MTCorps

My MTC experience...

2008-04-16T21:18:00.000-07:00

This is a very hard thing to write about, because I feel like so much has happened in two years time that it’s almost impossible to give a perfect depiction on what this experience has been like. I remember initially finding out about the program at the end of my senior year after I had already committed to spending the next year in Boulder, Colorado and thinking that this had my name written all over it. I wanted to continue my education, but I also wanted the opportunity to teach and coach in an inner-city school.

Earlier that year, I had applied to another program that offered the same type of opportunities and wasn’t granted admittance. I felt that as awesome as those types of programs sounded, maybe that just wasn’t for me. However, after stumbling upon the web site and reading up on what the Mississippi Teacher Corps was doing, I decided to be a little more forward with my pursuit. So, the summer after I graduated from Texas, I decided to make a personal visit up to Oxford during summer training and introduce myself to Ben as well as the rest of the current members. After checking everything out, I just had a great feel about what the program represented. I made sure to send my application out as the first one for the file of 2006.
I still remember getting the voice message from Ben saying that I had been admitted to the program, and then running outside to call my parents to let them know about the good news. They were ecstatic; especially, since they knew how serious I was about wanting to be a part of a program like this.

Now, I think that every person has some vision in his/her mind about what inner city teaching is going to be like, and for the most part, I think everyone that applies for a program like this has a vision of themselves succeeding in that environment. I certainly thought that I would be a natural at it. I had worked with kids before, and my knowledge of hip-hop culture was quite impressive for a 23-year old, white male from Texas. I remember picturing myself in the hall, walking down, giving each student a little ‘dap’ before their next class; it was classic.

I remember summer training where I got placed in a classroom full of freshman girls. I think any young male would succeed in classroom management in this atmosphere, and I think I got a false depiction of what teaching was actually going to be like. The one good thing was that the experience calmed my anxieties about having to teach Middle School math to a group of students without having been a Math major in college.

It was then time for the real thing. My first month was horrible. I did a pretty good job of coping with the lack of success that I was having, but I was completely frustrated with myself. I was doing so much discipline, and I always felt on edge throughout the day. I remember having a nervous feeling all the time during those initial weeks where I think I even lost like 10 pounds just because I wouldn’t eat lunch. I felt like I was letting my guard down when I took bites of my sandwich. This had to be eliminated. It was also a very humbling experience to have to call my dad for advice about my job. I think I had always had a certain amount of pride when it came to school and where I worked that I could handle things by myself, and for whatever reason I just felt like it was not getting any better.

While my dad did give some excellent advice, I think the most useful piece of knowledge that I received was from my mentor Jake Roth. He simply said, “Don’t take anything personally; just move on.” That may be a simple statement to you, but this was revolutionary to me. My biggest problem wasn’t that I was struggling interacting with the kids or teaching math, it was being too much of a people-pleaser. I wanted every student to think of me as his/her favorite teacher, and it really bothered me when a student would display a lot of frustration and anger towards me. However, once I got it through my head that I was there to educate and mentor, it became a lot easier to do what’s best for the child even if that child doesn’t like it.

Now, there were so many joys that occurred during my first year of teaching. We won the city championship in football, I got to be in a documentary, and I even got to the opportunity to coach 5 sports. Along the way, I struck up a couple of lifelong friendships that were definitely blessings in disguise. All in all, it was a very challenging and rewarding year. When the summer rolled around, I couldn’t have been happier though. Don’t get me wrong. I loved teaching and coaching, but I definitely realized how much energy both required.

Then the second year rolled around, and there was such a noticeable difference as to how much easier it got. My classes, for the most part, have gone so much better this year, and I think I’m a much better teacher. I also was moved up from teaching 7th grade to teaching 8th grade, so a lot of my students were repeats from the previous year. It’s crazy to think, but in a weird way, I’ve had a very influential hand in raising them. I hope that it’s been for the better.

The highlight of this year, however, has been getting to be the head basketball coach. Basketball has played such a big part of my life since I was a little kid, so I was so happy and proud to get the opportunity to coach in Jackson, an area known for its basketball play. It also made it even more special that we won the city championship this year marking it the first time in 10 years that Powell has won it in boys’ basketball. We previously had a reputation of being the Buffalo Bills of JPS middle school having been in the championship game 3 of the last 4 years and losing every one of them. Fortunately for us, we had the right mix of players to come in and make things happen at the right time.

One thing that I’m really proud of in my time serving as head coach was that we ran a character-driven program. We began the year with 15 players, and unfortunately, we finished the year with 8. However, we stood by our initial statements that if a player chose to make poor decisions, he would receive the consequences. This included underachieving in the classroom. I was blown away the first time that I learned about grade-changes to get players eligible. It didn’t matter if you dropped 35 points the previous night; if you chose to be selfish, then you were going to reap the consequences. Of the 8 guys that remained, I can honestly say that I saw a remarkable change in their behavior in school. I definitely would attribute a lot of this to being a part of the basketball team. Now, while we did preach and practice a clean program, I think we also had one of the most upbeat teams around. Our guys loved to play the game, and they were a joy to be around. The memories from that season were spectacular, and it’s an experience that I’ll remember for a lifetime.

While teaching moments seemed to dominate my memories from the first year, coaching moments seem to do the same for my second year. I’ve never been so close to students as I have been with my basketball players. I’d do anything for them. It also makes me realize how much I enjoy being a part of a team that is working towards a goal. We had one from the day we started, and we were fortunate enough to achieve it. I can’t emphasize enough how much fun that was.

So, to be honest, if I had to sum up my MTC experience in one sentence, it would be that it was a truly, life-changing experience. It was definitely one of the coolest things that I have ever been apart of, and even if I don’t stay in education, I would love to always keep some sort of involvement with the program. I can’t say enough about how rewarding the program is. If you’re considering doing something like this, you should definitely do it.

Coach Perry

2008-03-26T19:58:00.000-07:00

One of the things that I'm looking forward to this spring is the opportunity to once again reprise my role as assistant coach to John Perry; only this time in track. Coach Perry was the head coach that I first worked with when I first came to Powell. I helped him coach football, and we struck up a friendship right from the start. He was very instrumental in me getting the head basketball job the following year, and he's been someone who's always gone out of his way to make me feel a part of the coaching fraternity in Jackson. Whether it be introducing me to other high school football coaches in JPS or taking the time to ask for my advice on what type of defense we need to run, he always made me feel like I was a real coach and not just someone who was trying it out for two years.

I think one of the best compliments he ever gave me was asking me if I'd be interested in being on his staff if he received the head coaching job at Callaway for football. He ended up not getting it, but I was so honored that he thought enough of me to even ask.

But one of the things that I love the most about being around him is that he's one of the most effective teachers of the game I've ever seen to inner-city kids. He's a Jackson native that played football and baseball at Callaway and then at Jackson State, so kids see him as quite the role model. He's also a very down-to-earth person. He never puts himself on a pedastal, and he's always cracking jokes with other kids. His humor is so dead-on with the students that he's definitely the most popular coach at our school. He also is the offensive coordinator for Callaway HS's football team, so he does a great job of giving kids a welcoming, familiar hand when they come to high school.

I also think back to Dr. Mullins' class on Leadership where we talked about what makes a leader effective, and one of the things that I've really noticed is that Coach Perry has a ridiculously high social intelligence. He not only can relate to a kid that grew up near Grove Park in Jackson, but he can also relate to a first year white teacher from Texas. He's also incredibly organized, and he's always trying to learn more. He's been a great role model in the coaching profession and an even better friend. He's definitely going to be someone that I make it a point to stay in touch with for a very long time.

Spring Break

2008-03-25T20:07:00.000-07:00

I just got back two days ago from Spring Break vacation, and I'll go ahead and say this was one of the better vacations that I've ever been on. First of all, I've got to preface my account by saying that the older I get the more important time with my family is to me; especially, since I live so far apart from them. Now, normally we always plan our vacations around certain baseball stadiums that my dad and I have always wanted to go to. I think we're just really fortunate that my mom has developed into quite the sports fan, so she actually enjoys going to these things as well.

Well, a couple of years ago in college, I went with 15 of my friends to Florida for spring training baseball in the Grapefruit League and a few days at the beach. A lot of my roommates and friends were from the Houston area, so our primary focus was on the Houston Astros and getting the chance to see players like Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell up close in the warm Kissimme (I think that's how you spell that city) weather. The trip proved to be a blast, and serves as a trip that gets referenced to quite often when I get around my old pals. Well, I think my dad always kind of book-marked the idea of attending this spectacle in the back of his head.

Well, one of the reasons we almost never do anything as a family over spring break is because our schedules never coincide. My parents are also in the school business, so their spring break was always different from mine when I was in college and even the past two years in Colorado and Mississippi. But as luck would have it, this year happened to be a year where our spring breaks were happening simultaneously. My parents quickly schemed up a plan to attend spring training; except, this time it would be in the Cactus League, which takes place in the Phoenix area.

With a trip as epic as my last spring training outing, I didn't know if a new setting and a new party would be able to reach the high expectations that spring training demands. Thankfully, it turned out to be a blast. First of all, Phoenix is ricidulous. I love the feeling you get when you really explore a city, and it just completely captivates your interest. I can definitely see why people want to live there; especially when they retire. The weather was a consistent 80-85 degrees with NO HUMIDITY!! It was phenomenal. Then we got a chance to see three great games and three great stadiums.

We opened with the Cubs and the Rockies; two of the more dominant teams in the NL that have high expectations for the upcoming year. I've always been intrigued with the Cubs, and now even more so after one year with Lou Piniella. Anyways, the stadium was great, the Cubs fans were second to none, and hey, I even got my picture taken with Ronnie Woo-Woo. He's a legendary Cubs fan. (Elias is googling it right now to check my references.)

The second game we got to see was shared by the Texas Rangers and the Kansas City Royals. It was a night game, so the weather was especially great. Plus, I was having a conversation last night with Landon about how great their addition of centerfielder Josh Hamilton is. The guy put on a show. Plus, he just has a great story.

The last game was probably the best. It was a sellout day game between the Angels and the Dodgers. It was a Los Angeles-fan fiesta. It was like a massive combination of In-N-Out t-shirts, OC chopper tatoos, and Nomah Garciaparra jerseys. It's actually Nomar for those who don't watch baseball, but I've got to pay homage to his Boston stint. That was for you Elias. "Thanks beautiful." What made things even better was that Tommy Lasorda made an appearance in full Dodger uniform. He's looking rather plump these days if you haven't seen him in a while. Regardless, the L.A. faithful went nuts every time he stepped out of the dugout. Plus, it was by far the best game played of the week. The Angels won 3-1, but not before Derek Lowe put on a pitching exhibition for the Dodgers for the first 5 innings.

All in all, it was also a time where I got to have some good conversation with my Dad. He's not much of a phone talker, so when I make my weekly calls it's normally just to talk to my mom. Plus, we even threw on the old gloves and played pitch in the parking lot for a bit. It was probably the first time since my senior year of high school baseball that we actually threw the ball together. I will be honest and say that it only lasted for about 5 minutes until fatigue set in for someone over the age of 50 who will remain namesless, but it was still fun.

So in conclusion, the trip was great, Josh Hamilton is nasty, Tommy Lasorda is heavy, I picked Davidson to make the Sweet 16 (it's true), and I had a great time reloading before the last nine weeks of teaching/coaching.

