The KIPP Advantage

I have come to love and appreciate the first period of the day. Mark is an incredible director, teacher, and person. After the students were finished passing through the cafeteria to get their breakfast, Mark asked the lunch lady if every student said thank you. Apparently there was not a 1:1 ratio of students to thank yous because Mark had each student go back through the line saying thank you to each lunch lady. As we were walking up to the classroom, a student said, "It's their job, they get paid to do that." (implying they shouldn't have to say thank you to the lunch lady) Mark heard this and so he gave a 15 min. thank you explanation. He explained that the lunch lady does not get paid to be nice or smile and eventhough she does get paid a small amount to serve the food, it does not excuse them from saying thank you. He related it to his old job at Diary Queen as well as some of their parents' jobs. Everyone deserves to be thanked for their services. He told a story of two people applying for teaching positions at KIPP whose interviews were canceled because Mark heard them speaking down to the custodian. He did not even interview them because he did not want someone like that working at KIPP. He asked the students if they had thanked the custodian for cleaning their classroom, Mrs. Delabar for putting on Greek of the Year, or Mrs. Boubel for working two full time jobs and advised them to "get on it" if they hadn't. This is the KIPP advantage! They do more than teach academics, they teach character. There is just something extra special about KIPP directors. I had a similar experience with the director of KIPP: Sunshine Peak Academy in Denver. While the director, whose desk was in the middle of the hallway, was having a conversation with me and my mom, he stopped a student who had just cut across the grass on his way inside. He questioned the student on his decision and asked him if it had accomplished his goal of getting to class faster. The director helped him answer by explaining that because of his choice he was stopped and talked to making up the time it would have taken to walk on the sidewalk. Morale of the story: don't take shortcuts, they don't get you there faster! So after advisory, I observed Joyce's 6th grade math class. Today's lesson was about lines, line segments, rays as well as parallel, interesting, and skew lines. They graded homework, learned the lesson, and worked on lifework. During block 2, I observed Ms. Starr teach about rounding and adding decimals. She uses a three strike discipline system that seems to work pretty well. If they get to three strikes, she gives them extra lifework. During block 3, I sat in Roy Feliciano's Kipp 2 College class with the 8th graders and it was the most enjoyable part of the day. They watched a video about a middle school boy with an anger managment problem, who takes his frustration out on peers who make fun of his clothes and his lack of money. After the video, the students discussed the meaning of social class and how it might effect their lives in high school. Mr. Feliciano discusses real life issues with the students preparing them for next year. He explains that for many of them, next year will be the first year where 90% of the population will not be Hispanic. After the video, they finished reading Sunita Sen, a book about a middle school girl who is going through an identity crisis, being pulled between her Indian and American culture. For the last couple of months students have been reading the book aloud in class to reinforce their abilities. As lifework, the 8th graders had to fill out an application to STEM High School. (Science Technology Engineer Mathematics) STEM is a brand new magnet school that holds a lottery this Friday. Mr. Feliciano's hope is that many students will get in and then they will have two weeks to make a decision. In the next couple of weeks many of the area highschools will be holding their lottery, so the students have the opportunity to receive all their acceptance letters before making a final decision. After lunch, I started block 4 6th grade math again. I was actually able to teach the lesson today about lines and line segments. I think I did a pretty good job explaining the terms, but I could have done a better job relating the material to their lives. I am learning more names every day which makes it easier to establish positive relationships. At 3 I went to take over 8th grade tutoring. The 8th grade math teacher was gone today so there was no worksheet for the students to work on. Yesterday I had brainstormed some ideas to make this session more productive and less chaotic. I was able to talk with Joyce earlier in the morning about the concerns I had and how to solve them. She reassured me that normally I would not be the only teacher in the room, but there are just so many teachers out this time of year due to illness. She also told me they are going to change the format on Thursday because it isn't going the way they would like. I used Ms. Starr's three strike method during todays tutoring. If they were too noisy, they would get a strike and if they got three strikes I would take away their privilege to talk. The first hour went considerably better, while the second hour got three strikes. Then I had to lay down the law and take names of any students who were talking during silence. At the end of class, I ran to my car so I could get on the road! Luckily I made it on time and it only took me 30 min to get home. As a side note, I want to reassure you that despite the grim pictures, I feel completely safe in the neighborhood KIPP calls home. If you have any specific questions about whats going on, just let me know. I am just choosing the highlights of my day!