to get to Gerrit Jones-Rooy's workshop on Engaging the Disengaged than to the previous three workshops combined. I was able to easily find the right building, but I could not find the stairway that would take me up to the second floor! When I did eventually find it, it was purely accidental and I thanked my lucky stars.

So, this workshop presented some great strategies for getting students engaged with reading. Nothing breaks a Book Nerd's heart into tiny pieces faster than a child saying, "I hate reading." *clenches chest* Just. typing. those. words. . . . so painful.

According to Jones-Rooy, the issues that need to be tacked are:

1. Readers' understanding of what reading actually is and the distinction between dormant and resistant readers.
2. Fostering a growth mindset, not a fixed mindset.

In addition, what we must believe and understand are that:

• "Reading is boring" actually means "I need help with this."
• Engaging students in lessons, read alouds, and fluency should be the #1 priority.
• Middle school students (and high school as well) care more about what their friends think than what their teachers think. (Use to your advantage, baby!)
• Textual lineages allow students to be hooked into reading by their interests. As Ehrenworth mentioned in her Increasing Cohesion and Transference workshop, "all children are secret geeks about something."

See strategies for how to present reading and books in a positive light from Day 1 here.

 The closing for the TCRWP Saturday Reunion was presented by the hilarious Kathy Collins, who Some Musings About What Matters Most When Most Everything is High Priority.

shared

The Musings:

• Refer to students as the children (or teenagers) that they are. This keeps teaching personal as "we may do things to students that we wouldn't do to children."
• The DOE broke up with us. What do you do when someone breaks up with you? You cry, scream, or eat ice cream, but then you start working past it, remembering what's important. Teachers need to move pass each reform/change and remember what's important--the children.
• It's "easy to feel bad and inferior," but focus on the simplicities of teaching.
• Simple Dreams for Children:
• Children will be strong readers who love to, choose to, and share reading.
• Children will have wide-ranging reading appetites and highly functional reading habits.
• Children will believe that when they give something to a text, they get something back. "Let the text inspire you to say, think, feel something you never said, thought, felt before."

The Teacher's College Reading and Writing Project's 86th Saturday Reunion was an amazing experiencing and I learned so much. I'm looking forward to the 87th reunion next Fall.

Read Part 2 and Part 3 of this series for strategies and resources.