Campus Harvest Support Letter: Ashley

To whom it may concern:

Over the months, I have been exposed to Jesus more than ever in my life.
It all started when one of my teachers proposed that I attend a
winter camp that lasted one weekend. It was like a dream come true
because I've always wanted to stay at a weekend camp. I had no idea
what I was really getting myself into until I got there. After a fun
little singing moment, this man began to preach and I just stared at
him wonderously as he spoke about Jesus. He gave us real life
situations to think about how our relationship with Jesus works. I was
fascinated. After that, I could not stop thinking about where my
relationship with Jesus stands. A couple of weeks after the camp, I
attended an encouter for one of my friends church. Although it was 12
hours long and I didn't really enjoy it, it opened my eyes even more
to the life that Jesus lived. Although at the moment, I have decided
that I do not want to devote my life to Jesus right now, I still want
to learn more about Jesus so when I am ready, I can have no doubts.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my letter and for even
considering to support us financially in our journey for Jesus.

Sincerely, Ashley

Campus Harvest Support Letter: Jeffrey

Hello people of the world my name is Jeffrey and i am real thrilled to know i might be going to Campus Harvest. Recently Mr. Choi and i have been dicussing the trip as its a good time to learn and study christianity, especially since i have recently accepted god into my life. My relationship with god has recently began and i know its important to me and is why i would like to be able to go to Campus Harvest. Last but not least thanks for the time on reading this letter and prayerfully considering on fundraising and helping us to experience campus harvest.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey

No Man's Land

Entering another teacher's classroom to do an observation with an administrator is a bit like farting at a dinner party and then pointing to your spouse with a disgusted look. Teachers don't buy it though and still give me the I-can't-believe-you-would-do-this-to-me glare as they mutter between clenched teeth, "Please come in, we are just..."

It's mid November and I'm still learning to settle into my new role as lead instructional teacher at my school. I'm finding out very quickly that people see me very differently since just 2 months ago. I am not an administrator but I'm in meetings with them behind closed, but windowed, doors and I implement instructional and logistical changes that were birthed during them. Telling our history department teachers that we need to design formal data tracking assessments doesn't win me any popular votes, unfortunately. Maybe I shouldn't care, but I do, which is why I think it's taking me longer to feel comfortable in my new leadership role. The new leather chair isn't broken in yet because I'm not allowing myself to completely sink into it.

I'm slowly learning that others will adjust and appreciate me for who I am and for what I have to offer as soon as I recognize my role and do it without shame or guilt. Besides, I believe in what I am doing so there's no reason for me to shrink back and be defeated even before the first period bell. Can I get an Amen? If not, don't mind me. I'm fine preaching to myself.

Last Words in 09

09 school is year done. I'm sitting in bed and it's past 9:08am. This is beautiful and it's exactly what I need. Students and teachers both were getting exhausted. I could feel everyone's minds teetering at the edge of our individual thresholds by beginning of last week. Some students' frustrations exploded from time to time and I practically had to rub their backs and calm them down with gentle lullabies while sliding global history document based questions underneath their pens. It's a stressful time of the year for many of our students as Christmas and New Years often surfaces bad memories or articulates their poverty.

I asked a few days ago, "Who's looking forward to the holidays?" and got nothing. I somewhat saved that dead end conversation with a "Can we at least agree that we're looking forward to not having school?" to which I received a few positive yays and woohoos. Given all this, I was determined to end this year on a positive and hopeful note. I wanted to make sure I spoke words life to them before sending them home. So I pulled out my soapbox from underneath my desk, stepped up onto it, and filled up our 52 minute class periods with inspirational verbiage. Just kidding. I threw them a party. We ordered pizza, I made some Korean dumplings which all busted open and fell apart, and students brought in drinks and some good 'ol Dominican dishes. One of the students also brought some weird dancing game where you have to imitate a digital dance instructor on the screen.

It was a blast. They loved it. And just before they left for home I told them how I sincerely love and care for them even though I may get frustrated at times. I told them how much I've enjoyed getting to know them thus far and that I was really looking forward to torturing them more next year. They love that stuff. It was a good ending to the year. Bring it on 2010!

Teaching Tip #2

Word Walls!

Though memorizing vocabulary definitions doesn't register too high on the famous Bloom's Taxonomy pyramid, it is often the foundation for understanding and higher order thinking. All students benefit by building their vocabulary in every subject area. Unfortunately, the 10th grade students I inherit every year in the South Bronx have significant vocabulary handicaps, which makes it even more imperative that I push for it in my global history classes. How else will my students debate the pros and cons of capitalism and socialism, or analyze the responses of the Industrial Revolution if they don't know what a union is or who Karl Marx was? Vocabulary is not only foundational, it's also really fun and it's an amazing differentiation tool anyone can use in his/her classroom across all disciplines. The pictures are from my own classroom. Take a look at them as I explain how my word wall works in my classroom and with my students.

