I planned on sleeping on my friend's floor thanks to my amazing air mattress. My life in New York City began at a job fair for prospective teachers to work for the New York Board of Education. I met with a few principals and quickly received 2 job offers. One was to be a Dean of Students for a middle school in Crown Heights. The other was for a 7th grade Language Arts position in Bedford Stuyvesant. The school in Bedstuy was housed on the second floor of an elementary school. This is a result of the school within a school plan that Chancellor Klein supported to maximize space. Imagine two separate schools with separate staff residing in the same building. I will let that resonate because you had to see it to believe it.
During the first week of professional development all of the Language Arts teachers were introduced to a new writing program, which held some merit but also lessened grammatical structure. Students with very little grammar foundation will not simply become better writers without being exposed to the rules more than once. One great aspect of the program were the sheer numbers of available literature for students to read. We were able to have some great book circles and I was able to offer lots of variety in reading materials.
So then what was the problem? The principal consistently wanted me to add more decorations in my class to motivate the students. He believed that simply posting their work was not enough. My room needed color and pizazz. He asked me to go and view a 6th grade classroom for ideas. Well you probably can guess how that went. I found a poster and threw all of that pizazz on one wall.
I did hire some local artists to work with all of the students in dance and drama at a reasonable rate through a not for profit that I was associated with. This resulted in a great after school program, and an even better showcase. More on that later. Within weeks of working, I forged other relationships with local artists and producers. This led to some amazing bi-monthly field trips. I attended a panel discussion sponsored by the New York Musical Festival. I asked producers how did they reach out to schools that could not afford ticket prices. One of them responded by giving us Off Broadway tickets to a great musical for a mere $10 per ticket. Do you think this was enough to get me off the hook for the classroom decorations? Of course not.
I worked with the social studies teacher and we created cross-curricular lessons across both subjects in order to increase critical thinking, reading, and writing. We even created combined assessments. I scheduled a Harlem Renaissance tour that had the most mediocre tour guide. The students ended up leading the tour as he sat back in awe and embarrassment. We even had a great meal at this delicious soul food restaurant on Lenox and 116th. (Amy Ruths - yummy) The best aspect of taking students on outing sin NYC is that they always take public transportation. One of the traditions of the middle school is that students were expected to walk in clear orderly lines and bring a chapter book with them during travel. This structure worked! Loved it!
Lastly, one of the most amazing women who worked at any school gave my classes the opportunity to create a showcase in celebration of Black History Month. And boy did they create! We pushed the desks and chairs to the side and merged Language Arts with music and dance. The students did a tribute to Ray Charles, spirituals, African/Caribbean dance, poetry and tap. Yes, we broke the rules! So what! Education is more than just sitting in a seat and passing a standardized test. Imagine that! Most affluent school districts do.
Speaking of tests. Remember the decorations and the lack of them in my classroom. Remember the 6th grade classroom that had ALL the awesome pizzazz. Well at the end of the year when the state scores came back. Guess which grade and teacher showed significant growth? I knew that poster of Garfield would be enough.
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