Overwelmed but still here

Every day I have some great or terrible experience or insight or just huge blunder that I think would be a great thing to share on my blog.  But all of these things never make it to the page.  I usually come home and collapse, then get up to spend more hours lesson planning and grading until I have to get my 3-4 hours of sleep so I can do it all again tomorrow.  I knew this would be a difficult and challenging experience.  I have had many moments where I have just broken down, and other moments of hopelessness.  But you can't dwell on these things for too long. 

I am trying to continually remind myself everyday of the many good things happening at school.  Right now, I am trying to focus on the kids and remember that they are in fact children.  They are often so frustrating, I start to see them as my adversaries and as the problem to be solved.  They can become this faceless mob in my mind too easily.   When I take a moment to remind myself of who they are, and why I am here, I see their faces again.  These kids, as frustrating as they can be, are smart and funny and often very thoughtful young people.  Some of my favorite students are also the most frustrating because I know they can do the work, but they do not apply themselves for whatever reason, and I have thus far not been able to motivate them.  They are 11-12 years old, even the ones that seem so much older.  They act tough and think that they are "grown", but they are also scared and excited and unsure. 

I am noticing that the days I go into the classroom with a more positive outlook, and a focus on the kids and on their learning, those are often my better days.  When I go in there focusing only on how I am going to control them, or worried about being able to complete all of my planned lesson activities, those days often are not as good.

Right now, I am trying to focus on relationship building.  Trying to make some sort of connection everyday with a student. I want them to know I actually do care and that I want to be there with them (even on the days I don't) and that I am there to help.  The other side to that is teaching them that learning is a two way street and that I need them to participate in their own success.  It is a slow process, but in the end probably the most effective way to win them over. 

No forward progress.

I'm getting ready to start the 4th week of school, and I am full of anxiety and apprehension.  I am being pushed by my Math department head to keep my teaching aligned to a schedule.  I am supposed to administer the first unit exam this week and then move on to the second unit.  But I know my student's are not ready to take a test yet.  I have failed to successfully teach them the information, and giving them the test now would just ensure that many of them do poorly on it.  The other faculty members who teach the same math course feel they are in the same position I am in.  They also do not feel ready to give any exams. 

The reasons my students are not ready, and the reasons I feel they are not making any progress still, is two-fold.  My classroom management is still very poor, therefore instruction cannot occur.  I also don't feel that my instruction is well designed or well implemented, and that contributes to problems with classroom management.

I certainly feel like I am the worst teacher ever.  I am getting lots of good advice from other teachers and administrators and it is up to me to implement it and make it work.  I am trying to stay optimistic and keep trying, otherwise it is just too easy to give up.

Inspiration: Remembering why I am here

I notice my last few posts have been me talking about my frustrations and the things that are not working in my class.  I want to counter that by telling a story about one of the good things.  I do have good things that happen each day and I must not focus only on the bad things. 

I teach one period of 7th graders who are already taking 8th grade math.  Like a parent, I know I should not have favorite kids, but these guys are the bright spot of my day every day.  These students genuinely enjoy school and value learning.  They ask questions that blow me away.  We usually get to laugh and learn and I think I am teaching them a few things at least.  Last week during a warm up (3-4 problems we do at the beginning of class everyday), I gave them a problem I didn't know if they would know how to do. These students are more advanced than my other classes, but they certainly don't know everything.  The problem was adding and subtracting positive and negative integers. We will learn about this topic in class in the next unit. It was something of the form:  5 - (-2) = ?

A few students got the right answer, and most did not know how to do it.  I asked one student to share his correct answer and how he got it.  His explanation was so wonderful.  I expected him just say that he already knew that two negatives make positive from a previous math lesson.  He said that he remembered from science class that 2 negatively charged objects will repel each other.  So when he saw two negative signs, he figured they should be positive.  I thought that was a wonderful display of critical thinking.  I praised him in front of the class and I made sure to share the story with the other teachers.  I know I am not responsible for this student's prior knowledge, but I am going to do everything I can to make sure all of my students in all of my classes learn how to think and problem solve. 

