Current+Feelings+about+Teaching

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Compromises. Every day. I spent too much of my first year teaching trying to show that I was a better teacher than I really was. I kept students in my room that I should have sent to the dean. I thought I was showing mercy. I was really showing weakness.======

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Students don’t respect you unquestionably. They might lay low in September, but don’t mistake that for respect. They’re feeling you out. What can they get away with? What’s your breaking point? How will you respond to certain provocations? Will you be consistent? Do you treat every infraction the same? If not, why not?======

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You may be an expert in your field, but if the students don’t care about the lesson, they won’t learn. My mini lessons, timed in front of a mirror to 5 minutes, took longer and longer. Shouts, playing around, play fighting, all took time out of my lessons. I wouldn’t soldier on, but wait for quiet. And wait. And wait. Oblivious that this was what they wanted. I was so concerned with every student following my lesson that I didn’t realize I was slowing my teaching to a pace where no one could follow.======

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I’d like to say that doesn’t happen anymore. But it does happen less. And progress is being made on both sides of the ball. I have adapted my teaching habits, made attempts at true differentiation, and have begun to track my student progress through my own assessments.======

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//A major part of my classroom throughout the year is vocabulary instruction. Whenever my classes begin a new novel, play, short story, or poem, I choose a few unfamiliar vocabulary words and add them to the vocabulary list for the week. Every week or two, with a list of 10-14 words. Grades on the weekly quizzes were dropping. Something had to be done. So I took a step back and redesigned how I would administer the quizzes. I began giving highly structured and scaffolded study sheets to my students. I then compared the results.//======

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//The data I analyzed was taken from my work with class 770, a small “ghost class,” an off-the-books class of students taken from all of the other 7th grade classes in an attempt to lower classroom sizes school-wide.//======

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//In the first, study sheet-less assessment, the average score for 770 was 61%. The highest score was 93%, but there were two students with 20% and one student with 17%. Obviously, some of these students were not getting the material and were beginning to get very frustrated. In the second assessment with the help of a study sheet, there was a marked improvement. The class average was 79%, up nearly 20 points. The lowest two scores were 47% and 48%, still not great, but much better than under 20%.//======

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//Two students who did not turn in a study sheet still earned a 100% on the study sheet assessment, up from 83% and 90%. Individual conversations with the student who went from 83% to 100% showed that he did study with the sheet, but left it at home on the day of the examination.//======

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//There are several conclusions that I can draw from this analysis. One, the inclusion of a study sheet in the implementation of vocabulary instruction in my classroom seems to raise scores on vocabulary assessments. Granted, there are myriad reasons for an improvement (slightly “easier” words, a perhaps more accessible assessment, though I used words gleamed from the Glencoe “Literature” textbook for both vocabulary lists). However, such marked improvements up and down the board seem to point to study sheets as a welcome addition to vocabulary instruction.//======

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//There is a second, slightly disturbing, conclusion that I noticed. Though the overall grades in my classroom tend to favor the female students, the grades on the vocabulary assessments have all favored male students. One possible reason is that the “fill in the blank” section of my assessments have male coded information (every few assessments have a passing reference to baseball, a passion of mine). However, this is an infrequent occurrence, and shouldn’t account for a 10-20% gap between the female and male students. More study will be needed to discern the reasons for this gap, but it would have gone unnoticed without this analysis of the data.//======

Students are getting better, but a lot of work still needs to be done. I have constantly moved away from my initial ideas and have be come more pragmatic. I want to find things that work.

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In addition, you make compromises with administration. You are put into situations where you won’t feel comfortable, where you are ‘highly encouraged’ to work against your contract. I taught a CTT class without having a special education teacher in the classroom with me. I felt lucky to have the job, so I didn’t say a word. Just as students feel you out, administration does the same. They want to see what they can get away with, as well.======

**Michael Robert**
Contrary to most, I had an excellent first year teaching and a dreadful second year. I was hired to work at a film school in the South Bronx where I taught ninth-grade film and twelfth-grade English. I met the principal at a job fair and we shared an engaging conversation, unusual for the normally stale conversations at a job-interview, I thought. When I came to the school for an interview and walked down the hallways and saw the shiny desks and Smartboards, I was ready to sign. She was an absolute caricature of an eccentric artist. Her door was always open. She had spent twenty-five years teaching English and whenever I had a question about teaching a lesson, she gave me dozens of ideas. If I came to her with an idea that I thought was risky, she’d come back at me with something even more over the top. She once suggested that I turn my classroom into a black box theater by hanging long black curtains on every wall and going to the basement and bringing up old bleacher seats. When she came into my classroom, she wasn’t there to judge, she was there to participate. She was concerned with just one thing and she would repeat it over and over to the staff, “Is there real learning going on?”

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It’s too bad that principals can’t just focus on teaching and learning, they also have to focus on business. And make no mistake, New York City Schools are all about business. Midway through my first year, the state designated our school as a “School Under Registration Review” or SURR school. What this meant was that our school became targeted for corrective action because some of our test scores fell below state standards. If we did not improve these scores, our school would be closed. It also meant that the state would begin vigilantly monitoring our school. Suddenly there were strangers in suits pulling us out of our classes, meetings, and preparation periods to ask seemingly meaningless questions. It was strange. There was no violence in our school; we didn’t even have metal detectors. We received a “B” on our report card. This was all happening because the cohort of 2008, as a whole, fell //two points// short on their English Regents Exams. As a result, the atmosphere in the school changed immediately. The administrators and teachers who had worked so hard were depressed. The students were affected because, suddenly, they thought they were going to a bad school. At the end of the year, one fourth of the teachers found new jobs because they did not want to be associated with a SURR school.======

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It was terrible, but the real tragedy was what happened next. Our principal was replaced by two administrators from the Absent Teacher Reserve, a place where “excessed” teachers and administrators are placed. These people had no intention of becoming a part of our school’s community, getting to know students, or impacting education in any of the practical ways we are taught to do so at Fordham. Their directive was to come to our school and fix its problems. And, as you will soon learn, the problem is always the teachers. The administrators began to admonish teachers, implement a strategy to fix these broken teachers, leave a paper trail showing that they had a positive impact on teacher performance, and collect their paychecks and move on. If there wasn’t an obvious problem with a teacher, one was created. Non-tenured teachers were specifically targeted because administrators understood that they could do what they wanted with few repercussions.======

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My school became like a prison. Lesson plans had to be structured to the minute. There was no more professional development; instead, we were forced to participate in memorization activities so that when the State came to the school to ask questions, we would know exactly how to respond to make these administrators look good. All after-school activities, including detention, were canceled, because we were told, suddenly, that there was no more money in the budget. It was astounding. What had happened over the course of a year?======

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What does this have to do with impacting student learning? Everything. It’s very difficult to be an effective teacher when you don’t have the support of the administration. There’s a lot that a teacher has to put up with that has nothing to do with the students, at least until you teach for three years and receive tenure. If you are looking to teach in New York City Schools long term and you expect straightforward solutions to problems you face in the classroom, then this isn’t for you. If you can’t stomach the hypocrisy of a system run by businesspeople with no educational background, then this isn’t for you. If you’ve got a little bit of an ego and you can’t let go of an issue when you know you’re right, then this isn’t for you. However, if you are looking to do truly good work for the adolescents who need it most, even if they don’t ever acknowledge or appreciate it, then you’re in the right place. What you will discover is that there are so many ways that you can have an impact student learning. The following is an example of a problem I identified in one of my classes and what I did to fix it.======

During last semester our visual literacy class was divided into two groups and each group worked on a collaborative film project. For this project, students were differentiated based on the film-making roles that they were interested in exploring, for example, some students created storyboards, some did camera work, some were in charge of costumes or lighting, and others learned computer editing and sound. Students were required to write a short essay describing which film-making roles they thought they were best suited for and were interested in exploring. Before students wrote these essays, I worked with an teaching artist from the film industry and we delivered two days of lectures and activities teaching the various roles of filmmakers. My students were given study guides which they were to complete during these classes and study from to prepare for a quiz. I gave my ninth-grade students a comprehension quiz covering these roles. I was not pleased with the results and I didn't know what went wrong. After I graded their quizzes, I recorded the data on a spreadsheet along with gender, whether these students have an individual education plan or are English language learners, whether they are repeating the ninth grade and/or are overage, and how many of my classes they missed this year.

