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One Girl's Teach for America Detroit Experience
Last Saturday was the TFA Detroit Summit, which concluded our First Eight Weeks (this is both a unit of time and our first big PD period where we’re being monitored for growth). It was good to see everyone from the corps, since I mostly just see the few TFA teachers at my school and the science cohort members. Someday I’ll blog about why I think the TFA PD schedule needs to change (short version: why not have a daylong session once a month instead of sessions several times a week? It’s more difficult to plan and execute, but it would save me several hours of commuting each week. If we need to get this info right away, why not a webinar or conference call?). At the Summit, there were several really interesting PD sessions and some very engaging speakers (including the awesome Michigan Teacher of the Year!).
However, one speaker said…
About two weeks into this year, I gave my students a survey, which asked them a variety of questions. Some of them were personal, like what they want to be when they grow up and what their favorite movie is, and others were about the class specifically (like what would make class better). I’ve always…
read more »If asked what TFA is like, almost every person doing it who I spoke to during my senior year (mostly alumni of UChicago and first year corps members) said “It’s the toughest thing I’ve ever done” and then said it was worth it. At the time I thought, “try having major personal commitments stretching across…
read more »Wow, I’m failing pretty badly at updating this blog. I understand now why people so rarely update their teachforus sites… teaching is a 26/7 job! Here’s a quick idea of my life: 6:00 – Wake up (if it’s a good, sleeping-in day) 6:30 – Get in my car, drive to school (oh how I miss…
read more »One of Teach for America’s biggest buzzwords (buzz phrases?) is “The Achievement Gap”. When we talk about the achievement gap, we mean the educational inequity (typically measured by test scores) between affluent, often white, students and their poorer, often minority, counterparts. This gap often represents several grade levels’ worth of knowledge. There are about a…
read more »When the farmer’s market saleswoman tells you it’s a pickle! Today I ventured to Eastern Market, Detroit’s most famous farmer’s market (over 4000 people visit some Saturdays). Eastern Market, located right in downtown Detroit, is HUGE! It is literally city block after block of tables of everything imaginable – animal, vegetable, mineral, and more! People sell…
read more »Scholastic asked bloggers to discuss the question “why is teaching important?” Despite all the pushback TFA gets, I can safely say that everyone understands that teaching is important. No one has ever once looked down on me and said “but… why would you want to be a teacher?” For all the discussion of the lack…
read more »Wow! It has been a WHIRLWIND two weeks, so I’m sorry for keeping everyone out of the (rapidly spinning) loop. Since my last update I have: 1. Finished Institute. (Blog post coming about this soon, hopefully) 2. Missed my Institute students dreadfully! (As, evidently, did at least one of them, who emailed me to say…
read more »We knew this day was coming. The day when we would give our final exam (that would be Earth Science Regents Exam questions) and then have to grade them and see exactly how much our kids don’t know. We tried our best to make it easier on them. We divided the final exam into two…
read more »(Short post since I’m quite behind on work, but this post has been rattling around in my head for a while.) Some background for those of you unfamiliar with the placement process, before I move onto my weekend and a Big Thought: Here’s how TFA regional placement works: You apply. In the final application stage…
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