This is a bright spot I like to think about when I am having trouble remembering why I am here.

New Year

Today school is closed for Rosh Hashanah.  When my students asked me what that was, all I could say is that it is a Jewish holiday, but I had no further information.  That prompted me to learn more about it, and I found out that it is the New Year celebration.  I think it is fitting then to take this opportunity to look back at the last few weeks of the new school year and try to reflect a little.  We are only in the third week of school, so it is still the New Year.

I am working many things out in my classroom still.  As much as I tried to have the appropriate procedures and classsroom management systems in place before school started, there are so many things that I never anticipated.  I feel like the systems are in constant flux, so even though I try to be consistent with my students, it is no wonder that they are confused.  I am confused.  I understand the importance of giving clear and explicit expectations.  This is the goal, but I feel so far from there.

What I have learned so far:

1.  Collecting student work. My students do not seem to take a task seriously unless then physically will hand me a piece of paper and get some sort of mark on it, even if it is just a check mark.  Previously, I had been trying to track classwork points by marking their papers with a check and recording it on my clipboard during class.  This week, I started collecting the classwork at the end of class each day and then giving it back.  Now that they are turning it in, they seem to take it more seriously.  As much as I would prefer to not have to deal with collecting and then passing back so much paper each day, I plan on continuing to collect the work each day for the foreseeable future.  I am also not getting enough homework participation. I will be issuing interim progress reports this Friday.  I am hoping that students who see they are failing because they do not turn in homework will begin to realize that they are in fact responsible for their grades.  I do not normally accept late homework, but I am going to let them turn in any late work up to this point for a max of 80% of the credit.  I hope many of them will turn in their late work so they do not have to start off the year with such poor grades. 

2.  Staying Organized. Managing the paperwork that comes in and out each day from students, other teachers and administration is overwhelming.  I am used to doing a lot of things electronically, but I find that I do not have the time during the day to ever be near a computer, so I am back to pen and paper record keeping.  One of the best tips for trying to stay organized came from a member of the TNTP staff and it is helping so much.  I have folders for the following things:  "To Read", "To file", 'To Copy", "To Grade".  I deal with these four folders everyday and try to clear them each day, or at least every other day.  I also have taken the advice from other teachers that the best systems are often the simplest.  My phone log for keeping track of parent communications is just a spiral notebook.  So far it is working. I also have a lot of random papers that are hard to classify, forms, memo, things from administrations, etc.  Right now, they go into a binder just because I don't know what else to do with them.  As far as emails, I usually cannot check more than once a day.  I use the popular "inbox zero" system and have folders in my email for everything.  If there is an item that needs my attention I flag it and it stays in the inbox until I take care of it.  Everything else gets sorted into a folder.  The goal each day is to have nothing in the inbox.  I use this system for my personal email too and I like it.

3.  Make-up Work.  I have endeavored to establish a make-up work procedure in my class for students who are absent and need the assignments, but it is failing.  My policy is that students who miss a day are responsible for checking the make-up work binder, prominently labeled and located in a place where they are forced to see it.  I put the make-up work in there each day.  I remind students over and over.  It was communicated to the parents in the parent letter and the class syllabus. It is on the website.  (No one besides me has ever looked at the website.  I am going to show it to them in class now that I have a computer and LCD projector.) No one is getting it.  I don't want to scrap the system, I would prefer to get them to use it.  But right now, I don't know what else to do and I am looking for suggestions from anyone who will listen to me.  I know other teachers at my school get this system to work for them. I wanted to avoid having to keep track of who is gone each day and making sure they get the work, but I might have to establish a system in which I write down the absences and then make students sign when they get the make up work from the folder and when they turn it it.  I don't know.

