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.