- ...pay off your bills and debts,
so all four of us did that,
we all have jobs,
and trying to save up for a house (laughs)
but for our students, it is imperative
that they do get a college degree.
With all the other gaps,
gender,
high paying jobs for men and women,
the color gaps,
so white or Asian or brown,
there's all these gaps,
at least, if anything
our kids can earn a little bit of success
it would be to earn a college degree.
Yeah, I think that's it.
(bell dings)
- [Moderator] Traditional public
schools or charter schools,
which side has the greener grass?
- [Woman, Black Tank Top] I
have to continue with the,
what is that called,
I'm an English teacher,
the extended metaphor of me as a gardener.
I think the grass is
green where you water it.
(audience laughter)
I would have to say, in
every classroom where there
is an excellent teacher,
an excellent school leader,
an excellent superintendent,
and education policy maker
in the capital of whatever
state, city, country you're in.
It would be both charter
schools and public schools.
- [Gray Shirt Woman] I want to speak on it
because I've only worked
at a charter school
and I feel like I'm often
under attack as if I don't
get the real reality
because I don't work for
Houston Public Schools, and
it's a big misconception
that Yes Prep only takes
smart kids and my school
is actually lottery, open
enrollment, so I have kids
who read on kindergarten
level and I have sixth graders
who are reading better
than some high schoolers.
I heard an analogy,
maybe metaphor, (laughs)
I teach science, I heard a story,
(laughter)
from the Yes Prep founder Chris
Barbic that I always think
about when I get that
public versus charter.
He said for years the
United States Postal Service
kept saying we cannot
deliver things overnight,
that just won't happen, we
don't have the capacity,
we don't have the manpower,
it will always take more
than 24 hours for you to get your mail.
Then, low and behold, UPS came along
and UPS said you know
what, we can do that,
we will get you your mail overnight.
Did USPS now bow out and no longer exist,
did UPS take over the whole mail system?
No, but UPS pushed USPS to say
hey, if they can get mail overnight,
then we can get mail overnight too.
And now you can walk into your post office
and you don't have to go to UPS
and get your mail overnight.
I feel like it's not about we're better,
but in my experience in Houston
and Yes now has partnerships
with public schools,
there's been sort of this push towards,
it's like a healthy
competition where we're pushing
each other to meet these goals.
So I'm very pro-charter school.
- [Blue Shirt Woman] I've done both.
I was placed at a traditional
DOE school in New York City
and then I went over to KIPP.
Honestly, I went over to
KIPP because my teacher said
"I'm only leaving my classroom
if you take over for me,
"so you need to come
because I need a break".
And that's why I went.
I'm going to be honest with you,
the grass is greener for me
because I'm being developed
as a teacher whereas in
my traditional DOE school
that wasn't the case
because they didn't have
the manpower to do it.
That's the sad reality of it.
I think there's another part to this too.
If you have a teacher, I
have someone on my staff
right now that is coming
from a traditional DOE school
and has only been in a DOE school
and this is her first year at a charter.
And she's like "girl, let
me tell you, I'm walking out
"of these doors at 5:30,
6:30, 7:00 and I'm still going
"back to do more work,
whereas I was at the DOE
"getting paid about the
same and I'd leave at 2:30"
and so I was like "oh, um..."
(laughter)
I think it really does come
down to the teacher too.
Like what is greener for you?
Is it greener for you to be more developed
and to have support and
to have your principal say
"girl, I've got your back,
that parent that's coming for
for your neck right
now, you'll be alright"?
Or, do you want to walk out at,
at least in my experience,
walk out at 2:30,
but your principal
doesn't know who you are?
- [Red Shirt Woman] Can I
make a really quick point?
I've taught at a traditional
public school for six years
and my campus continually
gets more charter schools
on it, we're bleeding
enrollment, we're an intensive
support school, the district
can't actually intensively
support us, and I'm a district employee,
so I'm saying this all
with full understanding.
One of my biggest tensions
with Teach for America
is that they place, in
the Bay Area, consistently
and charter schools that
are able to recruit teachers
who are gonna come in at a higher salary,
and we were down 230 teachers at the start
of the school year,
mostly math and science,
which I get spicy about
this, because those people
are turning over, right?
But I saw tons of my babies in classrooms
without teachers because Teach for America
has made partnerships with Aspire and KIPP
and organizations in the Bay.
And I get really frustrated
because I think that schools
like Oakland Unified need
placement of excellent people
like you, particularly alumni,
so if you want to come teach,
let me know.