4.  Setting clear expectations.  When the kids are acting crazy, I know it is because I have failed to let them know what I want them to do.  I was discussing with my father recently that I have difficulty getting students to raise their hands and not shout things out.  He asked me if I was being clear about when it is OK to shout out and when it is required to raise hands.  He took a foreign language course at the community college over the summer, and he found that even in an adult classroom, he was often confused about when the instructor wanted hands raised and when he wanted everyone to just respond.  My father felt that he was always doing the wrong thing, so he stopped volunteering responses.  He is completely correct.  The students get mixed signals from me.  I am trying to make sure I specify when I want hands raised and when I want "popcorn" or shouting out, or when I want a group response.

5.  Focusing on positive behavior.  I have many kids who are doing a great job and really trying.  But I get so distracted with the few that are disruptive I feel I spend all my time punishing bad behavior and not rewarding good.  I am setting a goal that each day, I make sure to give a "Good Day Note" to a minimum of 1 person in each class.  I also will keep track of who they are going to so I don't miss anyone who deserves it,  and be sure that the other students know exactly what the good behavior was that earned that recognition.  We are also implementing a school wide reward system in which students earn "bucks" as rewards.  They will get to use these bucks for whole-school rewards.

The second week of school

I am ending the second week of school feeling a little down.  I know that it is important to establish your authority in the classroom and to establish the procedures and routines that will make it an environment for learning.  I feel like I am failing in all aspects of this.  The only thing that cheers me in the least is knowing that I am not alone.  The other teachers at my school, veterans and new teachers like me, are feeling the same way.  I am trying to keep it all in perspective, keeping in mind that everyone says it will get better. 

The good news is, that while I feel like my classroom management is just awful and not working, my biggest fears are no longer things I am worried about.  When I was trying to imagine what this career would actually look or feel like, my worst fears were losing control of my class, having kids that refuse to listen to you, having kids start a fight in the classroom.  What if I cry in front of all of the students?  What do I do when they curse me out?  All of these things that I didn't know if I could handle at all.  But I am finding that I am no longer afraid of those things.  I have already lost control of my room, at least once when one of the Assistant Principals was there.  I did get it under control at least once while she was still in the room, but unfortunately it didn't last the rest of the lesson.  I do have kids that refuse my directions or won't listen to me.  But when you are in that moment, you sort of just react and know how to handle it.  I have not had a fight, but I know of teachers that have already this year, and I can see even handling that.  I haven't even felt like crying in front of the kids, no matter how frustrated I am.  (I have cried at the end of the day though, but never in front of them.)


Now, my biggest fear is that I am not going to teach anything to anyone  ever.  I have 2 classes in which I actually feel I get to teach, because they are classes that are smaller with fewer behavioral disruptions.  I have 2 other classes that are larger (but not outrageously large, 29 is the largest) and extremely diverse.  I am in a co-taught classroom in which myself and another teacher who is getting certified in special education teach together.  We have many young people with special needs that include specific learning disabilities, as well as many with behavioral and emotional issues.  In my two larger classes, I feel that no learning is taking place.  In one class, it feels like a good day if I can get most of them in their seats.  We spent a week doing fraction to decimal conversions.  I gave a quiz today, and even the kids that I thought had it, don't have it.  I feel like a failure as a teacher so far.

I know I am not alone in feeling this way right now.  I also know I have to keep trying.  I know there is a way to teach these kids.  I know others manage to do it everyday. 

How is my first school year going so far?

So, I have officially started my new career in teaching Middle School math.  Our first day was Monday.  How is it going so far?

Well, my house plants are all dead, my dog thinks I am a stranger, and I don't know the last time I ate a meal sitting down. 

Here's to a great adventure!

Teacher Discounts !

OK, the school year is quickly approaching, and for many of us who have not seen a paycheck in a while, the bank accounts are running low. So, let's talk about Teacher Discounts! Teachers can get a discount card at the following stores (and in many cases the discount card applies even to clearance items!):

Clothing:
Ann Taylor Loft
New York and Co.
JCrew

Books and Supplies:
Barnes and Noble
Borders
Books-a-Million
JoAnne's Fabric
Micheal's Crafts
Office Depot
Office Max
Staples

This is only a partial list, and in many cases you need to show a school ID or pay stub as proof of employment. I will add to the list as I find out about more.