I recorded data for eighteen of the thirty-one students enrolled in this class. There were many students on this roster, however, some of them I rarely saw. Of the thirty-two students, nine were absent twenty-five times or more from my class. I had been told that most of these students were attending other schools, but their names still appeared on my roster. In addition, this was a first period class and many students in our school did not come to school on time. Unfortunately, at this time there were only ineffective school-wide procedures for dealing with chronic lateness. I made phone calls every week and sent home progress reports, however, these measures were unsuccessful. I take this to be a school-wide issue that the administration, teachers, and parents have to work together to fix. For the purposes of this analysis, I did not take into account students who had missed more than five weeks of my class and instead focused on the students who were in their seats when the bell rang. These students' names have been blackened out on the spreadsheet below. Students who scored at least 70% of the questions correct are highlighted in blue, students who did not are highlighted in red, and students who were absent that morning are highlighted in gray.


 * Name || Assessment Grade || Gender || IEP || ELL || Repeating Ninth Grade || Overage || YTD Classes Missed ||
 * Avelda || 8 || F ||  ||   ||   || Y || 32 ||
 * Tiffany || 112 || F ||  ||   ||   ||   || 6 ||
 * Argenis || 104 || M ||  ||   ||   ||   || 17 ||
 * Brandon B. ||  || M ||   ||   ||   ||   || 40 ||
 * James ||  || M ||   || Y ||   || Y || 15 ||
 * Domique ||  || F ||   ||   || Y || Y || 27 ||
 * Laquan || 40 || M ||  ||   || Y || Y || 36 ||
 * Frederick ||  || M || Y ||   || Y || Y || 26 ||
 * Nathaniel || 64 || M || Y ||  ||   || Y || 9 ||
 * Megan || 56 || F ||  ||   ||   || Y || 8 ||
 * Issa ||  || F || Y ||   ||   || Y || 44 ||
 * Edilee || 32 || F ||  || Y ||   ||   || 12 ||
 * Shyquasher || 40 || F ||  ||   ||   || Y || 19 ||
 * Angely || 64 || F ||  || Y ||   ||   || 5 ||
 * Raheem ||  || M ||   ||   ||   || Y || 15 ||
 * Brandon J. || 24 || M || Y ||  ||   || Y || 17 ||
 * Lloyd ||  || M ||   ||   ||   ||   || 20 ||
 * Shaquan || 72 || M ||  ||   ||   ||   || 4 ||
 * Sally || 32 || F ||  ||   ||   || Y || 11 ||
 * Vanessa ||  || F ||   || Y ||   ||   || 19 ||
 * Stephanie || 80 || F ||  ||   ||   || Y || 9 ||
 * Shana || 48 || F ||  ||   ||   ||   || 8 ||
 * Angel ||  || M ||   ||   || Y || Y || 48 ||
 * Anthony || 32 || M ||  ||   ||   || Y || 13 ||
 * Steven ||  || M ||   ||   || Y || Y || 95 ||
 * Noel ||  || M ||   || Y ||   || Y || 46 ||
 * Tamar ||  || M ||   ||   ||   ||   || 20 ||
 * Jose ||  || M ||   ||   ||   ||   || 19 ||
 * Charles || 112 || M ||  ||   ||   ||   || 3 ||
 * Christian || 96 || M ||  ||   ||   ||   || 17 ||
 * Lavon || 8 || M || Y ||  ||   || Y || 3 ||

After completing the spreadsheet, I recognized is that almost half of my students are overage. Of the students who passed the quiz, none of them had IEP's, none were ELL's, none repeated the 9th grade, and just one was overage. Of the ten students who took the test and failed, only three had an IEP, just two were ELL's, however, almost every one of them was overage. Only one student who failed was a non-IEP, non-ELL, non-repeater, and normally did just fine in my class (she had recently missed several classes because of an illness and I believe this explained her dismal performance). When I took her out of the equation, there was a strong correlation that existed between being overage and failing this quiz (7/9). I was sure that this data could be used to drive my instruction, however, upon reflection I wasn't sure what to make of it. Therefore, I decided to do a little digging.

Gewertz found that the best way to improve high schools is to "salvage the middle school experience" because struggling middle school students are unlikely to be successful in high school and often stop coming to class. Unfortunately, I couldn't send my students back to the eighth grade if they're unprepared for my class. Wilkinson recommended identifying overage students, creating a support team consisting of a teacher and guidance councilor, and providing individualized tutoring. The idea is to give these students the support they need in order to be successful, because until they recognize that they can be successful in high school, they are unlikely to apply themselves. Until my overage students understood that they are capable of achievement, they were not going to apply themselves and the lessons I deliver, however well-planned, would not matter to them.

I met with the guidance councilor at my school and we identified every overage student in the ninth-grade and we assessed these students' interests. Once I understood my students' interests, I modified the curriculum to feature a film that these students would find appealing ("Raising Victor Vargas") and teaching roles through the film instead of lecturing about them in class. When I finished the lesson, I reassessed my students using the same quiz material, but in an oral format.

My overage students' performance increased dramatically. Out of the ten students who had failed, six received grades of 90% or higher and only one student failed the second assessment. I recognized that they way I presented the material was crucial and that sometimes even film classes can be designed to be more engaging.

In the two years I have taught in the New York City School system, I never disliked any of my students and I never had a student I didn’t think I could work with. Sure there were stressful moments- I’ve written up many and removed students from the classroom- but I never lost my head and never raised my voice. That first day in summer 2008 when I arrived at middle school and walked around the school’s neighborhood, I realized that these kids have it hard, harder than I ever did. I recognized that some of them have legitimate concerns (supporting drug-addled parents, avoiding gang pressure, and living in shelters) that weigh more heavily on them than a high school education does. This doesn’t mean that teachers have to lower their expectations of their students; rather, it just means that the whole picture needs to be taken into context. When you understand what this picture is, and you recognize the positive impact you’ll have on the lives of these students, there’s no better rationale for why you’d put up with the massive flaws in the system. I’ve learned that if we want to remain in the classroom, sometimes we have to suspend logic, compromise, and put aside our pride for a greater good- the education of New York City's students who need quality teachers. References

Gewertz, C. (2005). Keeping Overage Students in High School Proves Tough. //Education Week//, //24//(40), 1,. Retrieved from ERIC database. Wilkinson, D., Griffith, J., & Austin Independent School District, T. (1994). Overage Ninth-Grade Dropout Prevention Programs, 1993-94. Retrieved from ERIC database.

By Ivelisse E. Ramos
 * Jane Airhead Part II:**

What I have learned since I began teaching is that my students are not me, despite the similarities in our ethnicity, our neighborhoods, or our upbringings. Only when I understood and accepted this truth was I able to begin to learn who my students really are. I know now that my kids are all extremely different. They have diverse personalities; their learning modalities are varied; they have a broad range of skills; they have unique needs; and they excel in different areas. I also know that it is my job to identify and reflect upon these differences as I plan my instruction. All of my students can learn; and I’ve learned that it’s my job to help them to find strategies for them to help themselves learn.

