The Phone Call Home

AZTF Fellow - Kelsey Alhamark

Image: akeeris / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

As part of consequences for a student’s undesirable behavior, every teacher makes the proverbial “phone call home”. Making phone calls home is definitely an effective way to communicate with parents about challenges and gain their support.  I sometimes make phone calls home to the parents of my students who make coming to school each day so enjoyable. I tell these parents that I am calling to brag about their son or daughter.

Take my student David. David rarely has questions on the lesson, clarifies what we are doing for other students, writes more than is expected and writes it well, and runs (literally runs from one end of the campus to the next) to my class just so he won’t be marked tardy. I spoke to David’s mother today just to brag about him. I told her what a pleasure it was to have her son in my class and what a positive influence he has been for other students. David’s mother was very pleased to hear this especially since basketball season has begun and, as a freshman especially, balancing time can be a new experience to get used to.

As much as I love making these phone calls to parents like David’s, I know that students like David don’t really need me. David doesn’t need me to explain things twice because he is so attentive the first time. I have no doubt in my mind that David will go to college, earn a degree, and go on to do great things.

I didn’t join Arizona Teaching Fellows because of students like David. I joined Arizona Teaching Fellows for the opportunity to teach the students who were the exact opposite of David—but have all the potential in the world to do the same things: be outstanding students, go to college, earn a degree, and do great things. Arizona Teaching Fellows made it possible for me to embark on this incredible journey and hopefully I will make a difference in the educational lives of my students to go out into the world and do the same.

The Top Five Surprising Reasons Why I Love Teaching

Jon Short - 2008 Fellow & Special Education Teacher

Below are the top five reasons why I love being a teacher that I could never have forseen:

#5.  It’s never, ever predictable: Everything in a school is always evolving, and I’ve learned to sort of just relax and let the currents of the school push me back and forth. I may have planned to get through adding fractions by the end of the week, but two days after starting lessons, my students still haven't fully grasped what a numerator is. Alternatively, I remember planning a week to cover a new reading skill, but my pretests showed that my students had it down with 100% accuracy.  And when I'm not teaching my fellow teachers might need to pull me aside to ask for advice or a student bursts into my room for help with anything from school work to personal problems - both it seems just as I’m about to dive into my foot-long sub sandwich. And so I’ve learned to started every day with the mantra, “Okay school, gimme what you got!”

#4.  The OOOOOHHHHHH moment: When teaching, there’s this magical moment when a student moves from complete confusion to complete understanding. I call it the OOOHHH moment. The last time this happened was a couple weeks ago, working with a student who had trouble counting. I’d tried everything, and when I finally found the strategy that worked, he shouted “OOOOHHHH, now I get it!”

#3.  The BIG, BIG office: Well, technically, it’s a classroom. But if you’ve ever wanted an office of immense size, where you can stretch, jog, and lead an afternoon yoga class, a school classroom makes a fine office.  While I may share my office with thirty or so middle school students, after school hours, it’s all mine.

#2.  Missing rush hour: I’m at school by 6:15AM every day. I’ve already started before most people’s alarms go off. And some days, I’m out by 3:30PM. The local news station reports traffic at that time as “smooth and light” and I can’t tell you how great it is to have a seven minute commute.

#1.  A veritable army of students ready willing to work above and beyond: It doesn’t matter how dirty, how boring, or how menial a job is, any one of your students will gladly stay after school to help. My desks and chairs are cleaned daily thanks to two of my students; and whiteboards are washed thanks to two more. I don’t even have to organize my own teaching materials, thanks to two more students. All I have to do is play music while they work, and my room sparkles for the next day and the kids are happy to make their school and classroom a great place to be.

Forming Parent-Teacher Teams

My name is Thai Nguyen, a 2010 Arizona Teaching Fellow and current Elementary Education teacher at Loma Linda Elementary School in Phoenix.  Last year, as a first-year teacher, I was able to get to know all of my students’ parents.  I met them twice a year during parent-teacher conferences and frequently made phone calls home to update them on their child’s academic and behavior progress.  But I felt that I did not do enough to involve parents in their child’s education.

