First World, Third World, Our World

Hello All.  Last weekend was super busy and I didn't make my goal of posting, but I am excited to be here today and - as promised - I am writing about the two seminars I am teaching this term. I have decided to write about each of them one at a time, so today you get to read about First World, Third World, Our World (also known as "Our World" or "The Haiti Class").  

At Clark Street Community School one of our "educational pillars" is Place-Based Education; this pedagogy allows us to use our community as a resource and a context for learning. Place-Based learning connects what students learn in the classroom to the world making what they learn more relevant and meaningful.  Additionally, Place-Based learning allows students work to benefit a individual, organization, or business.  When we started Clark Street Community School, we wanted to have opportunities for community members to come to the school to work with students.  Teenagers are a widely underutilized resource in communities and have a lot of talents, skills and abilities to offer.  

Last winter I was fortunate to cross paths with Tia Bunz, the Executive Director of the Found Blanc Foundation. The Fond Blanc Foundation supports an orphanage in Haiti.  Currently, 54 young people live at the orphanage which also houses a school that is open to anyone.  There is very little public education in Haiti and private schools are prohibitively expensive for many families.  When we first met, Tia talked to me about her work and the work of the foundation.  Tia's passion for Fond Blanc is contagious and I knew I wanted to work with her from the moment I met her.  After several conversations, a round of seminar selection, and - for me - a summer of reading about Haiti, the First World, Third World, Our World seminar was born.

As I prepared for the seminar, I bounced back and forth between being really excited for this opportunity and wondering what the hell I thought I was doing.  By the time I met with Tia mid-way through the summer, I had read and discarded 15 books, watched many disappointing documentaries, and was not feeling completely sure of my ability to take on this challenge with the expertise it deserves.  At our meeting, I told Tia that I planned to go into this knowing that I don't know everything about Haiti, but that if I am successful, students leave the seminar with an understanding that there is much more grey than black and white when it comes to knowing Haiti and it's people; while the country faces many seemingly insurmountable challenges, it is also a place of strength, beauty, and hope.  I want students to understand how "helping" others causes harm when we don't listen to the people we are trying to help.  True giving honors the recipient and seeks empowerment not dependence.  In the end, if they have a deeper understanding they also have more questions than answers.  Tia kindly told me she thought this made me the perfect teacher for the topic - which was just the confidence boost I needed to start the year.

First World, Third World, Our World is divided into two parts: first, we are working to learn more about Haiti through through text, film, and discussion.  We started by watching the documentary film, Haiti: A Road Trip.  When teaching about a place very different than our own, I like to start with a film that provides students with some visual representations.  This film is well made and balances the richness of the Haitian culture with the many challenges the country faces.  For our reading, I choose the challenging but engaging text The Big Truck That Went By by Jonathan M. Katz as our anchor for the seminar.  Katz is an American AP reporter who was stationed in Haiti before the earthquake.  He experienced the event and stayed for a year following the disaster to report on the recovery - which turned out in many ways to be an even bigger disaster than the earthquake.  Once we complete the reading, we will more on to part two of the seminar where we will work with Tia on a service project to benefit Fond Blanc.  Tia and Fond Blanc are very sensitive to sustainable giving that involves Haitians in decision-making.  While we don't know what the service project will be yet, I am excited for my students to have the opportunity to connect with Fond Blanc and use their learning to support the students at the orphanage.

So far, I have been astounded and inspired by the level of participation and interest I have gotten from my students.  When planning, I imagined that students wouldn't be super excited to learn about Haiti or they would think the book was too hard or too boring.  I thought I would have to do a lot of convincing that this was worth their time; but wow was I wrong. I have been incredibly impressed by the discussions we have had and the interest students have in learning more about Haiti and working with Fond Blanc.  A few days into the seminar, one of my co-workers who supports the class said about our students, "They are all paying attention... all of the time!"  If you don't frequent many a high school classroom, I will be the first to tell you that students don't always pay attention and rarely are able to do so for an entire class period.  One way or another, teenagers are always teaching me not to underestimate them...

This week we were fortunate to have a team from Fond Blanc visit our class: Swenson, Alison, Molly, and Tia brought photos and shared with us more about life at the orphanage and the joys and challenges of living in Haiti.  One student said that while we have read a lot and seen things in the documentary, it is so meaningful to talk to people who are from or have lived in Haiti.  I quite agree.  I am looking to connect with more guest speakers or Haitian cultural events in the area - so if you know of anyone - please send them my way.  

Also, if any of you readers out there are interested in reading along with us, you are always welcome to join our classroom community to discuss the text; students really like discussing with  community members - just let me know if you are interested.  

Stay tuned for more updates from First World, Third World, Our World as we get going on our service project!  Thanks for reading :)

Being a Teacher & My Morning at Clark Street Community School

On the first day, the staff at Clark Street Community School introduce themselves to the student body and answer a question.  This year the question was: What are you most excited about doing at school this year?  My answer: Being a teacher.  

