You might find yourself thinking, “Teachers have the best schedules! So much time off! Two months in the summer!”
First of all, if anyone else wants to grade papers until you literally fall asleep on top of them or wake-up realizing the best way to perfect that lesson plan you have tomorrow is running to the store at 3 am, be my guest. Seriously, one time I went to the store at 4 in the morning because I NEEDED to turn my room into the balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet. And you know what? It was amazing. Countless hours and weeks go into planning units that involve individual interests, movement, collaboration, and most of all: learning.
Besides that mini rant, almost every teacher I know works in the summer. Whether it be summer school, tutoring, re-doing unit plans, or even a job outside of the education system, many teachers are working.
Besides already preparing for upcoming volleyball seasons, I decided to teach for inspireSTL this summer. inspireSTL is a non-profit organization that accepts low-income students from St. Louis Public Schools and charter schools to prepare them for college-prepatory high schools and then colleges. Students go through an application process. Most students who are excepted have good grades in school, but some are underachieving students because of the lack of a support system in their current schools.
They start a summer-school program the summer before 8th grade, then go to school every Saturday during the school year. Students attend summer school from 8:30 am- 5 pm every day, and are expected to have around four hours of homework. Students are assigned a coach that helps mentor them through the program and checks up with them daily. Not only do they take normal core classes, but they also participate in activities such as book club, chess, invictus, and many field trips around St. Louis. This is not your average summer school!
Copied from the inspireSTL website:
"Over the past three years, inspireSTL has met a number of key successes.
● Last year, 30 high potential, high performing, underserved Class of 2019 scholars were inducted into the organization and began the Academic Preparation Program.
● The High School Access Program has maintained a 100% placement rate, having assisted in placing nearly 80 scholars at top performing college preparatory high schools in St. Louis. We are currently preparing nearly 30 more scholars for placement. Click here for a list of our placement schools.
● The Scholar Support program has secured over $1 million in scholarships and financial aid to fund scholars’ education at tuition-based high schools.
● The Scholar Support program has empowered scholars to collectively average a solid B grade point average at their rigorous college-prep high schools.
● 100% of our inaugural Class of 2015 scholars are graduating from high school this year, and will soon be attending four-year colleges and universities. They are collectively averaging about a 3.5 grade point average, and some have already been accepted to top colleges of their choice."
For a lot of these students, they will be the first person in their families who attend a college-prep high school and college.
I am teaching two classes of 20 students who will enter 8th grade in the fall. Most of my students are African-American, but there are also a students of other cultures and ethnicities. One of my students is actually from Albania. Besides teaching the summer curriculum, I need to make sure I prepare them with skills they will need in a college-prep secondary school that their current schools may not be teaching them. Needless to say, the age level, curriculum, and even demographic were a large change for me.
The book we concentrate on during the first sixteen days is Night by Elie Wiesel. During the first day, after playing some of my normal get-to-know-you games, we discussed a few new vocabulary words: prejudice, scapegoat, and stereotype. I gave them examples and we discussed what it meant if a teacher saw a blonde walk into calculus class and automatically thought that she was going to need a lot of help or if an employer of a technology company would throw away applications from applicants who seemed over forty years old. They caught on quickly that the teacher must be stereotyping the girl as a dumb blonde, and the manager of the company prejudged all older people to have no technological knowledge. We giggled how many people still hear that policemen all love donuts! Finally, we turned the conversation into a more serious discussion about genocide. We talked about how it can occur when people take prejudice, scapegoating, and stereotyping to the ultimate, extreme levels.
Even through this first discussion, the students really impressed me.They all wanted to share their thoughts. They participate and bought into my jokes. Most importantly, they were excited to learn and thankful for the opportunity to be in the prep-academy program.
The homework was to write a two-paragraph journal about a time they experienced or witnessed any of the vocab words. If they could not think of a real experience, they were welcome to make one up or use an example from modern media.
The next day, a few students shared their journals about The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Hotel Rwanda, and even DeGrassi. While I was expecting a lot of movies and made-up stories, I found that most students wrote about real experiences. Each experience was honest and eye-opening: African American students were followed around stores by managers who were expecting them to steal; students were called terrorists because of their beautiful headscarves. In every situation, these thirteen to fourteen year olds were judged prematurely based on their culture, race, gender, or age. And they understood this. The situations were so prevalent that almost everyone had an experience to share. Since this day, I've been thinking a lot about change and the importance of addressing issues bigger than just subject material.
inspireSTL’s mission is basically that once these students graduate college, they will give back to the St. Louis community. For example, they might be involved in the educational system or will become a socially-just mentor and role model. In the future, inspireSTL will hopefully not have to exist because students will be getting enough support through their schools and communities and be able to attend college-prep schools and colleges without the need of a readiness program.
So far this summer, I have learned just as much from them as they (hopefully) have from me.These are the students that will break the cycle of being stuck in under-supported classrooms. These are the excited students that I want to be teaching in my normal classroom who can share real-life stories about difficult subjects. With a little support, these are the students who will eventually become the people who can change our city and world.
