the path of a TFA teacher

In the last couple of months, the interview series on English-related professions was focusing on high school teaching. We started with Edit, a veteran private school teacher in Buda, then came beginner Orsi from an elitist public school, and last month it was Bogi, a teacher assistant from a Hungary-based American private school, who gave us an overview to her educational experiences. This month it is my pleasure to introduce to you Sirena from New Orleans, who will talk about the American school system and her experiences in low performing schools.

Hey, Sirena. Nice to have you here. Could you tell us where you work and for how long you have been there? 

Thanks for having me Anna! I work at J. E. High School in Louisiana on the West Bank of New Orleans. I just wrapped up my first year of teaching (woo!) and was teaching Spanish I. 

What is an American high school like? Previously we got some insight into the Hungarian system and last month into a special institution, an American school near Budapest, Hungary. How is an American school in New Orleans? 

One thing I certainly know about American high schools is that no two are alike! I attended a large public school in a very rural small town in Kentucky with very little racial or ideological diversity and my experience was vastly different than most of my collegiate peers. All of the schools I’ve worked in thus far have all been public schools, so that’s what I’m most familiar with, but within the US there are also charter and magnet schools, which differ from public and private schools as well.

New Orleans actually has a very unique educational system since the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The hurricane devastated the New Orleans area with over $100 billion in estimated damages and over 300,000 homes destroyed. Before the storm nearly 30% of people in New Orleans lived in poverty and Katrina left many of the city’s poorest citizen even more vulnerable than before. With over 2,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of evacuees Katrina certainly forced some big changes within the city. Education reformers came into the area and essentially (what can best be described as) swept away what remained of traditional public schools, replacing them with charter schools controlled by the Recovery School District. 

My school, being across the Mississippi river, remained relatively untouched by the push to charter schools, and in fact many schools on the West Bank of New Orleans remain public. My school was actually one of the first schools to reopen after Katrina and opened its doors to any student in the area who wished to immediately return to school. 

Indeed, New Orleans sounds quite unique. Is this your first school? How did you get here?

I graduated from the University of Louisville in 2013 as a political science major actually, so teaching wasn’t really on my radar until my junior year of college. During the time I became interested in education and education policy I had just begun mentoring at a local middle school and working in an after school program at a high school as well. Both schools were of very low socioeconomic status and categorized as “low performing” schools in the state of Kentucky. I quickly became very curious as to how these schools were falling so far behind other schools in the exact same city – one being the number one school in the state. This led me to the program I’m currently in, Teach For America (TFA). The vision of TFA is that “one day, all children in this nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education.”

Teach For America yearly recruits a diverse group of leaders with a record of achievement to work towards expanding educational opportunity, starting by teaching for two years in a low-income community. We often speak of the “achievement gap” in the United States, examining the disparity in educational achievement of students based on grouping by race/ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status. Since as early as 1966, studies from the US Department of Education consistently showcase a gap in achievement between low income minority students and middle to upper class white students. After studying all of this and learning more about TFA I just overall got fired up about education and wanted to dive right in! TFA places teachers all around the United States and it’s also through this program that I ended up in New Orleans!

TFA is a great way for people who may not have studied education during college to become impactful teachers so that’s the option I chose and was fortunate enough to be chosen for the program. There are so many other options as well, from the different types of schools in the US (public, private, charter, magnet) to adult education and English as a secondary language programs.

Great initiative! As I hear, you enjoy your teaching path. What do you exactly like about being a high school teacher?

I really love being a high school teacher because I can really talk to and get to know my students on a personal level. I feel so invested in them not only as students but as people. High school aged students are making hugely important decisions almost daily that impact the rest of their lives. Being able to serve as a mentor, cheerleader, educator, and friend all at the same time is something I find truly rewarding about teaching this age group.

Plus my students are absolutely HILARIOUS and not one day passes that I don't either laugh at something they've said or laugh with them about myself.

Can we also talk a bit about the downsides of the profession? What are the main challenges for you specifically and for teachers generally?

Well I've been told that the first year of teaching is generally the most difficult, so hopefully it only goes up from here but the biggest challenge for me was simply learning how to balance all the things that go along with being a teacher. Juggling grading, lesson planning, tutoring, forging relationships with students, disciplining, making copies and charts, connecting with my coworkers, reaching out to families, ALL while maintaining my friendships from college and forming new friendships with people in my new city was a LOT to handle all at once. I'm also very very competitive and goal-oriented, so I would find myself working a lot on weekends and in the evenings after school trying to figure out the exact ways to make my students the most successful. Overall this led to a lot of naps after school and stress. Luckily by December I had sorted a lot of the juggling out and was able to get into more of a routine for my second semester teaching!

