Angela's blog

Why should someone join the Mississippi Teacher Corps?

My response to an email inquiry about MTC:

1) MTC is a small program of about 25 teachers per year.  We all train together, go to Master's classes together, and are a social network.  I like having a support group that is as well-established and reliable as ours. 

 

2)  MTC offers a free master's degree with a program tailored to us and our experience.

 

3) MTC gave us a free laptop.

 

4) MTC is an extremely well-run, intimate program.  They look out for us individually, and we look out for each other.  We mentor each other and check up on each other.  TFA has its own support systems, but I get the feeling that it is more of a corporation than a family.  We are a family.

 

Other logistics-- MTCers are spread out all over the state, so all 25/50 of us do not live in one place.  Instead, anywhere from 2-9 of us will be in the same county/area, and most of us choose to live together. 

 

If you are going to teach in a high-needs area, I recommend MTC wholeheartedly.  I think it is extremely well-run.  The people are of amazingly strong character, heart, and intelligence.  If you like privacy and want to try this job out on your own, this is not the place for you-- we blog about our experiences and check in with each other. 

 

My only warning is to make sure you really want to teach in a high-needs area.  It is very very hard.  Teaching in high poverty schools is physically and emotionally taxing.  Sometimes pure determination is not enough.  You need to be a very stable and patient person.

 

Alright, I hope I helped!  I love MTC and have no regrets about joining it.  This job is incredibly stressful, but the program I'm in does a lot to help me through it.  (and I'm almost done!)  I think it was a good experience for me, but I didn't necessarily enjoy it-- I spent my first year on the verge of quitting.  It's like that for everyone, though, and that's how MTC helped me-- we were all in it together.

Last October vs This October

Since last October, I've learned thousands of helpful shortcuts for the classroom and ideas for classroom management (90% the hard way).  I've also become more confident, more relaxed, and more realistic inside my classroom.  I'm not certain that I'm a better teacher, but I probably am.  I know I'm a happier person.  And I'd say that my quality of life has been the biggest change between Fall 07 and Fall 08.

For comparison, let me just tell you that last fall was miserable.  I worked 12 hour days at least 3 days a week.  Don't need to go on about that.  This year, I rarely take work home from school, I rarely stay late, I only tutor twice a week, and I have a "me-day" every week to relax and treat myself well.

Some of these changes are attributable to more streamlined classroom processes and experience in lesson planning.  But much of this has come because I know myself so much better.  I know when I'm too tired or too frazzled to stay at school an extra 20 minutes.  I know when sleeping will be more helpful than planning.  Likewise, I can sense when working a little extra will be more helpful than relaxing.  I'm much closer to knowing when to slack off and when not to.

My approach to chaos in the hallway

One little trick I figured out is to LEARN NAMES!  There are usually repeat offenders of hallway misconduct.  If you know their names, you are more likely to call them out on their behavior.  If they know you know their names, they can't ignore you so easily because you can hunt them down, call their parents, or write them up.  Another hint along the same lines is to make a note of who other teachers complain about being behavior problems.  Figure out who these kids are (by face) because they are more likely to be causing problems in the hallway, too.

I guess my approach to hallway chaos is that I will do what the administration asks me to do (which has never been very specific), but above that I will correct only what gets on my nerves.  Honestly, though, sometimes I just ignore it.  Not the best of strategies.  My main problem is that I'm terrible with gray areas-- how loud is too loud in the hall?  How much pushing is too much pushing?  I really don't know.  So I tell students to stop (or write referrals for) behaviors that are blatantly against policy-- like cursing, vandalism, hitting each other, etc.

Last year I really held myself back from correcting kids in the hallway because I was worried about being consistent.  This year I've been much better at letting myself correct students-- telling students to stop doing things that are getting on my nerves.  I say things like "Quiet down" or "Go to class," with "Good mornings" and "How are yous" in between.  I don't really care about being consistent so much.   This year, if Tom is being loud and it's bothering me, I'll tell him to be quiet (whether or not I told loud John to be quiet yesterday).

A Flyer...

Let me type for you a flyer floating around the high school that I intercepted yesterday.  I think it’s very telling of the difference between HSHS and PCHS.  This is verbatim, even caps:

Dear Potts Camp student body.
We the class of 2010-2011 will like to saw we love attending POTTS CAMP and we truly love to attend POTTS CAMP again.  But we just cant take the pressure there’s entirely to much DRAMA going on to many RUMORS going around We love being a 4.7 but everything going on in this school we’re acting like a 1.7 (HOLLY HIGH) in we don’t want to be on there level.  So next time you want to saw well (WELL I HEARD, or MANE SHE/HE, or :ET ME TELL YOU GIRL) just think before you let that mouth run

P.S In for the record no on is GAY at POTTS CAMP.
Love,
2011-2011

This letter/flyer inspires so many reactions in me.  I love being at a school in which students enjoy being there.  I’ve noticed this from day one.  I’m proud that the students have stepped up to confront a problem that they find in their school.  I’m proud that the students are trying to handle this problem in a mature way.