Teaching Content is Teaching Reading

Part of my Summer Institute training for TNTP includes a Literacy Course.  Not for me to become literate, but to teach me how to include and promote literacy skills in my classroom.  Perhaps the first reaction I, and many others, had is "But I'm a math teacher...".  As I have learned, literacy is something that cuts across all content areas.  You can't succeed in life without strong literacy skills and you can't succeed in math without them either. 

The video above, Teaching Content is Teaching Reading, comes from Dr. Daniel Willingham, Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia who studies the application of psychology to education.  The video makes a good argument for the importance of learning about the world and learning in many different content areas in order to improve reading comprehension. 

Research has found it is critical to attain decoding and fluency skills (being able to pronounce and read the letters of words without hesitation) by the third grade. Once those skills are in place, kids can begin to focus more on building vocabulary and improving comprehension skills.  It is very hard to work on vocabulary or comprehension when a student is still unable to read and decode the letters.  For a lot of young readers, or struggling readers, too much focus is put on improving reading skills alone, without focusing on improving overall background knowledge.  This is why it is important to teach literacy skills across all content areas.  In order to improve reading comprehension, it is vital to just know lots of things.  Knowing about history, science, math, sports, culture, religion, social studies, literature... all of these things that make up our world, is a key to greater understanding. 

In my next post, I will further explore the importance of literacy in the content areas by looking at a tools that helps you find reading materials appropriate to a student's reading level.

Teaching to the Standard

This week our TNTP training sessions have focused on how to make sure everything we teach is aligned to the state educational standards for curriculum.  In today's educational climate, a great emphasis is put on assessments and a common objection people will voice is that because of the high-stakes nature of NCLB, teachers are only 'teaching to the test'.  But the proper way to ensure student achievement on assessment exams and in school as a whole is not teaching to the test, but rather teaching to the standard.  If students know the ciriculum material in the state standards, then they will be prepared to pass the assessments as well.  The standards documents, which are publicly available for each state, include the material that will be tested and beyond, giving students a much fuller breadth of knowledge than is even being tested.

It is such a logical way to teach and design instruction, you have to wonder why aren't all teachers doing this?  Well, as I have learned the past few days, it is possible to do this but you need someone to show you how.  Looking at a copy of a state standard is confusing.  The standards themselves contain broad, over-arching ideas that are what should be covered over the course of the entire school year.  The supporting topics themselves can be hard to translate into workable units and lesson plans.  Going into my TNTP training this summer, I was pleased to learn that my school district provides a lot of guidance to teachers in terms of curriculum framwork guides that ensure all the teachers in the district who teach a particular subject (Algebra for instance) will be teaching the same topics in the same order at around the same time of the year.  This provides much needed continuity in a large school district.  The guides help with the order and pacing of the units, but do not dictate to teachers HOW they must teach, just what they must teach and when.  I know that there is often some debate about wanting to standardize curriculum while still maintaining teacher freedom to choose the teaching activities that they feel are best. As a new teacher, I am very glad that my school district does provide this level of structure and guidance.  Not all schools or school systems do so.


After two days spent wrestling with designing my own standards based unit plan as an assignment, I can see what a large undertaking this really is.  I'll end this post today with the related topic of the National 'Common Core' Standards that were developed earlier this year.  I saw an article today in Education Week that details the conclusions of a study in which each state's individual standards are compared to the Common Core.  The majority of the states were deemed to be inferior, and I was surprised that my state scored very low. Of course, the details of how the standards were judged were not given in the article.  I know that my state is one of the 33 that has agreed to adopt the new Common Core and that these changes will begin appearing over the next few years.  I will be very interested to see how those changes will appear at the district level, and what changes individual schools and teachers will see to the curriculum.

Testing your Authority on Random Students

OK, so something a little amusing...

