I am currently teaching 5th grade in the South Bronx. Here’s my story:
I am the child of two Chicago Public School teachers.
I became a teacher through Teach For America, and fulfilled my commitment to teach for two years in a low income community in Phoenix, Arizona. I taught first grade, Spanish-English dual language for three years there, the first two in a public charter school dedicated to sending all students to college and the third in a central Phoenix K-3 public school. Last year, I moved to NYC to attend graduate school full time. I now have an MA in literacy education.
As the title suggests, the purpose of this blog is to explore my experience reconciling the ideal or idea with the reality of teaching in the classroom, in a specific grade (5) and in a specific community (the South Bronx.) After spending a year as a full time graduate student, still with plenty of fieldwork and in a practical, hands-on program, returning to the classroom has been more of a shock than I expected for multiple reasons.
In this blog I will address the following ideas:
- When my philosophy of management doesn’t work. Realizing it’s about the students and not about my philosophy. Or…how do I reconcile the two?
- Professional Development at the school wide level
- Switching grade levels
- Teacher training and retention: traditional vs. alternative training programs
- What are the deal breakers in terms of instruction: technology vs. curricular material
- CURRICULUM: top-down or down-up and how do we really invest/motivate students?