Humility and Consistency

2008-02-19T19:45:00.000-08:00

I recently read Tony Dungy's autobiography which discussed the coach's life, and of course had a huge emphasis on his team's Super Bowl winning season in 2007. While it was kind of typical in regards to most leadership books, there was one point made that really resonated with me. In the second or third year of his stay at Tampa Bay where he coached the Buccaneers, he started preaching a message with his players just to continue to buy into the system and philosophy that the coaching staff had emphasized since Dungy arrived. Let me repeat that statement and capitalize the most important word in the previous sentence. He started preaching a message with his players just to CONTINUE to buy into the system and philosophy that the coaching staff had emphasized since Dungy arrived. I think the more time that I spend around successful teachers at my school, the more I realize that they don't do anything that is that ground-breaking or that exciting. They're not necessarily the rock-star teachers of the school, and for the most part I think they go unnoticed by a large portion of the faculty; but they show up and display a remarkable amount of consistency to a group of students in an inconsistent environment.

I've been trying to adopt this philosophy to my own teaching style this semester, and the crazy thing is that I think it's working a lot more effectively. And....I'm starting to feel more like a true teacher rather than just a teacher that the kids like. I remember coming into the program and having an attitude that I just liked being around young people, simply because they brought me a lot of enjoyment. We seemed to like each other, and I had always craved that kind of attention and affection that kids give to adults that they looked up to. But I think there's a huge part of me that is in constant admiration of someone like Jeremy Fiel.....and please don't think that I'm implying that Jeremy is not a charismatic teacher in his own way. I'm not saying that. What I'm saying is that I think Jeremy is a phenomenally effective teacher because of his consistency and maturity. He's a TEACHER. He's a 24-year old that's a part of a dying breed.

Whenever we get together for class sessions in Oxford, I never feel like Jeremy is one that stands out. His voice rarely displays a varying inflection except when he gets excited, and he's always in class ready to take care of business. But the guy is a remarkable role model not only for his students but for other teachers around. I'm starting to notice how effective a humble, consistent style of leadership is. I wish I'd realized this a lot sooner.

We're Going to the Ship

2008-01-15T21:19:00.000-08:00

As you can tell from the title, we clinched the division last Thursday, and we are headed to the City Championship on Monday, January 28th. But I can’t remember the last time that I have been a part of a game that was that intense. What makes it even more special was the adversity that our team had to overcome to win the contest. We were without our top scoring guard because he was serving a one-game suspension due to disciplinary matters, and our top scoring post had sprained his ankle two days before the game. Guys who were not used to being featured players were forced into unfamiliar roles, and they succeeded. Let me go ahead and give you the breakdown of the night’s action.

The opposing team, Northwest MS, opened the game up by scoring three straight 3-point plays. It was unbelievable. I bet about a minute and a half went off the clock, and we were already down 9-0. We let them get to us a little bit, and I was forced to call a timeout with the score 17-1. After the timeout, we finally settled down and began to play our style slowly chipping away at the score. My top post player, DS, began to go on a scoring tear even with a sprained ankle. By halftime, we were only down by 10.

Northwest opened the half very similar to the way they began it, hitting shot after shot. Their lead got all the way back up to 15, when we once again called timeout with about 1:30 left in the 3rd quarter. I explained that we would go back into our press and that we needed to cut the lead to under-10 by the time the quarter ended, and then we would take care of the 4th. Sure enough, we forced 3 straight turnovers, and DS converted each one into 2 points. The 3rd quarter ended with Northwest up by 9. That was a huge confidence boost to our guys.

The 4th quarter began with us trading buckets back and forth with the opponent. The lead would diminish to 7, then escalate back up to 11. We finally cut it to 5 with about a minute and a half to go when we forced a turnover and DS scored by lay-up. The lead was cut to 3 with less than one minute left in the game. About 20 seconds went by when we fouled their point guard for a chance at a one-in-one. There was 0:40 left on the clock. Their point guard stepped up and hit both free throws to take the lead back up to 5. The shots were devastating. I called our last timeout to talk it over with guys. I explained to two of our guards that if they were to get a wide-open look, then they could take the three-pointer; otherwise, we wanted to get it to DS again to take it in the lane.

We started the offense by working it around looking for DS, but all of a sudden one of the guards got a wide-open look at the goal. Three pointer shot…..GOT IT!! The lead is now cut to 2 with about 30 seconds left. I had also explained to the guys that we would be back in our press and that if we do not get the steal, then we would need to foul immediately in order to stop the clock. Northwest in-bounded the ball and made it to half-court before we were forced to foul them again. One of their guards stepped up to the line and hit his first free throw pumping up the home crowd. He missed the second shot however, and we took the ball back down to our end with 0:20 left on the clock.

Again we swung it around looking for a shot when it came back to our guard that hit the last shot. He attempted the same shot again with 0:15 left except this time the ball would clang off of the front iron. Our other post player, JR, would be in the right position this time though as he quickly grabbed the loose ball. He then took one drop-step back to his right and leaned in for the put-back. As he leaned in, the defense made a strong effort to block his shot. The shot then went up….BUCKET!! COUNT THE BASKET!! He had made the two-point shot and they called a foul on the defense.

The other team called timeout to ice JR, and we discussed in the huddle what we would go into if he made or missed. Regardless, we were going right into our press to try and see if we could win the game on a steal. JR stepped up to the line….SWISH!! TIE GAME!! 0:12 SECONDS LEFT!! Northwest in-bounds the ball and they take it to the half court line where they are met by two our players in a trap setting. The guard then tries an overhead pass and gets it tipped by JR. The ball comes off, and LT, our team’s captain, gets his hands on it and begins to take it down the floor with the clock ticking 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3….FOUL!! It will once again be a one-in-one, and the opposing team calls another timeout.

We briefly talk about how LT is going to make his free throws and then we are going to get back in a prevent defense getting a hand up for all shots. LT steps to the line for the first shot…..SWISH!! We take the lead. He then takes the second shot….CLANK!! The ball comes off the front rim, and JR grabs and tucks it towards his stomach as the clock ticks its last two ticks. GAME!! The students rush the floor, the parents rush the floor, hell, even I rushed the floor. It was awesome. I can’t wait for the city championship.

Poster Children for Perseverance

2008-01-15T21:17:00.000-08:00

I was talking with one of my assistant coaches the other day, and I am quite certain that I have never been a part of a team or heard of a team that has had as much turmoil on it. Let me give you a brief recap of how we started the year, and what our current status is. In order to protect the anonymity of my players, however, I will not be referring to them by name. We began the year with 15 players. Ten of them were 8th graders and five of them were 7th graders. Then the season started...haha. We’ll begin the year by what happened first to player 1.

Player 1(that’s how I’ll refer to him) was caught with a fire extinguisher hosing off another student. Result…..45 days at alternative school and automatic dismissal from the team.

Player 2 then decided to run from the school’s security guard on two separate occasions. Result…..3 days school suspension and automatic dismissal from the team as ordered by administration.

Player 3 then missed multiple practices with no excuse, and was caught by an administrator with a bag of marijuana. Result….dismissal from the team.

That’s 3 people gone….try and keep up now.

Player 4 missed multiple practices with no excuse and is currently being investigated for having an improper relationship with a girl in one of the school’s portables after school. Result, dismissal from the team.

Players 5, 6, and 7 all failed four of eight classes for the first semester. Result…..dismissal from the team due to state and school policy.

That’s 7 people gone….we have 8 people left.

Of the 8 players that are left, we have…..

Player 8, who has a sprained toe, will be out of action for the final home game.

Player 9, who has already served a one-game suspension for disciplinary matters and currently faces a “last chance” team policy from the coaches.

Player 10 is still dealing with the shooting of his brother, which occurred two months ago.

Player 11 was suspended last game by his mother for skipping a class, and is still under the microscope from her as to whether or not he will be able to play for our last home game.

Player 12 has a pulled thigh muscle that he hid from the coaches, until his mother finally came and told us. (He’s a warrior, he’s our Captain, and he’s still playing)

Players 13, 14, and 15 are great kids who seem to have lost their confidence the last 2 games.

I think the one aspect that I’m most proud of our kids that are still playing on the team though is how well we’ve persevered. Our current record is 7-1 overall and 3-0 in conference. Of our 7 victories, we’ve won 5 of them by single-digit margins. This past Thursday, we also clinched the division title, and reserved our spot for our school’s fourth straight City Championship game. Our school, however, hasn’t won the championship in over 5 years, and I can’t think of a more perfect ending than for a group of wildcards to somehow band together and pull this thing off. I guess we shall see in about 2 weeks.

Meat Market

2007-11-14T21:34:00.000-08:00

I’m pretty sure that the original purpose of the Mississippi Teacher Corps is to help educate the underprivileged youth within the state. Because the kids are the focal point, I think recruiting should be focused on acquiring the best teachers that would impact their lives for two full years. Having seen and experienced how strenuous a job like this is, I think a participant has a huge advantage in already being familiar with southern culture. I think whenever someone is willing to step into a job that they have never done before and also move to an area of the world that they have never lived before there is going to be a lot of adjustment that has to take place for that person. I think the more adjustments that person has to make, the more it may take away from the students. Putting the focus on you takes the focus off of them.

Now, it is very hard to generalize when it comes to this issue, because I think some of the best teachers in the program are from the North. I just think that you’ll be more likely to maximize how much quality education the kids will get if you can cut down on the adjustment period for the teacher. When the teacher feels comfortable, I think he or she is more likely to make a difference. If you’re having a rough time adjusting and fitting in, then I think you are more likely to have wasted time in the classroom or on the field.

On the other hand, I think it is so interesting that a child from the Mississippi Delta can be taught by someone from Boston, Massachusetts. I’m sure that the person from Boston can influence that student culturally in a way that someone who is from the state of Mississippi cannot; so I can see both sides of the argument. I will say though that from my perspective it is more rewarding to the student to be taught by someone who can and will maximize their time for two years. I would recruit someone that wouldn’t take a long time to adjust to the culture.

Season on the Brink

2007-11-14T20:43:00.000-08:00

I’ve got to admit that it never occurred to me that being the head coach of a team would be this challenging. The saying is so true that the farther away one is from the bench, the better the coach that he or she is. Until this year, I always thought that I could easily mold a group of guys and make them into a championship-caliber team. Well, after one game in, I’m starting to realize that this is hard stuff. The first two weeks of practice were frustrating. I was having to deal with disciplinary issues every other day. Guys were cutting up in class, and our grades were suffering tremendously from the first nine weeks. If they didn’t make the grade by Dec. 15, I was going to have to replace close to five of the guys that I had originally chosen.

Study hall was a pain in the butt early on. I couldn’t get other teachers to help me tutor. I was trying to figure out a system to tutor 15 kids in about 4 different subjects. I was exhausted and frustrated. Then a huge blessing occurred. One of the English teachers that is also a close friend happily agreed to tutor my 5 seventh graders in Reading. This was a huge help. Then, I had the other 10 divided into 3 different study groups. Organization was occurring and we were starting to use our time wisely. Now as for the basketball part, the hardest task was to implement an atmosphere where defensive intensity and team enthusiasm were the pillars of every practice. This was and is still tough to do, because I only have two returning players on my team this year. The rest of the team is new, and they haven’t played with each other before. Therefore, we have a lot of undefined roles, and people don't know where they fit into our team’s system.

Slowly but surely though progress began to happen, and our team’s intensity started to elevate to the next level. I was finally starting to feel good about our chances of success. Then tragedy happened. Our team’s most talented scorer lost his brother in a shooting that occurred last weekend. It was horrifying. I’m going to leave out the details of his death out of respect for his family, but needless to say it was very appalling. He would not be with us for our first game of the year, and I can’t even imagine what he’s still going through mentally. Our team was going to have to step up to fill the void left. It also didn’t help matters that we were going to play the defending City Champs.

