Phoenix Institute Day 4

To begin the chronicles of my Teach for America experience, albeit belatedly, I suppose you should know what TFA is. We're part of AmeriCorps and recruit college graduates to teach in under-served communities across the country. Here's a good article about the TFA founders: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/education/19teach.html?_r=1&oref=slogin. There are 35 placement regions around the country, many inner-cities but some rural regions too. I am placed on Greater New Orleans (GNO) to teach secondary math. Yes, math. Someone upstairs has a sense of humor, but I've decided to embrace it. And I am beyond excited to be living and teaching in New Orleans!!!

The New Orleans education system was in shambles before Hurricane Katrina. It was full of scandal and corruption, and systemically poor student performance (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/17/magazine/17NewOrleans-t.html?_r=1). Post-Katrina, the need is even greater for quality educators. My first school visit in GNO was to a high school in Jefferson Parish where the graduation rate was 50%...and they were proud of that accomplishment. Talk about a reality check. High school students who can't read are common, and the number of Special Education students is astronomical. Of course, there is also the lingering emotional trauma of Katrina. Students who waited out the storm in the Superdome or Convention Center (or even worse, in their own schools) have panic attacks at every hurricane warning and are left seriously emotionally scarred, which affects their achievement.

TFA's philosophy is that every student can achieve if given the opportunity, and success comes from the teachers. If kids aren't learning, it's not because they can't learn or don't want to learn, it's that the teachers have never motivated them or invested them in education. We believe that every child should have access to an excellent education, and that your future should not be determined by race, class, or zip code. Great teachers are the key to student achievement, because every child has the potential.

So that's TFA in a nutshell. After a long (but fun & beautiful) road trip from Maine to Louisiana, and a quick induction with the GNO folks in the Crescent City (where I learned a whole lot of randomness about the city...fun facts to follow later), I drove from New Orleans to Phoenix, where I will be for five full weeks for Institute. Here I will teach summer school in the mornings, take classes to aid in my professional development in the afternoon, and lesson plan, mangament plan, investment plan, make agendas, assessments and assignments, create behavior trackers, grade student work and set BIG GOALS in the evenings. They did warn us Institute would be extremely demanding, and they weren't kidding.

This entry is already long, so more to follow about Institute soon. I have lesson plans to write! Also, here's another interesting article for y'all. It combines two of my favorite things: Thomas Friedman and TFA! http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/opinion/22friedman.html?_r=2&ref=opinion