MAT----an extra year of college???

At UNC Chapel Hill, currently, there is not an secondary education bachelor's degree program. What generally happens to those people who want to teach high school is that they have to apply to MAT school, which is a graduate program, in order to get their Masters in Arts of Teaching. So, unless you are a teaching fellow, those who want to teach high school do not see an education class until their final fifth year, when and if they get into the MAT program.

I definitely do not agree with this, the MAT program is a graduate program, so you have to apply to it just like any other school. For teaching fellows that have to repay their scholarship, what happens if they do not get in? You are left with no credentials to begin teaching and to begin paying back your scholarship. I love UNC, and that is why I chose to come here because I feel like i fit in here, but as classes go on and I see how hard it is to maintain good grades, I am becoming increasingly worried about getting into the MAT program. This is why a regular old four yera degree in middle grades education is looking better and better.

Discussion Time!

Last week I led a discussion group of teaching fellows and we were supposed to discuss something regarding race in the education field. I was so intrigued by the movie our class watched, that i decided to discuss something similar. I asked my group how they would treat illegal immigrants in their classroom and how they would bridge the gap between these students and the other students.

I was so pleased, that no matter any individual's particular bleiefs about immigration, all of my group agreed that the childs needs come first. We talked about different lagnuage programs that culd be implemented, including a growing of the dual lagnuage classrooms schools are experimenting with today. Half the class are english speakers and half the class are Spanish speakers, which not only helps the Spanish speakers learn English, but the English speakers learn Spanish too!

We alos talked about offering extra tutoring sessions after school for students that are not only having trouble with the material, but are having trouble fitting in socially. Being able to offer them a place where they can speak freely about their fears and whats botheirng them gives us, as eductaors, an oppurtunity to correct these problems.

Overall, I was just excited because it seems that every person I've talked to in my teaching fellows cohort genuinly cannot wait to help their students and I believe that that is exactly whats needed in the eductaion field. Teachers who actually care and WANT to make a difference.

The Easy Way Out.

Of course, I know how it is, in school I have always looked for the easy way out, the shortest way to complete a project and still get a good grade. But, my AVID girls take this to a whole new level. They had to pick out a newspaper article and write a page about it. Now, please note that this was due a couple of weeks ago and the teacher was giving them another opportunity. Now, some of my girls got it done the right way. But, one girl, who is probably my most lazy tutee, wanted another student who had read the article to tell her what the article was about. I had to literally sit with this girl so she would read it for herself. Another girl picked what must have been the smallest article in the whole paper, and then started complaining because she could not find a lot to write about. Well, duh! I was very disappointed, this being my last session and all, and I could also not believe that after all this time, it was still the girls who were the laziest and the procrastinators in the bunch. I do not want to be stereotypical, but it is after all, the boys who usually take this route. Still confused about what grade I want to teach, hopefully next semester will help my confusion.

The Disiplinarian.

So, of course, part of being a teacher is learning how to command respect form your students and making sure they stay on task. In my class, I have a group of four or five girls, who are not only lazy, but get off task every other second and begin talking to each other. This, being the last week to complete their science project, session was crucial. So, because all they needed to do was type their material up on the laptops, I had to stand there, in the middle of their group, to ensure that they stayed on task. If i walked away, for even an instant, they would begin chattering again. It was sooo annoying, and I know this is probably awful for me to say, but i hated feeling like their babysitter. And, although i know a fair amount of this goes on in high school, i really am leaning toward teaching high school because i do not think i could stand being a babysitter more than being a teacher. I just do not know.

Whether the Weather

Today, after sitting around doing nothing at the beginning of class, two boys finally needed my help, and what else, but finding the definition of barometric pressure. EW! Another subject I hate...science. I had no idea what the heck it was, I knew I had learned it before but the lesson had obviously not stuck, thank goodness we had trusty dusty macbooks to help us! With the help of a few informational sites and weather.com...we got the definition down.

However, I did notice something seemed to be troubling one of my students. He was not really responsive, and barely wrote down anything. I'm hoping he just needs a break from school and it's not something more serious.

Math= YUCK

Well, breaking news, I still hate math. Like really, math has and always will be the bane of my existence...and I still can't get away from it! I was helping this girl with her math assignment for the week, and I really had no clue what the heck I was doing. She did not have a math book or notes, or anything for me to go off of, so I was definitely flying blind. But, with the help of other tutors, and sever brain picking on my part, we got her assignment done. Thank goodness I'm teaching history!!!

