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This is the quarterly newsletter for SFTR. Issue 1
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Service Learning Reflection
Reflections from the year
T T
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SFTR Quarterly Update Issue 1 | June 2012
Teaching for Excellence and Equity
1
It is hard to believe that we have now
completed our second year of the San
Francisco Teacher Residency. Much has
happened over the course of the past year
and there are many changes ahead. The
2012 – 2013 school year will be our first
year that the complete program model is
in operation with one cohort of residents
and two cohorts of graduates receiving
induction support.
2
Our second cohort has now completed the
first phase of the program. Everyone
passed PACT. They are all looking
forward to having their own classroom
next year. In early May we had grads from
Cohort One come talk to Cohort Two in
order to share tips on what to do to
prepare for the first year of teaching.
Although they talked a lot about being
tired (it was late Friday afternoon after a
week of teaching!) what came through
Note from the Director
Reflections from the year
I used to think.. but now..
“I had to be able to do it all on my own, but now I know the importance of resources and asking for help!”
-Quotes from residents last
day in practicum
Hear about the experiences of
3 residents from the past year
In this issue:
Note from the director
Page 1
End of the year celebration
Page 2
SFTR Convening Meeting
Page 3
Service Learning Reflection Reflections from the year
Page 4
Update on our new website
Page 6
Page 4
more on 2
Page 5
2 Teaching for Excellence and Equity
San Francisco Teacher Residency Quarterly Newsletter Issue 1 | June 2012
1
End of the Year Celebration
The beautiful home of Peter
Williamson served as a great locale to
celebrate the end of the second year of
the program. Residents, principals,
demonstration teachers, supervisors,
university staff and program staff
enjoyed a great night of celebrating the
2
accomplishments of this year’s
residents. Each resident also
received a copy of, “Why School?
Reclaiming Education or All of Us“ by
Mike Rose. One of highlights of the
night was sharing the quotes that the
residents wrote about, “I used to
think….But now..”. We are including
some of them in this newsletter for
your enjoyment.
I used to think… but now…
-Quotes from residents last
day in practicum
“I had to be perfect in every
lesson, but now I know that’s
impossible and silly and to
take every mistake as an opportunity for growth.”
loud and clear from all of our grads was their love for their students and their tremendous commitment to them.
Additionally the desire to continue to learn and grow as teachers was palpable from these new teachers. I will admit
that it made me very proud.
This April we conducted our inaugural interview day to select candidates for next year’s cohort of residents.
Candidates participated in mini-Socratic seminars after reading the Education Week article, “Because Race Can’t Be
Ignored” by Z. Burkholder. Following the seminar, brief individual interviews were conducted with each candidate.
Participating at the interview day were representatives from SFUSD’s Human Resources Department, Beginning
Teacher Support and Assessment Department, Teacher Support and Development, and the Mission Zone. Also
joining us for the event were teachers from Mission High School and representatives from University of San
Francisco and Stanford University. The day was truly a team effort. Cohort Three is looking very strong. We will start
working with them on July 30.
Next year we are excited to add John O’Connell High School as a Teaching Academy. We will continue to be
working at El Dorado, Buena Vista/Horace Mann, James Lick and Mission. We are so thankful to the administration,
the teachers, students and parents at each of these schools for all their contributions to and support of the program.
I also want to formally welcome the newest addition to our SFTR team, Midhun Joseph, our new program associate.
Once you meet Midhun you will understand why we are so thrilled to have him working with us. This newsletter is
just one example of the Midhun’s great skills and enthusiasm.
Finally, I want to thank the many people who make this program possible from our demonstration teachers and
their principals, our supervisors, the SFTR Working Group and Advisory Board, and our university partners.
3 Teaching for Excellence and Equity
San Francisco Teacher Residency Quarterly Newsletter Issue 1 | June 2012
SFTR Convening 5.10.2012
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1
In May SFTR partners brought together university
faculty and supervisors, school principals, demonstration
teachers, and SFUSD staff to tackle the question of what
new teachers need to know and be able to do to be
successful in San Francisco’s hard-to-staff schools.
