Thursday, October 27, 2011

Above and Beyond

City on a Hill students are in school for a long day.  They arrive at or before 7:45am and most don’t leave until 4:30pm.  Those who participate in after school clubs or sports stay as late as 5:30 or 6pm.  For some, that’s a 10-hour day before homework – longer than many people spend at their full-time jobs.  They also have an extended week.  Students have Saturday school one Saturday per month, where freshmen and sophomores take practice MCAS exams, juniors take practice SAT tests, and the seniors taking AP courses come in to do work in those classes.  And if longer school days and longer school weeks are not enough, CoaH students also have a longer school year than their district counterparts.  All incoming freshmen attend a two-week long Freshman Academy in August, and starting in September with the start of the traditional school year, City on a Hill students are in school for 190 days, compared to 180 days for their friends in district schools.

We must also not forget that for all the extra time City on a Hill students spend in school CoaH faculty and staff members spend an equal amount of time, if not more, helping students succeed as they navigate through CoaH’s rigorous academic curriculum in preparation for college.  The dedicated staff at City on a Hill work countless hours outside of the school day, week, and year.  They work with students before and after school when they need extra help outside of class.  They meet with parents and guardians to form a united and supportive front as their students prepare for college.  They coach sports teams and advise clubs to ensure that their kids have access to the same well-rounded high school experiences as their peers in district schools.  They go to evening events to raise money and support for the programs that make possible the success of our students.  They go to school themselves in the evenings and on weekends to learn and grow as professionals.    

All members of the CoaH community – students, staff, parents, Board members, and supporters – work extremely hard to build what we have here.  One might think that after all the time put in on a regular basis, students and staff would cherish the time to themselves when a free weekend presents itself.  So, when the American Diabetes Association offered City on a Hill the opportunity to show its support for another great cause by participating in its annual Walk for Diabetes, I was amazed at the response.  This past Saturday, I showed up at the Boston Common, looking for the City on a Hill check-in table.  It wasn’t hard to find, as I quickly spotted the throngs of familiar smiling faces – some of which had been there since 8:30am – waiting eagerly for the walk to start.  While the mob of CoaH students and staff walked around the Common with thousands of other walkers from all over the city, I hung back at the check-in table, just in case any latecomers were looking for the group.  Sure enough, students and staff kept coming, some running to catch up with the rest of the group to participate in the walk, others to simply hang out and show their support for the ADA and for the school that they already dedicate so much time to.


Christine Bullard came to City on a Hill in 2009 and is the school’s Assistant Director of Development & Community Relations.  She has a B.S. from Cornell University, an M.S.Ed from The University of Pennsylvania, and an MPA in Public and Nonprofit Management and Policy from NYU.

Friday, October 21, 2011

One Track Mind


At City on a Hill Charter Public School, there are not separate classes for the smart kids and separate classes for the kids who just...can’t.  All students can do everything CoaH asks of them, and all students MUST do these things, or they will not graduate.  We never lower the standards for any of our students, but rather increase the expectations for all of our students.  We do not have “tracking” at City on a Hill. This notion of equality – not separate, therefore equal – helps our students succeed.

My high school had almost complete racial uniformity, but was still fairly segregated.  We were divided not by race or socioeconomic status (although I suspect there were strong correlations), but by ability, or, more accurately, perceived ability.  We were “tracked.”  There was a de facto elite who took all honors/AP classes.  There was a broad “middle class” who took some honors and mostly “college prep” classes.  Below them was a class of students, mostly invisible to me except in gym class and at assemblies, who took “the easy classes.”  Our school had some fuzzy euphemism for those classes, but to be honest I have no idea what it was.  Occasionally some students would work their way up or down, but from my position on top, everyone seemed content with their station.  In some sense, we all were where we believed we “should” be.

It was easy for me to make these assumptions because I was a member of the honors/AP elite.  We took the hardest classes because we were smart, and we were smart because we took the hardest classes.  It was a self-reinforcing mechanism, and one that had disastrous implications.  We didn’t need to work that hard because we had already succeeded.  After all, why else would we be “allowed” into the AP classes by the guidance counselors?  We deserved good grades because we were smart, and smart kids got good grades.  Woe betides the teacher who dared to give a “smart kid” a “bad grade.”

If that’s what it felt like for a “smart kid,” what must it have felt like for the student who just...couldn’t? Who couldn’t handle the “hard” classes, who knew at age 15 that he was not bound for college.  I’m deeply ashamed to say:  I have no idea.  I wasn’t friends with any of them.