Most of all, though, I’m surprised at how quickly anyone in Marshall County points to Holly Springs as the bottom of the barrel.  No wonder my HS students didn’t have any pride in their school—everyone is saying that they shouldn’t.  That Holly High is not the place to be.  That students at Holly High are on a lower level (the state agrees).  These words are hurtful and contribute to the morale problem at HSHS. 

At the same time, there is a reason HS's reputation started, and this flyer represents the different school cultures.  Students at Potts Camp keep each other and themselves in check because they like the school and they want to make it a good place to be.  I hope I’m not raising my own expectations of PCHS too high only to be disappointed later.  Whatevs.  I’m sure the blog will eventually answer that question.

 And, as a sidenote, I think it's important that people in Marshall County know that Holly Springs is making it's way "up a level."  That HS has had a string of bad leaders, and they finally have a principal now who is serious about change and discipline and improving the school.  Good things are going to come.  I know I've been the first to write hopeless things about that school on my blog, but I don't want Marshall County to lose hope for Holly Springs.

(Molly, I have a copy of the flyer for you.)

What has been my biggest improvement?

I think my biggest area of improvement is in being able to see each day’s lesson in part of a larger context.  By nature, I am extremely detail-oriented and I have a hard time focusing on general trends because I get caught up in all so many mini-patterns on the small scale.  Last year, I planned my lessons individually—each one with a set, lesson, GP, IP, and closure—and they were pretty good on their own.  But, my kids didn’t learn as much as they could have because there wasn’t a sense of continuity.  We weren’t checking homework from the last day or pausing to remediate.  I went from lesson to lesson, and didn’t really give my kids effective check-points (a big-picture skill).  This year, I have days devoted to checking work, making test corrections, and breathing back in the lessons from a week or so ago.

I think I’ve been improving on this because I’ve learned to step back and look at what’s actually going on in my classroom, instead of focusing just on what performance I’m putting on or what I’m supposed to be monitoring in the room.  I think, too, I’ve been improving because the students at Potts Camp actually work when I assign work.  It was necessary to commit so much energy to classroom management at HS that I was thankful if they were quiet—I didn’t care all too much if they actually learned.  I considered the day a success if they settled down and pretended to work.

Also, I had a conversation over the summer with Ms Goldwasser and Mr Guest about expectations for a lesson.  Ben (I hope I’m paraphrasing right) pretty much said that he doesn’t go into the classroom with any expectations for the lesson— that expectations aren’t helpful.  As long as the students are working and learning, they are making their ways toward the larger goal (whether that is higher test scores or hitting the state frameworks).  That viewpoint resonated with me, and I’m trying to incorporate it more this year.  I’m not as worried about planning Madeline Hunter’s perfect lesson as I am about whether the students are learning something.  I feel freer to plan lessons that benefit the students instead of lessons that look good on paper and “should” provide mastery of an objective.

First few days of the second year

The first days of school last year: I dreaded every period except first period and my planning period every day.

The first days of school this year: I don’t mind going to school.  I enjoy being in the classroom once I’m there.  I love the act of teaching.

These first few days of school are amazingly better than those of last year.  My students are well behaved, my classes are small, and the school is organized.  I really don’t know what else to say other than Potts Camp is an extremely well run school with very competent and dedicated teachers.  Everything about these first few days has been smooth, enjoyable, casual, respectful, and, yes, even loving.  The teachers genuinely love the students, and the students respect and open up to the teachers.  When I was interviewed for the position, they told me that it was a family atmosphere.  I figured it was a family atmosphere the same way Holly Springs is a “level 5 by 2009” or whatever the bogus slogan was.  But it really is.  Students legitimately want to do right by the teacher and each other: “Naw man, give it back, it’s her pen.”  “Ms Dole, where do you want us to write our names on this paper?”  “Do you want the workbooks on the second or third shelf?”  “oh, here, I almost walked out with your pencil.”
  
I am so happy there.  Students are still behind grade level, which reassures me that I’m still in a public school in Mississippi, but there’s such a positivity at Potts Camp.  I don’t know what else to say.  I love my kids, I love having small classes.  Students do the work I ask them to do.  I teach, not babysit, every period.  That’s a huge change from last year.  I’ve been convinced that I won’t teach after this year, but I’m only a week in and I love all of my (only 98!!) kids.
  
