Giving Back

 As I open my nine-year-old copy of Romeo and Juliet, I have a deep feeling of nostalgia. It is the same copy I received my freshman year at City on a Hill, complete with all my notes in the margins. And it is the copy that I use to lead the current City on a Hill 9th graders in their first Shakespeare experience. This keepsake reminds me of why I decided to return to City on a Hill as an English teacher.

It was 2002 that I entered the doors of City on a Hill as a 9th grader, when it was still located at the Huntington YMCA, and I read Shakespeare for the first time. After four years of challenging college preparatory classes, over 100 hours of community service, countless Friday Town Meetings, and home basketball games taking place at the YMCA gym, it was finally time for me to take what I had learned and use it to further my education. For four years at City on a Hill I was taught to believe that I held the key to my future, and with that in mind I headed off to Centre College with a Posse Scholarship in one hand and my City on a Hill diploma in the other. Despite being 1,500 miles away from home, I felt confident knowing that my CoaH community would be traveling with me in spirit as well.

Everyone can agree that City on a Hill is rigorous in terms of academics, but an aspect of City on a Hill that is just as important is giving back to the community. In meeting the community service graduation requirements, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience volunteering with an organization that focused on HIV/AIDS education. It was this internship that helped me to realize where I belonged when I got older. I knew I wanted to use education to benefit a community that helped make me who I am today.

For me, City on a Hill is that place. I am grateful for the opportunities I've received as a result of my CoaH education. For that reason, I have chosen to return to City on a Hill to educate students, not only about the importance of Shakespeare and research papers, but also the importance of giving back to the community, especially the City on a Hill community. I am a daily reminder to our students that all this hard work is worth it. Meanwhile, I am blessed to have the opportunity to help students foster a love for education that was fostered in me during my high school years.

In each and every one of them I see a younger version of myself.


Claudette Accime is in her first year as an English Teacher at City on a Hill, after being an English Teaching Fellow at CoaH during the 2010-2011 school year. She is a member of City on a Hill's Class of 2006, and graduated from Centre College in 2010. Ms. Accime is also the coach of CoaH's girls basketball team, the Lady Blue Storm.

Ako

While studying abroad in New Zealand during college, I came across the Maori word ako, reflecting the inherent reciprocity of teaching and learning – the idea that both teachers and students can teach and can learn. It struck me as potentially the most important concept educators can remember when teaching, especially when teaching populations of students with very different backgrounds from their own. We as educators must embrace our own education everyday, which we receive from our students, our peers, administrators, community members, and ourselves. We have the unique profession in which real success is based solely on the outcomes of our students, and in order to best serve them we must continually reflect on and revise our own teaching.

A few months ago I found myself in conversation with some family members about my new job as a tutor at City on a Hill. In trying to explain why I love it so much, I let slip a confession – I actually feel bad for other recent college graduates, even those thriving in the “real world,” because they don’t have my job. My family was unconvinced that this could be true – being a tutor means long hours, low pay, school on Saturday mornings, and hours of lesson planning. To most, it doesn’t make sense.

I realize I have now joined the chorus of educators who continuously refer to the gratification in their work. When I started tutoring at City on a Hill, I couldn’t wait to find out what this gratification actually felt like. What does that ambiguous feeling of fulfillment truly mean? Would I feel it? Would it make the challenging work worth it?

I explained to my family that I am getting as much out of my job as I hope my students are; that I am embracing the idea of ako. The secret may be different for every educator, but as a first year tutor, I find gratification in knowing that as much as I can possibly teach my students, I will continually be surprised by what I learn from them.

Every tutorial class is different from the one before, and each brings fresh challenges requiring creativity and patience. I am getting to know my students’ unique personalities and dispositions and I am figuring out how to plan our classes to accommodate those. My students are teaching me how to motivate them each individually, how to make our lessons relevant, and how to help them achieve in school.  I am continually surprised  - by their intelligence, their wit, their attitudes, opinions, and pure unpredictability, which I am learning to embrace with an open mind.

I came to City on a Hill along a very different path from the students I teach. But acknowledging and appreciating the discrepancy in our experiences enables us to learn from each other. As I have been a successful student my entire life, helping my students who sometimes struggle has been challenging and at times frustrating. My students bring life experiences to which I have never before been exposed, and yet are as important to their education and mine as Shakespeare and the American Revolution. They teach me about themselves, their lives, and the way they see the world; which in turn teaches me about myself, and the way I see the world.