At first people met in role-alike groups to discuss the
specific characteristics that teachers needed to be
successful in San Francisco schools and the specific
content and skills that are needed for success. After
sharing those discussions people met in mixed role
groups to discuss what all of us can do to better support
the development of these skills in our teaching
candidates.
We look forward to continuing these discussions next
year.
2
The feedback for the event was very positive and
informative. It was reviewed by the SFTR Working Group
and the program staff to see how we can use this feedback
for program improvement.
Here is some feedback from the participants:
“This has been a great learning experience for me and I
hope for my resident teacher. Thank you for the opportunity.
I have established a relationship with someone who will be
in my life in the long run.”
“I had not thought much about teacher preparation before
this, this was interesting.”
“I greatly appreciate the opportunity to have a sub release
day to have these conversations.”
4 Teaching for Excellence and Equity
San Francisco Teacher Residency Quarterly Newsletter Issue 1 | June 2012
3
The service learning project was
a great experience for me. The
other residents at BVHM and I taught
a seminar – a middle school elective
– to a group of 15 sixth and seventh
graders. Our topic, determined by
talking with the school
administration and teachers, was
conflict mediation. We used
interactive activities to teach the
students conflict mediation skills
like active listening and anger
management, and the students used
those skills to create presentations
for the K-5 students. Each
presentation included an
introduction, an interactive game, a
skit that got the audience members
involved, and time for questions and
answers. With our support, the
4
students created and rehearsed
their presentations, and presented
several times in elementary
classrooms. Through this model, we
were able to reach almost the whole
school. The school is planning on
using our lesson plans and
implementing this seminar in future
years.
It was wonderful to see the middle
school students taking leadership in
the elementary school and teaching
students productive ways to resolve
problems. One of my favorite
moments was when we were
debriefing the first presentation in a
first grade classroom and a student
told me that in the future, the
teachers should not jump in as much
and should let the students be in
charge of their presentations. (For
5
the record, I followed her advice
and barely said a word in later
presentations!)
I think the learning can best be
summed up in the students’ words;
in our seminar reflection, the middle
school students wrote about their
learning as well as what they
thought the younger students
gained from the presentations.
Students mentioned improving their
public speaking skills, seeing all
perspectives of conflicts, and being
more patient. One student wrote, “I
always wanted to be a teacher, and
after being in your seminar I
realized how much work it is.”
Another wrote, “I learned how to be
a role model and the students
learned how to solve problems.”
(continued)
+ Quote from a demonstration teacher
“Hosting a resident has been
such an incredible learning
experience. I think the
continuing development of the
program is powerful for SFUSD
as a whole. I hope to become
better at supporting residents
in their development both as
resident teachers and career educators.”
Reflections from Service Learning Project Cynthia Guggenheim, Resident 2011-2012
Reflections from Residency Year Catherine Cuadrado, Resident 2011-2012
The first semester of SFTR there
was definitely more observing
than teaching on my part. I felt
unsure of myself most of the time
and spent a lot of time trying to
make sure that every single
detail of my lesson plans were
perfect. I soon learned that many
times teaching isn't perfect and
we as teachers need to look at
and an area of growth.
January of our second semester
feels like a lifetime ago. It seemed
like I had a never ending checklist
that just kept being added to. But
with that checklist something
happened. Somewhere between
course assignments for USF, CAT
assessments, PACT, solo weeks,
and solo units I felt more and more
confident in my teaching. Being
5 Teaching for Excellence and Equity
San Francisco Teacher Residency Quarterly Newsletter Issue 1 | June 2012
I want to be a teacher who… “Keeps learning from my students and improving my practice from year to year.”
-Quotes from residents last day in
practicum
able to work in the same classroom
from the first day of school to the last
allowed me to really learn how to
feel the pulse of the class, and how
to be responsive to the needs of my
students. But this was definitely one
of the hardest lessons to learn, for
me. There is so much to think about
at every second of the day, and at
first I thought that if I prepared
enough there was nothing that could
go wrong or surprise me.
