Front and Center

On Thursday, I actually had a chance to teach for the first time this year in a classroom setting. One of the 8th grade math teachers had to take his father to the hospital and left the class with one of my aides. I was called in to the classroom by my aide who wanted me to check on a student that she had sent to the office. I brought the student back to the room and decided to hand around for a second and check in on the class.

It was just before I was about to leave the class to get some office work done that one of the students asked, "Mr. Sanburn (they all say my name this way), can you help me with the problem on the board?". I the scanned the classroom and noticed the visibly frustrated and helpless faces of the students look up to me for my answer. I realized that these students were left high and dry with a tough math problem that the aide could not teach. Having seen the teacher use the same problem in an earlier period to convey estimation and long division skills, I jumped at the opportunity to go over the problem with them.

In a flash I was up at the board asking for the student's attention, which was immediately given. From there I furiously began to break down the word problem into important and unimportant information, asking all along the way for student input. Together we worked out the estimation, and I called on some students to verify or reject answers and walk me through my mulitplication and division. After only 10-15 minutes, the students and I were finished with the tricky word problem.

It was so refreshing to get up in front of students and teach. It is something that I have come to miss with this position that I have. Fortuntely, at Wanbli Wiconi Tipi and sometimes at TCMS, I do get a chance to teach, although it is more one on one or small group work. Today I worked with students in math on simplifying fractions using the greatest common divisor. And I have to admit, it was really great to dust off those old algebra brain cells and get them back into gear.

The farther I get into this job, the more I am able to play teacher, rather then office manager. While the paperwork is still there and takes a lot of time, I am now starting to get myself more settled into the job and focused on student progress.

And I have to remind myself that student acheivement is always the goal. Always.

The Students are the Reason

So obviously the joy of teaching comes from the students. Unfortunately with my job, I do not have my own classroom, so my contact with students is different. I pull students out to test, I work with them as an aide in the classroom, I work with them one on one. But even so, I have been able to make some connections only a few mere weeks into the school year.

Pulling students out for testing I thought was going to be brutal. Exceptional Education has a stigma, so whenever someone gets pulled out of the classroom, it is usually a uphill battle. But, for some reason, the students I have pulled so far have willingly come along to be tested over and over again. How about that, huh?

And coaching 6th grade football has been extremely rewarding. Watching the kids grow as athletes has been a real joy. They transformed from guys that didn't know the rules of the game to vicious tacklers and blockers. Now, I just need to enforce a little more discipline and these kids will be unstoppable. Can't wait for that first game on October 9th!

Shifting Up a Gear

I should have started a blog a long time ago... not almost a month into teaching. But, I refuse to play catch up, so I am just gonna start in the present and perhaps fill in the rest along the way.

Yesterday I had a PLC (Professional Learning Community) at Crazy Horse School in Wanblee, SD on Pine Ridge Reservation for Teach For America. In the PLC, Catherin Pozniak, the Executive Director for the South Dakota Corps, revealed the goal percentages for 1st and 2nd year corps members. And frankly, it was disheartening. The goal for my year is for 21% of the teachers to make significant gains (1.5 years of student growth) and 56% solid growth (1 year).

It really was a sobering moment to see those stats up on the screen. TFA, an organization dedicated to the ideal that all children can recieve a good education, has such low goals for our corps. Now, I know they didn't get these numbers out of thin air, it was based on the years of data that they have collected from the SD Corps. But still... it hurts to see such low expectations from an organization with such ambitious and lofty goals. And to know that many teachers aren't even making solid gains (what every teacher AT THE LEAST should be doing) is very frustrating to see.

But, I didn't take those numbers and let it bring it down. I am using it for fuel to make sure I have my act together. I need to get organized and open all lines of communication. I need to talk to Gen Ed teachers, administration, TFA Staff, other TFA Corps Members, Mentors, and family to make sure that I am working my hardest to guarantee that my students will become successful.

One very bright spot of the PLC was meeting Ian, the Program Director (PD) on TFA Staff. He will become my PD and take over for Kim Marsh in a few weeks. He was a Special Education teacher in Arizona for a couple years and thus knows a lot of what I will be dealing with. To have someone with a lot of experience in Special Education on Staff will be a huge plus. Even more, he has taken a strong interest in my placement, since it is so different from all the others.

Time for another week of teaching. I hope my new focus and energy will help get a lot of unknowns solved and questions answered. Plus, I have my first IEP meeting on Friday, along with a couple Change of Placement meetings this week, so lots of knowledge and experience will be gained.