Fast forward to game-day, and the entire bus ride over I’m thinking over and over in my head about what areas we are weak in. I even woke up on three different occasions the night before, because I kept dreaming about our team not knowing where they were supposed to be on the press. The game was a sell-out, and the ticket office was actually turning kids away at the door. Let me go ahead and remind you that this is a middle school game. The opposing team’s pre-game routine was very intimidating with the school’s step team coming out to mid-court to lead the audience in a rousing rendition of "Crank That" by Soulja Boy. It was make or break time for our team.

I was nervous. That’s an understatement. I was incredibly nervous. But then something remarkable happened. The first half we did exactly what we set out to do. We pressed the daylights out of the other team and coasted into halftime with a 7-point lead. The lead should’ve been larger had it not been for some costly turnovers. We kicked their butt. I was pumped up. The second half we let up a little bit, and we ended up escaping with a 2-point victory. It was huge.

We had just taken down the City Champs without our best player. I couldn’t have been prouder. I also couldn’t have been more exhausted. When I got back to my house, I fell asleep in my sweaty dress clothes in a matter of minutes. Like I said earlier, I’m blown away about how difficult this job is. But I’m also blown away at how rewarding it is. I can’t recall the last time that I’ve been that excited about something. I was so proud of my guys for stepping up the way they did. I love them all so much. I’m telling you right now that if you can make it to a game this year, you need to be there. We can play.

My Sales Pitch

2007-10-10T18:48:00.000-07:00

I know one of the questions that Ben asked us was why someone should join the Mississippi Teacher Corps. I’m going to respond to this like I’m speaking with someone who is interested in doing something like Peace Corps or Teacher For America and knows nothing about MTC.

My first selling point would be the kids and the communities that you would get to work with. I’ve never met friendlier, more hospitable people in my entire life, and I didn’t grow up that far away. I’m truly amazed though at how people greet each other with so much enthusiasm and life; it’s contagious. Plus, I’ve never been in a culture where humor is this big. I love to laugh more than anything else and I’m constantly rolling with laughter every day on the job. Plus, for the most part, the kids and the communities are glad that you are there to help in educating their youth. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of pride towards outsiders helping.

The next selling point is the quality of friendships that you’re going to make with other Corps members. I think when you go through anything that’s tough, you are going to be bonded together with those that went through it with you. I know for a fact that I made some life-long friends through this program. Plus, everyone is so diverse. I’ve learned so many things from the other members in this program, and I’ve definitely stolen a lot of their tactics that I think make them extremely successful.

The third and final selling point that I wanted to focus on was the challenge at hand. If you love to be challenged day in and day out there is no better job in my opinion. Your academic and interpersonal skills are tested and challenged every day, and I think you are going to experience a lot of growth in yourself by taking on these challenges. It’s just an experience like no other. Not many people get to experience or see the things that you get to in this program, and I would consider it to be one of the most amazing things that I have ever been a part of.

MTC: Making A Difference

2007-10-10T18:27:00.000-07:00

Does MTC make a difference? I think the answer to this question is an overwhelming yes. I think the times where a lot of Corps members feel like they might not be making a difference is when their students or themselves don’t meet certain expectations that they set for their classroom. I have been there, and I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have high expectations for your classroom and yourself. What I am saying is that progress for certain kids and certain schools happen at different times.

Some people will have success from the very beginning. Other people won’t feel like they’re having the type of success that they intended to have until the second semester of their second year, or maybe later than that. But after seeing where a lot of these kids are academically and seeing where a lot of these schools are professionally, there is no doubt in my mind that MTC is making a huge difference in Mississippi.

I’m blown away each and every time that I come in to Oxford for class at the caliber of individuals that I’m in the same room with, and I’m not just trying to suck up to my class. I can sit at my table and here a couple of Corps members talking about tutoring that they are doing for some of the their students or I’ll here about the teams that a lot of them are coaching. I can ride in the car up to Oxford with a fellow member and here about her school’s Interact club that she’s starting and be completely in awe of how much of a difference she is making.

Big things are happening all throughout this state, and I believe this program is making valid contributions to the state’s public education on a daily basis. I don’t even think that we’ll be able to accurately measure how much of a difference this program is making. I think that’s one of the most beautiful things about the program, it’s impact is enormous.

Science and Pro-gress

2007-08-27T14:25:00.000-07:00

They're starting to get comfortable!!! Haha...I've definitely noticed in the past couple of days that the kids are starting to feel more at home in my class. Don't get me wrong; I want them to feel comfortable. The only thing is we don't want to get too comfortable. I gave my highest amount of consequences today. I still don't feel that stressed about it, but I also feel like this is a good warning sign that I need to jerk back on the chain. I say that in a sensitive tone. I hope my writing didn't leave the reader with the conclusion that I was like, "If any of these kids freak out on the classroom....I get to take them down." (any 'Old School' fans...c'mon) Please, that's not what I'm saying. I know how sensitive Zarandona is about disciplining children. But seriously, I need to make a couple of calls tonight and set up some meetings for tomorrow.

This year already seems like it's going by faster. Christmas will be here before you know it, and all of a sudden I've got a feeling like I really want to step up my game in the classroom and extra-curricular setting. It's so hard to predict what most of us will do next year; but just in case I decide education isn't for me, I want to "leave it all on the field". I'm also starting to see how you can get really, really attached to your community, the people you work with, and the kids. It's so much more fun right now, because they already know me. There just can't be enough said about "showing up". I'm blown away by how much progress you can/will achieve by just showing up every day. I think it's even more impressive when you show up every day in the after-school setting as well. I've taken a short break from that so far this year, but I can't wait for basketball season. I'm even more excited about the two other guys that are going to assist. I think the kids are going to get so much out of it. October can not get here fast enough!!

So what exactly would you say you do??

2007-08-20T14:33:00.000-07:00

Alright, let's see....I'm sitting at Cups right now in Fondren (is it in or at 'The Fondren'), and I'm starting to get looks from the people behind the pastry shelves. "This bastard isn't even gonna purchase one thing." They don't actually say that, but the eyes...ooooo...you can tell everything from the eyes. My response....NOPE!...HAHA. That'd be awesome if I started pulling out homemade muffins and store-bought juice, and I just started feasting. Alright, alright, I'm not actually blogging to tell about my abuse of free wireless internet. My first two weeks of school....ahh yes....they were so much better than last years!! I mean last year wasn't THAT bad, but there was just this feeling about not knowing the culture, the staff, the surroundings, what I could and couldn't enforce, etc. This year it's my show. I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is.

Now, I've definitely still had to give out plenty of detentions and I'll bet I've made around 30-40 phone calls to parents just trying to 'nip it in the bud' already. The biggest difference by far though is that students for the most part aren't trying to test me. They know me and they know what is expected of them. One of my best moments this past week was when I was taking my class to the cafeteria for lunch. I've been so much more strict on this procedure so far, and it has paid off in a big way. So back to the story...we're walking through the cafeteria, we were just 'on fire'. I say that in a good way. We weren't talking, we were in a single-file line, and we were pretty much the only class that was accomplishing this at the time.

Anyways, there were two girls from another class in the corner talking, and I could hear one of them saying, "Oooo, that class quiet." She really did leave out the word 'is'; that's not a typo. Then the other girl chimes in with, "Yeah, they better be; cause they know Mr. Taylor gonna get that ass." I wanted to smile so bad and maybe even turn and wink at the girls, but I kept the game-face going. If they're going to say it, then I've got to back it up. I was pumped.

One other thing that I've noticed about myself is that I'm not near as concerned about being liked by the students right off the bat. I just want my classroom to be have a work-centered environment that fosters good habits. If that happens, then I am pleased. So to close this out, my advice to first years that are having a hard time right is to not judge teaching by your first-year experience and especially not your first-week experience. If these first two-weeks are a correct indication, then the second-year is so much better.

My Dad

2007-07-10T19:15:00.000-07:00

This morning I rode over with my old high school baseball coach to see my grandparents. I was actually in my old hometown and my old coach said he had to do some work in the town that my grandparents lived in, and asked if I'd like to ride over with him. Once we got over there, he'd just drop me off, and then pick me up once he had finished. I agreed, since I had been meaning to stop over and see my grandfather after his recent surgery.

I dropped in and surprised both he and my grandmother, and immediately I was back in the routine of having to repeat myself every other sentence because of their lack of hearing. "How you been doing?" "What?" "I said how have you been doing.....since the surgery?" "Oh.....good." I'm just kidding it's not that bad, but sometimes it can be pretty close.

We caught up and talked mostly about sports. Well, I say sports, the conversation mostly consisted of my grandfather complaining about what a travesty it was that Craig Biggio was left off the National League All-Star Roster. "He hit 3,000 this year. I tell you what, Bud Selig has too much Milwaukee biased in him." "I know Pappaw. I know." I was a little shocked that 'the Beeg' was left off the roster, but that's for another blog.

The conversations then started to shift back to when I played, which I loved; and then they began to shift to when my dad and my uncle played college football together. I always loved these stories the best. I always took so much pride in the way people spoke of my dad's play. "Hunter, he was just that good. He was always so competitive."

I then began to ask him for his favorite moments of when my father played. I had probably heard these stories before, but I still craved to listen to them over and over again. Whether it was football, basketball, and baseball stories in high school, or him playing baseball and football in college. I loved hearing the war stories over and over and over.

My grandfather spent most of his time talking about football stories, but then he actually switched gears to talk about my dad's senior year in basketball and one game in particular. I never heard that much about my dad in basketball. I liked it; it was the one sport that I actually thought I was better at than he was, so it gave me a little bragging rights whenever I would come home.

Pappaw then began by talking about how integration had occurred during his high school years and that while the majority of my dad's friends stayed playing football and baseball, 'the blacks' took over basketball. My dad was the only white person on the team, and I almost got the feeling that my grandfather took more pride in the fact that he wasn't scared to compete against 'the blacks'. But then paused, and said, "Hunter, you're Dad was always the most popular kid on the team to be honest. Can you imagine that he actually served as the Team Captain. Bruce (my father) never saw color. I think that's what I always admired about him, because I was just raised so differently. Your daddy would play with whoever was out there; he just loved to play and he loved other people that loved to play. That's one of the biggest characteristics that I see in you. You never see color."

I love my dad. If this was a professional paper, I think I would close this differently; but I really don't think I have anything else to say about the matter. I just like my dad a lot.

Summer Part Deux

2007-07-10T17:56:00.000-07:00

So I figured I'd make my next blog commenting on how I thought the summer went. I remember last year feeling constantly tired. I remember being able to fall asleep at any given time. I'd have 30 minutes until we got back to Oxford from Holly Springs......why not a nap? I could turn it on and off. I also remember last year having my two second years give me so much help that I really never felt overwhelmed with lesson planning. I wonder if my first years felt the same. I feel like I'm really bad at gauging how much help certain people need, so I hope that none of my first years felt lost at sea.

Ummm, this blog isn't flowing well. Alright, I'm going to switch gears and making this a lot more conversational. I thought summer school went well. I especially liked the whole idea of adding clubs to get more interaction between teachers and students; a lot of students seemed to like that. My club started off awesome, but I think ended up turning into a B.S. gym class. It definitely turned into a participate if you want to or chill in the bleachers if you want to time. I just felt that high schoolers who are in summer school should have a little more freedom, but now I'm starting to regret it a little bit. I really liked getting to teach with Mary. I think evaluations would've gotten really boring had I not had someone fun to be in the classroom with me. I also loved my first-years. All of them had a great sense of humor which made the interaction very easy. I feel like we all bonded; maybe we should have some kind of reunion or something....probably not. I also forgot how much I enjoy the people in this program. During the year, everyone gets so bogged down by their own lives that we lose that camaraderie. We regained it this summer; it was awesome. Plus, the new people were equally as fun, so it almost felt a little bit like summer camp.