These are our stories!
First of all, if anyone else wants to grade papers until you literally fall asleep on top of them or wake-up realizing the best way to perfect that lesson plan you have tomorrow is running to the store at 3 am, be my guest. Seriously, one time I went to the store at 4 in the morning because I NEEDED to turn my room into the balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet. And you know what? It was amazing. Countless hours and weeks go into planning units that involve individual interests, movement, collaboration, and most of all: learning.
Besides that mini rant, almost every teacher I know works in the summer. Whether it be summer school, tutoring, re-doing unit plans, or even a job outside of the education system, many teachers are working.
Besides already preparing for upcoming volleyball seasons, I decided to teach for inspireSTL this summer. inspireSTL is a non-profit organization that accepts low-income students from St. Louis Public Schools and charter schools to prepare them for college-prepatory high schools and then colleges. Students go through an application process. Most students who are excepted have good grades in school, but some are underachieving students because of the lack of a support system in their current schools.
They start a summer-school program the summer before 8th grade, then go to school every Saturday during the school year. Students attend summer school from 8:30 am- 5 pm every day, and are expected to have around four hours of homework. Students are assigned a coach that helps mentor them through the program and checks up with them daily. Not only do they take normal core classes, but they also participate in activities such as book club, chess, invictus, and many field trips around St. Louis. This is not your average summer school!
Copied from the inspireSTL website:
"Over the past three years, inspireSTL has met a number of key successes.
● Last year, 30 high potential, high performing, underserved Class of 2019 scholars were inducted into the organization and began the Academic Preparation Program.
● The High School Access Program has maintained a 100% placement rate, having assisted in placing nearly 80 scholars at top performing college preparatory high schools in St. Louis. We are currently preparing nearly 30 more scholars for placement. Click here for a list of our placement schools.
● The Scholar Support program has secured over $1 million in scholarships and financial aid to fund scholars’ education at tuition-based high schools.
● The Scholar Support program has empowered scholars to collectively average a solid B grade point average at their rigorous college-prep high schools.
● 100% of our inaugural Class of 2015 scholars are graduating from high school this year, and will soon be attending four-year colleges and universities. They are collectively averaging about a 3.5 grade point average, and some have already been accepted to top colleges of their choice."
For a lot of these students, they will be the first person in their families who attend a college-prep high school and college.
I am teaching two classes of 20 students who will enter 8th grade in the fall. Most of my students are African-American, but there are also a students of other cultures and ethnicities. One of my students is actually from Albania. Besides teaching the summer curriculum, I need to make sure I prepare them with skills they will need in a college-prep secondary school that their current schools may not be teaching them. Needless to say, the age level, curriculum, and even demographic were a large change for me.
The book we concentrate on during the first sixteen days is Night by Elie Wiesel. During the first day, after playing some of my normal get-to-know-you games, we discussed a few new vocabulary words: prejudice, scapegoat, and stereotype. I gave them examples and we discussed what it meant if a teacher saw a blonde walk into calculus class and automatically thought that she was going to need a lot of help or if an employer of a technology company would throw away applications from applicants who seemed over forty years old. They caught on quickly that the teacher must be stereotyping the girl as a dumb blonde, and the manager of the company prejudged all older people to have no technological knowledge. We giggled how many people still hear that policemen all love donuts! Finally, we turned the conversation into a more serious discussion about genocide. We talked about how it can occur when people take prejudice, scapegoating, and stereotyping to the ultimate, extreme levels.
Even through this first discussion, the students really impressed me.They all wanted to share their thoughts. They participate and bought into my jokes. Most importantly, they were excited to learn and thankful for the opportunity to be in the prep-academy program.
The homework was to write a two-paragraph journal about a time they experienced or witnessed any of the vocab words. If they could not think of a real experience, they were welcome to make one up or use an example from modern media.
The next day, a few students shared their journals about The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Hotel Rwanda, and even DeGrassi. While I was expecting a lot of movies and made-up stories, I found that most students wrote about real experiences. Each experience was honest and eye-opening: African American students were followed around stores by managers who were expecting them to steal; students were called terrorists because of their beautiful headscarves. In every situation, these thirteen to fourteen year olds were judged prematurely based on their culture, race, gender, or age. And they understood this. The situations were so prevalent that almost everyone had an experience to share. Since this day, I've been thinking a lot about change and the importance of addressing issues bigger than just subject material.
inspireSTL’s mission is basically that once these students graduate college, they will give back to the St. Louis community. For example, they might be involved in the educational system or will become a socially-just mentor and role model. In the future, inspireSTL will hopefully not have to exist because students will be getting enough support through their schools and communities and be able to attend college-prep schools and colleges without the need of a readiness program.
So far this summer, I have learned just as much from them as they (hopefully) have from me.These are the students that will break the cycle of being stuck in under-supported classrooms. These are the excited students that I want to be teaching in my normal classroom who can share real-life stories about difficult subjects. With a little support, these are the students who will eventually become the people who can change our city and world.
These are our stories!