One aspect of our framework sessions in Summer Institute is all about classroom management.  So, things like developing and enforcing rules and procedures, creating a "No Excuses" environment, having a positive culture of respect and achievement.  We spent a good amount of time last Friday talking about how to develop and use authority in the classroom.  Working on our "Teacher Looks", that wonky evil-eye you give a student to make them stop talking, and how to give commands, rather than requests (such as, "Open your books to p. 55", rather than "OK, class, can you please go ahead and just open up your books for me to p. 55").

One thing that our Fellow Advisor (FA) told us just had us cracking-up.  She talked about how when she was a new teacher, she worked to develop her authority, her own teacher look and voice, etc.  She said that even still, she will just practice asserting her authority on random students in the hall way, sometimes just to see if it works.  If she sees some student she doesn't know in the hall, she might tell him or her to "Pick up that piece of paper on the floor" and then see if the student does it, and most of the time they do! I just thought this was hilarious, and this is a woman who is also very polite and respectful so I did not take it as her just being on a crazy power trip. 

So Tuesday, during Practice Teaching, I had my own opportunity to practice asserting authority on a random student. And it worked!  There was a student in the hall, slowly coming back from a bathroom break.  He was busy looking in the windows of another classroom, waving at his friends in there.  So I went up to him and asked him, politely but firmly, "Where are you supposed to be?" He said, "my class".  So I told him to get there, now.  And he did it!  I was so proud of myself, and I also proved to myself that I really can be firm and commanding without raising my voice, or having to be overly aggressive, which would not suite my personality.

So anyway, it was a little victory I had and it gave me more confidence in my role as the authority figure in the classroom.

Challenges of ELL students

I mentioned previously that during Summer Institute, I am spending half of my day doing Practice Teaching (PT) with a summer school program.  This is intended to give Teaching Fellows a brief, but intensive, introduction to the classroom.  I work with a Cooperating Teacher (CT), a veteran teacher who acts as a mentor as well as an evaluator of my progress, much as education majors spend a semester or more doing their student teaching rotations.  I was expecting to be teaching students who are in summer school for credit recovery (i.e. they failed the course during the regular year).  Instead, I am working with a summer enrichment program for students who are going into 9th grade.  We have mix of students who like school, and don't mind being there, as well as students who's parents are making them go because it is free and keeps them out of trouble.  Overall, even the students who would rather not  be there are still actively participating in the lessons, and so far things are going well. 

One aspect of PT that was totally unexpected to me is that out of our two different classes, one class is entirely ESL (English Second Language, also called ELL, English Language Learners). 

District Hiring

Two weeks into Summer Institute, and I have so many thoughts to share about the training and my practice teaching experiences so far.  It is pretty scary how quickly it is going by.

But I want to take a moment and talk about District Hiring.  While my acceptance into this TNTP program guarantees me a job with the partner school district this fall, it does not tell me anything about where that job will be.  I am now property of the school district, and I can be placed in any secondary math teaching position they happen to have open. I think of it a little like being in the military, because the district will tell me where to go.  It is not as if I have no choice however.  Typically, Teaching Fellows will attend district hiring fairs, send out resumes to principals, network, and all the stuff you normally do to land a job.  So, even after the TNTP interview to become a Teaching Fellow, you still have to interview to get the actual teaching position in the school district.

This year, things in my district are a little off schedule.  We Fellows have been told that due to some changes going on at the district level, they will not be handling any of our job placements until after July 30th.  So, the good news is that I am able to just focus on Summer Institute without the added pressure of interviewing right now.  The downside is of course having no idea where I will be teaching this fall, or what grade level of math.  Secondary math actually means anything from 7-12 grade.  I originally began this new career with the assumption I would be teaching at the high school level.  Now I am hearing that the district is expecting a lot of openings in middle schools, so I am just doing my best to keep an open mind and trust that it will all work out.

First week of Summer Institute Complete!

Just when I thought it would never get here, the Teaching Fellows Summer Institute has finally begun!  And, the first week of training has already come and gone in a flash!  Summer institute for a general education fellow, such as myself, consists of 3 parts.  Framework session, Practice Teaching, and Literacy Class.  Special Education Fellows have an additional course they take on top of all this.

