We're Back!

I hope everyone is doing fantastic. I am excited to say things are full tilt as we prepare for the 2008-2009 academic year at YPFP-C. We have added some wonderful people to the leadership staff and have been conducting interviews with some wonderful new Teacher Corps Volunteers. The responses we have had from teachers has been very strong, building on our relationships with fine schools such as Thurgood Marshall and Cesar Chavez. Our relationship with Teach For America continues to grow and we have learned a tremendous amount from them.

If you have any questions please drop a line.

Best Regards,
Justin Goldman

justin.goldman@ypfp.org

Young & Motivated AMIGOS Head to Latin America

On Saturday, Ariana and I taught a class on Latin America and democracy in conjunction with AMIGOS, a nonprofit organization. The students are preparing to go to Honduras, Mexico, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Panama, and Paraguay this summer to carry out service projects with AMIGOS.

These juniors and seniors were impressively knowledgeable about the issues and very keen to get into debate mode, which we encouraged. Does democracy help to combat poverty in Latin America? Will Fernando Lugo, the newly elected Paraguayan president--who has ended the reign of the Colorado party--bring positive change to the life of an average citizen? From a Cuban perspective, should Raul Castro continue reforms such as easing the restrictions on consumer goods? These were just a few of the issues raised during an hour and a half of lively discussion.

After class, a handful of students came to us with further questions about the field of international relations. They seemed very excited about everything we had discussed and dedicated to studying and working on international issues. Not having had the opportunity to volunteer abroad myself since 2004, it was very inspiring to see these enthusiastic, thoughtful young people headed out to the field for a life-enriching experience. Here come the next generation of YPFPs!

Searching for Summer Programs

Hello! I hope everyone is doing well. It was great to get together with the YPFP-C crew earlier this month. We are in a position to finish this school year very positively and continue to build the program. It is important to keep the momentum going through the summer months. If everyone can spend a little bit of time, we can find many excellent outlets to stay involved. We want to continue to build relationships with teachers that will allow us to get off to a fast start this fall. As schools are wrapping up for the year we do have a sense of urgency. Hat tip to Meaghan for all of her efforts in this area.

In a brief brainstorming session this evening people came up with many intersting areas to look. I thought this UMD (How about those Terps, Sarah!) program looked good.
http://www.precollege.umd.edu/

I know we can find some great opportunities and build our contacts. Please pass on the details of these contacts to the leadership staff. I am sure others have better ideas about this stuff than my scatterbrained thoughts. It would be great to throw some ideas up on the blog.

Check out this article featuring a student from one of our partner schools, Thurgood Marshall Academy.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/23/AR2008042301322.html

Hydropolitics and human trafficking at Thurgood Marshall

Jumaina and I taught a lesson on Monday, April 14 to Amanda Flynn's senior seminar on global issues. The six students in the class are preparing for an MUN conference that is happening later this week and will be participating in debates on freshwater resources in Qatar and Israel and human trafficking in Qatar and Kazakhstan. The class was 90 minutes long and, because there were so few students and we assumed that they would be reasonably well-informed on their own topics, Jumaina and I figured that the hard exchange of information would occur as more of a discussion than a lecture. We came in with maps, articles, handouts, notes, and a lesson map specifying how long each part of the class should take rather than a defined lesson plan.

Overall, I would say the class went ok. The students didn't know nearly as much as we thought they would, which didn't lend itself well to a free-flowing discussion. Jumaina and I had also planned to take the students on in debates of their topics, but neither of us felt that they really had enough knowledge yet to debate well. Of the five students who were there, I thought that perhaps only 2-3 of them were really engaged at any given time, although perhaps that's to be expected in April of their senior year.

On another note, maybe I was just really paranoid that I wouldn't know enough about hydropolitics because it's not one of my strong subjects, but I spent roughly 16 hours preparing for the lesson, including synthesizing what I thought was important into one-sided worksheets on the key issues that Israel and Qatar face in this field and the ways in which they have gone about dealing with them. In the future, I think I'll spend less time preparing, although have any of you gone into a classroom and felt that you weren't adequately prepared and knowledgeable about the materials you were teaching?

