Fall Placement

"If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it."
-- Margaret Fuller --


I've been on several interviews over the past few weeks, seeking out a fulltime placement for my fall teaching position. It has been a process of both highs and lows, and I admit that I've learned to swallow a lot of pride as it hurts to be turned down for a job when you know that you have the knowledge and passion needed for it. That said, I've tried to look at each one as a learning experience, and I've walked away from every interview with a touch more savy and a sense of renewed purpose.

Yesterday, though, was the first interview I've had that I laughed my way through. I suppose that that level of comfort is a good sign, and before I left the school I had my first tentative job offer provided that I was approved by the school's board of directors. I found out tonight that indeed I have the job! This is both terrifying and exciting!

I've spent the summer anticipating a placement at a high school, much like my summer school experience. So, I pictured myself teaching high schoolers, 10th grade preferrably and within the Recovery School District, maybe somewhere in east New Orleans. Now, I find that the school I have felt the most comfortable in is actually in the Tremé neighborhood and a charter school for elementary and middle school students.

As I said, I laughed quite a bit during the interview, and the gentlemen who interviewed me--the principal, the PE teacher, and the curriculum coordinator--did as well. In my opinion, that's always a good sign. I think that at this point I was too frustrated with the process of job searching to have any air of pretense about me. Also, as I told them when I went in, I wasn't even sure just what teaching position I was interviewing for because when I received the call for the interview on Friday it was in the middle of my granny's funeral. Needless to say, I was distracted.

So, utterly unprepared, I was taking this interview as another learning opportunity. With no pre-rehearsed answers I went in to the school yesterday, found myself floored by most of the questions but practiced a lot of thinking on my feet, and continually emphasized how much I love science, love students, and love teaching. I got down and personal, airing out a lot of my closets and personal beliefs. None of these are suggestions I would give anyone for a successful interview, and really, I'm surprised that being so candid didn't blow up in my face.

Now today I'm officially employed at McDonough 42 where I'll be teaching 7th and 8th grade science.

The universe works in wonderous ways, ya'll. Maybe that doesn't sound very scientific, but I feel like maybe I was meant to be there this entire time.

Summer All Wrapped Up

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
-- Nelson Mandela --


I struggle with encapsulating an entire summer of experiences into a simple blog post. I don't think words are really sufficient to explain everything that I've experienced, endured, excelled at or overcome this summer. Therefore, I suppose, it probably would have been better had I recorded my experiences as they occurred. Remember what I said in my last post though, I still haven't any idea just how teachers juggle their time. I barely found the hours to sleep amid planning and teaching and framework sessions, never mind actually blogging.

As I said before, I spent the summer teaching at Sarah T. Reed High School in East New Orleans. While I'd hate to say that it is one of the rougher schools in the city, it is. Not that it isn't filled with a motivated administration and teachers eager to raise student achievement, it most certainly has both. It also has gang members, overwhelmed teen mothers, drug dealers and those who are frequently high, and students who are generally accustomed to ruling the classroom with chaos. It's a rough place to work, but Reed High also has eleventh graders who read at third grade levels, students who've never been told that they can learn, a higher percentage of special education students than most schools in the city, kids who are convinced they're stupid, and such a lack of excitement about learning that it breaks my heart to see.

Working here this summer, despite all of the stress and anxiety and even a weapons scare, was without a doubt more rewarding than any other job I've ever had. If just one student thanks you for making something understandable and accessible, then you feel like a rockstar. At least I did. I only hope that I can carry that feeling into the coming school year. I want to reach so many more students than just the class I had for summer school.

Here is to the coming year.

Reflections On A Week

The highest result of education is tolerance.
-- Helen Keller --


I find myself wondering if there are enough hours in a day to accomplish everything. I'm not sure how teachers get everything done in a single day! Staff meetings and student mayhem and lesson plans and grading papers and actually delivering a lesson in the midst of a million and one other concerns pressing on your mind. Staff development and extracurricular activities and continuing education and, oh yes, there is the little matter of having a life and family outside of the walls of your school.

It is, without a doubt, one of the most challenging careers that a person can choose.

That said, and without being trite, it's also one of the richest and most exciting.

I have officially completed my first week of teaching summer school assigned to Sarah T. Reed High School in east New Orleans, and despite the reputation that the school has, I've had nothing but a wonderful experience so far. This, and what might be an overdeveloped sense of social justice, has left me sensitive to the jibes I get when I tell people where I am. Just today I had a gentleman (and I use the term loosely) ask me if I had gotten my gun permit yet.

Everyone should come spend a little time with these kids, they'd be a lot less inclined to blindly judge them based on where they're from. Granted, some of them are trouble makers--I'm not naive to that--but for others, I'm amazed that they are in summer school. A few of them are too smart for it and it's obvious that they know the material but just aren't confident in that knowledge.

I'll be teaching Biology in the fall, I have Chemistry this summer, though today I had the opportunity to spend some time teaching Algebra II as well. I've been able to observe multiple teachers in action, and not two of them have the same style in either classroom management or instruction. I've seen military and almost scary control over students, and I've seen something that looked a lot like utter anarchy.

Who knows what next week will hold?

Helpful Websites

The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.
-- Mark Van Doren --


As I prepare for summer school (which I start teaching tomorrow!) and the looming school year, I find myself turning to every available source I can find to help prepare myself for classroom management, lesson planning, and engaging my students in rigorous and fun coursework. Enjoy this list of resources, and feel free to suggest others.


4 teachers

A to Z Teacher Stuff

ED.Gov

EduHound

FREE

Fun Brain

GradeBook.org

JLAB Science Resources

PBS Teachers

Science Buddies

Teacher Files

teachers (dot) net

teAchnology

The Teacher's Corner

U.S. DOI Teacher Resources

Please allow me to introduce myself..

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.
-- W.B. Yeats --


As a child, I lived in New Orleans, and my fondest memories revolve around the city in one fashion or another - from my preference in coffee (Community French roast, please) to my delight in all forms of nature conservation (thanks in no small part to the Audubon). We lived in New Orleans East near The Plaza, which at the time had an indoor ice rink that always fascinated me, and when my mother wasn't at work we spent long days either there watching the skaters or at City Park enjoying the wonders of Storyland. My little sister was born at Baptist Hospital, and we grew up drinking cafe au lait and thinking every city had a French Market and loving nothing more than spicy crawfish and cold snowballs.

While some might see post-Katrina New Orleans as a city in need, I look at New Orleans and see home.

Though we moved to the Mississippi Gulf Coast where I attended school in my heart I have always felt the closest to the home of my early childhood. Now, I want my own daughter to know what it is like to grow up there. Until Hurricane Katrina, I have never lived farther than an hour from the city, and I've never wanted to be anyplace else.

I want to teach in New Orleans exactly for this reason. I want to bring my love for the city and my love for learning home to where I can do the greatest good by fostering these exact loves at a school where the students need them the most.

My name is Destin Rutherford, and I'm a new teacher in New Orleans. I've been admitted into the 2008 cohort for teachNOLA, and have a practitioner teacher's license and highly-qualified status to teach high school biological sciences this fall, following the summer training institute that began today.

I'm looking forward to both the challenge and the opportunity for change that New Orleans schools now represent.