Citizen Teacher

Citizen Schools is Coming to the Windy City

Bryce Bowman is the Executive Director of Citizen Schools’ new launch site in Chicago.

Chicago has been my home for the past seven years and I am energized, honored, and inspired to be in a role that brings an organization with a proven model for student  success to an amazing city. Citizen Schools has been a successful expanded learning time school partner in cities around the nation and I am excited to help bring the organization to the city where I am raising my own family, Chicago, and to the students of Chicago Public Schools.

Education reform and expanding the school day has been a very hot topic in Chicago recently, and what excites me most about bringing Citizen Schools into that environment is that it gives everyday people the opportunity to get off the sidelines and into the classroom. It offers the ability to integrate the Chicago business and civic community into our schools.

We can all agree that, given the right support and access, all kids can learn and we can all help give kids more opportunities. We all have something to contribute to help them realize their potential regardless of what happens with union negotiations and policy decisions.

Through Citizen Schools, rather than just discussing education reform around the water cooler or at a party, people from all walks of life can enter schools, inspire kids by teaching what they’re passionate about, and become active change agents in closing the achievement gap for the students of Chicago Public Schools.

We eagerly look forward to partnering with great  schools and providing them with additional resources to drive student achievement. But, in order to truly impact students, we need to build a great team. Consider volunteering as a Citizen Teacher, applying for the Teaching Fellowship, or learning more about our mission.

Volunteer to Teach 

Apply for the Teaching Fellowship

Learn more

 


A Community of Supporters Saves Program in Santa Fe

Sahra Saedi is a First Year Teaching Fellow at De Vargas Middle School in Santa Fe, NM. 

Students' educational opportunities were expanded through Citizen Schools at De Vargas Middle School

On the night of Tuesday, April 17th the Santa Fe school board was convened to make a decision that would affect the future of hundreds of middle school students in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The Santa Fe Citizen Schools staff and I packed ourselves into the humid public forum room. Elbow to elbow, we patiently waited for our opportunity to advocate for the Citizen Schools expanded learning program at De Vargas Middle School. Finally, the school board representatives crackled over their microphones alerting our pack of staff and well-wishers that the opportunity to speak on behalf of our vital program had come.

A line formed behind the public forum podium starting with our school’s principal and ending with three of our most supportive parents. The line of champions twisted around the room.

Principal Diane Garcia Piro started off by painting a picture of our school at a tumultuous crossroads until Citizen Schools began to flourish. Garcia talked about how students now look forward to coming to school because they have been given the tools to succeed.

Students  Ruby Lopez, Carlo Quinones, and Suzette Tiscarreno sang the praises of the Citizen Schools program and how it had changed their life. Carlo, fresh off a trip to Washington, D.C. where he, his mother and former Citizen Schools New Mexico Executive Director, Sue Goodwin, endorsed Citizen Schools at our nation’s capital, stepped fearlessly to the microphone with unmatched determination. Carlo described how Citizen Schools had opened his eyes to a world of possibility he would have never otherwise known.

Kathryn Bueller, a De Vargas science teacher, who in the same meeting had been awarded National Teaching Board Certification, proclaimed that “this program (Citizen Schools ELT) should be in every middle school in Santa Fe and across the country!”

Jesus Esparza, a Citizen Schools Teaching Fellow, described his own educational experience growing up in Santa Fe; and his added perspective as a new father has only strengthened his commitment to Citizen Schools and resolve to pursue a career in education.

Returning volunteer Citizen Teachers, Jason Jaacks, Julia Barns, and Alex Gancarz took to the podium espousing everything from hard facts of Citizen Schools’ positive effect on De Vargas’ students to heartwarming moments of triumph in the classroom, declaring the necessity of this program to which they are all so committed.