The Framework sessions are workshop-type courses developed by The New Teacher Project (TNTP) to prepare us for the classroom.  They cover Instructional Design and Deliver, and Classroom Management and Culture.  So, everything from lesson planning, to maintaining order.  The sessions are led by experienced teachers who work in the district in which we have been hired.  The Practice Teaching is like our version of student teaching, and we do it during summer school under the supervision of a Cooperating Teacher (CT).  The last element is our Literacy Class, which is not to teach us how to read, but rather how to incorporate and promote literacy while still teaching our subject specific courses.  Your first thought might be, "How can a math teacher promote literacy?"  Well, that is what I am going to find out.

So far, I am having a fantastic time at summer institute.  It feels a little like going back to college, but combined with the camaraderie of summer camp, and the emotional support of group therapy.  Everyone is there for the same reason - we want to become teachers.  We want to inspire and engage and reach out to those students who are not being reached in our nation's most struggling public schools.  We are there to close the Achievement Gap and at the same time increase the Achievement for all.  We have noble, if perhaps terribly naive, dreams and we are all part of TNTP to make a difference.  We are full of hopes and fears and so many questions and ideas.  We are so hungry to learn every little thing we can before we find ourselves see loose to fend for ourselves out there, lost in a vast sea of public school bureaucracy and mediocrity.  I can feel myself practically bubbling over with the energy and anticipation and fear of it all.  While I am still full of questions and fears, I feel even more confident that I am making the correct career choice, and I am so excited.  I have never felt this way about anything.

Inspirational Profile: Wakefield High School

In today's Washington Post, Jay Mathews writes about an inspirational retired principal, Marie Shiels Djouadi, who spent over 20 years at Wakefield High School, in Arlington, VA.  A school like many others, with a large immigrant and low-income population,that was failing.  But it has seen dramatic changes since the 1980's, when Dr. Djouadi took the helm.  According to the article,

    "the school has raised state achievement test results significantly for its largely low-income students. It has tripled participation in Advanced Placement tests, while also raising its passing rate on the difficult three-hour exams. Its record, in a school where more than 70 percent of the students are Hispanic or black and at least 50 percent are low-income, led President Obama to make it the site of a major education address last September."

The Interview Process

So, I skipped over an important part of getting accepted into a program under TNTP, and that is the interview.  The interviews are intense events, and can be pretty hard to prepare for.  I went through 2 separate interview events in different school districts both in the mid-Atlantic region. I did not feel that I did very outstanding in my first interview, and that was reflected by them not offering me a position.  Going into the second interview, I was much better prepared and had had a lot of time to reflect upon my first experience.

What I have been doing while I wait

Right now, I am in the in-between time of getting accepted into The New Teacher's Project (TNTP), and actually beginning the program.  It is a limbo period full of waiting and anticipation and everyone I know always asking me what is the status of my new teaching career.  And the answer is always, the status is the same as the last time we spoke, I am waiting for the program to officially begin... sometime in June... I don't know yet the exact date.... or the exact school... or what grade level I will actually be teaching.  Stop asking, I will tell you when something happens. 

So, I have been trying to prepare by working on the recommended reading list, and I have been working on my Independent Study requirements.  The summer training program (called Summer Institute) is where you get your crash course in teaching before the full school year begins in the fall.  The basic schedule has you attending summer school classes in the mornings, and teaching seminars in the afternoons and evenings.  We have been warned that during institute, the days are long (12 hours) and intense.   Prior to beginning institute, fellows are expected to complete their independent study guides and assignments.  The assignments include a lot of reading and a handful of short writing assignments, as well as observing a classroom for a minimum of 4 hours.  So, this has been keeping me busy already.


An interesting note about the text book we are using, which has been produced by The New Teacher Project, is that everyone is using the book for Special Education teachers, whereas in previous years there were different books for General and Special Ed.  The thinking behind this move is that everyone should be familiar with the specific rules and laws of teaching special ed anyway, and a the teaching methods are valid regardless of whether you are General or Special Ed.

