English Teacher at Prospect High

What a journey! The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of job hunting, interviews, and, ultimately, setting up my classroom. But I'm proud to say that the intense search culminated in my receiving four offers on the same day (!) and accepting a job at Prospect High.

Prospect High is a wonderful little alternative school. It's in the Mt. Diablo school district, and they call it a "small, necessary" school. There are a few others of that ilk, and the idea of these "small, necessary" schools is that they serve students who do not thrive in a large school environment. There's a strong focus on community-building and creating a safe space, and the school seems to be quite effective at helping students recover credits and get to graduation. Unfortunately, the student test scores are not showing a high level of academic achievement, which is the main area we're trying to work on and improve this year.

I couldn't be happier to be at Prospect. There are a lot of things I'm looking forward to: small class sizes and fewer classes, for one thing, which allows more time for preparation and to give individual students a lot of attention. Because it's such a small school, there will also be a lot of opportunity to get to know each student very closely and really get involved in their life and academic progress. Furthermore, I'm in a position to help the students who need it the most.

But there are some unique challenges that come with this type of environment. Part of my purpose in this blog post is not just to announce the news of where I'm at, but to really identify what the challenges are and, for my own benefit as much as for the reader, start developing ideas for how to tackle those challenges. (Comments/suggestions also welcome!)

1) Having the same students in more than one class.

This is both a perk and a challenge. It is, in fact, one of the reasons I like this school, because I'll get to know the students more closely by having them in several classes throughout the day. There's only two teachers total in the whole school, so every student will be with one of us at all times.

The challenge comes in curriculum design, because I can't repeat material. At all. Ever. In a normal school, I might have two or three or even four periods of the same class. I only have to prepare one period worth of lesson plans for that class and I can use it several times. Then, by repeating it, I can refine it even over the course of a single day. In this case, every single class needs to use new material, which creates a huge demand on my lesson-planning time, especially since...

2) A lack of pre-existing curriculum

Again, this is both a perk and a challenge. I was looking for a place where I would have more freedom to design and use my own material, and, well... I found it!

I'm not complaining; I'm not. Because I really would rather have the freedom to design my own curriculum from the ground up. But let's be honest that that's a huge amount of work. I wouldn't have minded at least having a framework from the previous teacher which I could use. I have an idea what he didn't, but it wasn't very structured, there wasn't a sense of progressive development or building from one idea to the next over time, and it doesn't really match my style. So there you have it. Time to hit the books!

Of course, there's a reason that his curriculum didn't build over time, and that is...

3) Transient student body

Because of the nature of the school, students are entering and exiting all the time. They can be transferred to the school at any point in the year for a variety of reasons, and they also may transfer back to a regular school, or even graduate suddenly and leave, at any point in the year.

It's this fluctuating population that leads to the kind of de-centralized curriculum that has been used in Prospect in the past. When students are coming and going at all times, it makes sense to have a curriculum that doesn't build on itself in a progression over time, so that students can pick it up or leave with little warning and not be missing anything.

At the same time, I don't feel that that solution is adequate. A cohesive curriculum which builds on itself over time is so much stronger than a decentralized curriculum that taking that away for the sake of transferring students simply results, I think, in no one getting the benefit of a more structured education.

So, in essence, what I'm thinking of doing is pretty much designing a planned, progressive curriculum, and just accepting the fact that students will often miss part of the plan. At least the students who are around all year will get a stronger education, and we'll do the best we can to onboard new students who come in part way through.

4) Academically low-performing students, and wide variance of academic readiness

The students I'll have in my classroom will probably not be at their grade level in terms of reading, writing, and other academic English skills. What's more, they won't all be at some specific other grade level. Some will be at 4th grade reading level, others at 10th, and somehow I need to meet the needs of all those students.

How to deal with this yet, I'm not sure--all I know is I need to. The most important single principle in education, in my opinion, is that students need to be given material of the right challenge level in order for them to succeed. Too easy, and they get bored. Too hard, and they get overwhelmed. Either results in frustration, disengagement, and acting out.