As for teachers in general I think the systems that are used for evaluating what makes an effective or ineffective teacher are becoming increasingly difficult to manage. For example, Louisiana has recently made some changes and new developments in the way it evaluates teachers and many veteran teachers at my school were upset with its inequity and the ways in which it was proving to be an inaccurate measure of teacher success.

Education is a highly debated political topic in the US as well, so when federal measures are attempting to be taken to solve this re-occuring issue of the achievement gap with little success, one must question what can be done to address this challenge? 

The problem you raised is a very important one and actually not country-specific. But are there any specificities of being a teacher exactly where you are? How do you think it's different to be a teacher in Louisiana, or in the US, than anywhere else?

Teaching in Louisiana has certainly been an experience! Having worked in schools in Kentucky, and taught summer school in Atlanta, Georgia - I, again, must emphasize that every state and school has such a unique identity. From the students, families, communities and faculty, each place I've worked has its own charms and struggles.

One thing that’s unique to public schools in the New Orleans area is the intensity that comes with athletics. In general American football is a huge fulcrum for schools in the southern region of the US and our school is no exception. Myself and another teacher began a spirit club this past year to harness all the schools energy and enthusiasm for our amazing student athletes! It’s just incredible to see the way something as small as a football or basketball victory can boost school pride!

I’ll be teaching abroad for the first time at a summer program at the American University of Bulgaria during July and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to experience the similarities and differences of teaching in the United States vs abroad.

Well, then, soon I will get back to you on this. :-) As a closing question, who would you recommend to be a high school teacher for?

I’d recommend anyone who is patient, willing to connect with students and truly passionate about impacting kids lives to be a high school teacher.  It doesn’t hurt to be strong willed and not offended easily along with that patience because high school students are moody and emotional at times ... haha!

Thanks a lot, and good luck in Bulgaria!

this goodbye

Last time I wrote you how my kid learner and I said goodbye to each other for the summer. Well, actually that turned out to be not a real goodbye, as she asked for another class before the vacation. I was moved that she convinced the parents to meet me one more time. As a matter of fact, I also was planning, because we always end bigger blocks with a conclusive poster, which is what I was preparing for the end as well. That class when the parents suddently told me this was the last, I still wasn't ready to deliver the closing collage project, so it felt awkward for me too to wave goodbye like this. But anyway, we won over the parents for a decent pre-vacation project: yay!

Every time we created something in class -- and it was almost always -- I took a photo of it. Not just for future reference, but also for future use. For these closing lessons, I always print some of these art projects of ours and build exercises around them, so we recall them both as learning experiences and as creative experiences. She can contemplate and comment on the material we learned and on the feelings their production triggered. I must say, it was very rewarding to do this last poster with her, because she kept saying how much she liked this and that. She picked at least 4-5 favorites. As far as language learning is concerned, we went through the alphabet, the numbers, the seasons and months, school subjects, clothing, sports, animals, and some cultural events like Saint Patrick's Day, Christmas, or Halloween. So far little grammar was introduced, because at this age she is not yet familiar with grammatical terms in her mother tongue either. 

At the end of the class, then, she gave me a chocolate she fancies ("Merci"), with a hand-written letter:

Dear Anna,

Thank you for teaching me.

Whit (sic) love,

L.

It was just adorable. Then she asked me if I am going to be stricter next year. ;-)

living with and as a local

Last month I talked with Eszter, a European vagabond, who went on a 3-month-long trip in Latin America. Inspired by her story, I decided to host a fellow-traveller from Asia, who arrived from a far-far land to see our continent. In her itinerary, she had Hungary as well, so I offered her accommodation during her stay in Budapest. We talked a lot about her home, the Philippines, my home, Hungary, and the benefits of cultural exchange, like CouchSurfing. Here is a short interview with her, in which you will learn about her journey, her view about Europe and Europeans, and about a set of dazzling islands called the Philippines.

Hi, Myca! What kind of tea can I serve you?

It doesn’t matter, everything is new for me. We mostly drink coffee in the Philippines.

Really? Then I had a funny misconception, thinking that the Far-East is all about tea. 

Well, I also had my misbeliefs about Europe, like that there is no traffic jam, no flood, and things like that.

Wow, yeah, we know a lot about traffic jams. And as far as flooding in concerned, the Balkan area just experienced its largest disaster in long years.

Yes, I know. This trip of mine around Eastern Europe taught me a lot.