-- Ariana (my user name is DDFI because I run another blog at work. :)

DC Charter Schools

After having visited Cesar Chavez and Thurgood Marshall charter schools through YPFP-C, I wanted to learn more about DC charter schools. According to this Washington Post story from April 2007, if current trends continue DC charter schools will have more enrolled students than DC public schools by 2014! As of April 2007 a quarter of DC's school children attended charter schools. A more recent Post brief confirms this trend for 2008, stating that for the first time charter school enrollment has topped 20,000 students with 5 new charter schools set to open in the fall of 2008.

The District passed legislation approving charter schools in 1996. Only New Orleans has a higher concentration of charter schools. Charter schools are funded on a per pupil basis by the city. Parents sign up for the school of their choosing, but if there is a waiting list they must enter their children's names into a lottery for each charter school they would like to attend. They are notified in the spring if their children will be able to enroll.

DC charter schools have had mixed success with meeting national standards. Some within the local charter school community would like to create a standardized measure of performance.

Want to learn more? Here are some links:
DC Association of Charter Schools
DC Public Charter School Board

US Immigration Policies

Today I went to Cesar Chavez to teach a lesson about US immigration. This is not an area of significant expertise for me, but Wamiq and Mara and I put together a solid lesson. (They taught the same lesson earlier in the day.) Class started a little late and the end of the day announcements began early so it was challenging to pack in everything I had planned, but I did cover much of the lesson and most students were engaged. They had a number of questions about US immigration policy and were responsive to questions. One of the students is writing her thesis on this topic so I gave her my email in case she wanted help with some sources.

This lesson reiterated to me that I should focus on one or two key points and not try to pack too many different points into the lesson. While teaching I feel like I want to expose them to as many ideas and facts as possible, but this desire needs to be stifled sometimes. Twice I have had the afternoon bell ring while still trying to finish, which makes closing the lesson difficult.

I stayed and spoke with the teacher after school. She mentioned that the students are 3-5 years behind grade level. This was not especially obvious in the class, because the students get things quickly and easily analyze concepts, but she said it is evident in their writing. It struck me when she said that another teacher had made an allusion to the Scarlett Letter and the students did not know what she was talking about. In fact, they have not been exposed to to many of the books most of us read in high school.

Inconvenient Truths and Other Fun Topics

Because I felt the need to shore up on my knowledge of carbon footprints and other related issues, I was excited to teach a lesson to sixth graders on global warming at Paul Public Charter School with my partner, Ioannis Saratsis. While I do love the opportunity to teach lessons on topics I'm very familiar with, the fact that I am not an expert on global warming actually helped me approach the issue with all the questions in mind that somebody else who might not be an expert on global warming—such as a sixth grader—might be quick to ask. And these questions helped guide my preparation. Additionally, it was also helpful to have a lesson plan that outlined, in a systematic way, a plan of action for teaching and interacting with the students.

The lesson went very smoothly. After a short quiz, we went through our mini-lessons, which highlighted both public policies and scientific findings related to global warming. I didn't just read from our prepared lesson plan, but also tried to incorporate the students' questions, drawing on both my lesson plan and facts that I probably learned in my own middle school science courses. At one point, in response to a random question about ice ages, I was surprised to remember that the gravitational pull of other planets helps prevent large asteroids from hitting earth (right?). Anyway, at least in that instance, I was able to allay some fears about the future of earth. Our interactive activity involved breaking the students up into groups that represented the various bodies that are very active in environmental debates, such as legislators and activists. We asked the students to provide recommendations based on the priorities of their real-life counterparts. The very enterprising "U.S. Senators" quickly used the opportunity to draft legislation on the U.S. role in dealing with the problems plaguing the environment.

At the end of the lesson, one very eager, intellectually curious student recommended I watch the interesting PBS special on global warming that she had just seen. In so many ways, actually, I do feel like both the students and I learned a great deal from this lesson.