As far as our graduate classes go, I thought the law class was actually challenging. It was weird to have to spend a lot of time studying for something again. Ah, it was probably good for us. I did like our professor too; he was so chill. You could tell he was definitely not an education professor. He wasn't as Ann Monroe-ish. He didn't simplify everything and he kind of put all the pressure on us to perform. I miss Ann though.

Alright, what else can I talk about. I'm not one to complain but I would put the first years in Northgate and the second years in Campus Walk. I'm just going to throw that out there. Plus, I would think that you would want the first-years on campus more than the second-years. I'm fine with the computers. I understand that; I would change the housing though. I love how volleyball was the big sport this summer rather than ultimate frisbee. I love me some frisbee, but volleyball was so much more fun I thought. Plus, there were some studs on the sand. I gave a few "sack-lunches" myself.

Finally, I didn't get any Doc Mullins time; that needs to be changed. The Godfather himself needs to grace us with his presence and impart his knowledge on all things Mississippi and all things fratty. That was a joke, but I really am looking forward to some Mullins time this fall. Overall, the summer was awesome. I'm definitely enjoying the break though. I'm out.

Blog 2

2007-06-25T13:44:00.000-07:00

Looking back on this past year, I found that it was very easy to be critical of yourself. Especially with high expectations for your class, you immediately become self-critical when you're not seeing results. Because of this fact, I think I'll first talk about one of the learning goals where I thought I was least successful.

One of the biggest learning goals in middle school that seems to be integrated in nearly all M.S. math problems was the objective over adding and subtracting fractions. Now, I've always thought of myself as a pretty good teacher. I normally can assess how a student thinks and then I'll try to relate a task back to his/her interests and teach them the material. This became extremely hard to do with this prompt because I taught it multiple ways. I thought I should show the different methods one can do in order to solve for that objective. This confused my kids so much early on, because I could tell already that the task of adding and subtracting fractions intimidated them. They weren't very motivated, and they often complained about having to learn this task. So really, I think I just pretty much added fuel to the fire by not giving them a clear cut way of solving the problem. Now, some would argue that you need to show multiple ways because some students see things differently; but if I had to do it over again, I would show one standard way that everyone in the class would do. I thought I did a poor job of assessing my students attitudes towards the subject, and therefore just tried to do what I thought a teacher should do. I believe teaching is having the ability to get to know the students, and then to adapt your own teaching style to better compliment their learning needs. I also thought I did a bad job with my own patience. I'm normally a pretty patient person, but their frustration rubbed off on me. I couldn't see why they did not understand this concept. I should've asked for help from another math teacher or coach. Instead, I kind of just got frustrated with them, and kept on trying to force my lesson plans down their throat hoping that they would come around. I don't recommend doing that. My instructional procedures were okay, but I just wish I would've adapted to their learning styles a little better. As far as differential instruction goes, I tried to show a variety of ways to solve the problem. I had handouts, boardword, and a fraction chart that we stuck on the wall. I still believe though that some lessons are better if they are uniform for the entire class.

Now, I did think that I did an exceptional job at teaching multiplying and dividing integers with different signs, and it's even clearer to me now as to why I had success. First off, I took advice from another teacher, and then adopted her strategy into my lesson plan. Plus, I was a lot more confident with what I was working with, and I felt that I had an excellent strategy for teaching the objective. Plus, I think because I taught this towards the end of the year, I knew my students a lot better. I did a much better job of meeting their needs, because I knew what their needs were. It was awesome. My procedures were very clear the entire lesson, and once again, I used a variety of activities. In particular, my integer triangle that I had them make was a huge hit. I even saw them writing it down when it came time for the state test.

So in conclusion, I am a much better teacher when I don't try and force something on my students. I have to continue to make the effort to assess the students' learning styles and make an effort to be patient and work according to how they learn. It really is that simple; I was being sarcastic.

Blog #1

2007-06-14T21:35:00.000-07:00

I definitely was a little surprised when I found out that we were only going to have two students in our 8th grade math class. I was even more surprised to find out that they were going to be the two quietest kids I've ever dealt with in one year of teaching. I'm laughing in my head just thinking about it. My initial goals for the lessons were basically to drill them with a variation of activities all pertaining to the first week's objectives. For instance, one of the first lessons was about adding and subtracting integers. I first gave them the basic notes over what an integer is and then we discussed them and made our own list of what we thought one was. I then would show a list of different positive and negative signs on the board and show them how they cancel each other out. We would then do a matching game with index cards, and then an activity where they were coming to the board and showing the rest of class how positives and negatives cancel each other out. Needless to say, I wanted to offer a variety of instruction that would cover everyone in the room.

I felt my learning goals were appropriate in terms of development, because in my one year of teaching I noticed that a lot of my students had only been exposed to one type of learning style. And since they didn’t pass the class, I’m going to take a guess and say that might be one reason why they did not master the 8th grade; maybe they just weren’t auditory learners. The learning goals I began with are very appropriate in terms of development, because a lot of them are foundational for excelling at the next grade. The majority of our lessons that we are going over include fractions, percents, decimals, integers. Since these are the building blocks for math, we have to make sure that we use all of the techniques available, so the student will for sure master the material.

And finally, the instructional decisions that we made were mostly geared towards having the student equipped enough where he/she could teach the objective to their peers. Because this was what we wanted, we definitely wanted to put into place a lot of procedures where the student has to figure some a concept out and present it to the class. I believe there is just something about orally presenting a concept that makes you remember it more. One particular inductive strategy that I used in my lesson plans was writing a list of numbers on the board and asking the student to group the numbers together however they wanted. They would, however, have to explain why they put the numbers in that particular order. This was extremely helpful just because it gave us a chance as teachers to see the student’s thought process. This definitely benefited our ability to now try and teach an objective to the student.

Game Time

2007-06-03T20:33:00.000-07:00

Well, it's just about time to leave for good 'ole Oxford, MS, and I'm trying to remember how I felt about starting the program at this time last year. I was just leaving Colorado, and I think I just capped that experience off with an equisite fly-fishing trip to Aspen. Needless to say, I was pretty pro-Colorado at the time. I'm amazed at how beautiful and different America is so many times. But anyways, I was actually very unsure of how it would go being that I had taken a year off from academically challenging myself with University material, and I was more in fear of how hard it was going to be to get back in to study mode. I guess I just believed that once you stop your collegiate experience, you forget all about how you made it through the whole thing. So I think that was what was on my mind at the time when I was making my way up Hwy.6. You can tell I was a rookie; I was taking Hwy. 6 at the time. What a tool. Hwy. 7 is the only way for those experienced Mississippi travelers. But then ofcourse after meeting everyone in the program and just seeing how exciting this program was going to be, I closed the experience with a high that I hadn't felt in a while. I was genuinely excited about the opportunity that I was about to be graced with. I was going to impact students' lives in Jackson, MS. Ofcourse, they had never had anyone who was as talented as I was, so therefore I'm going to absolutely dominate the moment I walk in the door. After all, I've been successful at a lot of other things. I mean seriously, how hard can it be. I'll have them saying O Captain, My Captain by the end of the first week. Then reality set in, and in the words of the great James Drake, "I felt like a chump." I was getting my butt kicked and I was on the phone complaining to my dad about how I felt so incapable of having success at my school. The high that I had after leaving summer training was over, and I did something that I think every new person should consider. I set a timeline for how fast I was going to have success. And when it didn't occur, I viewed my works as somewhat of a failure even though I wasn't doing half bad. But I didn't think I was the best in the building. I didn't think I had all of the kids' respect. I had to learn PATIENCE. Just like Axle Rose teaches us in the popular Guns 'n Roses song. "Just a little patience." You've got to learn that you are going in to an area of the world and being engulfed into a culture that most of us have no prior experience dealing with. You're going to have to take the time to get adjusted. It's a fact. You're not a character from a novel or a movie; remember that. Success happens for everyone at different times. Also, don't measure success by how your progress is compared to others in the program. It's a marathon not a sprint. You don't want to burn out too early. Trust me, it happens. But if you don't think I'm being completely honest about my time as a teacher in this state and in this program just read my blogs. Start with the first one ofcourse and just read until you get to my last blog before this one. I went from having kids make me feel like a failure to making me feel like family.....and that's the reality.

Witness!!!

2007-06-03T19:56:00.000-07:00

It's official. I am an NBA basketball fan again. I know I should probably be writing some tips about teaching or something and I'm sure I'll get to that eventually, but come on....King James performance was unreal. I haven't felt a connection to NBA basketball since Jordan's swish over Bryan Russell. I hated the Lakers, grew bored with the Spurs, thought the Pistons won out of sure luck, and I often times forget that Miami even won it last year considering they exited out of the first round this year. I guess I've kind of claimed the Mavericks the last couple of years just because they're from Texas, and they are exciting to watch every now and again. But ultimately, the only basketball I watch is on the college level. Now this was quite the contrary in the Jordan Bulls days. I used to get permission from my father to stay up late just to "witness" greatness happening. He happily permitted me to do this, because he knows watching performances like Jordan's happen very rarely. Lebron's 48-point game....the magic is back. I can't stop talking about it with my dad and my friends from college. It was sick. Plus, the final game included a show-stopping performance from Texas's own Daniel Gibson; that's right I said Texas in case you weren't paying attention. He used to abuse me in the practice facility on campus, and now I get a great story out of it. My life is complete. I have significance.
Now if you read these blogs for educational/pracitical purposes, this is your time. My last week of school occurred last week, and I'm not going to lie it was a weird feeling. I'm actually going to miss a lot of those kids. One thing that shocked me as well was how emotional the kids were. I thought it was a going to be an atmosphere that was just "Partay!", but instead it was a time to put on Ne-yo and reminisce (not sure how you spell it and too lazy to put it on word and check). In fact, that's exactly what I did. One of my male students was like, "Coach can we just put our chairs in a circle, put on some soft music, and just talk about the year?" I was all about it. I was cracking up though inside. Middle school kids amaze me over and over. So the girls sobbed uncontrollably, me and the guys told jokes, and 99 jams soothed our ears as we took in the last hour and a half of the school year. We then polished it off with a nice group hug. I said some words and asked if anyone else would like to say anything. I felt like a pastor giving the benediction at a sunday service about to say, "And now go in the grace of God and honor him with your works." Ofcourse, I really didn't say that....gotta be P.C....haha. I did, however, tell them how much I enjoyed their company and asked them all to come back and see me this next year. It's crazy how things work out, because that was my most troublesome class of the year. I had so many days where I would leave that class absolutely pissed off because of something that they did. I guess they just wanted to see if I would stick or not. Well, I'm sticking.