(audience laughter)
Whether or not the grass
is actually greener,
if we're actually doing our
mission as Teach for America
during the two years that
you're in a classroom,
then I really just have a
tension with the placements
in these better paid and
more attractive positions.
Just to throw it out there.
(bell dings)
(audience applause)
- [Moderator] White teachers
will inherently have
a more difficult time
connecting to students
and families of color,
than teachers who share the
racial or ethnic background
of their students.
Fair or foul?
- [Blue Shirt Woman] I
almost had heart palpitations
when I saw this because I
come from the 2007 corps
where they put the teachers
of color in one room,
like the corps members
of color in one room,
and then the white corps
members in the other room.
Then they told the ones
of color "you will be more
"successful in the
classroom because data says
"since you look like your
kids, you will be better"
And I was like "oh my God,
this is day one, really?"
this is where we start?
I don't think it's true.
I don't think that white
teachers will inherently have
a more difficult time
connecting to their students.
I think that it's all about
how you connect with your
kid as a person and
how you are socialized.
I do believe that there
is a serious problem with
certain teachers, black,
white, Puerto Rican, Asian,
that believe or have pity for our kids.
That is a serious problem.
Do not come riding on
whatever horse you represent.
Don't come riding on that
horse to save our black
and brown children, we don't need saving.
I will tell you that as
"we", because I was one
of those kids and I am
one of those teachers now.
I can't tell you that my
kids in Washington Heights
look at me and say "she's Dominican,
"so I'm going to be more
successful in this classroom
"because she's Dominican".
No, that's not the case.
I will say that I know
what it's like to be the one
brown person in a room,
the only chocolate chip in the cookie.
Let me tell you, it is real uncomfortable.
It is really uncomfortable.
I don't think, and I'm sure that being
a white teacher in front
of all brown children
can at times be uncomfortable.
I can't tell you that
experience, I'm not white.
But I have seen plenty of
white teachers that connect
with our kids, I have seen
plenty of teachers of color
that cannot connect with a single child.
The thing is, I call up
friends, this makes me spicy,
it really does make me spicy,
because I have found that
I think that schools think
that strong, black males are the answer
(audience murmurs)
Right? Everybody in here
is thinking the same thing.
They think that is the
answer to behavior problems
and that makes me so mad.
What do you mean? Why?
I still don't understand
the rationale behind that.
I do not believe that
your race will determine
whether or not you will connect with kids.
I do think that the kids will look at you
and say "he looks like
me, she looks like me"
and that does matter, but it doesn't mean
that you will be more
successful in a classroom.
- [Gray Shirt Woman] This is
going to be a little debate.
I didn't really take "connect"
as meaning academic success.
However, my human nature
when I walk into a room
I count how many other
black people are in there
and I usually will go to that group first.
I gravitate towards
people who look like me.
Often at my school, what I have seen,
is that teachers of color
will often have the kids
hanging out in their
classrooms and my coworkers
are like "I can't connect to this kid".
Sometimes I do say "first,
it's 'cause I'm black"
and kids think there's
an automatic connection
between us and so they
are more open sometimes
to come and talk to me first.
I do encourage them to get
to know their teachers,
but when you have kids
who've not had experiences
with white people other than negative
and you're a teacher and
you're yelling at this
little black boy.
There's a disconnect,
you're misunderstanding his
behavioral cues and he's
misunderstanding yours.
When we get loud, we move our hands,
when we get excited we
talk a little louder.
I've had teachers who are not
familiar with that culture
feel like this student is
being aggressive with me
and now that's caused a barrier
between the two of them.
Or they get into this power struggle.
I do think that we need to
step it up in terms of how
we are training teachers to
deal with students of color.
I don't want to assume, I would never say
a white teacher won't connect,
but I do think it's a
little bit more difficult.
You're gonna have to take that extra mile
to get to know your kids
and find some way that
you guys are going to connect on.
because our kids will look
at you, and on the outside,
perceive that we have nothing in common.
You're gonna have to take that extra step
to break down that barrier
and connect with your kids.
(bell dings)
- [Moderator] We're going
to the mail, mail time.
From Alex Urgency, they
say "I believe discussing
"current events like police
brutality with my students
"is important, but we can't
lose any class time to talk
"because, academically,
they're so far behind."
- [Blue Shirt Man] Well, I
think I speak for everybody
for everybody on this panel when I say
"Amen Alex, I couldn't
agree more, 100% spot on".
