Teacher Education in Chicago

May 15, 2009

Chicago - A Life Defining Experience

Bill Murchie '10 - Wow, what a week thus far! During these past 6 days, I have learned so much about the city of Chicago as well as myself. For an Indiana boy who has never used public transportation before, the first couple trips on the L intimidated me. However, I now feel fully comfortable and look forward to my next trip to the metro.

As for the cultural aspect of the trip, living south of Indianapolis where there is little cultural diversity, my only true interaction with people from different ethnic groups came when I spent my summers at Culver Military Academy. Though there were people from all over the world at this camp, I honestly believe I have learned more about different ethnic groups and the way they interact with one another this week than I have in the 10 summers I have spent at Culver. The sad part of my last statement is not that I have learned as much in roughly one week as I have in 10 summers, it’s that I have only touched the tip of the iceberg when it comes to learning about these cultures and what defines them.

Whether it has been going to the Maxwell Street Market, visiting the Polish neighborhood on Milwaukee Avenue, taking a personal tour through Pilson Street, or spending the afternoon exploring the South Asian neighborhood on Devon Street, this experience has taught me to really enjoy the parts of the city in which most tourists do not go.

There are no enormous skyscrapers on Pilson Street, but there are beautiful murals one can spend hours looking at. You cannot find a Snickers in the local market in the South Asian Neighborhood, but I tried a piece of candy that was absolutely fantastic. Needless to say, some of the most exciting parts of Chicago are not found directly downtown or close to the Cubs and White Sox’s Stadium. The most exciting places, and in my opinion the best food, is found in the local neighborhoods!

Transitioning to my experience at Von Steuben High School, I would describe the school as extremely diverse and full of hard workers. It is obvious that Von Steuben has students from a wide variety of neighborhoods in Chicago. I observed students from all different ethnic backgrounds and I noticed that, though they might look different or speak different languages, the vast majority of the students worked extremely hard and pushed themselves to achieve to the best of their ability!

Before I came on this trip, I never had any desire to work at an inner city public school. This being said, this trip has opened my eyes to inner city public schools and I know to “never say never”. Overall, this trip has been a great experience and I look forward to moving forward with my newly acquired knowledge about the world around me.

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Experience Expands Perspective on Life

Chris Schweigel '10 - What can I say about my experience in Chicago and the public school system? I can say that I have had a lot of new and eye-opening experiences. In my short time in Chicago I have seen things that were completely new to me and done some things for the first time in my life.

Coming from the small town of Sheridan, IN. and going to only a slightly larger city in Crawfordsville for College, I have had a pretty dim view of large cities and society as a whole. But, I got my first new experience right away when we got on the train to go to Chicago. I had never been on a train; do in large part to the fact that trains are not a common means of transportation in Indiana. Once we got to Chicago trains and buses were our only means of transportation, so I have spent several hours on the Chicago public transportation. I really think that that is a good way to see the city, observe and meet a lot of people. I do not know the number of times that I or the people I am with have struck up a random conversation with some random person that we were next to on the train or bus.

The other new experience for me has been diversity of the city and the school I am observing. I am observing in Von Steuben High School and just like the city of Chicago has a large variety of students from different races and ethnicities. For the first time I am in the minority. Whereas the school where I went to high school and the school in Montgomery County are around 90 percent Caucasian. It has been really neat to see how the different students and groups interact with one another. Though the atmosphere of the school feels different, which could be do to the fact that it is an inner city school, the students for the most part tend to behave and act the same as those I have observed at schools like Crawfordsville.

I will admit that I was real skeptical at first to come up here. But, I am glad that I did. Not only have I gotten to see and do new things, but I have a new perspective on life and feel as though I have a better concept of society as a whole. If you were like me and have never really been out of your own small town I would highly recommend that you visit a major city. And, Chicago would definitely be a great place to look.

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May 14, 2009

Learning How Culture Shapes a School

Elijah Sanders '10 - This week has obviously been a learning experience for me. I have contemplated teaching in Chicago for a couple of years now and was really looking forward to this experience, and it did not disappoint.

I have learned a lot about the various cultures in Chicago and how the education system has reacted to them. At Benito Juarez, I have found the school has really embraced the Hispanic community. They have made the front of the school open for members of the community to travel around. My home high school was always on lock down during the school day. Not Juarez, it is not uncommon to see a member of the community sitting on one of the benches outside the school reading the paper.