Book Report: There are No Children Here

I just completed another book from the recommended reading list, There are No Children Here, by Alex Kotlowitz. It is a story of two young brothers growing up in housing projects in Chicago in the late 1980's. It gives the reader a look at poverty and the many things that come with it- gangs, drugs, violence, death, teen-pregnancy, crime, prison, high-rates of school dropouts – and it focuses especially on how it affects the children. This true story takes place from 1987 to 1989, and one thing that stays with me throughout the whole story is the children's young ages - just a few years older than I was at the same time, but living light years away in another world entirely. Here I am, growing up happy and safe in my middle-class suburb, when only a few hundred miles away are children who live in fear of not making it to their next birthdays.

Book Report: “The Learning Gap”

I mentioned the recommended reading list, and today I am going to discuss “The Learning Gap: Why our schools are failing and what we can learn from Japanese and Chinese Education” by Harold Stevenson and James Stigler. The authors have compiled the results of their academic publications on studies of American, Japanese, and Chinese elementary schools into a book for the lay-audience. They left out the more technical aspects of their findings, and instead give more general descriptions and conclusions of their work. They begin by giving evidence that American school children do in fact perform poorly on basic skills tests compared to children in Japan and China – i.e. The Learning Gap. Let's assume we can all agree with this premise and move on to trying to understand what makes education in these countries different, which might explain why Japanese and Chinese children are out-performing American children.

Kansas City School Closings

Today, the school district in Kansas City, Missouri is making national headlines by announcing that in order to avoid bankruptcy, they will be closing down half of their public schools starting next fall. I grew up in the KCMO metro area and to me, it is no news that their schools are in crisis.

Reading List

The PGCTF staff sent out a list of recommended reading to the fellows in the introductory paperwork we received. I am making it a goal to read as many of the books from the list as possible, and I plan on commenting on the books and any other books I read as I am preparing to become a teacher. For now, I will simply share the list of 16 books, as I am sure it is not a secret meant only for PGCTF members. It seems that the books on this list are not dry, technical textbooks, but are things that would appeal to anyone interested in education and the challenges faced by schools in America. I think teachers, parents, and prospective educators would find them interesting as well.

Praxis II: Mathematics Content Knowledge (0061)

Previously, I mentioned that one requirement to get state certification for teaching is to pass the Praxis exams.

These exams are administered by Educational Testing Services and they are used by every state for teacher certification. The Praxis I is a test of general knowledge, and can be taken online at approved testing centers. Or, if you have test scores from the SAT, ACT, or GRE that qualify, you can opt not to take the Praxis I.

The Praxis II exams are specific to the subject area(s) and grade levels you want to be certified to teach. You can find out from your state's department of education or from the ETS website which exams you will need to take, and what a passing score will be.

I am going to focus on the Praxis II: Mathematics Content Knowledge exam, (test code 0061) since that is the one I needed to take to teach secondary level math.

Pathways to Teaching: Back to School

The traditional way of becoming a teacher is to go to college and get a Bachelor's or Master's in Education. Usually these programs take care of all the requirements needed to get your certification, including doing a program of student teaching. I am no expert on education programs, but I did look into getting a Master's of Art in Teaching (MAT) as one way I could enter the profession, so I will share what little I know.

Pathways to Teaching: Getting Certified

In order to teach at a public school, and sometimes private schools, you need to get your teaching certification from the state department of education. Since I live in Maryland, the information presented here will apply to this state. You will need to check with your state's board of ed to find out the specific details.

So for Maryland, it makes sense to start with the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE). The MSDE website has a lot of information on it, however it is not easy to find what you are looking for, especially if you are not exactly sure what you are looking for.

Let's start with what it takes to become certified. There are different types of certification available in MD, and different ways to become certified. For general information about certification in MD, see the MSDE FAQ's.

