Introduction

Hello, and sorry for the delay in my introduction... it has been a hectic first two weeks!

I am in my second year as a Special Education Teaching Fellow at Bronx Expeditionary Learning High School (BELHS). BELHS is part of a national network of Expeditionary Learning Schools supported by the Outward Bound organization. this year we will graduate our first class of seniors, which is very exciting! We are a public school, one of six in the enormous Taft Educational Campus (what used to be Taft High School before the small schools movement), and this is our first year as an Empowerment school - which basically means we work more independently through our principal having more budgetary control, but we have two years to show improvement in test scores or the city will intervene. To be quite honest, I have started to loose touch with what all of this means politically as I am dealing with the reality of this ultimatum of sorts in my school; in order to improve test scores, our students have lost almost all of their electives. Only eleventh and twelfth graders get a technology elective (which counts as art) and some get gym.

Last year, I worked in an inclusion setting as a collaborative team teacher. My class was a mix of general education students and special education students. I worked with the general education teachers to support the special education students. It was a challenge because I was working with three different subjects, Math, English, and Science, and over the course of the year worked with five different teachers as a result of my science co-teacher quitting her alternative certification program to go to Hunter for graduate school. I also was head of the Special Education department - by default ... one day I just started getting stuff in my mailbox and no one seemed to mind that I had zero experience. It was an overwhelming year.

This year, I am teaching my own class of 12 special education students. Most of my students are emotionally disturbed or have learning disabilities. Unlike my students from last year (whom I love and still work with as a co-teacher of tenth grade math), these kids are angels. Their emotional disabilities are evident in their hyper-sensitivity and irrational responses, but they are incredibly eager to please me and feel validated. My students last year were angry all the time, which led them to give up easily and not care if they succeeded academically or not (on the surface). My current students overwhelm me with "oooh pick me miss" and hands waving in my face and hugs. I almost feel like an elementary school teacher!

This year I was hoping to focus on my class rather than any leadership positions. I am teaching both math and science. Now, I have not taken a math class since high school and never did very well in the subject. While I love science, my background is in the humanities. I have more math anxiety than some of my students, so I thought that spending my time in my graduate classes and prepping for two subjects in which i have little to no experience would be enough. As of today though, no one else in the department is stepping up to be Sped. chair ... so it looks like I will be submitting my application. In addition to my Math class, my science class, my department responsibilities, and my graduate work, I also have an advisory group - the same students as last year - who are now tenth graders and think they run the place... a handful to say the least.

With all of this, I can say that I truly love my job. This year seems like it will be even more full than the last, but more satisfying. It is amazing what one year of experience can do for you when your school has just hired 14 new teachers, most of whom are first year teach for america and teaching fellows teachers. I am now a "veteran" teacher, but I hardly feel like I deserve the title! I am looking forward to sharing my experiences with you all and hearing back!