Many of you know that for the last four years I have spent most of my time at CSCS in the role of Program Coordinator (which is a title that I made up for myself).  As Program Coordinator I worked as member of our school leadership team, planned meetings and inservice days, collaborated on the design of various learning processes and our graduation plan, recruited students, conducted outreach to the community, etc.  The list goes on, but this is starting to feel like a resume and I am sure you get the idea.  

This year, for the first time in many years, I am a full time teacher.  While I have said that this was what I wanted for a long time, I was secretly worried that I was having a "grass is greener" moment and that I might regret my choice.  If I am being honest, I also struggled with the idea of "going back" to the classroom.  For a while I thought I would move on from being Program Coordinator and go to grad school (again) or start consulting or something.  While I really tried to listen to my heart to make this decision, I was scared that it might somehow feel like I was going backwards.  

I know we are in the honeymoon phase of the school year, but this week I left school smiling and thinking to myself: I love teaching.  It feels great to be back in a classroom and to be connecting with students.  It is hard and hectic and way to much to do in a day... but I am happy and that tells me that I made the right decision.  

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As we are still at the start of the school year, I thought I would spend some time telling you all a little bit about what I am teaching this year.  Today I am going to write about my mornings at CSCS which consist of Advisory, Reading Workshop and Math Workshop.

Advisory: Every day at CSCS starts with advisory.  I have twelve little angels assigned to my team; they are of various grades, backgrounds, ages, talents, and interests.  I do have a high population of redheads, which I consider a major bonus.  My students are truly a crew of amazing individuals.  A few anecdotes:

• One student is working on drafting her own spirit animal quiz for our advisory as she was dissatisfied with all of the online versions she researched.  After all of the members of our advisory take the quiz (of her own creation), she is going to draw animal likenesses of each of us.  I WILL post mine on this blog - stay tuned.
• One student who hopes to be an elementary school teacher in the future, has designed a hybrid schedule this year and is participating in internships at several progressive elementary schools in the area.  I am excited to talk with her about what she observes and learns throughout the year.
• One student has a sound effects app on his phone.  When I am talking to long, I hear the music come on... kind of like at an award show. 

Every day my advisory starts with the same circle question: How do you feel today?  I like this question because it offers up a moment to pause and check in with yourself. I often find that I haven't really thought about how I feel until I ask the question.  In addition to a personal check in, it allows us all to give each other important information about where we are on any particular day.  Students can say that they are happy because their favorite team won last night or that they are hungry because they missed breakfast.  The circle allows me know what is going on and to follow up on anything of importance, but just listening to how they feel seems to start the day acknowledging that we care about each other.

The start of the school year in advisory is a lot of business and set up.  At the end of the first two weeks students have established  tools to use to manage, personalize, and archive their work; they have measured their progress to date in math and reading; they have reviewed the community agreements (be independent, be an active community member, be responsible, create a safe learning environment); they have practiced mindfulness; they have learned all of the various protocols for moving through their school day; they have learned each other's names.  As we get into our regular schedule, advisory time will be a place to start each day together, check in, get organized, and hopefully move on to the rest of the day with a positive attitude.

Reading Workshop:  Reading workshop is my jam.  It is probably the simplest, but also the most joyful part of my schedule.  Students in reading workshop are working to become better readers and create reading artifacts for their portfolio.  They spend time in workshop reading independently or in a small group discussing a recent article.  I love talking to kids about reading.  I love reading with kids.  I love when kids who believed they couldn't read become readers.  I LOVE it. (*Note: If you didn't read about my amazing Little Free Library - please do!  Donations of books or funds to purchase books are always welcome.)

Math Workshop:  One of the ideas we most embrace at CSCS is the Carol Dweck's Growth Mindset.  Embracing a growth mindset means that you understand that intelligence and skills can be developed and you focus on improvement.  We have been talking about this idea for a long time, but I am excited to have the opportunity to practice it for myself in my first ever math workshop.  In the first two weeks, we have been working with growth mindset ideas and playing with different math challenges to identify important characteristics that help us learn math: growth mindset, emphasis on thoughtfulness over speed, creativity, and multiple routes to a solution.  I often wonder how I would feel differently about myself if I would have learned math the way students do at CSCS.  Can I rebuild the way I think about myself as a math learner by teaching math?  This week we are moving on to constant ratios in right triangles and contemplating the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  This is all new for me, but I have a lot of support, and am excited to learn. 

And that's my morning.  I don't think you missed much else except a cup of coffee, my sassy comments to kiddos in the hallway, and a snack scarfed down somewhere between sections if I am lucky.

Next week I will write about the two new seminars I have created and am teaching in the afternoons.  I am very proud of them and excited to share them with you.  As always, thanks for reading.