Pathways to teaching: Private Schools

Once I became interested in teaching, the next step was trying to figure out how to become a teacher. I have already talked about The New Teacher Project here, but I will spend the next couple of posts outlining some of the other options I researched, starting with private schools.

In many cases, you do not need to have state certification in order to teach at a private school. These jobs may pay less, and have fewer benefits compared to teaching in public school, but they can also allow you more freedom with regards to curriculum and teaching methods.

You can start by finding out which private schools are in your area and contacting them to see if they are accepting teaching applications, and what their requirements might be. The Private School Review allows you to find schools by zip code, grade, gender, and religious affiliation.

I also recommend checking with the National Association of Private Schools to find schools and job openings.

For listings of Catholic schools in your area as well as job postings, try the National Catholic Educational Association.


Keep in mind that many religion-based schools will ask you questions about your own personal religious beliefs and lifestyle choices. I saw several applications for private Christian academies that ask about religious affiliation, your views on the creation of the universe, and whether or not you consume alcohol. I knew right away, that my application would not be a good fit for these institutions.

My next posts will focus on Pathways to becoming a certified teacher.

The New Teacher Project

I will be teaching as a Teaching Fellow in a program that is part of a larger, nationwide effort at improving schools called The New Teacher Project (TNTP).

From the website: “Founded by teachers, The New Teacher Project was formed in 1997 to address the growing issues of teacher shortages and teacher quality throughout the country. In its first year, TNTP embarked on three projects to create and implement high-quality alternative route to certification programs to bring new streams of accomplished individuals into hard-to-staff urban schools. Since then, TNTP has worked with more than 200 school districts and become a nationally-recognized authority on new teacher recruitment and hiring. “

The programs under TNTP are similar to Teach for America, and in fact many of the founders of TNTP came from Teach for America. These programs are aimed at recruiting professionals from diverse backgrounds, as well as recent college graduates who do not have teaching experience or education degrees but who would like to become teachers. (That's me!)

The exact details may vary by location, but they are all fairly similar. Once an applicant is accepted into the program, he or she spends one summer training (think teacher boot camp), and is then allowed to teach full-time in a real classroom once the school year begins. Participants get full a salary and benefits from the school district. While doing this, the new teachers are granted “resident teaching certification”, which is a temporary status. Participants also attend evening and weekend classes and seminars that allow them to complete the educational requirements need for a full teaching certification. For me, this takes 2 years. New teachers are also given support from mentors and more veteran teachers, and they get regular feedback on their performance.

If this is something that is of interest to you, I highly recommend this article in the Feb. 2010 issue of the Atlantic.

Purpose of this blog

I am starting this blog to chronicle my life as a new math teacher. I am a career changer who has recently accepted a position to teach secondary-level math in a public school through a program offered through The New Teacher Project (TNTP).  My goals in this blog are to share my experiences as I go through this transformation. I think that doing so will benefit me by allowing me to organize my thoughts and put all of this into perspective, and I hope it will also be a resource for other people who are considering making a career in teaching.

I will not actually begin the TNTP program until this summer, sometime in June 2010. So until then, I am going to use the blog to talk about everything I have learned about pathways to becoming a teacher, as well as books and resources I am using to try to prepare myself for this new career. Once I am actually teaching, I think the blog will focus on my own personal experiences in the classroom, but until then, I will discuss a wider variety of topics that relate to education and teaching math in particular. I hope to post twice a week, although once I am working full-time, I will probably be happy if I can continue with posting just once a week.

I am not much on social networking and I like my privacy. At this time I am choosing to not put my real name and face on this blog. I am going to write anonymously, however I am not a super-stealth ninja who is going to scrutinize each thing I say to see if there is any information that I think people could use to find out who I am. I think anyone who is so determined could easily figure it out, but that most people don't care. I may in the future get braver and be willing to go public, but for now, I think of myself as just “new math teacher”. It is not my intention to use this blog to say mean and nasty things about people or about the school district or program I am in; however I also want to feel free to voice my opinions if I feel it appropriate.

Here's to my first blog post! Hurray!