View From the Bronx: An Urban Teacher's Perspective
Ilana Garon (@IlanaGaron) is an English teacher at a public high school in the Bronx, N.Y., and holds masters degrees in both English education and fine arts. In the past 10 years, she has taught every level of high school English, including ESL and AP, SAT Prep, and even math in emergency situations. She is the author of “Why Do Only White People Get Abducted by Aliens?” Teaching Lessons from the Bronx. This blog is no longer being updated.
Education
Opinion
Confession: I, Too, Did an Emergency Certification Program (But Not TFA)
When I said I didn't think there was one single panacea for the achievement gap in every part of the country, and that if there were, I didn't think anyone (let alone TFA) had figured it out yet, the recruiter told me, "The essence of being a TFA corps member is having idealism, and it doesn't sound like you have the right attitude."
Education
Opinion
Insignificant Figures: Mathematica Scores TFA Teachers
So, in the grand scheme of education reform, TFA once again proves not to be the panacea its boosters would like to believe. If you believe this study, its teachers are roughly on par with peers; not much better or worse.
Education
Opinion
The View from the Bronx, Through New Lenses!
Welcome to the blog. In case you're just tuning in, my name is Ilana, and I'm a teacher at a public high school in the northeast Bronx--where I've been working in the same building for nearly a decade. Generally I teach English, though occasionally I've taught math and other subjects in emergency situations (such as once when the students through a stapler at a math teacher's head on the first day of class, and she quit on the spot--that was about six years ago.)
Education
Opinion
When College Isn't Worth It: Obama's Affordability Plan and the Value of a Bachelor's Degree
To say that college is the only path, or to address solely the problem of college costs without looking at the issues on either side--varied post-secondary-school goals on one side (not all of which include college), and high rates of unemployment and debt on the other--is to put a band-aid on a problem that is much more far-reaching than simply the price of tuition.
Education
Opinion
Uncharted Frontiers: Getting Girls (and Boys!) into STEM Careers
I don't think our female students are receiving discouraging messages any more than the male students are--and on a larger scale, I don't think that the gender gap in STEM careers is exacerbated in inner-city schools. What I would like to see, however, is more awareness of STEM careers in general.
Education
Opinion
Minding the Gap: SAT and the Socio-Economic Divide
If the College Board is truly committed to offering opportunities to high-needs students, concerted efforts towards leveling the playing field, and making the SAT what it purports to be--a standardized test--would be a good start.
Education
Opinion
Retooling the Test: Can a New SAT "Deliver Opportunity" to Low-Income Students?
One of the on-going problems with the current SAT is not that it is "harder" than the ACT (as some would argue) but the fact that, more than its rival, it focuses on material outside of the scope of a high school curriculum.
Education
Opinion
"Performance Anxiety": Improving Measures for Teacher Evaluations
Hi, everyone! I've been traveling in Asia for the last month, which is why you haven't heard a peep out of me. I started in Bangkok, Thailand, and then traveled eastward into Cambodia and then north through Vietnam. It was interesting and beautiful, and a really exciting change from New York City. Also, I had a chance to talk to some other teachers from England and Ireland, which I will discuss in later blog posts. (Apparently, I'm not the only teacher who thought to spend summer vacation backpacking through Indochina.) Now I'm back, re-immersing myself into all the education issues that can seem blissfully irrelevant during July, but won't be, come September.
Education
Opinion
Separate but Equal: Separating 9th Grade "Repeaters" from Regular Freshmen
Experience has shown me that a division from the "repeaters" is necessary to the success of the 9th graders, both in order to relieve the pressure on already over-crowded classrooms, and to keep the younger kids in an environment with fewer negative influences.
Education
Opinion
Statistical Measures of Teacher Awesomeness: What Do Exam Scores Show, Exactly?
No matter how many effusive messages I get from the students saying, "OMG Miss Garon, you are the best ever--that's why I passed Regents," there is just no way that I can take full credit for my students' success rate as a class.
Education
Opinion
"Real Learning" in Regents Week
From June 11th through 20th, high school students all across New York State are sitting for the Regents exams, comprehensive tests that assess whether they've mastered the material in their various high school subjects. As a New York City high school English teacher, I always feel in the weeks leading up to this period and into those ten days of exams like some sort of army general, preparing my company of 10th graders for battle--for a test that may not be fair, will definitely be boring, and is a dubious indicator of what they've learned, but a worthy foe to vanquish nonetheless. For them, the Regents period involves lots of studying, and then sitting for hours on end, sweating over their scantron™ sheets; for me, their nervous teacher, it involves (along with hours-long proctoring assignments) waiting on pins and needles for their scores, which may indicate--depending which side of the standardized testing debate you're on--just how good a military strategist I've been.
Education
Opinion
Prep for Success: Improving Teacher Training
I'd like to offer some suggestions for ways teacher preparation and certification might be improved for future new teachers.
Education
Opinion
Getting the Job Done: The Efficacy of Teacher Preparation
The message my peers and I received from our master's degree was that no one really cared if we were learning anything useful. The master's degree seemed like a ticket you had to get punched to get out of a parking garage, or in this case, out of the probationary period before we became tenured teachers.
Education
Opinion
Advice to Education School Graduates
In this season of university graduations, I thought about the advice I'd give to new teachers embarking on their careers.