I do not have to be tough all of the time. I’ve learned this too. I know now that a smile and a “good morning” at my door can set a tone of caring and mutual respect for the entire period; and it can pacify the toughest student. I know now that, possibly more than anything, my kids require consistency and continuity; they need discipline tempered by empathy. My students must know that if they don’t do their work, I’ll be on their backs like white on rice; but if they need help with their work, or if they don’t understand something, I will be there to guide them towards understanding.

I’ve also learned that, inside and outside of my classroom, I will be called to wear many hats. I am a teacher of English every day; some days, I am an history teacher; I am often a special educator; I must always be a student. These days, I am also a part-time dean... seriously. After the third principal in only six months, a wave of violence overtook our normally placid halls and classrooms. In January, I was asked to accept a position as a .4 dean in an effort to regain control and enforce the Chancellor's Regulations. Against my better judgment and the advice of my colleagues, I took the job with the best intentions. I have always been an effective classroom manager, and I assumed my there would be very little difference between classroom management and school-wide student management--there would simply be more students involved. If only this were true.

Dealing with one's own students in the classroom is vastly different from dealing with everyone's students in the hallways and in other classrooms. It has taken me more than four months to gain the respect of three hundred students who thought I was nothing but "a teacher with a radio." And while I feel great about the fact that cutting in our gymnasium has been nearly eliminated, and occurrences are actually being reported, I'm absolutely exhausted--both mental and physically--every day. I long for the days of five periods in my classroom--with my own students. This is good-, I suppose. I know now with great certainty that I just want to teach. More than every, I value my time in the classroom with my kids. I'm more appreciative of hours I spend planning for them, grading their work, and learning from them.

My students and I recently finished //A Lesson Before Dying//, by Ernest Gaines, as a class. Their final exam would be comprised of two components: Part one is an exam (several multiple choice questions, two long answers, and an essay); part two is an interdisciplinary, project-based assessment; each would be worth 50% of their final-exam grades. My true intention was to use the first component as a formative assessment to evaluate whether we needed to review any skills or parts of the novel. I also planned to compare the scores from the exam portion to their last exam, which I administered after the first seven chapters of the 31-chapter novel.
 * Student Achievement:**

I was extremely excited by the overall progress of the class as reflected in their grades. The following is a brief analysis of the scores from the initial assessment to the most recent exam:

From my disaggregate analysis: Of the 24 students in my first-period class who took the test, 12% (three students) scored 100; 20% (five students) scored 90-95%; 42% (10 students) scored 80-85; 17% (four students) scored 70-75; and 9% (two students) failed. Of the two failing grades, one student received a 20; another received no credit because her letter met none of the criteria for receiving points (she likely had not even opened the book at home, and she was absent/late for most of our in-class reading).
 * Initial Assessment Statistics--A Lesson Before Dying, chapter 1-7:**

Click here to view the complete analysis of this exam:[|DAFINAL.doc]


 * Most recent assessment statistics--//A Lesson Before Dying//, all chapters:**

Of the 22* students who took the exam, three students received 100%; three students scored between 95% and 99%; four students scored between 90% and 94%; five students received between 85% and 89%; four scored between 80% and 84%; none student scored a 72%, and one scored a 69%; not one student failed the exam.
 * When this assessment was conducted, three of my students were serving 30-day suspensions; two were absent the day of the exam and have not made up the test.

After reviewing the individual scores for this last assessment, I was extremely satisfied with the progress of many of my students. I was especially excited about several students who made substantial gains. One such student is Kelsey. On the initial assessment, Kelsey, a ninth-grade with language delays, scored a meager 20%. My concerns for her were great. Kelsey could barely construct a simple sentence, and she often appeared lost during read-alouds and class discussion. Despite the use of content enhancement tools such as graphic organizers and double-entry journals, Kelsey made little progress from September through January.

I met with Kelsey's parents twice to discuss the situation and discuss a plan to better support her needs. We discovered that Kelsey becomes easily distracted; and she must re-read passages several times. We discussed strategies to keep Kelsey focused and ways for her to check her own comprehension. Her father agreed to re-read with Kelsey each night the pages from the novel that we covered in class each day. During independent reading, I made time to give Kelsey more focused attention; and I paired her with Althea, a student who is doing very well in my class and whom Kesley likes and respects.

When I graded the latest exam, I was delighted to see that Kelsey made amazing progress: she scored 81% on the exam. It was apparent that Kelsey's understanding was very limited at the beginning of the novel. She was moving too quickly when she read and as she wrote. She lost track of the characters and their relation to both one another and the plot. I showed Kelsey my own trick for keeping track of character with a t-chart graphic organizer. She began re-reading independently, with her parents, and with Althea in class. Finally, I modified the essay portion of Kesley's exam slightly (I did not change the long-answer questions). While most students were required to write a three to five paragraph essay, Kelsey was required to to write two paragraphs only. The result was that her sentences were more complete, and it was clear that she took the time to proof read later and make several changes. And while the structure of Kelsey's sentence were not as sophisticated as some of the other students', it was clear that Kelsey understood and was able to articulate the concepts we discussed in class.


 * David Brooks**

After almost two years of teaching in a high needs middle school in the South Bronx, which has proved overwhelmingly negative and even toxic for me again and again, I try to remain as optimistic about education as possible. The fact is my beliefs about teaching have been challenged, but remain close to the same as when I started. As a teacher, you have to believe every student can learn and that it is your responsibility to lead if you want to be effective and fair at what you do. Over these last 20 months I’ve been disappointed and sometimes incensed by some of the negative and destructive things I’ve seen administrators, teachers, students, and parents do in my school. At some points I’ve felt cornered and hopelessly powerless in a school environment that continuously displays more negative qualities than positive. Yet when you become truly incapable is when you give up your optimism and begin to believe that you can’t. The fact is that despite the discouraging circumstances of my school, I have won many battles and have increased the literacy skills of so many students. One big difference between the way I viewed student behavior at the beginning of my career to now is that now I believe that students can behave appropriately and I expect them to do so. It is unbelievable how much this matters and makes a difference in their behavior. With that expectation embedded in my daily approach and the increased familiarity with what they can achieve, what the state wants them to achieve, and what I already know I can help them achieve, I am a much more effective instructor.

As an English teacher, I’ve improved drastically since I started. My independent reading time is no longer a “I just need to get through this” moment. My kids silently read, beg to keep reading, and are excited to show off what they are reading and what they have read. My summative writing assessments for each unit are tightly organized and well-scaffolded. I know what I want to see – making backwards planning that much more effective – and I am getting better and better at guiding my students towards meaningful and impressive writing pieces. //When Kids Can’t Read: Strategies That Work//, by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis, has been very helpful to my literacy instruction. I’ve used many strategies from it that I’m sure I’ll be using for the next ten years. I’ve watched reading levels rise at a much faster rate this year than last year. I look forward to continuing my search for more best practices using opportunities for professional development given to me from my school as well we my colleagues’ shared practices. Consistent reflection and revisions in my teaching methods, style, and curriculum will be key to my growth as a teacher.

While I will work at continuing to become a better teacher, I can also look at how I’ve impacted my students already. Judging the impact you have had on the individuals you’ve taught is always a twofold idea. There are plenty of ways to look at your data and analyze what type of difference you’ve made in your students’ understanding and skills in your content. However, the effect of your role modeling, your leadership, your random pep talks, your discipline, and many other things you do simply cannot be quantified and analyzed. Even the long term effects your content instruction has on your students’ cannot be measured. Teachers shouldn’t be looking to always see a difference when working with a child holistically. But your collection of data throughout the year and the analysis of it should lead you to be able to ascertain what type of impact you’ve had on your students.