The school also allows community events in the cafeteria, which was designed to be a sort of theatre. Furthermore, throughout the high school you can see murals that are both professionally done and student projects. They have these for multiple reasons. The first is the obvious; murals are a staple of the Hispanic community. Walking around Pilson, the neighborhood the school is in, you would see massive murals on the side of almost every building. These murals give the students a sense of ownership by coming up with designs, to be approved by their teachers, and painting the murals, themselves. I find that it gives the school a lot more personality, which is good, because the students, themselves, have a lot of personality.

Although the graduation rate may be low, there are a lot of bright kids with interesting perspectives and insight to share. I have really enjoyed the various history classes I have observed. The students at Juarez are not afraid to ask me questions to where I am from; to why in the world would I would go to an all guy’s college? And as I tell everyone when answering this question, you just have to see it to believe it.

So this entire time I have been in these classrooms I have been wondering, is CPS for me? Can I do this? After multiple conversations with my host teacher and Alums like Jeremy Robinson '04, they have convinced me not only can I do this, but I will more then likely fall in love with this job. These teachers have a true passion for their students and the urban community. It is a feeling I hope to share with them in the future as I develop into a teacher. Although I am not sure if Juarez is the school for me, as I am not a Spanish speaker, I do believe I can teach in Chicago.

The students are fun, the teachers are dedicated, and as long as you are willing to put in the work, the long term results are very fulfilling. Plus it is Chicago, the greatest city in the world.

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A Wabash Guy Who Talks on the Subway

Ben Humphreys '10 - Over the past few days in Chicago, Dr. Iazzetto and Mrs. Phillips have pushed all of us towards understanding the culture of which we’re immersed in. Dr. Iazzetto, who is from Chicago, has guided us to locations that have facilitated this process of understanding. More recently, Dr. Iazzetto asked us to take a closer look at the specific aspects of these cultures: values, diet, commonalities, and social interaction. As a result of this complicated question, all of us developed our own cultural understanding of Chicago.

To start, I will attempt to define my working definition of culture. To me, culture is an aspect(s) of a group that share communal values, traditions, and overall outlook on life. Although this definition isn't as specific as I would hoped it to be, it does establish a base for me to begin understanding foreign cultures. Over the past three days I've been immersed in many foreign cultures: Chinese, Polish, Hispanic, and Italian. These cultures are all unique in their own individual sense, but I would like to delve into the culture of Chicago holistically. Having passively journeyed to most of Chicago, there are a few things I would like to say about it.

When placing oneself in new culture, there are several things that catch people by surprise, or cause double takes. For your sake and mine, I will not dabble on my issue that caused a double take — trust me. Surprises, or as I would like to call them, "huhs", have effectively taught me about the culture of Chicago. Now, I'm an overtly social person, which makes me a person who enjoys talking to and meeting new people: if that be on a subway, bus, or the "L". Where I come from people make eye contact, interact with each other, and are generally talkative. However, this is not a characteristic of the culture of Chicago.

People on trains, buses, and on the street don't interact; speaking with an Italian woman last night she schooled me how to spot foreigners — me — on the transit system, "it's easy, like you for instance, you asked me how my day was. No one who is from here will do that. People generally don't care, or are just afraid to converse. If you want to be seen as a local, don't talk to anyone you don't know" (Cecily). This was astonishing to hear. In order to be viewed as a local you have to keep to yourself, don't venture off.

It's interesting to be in a culture like Chicago right now. Before leaving Wabash, I spent two weeks writing a paper that dealt with the impact of social complicity on urban environments. If you're not familiar with social complicity, it is the concept of cultures agreeing to disagree on societal issues. Consequentially, social complicity causes a division of cultures. Although Chicago has a number of ethnicities, they seem rarely interject with each other.

Even though the culture of Chicago is new for me, I do feel like I’ve begun to understand it. My teaching experience at Benito Juarez has been nothing but enjoyable. I’ve been lucky enough to have been placed with a well-versed teacher in Mr. Kneip. Possessing more than enough time to ask him questions about urban schools has been extremely beneficial. Having spent the last three days observing Mr. Kneip’s class, I’ve learned more than I could’ve fathomed. He has been extremely helpful so far to my personal development as a teacher.

