It's Almost Time....

With Student Leadership Academy under way, the start of school is only just around the corner. Hampton Preparatory requires their students to come to SLA in preparation for the school year and it serves as a time to reinforce the core values and vision of the school. But when your sitting in a classroom during July you really don't care what the the teachers in front of you are saying, because your wondering why your wearing an oxford shirt and slacks at 8 in the morning while your public school friends are in bed. Haha. It's been fun though, in working with mostly all the freshman, the bright young individuals that I will be teaching, I've only come to grow even more excited for the impeding year.

Hampton though has been undergoing remodeling, and although we've had students in the building the contractors, as usual, fell a bit behind schedule. Luckily though, my room has been released and I will start creating an atmosphere for exemplary students tomorrow! Being that this is my first year teaching however, I have no idea what to put up on them walls(except a blue devil of some sort), but I'ma do something.

In other news, crazy fact. Did you know that your cell phone harbors more germs that a public restroom door handle? That's just nasty. Getting all in your ear and mouth and what not....

Also, if you still happen to be a Lebron James fan and live in Cleveland, then you might want to keep that on the DL. Some super excited James fan was reppin' his new jersey at a Indians game and got booed and taunted by the crowd. The situation supposedly got so bad that personnel removed him from the stadium, I'm guessing for his safety. This is just ridiculous. Cleveland, I know you had nothing before James came to town, and then the Golden Boy took you to new heights that have since been obliterated in the last month, but please do better. We know your bitter, but it's starting to get annoying.

Hampton Prep!

Hampton Prep ladies and gentlemen! Started in 2007, this member of the Uplift Charter program system is situated in the South Dallas area, servicing students from the immediate Dallas area as well as the surrounding suburbs. I can't say how excited I am to start teaching and serving those students from my community and getting them on track for sure success.

Well the first week of training is in the books (this is my 7th week of training though since I started with TFA) and I can't convey just how ready I am to be done sitting through hours of informational sessions. I will say though, Hampton faculty has quite the characters so there are very few dull moments. Hampton has had some big changes though in administration, which usually means big changes across the board. I originally came in thinking I would be teaching 11th and 12th grade Algebra II and Pre-Cal, but that was changed and now I'm teaching Algebra I with the Freshman. I actually don't mind this at all because Algebra I is the foundation for the higher level maths and it excites me that I get to put this foundation in place for all my students. Also, being that their freshman and younger, I have more power to mold them into the scholars I want them to be! Muahaha! It's also exciting that I am the only Freshman math teacher, which means I am responsible, solely, for their results and success. I get the privilege of being responsible for approximately 120 Freshman student's math competency this year, not a task to be taken lightly.

If that isn't enough, I've already committed to jr varsity and varsity coach positions as well as possibly middle school and high school soccer positions. Oh and I'm looking to help start a Kappa League program as well as maybe help with the STEM program (science, technology, engineering, and math). So, as always, it looks like I'll be pretty busy between all this and finding time, somewhere in there, to visit my beautiful girlfriend Michelle. Although it seems like a lot, and probably too much for a first year teacher to be honest, I like it because I'm used to having to handle a lot of responsibilities at one time so it's kinda my niche. I find when I'm not very active I tend not to be as productive, interestingly enough.

So week two of training (8 in total) for Uplift starts Monday, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel because we have our Student Leadership Academy, which is a conference for all new incoming students, that begins on Thursday. So at least I'll get to interact with the students and meet some of my students that I'll be spending this next year with. I need a little break from all these adults.

The Closing of One Chapter... The Beginning of Another....

The realest and most swagged out CMA group TFA has ever seen. With the Vince Young banner in the background, stuff of him is kinda everywhere in the school.

Wow. Can't believe institute came and went. Going into it, it seemed that 5 weeks of countless sessions and teaching classes would take forever, but as they say, time flies when your having fun. Although institute was built up to me as some insurmountable task and "the hardiest thing you'll ever endure" (As a Nupe from the Iota Xi Klan I laughed at this) I actually never really felt stressed or burdened. I loved it. Eating 4 meals a day, teaching my lovely students, playing pick up soccer and basketball nearly every day, and hanging out with the likes of my partners in crime Dera aka "Suwu" (cuz she will ride on you) and Parul aka "Boosie" (cuz she will cut you) along with the infamous "Splish Slash (in ya face)" CMA crew headed by the one and only A-Deezy, was quite the experience. And although not every goal was met for my class, I still saw a clear impact that I was able to make. A few memories that I will always remember:

Obtaining the largest number of DCA infractions in TFA history (lol, Dera and Parul will cosign on that one).