There are many types of data that I can use to see the impact I’ve had on my students’ literacy skills. For example, after assessing my students’ reading level using Running Records in November, I was able to see almost every student increase by at least one level by February. To me that data shows that the amount of time I spent teaching mini-lessons on reading strategies, reading aloud, independent reading, and reading responses was time well spent. It also shows that the way I set up and taught each of those things allowed my students to grow as readers. As I stated above, the enthusiasm with which most of my kids read this year makes this data unsurprising. Other types of data include formative data – as I track how well my students have understood the lessons taught throughout a unit. I use formative data to conclude how my students are doing with the concepts and skills I’m teaching. While in the unit, formative data analyses can lead you to going back to teach something students may not have figured out yet. I also give pre tests and post tests for most of my units. This allows me to track whether or not students learned key concepts such as distinguishing between similes and metaphors, interpreting the mood, and identifying personification. The rubrics I use to evaluate summative assessments (which are usually big writing assignments) allow me to analyze data quantitatively and qualitatively. The rubrics show me the specific strengths and overall strength of the student work. I reflect on what I find and use my reflections to better my teaching. By recording what each student got on each column of the rubric, I can quantitatively track how my students performed. For example, after my first unit, a memoir unit in which one of my focuses was creating engaging hooks, I was able to see that more than 80% of my students wrote level 3 or 4 hooks. It showed me that I did not need to teach a whole class lesson on hooks again. But I did need to find time to instruct those students still struggling with it in a small group. The hook success was another example of my impact, but yet another example of how I can learn from data and use my conclusions from it to better my instruction.
 * ** 603 RUNNING RECORDS ** ||
 * ** Student Name ** || ** Oct-09 ** || ** Feb-10 ** |||| ** Student Name ** || ** Oct-09 ** || ** Feb-10 ** ||
 * Leennez ||  || X || Y || Gehrig ||   || Z || Z ||
 * Ladisla ||  || Y || Z || Yonervin ||   || V || X ||
 * Cindy ||  || Y || Z || Marleny ||   || Z || Z ||
 * Cristian ||  || S || V || Tramaine ||   || T || X ||
 * Paul ||  || S || T || Ariana ||   || V || V ||
 * Aissata ||  || X || X || Jason ||   || M || P ||
 * Robert ||  || U || W || Andy ||   || R || S ||
 * Alison ||  || Y || Z || Keshun ||   || X || Y ||
 * Natalia ||  || V || X || Allan ||   || S || U ||
 * John ||  || W || Y || Victor ||   || V || W ||
 * Annjonnette || R || Y || Onika ||  || R || U ||
 * Itzel ||  || Z || Z || Khiry ||   || Q || S ||
 * Sumayah ||  || S || U || Ryan ||   || T || W ||
 * Crisnely ||  || P || P || Michael ||   || X || Y ||

What has made me better is my persistence. You have to keep finding better ways. Better ways to teach reading strategies. Better ways to get great writing from students. Better ways to discipline. Better ways to navigate administration communication. Better ways to be more efficient with your time and energy.

If you want to become a great teacher, you must be relentless in your positive attitude, your willingness to learn and try new things, your high expectations for all students, and your work ethic. Know that you cannot solve all the problems you see. Pick your battles. Play the game of the educational bureaucracy the best you can without losing the values that mean the most to you. Reflect on your own performance as much as you possibly can. Relish the moments when you do succeed and when children and adolescents poignantly show just how wonderful they are.


 * A Reflection: Impacting Student Learning - Rocco Napoli**

After creating a classroom culture in which the students were allowed to express their individual talents, ideas, and opinions in open discussion, I discovered that instruction through various venues became more effective. I believe the reason for this is the students were looking for more information to fuel there discussions and debates. I began to incorporate various strategies and tools into my lessons including differentiating content and process, technology, graphical organizers, flexible grouping, literature circles, interest and readiness based lessons, as well as project based assessments.

Specifically, this year I taught a unit on "A Raisin in the Sun" to one of my ninth grade classes. In order to deliver and pass on the themes, ideas, figurative language, and social context of the play I employed various teaching methods to access the various reading, writing, comprehension, and interpretive levels of my students. Before reading the play I conducted an interest survey and found that 70% of the students had a "Very Strong" interest in reading the play. This number rose substantially from an interest survey I conducted with the same class before reading the novel //Of Mice and Men//. Since my students performed much better as a whole on the "Raisin" unit, I realized that choosing content that excites the students or at least piques their interest creates a stronger level of attention as well as purpose toward their learning.

Since we were reading a play, I decided to use a performance based style of reading. I assigned parts to various students and employed the fishbowl method of reading. In this way the students in the center of the circle were engaged and had the opportunity to develop and practice their reading skills while the other students around the circle had to take create at least one discussion question about the scene we read. After reading, the class would often engage in student lead discussions. One strategy I used however, was to surreptitiously dupe the students into discussing the theme I wanted them to take away from the days reading and activity. I really paid a lot of attention to the "Aim" question. I would read it and have a student volunteer read it as well. Inevitably, at least one student one bring up the idea in his/her discussion question.

I also utilized some technology to really bring this play to life for the students. After reading, discussing, and writing about the various aspects of a particular scene, I would show the film version of the scene. Additionally, I incorporated graphic organizers to help the students keep track of character connections, traits, and their significance.

Before the final exam assessment, I had the students perform a project based assessment in which the students had to interview a person who was alive during the 1950's and 1960's. The students had to compare their interviewee's impression and sense of life during that time and compare it to a theme or character in the play.

Finally, came the time for the exam assessment. Despite my students' outstanding performance on the previous parts of the unit, they were anxious about sitting for the exam. This area of education is where getting to know your students is invaluable. Since I knew my students' personalities well by this point in the the I was able to subdue their fears by speaking to them individually.

Of the 16 students on the roster that took the exam, 12 students passed. That translates into a 75% percent passing rate. 5 of the 12 passing students passed with a 90% or higher. 6 of the 12 passing students passed with an 80% or higher. The remaining passing student received a 74%.

This left me to examine why four of students failed this exam, especially when all of the students performed well on all the other portions of this unit. This class is made up a diverse groups of learners, including students with IEP's and former ELL's. I was dissatisfied with this result and tried my best to give the students an opportunity retake the exam. First I noticed that my failing students were all former ELL students and that they lost an exorbitant amount of points on the multiple choice true or false questions. This helped me to realize that the students were decoding improperly or having trouble interpreting the meaning of the questions. I brought the students up for lunch and verified that they had their notes and organizers. After discussing the the themes of the questions with the students, I realized that they knew the answers to the test. I had to create lessons that helped the students break down and interpret the questions properly. I did this by identifying pattern and certain words that provide clues to the questions. After doing this, I administered the test again. This resulted in 3 of the students managing to pass with a grades ranging between 65- and 73.

To impact student achievement we as educators must get to know our students and analyze the data. We have to take the time to see where students are and where they are going. We must fastidiously judge their progress. We must find away to incorporate various strategies that meet our students at their own individual level.

Forgive Me For My Miss Behavior: A Reflection Dylan Houle

What is the job of a teacher? An elusive question, that. Perhaps those that we serve—the students—can answer best. Here is a letter a student wrote to me mid-way through my second year of teaching.

"Dear, Mr. Houle

Forgive me for my miss behavior and going against my word. I promise from this day forth I would (sic) behave and I am going to stand by that word. I will have respect for you and I will prove that I am capable of learning and achieving in life. I would ask a favor from you… can you help me improve before school ends and If I act out of my place I would face my conquest I must face. Can you help me pass 8th grade?

