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! :) 

Do it with passion or not at all

I have been at Institute for two weeks now at Rice University in Houston, Texas. As someone put it, “Houston is like waking face first into a blow dryer.” I couldn’t agree more, it is about 110 with a 30% humidity at least! And I thought Phoenix was bad…

With anything you do, the beginning is always the toughest. I’ve learned to be more flexible than I ever thought possible. From changing lesson plans last minute to learning more acronyms than I know words. Waking up at noon has unfortunately now become a foreign concept. It’s now a 5 am wake up call… or 5:30 if you press snooze three times like me. However, to say the least I can already tell how immensely I’ve grown as a leader and as a future teacher as a result of this experience.

I am teaching first grade this summer at Piney Point Elementary. My students are incredible and to see them grow each day is truly inspiring and motivating. While other Corps Members have had to deal with cursing and school fights, I feel fortunate that some of the biggest scolding I had to do was with a few of my students that thought it would be funny to fart at the reading circle… I quickly corrected that mistake.

My Corps Member Advisor (CMA- I promise I’ll try to avoid all the acronyms) has been so helpful and comforting throughout the process. She has taught me so much and will go on to be a principle of her own school this next year. One thing in particular she showed us was this video below. If you ever have 5 minutes, watch this. It completely inspired me to “do it with passion” and give my 100% each day, especially in regard to being a strong advocate for higher education.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAMLOnSNwzA

Fortunately Teach for America recognizes the countless hours that go into our work at Institute and has had quite a few social events for us. This past week, we had “TFA day” where the Corps Members from each school dressed up spirited, had chants and challenged each other in several competitions (capture the flag, karaoke, sand volleyball, etc.) Still can’t picture what I’m talking about? Just think of a giant cheer camp full of passionate teachers all wanting to rep their school… yep, pure TFA insanity. The best kind.

(Amanda and I at TFA Institute kick off)

(TFA Induction dinner in Dallas, hosted by the Mayor)

(TFA Alumni Bar Crawl, discovering our new nightlife in Uptown Dallas)

It takes change to make change.

“Help those you think you cannot. Whatever you are attached to, let it go. Go places that scare you.”

Wow. What an incredible, inspirational week at Teach for America Induction in Dallas. To say the least, it has definitely been a roller coaster of emotions (and by roller coaster, I don’t mean the navigation of the million Dallas highways).

I began my first day feeling immensely overwhelmed. Once my Dad got in the cab to the airport, I burst into tears… for the first time in my life, I felt completely scared and alone. I came to the DFW Corps knowing not one single person, feeling separated and isolated from my family and close friends. Not to mention being exhausted from the long hours and emotional exhaustion. This foreign feeling of “homesick” crept up on me, making me realize how much my life is about to change.

It wasn’t until one of our school visits that I finally realized that this overwhelming feeling of change was the first challenge I would have to overcome in order to implement what I came here to change.  The school principle read a quote that has truly resonated with me and reminded me why I am passionate about this work, “Help those you think you cannot. Whatever you are attached to, let it go. Go places that scare you.” This quote is something that I am going to relish for the remainder of my TFA journey and of my life.

The next day I was able to visit the school that I will be teaching at in the fall, KIPP Destiny Elementary. Our school is still in the process of being built, and it has come so far! I am so incredibly blessed and honored to serve as a founding kindergarten teacher for the school and to lay the foundation for many years to come. The educators apart of this school are each immensely talented and relentless individuals and I know that working with them is undoubtedly going to grow me and challenge me as a teacher leader.

Not only do I feel proud to be teaching at KIPP, which was founded by two Teach for America Alum, but I am also blessed that I have been placed in the Dallas-Fort Worth TFA region. The movement in this region is vastly supported by the community and several DFW school districts and charters. The Dallas Mayor even came to one of our banquet dinners to speak about the movement and it’s progress since the region opened in 2009.

While many of the sessions were engaging and inspiring, one of my favorite Induction memories was hearing some of the “TFA touched” students speak at the Dallas Zoo Banquet dinner. It was truly moving to hear their personal stories and the confidence and curiosity that they have cultivated through their educational experience with TFA teachers. I hope that my students will one day be up there speaking about their future visions and how education has transformed their life by enabling them to see the vitality within them self.

After signing my lease in Dallas and becoming a resident in uptown, it was time to head to TFA institute to join the rest of the Texas TFA Corps Members in Houston… 

My first post: Apples to Apples

While I do love the game, it is not the purpose of my first blog post. Some of you know that I was offered a job with Macy's in their Executive Development Program in New York City. I wanted to write a bit about why I decided to turn down the Big Apple (my dream city) to be a Corps member of TFA.

While I spent the week debating every detail and looking at the logistics, I decided to go with my heart and intuition...TFA. I feel incredibly humbled to have been chosen to make a difference in the lives of these children and bridge the achievement gap. I am confident that this will be an experience that I will relish for the remainder of my life and will be a passion that might guide me to my future career.

I'd be delighted if you would follow me along my journey.