Obviously, I mean,
Alex, like I mean Alex,
no, right, duh obviously
Your students are people
and you need to humanize
young people in your classroom
and you need to give value
to the issues that are affecting
them in their community
A couple things in relation to this.
First, I think Alex needs
to just be aware that there
are many ways that you can
incorporate current events
into your curriculum, that
really anything you're teaching
your kids needs to be
rooted in their identities
and their communities and,
ideally, leading them towards
self advocacy and political action.
I think more importantly,
I think this is especially
true for white teachers,
kind of going into the last question,
I think we need to honor how
profoundly different issues
effect the students that
we work with and I think we
really need to be aware of how
deafening white silence is.
I've read a bit about the
idea that when it comes
to white reactions to
violence against people
in communities of color,
silence is violence.
The idea is that we, as
white teachers especially,
we need to be examples for our students
that we give a damn that people
and kids that look like them
are terrorized and murdered.
I think our kids see countless examples
through our politicians, through
decisions of grand juries,
through a number of different things,
that we as a society would
tolerate their murder,
that we would be fine
with them being killed
because they look a certain
way or because they live
in a certain neighborhood.
I think they're getting
that message all the time.
That's out there, but I
think it's very different
to get that message from the
teacher that's in front of you
that's supposed to love
you and care about you
and do anything for you.
That sends a very, very
different message to our kids.
That's the message I think
that we send if we choose
to ignore and not talk about
the issues that our students,
our students' communities,
in whatever sense you
want to think about that,
our students' families are facing.
I have teaching colleague,
for example, who
and I know you might come into issues
with your administration about doing this.
A teacher I really respect,
in Minnesota, after
the grand jury decision on Darren Wilson
where they decided not to
indict him for the murder
of Mike Brown, he spent
the whole day with his kids
just having discussions
and letting them talk
and process and honoring
that there's value
in them talking about
what they're feeling.
He tweeted about a lot of
the very profound things
that they were thinking about.
I think that having those conversations
is essential for our kids.
Because, I mean, because they're people.
I don't want to say that
I'm very good at this.
A lot of times I think this
goes to what we were talking
about in the last question.
I've definitely felt
inadequate to the task teaching
all new country students,
who are new immigrants.
I've felt unequal
to acculturating them to racism
or acculturating them to Islamophobia.
I've felt like I don't know how
to prepare them to be hated.
I think in some ways that was
a very naive way to think,
because I think I was
neglecting how universal
issues of white supremacy
are and how quickly students
learn that they way they look
or the god they believe in
is something that is going
to be problematic for them
and gonna make people hate them.
I think just coming from
a place of vulnerability,
coming from a place of,
being a white teacher,
there's issues that I'm
never going to understand,
but I honor them and I need
to work to understand them.
I'm not going to make you be
the person that makes me understand.
I need to, on my own, understand
them and work with you
to figure out how we can solve them.
I think that's far more important than
the standardized test you
have to take the next day.
- [Black Jacket Man] I would also say that
the most important thing that I've learned
over the five years that I've taught,
is that our classrooms
need to be more about
developing our students as good people
than just developing them
in our content areas.
I would argue that that is
the most important charge
that we all have, is that
no matter what our students
end up doing in their lives,
that they end up helping others.
I mean this is what we're
doing with our careers.
We're spending our time helping others
and I think that one of the
most important discussions
I've ever had in my classroom
was immediately after
the Paris attacks this year.
The kids were saddened,
but they had so many questions
about why is it that all across
Facebook you could change
your profile picture to the French flag,
but yet we've seemed
to ignore in the media
a lot of the brutality
that's actually happening
in their neighborhoods
and across this country.
It was something that I
stepped back as a teacher
and was so proud of my students that they
created this safe space in our classroom,
so I teach Algebra and Geometry,
this is way far out of
what Algebra and Geometry,
we talk about in our classroom,
but it was so important for our kids
What this has lead to in our classroom
has been this idea that
with the knowledge we gain
we should be able to help others
and we should be able to solve problems.
That to me has just been the
greatest part of this year,
I know that no matter what my students
are developing into good people
and that they're gonna
stand up for whatever people
and injustices are
happening in this world.
(bell dings)
- [Moderator] Should teachers
come out to their students?
- [White Shirt Woman] Alright,
so I think the easy answer
and the idealistic answer is absolutely.
I think that absolutely
teachers should come out
to their students to serve
as examples and role models
and someone to talk to.
But the realistic answer,
for me, has not been so easy.