From, Yves Jr. Remy"

Yves’s two needs are ostensibly rather simple. One, he wants to improve his behavior, and two, he wants to improve in English Language Arts (ELA). In many ways, all students share these needs, and we are charged with the task of fulfilling them. Of course, teachers do not carry this burden alone. We share the work with parents, administrators, and members of the community—a veritable network of supportive adults. But what happens when the majority of your students live in single parent homes, with their fathers and older brothers murdered or in jail? What happens when you butt heads with an administration void of support or solutions? What happens when the “members of the community” are high school dropouts dressed head-to-toe in red or blue? Are you prepared to go it alone? Read Yves’s dubious last line again. “Can you help me pass 8th grade?” Well, can you? It seems he’s not sure.

I’ve spent my second year teaching intermediate school in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, a neighborhood that serves as a sort of middle-class buffer between the ghettos of Bedford-Stuyvesant and East New York. My students are Afro-Caribbean, and some with Jamaican accents so thick as to be incomprehensible. They listen to musical genres I’ve never heard of (e.g. Soca) and some come to school wearing shoes made by Prada, but without a pen or pencil in their backpack. Some smoke weed in the bathroom, while others get into fistfights so fierce that jaws get broken. Some crip walk into the classroom; some spell out B-L-O-O-D using hand gestures. Some call you a “retard”; others decide, “You’re a fucking joke.” Less than 10% of the student body makes the Dean’s List or the Honor Roll. Only 1 eighth grade student was accepted to the first high school of his choice. The in-house suspension room is at capacity for the foreseeable future. Yet for all that, Intermediate School 285 (I.S. 285) earned a “B” grade last year—a year my colleagues have told me was considerably worse. We’re //above// average.

For me, this incongruity calls into question the standards by which our schools are judged. Have we set high standards, or low standards? Are we concerned with the substance of learning, or only the appearance of learning? Many of my Fordham University colleagues have shared stories detailing the unethical behavior of their schools such as graduating failing students or scrubbing test scores. But the problem is larger. For example, an 8th grade student reading and writing on a 3rd grade level—did no one notice, or did no one care? Another example, the NYS math test requires students to answer just 40% of the questions correctly, which sends the message that failure is success. But the problem is larger, and I’ve already alluded to it. For example, a chronically ill behaved student, Sababa Rafi, decided he'd be quiet and attentive one day, and I called his mother to praise his new attitude, but on the following day when I asked him, “Did your mother tell you I called?” he shook his head and immediately got angry. “Why’d you call?” he said. “I didn’t do anything yesterday!” In the teacher’s lounge you’ll hear your colleagues blame the bureaucracy who’ll blame the teachers who’ll blame the students who’ll blame the teachers who’ll blame the parents, but not a one will simply say, “Enough.” Free public education is a radical concept; overhauling it will require the radical paradigm shift of every stakeholder.

Does that mean you can’t affect change in your classroom? No, of course not. In fact, the autonomy teachers’ are generally afforded is one of the profession’s perks. I’ve taught 6th—8th grade and 10th—12th grade, and have had to make a comprehensive curriculum for each. With 180 school days that’s over 1,000 unique lessons over the past two years, and I’ve been formally observed //less than 10 times//. Some lessons have proved better than others, and I used many of the ideas presented throughout this handbook to help shape them.

Autonomy, though, has its downsides. Receiving so few formal observations, it’s hard to obtain genuine feedback on your progress as a teacher. That’s why Fordham University stresses to no end the importance of being a reflective practitioner. You must ask yourself daily, Am I a good teacher? How do I know? How will others know? And reflection isn’t necessarily saved for a calm, clear-headed moment; reflection-in-action happens during instruction, during those lessons when the majority of the students are asleep or disruptive and //you’ve got to change something immediately//. Also, reflection isn’t limited to identifying what went wrong or right; it’s also meant for you to determine future action.

I didn’t reflect seriously until my Fordham University Field Specialist, Mr. Rattien, gave a rather scathing review of my classroom management skills, or lack thereof, based on what he witnessed during the early part of the school year.

"… you have to get and maintain appropriate behavior/quiet (not necessarily silence) in class and not instruct by talking over your students. Talking over students only reinforces the poor behavior. Wait for quiet before you instruct. You provided enough good and diversified instruction to keep your students’ interest…but by not requiring appropriate behavior, students continued to behave poorly. By the end of class, your voice had gotten raspy from having to talk so loudly to be heard. That can’t happen and needs to be addressed now."

It goes without saying that I didn’t “meet the standards” that day. I knew the students’ behavior was poor, but until Mr. Rattien made explicit the negative consequences it was having not only on my voice, but also on the instruction, I hadn’t much thought about how to correct the behavior. Instead, I had adopted a woe-is-me these-kids-are-crazy attitude. Shaken from that, I began developing a plan.

The students I teach can tell you that I have memorized the discipline handbook, meaning every code, consequence, and intervention. After reading his report, I instructed as usual, but began noting the behavior, and after class I’d write a formal incident report for the students who had committed the most egregious offences. With the support of my dean, I’d systematically take them through the consequences, explaining each one clearly to them. Eventually, six students were suspended, with one of them being evaluated for a more restricted environment. The class understood that I would enforce my rules consistently and fairly according to both their rights and mine. Before Mr. Rattien’s reprimand I’d battle students for their cellphones or wedge my body inbetween them fighting or chase them around the room for their hat. Now when I put my palm out for their cellphone or hat they hand it over, confident that I’ll return it at the end of the period, but also aware of the consequence if they don’t. After Mr. Rattien’s second observation, he wrote this:

"Upon arriving in your class, it was immediately evident that discipline in this class was significantly improved over my previous visit. … You showed tremendous improvement since my last visit. It is evident that you can maintain solid discipline and instruct these students on the material you want them to learn."

Phew! Without the ability to manage the students’ behavior, then you cannot call yourself a public school teacher. The method I chose was to treat their behavior exactly as prescribed by the handbook, but every teacher manages their classes differently. Some are excellent at establishing relationships with the parents, and others relate easily with the students, and some are just plain intimidating. Pick your poison. As long as the Yves Remy’s of your class know that if they “miss behave” then they //will// face consequences.

In addition to the students’ behavior, I’ve had to, and continue to, reflect on my teaching and their learning. What goals have I set for my students? Are they meeting them? How do I know? From September to April, I’ve given my 7th and 8th grade students 1 practice ELA test on the last Friday of the month. After each test we’d comb through the questions and identify the various skills and strategies they were required to use. (E.g. a question such as “The word //serendipity// most likely means…” is obviously testing the student’s ability to use context clues.) The students tallied the questions that they marked either right or wrong, and then they were able to zero in on their strengths and weaknesses. We developed both monthly class goals and individual goals that they’d write directly onto their portfolio. And then stir a whole lot of differentiated instruction and homogenous grouping into the pot and //whala!//

In the table below, I’ve charted the progress of 10 students who ultimately made significant gains even, as you’ll see, if they suffered setbacks along the way. Each practice test was worth 20 points and I simply marked a Y or N if they met their monthly goal. I defined meeting their monthly goals as answering 80% of the questions that tested that particular skill correctly in combination with their classwork and homework.