La Historia

Last week we watched a documentary entitled "Fear and Learning at Hoover Elementary," and it discussed reactions in Los Angeles, California to Proposition 187, which would make it illegal for illegal immigrants to go to public school. This documentary was extremely emotional to me, and I definitely cried a lot during the showing. I especially got emotional when the children said they felt like a little piece of dirt, and they felt like they were unwanted. For a child to say that is so hurtful and should touch all human emotions, regardless of what you believe pertaining to illegal immigrants. These are children we are dealing with, not criminals or even conscious adults. These children, if back in their native countries, would be living in extreme poverty and would live in constant danger with no chance of ever bettering their lives. When I lived in Juarez, Mexico, I was not even allowed to play in my backyard without a male adult for fear of kidnapping or other heinous acts, and I was definitely not allowed to play out on the street. Thank goodness I was an American citizen and was allowed to return to public school to better myself. I am the first person in my family to go to college, and among only a few that received a high school diploma on my Mexican side.

I just want this opportunity for ALL children. Not only will this better their lives, but giving children an education will better the world in general. One girl in the video wanted to be "an important person" that helped people. How is this child who wants to help people going to endanger the world at all?

This also goes back to my desire to teach in foreign countries. I just believe that everyone has the right to an education, and that education will make the world a better place, where people do not have to look for better, safer places to live.

Oh Middle School Students.....

Today, almost all of the delightful students in Ms. Grady's AVID class seemed to need to go to the library today to work on a science project. Apparently each student has to do their project on a certain scientist, and nobody has started it AT ALL.....gotta love middle school students. I took this as an opportunity to teach them good study habits, and as I told my tutee, I am probably the world's worst procrastinator and all that does is bring increasing amounts of stress on the procrastinator, not to mention you usually don't do a proper job when your rushing. I know this probably went through one ear and out the other, but the teacher in me won out and I decided to give the lecture.

Anyway, of course, all the females in the class decided to sit together and immediately got off task. It was such a pain to keep walking over there and tell them to focus. Finally, I decided to walk over there, and ask them a question about their person. If they did not know, their assignment for me was to find out the answer by the next time I walked over. This worked very efficiently and the students stayed on task after that while learning a lot about their assigned person! I felt like such a teacher = ] .

The Socratic Method

So, as Teaching Fellows, we have to learn about educational philosophies, and one of these educational philosophies is known derives form Socrates' view on education. In AVID, tutors are encouraged to utilize the Socratic method, meaning instead of actively instructing the student, as a tutor I attempt to ask questions in order to get the student to help her self. Now, I tried to use this method last week, and it did not work very well at all, BUT, it worked this week! My student basically did not need my help at all, all I did was ask her questions and guide her in the direction she needed to be in. I was so excited that it finally worked!

I think this method is best used with a slightly more deep thinker, not to be mean, but everyone learns different, and I think the girl from the week before was slightly less capable of grasping the concept by herself than this girl was. It takes a certain curiosity and perseverance to be able to find out things for yourself and not everyone can do it.

Private Education?

In Teaching Fellows class, the class had a discussion pertaining to what will happen after No Child Left Behind. One suggestion is converting public schools into private institutions. While there are a few benefits, the cons definately outweigh the pros.

While some private schools have scholarship programs, how will the rest of American children afford to go to private schools? Not everyone can recieve a scholarship or voucher, and mediocre students who are not the brightest and best in their grades still deserve the opputunity to have an education.

Not only that, but extremely poor children on free or reduced lunch, do not have money at home to afford food, and the only meals they get are the meals given by the school. Doing away with public funding for schools takes away all these benefits.

It is our job, as Americans, do make educated and informed citizens of our children in order for them to make America a better place to live in for years and years to come. If you take public education away, you take away many oppurtunitites for students that cannt afford private education. If America wants to survive, they have to take an active and important role in educating the masses.

Administration Gone Wrong

At my old high school in Fayetteville, North Carolina, a situation occured. A student was supended for "instigating a fight" because she had a family friend pick her up from homecoming when another student, accused of sexual molesting her, started to make her feel uncomfortable and began talking about her behind her back. A little while after being picked up, the accused was hit in the face, but not by the family friend. The police showed up and the accused said he did not want to press charges. The next day the accused parents came in, claimed the accused was beaten up on school property by the family friend. Without asking the police, and even the SRO officers who were outside and did not witness the said "beating up," (because it didn't happen), the school administartion suspened the student; an honor student, student body vice president, and member of the school Forensics Team.

This situation just illustrates one of the many problems in our schools today, how can a student learn if she is frightned for her well being and being punished for being the victim of a henious act. This is a completely ridiculous and outrageous situation, and I cannot believe injustices like this occur even within the heirarchy of our public schools.

Awkward Much???