The public forum portion of the evening concluded with a tearful testimonial from Suzette’s mother, Mrs. Tescarones. Mrs. Tescarones wept as she described Suzette’s education prior to Citizen Schools, previous teachers and administrators had claimed Suzette simply wasn’t intelligent and that her shy behavior was a result of that handicap. When Suzette enrolled in Citizen Schools at De Vargas Middle School as a seventh grader her grades and social parlous began to blossom and grow. Now Suzette is in 8th Grade Academy with a 4.0 and has become an exemplary public speaker from semesters of practice as a translator at the De Vargas WOW showcase. Mrs. Tescarones pleaded with the board to keep Citizen Schools because it saved her daughter’s life and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

The procession of Citizen Schools ambassadors returned to their seats with heads held high, as they were enveloped with applause and congratulations. The evening was concluded by an rousing presentation from the now transitioned Sue Goodwin and De Vargas’ current CD Kendra Engels. Sue and Kendra employed charts, statistics and a sincere documentary made by CT Jason Jaacks to highlight the triumphs Citizen Schools has seen in Santa Fe and nationwide.

When the microphone was finally silent and the school board was given the opportunity to question and comment on the parade of proponents they had been witness to, they could only thank Citizen Schools for its commitment to excellence. Brief, pointed questions were poised to Sue regarding specific data the board would be interested in, but the over-all climate in the room was one of victory. An army of parents, community leaders, volunteers, and Citizen Schools staff had heralded the vital nature of the work we do and the room reverberated with understanding and awe. That evening I believe we all could have flown home on the wings of a community unified in the fight for education reform and a deep commitment to the future of students at De Vargas Middle School.

Check out the advocacy video below created by Volunteer Citizen Teacher, Jason Jaacks!

Giving Time, Changing Lives

Lynne Brown is a Lease Analyst at Cassidy Turley FHO. She is also a Citizen Teacher with Citizen Schools. 

I am a Citizen Teacher.

It is one of the many things I am.  I am a girlfriend.   I am a daughter.  I am the fun aunt.  I am a friend.  I am a lease analyst.  I am a sister.  I am a mentor.  I am a real estate professional.  I am a writer.  I am an optimist.  I am a member of Red Sox Nation.

I am a Citizen Teacher.

My path to becoming a Citizen Teacher began in August 2009.  During the media coverage of Senator Edward Kennedy’s death, I was struck by one photo: a simple photo taken in an unglamorous setting – a public school classroom.

That photo and the story behind it taught me something I never knew about the Senator.  For years, he mentored in a public school classroom.  It amazed me that a man of his stature and with his hectic schedule took the time to volunteer in an inner city school.  It struck me, if he could do it, what could I do?

In 2010, I was introduced to Citizen Schools and their City Building program by one of my clients, a national supporter of the program.  I answered the Citizen Schools call of what will you teach by volunteering to teach Real Estate to a group of middle school students at the Salemwood School in Malden, MA.

As I headed to my first class, I was terrified.  Positive I’d gotten in over my head, I questioned what I had been thinking when I volunteered.  “I can’t teach,” I told myself.  And the only other thing I thought I knew for sure was that when the ten week commitment was over, I would never volunteer again and I’d never have to set foot inside a middle school classroom again.

Citizen Schools changes lives.  It is not just the students’ lives that are changed.  The lives of the volunteers are changed as well.  I get to spend 90 minutes a week with a group of enthusiastic and energetic middle school students.  It is unlike anything else I do.  As a Citizen Teacher, I have had to step out of my comfort zone and well, teach.  Being a Citizen Teacher as it turns out is not only fun, but also rewarding.

The rewards and successes come in various forms:

  • witnessing the pride on a student’s face when she gets the answer correct to a real estate vocabulary question;
  • the simple joy when a student sneaks back to the classroom to say “I love you, Ms. Brown, see you next week;”
  • encouraging a student, who struggles to write one sentence until he is able to write six whole sentences for his WOW! presentation;
  • watching a reticent boy who barely spoke a word during the first class transform into a prolific speaker and deliver a wonderful presentation at WOW!;
  • the text messages I receive from former students letting me know how they are doing.

Ironically after four semesters of being a Citizen Teacher, the two things I thought I knew for sure on that first day: that I can’t teach and that I’d never ever do this again turned out to be untrue.  The truth is I can teach and I do.  And while it may be true that I never have to do this again, the larger truth is that I want to.

