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!