Teach a class in a shirt and tie while enduring 90 degree heat and mosquitoes.

My first experience in the classroom being an observation where while talking to one student I was called "Drizzy" by another from across the class. I then told him he didn't have much room to talk because he looked like Jamie Foxx, at which point the entire class laughed at him. (He really did look like him though).

"Snocker ballz and ish."

Teaching Algebra II in all Spanish some days. Haha.

Listening to a maintenance worker's advice on how I should purchase a bullet proof vest and get a concealed weapons license.

"We tryin' to die tonight."

Watch my executive staff as well as fellow corps members behave in what I will call "interesting" ways on one of our last nights out, and then getting to laugh at them and tell them the stories the next morning.

"And that's fine."

The placement of Splenda in my shirt pocket.

Meeting some of the most ambitious, driven, and humble people I've ever met in my life. Dera you inspired me.

Listening to two of my peers question why the pizza man never showed up with their pizza for their class on the last day of school. Only to find out later that day that he had been robbed of the pizza when he got to campus.

Being invited by my students to their graduation next year.

Yes yes, the memories. I can't help but get excited knowing the task I face when going back to my region. I get the privilege to go into a low income community, where the students are referred to as "hopeless" and "unprivileged" and make a change. This task hits home for me though especially, because it is the very community that I grew up in. You see in my eyes there's no difference between those kids from south of the Trinity here in Dallas then those from the north, it's simply a mindset. The only thing they need is someone to truly believe in them, like I had, and that is exactly what I plan to do.

Investment Plans and Fatheads.

So we are finally down to the waning moments of institute... and today was the moment of truth. Today was the day of the post assessment, the day when our efforts over the last four weeks are put to test. Our first big step in closing that "achievement gap". For me and my collaborative partner however, no such glory was found. I don't think it would bev proper to say specifically what my kids made, teacher-student confidentiality and all that jazz, but let's just say I expected my kids to do a lot better, and not only this but I KNOW they can do a lot better. Unfortunately though, we are driven by our "data" and our "data" says that my partner and I did not meet our goal.

Although the post assessment said one thing, their daily assessments said another. You see, it wasn't that the students didn't know how to work the problems, it was that they simply had no retention, which was because they did not study. In fact, according to the data, every single one of my students not only met their growth goals but excelled far past them. The opposite however happened on the post assessment, which is the final tell all. This makes sense though, if I was taught a concept one day and then expected to recall how to deal with it four weeks later I'm not going to remember it. The key is getting the students to realize the importance of studying, something we struggled to do. I imagine this task will be slightly easier back in Dallas, where the kids won't a) just show up to summer school and expect to get credit or b) know they're being forced to come to summer school an extra four weeks because some rookie teachers need practice. Still though, an incredibly ingenious investment plan is crucial, I feel, for success.

Back to the present though, and my current "data" reminding me of the growth goals I supposedly didn't achieve for my students. Although it may say one thing, I do know my co-teacher and I made differences. The "data" doesn't show Liliana go from struggling on daily assessments and being unmotivated to scoring nearly perfect on every assessment and turning in homework every single day, whether she was present in class or not, or how Vanessa slowly gained confidence in her ability to succeed at math, hunting me down before days she knew she would miss to get the notes and homework. We made strides with some as well as missed the mark with others, but I truly can say that I did all I could for my class, and as frustrating as some days were, I never gave up on my kids because I felt accountable to them. In the last four weeks I've found that it is this burden that makes this job so hard and at the same time so great, because when you make a mistake or succeed, it doesn't affect just you but also a child's future.

Well enough for pensive thinking lol, I will end this entry with a follow up on Mr. Lebron James. To all those fans out there who've always wanted a LBJ fathead, now's your chance! Cav's owner Dan Gilbert, you know that fool who said that the Cavs would win a championship before Lebron, just so happens to own fatheads as well, and has slashed the price for the LBJ fathead from $99.99 to only $17.41!!! Why $17.41 you say? Well in 1741 there was this guy named Benedick Arnold who was born and went on to become real famous for all his contributions to our great country. So if you aren't a Cavs fan and can look past Mr. James "backstabbing" ways I would encourage you to make the purchase (I'm probably getting one for my classroom). I don't even think you can get a fathead of Zydrunas Igaulskas for this price haha. However, I do believe Gilbert is releasing two special additions. For full price of course, you can purchase a Miami James fathead with the back of the jersey reading "Arnold" or you can pick up the very popular, and controversial, two in one fathead of Delonte West and Lebrons James' m....

Completing the square, Lebrons a what sucker?, FIFA do better, and broken faces.

