December 10, 2008
Christmas is fast approaching, and like every large city in the great nation, Jackson is having a parade to celebrate the season. I overhead several teachers talking about this. It was rather humorous. One had a child who was around 10 years old. This teacher was thinking of skipping the celebration because of the temperature. The funny thing was it was 38 degrees. I find this humorous.
December 10, 2008
Well this is a tough question, so anyone reading this blog should
consider closely their answers to the following
statements.
1. If you like to party, and enjoy going out
four nights a week, MTC is for you!
2. If you like having
more money than you can spend, MTC is for you!
3. If you
like working a job where 100 % of you clients love your product, and long for
the next session, MTC is for you!
4. If it inspires you to
work in the most efficiently run organization in the country, MTC is for
you!
5. If you like a life of ease, and do not want to work
late most nights of the week, MTC is for you!
Well if you believe any of the preceding five statements I have a lot more things I can sell you. That being said I would highly recommend this program. Mississippi is not quite the utopia of North America. However, it is a uniquely beautiful in its own way. This program offers what few other programs can. Like the Peace Corps, Army, and Teach for America, MTC offers the caring person a two-year program where they are able to make a substantial difference in the world. Like these programs, MTC requires its participants to work exceptionally hard pursuing a goal of helping people. However, MTC offers its participants much more. Because of its university affiliation upon completing the program participants receive a fully funded masters degree from Ole Miss. Participants are funded through the school district where they work, and can even claim loan deferment. There are several other little perks you receive by joining, a computer, football tickets… however, the greatest thing about this program is the positive, hard working people you can meet through it. Only a fool would enter this program for the money. Often I have felt burnt out and discouraged from the lack of the fruits of my labour. That being said, I have the opportunity to help people who few would volunteer to work with. Anyone considering this program should expect to work long hours, with often discouraging results,only to get up put a smile on their face and do it all over again the next day, knowing that you are helping to make this great nation stronger.
Realize that by keeping on the pacing guide, you have elected to teach the material at a level that was lower than what the standardized tests would be asking. Then watching them fool around when you try to add the little information that they needed to understand only to be blamed for their failing the test. What's worst is the realization that on the first JPS standardized test your students out produced half of the other schools.
This semester has provided me some significant challenges. I have never worked so hard and not absolutely dominated the work I was doing. There are so many different dynamics to teaching. This year I am more organized and have been working harder than I have ever been before, yet despite this I feel like I am barely managing to keep all the loose ends tied up. It is like being in a sinking boat with a bucket. You bail out the water but it just keeps coming in. But it is not all doom and gloom. I have never had a challenge quite like this. I am succeeding at a challenging task. Despite not knowing what I am doing, I was awarded teacher of the month in my first month of teaching. I had my students pull test scores that were above the district average. I have good support from my administration and a supporting network that is willing to work with me and help me to succeed, and success is within my grasp.
November 7, 2008
I have had many good times and bad times teaching this first year at school. The main successes that I have achieved this year has been the students results. Jackson Public School District’s average for the first 9 weeks test was at 49.5% pass rate for biology. My lowest class averaged 53% and my highest class was at 60%. So despite my rookie mistakes I am doing something correct. My second achievement for the first 9 weeks was in receiving the honor of being named teacher of the month. The third success is in the level of control that I have over my classes. Four out of my six classes are quiet, and work well. Only two classes have been giving me significant problems, and these two were good last week. I am getting things into place. The success that I have attained this year has been a result of a lot of hard work and God’s blessing. If I can beat the JPS average for my first year that will be great. Next year I will work on beating my pass rate for this year.
Non School Related.
School has consumed most of my time this past little while. That being said I still have had an opportunity to get out a little. Last weekend I went out to a redneck cowboy bar and attempted to ride a mechanical bull. I was not much good at this. But it was fun trying.
Accomplishment
This year has been going well. I have had two major accomplishments. The firsts accomplishment was that I was awarded teacher of the month for the month of August. I am still a little confused as to how but I will take it. The second accomplishment is that my high school’s biology test scores for the first nine weeks test was the highest in the district. As a rookie teacher teaching half of the biology classes that is quite an accomplishment.
October 6, 2008
When I sit here and ponder poverty, I think, what is poverty? The poorest people here
in Jackson are far better off than people in other countries. There many people
today in America who do not have running water in their houses and use outhouses
(common practices in Fairbanks AK). Yet these people in Alaska would not
consider themselves poor. In Jackson running water is common. The majority
of our impoverished students possess $100
sneakers, have cable TV, cell phones, and many purchase unhealthy foods
with their own money while receiving free lunches at our school cafeteria. A
significant portion of this free food is discarded in favor of these
snacks. So again I say what causes poverty?
I believe that with extremely few exceptions poverty is a combination of choices combined with cultural upbringing and parasitic opportunistic vultures preying upon the ignorance of people.
Despite the fact that we choose our actions, people's upbringing also plays a factor. I am where I am today because of the support of my family. If I had a father who was an alcoholic and beat me and a mother who did not support me and push me to excel I cannot say where I would be today. Many of the students, and the impoverished people in this nation, do not have supportive people encouraging them along. "As Iron sharpens Iron, so one man sharpens another." Proverbs 27:17. It is virtually impossible to succeed on your own, and often people in poor areas do not have positive role models.