1. I give every student whole punched index cards with a ring to hold them all together (I suggest all students to carry the cards in a ziplock bag so they don't get destroyed).
2. I put up all the words they'll need to memorize at the beginning of each unit. Every unit is a different color so they are easily distinguishable.
3. At the bottom of the word wall I have four identical stacks of vocabulary cards in rings that contain all the terms and definitions that are on the word wall. (These cards are made by various students who earn extra credit points for creating them) The words are written on one side and the definition on the other. Some of these cards have pictures drawn on them to help visualize the meanings.
4. Students are allowed to flip through these note cards whenever they need to check their own definitions. These ringed cards are also great for group study sessions and serve as a great resource. Students never have an excuse for not having their own updated vocabulary cards!
5. Lastly, having a word wall that is visible and attractive allows me to easily access students' prior knowledge and to review terms and concepts we've covered in the past. I point to it almost every single day.

I encourage you to try this in your classrooms. It's a bit of work to get it set up initially, but it's worth it and students feel the immediate gratification of knowing and remembering things they didn't know just the day before. Of course, I give tons of vocabulary quizzes which always includes new and old terms as well as other activities that hold students accountable for retaining all the definitions. Any questions? Fire away.

Giving Dreams Faces

I think I've mentioned before that I coordinate and teach a program called AVID at my school. It stands for advancement via individual determination. I'm not crazy about the name, but that's exactly what it is; a program for students who are determined to succeed...not necessarily the brightest and the smartest (although they are in most cases), but definitely the most driven. It's my first year teaching it and it was rough going at first. I made sure to give the impression that the program is rigorous and meaningful, but had a hard time living up to my promises in the beginning. Since then, I can gratefully say that our AVID students have grown significantly already and are starting to grow attached to each other as well as with me. We've written personal mission statements, organized a fundraiser walk to donate to Stop Child Trafficking Now, we have student-driven tutorials twice a week, everyone takes amazing cornell notes in all their classes, and now we're writing personal statement essays focusing on different aspects of our life goals. They complain they have to do extra work, but they secretly love it. I've never known what it feels like to teach a class full of enthusiastic students until this year, and it's really refreshing.

Something else I've been doing for my AVID students is bringing in special speakers from different professions and backgrounds. So far we've had our principal, my sister who's a consultant, a friend who works for a major advertising company, and a co-worker's contact who works for Jet Blue's marketing department. Besides the fact that I make my students feverishly take notes during these presentations, they love it and learn things they've never even heard of. I've been shocked how amazing my friends and family have been to be willing to give up a part of their work day to speak to my students, complete with sophisticated power point slides. All of our guests are helping my students to connect real faces and stories to careers they've only seen on TV (you'd be amazed how many kids say, "I want to be CSI," but don't even know what the acronym stands for). Thank you guys so much!

Next, I also want to take my AVID students beyond our school walls and into different work places and colleges. One thing I know about dreams is that it's much easier to dream and pursue goals when you've see them. Any takers? =P

Like All the Others, But Not.

I just got back from a school leadership retreat that was sponsored by a private education organization in Stamford, CT. After working all day at school, I drove up and worked with my fellow team leaders and administrators until 10pm. We then woke up this morning and worked from 8:30am to 12:30pm. Needless to say, I'm tired, but I feel like we accomplished a ton. Awesome.

Still, I would like to say a word on these sponsored conferences for educators because I find them amusing. Every one of these events inevitably has us checking into a large hotel like a Sheraton or Hilton, and then registering at one of the lobby booths where we pick up our free not-so-manly tote bags (pretty insensitive, if you ask me) that contain the weekend schedule and a stress ball along with a pen and notepad stamped with the hotel logo. They also include many hours of sitting in freezing conference rooms with cream colored walls and no windows, corny banners that scream weird mantras like G2G - Good to Go!, and motivational speakers who passionately remind us that we do what we do because we love "our kids." And of course, we can't forget that every one of these weekends end with some sort of party where drinks and loud music begin to blur lines that separate co-workers from love interests. Awkward.

Well, this trip was no different and had the likings of all of the above except that I ran into 'John', a friend whom I haven't seen in a year. God's been putting him on my heart from time to time and I've been praying for him. I was so excited to have lunch with him today and I prayed on the elevator ride down that God would use me to really minister to him. Turns out, God had plans to minister to me through him. After catching up, I learned that he's being mentored by an amazing christian principal through a program he applied and got accepted to. When I shared with him my hopes and dreams he said a couple of things that got me writing this blog today. He said to me that in his short experience as a school administrator he's learned that it's easier to give and serve when you don't have much than it is when you have much. He also said in response to my frustration of not knowing what God wants me to do next in pursuing the vision God's put in my heart that sometimes we need to let go of whatever it is we are holding onto in order for God to move us forward. What do you need to let go? He asked me.