Block Party, not Chapelle style

2007-05-07T22:44:00.000-07:00

Alright, for my next installment I thought that I would write about the Block Party that our grade had last Friday at my school. In the last blog I wrote, I mentioned that we had state testing last week, and so as a reward for "not acting a fool" all grades have their own type of party. Well, my homeroom class has 7th graders in it, so I would participating in the 7th grade block party. Basically, what the basic idea is that each teacher is put on duty in his/her classroom and they must provide an activity like video games, movies, board games, etc. Well, I’m pretty pumped up because I had been told that I would be running a video game or movie room. I’ve been dying to play a little NBA 2K especially since so many of my students are talking trash to me about the Mavericks lack of success in the postseason. Well, the day for the block party arrives and I see the teacher assignment list. I scroll down and find out that another coach and myself are the only two 7th grade teachers that will be working entrance duty. What this basically means is that if anybody tries to take off through the back door, I have to take them down. If this means lining up in a three-point stance and modeling a linebacker pursuit drill, then that’s exactly what I’ll have to do.
Well, you would think that if you’re going to put something on like this, you might want to be pretty organized. For instance, maybe your could have the students participating all sign up for a particular room and then call out these students a group at a time to report to their destination. Did we do that? Nope! Instead, we just said, "At this time all seventh grade students are allowed to leave their homeroom and pick a classroom to go to." Well, when they were given this reward, all the student busted through the hall and it was absolutely jam-packed. I’m talking it did not seem safe at all. Plus, the majority of students are not going to a classroom, they are just causing a disruption in the hall. Then all of a sudden a big group of students begin a chant saying, "Northside, Doom Squad, Northside, Doom Squad." I don’t know all there is to know about sayings and chants, but to me it sounds like their just getting more and more worked up and something is going to happen. Well, after that chant is building and building in the halls, a big group then runs through the hall towards the back entrance that I am guarding. I’m already plotting about my next move. Should I go low? Should I yell? Should I just take one out and see who follows? Obviously I’m embellishing about what I would actually do, but for a moment I was sort of panicking about how to resolve the situation. Fortunately, they all headed down to the right avoiding my exit and instead hounding the coach at the other entrance. I have no idea how he handled it. In fact, I don’t remember much after that. Somewhere along the way I blacked out and and woke up with a swollen lip and a sheet of notebook paper filled with Kool-Aid on my chest. I hope it ended up okay.
I’m joking again. But I just figured I’d share my experience. I’m out.

MCT that's easy, easy

2007-05-07T22:43:00.000-07:00

Ahh yes, the madness that is the MCT. I’ve got to blog about this experience as so many of my classmates have already done I’m assuming. First of all, for a middle school kid I think it is pretty obscene to have to take three days straight of testing in which the test last more than two hours. I think that’s stressful for a 21-year-old much less a 13-year-old. But nonetheless, I thought my students sucked it up and did the best that they good. I even had a couple kids come and thank me after the test for some of the help that I gave them. That made me feel good, but I hate to say that secretly I doubt they did very good. It’s a weird mindset to believe that all the time you put in to something led to moderate results. It’s actually frustrating, but hey I’m just a teacher. I will admit that I am a little anxious to say the least about what the final three weeks of school are going to be like. Is it going to just be a riot where kids are fighting and cussing left and right? Will they submit to my authority?…haha. I really don’t know, and I’m not a person who likes to go into something without having a good idea of what it is really going to be like.
I’ve got to blog a little bit about what it was like in the room that I was assigned after the tests were finished. Holy crap!! This is where it gets interesting and funny with a touch of frustration. Well, since I was proctoring one of the smaller classrooms we naturally finished a little faster than the majority of the other classrooms, so that leaves with an enormous amount of free time; and they can’t leave your room. Now, the kids are already tired and antsy about moving around and talking, so it was quite the challenge to try and entertain them for three hours at a time. I did think that the funniest moment by far happened the first day of testing. The teacher I was proctoring with thought that it would be a good idea to bring the kids some magazines that way once they finished the test they could have something that would occupy their thoughts. Well, the magazines that she brought were definitely for girls more than guys; so as I’m walking around, I’m seeing the three or four guys in my class having to look through Essence and Cosmopolitan. I felt like it was a sad to be a man. I longed for them to have the opportunity to enjoy a nice ESPN the magazine or Sports Illustrated covers on their desk. After all, baseball had just begun, so there is quite a bit of material to catch up on. Well, about an hour goes by and I notice one of the boys smiling very mischievously and holding up his Essence magazine to show one of his buddies across the room. What did I see you ask? A nice lingerie ad; just perfect for a 13 year old boy with raging hormones. I hate to say it though; my first reaction was to just laugh. I’m talking I couldn’t stop. Awesome. That describes that moment.
But in the end, testing sucks. We’ve got to figure out a better way to assess our kids. I’m out.

MTC recruiting

2007-03-31T14:54:00.000-07:00

This past week I ventured out to one of my favorite places in the entire world, Austin, TX. It was my turn to recruit for the program this past Wednesday, so I took a couple stacks of flyers, informational brochures, and email lists over to the University of Texas Student Union for a career fair. I was already looking forward to the trip just as an opportunity to see some old college friends, but I was also looking forward to try and get the word out to students about MTC. I remember when I was in college MTC was something that I stumbled upon by luck and was completely blown away at how amazing the program seemed. I stepped in and eyed my position early to find out where exactly they would be putting my booth up. I was front and center; not a bad place to be. I also looked three tables down on the same row and there was this huge black flag with the letters T.F.A. stenciled in. I knew right then and there, it was GAME TIME. I’m really just joking, but it was so much fun to inform people about what exactly we are doing out here in Mississippi. I think sometimes we can get a little burnt out by teaching, so it was nice to take a quick break and go back to speaking about why I went in to a program like this in the first place.

I was also blown away at the fact that many people are interested in helping out in areas like this. After being so frustrated with the lack of support sometimes by parents of my students, it was nice to be surrounded by fresh idealism. Now of course a lot of the people that looked so interested in the program had no experience whatsoever; it didn’t matter, people were excited and I was enjoying every bit of it.

I spent 5 hours at the fair and got to meet some great people, but it was now time to go speak to an organization on campus that is very dear to my hurt. I always felt my time in Texas Cowboys helped give me the necessary push I was looking for to become a better leader. I was constantly blown away at the guys I was in it with, and hence they are still a lot of my best friends today. Now, I was going to get to go back to our meeting place and speak about something very dear to my heart. It was awesome. I had the room dead quiet with all eyes glaring hearing about some of the experiences that I have had. I only received a handful of emails asking for more information, but I had numerous people come up and just say how proud they were of me. I had always craved the respect of my peers in this arena and it was just nice to get to come back. Hopefully, one or two of them will join me in the future.

David vs. Goliath

2007-03-31T14:33:00.000-07:00

One of my proudest moments as a coach occurred last week. I know I have blogged about it earlier, but over the past month I have had the opportunity to get a chance to coach high school baseball at the feeder school for my middle school. Not only has it been a great opportunity to being around the game and kids, but it has also been so refreshing to be around kids that I can talk to as adults. They are great guys. I was telling my dad the other day that I think I would write letters of recommendation for just about everyone of them. Not to mention we’re a pretty fundamentally sound team.

But anyway, onto what happened last week. Until last week, I’d say we were a 9-6 ball club overall with the potential to still crack a spot in the playoff picture. We did take a break from district ball to schedule a game with the No. 2 team in the state in 5A, Northwest Rankin.
Our bus pulls up and you get the feeling that we’re already walking in to something special. It’s that feeling like you know that you’re going to have to play the best ball of your life to even feel worthy of being on the same field as the opposing team. The whole time as our bus is approaching the field, the other assistant coach is letting out his frustrations to me telling about how he has never beaten NW Rankin in his tenure as a coach or a player. They were the Yankees of Mississippi according to him.

We step off the bus and look out onto a massive stadium with three banners covering the entrance: 2003 State champions, 2004 state champions, and 2005 state champions. Underneath the last banner was the No. 6 ranking in the USA according to Parade Magazine. It was awesome to say the least. We stepped onto their fresh cut field with the opposing time looking so orderly just in how they played pitch with one another on the opposite sideline. The entire outfield was bulleted with banners showing consecutive district championships.

We then began our usual routine and one of the craziest things happened as we emptied our equipment into the dugout. Our senior guys sprinted onto the field to hold what looked like a team meeting without the coaches. I didn’t hear what was said, but immediately they sprinted onto the field to do the warm-up drills that I had showed them. Only it was the first time that I didn’t have to say a word to them about it or watch over them like a hawk to make sure they knew exactly what they were doing. Something was different in the air to say the least.

Now in the time that I’ve had to coach the team, the player that I most enjoy getting to work with is our senior shortstop. There’s just something about him that our players naturally follow. He’s also one of the most mentally tough kids that I have ever been around. This definitely helps with his own limitations as a ballplayer although he is quite proficient in nearly all aspects of the game. Today was a little different though, because he wasn’t going to play shortstop for us today. Instead he would be taking the mound and I would be putting my short-armed second basemen at the short spot. I watched as he warmed up with the catcher getting ready to pitch against a team that we haven’t had enough preparation for in my opinion.

Before I knew the national anthem finished its verse, and it was time to get it started. The first three innings of play were probably three of the best innings I had seen us play defensively all year. I looked to the scoreboard and at the end of 3, the score read 0-0. Now it was time for the top of the 4th and our leadoff hitter gets an opening base hit to start the day. We bunt the next pitch to advance the runner and for the first time in all day we have a runner in scoring position with one out. A pass ball then occurs and we end up stealing third. We then took a blow as our next hitter struck out. We had two outs and a runner on third. The hitter knocks a sharp ground ball in between third and short and as the shortstop goes to backhand the ball and throw to first, something in his arm overextended and the ball sailed over the first baseman’s mit; we’re up 1-0.

They would eventually even it up and we would go all the way to the bottom of the sixth inning with the No. 2 team in the state of Mississippi, and the score was 1-1. It was awesome. The glisten in our kids eyes electrified and inspired me as a coach, and for a moment I knew our team thought that we could beat them. Some unfortunate events then took place the second half of the inning and we would finish the game the losing by 6 runs. It didn’t matter; that was the proudest I have ever been with a group of guys. We were mediocre by everyone’s opinion up until that point. But for 6 innings, we looked unflawed. We pitched, we fielded, we threw, we ran; we did it all. We just ran out of gas. But at the end of the game, our team was much more confident as men. I can't wait to see how our season finishes out.

Baseball and Positives

2007-03-03T21:13:00.000-08:00

I always take the time every once in a while in blogging to write about how my teams are doing. I am currently coaching baseball at one of the Jackson schools right now, and we are now three games into the district schedule. The first team we played was horrible I hate to say. We had to go to the Delta two and a half hours out of the way to play a game that wasn’t even close. The only thing I think I really got from it was a cold. The next day at class I was absolutely miserable.
Then a couple of days ago we hosted a game against a Delta squad. That was the best defensive game we have played thus far. Our team looked sharp, and one particular bright spot came at third base. We had been looking at different people to play that position early on this season, and we just had a freshman kid become eligible. He put on a show. I think in one stretch he had 5 put-outs in a row. His potential is sky-high. His technique is a little rough, but his hand-eye coordination is unreal; you can’t teach that. Plus, he likes me a lot and he’s always volunteering a lot to participate in things to get better. He’s making quite an impression on me as you can see. We did end up winning that game by a score of 11-1 though. The other team was horrible I thought. They made us look really good. I’m still not quite sure how we’ll match up when we play the talented suburb teams. They’re just so well coached that we really have to put on a show in the field and then hit the ball. I guess we’ll see; we play them next week.
Now to follow up on my last blog, I wanted to post a couple of reasons why I think MTC is a great program. First of all, if you love a challenge, this is the spot for you. You will be challenged every day you step in to your building. It is a profession where the unexpected can happen at any time, and it is up to you to react and make the right call.
The second reason is the life-changing relationships that you’ll make along the way. I think a person might be too idealistic if they think they are going to revolutionize the school that they get placed. I do, however, though think that they will make a huge difference to a handful of kids in the community, and this will carry over for the rest of your life. The friendships that you’ll make out here will cause a lot of self-reflection, and I think they’ll do nothing but improve your outlook on society today.
The last reason that I wanted to cover is that you’ll come out of your two years with a degree from the University of Mississippi. Not only are you getting a remarkable experience in teaching, but you are going to get the opportunity to tackle coursework that will be stimulating and beneficial, and it’s free. I don’t think you can beat that.