And so I explained to my family that while I am sure there are plenty of other rewarding jobs, I have found a community that embraces and encourages our ability as students and educators to continually grow and improve. As an educator at City on a Hill, I am systematically a part of the continual reform and improvement of the education we provide – a reflection of just how much every member of our school learns everyday.

There is no way to tell for sure that embracing the idea of ako is the key to helping students succeed, but I know that it is enabling all of us to become better citizens and life long students. I hope I can teach my students in a year as much as they have already taught me in the first quarter.

Emily McCaffrey is a first year CoaHCORPS Tutor at City on a Hill.  She received her B.A. from Boston University, where she studied Political Science, Education, and International Development.

In Memory

Sean Jackson, City on a Hill 2003 alumnus, graduated from the “Old” City on a Hill.  “Old CoaH” lived in the YMCA on 320 Huntington Ave. for over ten years.  An historical landmark as one of the oldest urban YMCA’s in America, our time there consisted of giant hissing steam pipes, random power outages followed by all-building fire alarms, cracked-tile swim classes, and everyone’s favorite open-campus lunch when students could leave the building to eat anywhere in the neighborhood so long as they returned to school in thirty minutes.  Now, City on a Hill resides in Roxbury just down the street from Dudley Square in the old St. Joseph’s Catholic School.  Before, we were renters.  Now we are owners, permanent members of the community in which our students reside.  

In October, when I walked into Mt. Olive Kingdom Builders Church to celebrate Sean’s life after his sudden and premature passing, I was not taken aback by the number of people in attendance – the church teemed, people stacked outside the stone doorways craning their necks to join the service.  What struck me was the dominant number of City on a Hill graduates present from the classes of ‘02, ‘03, and ’04.  They sat together in tight pods throughout the congregation, shoulders pressed.  Ms. Pratt, Ms. Accime, two present students, and I attended the memorial.

We stood in line and waited to pay our respects.  What everyone remembered most about Sean was his smile:  a true, joyful smile.  Sean had perfect dimples in the center of both cheeks.  He smiled when he spoke and smiled when he listened.  The corners of his smile effortlessly pointed to rhinestone stud earrings he always sported.  True style.  Always looking smooth, Sean had the sharp haircut mandatory of a starting member of the basketball team.  Sean loved to run hoop, the CoaH Blue Storm won the State Championship with Sean at point.  Most members of the team were present at the service. 

Sean earned a full ride to the University of Vermont; he transferred to Bridgewater State his sophomore year to be closer to home and play basketball.  Like many of City on a Hill’s graduates, the biggest obstacle to college completion for Sean was tuition.  Though Sean was still working to finish his degree, he embodied a central pillar of City on a Hill’s mission: he consistently served his community.  Every summer, he worked for the YMCA helping with a camp, which developed into after-school mentorship and tutorial.  Weekdays and weekends he worked at different Y branches and for Boston Public after school programs mentoring and coaching.   Like his smile, everyone spoke of Sean’s altruism and of being touched by the cheer of this thoughtful and present young man who gently cared for grade school boys and girls as if they were his younger brothers and sisters. 

Waiting to pay our respects, we planned to hold a Town Meeting later that week and dedicate it to Sean.  Former classmates would come and fill the back of City on a Hill’s new auditorium.  Darrus Sands would speak of his memories of Sean, and describe how Sean was a model for him, his classmates, and his community and hope for the sake of Boston that future graduates of City on a Hill would follow in Sean’s footsteps and dedicate their lives to service.  We would hold a moment of silence, like moments of silence we had held many times before.  Only this time for one of our own.   

The line of mourners slowly reached the front of the church.  As I turned from paying my respects at the foot of the alter, I caught the eyes of the City on a Hill alumni and Central Y staff throughout the congregation and, for a moment, Mt. Olive Kingdom Builders Church was transformed back into Town Meeting in the Teen Center Auditorium on Huntington Ave ten years ago.  A Town Meeting consisting of thoughtful silence, or raucous celebration, or eloquent verbal parry, or spontaneous bawdy cheering, or even standstill boredom.  Same as our Town Meetings today.  And we were all together, smiling, along with Sean, celebrating the peace and safety of our open community looking forward to the uncertain future and our role in it together.

