charter school

I worked at my very first charter school today as a sub. It was a pretty unexpected call to get (I didn't even know they used district subs--I know many don't), but either way, I figured it would be an adventure, so I picked it up, even knowing I was running the risk that it could potentially be grades K-2 (something I'm currently NOT doing, due to a massive lack of energy).

Working at a charter school is pretty different all right--as different from working a public school as you can possibly get. I'd say that none of my experience really prepared me for what I'd see and do, so I really spent most of the day just observing everything that was going on around me. I've never been inside of a charter school in my life, and had no idea what to expect. Also the job description was pretty vague, so I had no idea what exactly I'd be facing. I'm still in a bit of a daze from the whole thing, but my assessment will probably undergo some further fine-tuning since I'm going back tomorrow as well (it's a 2-day job). Basic observations from today:

1. Working at a charter school is nothing like working at a public school...not at all. I guess maybe private schools are a bit like this, but I wouldn't know...I've never been in a private school either.

2. I may have just lucked out and worked in the one building in the whole city that had air conditioning! (It's been a hot week around here, and as far as I can tell, there aren't any air-conditioned schools in the main district I work for.)

3. Class sizes are pretty small (but pretty average if you're used to working in Special Ed where class sizes are ALWAYS pretty small). As a sub, this means I was able to actually learn the names of most of the students, an unusual feat that I rarely attempt if I'm not in Special Ed.

4. The biggest difference to me is there's way less structure/routine...you don't have the overwhelming sense of structure that you get in a normal public school. Things are downright casual compared to daily life in a public school. There's arguments for and against this, of course, but as a sub, I find structure pretty comforting and familiar, so I spent most of the day feeling a bit lost and bewildered. The kids of course, always seem to know what to do, so when in doubt, I just follow their lead. This works 99% of the time anyway.

5. It can be really hard to tell the teachers from the parents. Teachers don't tend to dress like "teachers" or wear badges. I'm not saying it's good or bad, but it's definitely different. Speaking of parents, I got to know quite a few of them just in the short time that I was there...which was a pleasant surprise.

6. Multi-age classrooms: you get this in self-contained Special Ed, and a few K-8 schools around town do this, but for the most part, multi-age classrooms are rare in public schools. I'm still trying to decipher the range I had today...I'm inferring that it was pretty wide compared to even a typical life skills group. The nice part is that the older ones kind of tend to take care of the younger ones. The downside is that you probably would get some weird dynamics in your classroom. I wonder if the instruction is mostly individualized in this kind of situation, or if kids are grouped around certain abilities. Either way, I'd hate to be the one planning/implementing it all! As a (mostly) single subject teacher, I would find this difficult.

7. Electives/offerings: electives and after school activities are much more eclectic--more like what you might get at a summer camp. Obviously, you would need to get your sports elsewhere.

8. A radically different approach to working with children...I don't know how else to put it, but I got the impression that my almost Danish philosophy towards children is a bit more welcome here (unlike a lot of people, I don't believe that children are especially fragile or helpless--they aren't made out of porcelain). One of the reasons I don't work with the lower grades is that I often get in trouble because I absolutely believe in minimal intervention--allowing children to "learn from experience" so I don't intervene as much as other people would like. I like kids to work things out for themselves and attempt to solve their own problems before I jump in. This does NOT appear to be the prevailing attitude among other adults that I typically work with, but I think it's good for kids to "fall down seven times and get up eight", as the saying goes.

9. Lack of diversity. I'm sure in situations like this, the demographics are really messing with all of the neighborhood schools' demographics. I personally prefer the vastly more diverse student populations in the public schools around here (there's a reason why I am interested in ESL). The latest demographic profile of the school I was at today is: White 74 %, Black 14 %, Hispanic 6 %, Asian/Pacific Islander 3 %, American Indian/Alaskan Native 3 %. A nearby K-8 school is about 80% Black, around 20% Hispanic, and there's a handful of white kids. I'm sure you see where I'm going with this. A lot has been written about equity in education and I won't get into that here, but let's just say this is a good example of a situation that I find less than ideal.

10. Expanded opportunities for field trips and other out-of-class learning experiences: I bet it's WAY easier to arrange to do stuff like this when you have 15 or fewer students. That would be really nice.

11. A non-union work environment. There's a lot of downsides to this because having union representation protects you from a lot of abuses of your time and energy, so I don't know if I could do this all the time. Let's just say that I sure do appreciate my duty free lunches and regularly scheduled breaks...things that many if not most other working adults take for granted.

12. A charter school or alternative school would probably be a good place to do some pretty non-standard things with your teaching. I kind of straddle the boundaries between several different areas (ESL, remedial reading, literacy intervention) so that might be a good forum for doing that. Something to think about...

Those are the things I had time to notice/think about. I honestly spent most of the day wondering what I was supposed to do, and just generally interacting with the kids. Apparently, my main "job" was to provide one-on-one support to a student who happened to be absent. Since I didn't have anything to do in that department, I just spent the afternoon supervising and enjoying the kids and my attempts at "figuring them out". It took them awhile, but they warmed up to me by the end of the day...I knew they would eventually (most kids do, after all).

I'll be back again tomorrow, but just for a half-day (they don't have a full day of school on Fridays), so when I'm done there, I think I'm going to go wind down my afternoon at Jefferson...it's been awhile and I bet they could use another adult presence at this time of year.