As of my second-to-last day of blogging, 5/16, I can officially say...well, I still don't know what I'm doing next year. That's not really unusual or surprising, lots of schools are just getting their hiring processes going. I do have one job prospect that I'm really crossing my fingers for -- it's a school I'd love to work at, and I've had two interviews and a demo lesson, as well as a number of email exchanges. I hope to hear back in the next week, maybe I'll tack on an extra blog post to celebrate if I get that job.
That's assuming I can still edit this blog after I graduate -- though, since it's run through my Google Account, I don't see how they could stop me. I could go on posting forever, and they probably couldn't do anything about it if they wanted to (the sinister "they," in this case, applying to the Admissions Department, a group with whom I have nothing but positive relationships, but that's beside the point).
In any event, that's where I stand on the big question -- Where will I teach next year? -- to which I sadly must respond with uncertainty. In no particular order, here are some answers to other questions that no one in particular is asking:
What will I teach next year?
My certification is in PreK-4. My student teaching was in Kindergarten and 3rd grade, and I'd be really happy with either of those or anything in between. To be completely honest, however, I'd have to say that at the moment I'm more excited about Kindergarten.
A word to prospective and future members of the elementary program: consider Kindergarten.
I went into the program thinking that Kindergarten was too young for me. This was influenced by a few different factors. My memory of Kindergarten played a big part -- specifically, I remember nap time and macaroni art, and that's about it. My assumptions about the job were probably the most important -- I wanted to work with kids in higher-order inquiry and critical thinking, which I imagined to be impossible with students who can't even recognize letters of the alphabet. Finally, I recognize that I'm not immune to feeling that the societal bias which already exists against early elementary education as a "respectable career" gets a lot stronger with kindergarten.
I was talked into student teaching in Kindergarten anyway, and as I detailed in a previous blog entry, I quickly discovered that I loved. As I wrote at the time:
So there's my defense of Kindergarten. Think about it.
What am I going to be doing before next school year?
Another uncertain answer, though I have lots of ideas. I'm trying to decide whether to go for a full-time job, or a stringing together of freelance/part-time work. The former obviously helps my wallet, the latter gives me more flexibility, both for personal things and to focus on preparing for the school year. I have some options to be considered in either direction, thankfully.
There's plenty of other stuff I'll be doing over the summer. A couple of weddings I'll be attending in New York, possibly trips to North Carolina, Vermont, and elsewhere. My brother's trying to lure me to Asia, but at this point I'm in debt and unemployed, so that ain't happening. If I do decide to invest money in something this summer, it'll probably be a GSE class about "Autism, Language, and Reasoning" that alumni of our program are eligible for a substantial scholarship on. I'm also auditioning on Monday to be part of a 100-person army -- part of a Shakespeare in Clark Park production of Henry IV - and if that sounds awesome and you're reading this before 5/19, then you should audition too!
And, hopefully, continuing to fight for public education in Philadelphia. I've started working with the Caucus of Working Educators (click that link!), and I'm trying to keep advocating in different ways, because, you might have noticed, things are pretty dire in Philadelphia public schools. Catastrophic. Unconscionable. Today I went to City Council (and was joined by an impressive and diverse group of dozens of teachers, counselors, parents, and principals) to demand more funding for our schools. You should ask the same.
What am I going to be doing before the summer?
Moving backwards, and looking at May/June: as I alluded in a previous entry, I've begun an internship at a local neighborhood elementary school. I'm working in a Kindergarten class there, which is having a very challenging year; without going into too many details, the previous teacher seems to have struggled with the group and eventually resigned, leaving the classroom in the hands of a long-term substitute. Unsurprisingly, the class is academically suffering -- nearly half of the 29(!) Kindergarteners in the class are at an "A" reading level, which is the minimum for where they were supposed to be in October.
Therefore, my role in the class is essentially academic support; I began by doing lots of assessments of the students, and now I'm going to begin a lot of targeted small-group and individual lessons, mostly on literacy. My plan over the coming weeks is to focus on reading workshops and guided reading groups, supplemented with word work activities. I'm joined in this by another member of my TEP cohort, and it's great to have a collaborator.
Okay, but what are you doing right now?
Right now I'm sitting in bed trying to finish this blog post before it gets unreasonably late. I'm taking the day off of school tomorrow (technically today) to meet up with my mother, in town for graduation. Which is Saturday, or technically, tomorrow. We'll probably see a museum or two if her broken toe (ouch!) isn't too much of a problem.
After graduation, I'm going to see a Phillies game. Sunday, I'm going to see Godzilla.
And then it's back to work, and probably more job searching. But on my to-do list, I'll be able to strike out two pretty major things:
That's assuming I can still edit this blog after I graduate -- though, since it's run through my Google Account, I don't see how they could stop me. I could go on posting forever, and they probably couldn't do anything about it if they wanted to (the sinister "they," in this case, applying to the Admissions Department, a group with whom I have nothing but positive relationships, but that's beside the point).