Dr. Paul Hays is a founding teacher and the current Principal of City on a Hill.  He began his 18+ years in public education in 1992 as a Teach For America Corps member in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  A certified science teacher and high school administrator, Dr. Hays holds a B.A. from Denison University, an M.A.T. from Union College, and a Doctorate in Education Administration from Boston University.  

"Imagination is the capacity to think of things as if they could be otherwise." - Maxine Greene

My first year out of my Master’s program, I taught ninth and tenth grade English at one of Boston Public’s monstrous high schools (~1,000 kids). I came in bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to work hard and change lives. I had read countless books, I had written countless papers, and I had rocked student teaching. Oh, yes. I was ready.

…Actually, no, I wasn’t. None of those books, none of those papers, and none of my student teaching experiences had prepared me for a constantly-changing roster that assigned 36 kids to a room with only 31 seats (“Don’t worry—they’ll never all be here,” another teacher said); 120-minute blocks; and an administration that was so hands-off that unless a student was puking or bleeding, I had to take care of it myself. If I assigned a detention, the student was serving it with me; if the student didn’t show up, I had the power to suspend. Within the first week, there was a huge fight involving ripped out earrings, broken glass, a metal stapler, blood, and a concussion in the room next door. Unfortunately, that was only the beginning of the violence that my students and I had to witness that year.

Here’s a journal entry that I wrote on October 24, 2005:

I have come to realize that teaching in this school is a lot like riding a terrifying roller coaster...in the dark.

When you walk in every morning, you have no idea whether it will be a good day or a bad day. You work hard to make it a good day. You plan like mad, you get to school at 6:00am to prepare, you try to be ready for anything. But then you go and screw it up. You make a few mistakes. Small, but crucial. The day begins to unravel. The kids feel it. You feel it. You try not to show it, but the tension in your voice is too obvious to hide. Your frustration builds. Their frustration builds. You lose what you've worked so hard for the past month and a half to gain: their attention, their respect, their effort. The class is lost. Gone. Unfortunately, you teach two-hour blocks...so you still have 100 minutes to go.

And by the time your day ends, you are so exhausted that you can barely throw the broken pieces of your brand new bathroom pass away without crumbling. You wonder if any other job exists where one can work so incredibly hard and feel so completely defeated if even one part of the plan goes wrong. No job can be this hard to do well. Surely no job under the sun.

Kathleen Cushman says, “Good teaching requires the courage to look honestly at what is and imagine what it could be.” When I was struggling through that first year in Boston Public—a time I commonly refer to as ‘the winter of my life’—I looked at how poorly the school was run, how unsafe my students felt, and how alone I felt, and I imagined a school that served the same population but did it well. So I started looking, and I found City on a Hill. Here was a school that took the kids who lived next door to the kids I taught in Boston Public and got them to college! (As a side note, I hate it when people say that charter schools ‘weed out’ the worst behaved or the most behind students; it simply isn’t true—I can tell you, they serve the exact same kids.)

Here’s a journal entry that I wrote on August 30, 2006, three days into my first faculty orientation week at City on a Hill:

I'm really excited about this school. I definitely work with a fantastic group of people. I feel supported in so many ways (which can't be further from how I felt a year ago at my old school).  The exact moment that I realized this: My planning partner (who is also the Principal—all of the administrators teach!) and I were looking over my classroom contract from last year (a five-page document) and were able to cross off 90% of the ‘classroom procedures’ I had made up for my room because they already have school-wide systems in place that cover them. Everyone is on board; I am no longer an island unto myself. Hoorah!!

For me, quite literally, City on a Hill was a dream come true.

Ms. Gentry with her senior advisory on their last day of classes - May 21, 2010

Christine Gentry is a Ph.D. candidate in
the English Education department at Teachers College, Columbia University and a
Curriculum Coach and Lead Instructor at Student
Press Initiative. She taught high school English in inner-city Boston for
five years, four of which were at City on a Hill. She studied English and
Sociology at Baylor University and received her Master's in English Education
from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her long-term plan is to teach
future urban English teachers at the college level while always teaching at
least one high school class.

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.