Do you know how hard it is to teach how to solve quadratic equations by completing the square? Especially to kids who were obviously not taught solid Algebra I concepts? It's hard, but then compound that by going through the first entire example while solving it the wrong way. Haha diiiiisaster. I'm proud of my kids though, after working a few more out while continually saying "Right class you solve it like this, not like Mr. Harrison earlier", they all grasped the concept and did well on the quiz. Quadratic formula tomorrow… my favorite. And shout out to Monski for backing me on keepin' it real, and we should campaign for those poor 2014 CMs, oh the travesty lol.

In other news, Mr. James… haha Mr. James. What have you done? The team that you built into a 60 plus win, post-season threat has completely disowned you. You brought this team from nothing to something, and when they can’t find it within themselves to get you ONE other superstar to play with in six years they crucify you. At first I was shocked, really I was, at the reaction from all of Cleveland, but then I remembered another pretty important person in history who was referred to as the “King” and even him, perfect and blameless in all his ways, was crucified by his own people. But I’m here to tell you the King has risen! In Miami!

Haha I’ll be honest, my first reaction to his decision was anger because I still thought there was a strong chance for him to come to Dallas (not really though lol). Instead, he will be teaming up with Wade and Bosh for a sure contender for the championship. I may skip out on watching the NBA entirely the next few seasons because I’m pretty sure of the outcome. Even still I’m sorry, but I don’t blame the man for leaving. Everybody who has been saying all this trash about Lebron is simply ridiculous, the man obviously wants to win a ring and he OBVIOUSLY isn’t going to do it in Cleveland. If you think about it he had to make a very tough decision. Now that he has “taken the easy way out” as people want to say, he has lost a large portion of his fan base, took a pay cut, probably pulled himself out of the “great as MJ” convo for many, and put an ENORMOUS amount of pressure on himself and the Heat to win the championship, because everyone is expecting nothing less from them. And honestly, it might not seem as easy as everyone thinks it will be. Lebron James has shown himself to be an intelligent human being and I’m sure he thought through all of this. What I will say though is he was wrong for the way he went about it. Not telling all the teams till the day off was a jerk move and it was wrong. Now making it a national televised event I honestly won’t blame him for, I’m sure that was sponsors pulling those strings and was something he had no control over. In any case, I, like many others, rushed from my current dealings just so I could get in front of a TV to hear it first. It is us, the society, who allow such shenanigans to take place. The funniest thing in all this though is Cleveland’s GM saying that they’ll win a ring before Lebron. Yea... I think we have a better chance of winning the war on “terrorism” than Cleveland does winning a championship now. No offense Tsipis.

In other sport’s news, congratulations to Spain for winning their first cup and to the Dutch for coming so close yet again but not returning home with the hardware, suckas. I’ll be honest though, this final, as well as the tournament as a whole, was just disappointing all around. The final was spoiled by reckless challenges from both sides, especially the Dutch, and some of the worst displays of flopping (even for Spanish players). Not only this, but as a retired striker, the finishing was dismal at best. Although this game was the best officiating I saw through the tournament, thinking back on all the terrible calls, US’s poor performance, Germany’s poor form and dodgy officiating, and a sub par final left a bad taste in my mouth that won’t be removed for another four years. On top of all this, Fernado Torres, Liverpool striker (Liverpool is my favorite club), further damaged his nagging injury in the closing minutes of the final, so my club’s chances of climbing out of the hole we’ve been in for the last two years is not looking likely. Sorry FIFA but that’s how I feel, better luck in Brazil, and I’ll be expecting competent refs and goal line technology.

I’d hate to end on this note so we’ll shoot for a more happy tone. This weekend was a lot of fun, got to venture to Austin with my roll dog Dera to hit the legendary 6^th Street in Austin with my Ace Jamaur, crazy Jade (haha), and sister Ebony. Shout out to the DJs for taking me back with some of that old skool Texas muzik, but two thumbs way down for ending the night at 1:56 consistently every night. You’re robbing us. Oh and I hope that random girl is making a full recovery from Friday night after getting widmilled kicked in the face by that dude break dancing. Classic.

Why is TFA Institute smack in the middle of the world cup?

The kids did well with their lesson today, factoring sum and differences of two cubes, so I was proud, especially when Tuesday was a bit rough in terms of material. I also handed out a classroom culture survey, which I was required to do, where I was pleased to find that none of my students despised me or my teaching style... praise the Lord. Let's pause here though, are the kids really going to write how they feel? I'm not saying that I am a mean teacher and deserve some negative reviews, but if I were a student and I was given a survey asking if my teacher was a good teacher, and although I don't have to put my name on it I'm thinking that a) when I turn the survey in obviously the teacher knows it's my thoughts and b) this teacher has been reading a lot of my writing of late meaning he can decipher whos handwriting is whos. Seems a bit risky when this is the same teacher that is holding basically your high school diploma in his hand. But whatever I do as told.

