The beginning of a legacy

I am writing this from within the walls of our freshly painted, brand new school, KIPP Destiny. After much reflection, I realized how becoming a kindergarten teacher at KIPP truly is my destiny. A destiny in which I hope to leave a legacy. When I was five years old, I struggled through my parent’s divorce and thankfully was supported by my very own kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Jackson. Oddly enough, the name of my current co-teacher is… Ms. Jackson.

After having our first week of professional development training, I already feel like my KIPP family has become my second home. My principal and co-teachers are such inspiring and growth oriented people. It has been such an eye-opening experience to think of the potential that has been gathered to implement change and build a foundation for the future of this school and the south Dallas community. It is incredible to think that the thirteen of us are building the culture of a school that will begin our Dallas Fort Worth KIPP region. It truly is a dream and the beginning of a legacy.

Currently 1.6% of students in south Dallas are considered “college ready.” KIPP is working to ensure that our children do not fall into this statistic. In fact, KIPP is working to eliminate these statistics and intends to open about seven new KIPP schools within the next ten years. I feel incredibly honored and humbled to be apart of this journey. 

Not surprisingly, I still think through my “Eller business” lens and could not feel more blessed to be working at a startup school. A great deal of my passion for business directly aligns with my entrepreneurial experience at KIPP through building a school culture, a school vision, “selling our mission” to the community and analyzing the data of our students to determine how we can continue to innovate. The education gap was spelled out more clearly in business terms after our manager showed us the following TED talk. If you have roughly five minutes, this will reshape how you view the priority of education in our nation.

http://www.ted.com/talks/geoffrey_canada_our_failing_schools_enough_is_enough.html 

Some of the founding teachers with our principal in the new building

Our beautiful school

Being welcomed into the KIPP family

The TFA KIPPsters

My First Last Day

Today was my last day teaching my first grade class at Piney Point Elementary and the end of Houston Institute. I am definitely going to miss them. I learned and grew immensely from my students and from my co-teachers. I am incredibly proud of our class, as their reading scores grew 236% from the first time we tested them four weeks ago! Every day counts.

In just our last few days, our students went through the five steps of the writing process and made a final draft about their role models. We also had a lesson called the “the rainbow fish,” where we read them the classic story and then had them decorate their own scales and write something nice about someone and give it to them. While teaching my students to read and write takes priority, I find that educating my students about life lessons has been one of the many rewarding aspects of teaching.

Today we conducted “jam sessions” at our school, where our kids could find more information on free student activities throughout the year. We also were able to meet some of the siblings, parents and grandparents of our kids at the jam session. It was wonderful learning more about where our students come from and meeting their families. There was also a basketball player and policeman that volunteered their time to come talk to our students about the importance of college and knowledge in their careers.  This led into our lesson of reading one of my favorite books, “Oh The Places You Will Go” by Dr. Seuss. We had them craft hot air balloons and write what they wanted to be when they grow up. Not surprisingly an overwhelming amount said they wanted to be police after hearing him talk about his career today. The best part is, now they know they can do it and they will.

Signing off until my next adventures at KIPP Summer Summit!

Our first grade class and faculty advisor

Reppin my wildcats at TFA College Theme Day

Props to our Collab group for winning the data entry competition!

Our CMA group... going to miss them!

Deans get pizza!

While it was unfortunate to be working on the fourth of July, it was also a great reminder of the work that we are doing for our country. FTK is an acronym that we came up with to remind us that no matter how tired or exhausted we may be, it’s not about us; it’s “For The Kids.”

A group of us went to Galveston, Houston on our Friday off to head to the beach. While it was definitely not the crystal blue water of the Bahamas, it was nice to relax and talk about things other than the TAL rubric and behavior narration.

My collaborative and I just finished our last full week of teaching our first graders. After moving them up and down on our college themed thermometer, they finally earned their way to the top “Deans!” We have instilled a love for higher education in the lives of our kids. When introducing the lessons for the day, we always ask our students “Why do you think it is important to learn this?” Rather than respond with the casual, “So we can read and write,” our students scream, “So we can go to college!” Every time my face lights up just thinking about how they will forever remember learning about college in the first grade and the work we have done.”

In our class we do an activity called “community circle” in which we pass around a flower and share our thoughts and feelings with other classmates. The other day we passed it around and asked our students to tell us something that they have learned. Several of our students responded, “I learned that I am smart and can go to college” or “I learned what college is.” I thought right then about the many times I have been asked in an interview, “what is your greatest accomplishment?” Well… this is undoubtedly one of them.

When we brought in the pizza for their party, we still had a lesson to teach before the party would start. We quickly realized that when all the students had to randomly “get a tissue” they would walk over to the tissue box and stare at the pizza. After moving the tissue box across the room, it was amazing to see how many noses were miraculously better.

It was finally time to bust out the pizza and our kids were absolutely thrilled. They usually have to eat cafeteria food so it was no surprise when they told us that this was the best pizza that they have ever tasted. I reassured them that I never liked the cafeteria food either, thinking back to my elementary experience when I wrote a petition about the gross food and got sent to the principal… luckily for a good reason. They each gave us a huge hug and thanked us for being teachers. Best $40 I’ve spent in my life.

Our students of the week, so proud of our scholars! :)