 * || Sept || Oct || Nov || Dec || Jan || Feb || Mar ||
 * Sheldon || 5 || 6 Y || 8 Y || 13 Y || 13 **N** || 15 Y || 16 Y ||
 * Jehiel || 3 || 7 Y || 7 **N** || 9 Y || 12 Y || 15 Y || 18 Y ||
 * Jerome || 3 || 5 Y || 6 Y || 9 Y || 14 Y || 15 **N** || 18 Y ||
 * Cameron || 3 || 8 Y || 9 **N** || 10 **N** || 12 Y || 16 Y || 20 Y ||
 * Wilson || 4 || 5 Y || 7 Y || 11 Y || 8 **N** || 13 Y || 16 Y ||
 * Aaliyah || 5 || 6 Y || 6 **N** || 12 Y || 13 **N** || 15 Y || 19 Y ||
 * Renae || 4 || 6 Y || 5 **N** || 10 Y || 12 Y || 17 Y || 18 **N** ||
 * Tenisha || 3 || 4 **N** || 8 Y || 13 Y || 11 **N** || 14 Y || 17 Y ||
 * Ashu’daya || 3 || 3 **N** || 3 **N** || 7 Y || 13 Y || 14 **N** || 18 Y ||
 * Shiyan || 3 || 4 **N** || 7 Y || 9 Y || 12 Y || 13 **N** || 19 Y ||

Of the 10 students represented in this table, only 1 did not meet her monthly goal 50% of the time. Yet, she still improved over all. Now, after collecting data such as this, it’s important to disaggregate it. For example, do the girls do better than the boys? Is time of day a factor? Considerations such as these will further guide your instruction, specifically your differentiated instruction. Below, I’ve included a sample disaggregate analysis, but before you look at that, I’ll wrap this up.

I ask you again, what is the job of the teacher? When Yves Remy writes you a note that wonders, “Can //you// help me pass the 8th grade?” are you prepared—in all the ways we’ve discussed throughout this handbook—to say yes? Can you help him? Because that, dear new teacher, is your job.

//Sample Disaggregate Analysis//


 * //Question 1://** //Are you a male or a female?//

//Sex is a classic way to disaggregate data, and the differences, both mental and physical, between boys and girls have been studied extensively. As I stated above, there are 14 males and 15 females in this class. 3 female and 2 male students were absent the day of the exam. Of those that failed, 5 were males and 1 was female.//


 * //Question 2://** //How old are you?//

//Age is also a good way to disaggregate data, especially in middle school when students are transitioning from a concrete operational to a formal operational stage of development, let alone the drastic physical and hormonal changes they are experiencing throughout this short period of time.//

//8 students are thirteen years old, 8 students are fourteen years old, and 3 students are fifteen years old. Of those that failed, 1 was fifteen, 2 were fourteen, and 3 were thirteen years old.//


 * //Question 4://** //Have you ever been held back a grade? Why?//

//The reason I asked this question is because it relates to the students academic standing. While I’ve not done or read much research on the effects of students who are left behind, I am curious to see if there is a correlation between repeating a grade and the score on the exam. If I wanted to make this question more specific, and therefore more useful, I could’ve asked what grade they repeated and why seeing as how students in elementary school can sometimes be held back due to a lack of maturity rather than intelligence.//

//5 students answered they had been held back, and 14 students answered that they had not. Of those that failed the exam, 1 student had been held back.//


 * //Question 7://** //What was your last year’s score on the ELA state exam: 1, 2, 3, or 4?//

//This question is important because it allows me to put my instruction in context. For example, if most of the students that failed the exam scored a 1 or a 2, then I know that I am not meeting the needs of those students. If most of the students that failed scored a 3 or a 4, then I know that I need to improve my use of differentiation in the classroom. I double-checked the student’s answers by looking up their score on Acuity.//

//4 students scored a 4, 7 students scored a 3, 6 students scored a 2, and 2 students scored a 1. Of those that failed, 1 student scored a 4, 4 students scored a 2, and 1 student scored a 1.

**Try to Be Just Cynical Enough: Rob Pulwer** //

I have to admit: my teaching experience so far seems to have been a lot less chaotic than the experience of my peers in the Fellows. While, of course, it hasn’t been perfect and headache free, it has been peopled with mostly calm and controllable students whose respect I might have to earn but, once solidified, is unwavering.

What I have seen, though, that is of constant worry to me, is the quagmire of the self-destructive culture in which many of my students find themselves. Almost two years of teaching in the South Bronx have taught me that, despite what many idealists, government-haters, and race-card players will say (and say and say and say), the achievement gap in America is at least as much due to a cultural deficit (gap?) among the low-income, inner-city students Fellows serve. Calm though they may be, many of my students just don’t care about school. To many of them, what would be gauged in almost any other segment of American culture as failure or near failure is a rousing success. Pass rates are abysmal. Students aren’t concerned if they do well, but rather if they pass, confident that they can still get into a respectable college with a report card of 65s. The detachment from the realities of life outside the South Bronx, the life to which many of them claim to aspire, is, to say the very least, worthy of a long head scratch.

Of course, it’s not all on them. Some of them come to the table with troubled backgrounds and stunted cognitive growth from a young age. Some should be classified Special Ed but are not because their parents refuse to have them tested. Some are the products of legitimately terrible elementary and middle schools. And many of them have been duped, by a series of state tests that claim to measure competency but in fact consider passing what would be abject failure in any class, into believing that learning is something that, if it must be done, is done inside a school, for a test and a grade, and has no bearing on life outside of the somber bricks of many New York City public schools.

Pessimistic though I might sound, I actually derive a good deal of pleasure from working with my students. Despite the cultural and institutional difficulties discussed above, I have managed to make progress with many of them. The most effective way to do this has been to establish for myself a no-nonsense classroom persona. I work quickly and with a sense of urgency in my classroom, constantly circulating even as I give my mini-lessons (the notes for which I display on an LCD projector). I target failing students for extra conferencing during group work. I assign mentor students to struggling students within their heterogeneous groups. I make sure that the room is silent before I speak or before I allow students to speak. All of these create a solid classroom culture where excuses and inattentiveness are not tolerated, unmotivated and academically lagging students are zeroed in on for help, and students have opportunities to support one another in the learning process.

My students’ final test on __The Catcher in the Rye__ was a mixed success; many students did well, but most of them were students who have done well throughout the year. Many more students did terribly, and those same students have done poorly throughout the year due to a combination of chronic absence, poor behavior, and lack of engagement. Needless to say, I wanted to see if I could get their scores up for the next test, which covered poetry.

I selected ten especially needy students for this experiment. I assigned each of those students a mentor student. Some mentors had two students, some had one. The pairs or triads would meet at lunch or after school. I gave them the option of meeting in my room, but if they chose to meet somewhere else they would have to show me proof of the work that was accomplished during their meeting. The mentor students and I set content-based goals for them at the beginning of their time together, and I accepted work relating to these goals with the handwriting of the student being mentored as sufficient proof that the meetings took place. I also provided after-school review sessions for the three days leading up to the test. Following is a chart detailing the performance of these students on both the __Catcher__ test and the poetry test.

Note: both tests were worth 80 points. The scores for them are thus expressed not as percentages, but as scores out of 80.


 * **Name** || **__Catcher__ test score** || **Poetry Test Score** || **Percent Change** ||
 * Chris || 38 || 45 || + 8.75 ||
 * Susie || 19 || 54 || + 43.75 ||
 * Daouda || 28 || 30 || + 2.5 ||
 * Joseph || 37 || 67 || + 37.5 ||
 * Katrina || 26 || 45 || +23.75 ||
 * Keira || 30 || 48 || + 22.5 ||
 * Ibrahim || 28 || 23 || - 6.25 ||
 * Takima || 38 || 35 || - 3.75 ||
 * Christine || 30 || 58 || + 35 ||
 * Mary || 35 || 31 || - 5 ||

Seven out of the ten students targeted for this pilot experiment made gains on the next test, with five of those students’ percent gains in double digits. Each student who made gains proved to be motivated by the extra help given to them by a peer (themselves motivated by the extra credit promised upon completion of the project). In the post-test interviews I conducted, three of them said that their mentor’s explanations of concepts were clearer than mine, which, they said, sometimes have big words or go by too quickly. They felt more comfortable asking questions in a one-on-one (or two-on-one, as some of the mentors had two charges) session, and the removal from distractions also aided their focus. Susie and Joseph, both chronically absent at the beginning of the year and plagued by poor performance since, threw themselves into the project, coming to all of the review sessions and driving their mentors a little crazy with questions (so the mentors said) and demands for more sessions. Finally, and maybe most importantly for their grades, the students' attendance showed a marked improvement during the poetry unit. Several of them reported to being more motivated with this student support system.

