No More Anecdotes

3.23.10 By José Valenzuela

This isn’t to say that I’m against anecdotes (I’m a full proponent of them), but honestly with so little time between admin. meetings, after school tutoring, MCAS testing, grading, planning, taking BTR grad classes, oh, and teaching of course, it has been hard to write for my blog.

So instead of an anecdote about what it means to be a first-year/urban/public school teacher, I offer to you a list of the things that I am proud of during my last few months as a full-time teacher in the Boston Public Schools.

I am proud of…

1. Starting only the second middle school wrestling program in the Boston Public Schools - with no equipment, minimal funding, and no mat, we were able to sustain a full season of practices (a HUGE thank you to the Lilla G. Frederick Wrestling Club and Coaches Knapp & Knapp and Flores for their support) and scrimmages and tournament. The challenges of building successful athletic programs in the BPS has been documented extensively (by the Boston Globe in their report “Failing our athletes”), but despite those challenges, I know that students who are committed to a goal will persevere.

2. Coaching TechBoston Wrestling’s first state medal winner - a 4th place finish at the Massachusetts Middle School Wrestling Championships. This just made it all worthwhile, especially losing my nights and weekends for practices and all-day tournaments and scrimmages. I think I got home at 9:30pm on Sunday (I left my house at 10am to get to the tourney), with planning still left to do, and it was STILL worthwhile. I love sports.

3. Organizing and leading a field trip for 30 ninth grade students and 3 chaperones from TBA to Google’s Boston office in Kendall Sq. (Cambridge) - this was my first chance to take students out of the building, and I was proud that I could use some of my connections in the business world to make this trip happen. The kids had a blast. I was able to connect with students in a way that a school building rarely affords (just imagine pointing out to students, most for the very first time, the beautiful view of downtown Boston from the Red Line on the Longfellow Bridge). If you want to see pictures from the trip, you can check them out here.

4. Despite the significant logistical and experience challenges, leading the 8th grade team at TBA, a faculty that includes five first-year teachers (4 from BTR) - Most new teachers would have simply said “no” to the offer of being a grade-level facilitator. I was ignorant, overly confident, or both. This first year has brought me (sometimes overwhelming) challenges, and the role of grade 8 team leader has been persistently stressful. However, I will concede that I have learned many things - about our jobs as teachers; my own capabilities, and current limitations; and how a job like this can help my own practice. I have been proud mostly of the way in which our team has come together to support our students. I am proud of the fact that over 20 percent of 8th graders made honor roll in the last term, highest of all grades (6-9) at TBA Lower. I am proud of the community that we are building for our students that nurtures them and pushes them to newer heights. I am glad to have been a part of working to create that.

I am proud of many things this year, but since the beginning of 2010, these are just some of the things that I can pin up on my virtual wall of successes as a first year teacher. It seems I can’t avoid the old anecdote, can I?