In any event, that's where I stand on the big question -- Where will I teach next year? -- to which I sadly must respond with uncertainty. In no particular order, here are some answers to other questions that no one in particular is asking:
What will I teach next year?
My certification is in PreK-4. My student teaching was in Kindergarten and 3rd grade, and I'd be really happy with either of those or anything in between. To be completely honest, however, I'd have to say that at the moment I'm more excited about Kindergarten.
A word to prospective and future members of the elementary program: consider Kindergarten.
I went into the program thinking that Kindergarten was too young for me. This was influenced by a few different factors. My memory of Kindergarten played a big part -- specifically, I remember nap time and macaroni art, and that's about it. My assumptions about the job were probably the most important -- I wanted to work with kids in higher-order inquiry and critical thinking, which I imagined to be impossible with students who can't even recognize letters of the alphabet. Finally, I recognize that I'm not immune to feeling that the societal bias which already exists against early elementary education as a "respectable career" gets a lot stronger with kindergarten.
I was talked into student teaching in Kindergarten anyway, and as I detailed in a previous blog entry, I quickly discovered that I loved. As I wrote at the time:
...more than with any later grade, in kindergarten you really get to meet each student where she or he is, figure out precisely which skills they need to work on, and teach them the fundamentals they need to get there. It's an incredible challenge - to do it well, you really have to learn a ton about linguistics, for instance, in order to be able to deconstruct individual words and sentences in a thousand ways and match particular lessons to individual student needs - which I find really enjoyable and endlessly fascinating.And regarding my previous (mis)conceptions: Kindergarten (in Philadelphia at least) is quite academic, and totally lacks in nap time and macaroni art (not that macaroni art couldn't happen, I just haven't seen it). Kids at that age absolutely are capable of advanced thinking, and it's really exciting to draw that out because they're only just discovering the value and potential in their own ideas. And as for society...frankly, I'd already decided long ago to take the "societal bias" that I constantly encounter against educated men working in elementary education, and to turn it into a motivating factor for me; given that, it's only reasonable that I should feel the same way about the bias against Kindergarten.
So there's my defense of Kindergarten. Think about it.
What am I going to be doing before next school year?
Another uncertain answer, though I have lots of ideas. I'm trying to decide whether to go for a full-time job, or a stringing together of freelance/part-time work. The former obviously helps my wallet, the latter gives me more flexibility, both for personal things and to focus on preparing for the school year. I have some options to be considered in either direction, thankfully.
There's plenty of other stuff I'll be doing over the summer. A couple of weddings I'll be attending in New York, possibly trips to North Carolina, Vermont, and elsewhere. My brother's trying to lure me to Asia, but at this point I'm in debt and unemployed, so that ain't happening. If I do decide to invest money in something this summer, it'll probably be a GSE class about "Autism, Language, and Reasoning" that alumni of our program are eligible for a substantial scholarship on. I'm also auditioning on Monday to be part of a 100-person army -- part of a Shakespeare in Clark Park production of Henry IV - and if that sounds awesome and you're reading this before 5/19, then you should audition too!
And, hopefully, continuing to fight for public education in Philadelphia. I've started working with the Caucus of Working Educators (click that link!), and I'm trying to keep advocating in different ways, because, you might have noticed, things are pretty dire in Philadelphia public schools. Catastrophic. Unconscionable. Today I went to City Council (and was joined by an impressive and diverse group of dozens of teachers, counselors, parents, and principals) to demand more funding for our schools. You should ask the same.
What am I going to be doing before the summer?
Moving backwards, and looking at May/June: as I alluded in a previous entry, I've begun an internship at a local neighborhood elementary school. I'm working in a Kindergarten class there, which is having a very challenging year; without going into too many details, the previous teacher seems to have struggled with the group and eventually resigned, leaving the classroom in the hands of a long-term substitute. Unsurprisingly, the class is academically suffering -- nearly half of the 29(!) Kindergarteners in the class are at an "A" reading level, which is the minimum for where they were supposed to be in October.
Therefore, my role in the class is essentially academic support; I began by doing lots of assessments of the students, and now I'm going to begin a lot of targeted small-group and individual lessons, mostly on literacy. My plan over the coming weeks is to focus on reading workshops and guided reading groups, supplemented with word work activities. I'm joined in this by another member of my TEP cohort, and it's great to have a collaborator.
Okay, but what are you doing right now?
Right now I'm sitting in bed trying to finish this blog post before it gets unreasonably late. I'm taking the day off of school tomorrow (technically today) to meet up with my mother, in town for graduation. Which is Saturday, or technically, tomorrow. We'll probably see a museum or two if her broken toe (ouch!) isn't too much of a problem.
After graduation, I'm going to see a Phillies game. Sunday, I'm going to see Godzilla.
And then it's back to work, and probably more job searching. But on my to-do list, I'll be able to strike out two pretty major things:
- Go to graduate school.
- Write a totally rad admissions blog.
Check and check.
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