Category: Corps Stories
Welcome 2013 Corps Members! #1
Aloha 2013 CMs! Welcome to Teach for America. My name is Kayla Jensen, and I am a 2012 Hawai’i corps member. One year ago, I was getting ready to attend Phoenix Institute, and after hearing horror stories from older CMs during ...
It’s The Little Things: Impact In Early Childhood
This is the first year I'll have a student that won't be promoted to first grade next year. I was devastated that I wasn't enough for him. If structures in my community had been in place he would have been ...
Dare To Dream: When Practicality Paralyzes
Most of my students want to be professional athletes. I know that the odds are slim that they will fulfill that dream. However, I try not to deter them with my rational point of view. I simply say that even ...
Taking A Chance to Ease Tension With A Student
Relationships are the key to teaching. No matter how spot-on your set of incentives and consequences might be, if you can’t connect with your students – particularly those who struggle in school – you’re in for a bumpy ride. And ...
In June, I’ll be moving from Hawaii back home to Austin, TX. I spent 22 years in Texas, surrounded by a large Hispanic (mostly Mexican) population. I myself am half Mexican. But as for teaching experience? I’ve taught approximately two ...
From Reluctant Writer, to Poet Warrior
As I left the Navajo Reservation in Crownpoint, New Mexico and headed north toward Denver, Colorado, my 4th stop on the Poet Warriors Project, I was reflecting on Adam Perry, and several students like him who I have encountered on ...
Beyond The Tracker: Letting students define success
Back in the day, which by the way is 2008, a corps member’s effectiveness was measured by “significant gains” in the classroom. I lived and breathed by my tracker, and if my students were on the way to “sig gains”, ...