Negatives

2007-03-03T20:53:00.000-08:00

I am so ready for spring break. I hate to make a statement like this at a time when I know the mindset has to be positive and on improving the students, but I just can’t help myself. I feel exhausted right now. I just skipped going to class this weekend to attend my old college roommate’s wedding in Dallas. The only thing is that I couldn’t book a flight, because I was uncertain as to when our baseball game would finish up. It didn’t finish until 9 pm; it should have been over at 8, so I had to drive 6 hours to make it Dallas. I feel like I could sleep for 2 days straight. The 3 preps and 3 sports are killing me right now. I feel like I am at a constant full speed going from one thing to the next. I’m normally not a complainer at all, and I normally get annoyed with people that do but I am just flat out tired right now. Spring break could not occur at a better time.
On a different note though, I know Ben had mentioned maybe posting some reasons why or why not to join the program. For this particular blog, I think I am going to write reasons why someone might not want to join a program like this. I feel like I am in a mood where I could come of as somewhat negative.
First of all, if you are not a committed person, you are screwed. You are going to be tested on a daily basis where challenges pop up either in your classroom or on the playing field. Having no previous knowledge of the culture, this puts you at a huge disadvantage, since you don’t know what gets results. You are testing them out. Well, I guarantee you that you are not going to figure out the correct results the first time. It’s going to take you a while….months, a semester, maybe the first year before you attain your goal.
Another thing that an applicant might want to consider is the amount of sacrifices that one will have to make depending on your background. Maybe perhaps, you are used to being in a big city or college town where you have access to a vast majority of entertainment resources and opportunities to hang out with people your age. If you get assigned certain places in the Delta, this will be a huge change. You go from being able to do anything you want to do whenever you want to, to having to plan out when you are going to partake in certain entertainment ventures, even in Jackson.
The final thing that I would consider before joining is do I really want to have to do additional coursework. A lot of people join the program with the notion that they just want to teach in the classroom. Well, a large requirement in this program is having to partake in additional projects and write additional papers. Plus, you have to make the sacrifice of using some of your Saturdays for class time instead of using it for recovery time for the week. All in all, I think these are the reasons someone might not want to do MTC. Hopefully, this week will be more rejuvenating.

Classroom Update and H.S.

2007-02-06T20:21:00.000-08:00

This past week in class, I spent the majority of my time trying to teach the metric system to my students. Now, while I consider myself to be pretty proficient in teaching math to 7th and 8th graders, I've got to say that I really struggled this past week in finding a way to help my students understand metric system conversions. I even gave a test this past week, and I had my lowest test scores of the year on this; I'm talking like 35-40% correct answers. I did a crash course teaching session covering the test they just took from top to bottom as well as a couple of other worksheets that I made in hopes that they would understand it a little bit better for the retake. I even called as many parents as I could asking them to make sure to go over the review sheets with their child in preparation for the test retake. Well, we had the retake today and I just got finished grading. This time there was probably a 60% average for my classes. While this is a slight improvement this is still not passing!! I hate getting frustrated, but it almost seems like for this particular objective I need to be able to call each one of my students out of other teachers' classes during my planning period and go over material with them either individually or in pairs. The only problem is that this would take forever.....or as Squints from The Sandlot would say, "FOR....E...VER.....FOR....E....VER....FOR....E....VER."
The other problem that comes up is that I am already behind now for teaching the remaining objectives for this nine weeks, and we already had a meeting over how badly our school did on this past nine weeks test. This job is hard....haha.
One cool thing that has kind of rejuvenated my spirits a little bit was this past week I was hired by one of the local high schools to serve as an assistant baseball coach. Now, I was originally just supposed to step in and either coach track or tennis on the middle school level, but once the head coach talked to me about possibly doing it I was hooked. I have always loved baseball; in fact, next to basketball it is my favorite sport.
Plus, one thing that has really got me excited is the chance to work on the high school varsity level. The maturity difference between a high school junior or senior and a 7th or 8th grader is ridiculous. The kids I am working with right now are like sponges; they are constantly asking for more advice or tips to help them be better ball players. Now don't get me wrong, I love working with middle school kids. It is just a really nice break to be able to coach and teach someone who is extremely self-motivated and self-disciplined.
The only concern is that I wonder how much of a time investment this is going to be. Middle school was always so nice in that you were always going home no later than 6:30 pm, and you never had games or tournaments on the weekends. This is a whole different ballgame. Ah, Doyle, Gallagher, and Conley do it....how hard can it be?

First loss of the year!!

2007-02-06T19:48:00.000-08:00

About a week ago the middle school basketball team that I coach played its final game of the season. I'm pretty sure that I've talked before about how talented these kids are. I coached them in football, and they beat everyone handily. I coached them in basketball and up until this game we beat everyone handily. But there is always something different about playing in front of a big crowd for a championship game. Then all of a sudden there is a new aspect brought to the equation.....PRESSURE.
Throughout the year we often times played like we had an on-off switch that we could turn on and off whenever we felt like it. We'd cruise for 3 or 4 minutes then blow a team out. We'd coast and not play our hardest, and then all of sudden put on a show that made us look like a good high school team. Plain and simple...we were cocky, talented, and unbeatable....until the last game. The first half I thought it looked like we were still on coast mode. We'd play well for a few possessions, and then the other team would have a scoring run. The lead constantly changed and it still kind of felt like we were in control of the game.
There was one aspect that hindered our confidence a little bit going in to halftime though; we had 4 players that had 3 fouls. For those of you not understanding why this is a big deal, that means that the players each had only 2 more individual fouls to give before they would be forced out of the game. Our players still seemed too comfortable as if not to take their opponent seriously. This proved to be costly in the end. With the majority of our team in foul trouble, we got destroyed on the glass. Plus, they controlled the tempo of the entire game. We did have some late minute heroics by our top scorer to send the game in to two overtimes, but in the end we ran out of steam. We would end up fouling out 6 players, including four of our starters.
It was disappointing needless to say. We would have been the first school to win titles in both football and basketball since the early 90's. On the flip side, it's been quite a while since I have been in a game as exciting as the one we played in. The basketball court was packed with fans, and the game lived up to the hype of being for the city championship. Now while there is always going to be some complaining when a loss occurs, for the most part I was extremely proud of the way our guys handled themselves. They shook the other team's hands and even the head coach and myself went in to the other team's locker room to personally congratulate the guys on a job well done. The next day at school everyone at school was talking about how great the game was. Oh well...I guess it's on to the next sport.

Quarter down

2006-12-09T04:55:00.000-08:00

Well, I can't believe how fast it has already gone by. It only seems like yesterday that the first years were putting a beat down on the second-years in a little ultimate frisbee. I had to throw that in there...sorry...alright, now back to the blog.

I can already say that I feel like this was one of the most beneficial/rewarding experiences I've ever done in my life. I remember the feelings of this past summer. We all became pretty close, and I think for the most part we were all going in feeling fairly confident and optimistic about the jobs we had set out to do. Well, then the first two weeks of school happened, and I know I was struggling a lot. I remember calling my dad almost every other night to ask about different things to try in the classroom.

Then slowly, I started to get better at my craft. I started investing in my work and investing in my kids. The results have been an unforgettable semester where I've felt more challenged than I ever have before in my life. I know we're getting ready for Christmas break, which I'm definitely looking forward to, but I'm really excited about trying some more new things in the classroom. I think it's only going to get better and better.

On and off the court

2006-12-06T17:55:00.000-08:00

I think this has been by far the most satisfying week of teaching and coaching that I've experienced this entire year. First of all, I've got to say that in the classroom I finally feel like I have control. Don't get me wrong there are still things I have to address every now and then, but for the most part it is such a cool job. It is such a high too when I am on top of my game as a teacher. Plus, their behavior is starting to be a product of my teaching style, rather than my behavior being a product of their disruption in class. I hope I can keep it up.

Now, while teaching has been extremely rewarding lately, I've got to say that the biggest part of this week being so satisfying has been the coaching/teaching I've gotten to do on the court this past week. I have been very fortunate this year to have such a talented group of kids. My 8th grade class coasted through the football season 6-0 and ended up winning the city title. Now, it's basketball season and we're already off to a 5-0 start despite playing mediocre basketball the past 2 games. Now, I always thought the most challenging coaching tasks would occur when you can't win....when you just don't have talent. Well, one thing I've realized is when you're losing you open yourself up to learn a lot of life lessons. You learn about never giving up, about trusting your teammates, about controlling your emotions and losing with class. Well, my players are starting to become really cocky and uncoachable. Early on this week, there was a lot of finger-pointing, name-calling, and cussing when we finally weren't winning with ease. Our character was starting to show. And because our guys are constantly told by our teachers, administration, and parents how good they are, they are starting to not work as hard. Now, I still have tendencies of not wanting to step on anyone's toes because I'm technically still new, but yesterday in practice I had enough. I asked our coach if he would stop practice and let me speak to two of our top players individually in the coach's office. It was such a good experience. I was able to level with them of how I've seen their character and work habits deteriorate by their arrogance. I closed by reminding them of how much I liked each one, and how much potential I saw in each one. I had one kid whose eyes started watering; not for shame, but because he finally saw that I wanted him to not only be a good player, but a good leader/kid. It was emotional; I'm not going to lie. But after practice that day, I felt like I had done my coaching job to the best of my ability.....it was a feeling like none I've ever had. Today in practice, I was blown away with how hard we played and how much camaraderie our guys had. I then had one of my best teaching sessions with my post players, and they even started putting it into play when we scrimmaged. I'm not going to lie either; we are good when we play hard. They are so talented it blows me away. They would've kicked my butt as an 8th grader. Anyways, I think it's time for me to close this out. This is such a cool job.

Con-sis-sten-cy

2006-11-18T02:56:00.000-08:00

My roommates and I still joke about the training we attended as 1st years in JPS. There were just so many comments that seemed so obvious to us that the other attendees were so proud of. One in particular was from a lady who thought the best way to voice her position on being consistent with your discipline was to just repeat the word broken down into fragments. "Con-sis-sten-cy....you've got to be consistent in the classroom"....I thought it was quite humorous, but everyone else in the classroom thought it deserved applause and affirmation. "Oh yeah baby, you have got to be consistent". Anyways, even after joking about that lady's comments I do agree with how important it is to stay consistent with your policies and procedures.

For this particular assignment we were supposed to try and enforce all of your consequences for two weeks straight and see what the results were. The results are a more efficient classroom. However, you get a more tired teacher. It was so mentally taxing to keep up with ALL of them, and then call home at night. I think it would be extremely beneficial if so much of your energy at the first of the year was spent on being consistent with all of your discipline. I mean every little thing. Candy, gum-chewing, talking out of turn....nothing is out of bounds. If you broke the rule, it's not sliding. It just gets so much more tiring to have to try and enforce these things at the mid-point of the year; especially because you are so tired. It does work though.

Classroom Mgmt. Changes

2006-11-10T23:58:00.000-08:00

Like a lot of people, there are so many things that I wish I could change from how I started the year with my classroom management. I was extremely timid at first to lay down the law and be consistent, and it has cost me in the long run. I've fought hard to get my classroom management at a pretty high functioning level. I think the students know how much I like them though, and sometimes they definitely use that against me. I wish I would've just started the year as a strict, zero-tolerance teacher who will call your mom at the drop of a hat. You know that as soon as you step into Coach Taylor's classroom, "he don't play". Like I said earlier though, I've had a string of good behavior days; however, I still have a few bad days thrown in every now and then, and I firmly believe, that is because they know my weaknesses. It is just so hard sometimes to remain consistent in your discipline. I've been the type of teacher that if we have a string of good days, I'll be a little more leniant as to how I crack down on misbehavior. I forget that I still must be consistent on assigning a consequence with each misbehavior. That is the biggest thing that I wish I would do a better job of. I also need to stay in better contact with the parents of my students. It's so uncomfortable at times, but I think it works in the long run. So in conclusion, I still think I'm doing pretty well with my management, but I think you definitely have an advantage in how aggressive you are at the start of the year and what kind of tone you set for your classroom.

