Day 1

Wow, where do I even begin....well, as I suspected, it was an extremely long day, but also very informative.  I woke up at 5:45 to leave at 6:45 to be at the school at 7:30.  (thankfully it did not take me 45 min. to get there so tomorrow I can sleep in! lol  On my way to the school, the director Mark Larson called me to let me know where I should go once I arrived.  

Morning:  The students arrive by bus at 7:30 and go to the gym for a morning check of their lifework aka homework.  Each student has an advisory teacher kind of like a homeroom teacher who looks at each students' work from the night before checking for completion.  Those who have incomplete lifework must eat lunch that day in isolation.  When I first walked into the gym the students were fascinated by my heels and my tattoo.  I became a little self conscious about my tattoo wondering if I was breaking dress code, but I found out later that it was okay. After the initial lifework check in the gym, students grab breakfast and head to a classroom to finish the advisory period.  I stayed with Mark for his advisory period and then went on to observe math classes for most of the day.  [KIPP runs on a block schedule which is another adjustment I will have to make.]  Sixth grade math, which was the first block I observed, is taught by one of the school's assistant directors Joyce Boubel because the previous teacher just "wasn't working out."  This is one of a KIPP school's advantages.  They have the power to rearrange their teaching staff when something is not working out.  In fact, they have made many switches just this year with regards to moving teachers up or down grade levels as well as letting some teachers go.  Joyce is a wonderful lady who has been with KIPP for four years.  She is a fabulous math teacher and KIPP: Aspire Academy was just awarded a $10,000 grant from the state of Texas because of their math scores.  She does not believe in lecturing and taking notes because she does not think the students are engaged and actively learning. Today they were doing some review, but students completed the examples on the board and then taught the class, answering any questions their fellow classmates had.  Then the students corrected their benchmark test which is like a semester test they take every nine weeks.  For the rest of the class they worked on their lifework.  I do not think this was a typical day for them so I am curious to see them in action tomorrow.  Joyce had to run up to 7th grade math to get them started on their lesson because their teacher was gone for the day.  Subs at KIPP are hard to come by because a person has to know the culture of the school so that the students don't get off track.  After going from 6th to 7th and back to 6th with Joyce, she took me to Miss Starr who teaches 5th grade math.  She is in her third year of teaching this being her first at KIPP. She is very pleasant and also very honest about the major commitment required to teach at KIPP.  She explained that the turnover rate at KIPP: Aspire is very high, simply because of the extra effort and hours that are put in.  It is not uncommon for teachers to teach at KIPP for 1 to 2 years and then go on to a different school.  There is a sad irony in this because from observation the KIPP principals and foundations are best executed by veteran teachers.  I observed a little of Miss Starr's class before going lunch and recess with them.  [Just as a side note, the 5th graders are kept separate from the rest of the building in classes, lunch, and recess.]  I learned that teachers are on lunch, recess, and P.E. duty everyday meaning they are with students every minute except for a 90 min. planning period.  It's crazy!  

Afternoon:  After lunch I observed Mrs. Mallory's non-fiction studies class which is a writing and social studies class combined.  It was my least favorite period of the day.  The schedule today was a little mixed up, so Mrs. Mallory ended up with 36 students in this class.  They were obnoxious and I felt like she had little control over them.  She had a loud stern voice that remained for the entire period.  It seemed they were having a competition for who could be the loudest.  I was able to walk around and help students get started on their historical fiction stories about a child who died from child labor.  The following period was the complete opposite and by far my favorite period of the day.  It was a science class taught by Mr. Young, a 4 year KIPP veteran.  He just gets it.  The kids acted completely different.  There are a couple of key KIPP terms that Mr. Young used flawlessly.  Track which means looking at and facing the person who is speaking and slant which means sitting straight in the chair with both feet on the ground.  Mr. Young has built such a great environment with high expectations that he had to remind students very little to 'track' him.  Students have behavior sheets and Mr. Young would mark any student's sheet that needed to be reminded to 'track'.  I believe it was the first day of the third quarter and so students were put into different groups.  They spent the period building group cooperation.  Each student wrote down what they would do to help make their group be successful, what potential problems they saw, and possible solutions to these problems.  Then they shared their ideas with their group members and the group members were able to comment on the person's ideas.  At the end of class, they shared as a class how they liked the method of creating group unity.  Students seemed to like being 'tracked' and listened to by their classmates.  To end, Mr. Young asked me what skills helped me get scholarships and into college as well as how I keep my scholarships.  I explained the importance of keeping eye contact in meetings and creating good study habits early so it is easier to get good grades in college.  The final period was split between tutoring, where students go to the room they need help in, and advisory, where the teacher checks each student's take home assignment sheet.  I was with Miss Starr during advisory and she allowed the students to ask me questions about my college and life.  My favorite part of the day was answering questions and interacting with the students!  I left the building at 5:10 and who knows how long all the teachers stayed. Overall it was a good day and I'm excited to go back tomorrow!  If you made it this far in the blog, give yourself a pat on the back!