New Terrain

At the end of a meeting today with a first-year teacher, she turned to me and nervously asked, "Do you think it's still possible at this point in the year for me to get my students to reach really great gains?"

Like so many others, it hasn't been an easy ride so far for "Mary", a high school inclusion teacher. She teaches at a disorganized school and has struggled to understand her multiple science courses, was desperate to learn new ways to manage her classes, and had to figure out how to effectively plan with her co-teachers so her students would receive the best instruction. But in the past two weeks, she has plowed through, built relationships and enacted more changes than some teachers manage in a full school year. It's a tough job, but that's why she's here and it's amazing to see her energy and resilience.

So I was a bit dumbfounded and amused when she asked her question. In my mind, there was absolutely no doubt she was going to make great gains-- not just because that is what we're here to do, but also because of the way she's taught and motivated her co-teachers to effectively backwards plan at the daily lesson level and the way she's been researching teaching strategies for her various classes. But I had to hold back my smile and be grateful for her sense of urgency to improve her skills. She's hard on herself and is afraid that if she screws up early on, there's no hope for the rest of the year. She (and all new teachers) need to realize that this is only the beginning. There is always something we need to improve because there is always hope for a student to get better, even if it's mid-May.

"It is never too late to get your students to reach great gains and you will get them there. There's a lot to do between here and there, but you're on a good path and that's why we're doing it together. This is just the beginning."

Posted by Jessica Shyu at 8:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Here's a dose of warm and fuzzy for this Tuesday morning:

The New York Times: "This is Generations of Hope, a nonprofit adoption agency that has designed a community to resemble a nurturing small town, complete with surrogate grandparents. Created out of a shuttered Air Force base, Generations of Hope seeks to rescue children from foster care and place them with adoptive parents who have moved here. About 30 children currently live with parents in 10 homes. The community is also home to 42 older people who have subsidized rent.

The program’s annual budget for the Rantoul site is $500,000, with roughly half coming from government aid. The rest comes from private donations and from the rent paid by older residents. Adoptive parents earn $19,000 and live rent-free in one of the split-level ranch-style homes built for the base. The older residents, who agree to do community service, like tutoring or yard work, pay a reduced rent of $300.

Dr. Eheart believed the children would thrive with the love of these volunteer grandparents. But she could not have guessed how much the therapy would work in the other direction."

It sounds like a fascinating and expensive program. I'm anxious to see it replicated and sustained.

Posted by Jessica Shyu at 9:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

If I were not a program director with Teach For America, I would be teaching. If I wasn't teaching, I would want to work here: Harlem Children's Zone. Their mission to close the social gap by mobilizing EVERYTHING is gutsy, energizing and makes so much sense.

National Public Radio quotes New York Times reporter Paul Tough as describing HCZ as "'the first and so far the only organization in the country that pulls together ... integrated social and educational services for thousands of children' — all under one umbrella, all in one place, all at one time."

"The agency, with an annual budget of $58 million, serves 8,000 kids in a 97-block neighborhood of Harlem. Tough, who's spent five years reporting on Canada's organization, and who's written a new book on the project, writes that "as students progress through an all-day prekindergarten and then through a charter school, they have continuous access to community supports like family counseling, after-school tutoring and a health clinic."

It doesn't matter how many heartfelt, warm 'n' fuzzy stories we have about our students (and teachers)-- sometimes we just need a pump-me-up. Listen to NPR's discussion today with HCZ President Geoffrey Canada for an inspiring reminder of how everyone in every field has the responsibility to close the social gap.

Posted by Jessica Shyu at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I met a teacher in her classroom after school yesterday for a meeting, and the students banging and clashing across the hall practicing for drum line try-outs was so loud, we had to take our meeting to the other side of the school. It was so awesome.

Because, as the teacher explained to me, at this public high school in DC, there was no marching band last year. There were no after school activities. After the last school bell, you could rarely find a teacher staying after to prep or work with kids. And there was no football field. Kids didn't stay after school for activities-- they were roaming the neighborhood streets.

While we-- the folks on the teaching end of things-- are prioritizing our time on less visible things to close the achievement gap, such as backward planning and modifying IEP goals, the village is coming together. As one teacher at the school said, it is so cool how a quickly repaired football field could change the tone of the school so quickly. The community was actually proud to congregate and cheer on their team.

There is so much to do in DC-- as evidenced by the dismal standardized assessment proficiency rates posted in the school offices. It's energizing to know that changes are happening in our schools in the loudest ways possible.

Posted by Jessica Shyu at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)