As I got unto the bus today, I saw one of my AVID students on the bus as well. I smiled at her and took my seat. She had obviously missed the regular school bus, and had to ride the city bus instead. I kept thinking about how fortunate she was, although she was going to be late she still had a ride to school. In Fayetteville, if I missed the bus, I would either have to miss school, or walk, and thats a thirty minute bus ride, fifteen mintute car ride, and a LONG walk.

I really did not know how to act towards her on the bus though, or how to act as we were walking side by side into the building. I could tell she had that awkward....I'm seeing someone who is kind of like a teacher outside of school feeling, and I definately did not want to make her feel more awkward! Needless to say, I kept my music turned down on the bus in case a stray "naughty" word came her way.

I wonder what it's going to be like to see my students outside of school. Will I be allowed to go out with my friends for dinner and enjoy a glass of wine, or something like that, without being ridiculed. I guess these are the prices you have to pay when you decide to change the world through teaching....along with crappy pay. = /

Changing Times

This Tuesday, I helped a girl write a thesis statement. It was pretty much pulling teeth with her, she did not trust anything I said! Her prompt was a two part prompt, and she was only answering one of the parts, and she kept thinking that because she had never done her other thesis statements like this one, that I was wrong. So, we pulled out all her other prompts and I had her underline and number each statement she was supposed to answer. Sure enough, all her other prompts only had one statement to be addressed, and this one had two.

As she finally began to trust me, and after she had written a wonderful thesis, we began talking. As tutors in the AVID program, we are supposed to encourage the kids to go to college, so we talked a little about that, and then I asked her if she lived with her mom and dad, just to get a better backgorund on her. She then told me that she had two mommies, and that she was adopted. It took me a minute to realize what she meant by two mommies, and then I realized that her moms were homosexual. I had never encountered something like this, and I was very interested. I asked her how she felt about that, and she said she did not like it sometimes because she did not like being different than her friends. I assured her that being different is always a good thing and that her particurlar situation makes her special and allows her to expierience things that other students would never be able to expierience.

I cannot wait until the day when racial and sexual orientation stigmas disappear and kids can just be themselves and learn in a prejudice free enviroment.

Not enough students = /

Last Tutoring Tuesday, there was not much to help with because the school district had a late open day on Thrusday, meaning they open two hours later, so all the teaching fellows tutors that come on Thrusdays had to come on Tuesdays instead, and we all had to double and triple up on students. Needless to say I did not get much one on one time with my student, my first girl tutee, and she was working with word porblems in math, so I pretty much just let the other tutors take over because I had no idea what I was doing! But I learned an important strategy from the other tutors, to have the student recap what they have learned and attempt to "teach" you what they just learned, this way, you know the student has fully grasped the concept.

There is No Better Satisfaction....

So, today there was no bus confusion, I originally thought I had missed the bus, but it turned out that I had not, so my anxiety was short-lived.
Today, in tutoring, I worked with the same student and another student, Deshawn. They both needed help with math-YIKES-but, fortunately it was something I could handle. Malik was having more difficulty than Deshawn, they were translating word problems-more like sentences- and making them into workable problems. I taught him a new strategy, I had him box all of the key words, such as quotient, or subtracted, or added to, or twice, and had him write the sign the word pertained to above the box, so that it was easier for him to see where the actual problem was coming from. It was SUCH a joy to see him uderstanding the problems! There is absoutely no greater satisfaction as a teacher than seeing your student grow from confusion to understanding.
After we were done with his work, I started asking Malik and Deshawn questions about themselves to better understand where they were coming from. They both enjoy athletics, and they both want to go to UNC when they grow up! Malik then asked me what I wanted to be when I "grew up," and when I said I was not sure if I wanted to teach middle school or high school, he said he wanted me to teach middle school so I could teach him. That just put an immediate smile on my face, and I had to tell him that it was probably better if I taught high school then so I could catch up with him in twelfth grade. I love tutoring!

Ugh. Being sick is catching up on me.

As you all know, I was sick last week and the week before. Late night studying and early mornings combine to make it impossible for me to rest. So, I went back home to Fayetteville this wekeend to get some much needed rest and relaxation. Unfortunately, I did not realize that this was the last weekend to do mandatory AVID tutoring, until I got an email from my host teacher last night. I absolutely hate giving a bad impression and I know my host teacher is going to think I am just a flake. I am not looking forward to emailing her and letting her know I missed the class. Hopefully there is something we can arrange. Otherwise, I might get kicked out of the AVID program.