The best part of my job is my Trigonometry/PreCalculus class.  These kids can think, so I finally have the opportunity to do challenging questions.  I love working with them so much.  They can follow logic and hate not understanding something.  They have such potential.  I can’t wait to push them even harder.

Advice for the first month of school

I don’t think I have much advice that hasn’t been said before, but, well, let me blog.  I could write a story or paragraph about each bullet point here, but I'm not feeling it.  It's a lot to type.  Call me if you are interested. Or if you are bored.  Or if you are interested in being bored. 

Essentials for Basic Survival
1) Don’t work too much
        (ie absolutely no more than a total of 3 hours outside of school per day, aim for 1-1.5).
2) Sleep.
3) EAT.  Eat well and eat often.
4) Find something you enjoy doing after school
        (running, walking, talking to a neighbor, painting, baking, writing, yodeling, whatever)

Advice for the Living
5) Don't be forgiving of misbehavior because students aren't used to your rules yet.  They know your rules.  If they             forgot, the consequences will cement the rule in their minds.
6) Don’t reinvent the wheel.  Your time is in very limited supply, so don’t waste it.  Find resources you can print off or         photocopy or "steal" from other teachers.
7) Make and find shortcuts—streamlined systems, easy grading.  Don’t grade everything you assign.

Pointers for Efficiency
8) Use your activities well. Have students check their homework and review/correct tests.
9) Go at the pace of your students.  Too fast or too slow causes problems.  They will let you know.
10) Show interest in your students without losing your classroom management. Greet them outside of class, be                 receptive to their hobbies and stories. Some of them can be annoying or frustrating or clingy or bratty, but they             will respect you more if they sense that you care about them.  And, face it, you do.

A Success Story: a trip to MN

There once was a girl name Marissa.
So pretty, the boys wanted to kissa.
She danced and she learned
Her hopes have up-turned
She might now become a professa.

Haha 

In terms of pure brainpower, Marissa could probably out-process any peer in Marshall County.  She’s amazingly quick to predict patterns and tease out mathematical truths, making her patience and work ethic almost unnecessary.  Entering Geometry as a freshman by talent alone, she told me that she wasn’t good at math and dismissed her initial achievements in my class as luck.

One of my scribbled notes on her extra credit work, “This is a college-level proof,” finally cracked her modesty enough for her to imagine that she could have a bit of talent.  I think it took a few more months of barely legible compliments and top-score testing for her to realize that math could be her “thing” if she wanted it to be.

At first she didn’t—the star quarterback sat behind her, and, well, he is much more interesting than ASA and alternate exterior angles— but by February she had sheepishly slipped me a note saying that she wanted to go to a science or math camp this summer.

Within a week we were comparing programs and estimating Marissa’s mom’s resistance to a program in Boston or NYC.  We worked on her applications, researched financial aid, bargained with her mom, then waited, waited, and waited for responses.

Somehow Marissa never received any responses—her mom said that their house isn’t marked and, so, they never get mail.  In mid May our top choice program emailed asking me if Marissa would come.  The program’s director offered Marissa complete financial aid for the program and even partial aid for her personal expenses!  (all I had to do was explain the demographics of Holly Springs…  haha praise God)

Just before the program, Marissa and I met up for math prep (and ice cream) at JB’s on the square (“My momma wouldn’t let me come here with my friend-boy because this is a white person place,” Marissa whispered after we were seated.  She was right.  I could taste the tension when I bragged to the cashier about how smart Marissa is.  Marissa blushed, the cashier cringed, and I decided not to tip.).  Marissa learned matrix addition, subtraction, multiplication, inverses, row reduction, scalar reduction, AND determinants in about an hour and a half. WHAT?!  On top of that, we covered basic fractals and chaos theory.  (This girl is good.)

Last week she went to the GEMS program in St. Paul, MN.   I’ve only had one quick conversation with her, but her mom told me that she immediately impressed the professors and led the class.  The professors have called her mom begging for Marissa to come back next summer, and they are sending Marissa home with all kinds of pamphlets and college information.

During our brief exchange, Marissa told me that this math is aint too bad.  She’s considering studying math in college, and likes the college she is at now (St. John’s).  She asked me where I think she should go next summer.

“Miss Dole, what do you know about MIT?”  Gotta love her.
 

A Failure Story: April 4, 2008

I decided to stop teaching Geometry on April 4th.  Starting April 5th, my students did review worksheets, watched movies, worked on projects (supposed to be learning experiences), or took meaningless, repetitive notes.  The first question in my mind while planning for periods 5-7 became “How am I going to keep them quiet and away from me?” instead of “What should they learn?” or “How can I most effectively teach this?”  I became the babysitter teacher.