I have made the conscious
decision not to come out
to my students because of
the community that I serve,
because of the school that I work in.
because of the age group that I serve.
Even though I know a lot
of people would disagree
with that decision, I
feel like it has helped me
fundamentally connect with my students
and the families that I serve.
I have had students, I'm
very open and out with
my students that I taught years ago,
so all of my college students know,
all of my high school students know,
but I've had students who,
if they told their parents
that I was happily
married to another woman,
that they would not be able to
go on college visits with me.
and they would not be
able to have lunch with me
and they would not be able
to stay in touch with me.
Although that breaks my
heart because it should not
be that way, the reality of the
situation is it is that way.
And my relationships with my
kids are the driving force
behind the reason why I teach.
Although, I'm evolving to
the point where I know that
I will need to come out
to my current students
relatively soon, within
the next year or so,
because fundamentally it's
very hard to live that
dual existence and that
hidden life and I don't want
to do it anymore.
In a way, teaching has
caused me to grow up in a way
that I feel like I need to
rectify and align my visions
and that's coming.
So, I just have to be
honest that it's difficult.
Idealistically, yes.
Realistically, difficult.
- [Blue Shirt Man] I have
a very similar reaction
as Jennifer did.
I think that I would love
to be out with my students
but I feel like when,
I grew up in Wyoming and
when I was in 6th grade
Matthew Shepard was murdered in my state.
Soon after that is when
I started to develop
these feelings that I quickly
realized were the wrong
way to feel, the wrong kind of different.
By becoming gay, I would be gay full-stop.
There was no room for anything else.
And that meant that I
was going to be hated,
like these feelings were
going to make me be hated
and make people want to hurt me.
I feel like that's a very
privileged position too
because my students, many
people spend their whole
lives with identities
that make people hate them
and want to hurt them,
but I just have this one.
For me, it was this idea
of, and I don't know if it's
similar for you Jennifer, but just that
by being gay, you lose
the people you love,
like you're gonna lose your
family, you're gonna lose your
friends, you're gonna lose God perhaps.
The way that feeling has shifted
now to being a teacher,
is that now I could
lose the people I love,
but the people I love are my students.
All of my students are,
nearly all of my students
are religiously conservative.
They don't take pictures,
there's a number of things.
Maybe I'm not giving my
families enough credit
but I have been advised
by people that share
the religion and the ethnic
background of my students
not to come out.
And I hate it, I feel like
a failure every single day
because I know that I'm
not being that role model
for my kids that I needed
someone to be for me.
I know that and I hate it.
I'm so afraid, so then
this is just cowardice,
I'm so afraid of losing my
kids, losing these people
that I love that that
to me is more important
than having to hide this part of who I am
and having to not be
a full person in the classroom.
I think, even within that
realm, we can still do alot.
We can still talk about
different kinds of families.
I still teach my kids
gender neutral pronouns.
I still make sure that we don't
use homophobic language for each other
but I recognize that I'm,
in a fundamental way,
failing my kids by not being
fully open and out with them
and I'm still struggling
to figure out how to do it.
I want to, but I'm not there.
(bell dings)
(audience applause)
- [Moderator] This message
was sent from Anonymous.
How can we make the teaching
profession more professional?
- [Gray Shirt Woman] I
want to speak to that.
I knew for a long time
I wanted to be a teacher.
I'm a corps member, but
my degree is in education.
I saw Teach for America as
an avenue that I can use
to get into the school system
and also to unite with people
behind a common goal and a common mission.
But I can recall because
I had good grades,
I was very much a nerd in
school, that people were
kind of like "are you sure
you want to go into teaching,
"you don't want to go to medical school,
like you don't want to be a lawyer?",
so there's this, sort of,
value that we place on other professions
that we don't place on
teaching, as we're all aware.
I think there are some things that
both admin and those in charge
can do and things that teachers can do.
Starting with salary rises,
right, like doctors...
(applause)
(laughs) She says so she can buy a house.
(laughter)
We pay doctors, I'm going to
use medicine as an example,
we pay doctors lots and lots
of money because we value
what they do and I feel
like that same sort of value
needs to be placed on
teaching financially as well.
We can rearrange some budgets
and we can do some things.
I hear about some school
districts in New York
paying their teachers
hundreds of thousand dollars
and they made that happen.
So I think that's one way we
can make it more professional.
I think also as teachers,
we have to seek out
ways to hone our craft,
it's not enough that I love science
so I'm gonna teach it to my kids,
but I need to be seeking
outside opportunities
besides what my school offers.