I also attribute some of the increased performance on the poetry test to two other factors: 1. More students like poetry than like reading prose. As a result, more students were engaged in the poetry unit and the scores on the test and final written assessment were generally higher. 2. The poetry unit and its test were less based around Essential Questions and their philosophical implications. Instead, the unit and test focused on more tangible skills and concepts. In my experience, students tend to do better on such tests. That grading of them is less subjective than a philosophical or thematic essay must also be considered.

Of the three who did not improve their scores, none went down significantly. Two of the three showed up to fewer than half of their scheduled meeting times with their mentor, and only one of the three showed up to a teacher-led review session (which he did the day before the test).

Some of the students on this list were among my toughest, both behaviorally and academically. Yet, because of my use of student support and no-nonsense approach to their learning, almost all of them rose to the challenge and improved their scores.

If you want to improve your students’ scores, you will have to employ methods that you as a high school student would have found completely foreign or (yes) utterly insulting. Don’t be afraid of them. Don’t make the same mistake I made, and many of my Fellows colleagues made, by justifying not using something potentially effective with ‘well I would never have needed //that’//. The fact is that many of the kids you will teach //do// need that, whatever ‘that’ is. Urban public education is a battlefield of competing ideologies, many spat out by pedagogues who have left public education for the cozy confines of university academia. Ignore them as much as possible. Your only guiding principle should be that, while they are in your charge, your students need to learn. You have to teach them. As much as logically possible, do what it takes.

//Anthony Jones//
 * My Impact On Student Learning**

My first two years of been teaching have been difficult, to say the least. The first year was particularly hard for a few different reasons. For instance, my school did not give me a curriculum to work with—instead, I had to develop all my own material from day one. My school also did not have a plan for student discipline; consequently, student behavior was very poor and the school environment was extremely unstable and chaotic. Despite these hardships, I was able to have a positive impact on student learning and stay reasonably optimistic about my value as a teacher. At the end of my first year of teaching my student pass rate for the ELA Regents was approximately 20% higher than it had been the previous year. I was able to have success with the Regents by making the writing process visual for students, improving student behavior in my classroom, and by reaching students who struggled with the English language.

In 2008—the year before I stared at my school—students’ ELA Regent’s scores looked like this:

In order to pass the ELA Regents, students need to earn at least a 65. Thus, in 2008, students had a 42% pass rate. In 2009, after my first year of teaching, students’ ELA Regents scores looked like this:
 * Erika || 57 ||
 * Kevin || 74 ||
 * Julissa || 66 ||
 * Dandy || 38 ||
 * Justina || 43 ||
 * Aaron || 55 ||
 * Krystale || 70 ||
 * Robert || 59 ||
 * Heriberto || 51 ||
 * Milangeli || 43 ||
 * Gabrielle || 62 ||
 * Christopher || 49 ||
 * Michelle || 28 ||
 * Romero || 60 ||
 * Jonathon || 38 ||
 * Mabel || 8 ||
 * Deshawne || 38 ||
 * Moises || 55 ||
 * Cynthia || 55 ||
 * Abbie || 47 ||
 * Faycal || 70 ||
 * Markeda || 51 ||
 * Kiara || 55 ||
 * Khadim || 60 ||
 * Dalma || 70 ||
 * Adefemi || 55 ||
 * Dennisha || 82 ||
 * Yashira || 53 ||
 * Shontae || 70 ||
 * Shantale || 90 ||
 * Carolina || 33 ||
 * William || 65 ||
 * Isaiah || 70 ||
 * Suly || 55 ||
 * Erickson || 69 ||
 * Brianni || 79 ||
 * Alicia || 62 ||
 * Bianca || 47 ||
 * Jessika || 76 ||
 * Jeffrey || 65 ||
 * Devon || 45 ||
 * Julia || 86 ||
 * Latisha || 45 ||
 * Khaseim || 66 ||
 * Christopher || 57 ||
 * Kerry || 18 ||
 * Muhamed || 60 ||
 * Tiffany || 45 ||
 * Dilma || 60 ||
 * Janaey || 60 ||
 * Jocelyn || 84 ||
 * Tanique || 72 ||
 * Yeison || 18 ||
 * Charlie || 62 ||
 * Raul || 66 ||
 * Chris ann || 51 ||
 * Cristina || 65 ||
 * Yessica || 77 ||
 * Sandra || 59 ||
 * Karen || 57 ||
 * Ruth || 88 ||
 * Mario || 41 ||
 * Falisha || 82 ||
 * Hector || 51 ||
 * Denisha || 51 ||
 * Nelmarie || 79 ||
 * Blair || 49 ||
 * Tiffany || 70 ||
 * Stephanie || 72 ||
 * Linda || 74 ||
 * Daribel || 51 ||
 * Kathleen || 53 ||
 * Jose Perez || 59 ||
 * Jessica || 86 ||
 * Emil || 74 ||
 * Jeanette || 59 ||
 * Elvia || 62 ||
 * Rafael || 88 ||
 * Gregory || 59 ||
 * Joseph || 74 ||
 * Jonathon || 72 ||
 * Carlos || 28 ||
 * Escarly || 82 ||
 * Steven || 85 ||
 * Urbi || 80 ||
 * Ciara || 66 ||
 * Mariella || 72 ||
 * Kiara || 79 ||
 * Lionel || 41 ||
 * Tanisha || 69 ||
 * Emerson || 39 ||
 * Anna || 84 ||
 * Kevin || 62 ||
 * Piro || 57 ||
 * Winston || 65 ||
 * Francisco || 55 ||
 * Ramon || 53 ||
 * Charina || 90 ||
 * Jahar || 4 ||

DESIRE 79 ARIEL 86 JEFFREY 70 KEVIN 47 SHANETE 53 JASON 21 ANTONIO 74 RAUL 67 SHADAY 82 TAIRIS 55 KRYSTALE 80 STACEY 14 MATTHEW 76 AMANDA 90 ASHLEY 70 MARLENE 86 DALMA DERRICK 51 KATHLEEN 63 EDWIN 49 NDEYE 82 KHALID 21 JUSTIN 69 ARALIS 96 STEPHEN 59 MICHAEL 41 JOSE 59 SHANNEL 74 ELIZABETH 84 KWASEAN 90 KHADIM 67 SHAQUOIA 92 ALECIA 65 ANNIESA 65 SULY 69 STEPHANIE 72 MICHELLE 74 ABIEMWENSE 41 SABRINA 85 DEVON 67 JONATHAN 70 HASHAWNA 61 DONISHA 70 MAUREEN 43 DENISSE 69 JOSE 34 MELISSA 41 KATIRIA 67 FELIX 43 TATIANA 74 COREY 82 SAMUEL 51 STEVEN 70 TIARA 82 QUCI 47 KEIRY 77 MABEL 18 JOSHUA 74 SAMUEL 55 STEPHANIE 80 XIAN 23 CHAZ 76 ANGEL 80 CHANNICE 63 JANIRA 63 FRANCISCO 24 ASHLEY 90 MARIAH 72 DEYVIN 55 DESTINY 77 AMANDA 80 CRYSTAL 61 ERIKA 82 TABITHA 69 HECTOR 69 HERIBERTO 65 CINDY 80 MUZZETTE 76 SUBJEIDI 40 GARY 61 MILES 80 BASIL 61 KATERIN 84 LUZ 67 RICHARD 2 RACHELLE 13 MELINDA 23 AMANDA 72 YUMARY 79 REBECCA 47 PRIMAVERA 89 PHILECIA 86 MARIEL 65 WILLIAM 74 JUATHAY 51 YARISSA 79 JOSEPHINE 57 ||
 * FAYCAL 70

