Here’s to not falling into the blogging “catch-up” trap, where I recount what has happened since I last updated in June. Suffice it to say that there have been victories and defeats, personally and professionally. Every teaching day is still massively challenging, and I remain grateful for my students and their families, for my charter network, and for the love and support of my friends and family. I have officially completed 3/4 of my corps commitment and am enjoying a much-needed break in my parents’ home in Virginia.
I have a lot on my mind regarding Teach For America, and the publication of this article (http://jacobinmag.com/winter-2012/teach-for-america/) has allowed many of my jumbled thoughts to coalesce. The article alleges that, “TFA exists for nothing if not for adjusting poor children to the regime otherwise known as the American meritocracy.” The author writes much about the threat to “regular teachers” and teachers unions…
Last Wednesday, the Santa Clara County Board of Education convened to hear a proposal from Rocketship Education to open 20 more charter elementary schools in the next 5 years. In terms of community impact, this would make Rocketship one of the two largest districts in San Jose by 2018. Students, families, and community members filled…
read more »It has been two months since my last post, and my mood has improved considerably. I went on a cute mini-vacation with my roommate to Mendocino, California (a tiny bed-and-breakfast town on the Pacific coast), visited a childhood friend in Seattle who lives on her sailboat, and road-tripped to Los Angeles last weekend. I am…
read more »Generally speaking, I try to keep this blog very positive. There is absolutely no denying that the first year teaching experience is hard. I can only speak for myself, but I know that my corps friends and I share an understanding that most days we are only surviving. Successes are intermittent, and when they are…
read more »On March 22, I had the pleasure of attending the Bay Area region’s first annual Benefit Dinner, which honored three families who have been integral to the Bay Area’s growth and impact. The event itself, for which individuals and corporations purchased plates and which featured an auction and paddle raise, ultimately raised $1.3 million. This…
read more »It’s that time of year again: my classes completed benchmark testing two weeks ago, and parent-teacher conferences are this week. Fortunately, I was able to schedule all my conferences Monday through Thursday, leaving Friday for an excursion into San Francisco with a friend from William and Mary. While the great blizzard of 2011 hits the…
read more »These TFA blogs demonstrate an important aspect of the organization that is rarely publicized, but very important. Every corps member has a completely different experience than the others. Even corps members who live together, teach in the same schools, and share students encounter totally different challenges and enjoy totally different successes. For that matter, every…
read more »“Once you’ve reached the point of no return, one penguin more or one penguin less each day doesn’t make much difference anymore. You live penguin. You think penguin. You dream penguin. You become penguin.” – 365 Penguins by Jean-Luc Fromental and Joelle Jolivet I am quickly becoming obsessed with 365 Penguins, a beautiful and hilarious…
read more »I spent last Tuesday through Friday at a training for Project GLAD, the Guided Language Acquisition Design program that provides strategies for instruction of English Language Learners (ELL). Since 75% of Rocketship students are ELL, I appreciated the opportunity to learn how best to serve them. The strategies are certainly geared more toward literacy instruction,…
read more »Rocketship students take a math benchmark test five times a year to provide aligned data on their progress toward proficient and advanced status on the California Standards Test. This data is a point of departure for my unit and lesson plans, and it keeps students accountable for their progress. …if only there were a blogging…
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