Already Working

I am so proud and thankful to already be working at my new job. The New American Academy /PS 770 (TNAA) is a public school that has a very special relationship with the NY Dept. of Education and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT). The school works with and receives support from the UFT, but has the ability to let employees go indiscriminately, which is not the case for schools under the umbrella of the union. TNAA also pays their teachers 38% more than the union salary rates. They believe that teacher quality is the best determinant of students success, and therefore provide top quality professional development. They also believe that the best way for teachers to improve is through constant observation of teaching, followed by reflection. The teachers serve as a community of mentors for one another. Teaching teams are comprised of four teachers: the master teacher, who oversees all instruction and serves to liaise with the headmaster; the partner teacher, the apprentice and the associate teacher. The partner, apprentice, and associate teachers divide the 60 or so students in the grade level into three "houses," which would be similar to homeroom teachers in a typical school. All content-area instruction is given in homogeneous groups or "universities." Since my team and I will be teaching kindergarten, we will have to get to know our students before dividing them into universities. The TNAA model is designed such that teachers loop with their students from grade to grade, so we would be with the same group of students until they graduate from fifth grade, and then we would begin teaching kindergarten again. According to one staff member, the school is considering looping in smaller chunks, such as K-2nd grade and 3rd-5th grades.

I have completed the first of five weeks of professional development that I will receive this summer. The staff from the three TNAA schools met each day last week, in the UFT office in Brooklyn, for training in school culture as well as learning about the cultures of our students. We were given five paperback books, two of which we read during the week. We were also required to read the doctoral dissertation of the founder, in order to gain a better understanding of the mission and purpose of the school. New employees were required to write an essay of our personal understanding of the dissertation and an essay based on one of the books, which we will hand in to be read by the founder.

Tomorrow, the new staff members and those who have been promoted to higher levels of responsibility will take a chartered bus to Harvard University, for a week of training in interpersonal skills. Before going, we each had to take a Myers-Briggs personality test. Teachers on grade level teams will learn about the 16 personality types and identify the personality types represented on their teams in order to better understand and appreciate how the others think and behave.

Below is a photo I took from the window on the 25th floor of the UFT building in Brooklyn. You will see many buildings in the distance, but I was trying to focus on the teal colored roof of one of the closer buildings. It is the playground of a school. Never having taught in a large city, I never considered the placement of a playground. What I find appealing about a rooftop playground is that teachers never have to deal with a students running into the street to chase a ball. Interesting!