Long Way From Home

After graduating college in California, I set off to Philadelphia to begin my career as a High School English teacher. I will keep a web log of my experiences as a first year teacher. Please feel free to post comments, suggestions, and criticisms to engage any conversation I begin.

I am now nearly a month into my teaching in an under resourced, inner-city classroom. I quickly gained a deeper appreciation for all the teachers in my life, and just as quickly regretted my disruptive behavior that characterized my conduct from third grade through today. I learned what it means to try to manage twenty-five fifteen-year-olds. I learned about "not smiling until November." I learned how tiring teaching is. I learned that teachers appreciate weekends exponentially more than students do. I am just not sure exactly what my students have learned.
We are currently working on the reading and writing processes. The students will be turning in their first essay on Monday. Their personal narratives contain more dramatic events than most middle-class memoirs written in old age. Sometimes I think they are teaching me. For the reading process, we are wrapping up a unit on reading strategies used by successful readers. Students in my ninth grade classroom read anywhere from the third grade level to the ninth grade level, so we are working to get their reading levels up to speed in order to succeed in high school.

I am also teaching a journalism elective. We are working on a task-based learning assignment where we can target reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills in meaningful ways. Our task is a media project where we are researching the positive aspects of Camden, New Jersey, interviewing leaders in the community, and broadcasting a public service announcement on public access television with the help of some resources at the Boys and Girls Club. Hopefully that class will soon be publishing a blog where we can follow their progress as their research develops.