I need to make sure that
I'm up on the latest trends,
the events, the research
when it comes to my field.
I think people will respect us more when
we are not just talking from a place of
"I love kids and I'm
serving my community",
but I know what I'm speaking about
and I can spit my facts and I
can back it up with research.
I think people will take
teachers much more seriously
and we'd be considered more professional.
Also things like we don't like the test
and we don't like how often we give them,
well then we need to start
getting behind those tests.
Why aren't we creating assessments?
All of us are fully capable
of knowing what our kids
need to learn, so we can
create the assessments.
That's my Yes Prep right there.
When I started at Yes, we
didn't have a district-wide
assessment and now we
do, and we created that.
We got together and said Texas
wants us to take these tests,
but this isn't fully assessing
what our kids can do.
So, as professionals, let's
create our own assessment
and let's give that to
our kids and this will be
our measure, not just the
TAKS test or the STAAR test,
of what our kids can do.
I think there are things that
administration needs to do
and also a lot of things that we can do
to take our craft more professionally.
- [Black Tank Woman] I agree.
I just finished reading
Jenny, can you help me? "The Best...
"The Smartest Kids in the World",
but I also have next to that,
from four years ago in 2012,
"Freedman's...
"We were...", something about, sorry,
I've just failed right now,
in my memory, but anyway.
So there's these two books
that I have in my classroom
right now, but also I
picked up or I've had this
and finally got a chance
to pick it up this year,
"Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope"
by Bell Hooks and she,
in her introduction,
made this claim and I'm like "yes, Amen",
and I feel like I've been
hearing this from teachers too,
but I think what Lorraine
was saying was that
sometimes we have so much humility
we're not even able to praise ourselves
and I think that's our enemy
because then we continue to not be seen
as the awesome people that we are
as teachers in this community.
So she said "It is crucial
that we challenge any feeling
"of shame or embarrassment
that teachers who do their job
"well might be tempted to
indulge when praising ourselves
"or being praised by others
for excellent teaching.
"For when we hide our
light, we collude in the
"overall cultural devaluation
of our teaching vocation."
And she goes on to say
"Do you really think
"Michael Jordan does not
know that he is incredible?"
If we know we are awesome
teachers, we should say
that we are, we should
introduce ourselves as
"I'm a master teacher at IDEA
College Preparatory Donna"
or "I'm an excellent teacher
from Boston Public Schools"
or New York City Public
Schools or Baltimore
or DC Public Schools and I get paid
a six figure because I'm a master teacher.
I think it is important for
us to really use our voice
to say yes, I'm an excellent
teacher, my kids graduate,
they get college credit
when they take my IB exam,
or my IB course, or they go on
to Princeton and Duke
and they go to Grinnell College in Iowa,
or they go to Kalamazoo in Michigan
because we need to show the whole country
and the world that teaching is what,
the teaching that we do,
the human connections.
A doctor, you only see
a doctor for six minutes
before they move on to the next patient.
But teachers are there for 10 months.
- [Red Shirt Woman] Can I
say something super fast?
One, I agree entirely with salary.
Two, I think, especially
us public school teachers,
we should start pushing on our union.
I realize that's controversial,
but just think about it.
But I will say this, I think
what would make teaching
more professional, and
I love TFA I don't mean
to be up here being critical of the model,
but when you put first year teachers
in classrooms without
support in front of kids,
then that is not a professional move
and we need some sort of
apprenticeship program,
such that we have multiple
teachers in a classroom
and we actually value
master teachers in a way
of passing down practice.
For me, what would make
it more professional,
is actually viewing me
as a professional and not
linear to somebody who's going to be there
maybe for six months, maybe for one year,
maybe for two, and I'm not
knocking you if you did that,
I'm just saying that you should watch me,
you should have watched these people,
you should've worked in
partnership, and then you would
have gone on to a much
more fulfilling career.
(audience applause)
- [Black Jacket Man] I'm
gonna go real quick, because
I'm getting a signal.
I just think that the way
that we also talk about
how we teach in the teaching
profession is so important.
For so many people that are not teachers,
they get all their teaching
information from us.
I think that the biggest
thing, and I'm guilty of this,
is whenever I was doing the
corps, everybody was always
asking me "What are you
gonna do after the corps?"
or "Are you going to stay
another year teaching?",
even this year, my parents are still like
"Are you gonna stay another year?
"And then what are you gonna do?"
And so, I think the question was always
"And then what are you going to do?"