In 2009, students had a pass rate of approximately 62%, which was a 20% increase from the previous year. One reason for this increase was due to the visual approach that I took with essay writing, which was a modification I made during the second semester of the school year. After the first semester, I noticed that many of my students were visual learners. They would often excel if they were given visual models and often do poorly if they only had verbal or textual instructions. Thus, I began creating essay outlines with strong visual representations of the paragraphs of a well-structured essay. I also brought in a wide variety of film clips designed to show the concepts of the writing process. For example, in order to show the importance of an outline, I showed a clip of the construction of a building and taught students that a good outline is like a good blueprint—the better the plan, the better the construction whether it’s an essay or an office building (I've included a piece of my powerpoint presentation for the lesson here: ; unfortunately, the video is too large to attach on the wiki but it can be found on YouTube with a simple search for "time-lapse construction.") These lessons enabled students to visual an integral piece of the writing process and they were a big reason why my students outperformed the previous cohort on their ELA Regents Exam.

Another reason for my students’ success was the behavioral plan that I established in my classroom from day one. Despite the chaotic atmosphere in my school, I resolved to have a stable, ordered classroom so that students would be able to learn in a structured environment. This was not always easy to maintain; however, through perseverance and cooperation of many students, I was able to create a strong classroom culture that motivated students to work each day. Harry Rattien—my Fordham field specialist—noticed this and stated after an observation that:

“Your class was extremely well behaved. This helped maximize instruction and learning. Throughout the period, you encouraged hand-raising as an appropriate method of participation. Your boards are very well set up and include pertinent information that is easy for students to read and follow. The planning and structure of the class is good. You have an agenda that you follow and students know exactly what is expected of them at all times throughout the period.”

According to anecdotal evidence from other teachers on my grade team the previous 11th grade English teacher had a very chaotic classroom, largely because she had no rules or boundaries. Students were often lost in the disorder and, as a result, their 2008 ELA Regents scores suffered. I believe that my structured classroom culture and behavioral management allowed me to deliver my lessons in an environment conducive to student learning. Thus, this played a large role in the 20% increase in the student pass rate for the ELA Regents in 2009. Without this structured environment, I believe that my impact on student learning would have been greatly reduced.

Another factor that increased positive student achievement in my classroom was my ability to assist students who struggled with the English language. I work in the South Bronx and about 70% of my students are Latino—the majority of them being Dominican. Many of these students have struggles with the English language because it is not the dominant language in their culture. Through a linguistic case study that I completed during my time at Fordham, I was able to analyze specific student difficulties and brainstorm solutions to better serve my struggling Latino students. (I’ve linked the case study so as to share my findings.) The differentiated lessons that I was able to develop after the case study gave many struggling students access to information that they used to prepare for the Regents Exam.

Despite the success that I experienced with the ELA Regents Exam last year, I was not completely satisfied with my students’ performance. Even though the pass rate increased by 20%, I thought that my students could have done even better—so I set out during my second year of teaching to make sure that this became a reality. I’ve worked on essay writing all year and recently I was able to pinpoint many of my students’ primary difficulty—the controlling idea—through the use of methodological research tools (I’ve linked this findings here: ). With this information, I have been able to tailor my instruction to meet my students’ needs and I’m excited to see the new results come June. It is this sort of excitement that keeps me inspired to teach each and every day despite the hardships of an exhausting school year.


 * James Dawson**

My first year crawled along. I was losing weight, developing tics, and finding myself less and less able to concentrate on my graduate course work. I fervently hoped for disasters to give me a break: boiler explosion, exposed asbestos, H1N1, whatever it took… Around April, things began to look up: I had a resounding success with my 7th graders, teaching them Shakespeare’s //Julius Caesar.// We worked in conjunction with the Lincoln Center Arts Institute, and their teaching artists expressed their admiration for the how well we taught the lesson. Working with my literacy coach, I designed a unit that was launched with an arresting (some might say disturbing) piece of performance art; we told the 7th graders that they were gong to lose their locker privileges, and with a few “plants” (students in on the deal) fomenting rebellion, demonstrated how quickly rumor and conspiracy can spread. After unpacking that experience, we viewed the play, read the text in book clubs designed to support less experience readers, and ended the unit with a student designed and executed trial; Cassius, Casca, and Brutus being accused of murdering Caesar; who would be the one to take the fall? The students were motivated and involved, the teaching artists were full of praise and I finally felt like I had at CCNY Fresh on the heels on that rewarding yet admittedly subjective success, I received the results from the ELA test. Again, my 7th graders had responded well to my instruction, but this time I had the numbers to prove it. While there were some students who dropped, my at-risk students had made big gains. They were the underperforming minority students I had been charged with helping, and I had proof that I was having an impact: I was helping to close the achievement gap. I had pushed through the worst, and won. School no longer felt like a prison to me. Even my eight graders saw my new confidence and began to fall in line. I felt loose, cocky. After a dangerous flirtation with losing my fellowship, I earned two A’s at Fordham, and could feel myself getting a handle on both the curriculum and the classroom management. I started getting ideas on how to improve for next year, jotting notes for procedures or lessons that would engage and teach. One of my biggest problem students from the first half of the year showed dramatic improvement, and most shockingly, gave me much of the credit for it; a white lie, but a well-intentioned one that I was eager to swallow. Finally, last day of school. My wife brought my son by to pick me up. In flip flops and jeans, I sauntered down the halls, ready begin my summer. “Don’t forget to swing by the office, pick up your final evaluation,” someone yelled to me. I did. My final, year-long evaluation, the culmination of year of kids throwing books, about being told to “solve” problems by myself, (i.e., don’t toss kids out of my room, no matter how much they were disturbing the learning, of watching two other new teachers being treated with kids gloves, of reporting a student who was groping girls and having the complaints ignored (said student was arrested after being accused of far more serous sexual assault this year), of having my principal walk into a room where a student was calling me “mother-f-cker” over and over, and having said principal respond “Him? Just ignore him!” and walk out, leaving myself and 29 children speechless, of having students steal and vandalize laptops and my complaints ignored, of having a non-functioning smart board and being asked by an administrator (after I had begged for replacement parts), why didn’t I use technology in the classroom, after swallowing oh so much excrement, I received a D. Doubtful. Did I mention that I was never observed? Formally or informally? Ostensibly, the reason for the D was “your classroom didn’t look nice. Eight positive observations from my Fordham reviewer, not one observation from my admin. D. A wise, wise ex-teacher I know once told me that at the first year would be about the kids driving me crazy; next year, and every one after, would be about the adults. How right she was; and if this does not seem germane to the question if and how I have affected student learning, I think I did. Positively. Some, not all, of my students are better off for having had me last year. Some are not: the high-strung, those LD or ED students who I just did not have the know-how or the patience to deal with; I failed some of them. But if I were ever doubtful about my ability to get better at this job, I would have walked out a long time ago. But I love teaching now, and I love my students. There is something about the immediacy and directness of the whole process, the chance not to save the world, but the privilege of being challenged to make one student's life just a little bit better each day.