Coming from a predominant Hispanic culture, I feel comfortable at Benito Juarez. The majority of the students there speak Spanish. Having knowledge of Spanish has given me the opportunity to connect with the students on a different level. This experience has truly given me the chance to immerse myself in the urban culture, which, as an aspiring teacher, there is only so much you can learn about yourself in the classroom.

Furthering my experience here in Chicago, was my first trip to Wrigley Field — home of the Cubs. Visiting Wrigley has been a dream of mine for a while. I’m a baseball enthusiast and to get an opportunity like this was amazing. Being from Arizona it is hard to find time to catch a Cubs game on a Tuesday.

In photo: Jon Hogge and Ben Humphreys at Wednesday night dinner.

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Experience Changes Big City Perceptions

Brody Tarter '10 - I have been in Chicago for 5 days now and I have adjusted well to city life. Coming from a small town of no more than 5,000 people and having never visited the city before, I can say that I have experienced and learned a lot already. I have been able to visit the Maxwell St. Market, Chinatown, and a Polish neighborhood. We also meet up with alumni Art Howe, who is a lawyer in the city. He gave us a tour of Millenium Park, which is a huge tourist attraction full of many different art exhibits. My time in Chicago has already been filled with many great experiences. However, most my time has been spent teaching and observing at my host school – Prosser Academy.

Every day I have to walk about 4 blocks to board a train to get to Prosser. I ride the train about 20-25 minutes. After my train ride, I walk another block and board a bus. My bus ride is another 30-35 minutes. To say the least, it can be an adventure just trying to arrive to my school everyday. But, I have learned that city transportation is reliable and efficient. Either a train or bus can get you to about any place in the town.

The city of Chicago is home to many different people from all around the world. The Chicago Public School system represents this. There are 125 different languages spoken in the Chicago Public School system. At Prosser Academy, the student population consists of 60 percent African-Americans students, 20 percent Latino students, and about 10 percent Polish students. Being exposed to such diversity in schools is something that we are not accustom to while observing and teaching in Montgomery County.

To be honest, I came to Chicago with some negative assumptions about the city and the way in which inner city public schools operated. Just in the 5 days that I have been in Chicago, I have learned that my assumptions about the city and schools were wrong. Even though CPS has a bad reputation, Prosser Academy has allowed me to see that inner city schools in Chicago are really just like any other school that I have been too.

Through my experiences at Prosser Academy over the past days I have learned that working in an inner city public school can be challenging. But, teaching in any environment can be challenging. However, the most important thing I have learned from this experience is that I believe I am capable of teaching in a large city public school.

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Inner City Schools Can be Tough Places

Matt Ward '05 - My overall impressions of Chicago are very similar to what I experienced during our brief visit at the end of March; the students do not seem to be the problem with Chicago Public Schools. It is the lack of money, effective administrators and passionate teachers.

The lack of money if evident from the first moment you walk into the school. The entire infrastructure of Benito Juarez Community Academy is aging (even though the school is less than 25 years old). The administration, from what I have experienced personally, has been close to useless; they did not plan very well for our arrival. When the Asst. Principal saw us on Day One, he gave me directions to my classroom and tried to head me off by letting my host teacher know I’d be there before I got there (and he failed, for I totally saw and heard him). Finally, although my host teacher has been the best I have seen in Chicago, there are other Spanish teachers here that make me want to cringe as an educational professional (I finished student teaching two weeks ago); one teacher, for example, taught a grammatical concept by reading the notes on the grammar directly from the book to the class. The follow-up activity was to copy the exact same notes into students’ notebooks. A third teacher I observed “taught” students about Ecuador by spending 30 minutes reading the notes in the book about Ecuador to the class. It has been pedagogically depressing (and somewhat thankful that I had the cooperating teacher that I did while student-teaching).

Much of the culture in Chicago I've experienced thus far has dealt with the overwhelmingly impersonal nature of the city. No one makes eye contact on the street with other people; you just keep on walking. I have noticed -- being Anglo in a Hispanic school (and especially since I started walking with a cane again) -- that some people are into staring, though they will not often make eye contact. I find this most interesting, especially when their eyes look to my cane before they look up at me. I often look them in the eyes as if to say "Hey! I'm up here!"

