Being an Urban Teacher

So theres been this hoopla about UTEP (my grad program) and it being an "urban teaching" program...
Someone started a blog post criticizing and what not...

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/district-299/2009/10/uofc-trains-teachers----without-an-ed-school.html

Here's MY response....not necessarily in defense of UTEP but to people who think they kno what it means to be an urban teacher...

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I am also a graduate of UTEP and would like to share my personal experiences as an urban teacher who received training from UTEP. I can reframe the program but that’s something you can read in the pamphlets and so on.

Here’s the thing: UTEP identifies people who have a strong academic foundation, who are willing learners of being part of the education profession, and who are reflective and intentional to be effective members of their school community. These three aspects push us as teachers to be teachers that are not just effective managers, or just full of head knowledge, or "compassionate" folk.

Like "J" noted, UTEP's program is a rigorous program where there are frequent check points to evaluate whether UTEP is the right program for a cohort member, meaning 1. Is teaching the right profession for you? 2. Is working in an urban environment a good fit for you? 3. What are strengths and weaknesses that need to be realized and addressed? UTEP is far from a program that solicits anyone who would like to become a teacher just to become a teacher or be someone who wants to be a “saving light to the poor children.”

You can focus in on what you would like in the program but the important aspect is to see the wider picture of what is occurring because of the work of the program. I am a middle school teacher in the Auburn-Gresham/West Englewood neighborhood, a neighborhood comparable to where Fenger High School is located. In fact, some of my 8^th graders go on to attend Fenger, Julian, Simeon, Bogan…schools where we have heard about violence penetrating. But it’s not even about “where is all the violence happening” because just because it’s not in the news does not negate the urban culture of a school. One who is familiar with Chicago public schools will know this. I work at a school where homelessness pervades my students’ lives, where they come to school a day after being raped, and they can not complete their homework because there is no electricity to provide lighting at home. I have been to police stations for my students and Planned Parenthood with my girls. But why must we as urban teachers justify this? Urban settings, whether charter or public, are urban settings. Whether the school is high performing does not take away from what our children experience and go through. Sure, there are some schools where children do not face these fears and realities as frequently. But who are you and I to judge that?

What UTEP has done for me is to prepare me to be an educator in the full sense, as a teacher, social worker, mother, driver, advocate, counselor, bouncer, nurse….so that my children can LEARN, the same that a child in the suburbs of Winnetka or the comforts of Newton, Massachusetts would learn on a given day. So that I can teach my kids about genocide and what is going on in Darfur and Cambodia and that they would CARE about it. So that I can be someone who they would trust to learn this information from, even though I am an Asian woman standing in front of a room filled with 35 black boys and girls.

How have I come to this point? I went through a 2-year program where I was pushed and challenged to learn about education in every aspect: reform, curriculum, instructional delivery, presence, management, relationships, urban poverty, identity, school structure, politics behind education. I was in two internship placements, in two different CPS schools, for an entire year. I tutored and gained experience in teaching summer schools at NKO, the UC Charter School. I engaged in conversations and dialogue with like minded people in my cohort from very different backgrounds and experiences. I had and continue to have access to mentors, coaches, my professors with whom I can shoot an email or grab coffee with to discuss a student concern or a unit plan idea I have.

Here’s the thing: where UTEPers go off to teach is something we don’t have control over. Would it be ideal for all of us to be in a school like I am in? If you are someone who deems that an “urban school” then I guess the answer is yes. But GOOD teachers that are effective and knowledgeable and aware of social justice are needed everywhere, in charter schools, magnet schools, and even in the gosh darn suburbs. Why? Because I need colleagues and collaborators who will raise awareness of my students’ lives in those areas where students are privileged. In the same way that I am trying to raise an awareness in my students’ lives about the privileged and the other children in North Korea and Rwanda, and Afghanistan. This global understanding of urban teaching is what UTEP has sewn in me, and I believe it is what it does for its aspiring teachers.