If this is your passion,
if this is your career,
if this is something that
you are so excited about
getting up in the morning,
then tell people about that.
Because the way that we
speak up for ourselves
is the way that people
will learn that this
is a profession that's worth doing.
- [Black Shirt Woman] I think
also, sorry, sorry, sorry,
it's 30 seconds I promise.
I think also don't leave
the classroom, right?
We're all so tired and all
of us have an inordinate
amount of experience here,
but I have a coworker
who's been teaching for
two years, and she's like
"I'm going to be the Dean of
Special Services next year".
I'm like "Why? Why would you do that?
"You don't know anything
about that, you haven't
"served enough students,
you're totally unqualified.
"Don't do that, stay in the classroom,
"learn how to teach, and don't do that".
I think there's a really bad
culture of you're "good",
whatever that means, and
then you're immediately
moved out of the classroom,
so how are we going to create change?
(applause)
- [Moderator] So Stephanie's
getting us started for
our parting thoughts and
this is how it's gonna work.
Starting with Jennifer,
we're gonna start down there with you,
everyone has 90 seconds to
share their wisdom with us.
Y'all ready?
- [Jennifer] I don't know
if it's so much as wisdom,
but just reiterating, and it's been said,
we need to get paid more
because, I just think,
I've been doing this for 11
years and I'm still broke,
and it's not because
I'm not good with money,
it's because I don't get paid anything.
I just think more people
would stay in the classroom,
and they wouldn't jump for
those instructional coaching
positions and dean positions,
if we just got paid.
So please tell everyone,
and I know that you feel
the same way, but please we
need to start a movement,
a bigger movement for us to get paid.
When I see people getting signing bonuses
and just the amount of
money the Panthers are gonna
make tomorrow, like I just...
(audience murmurs)
(laughter)
It just really and
honestly breaks my heart
and I could talk about it all day
but we need to get paid more.
(applause)
- [Red Shirt Woman] Sometimes
I feel like such a fraud
up here because I am
the one person who's not
a full time classroom teacher anymore.
I moved on in a very
deliberate way, so I do spend
an hour and a half every
morning in a classroom
and I plan on doing that
for the rest of my life,
I cannot start a day without teaching.
I am leading computer
science work in Oakland,
which feels like a real issue
of equity and social justice
in an area that increasingly
being integrated
into the broader tech landscape.
I didn't really get to talk
about CS, but I wake up
every morning feeling
like I am doing the work
and I get to help shape
a vision for 50,000 kids
to be able to partake in
computer science education.
My ask to you all, is
that you actually consider
bringing computing into your classroom,
no matter what subject you teach.
Or that you advocate for your students
to have access to that type of education.
I do a lot of work on
the side to just ensure
that you are able to
do that, so I actually
curate a website where
I'm helping people who
currently are classroom practitioners,
who don't teach CS, no
matter what content area,
learn how to teach CS
because I just feel like it's
so damn important.
I know it seems sort of out of left field,
but my parting thought is
please, not even just CS,
but anything that you know
that's risky and pushing you,
it's reinvigorating, it
sort of re-centers you
in your vision and your work
and why you're doing this
and what makes you tick, and
for me, bringing computer
science to 50,000 kids
is just such a blessing.
I really would love for
people to join into that work.
So yeah, that's just where my head is
and also I really do have
15 available positions
in Oakland Unified
so if you have friends, you yourself,
anybody, just come talk to me.
- [Moderator] Claire, what's the website?
- [Claire] It's on my speaker
bio, but teachersteachcs.org,
and it's specifically for every
content area because I want
English teachers and history
teachers and art teachers.
It's not just a math
teacher thing, I promise.
- [Moderator] Thanks Claire.
- [Claire] No problem.
(applause)
- [Black Jacket Man] The
greatest thing that's
changed my life has been
being able to be part
of a community in my classroom,
where I'm just a part of
what is actually happening.
Every year my kids come up with a motto
and it's their goals and
everything is centered around them.
Our slogan and our
motto this year has been
"Do math, help others".
It's been incredible to see
just what we can push our kids
to do, whenever they realize
that the math that they're
learning can help other people.
Some of the greatest
experiences that I've had
in my classroom have been when my students
devise a project based off of a need
or a problem that they see.
Then our whole goal is
that some time that year
we're going to find a solution to it.
We have a problem wall
in the back of our room
where the kids literally
just put a post-it on it
and then whenever they
realize that there's
something that needs to be solved
or something that needs to be fixed.