So, where exactly have you been?

I landed in Germany a month ago, then moved on to Salzburg, Austria. From there, Slovenia came, with Ljubljana and Bled. My next stop was Croatia, where I checked not only Zagreb but Plitvice, Pula, and some surrounding sea resorts as well. After that, I came to Hungary, more specifically to Budapest, Szentendre, and Eger. From here I will move on to Prague, in the Czech Republic, and from Hamburg I will fly home to the Philippines.

Then, your trip is approximately a month long, right?

That’s right. That’s how much I can stay away from my job in sales. Of course, the journey had financial limitations too: it was partly because of the money that I decided to choose Eastern and Southern Europe as the destination of my first roundtrip. The other reason was because I wanted to see new things and less popular places.

What did you like the most? Any favorite spot so far?

Hard to pick one. There were amazing things everywhere. I couchsurfed most of the time and my hosts, local experts, took me to beautiful places. One of the best days of the trip was when we went around tiny little towns in Dalmatia. Also, to mention something strange I encountered, never before have I seen people so casually (un)dressed as around those beach towns. Men walking in light green trunks or women in monokinis.

Was this then the biggest culture shock?

Yes. I wouldn’t say I was too shocked by anything. If you ask how people in the Philippines are different from the Europeans, maybe what can be said is that there are much more of us (100 million). Really, one of the most populated lands are the Philippines! And there are many languages and tribes on the several islands that constitute the Philippines. Maybe because of this, people are very welcoming wherever you go in the country. They invite and host anyone no matter where they come from.

But in the end you were hosted by Europeans as well, right?

Yes, I stayed at people’s place most of the times, only 1 o 2 occasions in a hostel. I like to live with and live as a local and I was lucky with each of my hosts. I can only recommend CouchSurfing.

I also like the concept of it, but at the same time I think one needs to address certain risks too. Did you ever feel lonely and vulnerable during this relatively long journey of yours?

I would say that I enjoyed every day of it but sometimes I felt I just want to go home. I guess not because I couldn’t take any more new experiences, that is, it is not that I got filled. It is more that I missed my family and my home. I love the Philippines! I told a lot of stories about my country to most of my hosts. About the monsoons, the floods, the Chocolate Hills, the island transportation, the dialects, and a lot more.

Indeed, I learned a great deal from you about this land that I had hardly known before. You mentioned the language. How did you manage with communication on your trip?

In the Philippines the second official language is English, because the land was occupied by the Americans. As a lucky consequence, I (and many of my compatriots) are fluent in English. In the countries I visited, like Croatia, Slovenia, or Hungary, it was not so. Many of the people don’t speak English, but all in all I always managed. Language was not a problem if you want to get a message across.

Good to hear! What’s up for you now?

Well, I will go home soon, about which I am happy, but I will also be happy to work hard and save some money for my next trip. It is definitely to repeat! I will either come back to visit some of the places I missed this time, like the Balkans, or I will aim for Western Europe, but that will cost much more. I’ll see.

Good luck with that. And have a safe trip to Prague and to Manila!

look up

A couple of days ago a former student of mine posted a video on her Facebook page. Her description of the short film was: "This is a very thought-provoking film. Watch it, then get away from the computer." Her words made me wonder, so I gave it a shot. And it was worth. Watch it with me:

I was amazed, not so much by the novelty of the message, but by the extensive presentation of how far we go (or fail to go). I remembered how strange it feels lately that if I look around on the subway, 7 out of 10 people are on their phone, texting, emailing, playing, sometimes talking. Even if you overcame your shyness and wanted to exchange a word or two with someone, or just a look, it would be just impossible. Of course, I haven't given up on trying (though I must admit, ever since I have a smartphone, occasionally I also fall into the trap of being "efficient" while travelling: sending another email, instead of letting go of virtual problems and embracing real happenings). So, the other day I was watching a guy who was plugged into his phone. Listening to music -- ears occupied -- and texting -- eyes occupied. He was so absorbed by his phone that he almost fell when the subway -- gently -- stopped. Then, as he bounced back on his feet, he wanted to lean on the door, but it just opened: he almost fell out. Not only do we make clowns of ourselves but we also tend to risk our lives (to send one more sms or email while driving).

I used the video in one of my classes as a closure. My student was thrilled by it and admitted how true it is and we know that! Just as she uttered these words, her office phone started to ring... she hesitated a bit but then she picked up. So our class -- an hour of freedom and relaxed conversation in the middle of a crazy working day -- ended prematurely. It is hard to allow ourselves to be. Present. Relaxed. Free.