I had a bit of a moral conflict today, Germany vs. Spain, semi final of the world cup at 1:30, which just so happened to fall in between one of my teaching workshops after my teaching period. Now this was nothing new for me. Institute, which is Teach for America's training program, started around June 13th and ends July 10th. Do these dates sound familiar?? Why yes they do! That's around the same dates as the world cup! Ah yes that little tournament that happens once every four years or so right? Needless to say I've been a little on edge here at institute but not because of the hardships of learning the ropes of becoming a teacher, but for the fact that I have been missing world cup matches. Now in the group stage it was tolerable, I would simply have updates sent to my phone and catch the replays after the work day. But the semi-finals? Now that's just ridiculous. I bet if this was Teach for Brazil we would have postponed institute. They gave me no choice... but to find some illegal stream on my computer and watch during session.

Was this the moral conflict? No, not at all. I believe the 11th commandment sounds something like thou shalt watch the world cup, even if you are American and don't understand the impact and meaning of this beautiful game. So that choice was easy. It was when I had an interesting convo with a student in first period:

Student: "Mr. Harrison who you think is going to win?"

Me: "Germany of course. Too much talent, and they are playing great soccer at the moment"

(I won't even go into the details of this game and why Germany should have won and why FIFA should fire every single official that participated in this tournament... at least in this post)

Student: "Nah Mr. Harrison, Spain's gonna win. I'm leaving 3rd period to go watch it."

Good Teacher Response: "Now you know leaving school is against the rules and furthermore you don't want an absence. I'll be checking in with your 3rd period teacher to make sure your present."

My Response: "Well... you know the rules, but I don't blame you. Shoot, I'm trying to figure a way to get to watch the game too! You tryin' to put some money on it?"

Now I know that was wrong. And you can judge me. But I'm tryin to make money anway I can. Okay just kidding about the betting part, but I feel no remorse about a) watching the game during my session or b) indirectly encouraging a student to watch the game. The way I see it, me and Alberto were forced into making that decision. I wanted to learn more effective teaching methods and he wanted to learn what a metaphor was in 3rd period, but we were backed into a corner and thus we chose soccer.

So for those TFAers out there past and present who know that we constantly fill out surveys about our experiences, I want the TFA institute team to know that it is a crime to schedule during world cup matches! And a sin to schedule during post group play! You force people like me to decide between the beautiful game of soccer and equipping myself to help the youth of America.

Bienvenidos!

Yes, that's right, bien-venidos. Welcome! Yes that's right, I'm becoming more and more versed in the Spanish language and find myself incorporating it into everyday vernacular... compliments of the many Hispanic students I have in my class. Which brings us to the reason for this blog...

(...Drumroll...) Teachin' ain't easy, but somebody gotta do it! Ain't that the truth. Many people ask me how I'm doing or want to know all of the horror stories expected from teaching in high schools of lower income communities. Well, I'm tired of retelling these stories so I will instead write so that you may read (one of my goals, even as a math teacher, is to improve literacy so there ya go). Not only am I attempting to create a source for those who care to follow along with my travels, but I also like the idea of keeping this electronic journal of my experiences for myself throughout this entire experience. I would be deceiving you if I failed to mention one last reason, please save judgment because do remember I am a teacher, which is to make a little bread. So please, feel free to click away at the ads you may see! Who knows, you might really win that new iPhone by only completing 3 subscriptions in as little as 5 minutes....

So for those who don't know, or do know, or heck don't care my name is Mr. Harrison, proud Duke University graduate with a BSE in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Sciences that has forgone an illustrious engineering career path in order to join Teach for America. What is Teach for America you may ask?? Well they take "motivated" and "talented" graduates and place them into low income schools in order to overcome this problem they like to refer to as the "achievement gap". What is the achievement gap you say? It's when I walk into my Algebra II class and ask my students to subtract 2 from 1 and they have no clue what the answer is... and they are about to graduate with a high school diploma. This is obviously a problem, a problem I intend to work against for the next two years.

So, enough of intros, this will serve as mainly the retelling of events through Mr. Harrison's perspective, as well as probably some other random events that take place in my life that I will feel necessary to share for your enjoyment. So with that I will bid you a farewell and will be writing soon....

"No one is teaching if no one is learning"