There's been stuff that's
been on there for years,
the last two years,
there's some post-its that
are still up there, we
haven't found a solution yet
but we're not giving up.
The reason why, this year
my kids are working on
a wheelchair ramp from our
second floor to our first floor
because we have some
handicapped students that
every time that there's a fire drill,
they have to take the elevator,
and in an actual fire,
that's not gonna work.
So my kids found that they
needed to devise a ramp.
So using Trigonometry
and Pythagorean Theorem,
they're right now working
on finishing the project
that my students last year started.
It's all possible, anything
literally is possible,
if you have the passion in your classroom
and you see just how wonderful
these students are.
The other thing is I would
say stay for a third year,
if you're a corps member,
stay for a third year,
stay for a fourth year,
stay for a fifth year,
keep going because it only gets better.
The love that you have for
your kids is not going away.
I don't think that what we do is work.
I think that it's just fun every day.
It's just that somehow I'm the adult
in charge of everything
that's happening in my room.
I want to thank whoever did
my interview in Chicago,
like five years ago because
I did not think I was
going to get in and I did so
I'm just very thankful of that,
that that happened.
(laughter)
(applause)
- [Blue Shirt Woman] At
first I thought that I would
speak to the corps members in the room.
How many corps members are in the room?
Oh, yes.
(applause)
So I want to speak to the corps members
and I also want to speak to
the teachers that have been
in it for a really long time,
because let me tell you,
when you are in it for a
long time, you feel it.
First I'm gonna say stick with it.
Even if you actually
aren't in the classroom,
I also don't want to
demonize the people that
are not in the classroom
because some of us
would be great instructional coaches
that would build some great teachers
because we need great
teachers in the classroom,
we also need people to
train great teachers.
So stick with it, it is gonna be hard.
There are days that you're gonna be like
"Man, I should take a mental health day".
Stick with it, it is so worth it.
The best part of my job and
the reason I love working
where I work, I love my alum
and I'm speaking as an alum.
You get to see the kids,
actually I was at a session
where one of my kids
was speaking, literally.
She's at RPI now, I taught
her 7th and 8th grade math.
Those are my babies
and I'm so proud to see them go off
and they get to experience
life for themselves.
That's the best part of teaching.
You get to see them grow
up and even when they fail
or they make mistakes, you
get to be there to be like
"It's okay, that's life,
that's what happens".
The other thing that I would
say is listen to how you feel.
If you genuinely feel like
"Man, I think it might be time
"for me to look at something
else or to move on",
listen to that and figure
out what it is that you want.
You have to figure out
what it is that you want
because we also don't
need disgruntled teachers
in the classroom, that's real.
If you are feeling it,
the kids are gonna feel it
and it is not their fault.
So you gotta be really honest
with yourself about that too.
The other thing I would say,
like what Michelle Ree was saying earlier,
like find your North Star.
Why do you do what you do?
I do what I do because of the alumni,
I do what I do because
I was one of those kids
and really I cannot tell
you where I would be
without my KIPP teachers,
without Dave Levin.
I really cannot tell you
where I would be without him.
I say that now as a 30 year old
who has had nine years of teaching.
The last thing I would say
is take care of yourself.
If you are sick, stay home.
(laughter)
I'm serious, corps members,
if you are sick, stay home
because you are going to
infect the rest of the school
and it is not a good example for our kids
for us to be dying in front of them
and acting like we are saints or martyrs.
The Catholics are not going
to pray for you one day.
(laughter)
You are not a saint,
take care of yourself.
(applause)
- [Gray Shirt Woman] I think
mine is more of a plea.
My sister is here, wave your hand Kari.
She's up here in the front.
My sister and I are 10 years apart.
We are first generation college students.
I graduated from Howard
University, right up the street.
My sister is now a senior
at Spellman College.
We have parents and
grandparents and cousins,
aunties, uncles, nobody
who goes to college.
It's really like we don't
pump ourselves up enough,
but it's great.
Being 10 years apart,
we are night and day.
I am more of the
literature, language arts.
She's more of the math and science.
She's studying Biochemistry,
which is crazy to me.
She wants to be a dentist,
I became a teacher.
We're just getting to
that age where I feel like
we connect on things, we can hang out.
You know like she's not
just my little sister,
she's an adult.
I wanted her to come just
to support and I was like
"Oh, I'm gonna be on a panel, come".
All this weekend, people
have been asking her
"Are you gonna join the corps?"
