Teaching as Business

When I began my college career at JMU, I knew that I wanted to do business. When I applied to Teach for America, I surely thought that I would use it as a "fall back" plan, something to do when I couldn't find the perfect job for me. After several interviews for horrible marketing jobs, teaching seemed like a good option. After all, teachers only work from 8-3 and they have summers off, Right? WOW was I ever wrong. Everyone needs to contact their favorite school teacher and thank them for the time, thought and effort that they put into your education.

This week I started teaching in that classroom with 32 eighth graders from Northern Philadelphia. For those unfamiliar with this city, Philadelphia is continually ranked as one of the most dangerous places to live. And it just so happens that Northern Philly is one of the worst areas in the city. So therefore, my students are coming from backgrounds that are extremely different from my childhood on the apple orchards of Gardners PA.

Today, one of my students was not participating and being very quiet. I asked if there was something wrong that was keeping him from being attentive. He went on to tell me that he had been jumped the night before. He told one of my co-teachers that he has a lot of friends in the "bad crowd" but he wants to stay clear of this behavior. Thats a great sign for this young man, but unfortunately his unwillingness to join in makes him an easy target.

I have been working 18 hour days on a regular basis. I wake up at 5:15 and go to bed around Midnight. It is an exhauting process with endless grading, paperwork and planning. However, I think that I am going to love teaching. Even after 4 days, I have built a great relationship with my students. In fact, almost all of them have said that I make math fun and that I am the best teacher that they have this summer. This makes all of the hard work worth it!

Just to give you an estimate of the achievement gap that the Philadelphia School District is dealing with...I gave out a math pre-test to see what students knew prior to summer school. Keep in mind that these students have already taken this class once during the year. The class average on my pretest was a 22%. The highest in the class was a 33 and the lowest was a 6. However, I give quizzes after each of my lessons and so far the class averages are 89, 92, 84, 86. As you can see this is great improvement and this is what gets me out of bed in the morning.

Most of these kids have had teachers in the past who simply give up and deem the student a failure. However, these kids just need to be disciplined and given a sense of acomplishment. These are great kids that are stuck in a terrible school system.

Even though I broke up a fight, confiscated a cell phone, and called several parents all in 4 days, it is all worth it when I see that one struggling student have their "AHA" moment.

Alright, sleep deprivation is setting in....Goodnight and keep in touch,
Mark