Here’s a journal entry (copied, pasted, and bleeped) from April 4th about my Geometry students.  FYI, my district policy is a mandatory 80% pass rate on tests, and my Geometry classes had 28+ students in each:

They don’t work.  They don’t care.  They copy other people’s work.  They don’t study.  If I force them to do their own work, they don’t think on their own so I get driven completely f**king nuts doing and explaining everything.  If I let them work in groups, no one works; no one does anything except the really motivated people, and everyone else just copies.  They don’t learn anything, then the test scores are bad.  If tests are too bad, I have to retest.  They’ll all fail on Monday because they won’t study the study guide. Or maybe they will.

F**k this.  I’m tired.  I’m mad at myself for not teaching them today.  For saying f**k you to them.  I’m just too tired to teach Geometry anymore. I explain it on the notes and then have to explain it again and again and again.  I hate it.  There are too many kids.  There are too many kids.  There are too many.  Too many.  If my classes were half this size, I might enjoy it, but I’m just burnt out now.  I’m so f**king tired of teaching them.  I’m not going to teach them anymore.  I don’t like doing it.

I needed a vacation.  My students needed an invested teacher. I didn’t quit the position, but I did quit caring about their learning.  That is certainly failing as a teacher, and I consider it my biggest classroom failure.  But is disinvestment a sign of failing/failure under the conditions at HSHS?

I don’t think so. Even though I stopped designing stellar lessons, I still gave the students who cared the opportunity to learn.  Even though I reached my breaking point, I didn’t break.  If I had pushed myself any harder, I would’ve left HSHS altogether by April 9th.  Giving up class lessons was the only way for me to remain in the classroom and keep trying to teach someone something.  It was definitely not an ideal solution, but HSHS has never had an ideal solution for anything.

Despite everything, I’m sorry.

Personal Teaching Performance 6/25/08

     It's strange to write a blog evaluating my teaching.   It's kind of like writing a blog analyzing my walking or my speaking, I can't be purely objective.  Plus I have too much information about it to summarize neatly-- trends, exceptions, reactions under a variety of circumstances, etc.  But, I'll give it a go.

    My most successful lesson/objective was what I called "Really Really Long Equations."  Basically it was just equations in one variable, no powers, that involved combining like terms and then solving a two-step equation: 3x +5 -29x +56 +2+2x -100=54, solve for x.  It's not exactly in the frameworks, but I wanted my students to be comfortable solving intimidating equations.  I figured these would help build my students' confidence.  My students responded pretty well!  They were proud when they solved the equations, they actually tried a lot harder than during my other lessons, and they voluntarily tutored each other!  I think this was met with success because it is a very routine procedure.  I think the intimidation factor helped a lot because getting the right answer to a mega-equation feels like more of an accomplishment than solving something with two pieces.  So, it was an easy procedure with a big payoff.  Nothing like rote processes!

    My least successful lesson/objective was proofs in geometry. Definitely.  Hands down, say it again.  Proofs.  It was so bad I just quit and moved on.  I know, the only useful thing that comes out of geometry is the ability to do proofs, but it had to go.  I made the biiiig mistake of trying that in October, when I still had 30-36 kids in every geometry class.  That was mistake #1: trying to teach critical thinking to big classes.  And, it was before I had my classroom management tightened down, so my kids were giving me "feedback" about the lessons in disrespectful and draining ways.  And I had no materials (not enough texts and no supplemental materials) or administrative support, and my class basically went into revolt if I ever tried to teach them to think.  If I had to do it again, I would've held off until the spring and then taught it veeeerry slooooowly.  I think it could've been taught to my classes, but only after my classroom was managed and I had the common sense to introduce critical thinking very slowly.  I'm still not convinced it would've worked. The top 40% would've gotten it just fine, but at least 50% of my students have been programmed to respond with hostility, anger, or disinterest whenever they are required to think.  I'm not exaggerating-- half of my students purposely disengaging the minute they sense that a task will not be strictly procedural.  I've tried to combat this all year, but I stand by my mantra: students in our schools will not learn when they are sharing the teacher with 28 other (unruly) students.

    Overall, I think I did the best I could given my inexperience and lack of administrative support.  I explained things carefully and tailored my worksheets, activities, and tests to each lesson. Next year, I want to teach the critical thinking processes.  I stuck to procedural stuff this year because of the reasons above, but I want to try that next year.  I want to have the courage to force my students to think, and the control to make them.  I will have that for next year, so I'm excited for the changes in my teaching.