Written by Jorge

Elections at TMA

It was great to get back in the classroom and I think we had a very interesting topic. Teaching about elections and how that impacts foreign policy was very timely. I liked the dynamic of having two sets of TCV's teaching the same lesson. I think the preparation prior to the actual teaching went very well. Lucy, Ray, and Jumaina all gathered the first time and the four of us got together the night before. I thought the classroom time went very well and the students were quite engaged. The topic of elections gave us significant ground to work with. From speaking with Lucy and Ray it sounds like they had a very positive session as well.

I was very pleased to learn that the students were very engaged not only in elections in general, but particularly this year’s presidential race. The simulated caucus was quite a hit. I think the students really enjoyed it and we had some very interesting exchanges as they tried to persuade their fellow students to back a certain candidate.

I think having flexibility in lesson plan is key. Jumaina and I had the 40 minute class period which went very quickly. I have found the best periods within the lesson are those when we can build off how the students respond as we find out more of what they are interested in. For example Rebecca’s classroom had materials related to the Darfur situation. They were very engaged when we spoke about the Kenyan elections and how that has impacted the delivery of relief materials from the Port of Mombasa. I think Jumaina's work on the Pakistani elections resonated with them as the events surrounding it are very current. In general they were quite interested in what we worked on and the experiences we have had that led to working in this field.

It was very positive to work with Ray, Lucy, and Jumaina. I have been involved with Thurgood Marshall Academy the past two school years and I am very happy to see TMA partnered with YPFP-C.

Pictures from TCV Training

New TCVs at training

TCVs listen to a panel of current volunteers

Training for YPFP-C

On Saturday, February 9, a new group of Teacher Corp Volunteers (TCVs) was introduced to YPFP in the Classroom. After a rousing icebreaker, the new TVCs heard from a panel of current volunteers, learned the protocols and procedures for lesson planning and classroom placement, learned from two experts and brainstormed and presented lesson ideas of their own. We look forward to working with this new and enthusiastic group!

First Time

It was exciting to enter the classroom as a TCV for the first time and I felt the activity went well overall. The people at Cesar Chavez PCHS were great. I was fortunate to be paired up with Keith Bocian who had taught a lesson previously. It worked out well to meet up after we both had done some baseline reading. We were able to develop a flexible framework to go off that drew from the lesson plan that had been prepared for global water futures.

We both arrived at the school early and had ample time to get set for the lesson. Mr. Zand was quite enthusiastic and I would suspect that is a common trait amongst the teachers participating in the program. I think having easy stuff that can be drawn on a whiteboard worked well; we used the Stephen Covey 4 quadrant diagram as well as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. I feel they both helped us communicate the material more effectively.

Having a loose outline proved beneficial. We both had instances where we were able to interject in an area the other was speaking to. This helped maintain a flow and I was pleased the students were engaged throughout the entire period. As Keith wrote we had a fairly small group in this rigorous course, but they were all able to respond throughout the period.

The students showed interest in our personal backgrounds which was great. This allowed us to speak to post-secondary options and how those decisions led us to this point (although not the explicit purpose, I felt that was very complimentary). The final part of the period was an excellent back and forth on experiences that we have had working in foreign policy.

The night before the lesson I had laid out a world map with some sticky tack as I did not know the setup of the classroom. Of course I forgot it, but that may be a good thing to bring regardless of the subject matter in the future.

It sounds like the program is really in high gear and I am very pleased to be part of it. See you next time………

Global Water Futures

All,
This was my second time volunteering with YPFP-Classroom (it's a little addictive). I partnered with Justin Goldman to teach a class on global water futures to a group of 11th and 12th graders. Since neither of us were experts on the subject, Justin and I did some research (googling), then met to have coffee and figure out our approach. Our lesson plan ended up being a blend of some ideas we had from our own experience and a lesson plan previously prepared by another YPFP-Classroom volunteer.