However, that is totally not true,
and even the best lesson plans can
go awry. When that happens though,
rather than feeling frustrated and
mad at myself for not being perfect,
I know that as long as I am my very
best for my students, I can go back
and right my wrongs if need be. I've
learned to be patient with myself
and my students, and that staying
positive is the difference between a
great day and a tiring frustrating
day. The best part about working in
the same class the entire school year
was the relationships I was able to
build with my students. I love every
single one of my students and it was
so hard to say goodbye on the last
day of school. But I am confident that
they will continue to grow as
students, but more importantly as
people, remembering the lessons
that they learned this year.
Reflections from Residency Year Kristin La, Resident 2011-2012
+ I used to think…but now…
“That there was a “right” way to teach, but now I realize everyone has their own style.”
-Quotes from residents last day in practicum
(continued)
My mood during the second
semester of SFTR fluctuated
between exhilarated, exhausted,
nervous, and proud. Taking over
a class – including planning,
teaching, assessing, grading, and
student mentoring – was an
incredible opportunity which
required creativity and
endurance. Among other things,
I learned a valuable lesson in
scope and sequence planning:
ensure that the last unit of the
school year is highly engaging to
combat the end of year
restlessness. For my 8th grade
science students, sexual health
education seemed to do the trick.
Suddenly,.my.new-teacher
classroom management issues
disappeared as students sat rapt
with attention. Those three
weeks provided some of the
highlights of my year.
I always knew I would end up
pursuing a career in teaching.
This program was a great way to
gain the experience and
confidence I needed to feel
prepared going into my first year
of teaching. This has been one of
the most challenging and
rewarding years of my life. I
depended on the built-in support
systems of the program, and feel
lucky to have established a small
network of colleagues, friends
and mentors in SFUSD.
Watching my students get
promoted and prepare to leave
James Lick Middle School had me
considering high school science
positions, just for the chance to
teach some of them for another
year. In the end, I was excited to
take a position teaching 8th
grade science at Martin Luther
King, Jr. Academic Middle School
next year. It is exhilarating and
nerving-wracking to think about
having my own classroom, and I
know the exhaustion will return
in the days leading up to August
20. But I cannot wait to meet my
new students and get settled into
a new community, leaning on my
experiences and relationships
from my year in SFTR.
Teaching for Excellence and Equity 6
San Francisco Teacher Residency Quarterly Newsletter Issue 1 | June 2012
Update on our New Website
June will be an exciting month for SFTR as we will be
launching our brand new website! We are working in
partnership with Giant Rabbit, which is a San Francisco based
company to get our website launched. The site incorporates
some great features for both prospective candidates as well as
current residents of the program. We have been very mindful of
making the website both functional as well as easy to navigate.
The launch date is scheduled for the end of the month. See the
link below to access the website and let us know what you think!
Our new home: 135 Van Ness Ave, Room: 122 San Francisco, CA 94102 415.355.3900
SFteacherresidency.org + + Visit us on the web at:
1
Moving….
In 2008 the San Francisco
Education Fund played a leading
role in bringing one of the first
urban teacher residencies to the
West Coast to transform how
teachers are prepared to serve in
San Francisco’s hardest to staff
subjects and schools. As lead
partner in this unique collaborative
with San Francisco Unified School
District, University of San Francisco,
2
and Stanford in its early stages of
development, the San Francisco
Education Fund provided support to
the program through its launch year
to the present. Working with our
partner organizations to build the
residency, SFTR is now on strong
footing both programmatically and
financially. As of June 30, 2012 SFTR
will be moving from the Education
Fund. The program will physically be
housed at SFUSD to work more
closely with the district as part of
their human capital strategy. Fiscal
3
oversight will move to Community
Initiatives. University of San Francisco,
Stanford University and United
Educators of San Francisco will
continue as key partners in this
endeavor. The San Francisco Teacher
Residency and its collaborative
partners wish to thank the San
Francisco Education Fund for its
support in bringing this important
program to San Francisco and
incubating it. The students of San
Francisco are richer for their
contributions in this effort.
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