Cute Story

This week at school while I was teaching my German class, a group of Free Schoolers went to this place called People's Island. It is on the Hudson River. It is an island, but it is tall with cliffs, and you have to hike to get to the top.

Before they started hiking the teachers told the students that due to the danger of the cliffs they expected to the students to stay behind the teacher who was leading, and to not run ahead of the group. They told the students that if they ran ahead, they would have to hold the hand of a teacher.

They began their trek up the side of the island, and sure enough one of the youngest students runs ahead of the pack to peek out over the side of the cliff, "Now Justin," says the teacher, "We warned you at the bottom to not run ahead. If you continue to run ahead you will have to hold my hand."

The group continues. Justin stays behind for a little while, but before too long runs ahead of the group again. "Ok. I warned you. You have to hold my hand now." Justin holds the teacher's hand without any protest, "I wanted to hold your hand! That's why I ran ahead."

Staff Circle

This evening I attended my first staff circle. It was really the best event I have attended at the Free School that isn't between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. All the staff meets and basically has a feelings check in. People talk about how they are feeling about school but also things that are going on with them in general. We passed a talking stick around the circle and everyone did an initial check in, then the stick kept on being passed around until everyone was passing (it took three times all the way around tonight). The circle started at 5:30 and went until 8:00. It was helpful to take a step back from the craziness of day to day school and really reflect on how we were all feeling about school, the students and each other. Also it was helpful to know about personal issues that are going on with my coworkers so I can meet people where they are at. It's like if someone is especially tired or irritable a certain day or week it's hard to know why that might be unless they tell you. We reflected on interpersonal dynamics. It is really incredible to be a witness to the relationships the other teachers have built over the years.

Other highlights of this week were another successful German class. We started out by practicing the alphabet and phonetics and ended with a reading of the "Rainbow Fish" in German. Also, I learned how to play guitar some for the first time ever. Also, my math class went well! There were three students in attendance this week and they didn't want to break for lunch cause they were enjoying themselves so much. Also I got to be a part of a class meeting of the 7th and 8th graders that was to resolve a conflict. The meeting went really well and got to the root of the problem.

I am stressed out about the museum lesson plans. I have definitely been procrastinating.

Meetings, etc.

I just got done with our weekly staff meeting. They are generally not under 2 and a half hours. I have been to some meetings that I thought were drawn out and stressful but these take the cup. I just don't feel like meetings have to be like that. Everyone's blood sugar is so low by the end and people are stressed and ooh...i don't enjoy them. I have an idea that we could do staff development in training to have more skills for those meetings. There are some people who seem to be resistant to change and not very receptive to criticism (not in theory, but in reality/action).

This morning was great. We had an activities meeting then a 7th and 8th grade class meeting, and then I went to the natural history museum with a group of 4 students. The afternoon I felt a little more tired. I read a chapter from a book to a student and then I helped another student build a coffin for her dead bunny.

I am a little stressed out to night cause the second packet is due in a week. I have been reading Alfie Kohn's Punished By Rewards and I think I will have a real good time writing a reflection paper on it because I worked at a school that was run on a behaviorist model so I have lots of experience to relate to the issues the book relates to.

I am also a little stressed out cause I interviewed for a job as an after-school educator at the natural history museum. In the interview I was asked to design a unit outline and a specific lesson plan which I will implement with the children on a trial run to "try out" for the job. It seems like a great opportunity, especially since I need practice in designing lessons and units. The program is designed around hands on, integrated education that utilizes the resources of the museum. I design week long to month or two month long units that the children choose from. I would be paid for one hour of lesson planning time and one hour of teaching time, four days a week. So yea, I am stressed in finding the time to create an impressive lesson plan.

I got three recommendation letters from past bosses and parents which are always rewarding and fun to read over.

Math Lessons

So I had my first math class today by myself. I only had two people show up (the class is optional, but it went really well. I was nervous before hand but then I just took a big breath and relaxed. I did some preparing, and then the rest I went with the flow. In the class we talked about the U.S. census. The students made guesses as to what the census charts (race, gender, age, household, employment, etc.) and then went over what was actually on there. We talked about controversies in the census lately including race and ethnicity (the census used to only allow people to select one race, and many identities were lumped together) and also relationship status/household regarding gay and lesbians ability to identify as a family. Also, we talked about what populations might be underreported in a census. Then I proposed taking a census of the school. The students decided what information they wanted on the census of the school. We typed it up on the computer, printed it out and the students will administer it later this week. Next week we will analyze the results, find modes, median ages, etc. and percentages, ratios and compare it to the statistics for their neighborhood (found under area code on the internet).

School has been growing on me as time goes on, more connections and relationships, more comfortable. Today I played football with the 5th through 8th grade boys. I read woman empowerment fairy tales to some young women and I spoke up when a 3rd grade boy called half push-ups "girl pushups"

Yesterday we had our teachers meeting. It is the first school I have worked at where the teachers dedicate a part of the meeting to discussing gender and race issues among students and teachers. The discussion went well and some important issues were brought up. We talk about intimate details of the students lives, but it really allows to support them better to have similar understandings of where they are at and what they need. Teachers meeting went from 3:30 to 5:00. Then from 5:00 to 6:30 we had a once a month "teachers advisory" where past teachers and community elders are invited to be a part of our discussion regarding school policy and issues.

First Week At School (with students)

Wow so what a week! I feel: excited, intrigued, vulnerable, questioning, friendly, hopeful, exhausted, challenged and relieved.

The first day we had a council meeting (a democratic all-school meeting). I was a little dismayed at how disrespectful the students were during the meeting. I had heard that these were magical meetings where the students were able to voice concerns, address problems and formulate school policy, but that totally wasn't possible with people talking over each other and being generally distracting...but also it was the first meeting. Everyone was real excited to see each other again and the first graders were really excited because it was their first time being in a council meeting.

I spent quite a bit of time bonding with a new student. There are 5 middle school boys and they are trying to get more of a gender (sex?) balance by having more girls. So there were two girls visiting. One of them fell in real easy with the boys and the other one is who I spent time with. She was really shy and nervous to be around those rambunctious middle schoolers. I feel proud in being a part of her deciding to stay.

Tuesday I went to the high school free school at 11:00 to help teach a math class. It was the first meeting of the class. My co-teacher is an older man who was a math teacher "in a past life". Since everyone was different ages and different experiences we went around and found out about what people wanted to learn, why they were there and what their past experiences were like. I think it will be really hard for the two of us to cater to 10 high school students needs...they are kind of intimidating for me. The students at the elementary school are excited to meet me but the high schoolers are like, "what are you gonna do for me?" and if they don't like your answer they don't seem to care about you. So that will definitely be a challenging experience. My coteacher will be there twice a week, but for now I am only committing to once a week so I can have lots of time at the elementary school. We decided to divide it up so that he is meeting with the students interested in preparing for the regents exam, I will do a "transition math"/"algebra"/applied mathematics/whatever hour long math activity once a week for those who are interested. Lesson plans! aaah!

My best times so far this week were when I was with a small group of students doing an activity. Sometimes there will be a group being rowdy and fighting and yelling and that just isn't what I'm into. I taught one student one-on-one how to draw people and horses. I played kickball. I taught letters and numbers to kindergartners. I played circle games. I went bowling. I went swimming.

I have been involved in and stood in on several conflict resolution sessions so far, but there haven't been any council meetings to resolve conflicts. The free school doesn't always break up fight, sometimes they let students duke it out which I think is interesting. Kinda makes me nervous though.

Next week I am going to offer a skateboarding class. I have to work on planning my math class.