Big city culture is nothing new to me, however, having grown up in Indianapolis and having studied in Europe. I am rather accustomed to living anonymously, to the extent that living in a place like Crawfordsville is unnerving, because I will likely see people I know in public when I'd much rather control the context of when and where I meet people.

Although machismo is (unfortunately) a big part of Hispanic cultures, I have noticed that my female teacher is respected; students, especially the young men, rarely back-talk or disobey her. And she's not even strict or mean; she maintains a friendly, positive rapport with her students that I envy (and hope to achieve with my future classes).

Interesting for me is how Hispanics respond to me when they hear me speak Spanish for the first time. Many assume I'm just another gringo without language skills -- even the students in the classes I have been observing were unsure! Even after I told them (in Spanish) that I speak Spanish and such, one young man in particular spoke to the host teacher about me; my reaction was, again in Spanish, "Don't be afraid to talk to me directly." Was this a cultural difference or merely this one student feeling unsure of what to do?

Although these students seem very similarly in general behavior to those I had while student-teaching, the school and neighborhoods are much poorer. From the computers that are all old and often broken to the classrooms that look like glorified closets, this is a depressing place to be for me (perhaps because I was used to the relatively new CHS building). The security guards that yell at students in the hallways can be unnerving (but very polite and friendly to me as a fellow adult); even the faculty bathroom looks decrepit.

Technology in the classroom is a bit of a joke here; my host teacher's overhead is VERY difficult to read from the back of the room. Finally, although teachers have their own rooms, they often share them with other teachers during homeroom or prep times.

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May 13, 2009

Teaching With Jeremy Robinson '04

Jon Hogge '10 - My experience in the Chicago Public Schools has been awesome. I have been placed at Rauner College Prep. My host teacher is Jeremy Robinson ’04. This is much different than all of the other guys that are on this trip because I have the privilege to be with a Wabash alum. I have thoroughly enjoyed our daily conversations about the many different aspects of teaching: the joys and frustrations that students bring to the classroom, planning, interactions with other teachers, and how Wabash has prepared the both of us for teaching.

Jeremy and I have the chance to talk during his prep period every day for a good length of time because the school is on block schedule, that is, their classes are an hour and a half a piece. When we speak, I do not feel that he is a teacher and I am a student. I feel that we are both Wabash men talking with one another and we are on the same level. It is really cool because the line of communication between us is much more open than it would be if we did not attend the same college. Jeremy has even mentioned that he feels the same way about our interactions throughout the day. I feel extremely comfortable in his classroom and at Rauner.

The school itself is a charter school that was established only three years ago. It is apart of the Noble Street Schools that are located around Chicago. The school system runs a strict code of conduct and dress code unlike any other school that I have observed. Jeremy informed me that the school does this because if the students are given any sort of slack, they will exploit it and push the rules until something is done. Although this system is very strict, the students do not complain nor do they seem unhappy about the school. One student I observed received a demerit and there was not a single complaint from him about his punishment. The students here understand the consequences and for the most part understand that their misbehavior will lead to their punishment. I have been thoroughly impressed by Rauner and the smoothness of their system.

Outside of school, I have had the chance to walk around different parts of Chicago from Chinatown, the Maxwell St. Market, to the Polish neighborhood on Milwaukee St. Chicago is such a diverse city; so many cultures are represented here. Today, Tom Wade, Max Bader, Matt Ward, and I all traveled to Chinatown after school was finished. There, we had the chance to stop at grocery store. Max was looking for Wasabi peas and the rest of us were simply curious to what we would find. To mine and Tom’s delight, we found quite a bit of Chinese candy that we had had when we were younger but haven’t been able to find in places like Wal-Mart or Kroger. Tom and I made sure to buy a good portion so it would last us the remainder of the trip.

This week so far has been fun. I have had the chance to observe Jeremy Robinson ’04 and learn from him daily and I have seen many cultures that I do not see on a day-to-day basis in Indianapolis. I am looking forward to the remained of the trip and what it will bring me each day.

EDITOR'S NOTE: File Photo of Jeremy Robinson. Robinson was a standout Teach for America teacher before winning a Rhodes Scholarship and studying in Oxford, England. Hogge in photo at left.

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