July 17, 2006
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Topic: Teaching in a NYC public school
The things I will write aren’t all that shocking or unusual. 5th graders who use often use fingers to add or subtract, but are sent to summer school and subjected to workbooks zooming them through curriculum they can’t possibly grasp by the end of summer exam.
There are several students in my class who are diligent. When they enter the class, they quietly sit and begin working on their “do now.” They raiser there hands often, they step-up during group work, they know when there behavior is inappropriate and they settle down.
The ones who are lost trouble me. They sit down, and spend the first ten minutes of class copying the “do now.” I try to move them along to the actual questions at hand. They struggle with identifying place value (680,932 has 6 digits, for example, and 9 is in the hundreds place). When asked to come up with combinations of dimes and pennies that add to $1.00, not one group can decipher how simple it is to go 10 dimes, 9 times 10 pennies, 8 dimes 20 pennies, etc. When pressed with questions, students shout out guesses, “50 dimes.” I remind them that knowing math to understand basic money transactions is the least they need to learn in school, and they seem to understand the seriousness in this.
In my grad classes, we read case studies. One story is about a teacher who tries to bring innovative, progressive, student-driven learning into the classroom, only to have the students respond, “we liked it better last year when the teacher told us what to do.” Another story is of a young eager teacher in LA, whose students are benefiting from her instruction, while another group of students down the hall suffers from the militant instruction of a cynical veteran teacher.
What these stories remind me is that my experiences are hardly unique. Others have run into obstacles, and their lessons are available. The fun now, is scouring books, magazines, and websites, for articles and lesson plans that will actually help my colleagues and myself to make it through year 1 of teaching.
Comments (4)
Don’t worry. Eager young teachers are the best kind. Keep it up.
Happy birthday. I’m a horrible friend.
i just want to commend you for the passion you have to teach. i have a few friends who teach all across the five boroughs and all i ever hear is how hard it is to keep the kids motivated and instill in them a yearning for the value and education, not to mention having to deal with all the administrative b/s that nyc is mired in.
keep rockin’ on! you are making a difference in this world….one word, one number, one moment at a time.
namaste
Ah, the wonders of teaching in NYC. I’m glad you’re enjoying it because so many people drop out of that program…it’s incredibly noble.