so what / now what
As a magnet school, Palumbo has a special admission process. The school is a melting pot with students from all over the city. Many of the children and parents bluntly say that they were fleeing their neighborhood schools. It’s a sad reality that with racial and economic isolation, neighborhood schools have sometimes become repositories for ‘the rest.’ Those who could not or would not seek educational shelter elsewhere are left in very challenging learning environments. As the budget declines every year, these environments become increasingly dire. Magnet schools like Palumbo offer relief from that, for some. The coursework is rigorous. Students are expected to go to college. However, as schools of all kinds around the city are closed, Palumbo has increased in size by nearly 70%. Students who “don’t buy into our culture here,” as one employee said, are starting to pop up as the student body becomes less personalized and intimate. As teachers at Palumbo, we will have to find ways to motivate and invite these students to “buy in.” External forces mold us, but we can also affect how these forces are channeled. If a school and its teachers sends the message that students are just a number, their contributions aren't welcome, and they do not have the ability to shape their own future, a student is likely to not realize his or her potential. Fortunately, these are not the values that Palumbo promotes. By enforcing Palumbo's creed of student initiative and discovering one's passions, we hope to create a community of students who achieve both academic and personal success.
Of course, we have anxieties about our first day, first lesson, first year in teaching. Whenever you start any new venture, butterflies will occur. Perhaps it is because we are at a magnet school where we know the students at least had to have had decent grades and the initiative to apply, but we are feeling comfortable teaching them with our own personal backgrounds and experience. We will have to make lessons interesting, engaging and challenging. We know we will be teaching a group of students that is majority minority. Therefore, we are cognizant of ensuring our material is relevant and inclusive. Rebecca was particularly excited to learn that the ninth-grade English curriculum covers a large range of cultures and heritages: books this year include American-Born Chinese by Gene Yang, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, and Night by Elie Wiesel. We have discussed in class the importance of a multicultural curriculum to appreciate and expose students to races, religions, and life experiences that may not align with their own. In addition to this promising reading list, Palumbo offers other celebrations of diversity such as a Gay Straight Alliance, a Multicultural Club, and posters throughout the school showcasing various heritages.
However, because we are in fact student teaching this year, we may have less control in incorporating a curriculum of our choosing. This year is unique in that we are in a classroom with another, seasoned teacher. For this year, we get to learn how to teach with arguably less full responsibility than we will have in the future. This lack of autonomy may become a frustration, but that will only be a sign that we are becoming ready to take the reigns on our own.
The prospect of teaching at Palumbo raises many questions. What will it mean for the students that they are coming from all over the city in geographically disparate areas? How will the fact that the majority of students are economically disadvantaged affect the lens we teach with? How do we handle the fact that their previous schools did not fully prepare them for a rigorous curriculum? What challenges or benefits will arise from the exponentially growing student body size? Most importantly, what will we as teachers learn from these students who are coming from all walks of life?
We are excited that our ambition to become teachers is finally going to be real. Our concerns, what few they are, are secondary to that passion. Palumbo seems like an active and vibrant place where students are happy to be there and learn, and where teachers devote their energy to ensuring students have opportunities for leadership and personal development.
Of course, we have anxieties about our first day, first lesson, first year in teaching. Whenever you start any new venture, butterflies will occur. Perhaps it is because we are at a magnet school where we know the students at least had to have had decent grades and the initiative to apply, but we are feeling comfortable teaching them with our own personal backgrounds and experience. We will have to make lessons interesting, engaging and challenging. We know we will be teaching a group of students that is majority minority. Therefore, we are cognizant of ensuring our material is relevant and inclusive. Rebecca was particularly excited to learn that the ninth-grade English curriculum covers a large range of cultures and heritages: books this year include American-Born Chinese by Gene Yang, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, and Night by Elie Wiesel. We have discussed in class the importance of a multicultural curriculum to appreciate and expose students to races, religions, and life experiences that may not align with their own. In addition to this promising reading list, Palumbo offers other celebrations of diversity such as a Gay Straight Alliance, a Multicultural Club, and posters throughout the school showcasing various heritages.
However, because we are in fact student teaching this year, we may have less control in incorporating a curriculum of our choosing. This year is unique in that we are in a classroom with another, seasoned teacher. For this year, we get to learn how to teach with arguably less full responsibility than we will have in the future. This lack of autonomy may become a frustration, but that will only be a sign that we are becoming ready to take the reigns on our own.
The prospect of teaching at Palumbo raises many questions. What will it mean for the students that they are coming from all over the city in geographically disparate areas? How will the fact that the majority of students are economically disadvantaged affect the lens we teach with? How do we handle the fact that their previous schools did not fully prepare them for a rigorous curriculum? What challenges or benefits will arise from the exponentially growing student body size? Most importantly, what will we as teachers learn from these students who are coming from all walks of life?
We are excited that our ambition to become teachers is finally going to be real. Our concerns, what few they are, are secondary to that passion. Palumbo seems like an active and vibrant place where students are happy to be there and learn, and where teachers devote their energy to ensuring students have opportunities for leadership and personal development.