My Students and I

For my Ignite Phoenix presentation, I integrated my personal teaching experiences with my current passion for social media. As a result, I inserted a few pictures of my classroom and students into my presentation. Here are a few favorites and a bit of an explanation (since some do need explaining).

This is my first year classroom. My decorations my second year were just as bad. Even though I taught pre-teens, they still expected a colorful, bright classroom. I had so much wall space I didn’t have a clue what to do with. My classroom was a portable or a trailer on the back lot of the school. I had a random sink that didn’t work. The only perk was being able to control my own heat/cooling and that when I locked myself out (which was often) I could climb through that small window you see to get assignments I needed to grade.

A little background on where I lived. I lived and taught in Rio Grande City, Texas. Ringgold Middle School was built on Fort Ringgold, a retired fort where Robert E. Lee once lived (so they say). The classrooms used to be in the barracks until they built the school grounds in the 1980′s I guess. We did not usually get federal holidays off, but every year we would get a long weekend for the Starr County Fair that would come through town. This is a sign for one of the carnival rides that came through. Spelling was never my student’s strong suit either.

A great part about where I lived? The immense amount of open space to enjoy the Texas night sky. This is a picture of my friends and I at “TFA Lane”. Though Teach for America pretty much held our hands through the entire move, we were still expected to find housing on our own. “TFA Lane” was a collection of small houses on a local’s ranch that were pretty much dominated by Teach for America corps members. Famous for wild parties, this one was at the end of our second year.

I taught as part of a cohort known as “The Boas”. I am the one in the Ringgold sweatshirt, yes with orange hair (don’t ask). Behind me is the reading teacher, Mr. Solis (we competed for popularity among the students). Next to him is Mr. Molina, the science teacher. In the middle is Mrs. Pena, the English teacher and next to her the only other Caucasian teacher (and TFA) in the 7th grade besides myself, Ms. Stein-Lobovits, the math teacher.

My first year of teaching was not my best. The bane of my existence was this group of students…my 8th period class. Oh my goodness. I pretty much got every trouble maker that was infamous in the 7th grade in this class. As you may notice, it is predominately boys. I also had the most special education students in this class. Though it was excruciating, I am thankful for them since they caused me to do research on classroom discipline over the summer…leading to an excellent second year.

The end of the year final project was the Texas History Wax Museum. My students spent two months researching a historical figure and then gave a speech as that person. My first year teaching my student Roland chose to be a Texas Ranger. He wanted to bring his actual horse behind my portable and give his speech from the saddle. I said that might  not be wise, so after some compromising, I allowed his father to bring in the full saddle. Naturally I couldn’t resist.

Another wax museum character, Christopher Columbus. Harry Brown III was one of three Caucasian students I had during my two years of teaching. Not only was he at a disadvantage for being in the racial minority and having a very snobby name, he also was a severe overachiever. Harry used to stay behind after class and chat with me. He’s doing better now in high school as he has found an emo crowd of friends that enjoy playing rock band and listening to NIN.

I was always getting talked into doing extracurricular activities. My second year I got volunteered (literally, one of the other TFA teachers said “I think Ms. Charland would love to do that) to be the Student Council faculty advisor. I found out that part of my job duties involved building two floats for parades in Rio. I had never built a float. Luckily I don’t have pictures of the first one (It was pathetic). My second one was much better. A mock snow hill complete with fake snowball fight and snowman. Plus, I had the ingenious idea of having a student stand in the float with fake legs to make it look like he was tubing down.

What it all came down to was my connection with the students. That is what makes me want to go back to teaching every day of my life. The most memorable moments of my life include students that hated learning saying how much they enjoyed a lesson, or a special education student getting the highest score they have ever gotten on one of my tests. This is a picture of Caleb, my walking miracle. Caleb hated learning and had severe ADD. He was written off as a behavioral problem whose own mother didn’t want to have anything to do with him. Over the course of his being in my class, Caleb’s grades dramatically improved and he started to self-control his behavior. I’m glad to have been a small part of his change and thankful for the impact he had on me.

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