City on a Hill does not segregate its students through tracking.  There is one rigorous English class for all freshmen, one for all sophomores, one for all juniors, and one for all seniors.  If you get less than a 70 in freshman English, you cannot go onto sophomore English, and you cannot become a sophomore.  Some students finish it on their first try, some need two or three, but all of our graduates have passed all four English classes.  The same is true for other subjects.  There is no pressure to pass students along with the grade level they “should” be in; the grade you “should” be in is determined by how you successful you are in your courses.  To those of us who were indoctrinated into the value system of tracking, this can seem at first excessively harsh.  But City on a Hill is quick to remind everyone that no students “fail” – the only grades are A, B, C and “Not Yet Passing.”  You are not a failure if you do not pass English I, you just need another try before you are ready to pass.

As these subtle language changes demonstrate, a lot of teaching is self-esteem management.  For too long, too many teachers have thought that if students were encouraged, then they could succeed.  In my high school, this resulted in a lot of students in the “easy classes” who were robbed of an education and given platitudes in exchange.  At City on a Hill, we reverse the logic:  if students succeed, then they will be encouraged.  Their teachers will provide the encouragement initially, but the students will eventually learn to encourage and motivate themselves.

Every student at City on a Hill has a tutor, and while part of our job is to make sure they succeed, an even more important part is to make sure they know they can succeed.  One of my students, who did not pass geometry last year and is a sophomore again because of it, stopped me in the hall this week to tell me good news. 

“Mister!” she beamed.  “Guess what my grade is in geometry.” 

She was too excited to wait for my obligatory reply and instead blurted “77!!!!” 

In my high school experience, I can honestly say I never spent time with anyone who was excited to get a 77.  I realized, though, that she had probably worked harder for that C+ than I had ever worked for any A.  I gave her a high-five and asked her if she thought she could get it to a B in time for report cards. 

“Of course!” she said, and cheerfully bounced along on her way to class.


Because she was not labeled a “failure” and because she did not get switched to another track that was “more her level,” she was empowered and encouraged to succeed at a subject that had been a genuine struggle for her.

I have been shocked by how quickly my previous assumptions have evaporated.  This is my first academic teaching job and I can’t imagine what it must be like to work in a school where it is implicitly or explicitly stated which kids can learn and which kids can’t.  I hope I never have to work in such a place.

Some of our freshmen enter here from middle schools where they were “the smart kids;” some were “the dumb kids” or “the troubled kids” or the “ones who just couldn’t do it.”  A few came from other schools where such labels were held at bay, if not abolished.  Yet every single one of our students will be “the smart kid” by the time they graduate.


Matthew Lawrence is a first year CoaHCORPS member at City on a Hill.  He received his B.A. in History and European Cultural Studies from Brandeis University.  He is originally from Vermont and visits there as often as possible.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Learning to Lead

My main goal is to not only graduate from City on a Hill, but to also get into the college of my choice and then graduate from that college. My guidance counselor has advised me that participating in outside programs will help me stand out when applying, so she suggested the Summer Search program because she thought it would be very beneficial and a great experience for me.  Summer Search Boston provides mentoring, summer experiences, and college advising to Boston high school students, so they gain the skills to succeed in college and dramatically improve their life prospects.  The goal of Summer Search is to help young students gain their independence, change for the better, and much more.  Therefore, I gladly took the opportunity to be a part of the program.

During my amazing and life-changing three weeks with Summer Search, I was able to overcome many challenges and learn about myself.  On this trip I went rafting and backpacking in Utah, spent community service hours with a Navajo family in Arizona, and embraced nature in Colorado.  A few challenges that I overcame were my fear of nature, the anxiety of being apart from my twin sister, the challenge of being on my own in an unknown environment, and the challenge of working on having patience.

When I first went into this trip my mentor and I talked about what I wanted to get out of it, which was to gain patience.  In my point of view patience is the key to life, and I lacked it majorly.  As a Summer Search representative, I knew that I had to keep cool and remain patient.  Only a few days into the rafting trip in Canyon Country, we came across copious amount of tamaris beetles that bothered me tremendously.  These beetles would fly around and land on humans and crawl their way around one’s body.  At the time, bugs were one of my biggest fears, and another camper found it funny to tease me about it.  He would lie and tell me there were bugs on me, when there really weren’t.  He would laugh and make side jokes about them when I was showing frustration, and I snapped.  I told this camper to shut up in a very sharp tone.  I wanted to continue with words that would make him feel bad, but I knew I had to keep my composure, and this was the skill that I was coming here to master.  So instead of telling him off, I took some time to cool down, drank a lot of water and continued on with my share of work.  After this was over I sat back and reflected on what I did.  I could see the change already and that this trip was transforming me.  Back at home this would have ended with a huge argument, but there I knew that an argument wasn’t going to solve anything.  I knew that I had to keep cool because not only would I be hurting the other camper but also the rest of the campers in the boat with us.  I knew that in order to keep going we had to all work together and tension was not going to help.