My First Day of Tutoring <3

So, after sitting forever at the freezing bus stop waiting for the G line bus toward Briarcreek with no success, I decided to take a chance and ask the bus driver of the G bus toward Bookercreek if his bus stopped at Phillips Middle school, and of course, he said yes, meaning I had just waited 45 minutes for the wrong bus. Yay me! But, I was still really anxious because the driver seemed hesitant when he told me yes, so I waited nd waited, and finally another teaching fellow going to the same school got on the bus! I was instantly relieved, becasue since she had been the week before she knew all about the proceure to sign in the school and everything, I was really lucky!

When I got to the school, I signed in and made my way to the class. After our class filed in, they wrote their names on the board under the sibject they needed the most help in. Unfortunately, most of the signed up for Math, which is my leats favorite subject. I buckled down, however, and began tutoring a seventh grader named Malik. He was working on subtracting integers, which I am actually knowledgable in, so I just made up problems for him and we workd out the issues he was having with integers. Thankfully, he was alot like me in the sense that he did not really care why the math worked like it did, he just needed the rules and went to work! Over all, it was a pretty successful first day of tutoring and I cannot waitto go back tomorrow!

I Wasn't Late!

Of course. nextbus.com was wrong yesterday morning when it said I should take the G line bus toward Briarcliff in order to get to Phillips Middle school, but thanks to my intuition, I decided to get on the G line bus toawrd Booker Creek, an after dealing with extreme anxiety--I did not know if I was on the right bus--another teaching fellow going to the same school got on the bus and all my anxiety floated away!

Biting My Finger Nails Off!!!

So, tomorrow is the BIG day, my first day of tutoring! I have no idea what bus to ride, what time the bus is supposed to arrive, and my mother just informed me that in beautiful Chapel Hill tomorrow morning there is a predicted high of 50 degrees--and all my winter clothes are in Fayetteville! Now, even though I am practically terrified when I think about tomorrow, I am really excited to finally be able to do what I love; help students. This is the reason why becoming a teacher is so important to me, I want to do the absolute best I can for this world, and there is nothing better than educating the young minds of the world and creating functional, intelligent citizens. Remember that teacher that made you excited to come to class? That is the teacher I want to be and I cannot begin to express the excitement I feel when I think about beginning my teaching career! Yay for tutoring! Hopefully, I make it there alive, or better yet, on time!

I HATE being sick....

Well, on what was supposed to be my first day of tutoring on Tuesday, September 23, 2009, I was so sick I was unable to move out of my bed. I had previously had a cough about a week before, and on Monday, I barely made it to class and then finally, I made my way to health services. Apparently, they have no idea exactly what illness I have, I could have the flu, walking pneumonia, or just a plain old cold. Whatever it was, the doctor informed that I was not allowed to attend class for 24 hours after having a fever, and I had been running a fever all day. I planned on going to tutoring, however, and when I woke up Tuesday morning and found out I was aching so bad I could barely move AND I had a hundred degree fever, I decided it was time to email our teacher, Cary, and my AVID teacher that I would be unable to make it.

I was so disappointed that I missed my first day of tutoring. Not only did I desperately want to be there, I also still have all the fears and nerves that all my peers in the teaching fellows program have gotten rid of. I am practically terrified of riding the bus, I THINK I know what bus to take, but I have no idea what time to get there or how long the actual ride will take. And, what is worse is I know of a guy who goes to the same middle school, Phillips Middle school, as I do and at the same time, and I have tried multiple times to get in touch with him, and he ignores me every time! Ugh, the frustration is killing me!

What is a Teaching Fellow?

As I have previously stated, I am a North Carolina Teaching Fellow! Now, not everyone knows what that exactly entails, so here you go. The Teaching Fellows program is a scholarship program that awards 26,000 dollars over four years to about 500 students living in North Carolina who are planning on becoming a teacher. If you are a teaching fellow you are required to do various activities such as tutoring, and different trips during the summer and spring. A teaching fellow is also required to pay back their scholarship by teaching in a North Carolina public school for four years, or else the scholarship becomes a loan and the teaching fellow is required to pay back the award, with interest. Now, you know what a teaching fellow is!

Next week, on Tuesday, September 22, 2009, the first year UNC Chapel Hill Teaching Fellows will begin tutoring in the Chapel Hill/Carrboro school district. I, personally, will be tutoring in the AVID program, which means I will be tutoring one student in middle school who is experiencing hardship in one aspect of school. I volunteered to be in this program because I am not sure if I want to teach middle school or high school, so tutoring a middle school student will enable me to "feel middle school out," and help me decide if middle school is where I should be. I cannot begin to express how excited I am to begin tutoring! That is why I wanted to become a teacher, because I love influencing, teaching, and helping students, and ever since I started college I have been in a classroom talking about why I want to be a teacher and now, I can finally begin working with students! YAY!