That was very far from her
mind, I never even thought
to try to recruit her, I was
like "that's not her thing".
As much as I talk about
how much I love teaching,
but I'm just encouraging
everyone to let some of your
TFA teacher love
rub off on her because I am
I'm sold that she has
a great support system,
she can do it and I don't
see very many black women
teaching Biochemistry to our kids.
I think that would just
be amazing for my sister
to be able to share, for me
to share that part with her,
not just in theory, but in action.
So if you see us walking
around this weekend,
come on over, share your
stories, tell her why
you think it would be great
for her to make this March 4th
deadline and apply to Teach for America.
(applause)
- [Black Tank Woman] Thank
you for coming out here.
I feel really honored that you
get to hear all of our voices
and also I hope you heard
yourself in all the stuff
that we were saying.
One thing, the mantra
that I keep in my head,
I think I've had it this since 2008,
was from "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gibran
and in the work he says
"Work is love made visible".
That's basically what
I think, a lot of us,
we aspire to do that.
I think we pour in the love
that we have in our students
in our classroom, any
field that we're doing.
I think that's the empathy
that we need to have to continue
this work because our work
is far from being over.
We still have so many gaps.
Race and class.
It's an election year too,
so I don't know if that
voice matters, when we go vote.
Work is love made visible.
I want you guys to believe in yourself,
that what you're doing is good
and honorable as an educator.
(applause)
- [Blue Shirt Man] I'm
gonna piggy-back off of what
Krishell said a little bit.
An educator that I really
admire is Sonia Nieto.
She writes a lot about
teaching students of color
and a big mantra that she has
is the idea that nice is not enough.
I feel like, as teachers and
especially as white teachers,
that we need to keep that in
our minds every single day.
Nice is not enough.
And you talked about the idea
that this is an election year,
what I think that means is
that you can be a nice, sweet
teacher to your kids and you
can still not change their
outcomes, you can still
not change the society that
we live in that is going
to potentially kill them.
What I think that requires
of all of us as teachers,
and I know it's going to
give you one more thing to do
as a teacher because I
know my list has 18 items
on it right now, probably due by noon.
The idea that teachers
need to be policy makers.
I've been really privileged
that I've been able to work with
an organization called E for
E that does a lot of work
around getting teachers to
write and advocate for policies,
but that doesn't have to be
the means for you to do it.
If you're in a union
school, through unions.
Just through having your kids
work on political campaigns,
you work on political campaigns.
I feel like everybody in this room,
things that Donald Trump is saying,
I don't think that anybody
would be in this room
if that didn't fundamentally offend you,
in like a really strong way,
but you need to be so pissed off
about the way he's talking
about my kids, about your kids,
about you perhaps as people,
that you are going to
do whatever you need to
to change our society,
like by getting up to
vote, by writing policies,
by, I don't know, writing
really angry letters,
whatever you need to do.
(laughter)
In whatever capacity you have,
obviously we do have a lot on our plates,
but please be policy makers for your kids
because everything that
goes on in our society
hits them hardest and we see
it every day in our classes.
(applause)
- [Black Shirt Woman] My
parting thought is definitely
not as inspirational as these guys,
because it's actually a selfish question.
I think it's probably the
struggle I'm having most
with this year, is just how
do I stay in this profession?
How do we make it more sustainable?
How do we limit teacher turnover?
And not just because I'm
tired, because I'm so tired.
I mean the impact on our kids.
In our middle school, we
have our elementary school
attached to the same building,
so I see younger siblings
that look exactly like
the kids I'm teaching now.
They come up to me and they're like
"I can't wait to have you
Miss Sun in three years"
and I'm like "uhh, three years...
(laughter)
"I really want to be there
for you because I love you
"and I know your mom so
well and we still text
"and I've taught four of your siblings".
I think my larger question
is how do we get this
incredible panel of
people to actually stay?
How do we actually make
the profession something
where you don't have to
kill yourself, where you can
call in for a sick day and
still be an amazing teacher?
Because really it's impacting our kids
more than you realize.
(applause)
- [Moderator] Let's give
all of our panelists
a round of applause.
(applause)
I just wanted to thank you panelists again
for all that you guys
are doing for your kids
and for other teachers' kids.
For all of you guys in the audience,
we encourage that you
continue these conversations
in your school, in your
contacts, with your principal,
with your superintendent,
because the fact of the matter is
those that are still standing and leading
in front of our kids are the
people that we should seek
for the insight and the decisions
to move us forward in this movement.
You guys have a good day.