The third factor I see contributing to poverty is the "vultures." Within a several minutes of my school there are many fast food places, many quick cash your check for a hefty fee places, and few grocery stores. People who have not seen efficient spending habits would easily be susceptible to these opportunistic vultures feeding on the poor. Even JPS is not immune. In its lunchroom it sells junk food for a hefty fee. At high school football games it sells food in a concession for an exuberant fee, and charges students fees to attend pep rallies. I guess the only good things with JPS jumping on this band wagon is that the money goes back to support the school system.
So what is the solution? Capitalists say that the poor are lazy and force them to go to work. Socialistic attempt to push programs that provide means to help the hurting in an attempt to encourage these people to excel. Christians have polar opposite views on this issue. Some cite verses such as 2 Thessalonians 3:10b, "Those unwilling to work will not get to eat." They uses this view to support the capitalist point of view. Others of the same faith quote verses like Mark 10:21b "Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in Heaven…" to suggest that we should help those in need.
Why are the poor here? Who know the reason. People are where they are because of a product of their choices and the following consequences. Peoples' choices are a result of their upbringing. So what came first and how do you break the cycle? One thing is true Matthew 26:11a "You will always have the poor among you,…"
Well my summer training was interesting. I have learned a lot and made some vast improvements over the course of the summer. The way that this training went was excellent. I enjoy hands on training and that is exactly what this type of training was heavily focused on. It has us in class teaching early on. We also took classes and had roll plays that were exceptionally useful to enhance out teaching abilities.
Observing experienced teachers and talking with these exceptional individuals was one of the most helpful things. I enjoyed picking the brains of these veterans, and found it extremely useful. By observing the varying styles that these teachers had I learned a lot and believe that it enhanced my ability to teach. Another things that I found exceptionally useful were the classroom roll plays. This got us thinking and acting scenarios that many of us will encounter this fall. By acting these situations out I believe that I am more aptly prepared for this fall. That is if you could ever actually adequately prepare for something like this.
As far as improvements to for this program, I would say that this program is solid and I feel like I have learned a lot in a short amount of time. I would not change too much. One thing that I have questioned though is the validity of the Blog concept. My understanding about the reason for the Blog is that it is to be a tool to help advertise & recruit for MTC. This is a good concept. However, how can we talk freely on the Blogs without anonymity? Should I have a concern with MTC, or in the future, my school, I would be highly reluctant to post anything remotely negative in fear that my administration may read these blogs. Some of the veteran teachers have received some scolding from their high schools for things written on their blogs. To avoid this most people have implemented security settings on the their blogs that limit who can see the blogs. But if the purpose of the blog is to recruit people, people need to be able to see them. So is the Blog actually serving its purpose with these added security settings? By adding some form of anonymity blogs could return to their original purpose and individual teachers could be free to write the truth. This is a small thing. Like I said previously I believe that this program is solid.
July 24, 2008
In ecology there is a law called Bergman's Law. This law states that the further north you go the larger the animals will be. I have observed this fact of wildlife biology at the Ole Miss College campus. At school here there are numerous squirrels, similarly to the University of Waterloo in Waterloo Ontario. But unlike the squirrels in Waterloo, these squirrels are smaller. I saw a similar trend with deer. Last year I observed the elusive spotted buck in Ontario that was larger than a 4 pointer I observed running a trail here in MS.
July 17, 2008 So there I was, driving on a bus headed to Holly
Springs Mississippi. Ever the keener, I elected to uses this 'down time' to
watch a movie of myself teaching an exciting biology lesson. Well it was not
exactly an exciting movie, however, the lesson was solid. The evolution that I
have undergone over the years mimics the human growth curve that I was teaching
about, with my ability growing significantly in the past two months. When I observed myself teach I was impressed with
my improvements as a teacher over this summer. I have a long way to go but I
observed positive growth even within this short time. It is exciting to see my
improvements. This class I smiled significantly more than I had in my previous
lesson. I also felt that my lesson was effective. The students seemed to
demonstrate a solid grasp of what I was teaching, and all seemed to be
interactively learning. One thing that I needed to improve on was the
clarity of my set. I made several mistakes during my set that could have given
the appearance that I was confused. I will make sure in future classes to be
more specific about what I am asking. I also used an alternative name for the
graph that I was asking. While this alternative name was correct in biology
circles, the students did not grasp what I was asking because I taught the
graph under another name. I will make sure to correct this in future classes.
July 15, 2008
There are many areas where I can improve my teaching skills. However, I am constantly improving, slowly yet constantly. The top area where I am currently working to enhance my abilities is to break down my lesson with enough detail for the students to understand what I am talking about. With each class I have tried to provide further details into my lesson. Yet still have a way to go on this one. Another thing that I have been working on and will still further improve is my enthusiasm in class. Some lessons I do not smile nor do I show any enthusiasm. I have gotten better with this area. I smile more, however, I can still improve.
