NAME:
SCHOOL:
CLASS:
SCHOOL PHONE:
I first stepped into a classroom in the September of 1999. I have arrived at
my present station through various means of unconventional transport,
including horseback, ferris wheel and pogo stick.
I first became interested in education, when I decided to take a Philosophy
of Education class at University of Vermont in
the year 1998. There were a number of books which inspired me from our
reading list but in particular Jonathan Kozol's Amazing Grace made a lasting
impression. What a remarkable story. Even if you have zero interest in ever
becoming a teacher, I think you will find this book to be worth your while.
About six months later I was on a plane to Japan, having accepted a teaching
position with the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme. For two years
I taught junior high as an Assistant English Teacher in Nagano Prefecture, a
mountainous region about three hours west of Tokyo. So technically, no I did
not have all of the weighty responsibilities that you and I associate with
the title teacher. I worked with eight different Japanese teachers,
assisting them, and bringing fun and communicative activities into the
classroom. After two rewarding years, I was tired of being an assistant. I
wanted to be at the helm. So after taking some time for travel, I accepted
an offer to teach at a privately owned English conversation school called
Milestone. My boss was a Vietnam Vet from Australia who had settled in Japan
and started up the small school in the 1980s.
This was a very small school. There were only three teachers, including
myself, and we had two rooms that were located above a noodle shop in town. I
taught elementary school age kids, which was a new experience for me. They
loved playing
UNO and talking about Harry Potter. At one point I started reading the Harry
Potter books just so I
could understand what they were all talking about! For these classes I was
always inventing new
games that involved learning new words. Also while at Milestone I taught at a
number of different factories, including a camera factory and a pressurized
gas factory. This was also interesting work. In many cases company
employees were studying
English in preparation for business trips abroad. English is of course
generally the common
language.
In the summer I moved to Philadelphia and started working on a Master of
Science in Education at
University of Pennsylvania. This was an intensive year-long program and a
real challenge. My thesis focused on the constructivist approach, the idea
that in order for learning to be authentic, students must be actively
constructing their own knowledge. When students are detached or alienated
from the process, learning becomes stagnet and without meaning. I remember
my History of Education course in particular. Where did all of this come
from? Why is it that schools are the way they are today? I was fascinated
by these questions. The writings of John Taylor Gatto and others challenged
my previous notions and I came away from that year ready to take on the
classroom afresh.
That summer I was offered a job teaching 9th grade English and a Study Skills
elective class at a charter high school in Philadlephia. It was exciting to
be part of a young team of teachers at a new school. The school was only
four years old and I buried myself in the endless work of being a first year
teacher.