On Tuesday afternoons from 4:15 – 5:45, I can be found in Room 126 at the Dever-McCormack School in Dorchester, MA teaching sixth graders about commercial real estate development or real estate math.  By the end of the semester, my students will know what profit and revenue are, how to prepare a construction budget and an operating expense reconciliation statement.  Throughout the term, they will have fun playing math games or visiting construction sites, build confidence in their math and public speaking skills, eat a few cookies and hopefully prove that:

Math Fun + Math Practice = Better Math Grades.

And that in itself is the only reward required.

From Struggle, Growth: How Students are like Butterflies

Heather Cook is a volunteer Citizen Teacher at De Vargas Middle School in Santa Fe, NM. Follow her blog here.

I knew it would be a challenge, but I was excited too. I looked forward to my class of 12-year-olds taking up a form of lacemaking that was last popular when their great-grandmothers were 12. I also knew from hard-won experience that they would face a steep learning curve. Once you learn the basic stitch, it is very simple. But mastering the basic stitch is a challenge that leads many adults to throw up their hands in despair and curse the scoundrel who invented this hellish craft.

I also knew that the payoff would be high: Well-earned self confidence, patience, determination, a new skill, potentially a new hobby if they kept it up, and clear bragging rights over their friends.

Tatting is a form of lacemaking made with a ball of thread and either two hand-held shuttles or a long needle. It is great for making jewelry, decorations, edgings, and much more. Currently, several of the girls are churning out earrings while the boys are determined to get good enough to make rosaries.

While watching these brave (and sometimes frustrated) pre-teens attempt to conquer this time-honored art, I have been struck by their resemblance to butterflies. Not in how they dress in bright colors, though they do, or in that they flit from flower to flower gathering nectar, though that is on their minds. Rather, in that the struggle to learn something new is akin to the process of a butterfly’s birth.

Have you ever watched a butterfly break out of its cocoon? It is slow and tortured work. The butterfly has to fight hard, take many breaks and claw his way into the light. If you were watching, you might be tempted to give the little fellow a hand; maybe make the crack wider to give him more space. However, it turns out that providing a shortcut would kill the newborn butterfly. The struggle itself is necessary for life. In straining against the cocoon, certain essential fluids are pushed out into the wings, and if you help him get out, the wings will not fully develop and the butterfly will die.

Every time we learn something new, we struggle. Whether it is tatting or chemistry or balancing a checkbook. It is in this struggle that we learn who we are, what reserves of strength and character we have. We learn how to overcome difficulties and what it takes to succeed.

When we struggle hard to make something, learn something, become someone new, we not only gain that skill or knowledge, we gain something even more valuable: We grow and live more fully. The next time these kids try to learn something difficult, they can look back at this experience, remember what it took to succeed, and think, “because I learned tatting, I can do this too.” That is the power of the butterfly.

The next time you are tempted to hand your student the answer or give them a shortcut to success, remember the butterfly’s life and death struggle and remember that your student too is struggling for her life.

Celebrate the butterfly!

 

Volunteering: A Learning Experience for Student and Teacher

Darakshan Mir is a Graduate Student at Rutgers University and a volunteer Citizen Teacher  with Citizen Schools through the New York Academy of Sciences.

Looking back at the Coloring Outside of the Lines apprenticeship that I taught this past fall, I really feel lucky that I had the opportunity to get involved in something as meaningful as this. The apprenticeship taught me a lot about teaching, learning and empathy.

Student tessellations presented at the WOW!

Coloring Outside the Lines was designed for students to explore and learn math concepts while applying them to creating tessellations – two-dimensional planes that feature the repetition of a geometric shape with no overlaps and no gaps (like a honeycomb). The apprenticeship focused on building innovation capabilities in students as they were tasked with using the design process to create their own unique tessellations. I was amazed how my students got involved in the WOW! and how well some of them performed in the WOW!. I had many students, who were constantly involved and invested in the work, who connected to it, and it wasn’t surprising to see them shine through at the end of the apprenticeship. But, I personally found the trajectory of two other students very interesting. Read more…

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