But! If they can be given a challenge of the right level to meet their needs, they can experience the joy of learning, and that will make them want to come back for more. That moment, when I can see someone have the experience of figuring something out that they didn't know before and feeling good about it, is the moment I'm hoping to find this year.

I know that unless I can find a way to meet each student at his or her level, providing them with material of a challenge appropriate to their needs and readiness, I won't get to see that "Aha!" moment I crave.

5) Low Academic Self-Esteem Students

These will, most of them, be students who have failed in traditional schools. More than once. They will probably come in expecting to fail.

This has two challenges. First, that they won't believe that they can succeed--a self-fulfilling prophecy. And second, they will be primed for disobedience and disruption from their prior experiences in the classroom.

I'm going to have to not only be coach and mentor, cheering them on and convincing them that they CAN do it, but also be the completely imperturble adult, capable of deflecting their disruptive and anti-academic behavior, getting them back on track, and keeping the class stable and productive, all without alienating them on a personal level. Gosh, that sounds easy.

This is probably the part of the whole process that I'm most worried about, but I know that I'm not a socially weak or awkward person. I believe I have the ability to do it, but mostly I just need to go in with confidence, and pretend to any confidence I don't have. But what I do know is that making them feel comfortable, welcome, and "part of the team," is going to be the first step, absolutely mandatory before any true learning can occur.


In conclusion, I've certainly bitten off a lot in accepting this position, but I couldn't be more delighted. This is exactly what I wanted. The kind of position I almost didn't dare hope that I would get. I have the freedom to do things my own way and put into practice a lot of the ideas that have been bouncing around in the back of my head (more on some of these ideas and practices in future posts.) I have extra prep time, to help with the extra demand on curriculum building. And I'm in a school with low student population, where teachers are expected to develop strong personal relationships with students--my favorite part of teaching.

I feel like the cat who got into the cream. I feel like I'm cheating--like I've managed to trick them into letting me be a teacher, and I need to make sure no one finds out!

I feel like I'm ready for this year.

My Story

I have always been called to teaching, for the simple reason that education is the critical foundation of any civilization. It is education that raises us up to be more than animals, to teach us how to get along with one another in a peaceful, organized society. It is education which teaches each generation of the accomplishments and discoveries of previous generations, allowing the sum of human understanding to passed on, and to grow over time. Not to mention current social ills: education for women is the silver bullet that can absolutely, guaranteed, end skyrocketing birth rates and curb overpopulation, if only it could be reliably provided around the world.

How could one not be drawn to education?

It was always in the back of my mind that I wanted to come back to education someday, to become a teacher, maybe go into research, perhaps even start my own school (in the long run). But I knew that I couldn't go directly from student to teacher. That's why I took my twenties to explore. After graduating college, I worked a variety of odd jobs, saving up for an overseas trip. I spent almost a year in Asia, over two separate trips, teaching English and, ultimately, founding a small non-profit organization to raise environmental awareness among children in Nepal. That organization continues today under local leadership, Children for Green New Nepal.

Now, in my early thirties, I feel that I have the diversity of life experience to justify becoming a teacher. There's more to teaching than academic knowledge. I hope I'll never stop learning, but at last I feel like I'm a step farther than I was right out of college, ready to go back and have something unique to offer my students in high school.

In the long run, I still have grand visions of changing the face of education, but I know that that dream, while a wonderful star to reach for, can come neither quickly or easily. There is no fast track. While I may return to research some day, with an aim toward developing a new model of education, I know that there are many years teaching ahead of me before I'll feel prepared to take that step.

Today, my goals are much more grounded, but no less difficult: provide a space where every student in my class can grow and learn. Meet the needs of a diverse body of students, each of whom is unique in cultural background, social background, and academic readiness. Make my classroom a safe space.

I can't wait to meet my class!