Work- First Day

Hi everyone!

It’s been a long while since I’ve posted anything up on this blog, so I do apologize for my absence. To say the least, it’s been the craziest week of my life. Just a quick summary update (before I get down into the nitty gritty): left my job in HK to attend my new teaching job back in the States.

You are currently reading the blog post of newly hired 6^th grade math teacher at REALM Charter School in Berkeley, CA.  WHOOT! I GOT A TEACHING JOB. But not just any job…

To give you more insight about our school: REALM Charter School was started in 2011 by our fearless leader, Victor Diaz. We currently have a middle and high school. Our school focuses on a project-based, technology-rich learning environment. Love. Grit. Action is our motto, but you already know though!

Today was the first day of whole site staff training (included new and returning teachers) at the REALM Institute. I missed new teacher training since I was just arriving back from Hong Kong and getting ready for the move up North. Despite this, the beginning was a serious blur of connecting new faces and names together. Our goals for the day were: to build community and staff culture so we can support and push each other in our work as social justice educators, learning what the school year will look like, and to collaborate with department colleagues on how to incorporate identity exploration in our curriculum.

The first community builder activity we did was: 3 dimensions of me. There were 4 people to a group. One person was put on the hot seat. The three others would rotate in asking: WHO ARE YOU? There was a surface level layer, what you do, and what you believe in. These will consists of 3 rounds of 1 minute each. So each person would need to go through 3 rounds of being asked “who we were” according to each “layer.” At first, it was immensely intimidating. It seems as if the overarching theme of my entire summer is trying to discover myself (thank you Summerbridge!).  Now, we were put on the hot seat, and I was expected to divulge these layers of myself to completely random people.  The people who went first were definitely the most, in a sense, unsure. However, as time went on, we went into a more comfortable state and were able to formulate an idea of what type of person each person was within the group.  But ah..this was just the tip of the ice berg.

After that activity, we did a debrief and moved onto the next. We were split into our PLC’s (professional learning communities). Apparently, last year, people voiced that they wish to be closer to the ones that they worked with. So that’s why we are doing PLC’s this year. We were given assigned reading: The Human Side of Human Beings: The Theory of Re-evaluation Counseling by Harvey Jackins published in 1994.  Our task was to break down the reading in terms of Bloom’s Taxonomy (comprehension, analysis, synthesis, and opinion questions).  The guided questions definitely helped the structure of our discussion based on the readings. An important connection that had to be made was: why was this the first reading assigned for us to read and how does this apply to our work? The main points that I received from this work were:

-Vast intelligence, zestful enjoyment of living, loving, cooperative relationships with others-these seem to constitute the essential human nature.

-While hurting, physically or emotionally, our flexible human intelligence stops functioning.

-When humans are in distress, we need to let them FEEL rather than preventing/stopping them.

When a baby starts to cry, what is your first instinct? It’s to stop the baby from crying, right? This has somehow been embedded in our societal norms to prevent a child from expressing how they feel. However, by doing this, research is telling us that this will lead to distress patterns to later years. Now you’re probably thinking, how on EARTH does this have to do with me as a teacher (well I was thinking this).  Well there is a connection here.

We as teachers are expected to support our students when they are in distress. What happened when teachers are in distress? Teachers have lives outside of school, and there are often times when distress from outside mixes with distress on the inside. You are only one person yet are expected to support hundreds of people. But HOW?? We have somehow been identified as heroes. We are all Hilary Swank swooping into the ghetto to rescue the children. However, I don’t believe that teachers should be identified with heroes. If our kids have a problem, we KNOW that they can handle it. That they have the ability to do so on their own. We want to be able to teach them how to be independent and to rely on themselves. They don’t need a hero to save them. They are their OWN heroes. I feel that teachers are similar to Gandalf. We will guide the Hobbits into the light when escaping some scary dragon. However, the Hobbits are the real heroes! They are their own heroes. Excuse my references, it’s getting a bit late but I am determined to write out this blog post.

After this activity, we had lunch but then had the most wonderful activity. We all made…drum roll please…IDENTITY MAPS! The directions for this were very broad. Here some paper and markers, and feel free to draw out your life. We were given examples of what an identity map looked like. From there, we were given about 1.5 hours or so. This was awesome. They expected us to sum our lives onto this white sheet of paper..and we had to use illustrations. Just what?? (Do you see how the theme of “who am I” is tying in very nicely?) Nevertheless, we got into the activity. We diligently spent our time mapping out where we came from and who we were. After we completed our identity maps, of course we shared it in our PLCs. After someone presented, there was a question and answer period as well as an appreciation period. Honestly, I never expected to feel so vulnerable so soon. Once again, I had to give these people I just met a summary of my life. Like…I don’t know you! You don’t understand my struggles?! But it was such raw honesty. We all come from different paths of lives and it was so eye-opening. My colleagues talked about their mother getting cancer, to getting a divorce the past summer, to their favorite uncle passing away recently, and it even went to how they might need to change to teaching internationally because the pay here is simply not enough. It was emotional. Emotions were running high, and I decided to teach them the “support” signal from SB! They appreciated it J By this time, I had a loving adoration for my fellow colleagues and all of their struggles that they have had to overcome. It really brought us closer and we bonded. I felt a sense of community establishing and it just made me feel so…”warm-fuzzies.” You know?

We had one more activity which was the department meeting. We had to split up into our departments and discuss….the COMMON CORE! Surprise surprise. What is the vision for our department? How do we adapt our courses in order to teach literacy? It was a fast pace but effective discussion. By then, we had already established a nice flow and our meeting flew by! We summed up the meeting with the “soul clap” similar (but not similar) to SB’s clap. The soul clap is just one clap. But it was nice. Resonating. We are one.

It was a long day. However, I left the day feeling more invigorated and stimulated. Knowing that I have such an admirable set of colleagues to work with, wow, it is an honor! It is a privilege. This is just the beginning. A mere glimpse of what the school year will be like. I have been so blessed with this opportunity to work with such a supportive staff and community. It’s going to be tough..but AWESOME! Hopefully, you’ll be able to stay with me along my journey here, and I will try my best to keep updating  as efficiently as possible.

As we say from the REALM, love, grit, and action. Good day to you all!

Sidenote: This was written on the day of, but posted a day later due to Internet issues!