The Power of a Teacher

"I've come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It's my personal approach that creates the climate. It's my daily mood that makes the weathers. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated & a child humanized or dehumanized."

-Haim Ginott, Teacher and Child

Prepare

I finally visited my school, T.A. Sims Elementary, & could not be more thrilled to begin working. The school is just the right size, the faculty & staff are super friendly, & the school seems to be very cohesive & united.

I will be one of the five 4th grade instructors, & one of the three dual language instructors within that team. A tentative school day is as follows:

7:30 a.m. - 8:00 a.m. - School breakfast
8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. - Reading (120 min)
10:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m. - Reading MINDS
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. - Writing (120 min)
12:00 p.m. - 12:30 p.m. - Lunch
12:30 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. - Math
1:45 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. - Teacher Conference
2:45 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. - Math
3:15 p.m. - 3:45 p.m. - Bilingual Centers
3:45 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. - Science

I will be teaching reading/writing in both Spanish & English (50/50), math in English, and science in Spanish (twice a week). My school day is much longer than most, as we participate in extended days.

This week & next week I am participating in Fort Worth ISD teacher orientation. My district is wonderful!

T.A. Sims Elementary

Teach For America assignments

Teach For America was lucky to receive a huge donation from Cengage Learning. To show our appreciation, many DFW 2012 Corps Members attended the Cengage Rise & Shine Event...which began at 5:45 a.m. in Dallas for participants! 

TFA Corps at Rise & Shine

 The event was themed Michael Jackson...it was interesting!

In my free time, I explore Fort Worth...

Sundance Square in downtown Fort Worth

 ...but my future class is constantly on my mind :)

Goal: Teach WITH Leadership

Test, Test, Test

Post-institute life has been filled with tests, paperwork, & orientation. Besides the tests, I've enjoyed the free time, which has allowed me to road trip to Colorado & settle home in Fort Worth.

Another thing that has happened post-institute: I got an RT (retweet) from the Teach For America Twitter account! For a social media queen, this was really exciting to me. Haha.

Check out that #1 tweet!

Test 1: The Bilingual Supplemental tests your knowledge about how bilingual education came to be in the U.S., as well as best practices for a bilingual classroom.

I wore my Nike Olympics tank for good luck to my
bilingual supplemental test..

...& good thing, because it helped me pass! Performed like a champ.

Test 2: The Language Proficiency Test (LPT) checks oral & written proficiency in both English & Spanish. It ended up being a bit more difficult to me than expected...

Doormat outside of the testing site.

My Fort Worth ISD new team member pin I received at orientation.

I moved into my house in Fort Worth! My room contains only the
essentials - a bed & shelf. Still on the lookout for a desk & dresser!

The Fort Worth Stockyards. YEEHAW.

Funnies

After being immersed with 800+ Teach For America corps members, facilitators, etc for 5+ weeks, I've noticed certain "buzzwords" used during sessions & conversations that never fail to make an appearance.

Fundamentally. Transformational. Push back. Action plan. Vision. Resonate. Reflect. Truly. Really. Transparent.

Here is a video that knocks some of the TFA lingo. It's important to note that not EVERYONE speaks like this, of course! This video is a bit of an exaggeration, but I got some good laughs from it.

For some more laughs, check out this Tumblr blog called "#whatshouldTFAcallme." The blog description is pretty accurate: A blog to keep TFA corps members from losing their minds along with all their free time.

End of the Beginning

Today was the end of Institute, a place where I grew as a student, teacher & leader. A place where I met so many wonderful people & teachers. A place where my heart will forever reside, because this is where I truly learned what Teach For America was really all about - and became part of the cause.

Today was the end of the beginning.

THURSDAY:

My empty classroom. Bye, summer school.

My collab. Thank you Paco, Rosa & Melissa for being such wonderful friends & teachers!

 After the last day of school on Thursday, my roommate Cindy & I celebrated at the pub on-campus. Cheers!

Representing DFW with our duck hats.

Teach For America then had closing ceremonies, filled with inspirational speeches, from 7:30 - 9 p.m. It was the last time all of the Houston, San Antonio, DFW, Rio Grande Valley & Eastern North Carolina 2012 Corps Members were united in the same room.

Program for the night.

 The ceremony also had some really cool acts - specifically a drumline from YES Prep North Central & a shuffling act by Kreativity has Spoken. Check out these videos:

FRIDAY:

My CMA, Leland, had an emergency stash of chocolate pandas for our cohort. The rule was that if you were about to have/were having a mental breakdown, you could open the box & eat a few pandas. Luckily, the box was left sealed until the final day. We celebrated by eating the pandas together :)

Holy pandas.

Cheers to no breakdowns!

My cohort. My family. Y'all are amazing.

Last day of school

Today is my final day as Ms. Castro at Sylvan Rodriguez Elementary School. I am excited to move to the next chapter of this TFA journey, but I am sad to say goodbye to my first class of students. I told them they would all have a special place in my heart, & they laughed at me...but it's true!

Pre-assessment versus post-assessment test grades

My collab received the results from the tests our class took, & were filled with mixed emotions. Generally everyone improved, but some students' grades actually decreased. How does that happen? The defeats definitely impacted us more than the triumphs. We all have a lot of growing to do as teachers.

Zumba time

 Yesterday, all teachers & students spent 1.5 hours doing Zumba. I don't know why we had to dance for that long, but I was pretty exhausted after 1 hour! I felt ridiculous & it was weird all around, but definitely made some good memories during it all. We actually danced to Shakira's "Waka Waka," which was great because I already knew the dance (don't judge).

Screenshot of my end of Institute Survey

 TFA has us complete surveys ALL THE TIME. & get this - they are not anonymous. They send each corp member a personal link with an individual password to track each CM. Also, we have to take the surveys at school, where facilitators we "judge" are. Personal opinion - there is no way these surveys can yield very good data, because they are completely skewed by so many factors. With facilitators roaming the rooms during survey time, I think CMs feel pressured to censure their opinions. Who knows.

 Other random happenings:

Today's bus ride to school felt like I was in a horror movie - thunder, rain, lightening, etc.

A prize we are giving away to a student today. I think it's creepy, but I hope 10 year-old boys think otherwise...

Mr. Lara with the bat.

Summer Jam

Institute ends THIS Friday. YES.

My excitement to finally have a "summer" is mixed with some sadness - I will have to say goodbye to my students, to my friends from other regions (Houston, Rio Grande Valley, San Antonio, Eastern North Carolina), & the faculty when I depart from Houston.

These past few weeks have been absolutely exhausting. I am at week 5, & feel completely drained; I can't remember the last time I've been this tired! As a result, I've chosen sleeping over blogging :P

Last week ended on a high note - my collab group got to take 3 of our students to Rice University to show them what college was all about (the program was called Summer Jam). I have so many wonderful pictures of my students, but since they are minors I am not allowed to post them online :/ so here is what I have instead!

Mr. Goins (middle) and Mr. Lara with a student.

Horned Frogs!

Some more horned frog hands

 

Before the afternoon Summer Jam celebration started, students & staff started dancing to "The Wobble."

An awful picture of our guest speaker, Vince Young, at Summer Jam.

Last nights events - TFA Prom - I had to skip to finish homework...