Learning Styles Blog

2006-10-13T18:28:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I gave the learning styles assessment to my classes back in September and my results favored that of Visual. I didn't find it that surprising really. All they talk about in class are movies, sports, girls/guys, and television. They're taking in so much mulitimedia it's ridiculous. Plus, as we read from the Understanding Poverty book, entertainment plays such a vital role in these kids lives that in order to reach them on an academic level, I'm finding out that I have to be entertaining and animated in order to keep their attention. Another thing that I thought was interesting when I gave out the learning styles tests was how many words they didn't understand. I had to read the questions to them aloud and clarify the meaning of at least one word per question; it was unbelievable.

I actually do think that these tests are beneficial though, and for the most part the kids seemed to enjoy taking them. Oh, I almost forgot to mention; we won the North division in football. We play for the city championship this coming Tuesday. It's going to be amazing...haha.

October Road...

2006-10-02T20:43:00.000-07:00

Ahh yes...I love this time of year. October has to rank as my favorite month of the year. The weather starts to get a little cooler, leaves are changing colors, and football is in full swing. It's almost at the point of the year when you can break out that long-sleeve tee and shorts combo....maybe some flip-flops to go with it...I don't know...I don't know if we have time. I've got to say though that I just believe the weather impacts my school's mood so much. When it's hot, we are ROWDY. When it's nice and cool, we are so much more composed. We still act crazy from time to time, but hey I'll take it. I love the general morale at my school right now though. There is such a huge emphasis on humor. I am almost in tears from laughing so hard every other day. It makes the work environment that much more pleasant and family oriented and for that particular time you forget about all the frustrations going on in the classroom. I am a little nervous about the next three days. We have our nine weeks test, and I don't think we are going to do well at all. I hope it's a wake up call to the kids, but I think it'll just frustrate me that much more. I still can't seem to get them studying or doing homework after school. I've called and called and called, but for every week that I don't call a kid's home they go back to acting like they did previously. I guess we shall see if there's a difference once grades go out. One thing that I have had such a blast with though is the coaching after school. We are now 3-0, and we play our 4th game tomorrow night against a mediocre school. We should win that one and go into the last game of the season a perfect 4-0. The parents and faculty are so supportive, and everyone is so excited about the possibility of us winning the city championship. Apparently we haven't won it since 1989, so it would be a huge deal if we actually pulled it off this year. We do play our toughest opponent next week for our final regular season game. To qualify for the city championship game, we have to beat them first....and they are as good as we are. Well, I'm glancing at my clock right now, and the time reads 11:00 pm; I think I'm out. Anyways, that's all I've got to say. Oh, a few parting words.....Weimer, Ward...you guys need to come to Jackson. Jay-Z...you need to get this hunting trip taken care of. D.Doyle, you need to man up and schedule a scrimmage with my middle school team. Ann, it was a pleasure seeing you at the Grove. I'm out.

Understanding Poverty

2006-09-15T22:12:00.000-07:00

I think this has been the most interesting reading assignment that I've done in MTC thus far. There were numerous times throughout my reading that I thought the book offered invaluable insight in to the lives of my students. The part that struck me the most was the section that covered behaviors related to poverty, and what types of reactions you will get for certain classroom situations. She was dead on....no joke. For every example she gave, I would have an example or situation that I've already experienced come to mind. I particularly liked the interventions that she suggested immediately after her behaviors were listed. I hate to say it, but it has shown me that I haven't gone about things the right way all the time, or at least her recommended ways. For instance, about 10 hours earlier today I had a student scream and argue with me, because I had called her out in front of her peers on her classroom behavior. I didn't even think at the time to take her aside once she calmed down and discuss other responses she could have used. I was so focused instead on making her submit to my command; it's times like that when I've got to let go of the pride and find a common ground to get through to her. I don't let my frustration get the best of me too often, but today I did.

Anyways, back to the book, I also particularly enjoyed how much it talked about the lack of role models in these students lives today. Just the other day in fact, we had our first parent teacher/conference at school. Nearly all of the parents that did show up were single mothers who you could tell were so worried about their children because their work schedules force them to not be around as much. I'm not saying raising a child alone can't be done, but I do believe they are up against a lot more obstacles than two-parent families. I can tell such a difference behavior-wise in my class of those students who have both parents. My kids at football practice are so eager to be around all of the coaches too. It's amazing how much they crave acceptance from an older male. This book just re-emphasized that to me.

All in all I think she made some outstanding points in the book, and I really got a lot of out it. TWO THUMPS UP! I did, however, find the truth of what my kids go though to be very depressing. I'm starting to get at the point where I really feel like this stuff is just plain unfair, and you almost feel kind of handicapped by the situation. I mean really how much can YOU do. You did your part and you feel good about yourself for a little bit; but in the end when you look at the population as a whole and you read books like we just read, it leaves you with a bitter taste in your mouth. It's going to take so much work and time to even out the playing field, and to even do that you have to have an obscene amount of people committed to the goal. I don't know...I'm rambling...I'm tired....I'm going to stop now. I did enjoy the book though.

scuba gear is off...

2006-09-14T16:54:00.000-07:00

I remember Ann saying that teaching at first was going to be a constant battle to keep your head above water. I totally agree with that statement, and I've got to admit that I had the snorkle out for this first month. I remember Landon saying early on how he was ready for his mindset to finally shift out of survivor mode. Well an epiphany occurred two days ago. I got caught up!!! It's weird but for the first time I actually brainstormed a little bit and got to try and be creative for my upcoming lessons. I'm not saying I wasn't trying to be creative with my previous lessons, but I felt so much pressure to take care of all these other things that I think I kind of went half-speed for some of them.

It was also nice to have yesterday be a 60% school day for the kids, and then today be the first parent-teacher conference day. I was actually reallly excited to meet a lot of the parents; mostly because I thought it would give me a good opportunity to crack down on the ones I've had a lot of discipline problems with. Well, all of those parents didn't show up...haha....but the ones who did blew me away with the amount of dedication that they had for their children. A lot of them were single mothers, and they were so positive and encouraging. I can see why their children are like they are. Almost all of them asked if they could have some tip/strategies/workbooks to take home to help their kids in math. I was like.....I'll give you a call tonight with a list of resources or give your child some take home bonus material tomorrow. It was awesome. I did, however, have one parent give me the "size up" look and ask me how old I was. You know what the "size up" look is......they start off looking at your eyes and then look you all the way down and back up...kind of like as if they were saying..."is that all?"....I almost started laughing...but I held it in and calmly responded with....23.
The last piece of news I wanted to talk about was that we finally played our first game this past Monday night. We won 50-12. I'm not going to lie...I think we could compete with some Delta High School teams....ddadams you heard it first....don't underestimate the Trojans. It was so much fun too; I never imagined that I would like coaching so much. I guess I might be singing a different tune if we had lost though but oh well.

First days of school...

2006-08-09T20:46:00.000-07:00

Well, I have officially been teaching my own students in my own classroom for 3 full days now. It seems like so much has happened in such a short time. My first day was quite the experience. I had mentioned in previous blogs about my teaching sessions at Holly Springs and how great they were. I think I need to go ahead and make it very clear that our class was awesome; I got spoiled waaaaay to early. I think I just assumed that we were really that good at teaching. Anyways, back to my first day of school. Well, after a fairly smooth first two blocks of teaching, my third and final block of kids gave me quite the warm welcome. I think I lost control of the class after about 20 minutes of going over rules and procedures. I've never had to repeat myself that many times. By the end of class, I was furious. I was so frustrated with myself. It just seemed like no matter what I punished them with or what I said, they basically just said...."thank you may I have another." I left school that day feeling defeated. However, after talking with my roommates and my dad, I went back in the following day a little more prepared and ready for whatever would be thrown my way. The result....these past two days have been really good. I know I've still got a long way to go, but it felt so good to see some improvement. I just hope we stay on this upward slope.

Meelk and cherry caoke

2006-08-01T18:16:00.000-07:00

Well, today was the first day under contract for me at my school. We began the day with a three hour seminar over the student handbook followed by lunch and afternoon off in order to work on our classrooms. I found out my classroom is actually in one of the portable trailers on the backside of the school. I think it actually could be kind of cool. It's like I am my own building....I need a nickname for my classroom....suggestions....please post. Right now I'm leaning towards "The Box", "The Birdcage", or "The Rock". The one bad thing about the classroom, however, is that my airconditioning unit isn't in the best shape. They recommended that I bring in some fans of my own....just to keep myself cool...and the students ofcourse.

The living situation is going really well. Landon's girlfriend came over this past weekend to stay with us. Her accent is hilarious.....I'm talking it's about as Mississippi as you can get. She's definitely a hit with our house. She made us a couple of meals as well....I think that's really why I like her....I like to eat.

On a more serious note, I'm actually starting to get nervous about school starting up next week. I'm just nervous about the first week of school. Everyone puts so much emphasis on the first week, and I'm worried I won't lay a good foundation down. Ahh, I'll be glad when the first day just gets here. It's like the locker room time before a big game. You're ready to go play, but you're forced to just sit and think about the task ahead of you.....and that's the reality. I'll post again soon; I'm just tired.

HT

Video Review: part II

2006-07-17T18:26:00.000-07:00

Alright, so this is the second time I've had to watch myself on video. I bought a new tie over the break, so immediately I give myself a couple of style points. Seriously though, I think I seemed a little more uptight than I did when I was teaching the kids. When it was the kids, I tried for it to be more of a performance and play off of their personalities. You could tell I was teaching for an evaluation grade; at least I thought so. It was a basic lesson on multiplying/dividing fractions and one that I thought lacked creativity. I don't think I had any glaring weaknesses and for the most part I presented myself in a confident manner; however, I guess I just imagined myself to be more energetic and INTERESTING. I've got to continue to seek new ways to make my class better. I did, however, appreciate the great feedback I received from Mrs. Cornelius; she's awesome. You can tell she loves to teach and loves math. Plus, the woman is creative. So anyways, if I had to summarize my performance, I would say that I presented myself in a confident manner, but I thought it was just a plain old basic lesson.

HT

Summer School...Part II

2006-07-09T14:17:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I'm not going to lie; I enjoyed that 4 day July 4th weekend break a lot more than I thought I would. Now, I sit in front of the computer on July 9th just stalling and writing a blog, becaues I can't think of a creative way to present a lesson on middle school math! Relax though...it'll come to me. A lot has happened since my last entry. My parents came up for the 4 day break. They absolutely loved Oxford. I do love how cautiously my parents give affirmation to a place though. It's like you can tell they really like a place, but they don't want to give it to much praise for fear that their only son won't one day come back to Texas. You've got to love Texans. I think my parents, in particular my father, are about as stereotypical as it gets for Texas pride. It's charming though...trust me. When we took my two roommates out for lunch the last day, it was absolutely hilarious. My dad loves to talk sports, especially college football, so if you are a fan even a little bit, he'll have you rolling with his first-hand insight and endless supply of humorous stories. My roommate from Ole Miss was rolling, because my dad kept making references back to when he coached for Mississippi State in the early 80's. He even brought up how Ole Miss (supposedly) cheated State in the Egg Bowl of '83....it was hilarious, you've got to meet the man to match the story. We did have some good family time though in Memphis and Jackson, and I was so happy that they got to meet Ann and Dr. Mullins at the Monroe's BBQ. It's always nice when your parents are in awe of the caliber of people you get to work with on a daily basis. But now it's time to get back into the swing of things. It's amazing to me how hard it is sometimes to get back in to a hard-working routine just like that. I'm sure by mid-week that'll change, and things will go back to how they were in June. Oh, I also found out that I am one of five students in the program who was chosen to be a part of the documentary. Now, I just hope I'm not that one teacher who just breaks down on camera, because they can't handle their kids. That would be kind of funny though too....can't you just see it....."I hate my kids, I hate my administration, and Ben Guest can kiss my a**"....ahh, let's hope it doesn't come to that. Well, I've got to get back to work on my lesson plans.