This year I have adopted a program called Academic Parent-Teacher Teams (APTT).  Instead of the traditional parent-teacher conferences, under the APTT model, three 75-minute parent meetings and one 30-minute individual meeting are held throughout the year.  During the 75-minute meetings, all parents come together where I review class and individual student data, e.g. test scores.  At this all-parent meeting, I also teach parents reading and math activities that they should do with their child every night.  The 30-minute individual meeting is where I sit down with each parent and student and discuss the student’s individual progress.

So far parents have reacted very positively to the APTT program.  Parents have told me that they have always wanted to help their child with schoolwork but never knew how.  APTT gives parents resources and training on how to support their child at home.  I also had parents tell me that previously when their child came home with academic data, they did not understand what the numbers and the graphs meant.  But after attending an APTT meeting, parents now know the importance and the implications of the data.      

There is no question that teachers are the greatest factor in student achievement.  From the moment students walk into the classroom, it is my responsibility to get students where they should be academically.  But parents also serve an important role in their child’s education.  Forming parent-teacher teams allows parents to be more involved and for us to work together to support their child’s academic needs.

A Life of Purpose

AZTF Fellow - Yani Delima

As a current Arizona Teaching Fellow and first year teacher, I have learned more than I ever imagined in such a brief time.  I've learned that building rapport and investing in my students is the cornerstone to academic success. With the fall semester in full force I have worked to find various ways to motivate my students and ensure their growth.

One of the biggest challenges I've had this year hasn’t stemmed from the sleepless nights planning lessons, tracking progress, or writing Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for my special education students.  My biggest hurdle has been promoting academic success to students who might not have received the guidance and support to accomplish BIG goals.  I know my efforts, and the efforts of my coworkers at Amy Huston Academy in Phoenix, CAN and WILL be the difference in these students’ lives.

Can you imagine going to work and not know your purpose…not know why you put in such tireless effort on a daily basis?  I can’t!  As a teacher in a high needs classroom, I know my purpose lies in the potential of my students.  Regardless of (or perhaps even because of) the challenges my students face in their lives, I see future leaders.  I see future parents and community role models. I see greatness. Yet, without support and guidance, their potential to be great may be lost.  As a teacher it is my responsibility to open my students’ eyes to the opportunities and world around them. I must constantly motivate them to do more than they think possible.  Currently, I am working with a school counselor to provide additional classroom lessons on the importance of succeeding in school, community service, life skills, etc.  It’s an opportunity to change their thinking and look at the world through a different lens, a lens in which they too see purpose and greatness in life.

Time to work!

AZTF Fellow - Kelsey Alhamark

Can I say that what does not kill you will make you stronger and not sound trite? Well, I will say it even if I do—What does not kill you will make you stronger.  My second year teaching is proof of that, because I am still going strong teaching in the desert of Southwestern Arizona.

Last week Arizona high school students who didn’t pass last year, retook the required AIMS exam (Aptitude Inventory Measurement Service) used to determine grade level proficiency. My freshmen homeroom at Kofa High School in Yuma took the practice tests in preparation for next year’s AIMS.  I work to invest my students in the importance of the practice tests so that they can succeed on the AIMS test next year but, like a lot of 14-year-olds, my students sometimes have a hard time seeing past the coming weekend.

Often on days like the ones we’ve had during state testing I hear, “But why do we have to work?”  I tell my students that they must learn so that they can graduate, so they can get well-paying jobs, so that they don’t fall into the gap of poverty and crime. I know, and they really do know too, that I care, “That’s why!”

So much of why the achievement gap may exist is because our students are not being told to work amongst other things.  Like today, our freshmen team counselor came in and spoke to each class about credits, transcripts, getting into college, and attendance. As she is talking to the kids about our schools attendance policy, she asks for students to raise their hands if they missed more than 10 days of school last year. More than half the class in each of my four freshmen classes raised their hands. I couldn’t believe it. For a brief moment I think, well this is one reason why so many of them are reading and solving math problems at a 5^th grade level, but then I remember, I, their teacher, am the most important factor in raising my students’ achievement. I am and should be accountable to raising my students’ achievement by more than one grade this year.

Despite the challenges that I have faced this year so far, and there have been many (Did I mention it’s only the first of November?), I feel good and ready to do my part to be that voice telling my students, “WE must work!”  Yes, it’s almost midnight and I still have papers to grade and lesson plans to write and coursework to finish, but I can’t wait to get up tomorrow and start all over again.