week 6

The weeks are starting to fly by and I'm getting more and more involved at my school. For the last 2 weeks I've had some practice writing lesson plans at Penn GSE and then have been allowed to teach them at my high school. My classroom teacher and I co-teach so the lessons I've taught have only been about minutes each. I really like how I'm being utilized though because it seems day by day I'm getting a little bit larger or a roll. 

I'm still trying to develop relationships with the students too. I went to my high school's football game this past weekend and had a really good time. Upon arriving at school on Monday I was able to share stories about the game and have a pretty detailed conversation with a few students who played in it. My school also has their first playoff volleyball match on Friday so I'm hoping I can make it to that too!

week 4 (protest)

This week at school I arrived to see half of my school, about 200 students, sitting down blocking the entrance. The school's student government organized a protest to the latest Philadelphia budget cut. I think it's called "leveling" but we've been told that our school needs to decrease it's budget by $91k which will likely result in a another teacher getting fired. I spoke with the students and they said they already lost 4 teachers this summer, only have art three out of five days a week, have never had a librarian, see a nurse once a week, and a guidance counselor one out of every two weeks.
Luckily the students let me inside but they made their voices loud and clear chanting throughout the first two periods and even inviting news crews to come by. Hopefully the students can continue to stick together in these tough times and show that they're willing to fight for a fair education and fair treatment of their wonderful teachers! Who knows if immediate change is going to take place, but the current seniors barely have any help with getting ready for college. Normally a guidance counselor would assist them, but now (the ones who have extra time) have the stay after school and hope that a teacher is willing to help. It's a really tough situation these kids are in, but at least they're sticking together and showing they won't go down without having their voices heard.