Justin and I made our way independently to Cesar Chavez on the day of the class. I took the metro and walked across a bridge and a few blocks distance to the school. Justin and I then met in the school office, where a nice lady showed us to coffee and indicated where we could find the teacher. A short way down the hall, we met up with Mr. Zand, who was excited and friendly. He showed us to the classroom, where we had a chance to set up in advance of class. Fortunately, we hadn't planned a powerpoint presentation or anything that would require a computer, since they didn't have one available. When class started, Justin and I introduced ourselves to his pre-calculus students (there were just five students - eight or so had dropped the class earlier that semester), and began with an exercise to involve the students (what they did in the morning, when they got up) and compared it to the schedule of a Ghanian girl who needed to collect water for her family. Then we launched into the other stuff...

The best part of the class wasn't the lesson, but instead was the interaction with the students. Some of them were thinking about going to college, and wanted to know what it was like. Another student asked "why did you choose to get involved in foreign policy?" I felt that through our interaction with these Juniors and Seniors, Justin and I were able to expose the students to an entirely different set of experiences than they've thus far encountered. And certainly, teaching with YPFP has given me a broader perspective. And that, to me, is precisely what YPFP-Classroom is about - bringing that perspective to both the students and the volunteer.

Teaching Class on Iran and Nuclear Weapons

I think the best advice that I could give someone who has yet to enter the classroom through this program is not to underestimate the amount of information that these students are actually capable of absorbing. I was very concerned that they were not going to be able to make effective arguments during our exercise as arguing points on how the US should handle the Iraninan situation is something you would typically think you would need a lot of background information in order to do. However, just using the 40 minutes worth of information that Rebecca and I gave to them, they were able to make some pretty impressive and cogent arguments. At the end of the class their homeroom teacher asked them all to recount at least one thing they learned in class and they all came up with something pretty good. I will be asking that question at the end of all my classes in the future.

In general, I have found that there will always be students who just don't care or are more interested in doing their hair throughout class. You can try and reach these kids, but if you can't then focus on the ones who are interacting with you. The teacher is our classroom was pretty good at controlling her kids and there were only 7 or 8 of them so we had a pretty well organized class however there was at least one "class clown." I found it best every time he asked a question or made a statement that was meant as a joke I would simply act oblivious to his attempt at humor and answer everything straight up. Overall it was a very rewarding experience and a lot of fun.

Auspicious Beginnings

Hey everyone! I’d like to kick off our YPFP in the Classroom blog with a brief recap of our first classroom session this school year. On November 14, Katie Skartvedt and I taught a session on AIDS in Africa at the Thurgood Marshall Academy. Katie has some familiarity with African issues; I had absolutely none. In preparing our lesson plan, I spent a few hours just getting generally acclimated to the topic before starting to put together the lesson with Katie.

I wasn’t very nervous going into the session itself. I thought I had done a good job preparing myself for the lesson by researching the topic thoroughly and trying to anticipate some of the questions the students might have. I had also previously visited the school, so I was comfortable with the surroundings and I knew what kind of students I would be working with. (I highly encourage everyone to do this before going into a classroom!)

We spent the first 10 minutes or so of the lesson chatting with the students, learning about what they had been working on in the class over the past few weeks and telling them about ourselves. That time proved useful in establishing a connection with the students before we started teaching them. The rest of the session unfolded better than we could have expected. It became clear early on that there were a couple of students who were natural leaders, and their engagement helped draw the rest of the class in for the duration of the lesson.

Overall the experience was rewarding on a number of levels. I obtained a wealth of knowledge on an important subject I had known nothing about. I gained some insight on best practices for getting students to connect to material – having two back to back long lecture modules, for instance, was clearly suboptimal in hindsight. But most importantly, I could tell we had reached the students. During the analysis exercise at the end of the session, the students demonstrated that they had begun to grasp some of the central tensions in the effort to stem the tide of AIDS in Africa.

If anyone has any questions, feel free to comment and I will get back to you. I’m looking forward to reading some blog posts from you all on our upcoming sessions!

Welcome to the YPFP in the Classroom Blog!

This site allows YPFP-C volunteers to share experiences, advice and lesson plans.