The end of the week!

Thursday:  Today was very exciting for Mark's advisory because there were only two students who did not have their lifework completed so tomorrow they are hoping for perfection.  As usual I observed 6th grade math during block 1.  Today they were learning about pie graphs. She began by asking them where they had seen pie graphs in the real world.  They talked about their parents using pie graphs to budget their money or their business's money.  They went through a couple of examples in the book and reviewed how to draw a pie graph before they worked on problems in the book.  Once they were completed with the book work, they received their lifework for the night.  These students do a lot of work throughout the day and also at night. They need to master these skills before they move on and in order to get them caught up to continue they reinforce the material over and over.  As I mentioned yesterday, the other two classes are struggling in math and in block 2 there were only 11 people who earned a passing grade on their lifework from the night before.  (If students receive below a 60 on an assignment they do not 'fail' but receive a 'not yet' which means they are on lunch bench to redo their assignment to a satisfactory level)  Students check their lifework and morning work at the beginning of class and so 15 min into the class when Joyce realized how many students performed poorly she made the decision to separate the class.  She asked the 11 who had passed to move to edge of the class and continue on in the book and the remaining 18 were re-taught the lesson from yesterday.  Since I had just observed Joyce teach the class before she asked me to teach a little lesson to the 11 students moving on.  I was thrilled to get a chance to teach and it went pretty well.  Oh course once I was done, I thought of ways I could have made it better and was hoping to get a chance to teach it again during block 4, but that didn't end up happening.  In case you were wondering, after the repeat lesson Joyce taught the 18 students the lesson scheduled for that day so they were only 20 min. behind not an entire day.  I thought it was a great decision to re-teach the lesson so they would not get even more lost in the days to come.  After lunch/recess (I must add that it was incredibly windy today and I was a little cold, not like you have any sympathy for me, but I wanted you to know that it isn't 70 and sunny everyday.)  For block 3, I went to help out with 5th grade.  Poor Miss Starr has been sick the past couple of days and so the teachers were spread a little thin.  I ended up helping Mrs. Quintanilla who is the 5th grade reading teacher.  She is a fabulous lady who believe it or not is shorter than I am! She had me give the students a reading assessment where they would read for 1 min from a passage and then I would record the number of words they read correctly.  It was a very interesting experience and I really enjoyed it.  I believe the results may be a little skewed because some students were reading so fast they didn't stop for periods or commas, while others, who were also wonderful readers, read out loud beautifully, pausing and adding emotion in their voice.  The afternoon went incredibly fast because I continued giving reading assessments until about 3:30 when I went to tutor the 8th graders.  The tutoring session was enjoyable, but time passed slowly because the students don't need help every second.        ~Today's drive home was incredibly exciting.  I attempted my 4th route home and at first it did not go so well, but after a couple of entrances onto 281 north I discovered the same street I get to work on!  These stupid freeways have on ramps at certain roads, but no matching off ramps, or so I thought.  I took a shot in the dark by exiting on airport blvd.  I didn't think I would ever be happy to see the infamous three-way-stop that takes 8 minutes to get past in the morning but it made my day.  Karen and I had a break through today.  I realized that we need each other because clearly neither one of us can reach a destination alone. lol                                                     Friday:  On the first Friday of the month there is something called Friends of KIPP.  Business, church, and college people from the community come to the school to learn about the program to possibly volunteer or donate their time and money.  They have a little breakfast, listened to Mark speak, and then receive a tour from 7th and 8th grade students.  Today was a little unconventional because 5th, 6th, and 8th grade math classes were taking life challenges or tests so I found other classrooms to help with.  For block 1, I observed Mr. Young with 5th grade science. They were learning about motion and force.  After answering some introductory questions about motion, force, and work, Mr. Young led an incredible discovery lesson.  The entire time he guided the discussion allowing them to brainstorm and find the answer themselves.  It seems to be a theme at KIPP and I love it.  The students figured out motion and force rather quickly, but the meaning of work in science was extremely difficult for them to grasp.  After about 7 min. of trying to understand work with little success, Mr. Young asked for 4 volunteers who went to the board and tried to move the wall.  Students then had to discuss if the students had done any work. After another couple of minutes, the students decided that motion was needed for work to occur.  I absolutely loved observing this class.  It was exciting to see the technique Mr. Young used and the process of thought the students used to come to a conclusion.  In the middle of class when the students were behaving wonderfully, Mr. Young asked them to freeze.  He walked around with his yard stick to check the students slant or posture. What?! These students are sitting quietly and participating wonderfully, but that is not enough for Mr. Young.  He wants them sitting straight with their feet on the ground. I'm not going to lie, I caught myself fixing my slant when he reminded the students because I was not sitting straight with my feet on the floor! In Mr. Young's class, students get marks on their mark card for being reminded to slant and track while in other classes it takes numerous times of talking out or not following instructions to get the same penalty.  I think there should be a happy medium, but I love the way Mr. Young runs his classroom.  For block 2, I helped Mrs. Quintanilla's low level reading class with reading assessments.  I witnessed dyslexia and a language barrier during this group of students.  The word 'saw' was in the first line of text and a couple of students read 'was'. After looking at the word I understood their mistake.  The word 'gently' was also in the text which was an obstacle for Hispanic students.  I could see them thinking about the sound of an English 'g' trying to override the sound of a Spanish 'g'.  After lunch/recess, I checked 5th spelling tests until 3:00 math tutoring.  An uneventful afternoon, but it went relatively fast.

~As I was walking to my car, I saw a man in a nice car that I had seen on Thursday.  On Thursday this man and his wife smiled and waved at me from their car and today, the man rolled down his window and asked me what I was doing at the school.  I began explaining to him why I was there and he got out of the car to introduce himself and we continued talking. He has a 5th grade daughter and 7th grade son at KIPP and his family just loves the school.  They do not live in the district and had to be chosen by lottery to get into the school. He showed me a picture of his children and he continued talking about how wonderful the school was and how thankful they were to have gotten in.  He asked me where I was staying and gave me his business card because come to find out he 'works' probably owns a hotel and told me if I ever needed a hotel to give him a call.  After looking at the card, I realized the hotel was on the River Walk.  Talk about nice!  Thats why I'm down here to make connections both formal and informal.  

I could not be happier that it is Friday, but overall this week has been incredible and I have learned so much about KIPP specifically and teaching in general.                                         

Here is some more information about KIPP:

  ~The students abide by a strict dress code consisting of a shirt (depending on their grade) that is tucked in, khakis, and closed toed shoes.  5th grader wear gray t-shirts that say "no excuses, no shortcuts" 6th graders wear blue t-shirts that say "we do the right thing no matter who sees" 7th graders wear red t-shirts that say "we are a team with the same goal" and 8th graders wear gold t-shirts that have a long saying about what they believe. 

~Salary for 1st year teachers at KIPP is 5% higher than the district salary and during the 2nd year and on the salary is 10% higher than the districts salary.  So a little incentive but you still have to be a person extremely passionate about these kids.

~KIPP: Aspire's mascot is an Archer and there are targets all over the school with the letters ACF which stand for Aspire College Future. 

~As 8th graders, students compete for elite high schools around the country.  They go through the application and interview process to hopefully get accepted into great boarding or magnet schools.  I was able to talk to the head of KIPP 2 College today and I will be hanging out with him on Monday to learn more about the process.

That is enough KIPP for one week, but I will continue to keep  you posted.  Have a great weekend!!