Later

Cocktail, Death Cab, Two Sisters...."Weell"

2006-06-26T22:14:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, myself and my two future roommates headed out with a group of our 2nd year teachers in the pursuit of something that I had honestly been worrying about for a while....a place to live. Now, I had been to Jackson about two weeks earlier but only to look at my school and meet my director. And while I had a pretty good feeling about the area I was going to live and work in, I've got to admit that I wasn't absolutely ecstatic about the thought of living for 2 years in Jackson. Nothing against Jackson, I just knew nothing about it. So anyways, we left Friday afternoon and spent the day with my second year lead teacher, her roommate, and two other 2nd years. Can I refer to the other people in my class by their real names?....ah, I'll protect the identities for this blog. Anyways, so we spent day one in Yazoo City and just had some good "hang" time. My lead and her roommate went above and beyond in showing everyone the ropes and making sure we had fun. It was just what I needed. We even closed the night with me and my roommates watching a little Cocktail starring Tom Cruise and Elizabeth Shue. Don't act like you don't know the movie, or that you're in some ways too superior to enjoy Mr. Cruise singing "Addicted to Love" in a local TGIFriday's bar. My Ole Miss roommate absolutely loved it....that actually is kind of weird. Alright, Day 2 we get the first class tour from my lead and her roommate. I'm talkin', we spent the day in Jackson just exploring, looking at places, eating great food. I'm not going to lie, I've become a Jackson fan after seeeing the real Jackson. Plus, we found a place live.....just nestled in some cozy little neighborhood. I see my Massachusetts roommate just organizing a barbecue or something......and then offending everyone there....just kiddin. So let's recap....Day 1 = Mexican food/Cocktail, Mexican food/Cocktail = amazing time....Day 1 = amazing time......oh looks like somebody is a math teacher....a little transitive...Day 2 = lot of Death Cab for Cutie...probably won't listen to that for a while....alright I'm too lazy to make up another math property to describe how fun day 2 was, so I'll just be blunt...it was niiiiiice. Now for Day 3......well, normally when you find out you are going to be behind schedule and you have a paper due the next day, you start perspiring a little more.....But at that moment in the car when we found we would have to stay in Jackson through lunch.....My lead looked over...and I knew what opportunity had just opened up.....I'm talking about a place where the Crisco flows like wine....I'm talkin about a place called....Two Sisters. The girls' reputations where on the line.....and they totally delivered. It capped off the perfect weekend. Oh, and then we had a flat tire, and I fell asleep writing my paper....sorry Ann

Bye!

group work

2006-06-25T22:23:00.000-07:00

Alright,
So in our class we tried out a little group work activity to see how the students would do. Now, until this particular class, I must remind you that we haven't attempted this type of setting except in allowing them to do their homework together. They've just always been such a close-knit group that I was a little afraid that because of their closeness, a group setting would be a waste of a period. However, much to my surprise the group work activity that we used worked very well. We were covering material for a test review because the following period they were going to have their third test. It was really fun to watch, because they were very helpful with one another in working their problems out. I really think there was only one girl who would consistantly ask for my assistance in answering a problem because she didn't trust her group. I wish their was more time in these class periods or maybe that the lessons were spaced out more, because I would love to incorporate more group activities. It's just that because we have so much freakin material we have to cover every period that I feel very uncomfortable trying to many new things for fear of being behind. For instance this last week, I mismanaged my time because I thought they would understand my directions a lot better, and we ended up spending way too much time on a simple task. Well, that just tacked on to my next period, and I'm trying to find a way to combine future lessons so that I can go back and re-cover my last lessons........frustrating!!! But anyways, I did like the use of group work. I think I would like to assign my groups though rather than allow them to pick.

Later

Having to watch ourselves teach

2006-06-18T17:49:00.000-07:00

Much to my surprise it actually wasn't that painful to have to watch myself give a lesson over perimeter. I do, however, wish I could've watched a lesson that displayed more creativity than the one I video-taped. Anyways, I think some positive things I saw included a lot of positive reinforcement to kids that seemed unsure of themselves as they attempted to answer a question. Also, I think I evenly dispersed my questions on the board, so that everyone got a fair share to answer. I'm still learning, but I do think that the kids aren't scared to go up to the board and attempt problems in front of their peers. Now on to the negatives.....I sometimes talk really slow and monotone....espcially when I give notes on transparency. I think I let my fatigue affect my teaching that period, because I didn't seem to have as much enthusiasm as I normally do. I don't think it was that bad of a lesson, but I also don't think it was that good. I think our professor was so right when she said teaching is a performance. I've got to use more voice changes, jokes, excercises, surprise tactics, etc. All in all, video-taping was a great tool. I actually wish I could tape more often.

cold cards and startin' fresh

2006-06-18T15:15:00.000-07:00

Alright, so this past Thursday in class we implemented the use of cold cards to try and change it up a bit. Now the original purpose of having a strategy like this is to force kids to be attentive and on task. The only problem we ran in to was the fact that our kids usually rank pretty high on the participation side of class. I think I might have mentioned in an earlier blog that for the most part they are all friends and love to participate. So when we threw in a different strategy it almost had the feel of "we're trying a gimmick". They have been consistantly getting feedback from myself and the other teachers on how good of a job they've been doing, so to try something new after two weeks felt like a waste of time. I do, however, feel that it would be an extremely effective classroom method if you are experiencing a lot problems with participation.

Now, in class about a week ago our professor had uttered a very simple statement that one could totally let slide by if not careful. It's a statement that one may actually describe as "cliche" or "cheesy". But if you allow your brain to marinate on the words of wisdom echoing from Lookout Mt. in Chat-Tn., "we start fresh everyday" will change your classroom's mindset forever. I was skeptical at first; but with a little help from the endless string of analagies and metaphors provided by my roommate (j. drake), I'm on the "startin' fresh" bandwagon. I was even able to see the phrase used effectively on a parent in my roommate's class. It was this past Friday, and I was offered the opportunity to witness (or Nowitness) his first phone call home to the mother of a trouble-making student. It started off typical with the usual strings of a critique followed by a compliment. Then it took a turn for the worse when the volume shot up a few notches. At first he thought it was directed at him, and I could see the panic sweep his face. However, he soon realized it was being directed at the student in a very harsh manner, and for a second I thought he was going to freeze up and just try to get off the phone as fast as possible. That's where I messed up in my thought process, because all this time my roommate knew he had the ace of spades in his back pocket waiting for the opportune time to lay it down and take back control of the conversation. Without much hesitation at all, he quickly got the mom's attention with, "Ma'am we both know she's a smart girl and that's why it's so frustrating." My thoughts....good, good. Now for the money statement. "But, hey, WE START FRESH EVERYDAY, so I'm looking forward to seeing her improvement." Conversation ended....two points to the roommate. I'm sold.

1st 2 weeks, highs, lows, etc.

2006-06-15T20:00:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I haven't been very diligent in my blogs lately, but I promise this will be a reoccurring thing from now on; so on to what has been happening lately. Well, I first of all have to say that I lucked out in a huge way in that my class is amazing. We have 10 girls and 1 boy, and they are absolutely hilarious. It was weird coming in and teaching the first week just because I felt like a student teacher who had no responsibility whatsoever. I was very worried that they wouldn't respect me the way they respected the two 2nd-years. However, much to my surprise, we have connected really well, and I'm starting to get a good feel on how to relate to them better with my teaching methods.
The highlight without a doubt was 2 days ago when I used a variation of an Algebra baseball game. They were jumping, screaming, and (hopefully) learning how to do one-step equations with a competitive twist. The energy in the room was infectious and I even heard a couple of "Mr. Taylor rocks" comments from the class, which definitely made me feel good. (I know that's not the point, but acceptance always feel good.)
My worst day in class thus far was actually the day after. I totally didn't manage my time well enough and I PAID THE PRICE! They weren't really disruptive or anything, but I could just tell that I had lost their attention and willingness to learn. Plus, I think if I did have a more disruptive class, they would've pounced at that time.
Today was actually great though. My lessons weren't very complicated to explain, and we had some fun with it. I feel so comfortable with this class already, which is a great feeling to have. I'm the type of person that I love to play off of people with inside jokes, and I know them well enough now that it's a really engaging fun time. I've still got a lot to learn as far as teaching methods and classroom management go, but it is nice to see substantial progress this early in the summer.
As for the summer grad school class goes, I would say that it has been really informative. The only problem is I'm struggling to stay attentive due to lack of sleep, and I feel like my participation is not at its highest form.(I'll get better A. Mon) The highlight of the class time thus far though was when two former students of our director came in to talk about life in the Delta. They were such good kids. It was, however, very hard for me to understand them. It was good to have an opportunity to see some of the kids that have been taught by our teachers, and what their thoughts were on their teaching styles and influences.
There was one part of that afternoon that I did want to blog about though, and that was when our director started talking about percentages and how many students "make it". I was very pleased when one of the other students asked for his definition of "making it", and given the response of "how many go to college". Now why I am a huge advocate for education (I'm in this program aren't I), I don't think that should be the sole criteria for success. One of the biggest reasons I wanted to get into this program was the opportunity to really influence and equip my students for life. I realize that I have a very limited time frame to give my "2 cents", but I also realize that I want them equipped not only with education but with confidence and self-esteem. In the big pictures of life, I don't want to look back and think that I just taught that student how to do some math problems. I want to look back and think that I tried to instill in each student a mindset that they are adequate and equipped enough to do whatever it is they most desire. If that is college, med school, law school, teacher, mom, dad, lawn mower, librarian, whatever....I want them to believe that this whole social injustice issue will keep them down only if they let it. I want them to know that there is life out there, and if they want to check it out that is great. But I also, think that if there passion is being a mom in some small town and working at the local supermarket then that is perfectly okay. I just don't want them to feel like they were forced in to it. But some of the most successful people I've ever known, weren't viewed as the most successful in terms of the world. Anyways, I just figured I'd blog about that. Well, I think that's enough for now.

Until next time,
Hook'em

Focus paper

2006-06-05T20:12:00.000-07:00

Alright, so I checked out Tiffany Bartlett's focus paper on the No Child Left Behind Act. Having never investigated what exactly the Act aims at accomplishing and the steps it takes to do so, I was very fascinated with the information that she presented. One pillar of the act that I had no clue existed was that NCLB gives parents of Title 1 schools the option to stick with that school and receive more help or transfer to another public school and have the original school use its funds to transport the child to the new school. I thought all in all it was a good brief report; however, I would have liked to see some statistical analysis of how affective the program has been since its establishment. I am also wondering if we are allowed to give input in our own focus papers or future blogs about reccomendations for an Act such as this. I think it is a very, very ambitious plan that has great ideals, but I ponder its affectiveness. This did however give me a good visual of what we are expected to compose in the coming month, and once again I applaud Tiffany's paper.

Until next time,
HookemHT

MTCorps

2006-06-04T14:17:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a full week now, and I'm very happy with the program thus far. Just about everyone in the program seems incredibly qualified, and it already feels like we're a part of something big. I did go and visit my school for the first time last Thursday, and I have to admit that I was a little intimidated. My principal was all business, and he didn't butter up what the kids would be like. Having never worked with this type of kid, I feel a little like I don't know what to expect. This coming week we will begin teaching at our designated summer school, and hopefully this experience will help calm the nerves a bit.

Until next time,
HookemHT