I also learned that I could adapt to new places, no matter how different an environment is from my home in Boston.  I learned that I’m actually more helpful and a better leader than I thought.  Last summer I had the opportunity to become captain of City on a Hill’s cheerleading squad, but I didn’t try to get the position because I thought I wasn’t good enough for it.  At the time, I didn’t think I was a good leader, but I was completely wrong.  In fact on my trip I was chosen to lead a day hike and also to help out with an emergency evacuation.  During the second week of the camping trip, a camper got injured and the camp leaders had to pick two people to help climb back out of the Dark Canyon and walk a few miles back to the road.  I was one of the two chosen.  At that moment I felt so much elation because it showed that the other campers saw me as not just a good leader, but an awesome leader, and I felt like I could take these leadership skills back to CoaH and master being a cheer co-captain.  From that point on, I knew I could change anything I wanted to as long as I set my mind to it.

Summer Search gave me the amazing opportunity to learn about myself, a chance to be an individual, and the opportunity to grow and overcome challenges!  Summer Search opened my eyes and gave me the confidence to take risks.  I’m grateful for this because Summer Search helped me find the strengths in me, and helped me overcome my weaknesses.  I look forward to taking what I’ve learned and applying it to my life at CoaH and my future in college and beyond.


Daeshiana Howard is currently a junior at City on a Hill Charter Public School. She is a three-year member of the Blue Storm cheerleading squad and recently became co-captain of the team. She is also a two-year member of COAH’s National Honor Society, along with being one of City on a Hill’s newest class representatives for the Class of 2013.
                       

Friday, October 7, 2011

Putting the "J" in "J-Factor"

I smile at school.  It’s what I do.  I tease, I banter, I greet everyone by name (loudly, and in a highly witty manner I swear), I laugh, I hold mini impromptu dance parties at my tutorial bench.  Every fist-pump from an excited student, every wacky moment, every small (and large) achievement puts a giant toothy grin on my face (someday, I will pay a fortune for teeth-whitening).  I try to pass these grins on throughout my day.  I try to put the J in J-Factor.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept of ‘J-Factor,’ I refer to Doug Lemov’s Teach Like A Champion technique: make learning joyful!  Include some ‘joy-factor’ in each of your lessons.  This could be a game or competition or awesome activity in the classroom, or it could simply be an attitude, brought to every single minute moment of learning.  This is the attitude that I strive to have at school, and I have found almost without fail that smiling really does transcend some sort of universal language.  Smile at a student, greet him or her by name, show them you’re excited to see them, and they will be excited to see you, maybe even excited to learn.

Last year, I worked primarily with sixth graders at another Boston charter school, and I worried that this year, in making the transition to high school, my particular brand of cheesy grins would not be so appreciated.  As it turns out, it’s not just me and the middle-schoolers who crave smiles.  After just over a year and a half in the public school system, I have come to truly believe that the smile is one of my most important educational tools.  Of course, like any tool, it is not appropriate at all moments – some times call for seriousness in a variety of guises, but it is nevertheless enormously useful to me.  Having a smiling attitude as a natural state of being helps me as a teacher to always be patient, and avoid becoming frustrated.  It’s nearly impossible to shake my happy (as my grumpy sleepy first period class has learned).   A smile can convey many messages to students: great job!, cheer up!, this-is-my-slanted-eyebrow-look-get-your-book-out-and-start-reading-oh-just-became-a-smile-thanks!  And so much more.  Like I said, a universal language, for middle school students, for high school students, for cheering yourself on.

As I walk through the parking lot in the afternoon to get my clothes for cross-country practice from my car, I almost always run into two smiley senior girls waiting at the gate (I’m not sure for what … I’m fairly certain it’s not me).  Every time our paths cross we grin at each other, and usually I crack some corny joke, and they laugh, hopefully genuinely.  I realized the other day that I am always capable of smiling at these two girls - whether I have had a fantastic day or not.  Smiling throughout the day has helped me to retain happy spirits; knowing these two girls will smile back at me and are happy to see me brightens my afternoon.  Mutual joy.  It’s what I love best about spending my days with high school students.


Julia Woodward is a Lead Tutor with the CoaHCORPS Tutorial Program, in her 1st year at City on a Hill. She earned her Bachelor's degree from Cornell University, where she studied Development Sociology and Education.