Love to Teach: Jenna Smith

Ever since I was in kindergarten, I have wanted to be a teacher.  Every day after elementary school, when my parents asked me what I learned, I would re-enact my day as the teacher. In middle and high school, I helped my friends with their math homework because that subject always came easy to me and I enjoyed helping them. When I was a student at UW-Whitewater, I got a job at the Academic Support Center where I held study sessions for college students struggling in math. Then as a student-teacher, teaching finally became a reality! Although it was a challenging stage of my life, it confirmed my lifetime desire to go into the field of education.  Last year I graduated from the University of Wisconsin Whitewater and am finishing my first job, teaching high school math to at-risk students. I love teaching.

My students have always asked me and will continue to ask, “why do you want to be a teacher?” Each time I hear this, I look at the student and answer, “because it gives me great pleasure when you understand what I’m teaching you.” I love to see the “light bulb” go off telling me they understand the concept.  I especially love when they say, “that was a cool activity.” “It will help me remember that concept.”

I look forward to coming to school every day because every day is a new day - new lesson, new challenges, and new attitudes. The classroom will continue to change as technology advances. Technology brings new opportunities, and something more to look forward to.

I love to teach. I am excited for what’s to come in the world of education. 

Author:  Jenna Smith

1st Year Teacher

High School Math

Delavan-Darien High School, Delavan, WI

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or submit a blog post in 500 words or less about why you love to teach.

Love to Teach: Denali Lander

Bill Haber / Associated Press

Teachers seem to get into and stay in the classroom for one of three reasons. The first is a competitiveness with results that drives each hour of planning and execution to ensure ones’ students are performing beyond what society expects of them, approaching and becoming the best. A second is a love of content. From the most sincere passion for young adult literature to an ongoing fascination with earth history. The final is an intrinsic and inexplicable magnetism toward young people. A feeling of rightness when interacting with children and teenagers and helping them discover their purpose and develop their path for life.  Thinking back about my own teachers and the teachers I now call peers, everyone certainly has a combination of the three. But it does seem as though teachers’ natural tendencies lean in one particular direction of this triangle. An intrinsic care for and desire to work with young people has been my motivator for entering the classroom through TFA and staying there beyond my two years. The underpaid long hours are certainly on my mind, but alleviated by individual moments with kids.

What unsettles me most is knowing that, even with students I’ve spent hundreds of hours with during and out of school, I continue to question the transformational impact other teachers and I have had. How long will that unknown impact even last? This questionable effect can be, at times, maddening but is forever motivating. Success for each and every young person is possible. There can always be more, and schools can always be better. And they need people to be around for years to make them that way. I will be here. 

Author:  Denali Lander

5th Year Teacher

8th Grade ELA 

Kipp Central City Academy, New Orleans, LA

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Spotlight On New Orleans

Arranged behind the green, yellow and purple curtain of Mardi Gras, jazz and jambalaya, are hundreds of schools and thousands of students that are making leaps and bounds in their academic progress every day since Hurricane Katrina swept through the Big Easy.

washingtonindependent.com

Recent History of New Orleans Shifted Education Outcomes

The recent history of the New Orleans education system has greatly influenced its overall improvement. In 2003, two years before Hurricane Katrina hit the city of New Orleans, the Recovery School District (RSD) was created to take over failing schools within the New Orleans public school district.  For decades before, New Orleans had been known as the lowest performing school district in Louisiana and one of the worst school districts in the country.  Eighty percent of public school students were attending a failing school and the corruption within the education system was so high that the FBI set up a field office in the Orleans Parish building.  It was the storm that destroyed New Orleans that also turned around the failing education system.

While New Orleans was rebuilding itself from foundation to roof, change was brewing in schools with mission-driven leaders, and new ideas about academic achievement.  School leaders and non-profits from around the country flooded in to partake in the opportunity of a lifetime. Educators bound by public school rules and unions could work freely in the mainly charter system.  This turnaround from traditional public schools to charter schools had positive and negative effects, but the idea was that schools could make their own rules as long as they met testing standards laid out by the state.  According to the Cowen Institute, by the 2011-2012 school year 78 percent of public school students were enrolled in charter schools, and this number has continued to increase. 

edweek.org

Benefits of Teaching in New Orleans Schools

Although there are charter schools that have failed, and others that are struggling, there are several positives to working in the successful and blossoming charter schools of New Orleans.  First, teachers have the opportunity to make a large social impact and be part of an academically improving district.  Over 80% of public school students qualify for free or reduced lunch and in just three years, between 2009 and 2012, these students’ test scores increased from 37% to 51% basic or above (Louisiana Department of Education)

Additionally, a charter system with fewer rules allows for a wide-variety of schools to choose from.  For example, teachers at KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program) schools are often required to visit the houses of their students, so that they can build a stronger relationship with families.  Enrollment at Sci Academy, a high school, is kept at an enrollment of around 400 so that the staff is familiar with most all of the students. 

Finally, an educator can live well off New Orleans’ teacher’s salary, which has increased in recent years.  Between 2005 and 2010, the average teacher salary rose from $39,000 to $47,000.  With New Orleans’ cheap standard of living, one can comfortably reside walking distance from live music, fresh seafood, street festivals and Mardi Gras parades. 

If you’re interested in being part of an education environment that is like no other, in a city that is like none other in the nation, New Orleans may be the place for you.  To learn more about schools and education reform in Greater New Orleans, check out the links below.

Resources to Learn More About New Orleans Schools

The State of Public Education in New Orleans 2012 Report 

Educate Now 

The Times Picayune Education 

Louisiana Recovery School District (RSD)

Louisiana Department of Education