TEACHBoston Summer Projects

This summer, the TEACHBoston Program co-sponsored the 2nd Annual TEACHBoston/UMASS Boston Summer Teaching Academy, a teaching and learning opportunity designed for Boston high school students who are interested in becoming teachers. The program provided students from five Boston public high schools with unique hands-on teaching and learning experiences. The students were from: Boston Community Leadership Academy, Brighton High School, The Jeremiah E. Burke High School, East Boston High School, and West Roxbury High School.

The TEACHBoston/UMASS Boston Summer Teaching Academy was divided into the following core components:

Field Placement:
TEACHBoston students served as mentors/teaching assistants for BPS English Language Learners middle and high school students under the mentorship and supervision of college faculty and BPS teachers. The TEACHBoston students were placed in two sites and programs. One group of students was placed at Madison Park Technical Vocational High School in the Boston Public Schools S.P.E.L.L. (Summer Program for English Language Learners) program. The other group was placed in the TAG (Talented and Gifted Hispanic Program) program on the campus of the University of Massachusetts at Boston. All of the TEACHBoston students worked as teaching assistants in programs designed to support and enrich BPS 7th to 12th grade students who may be monolingual or bilingual and are not passing English Language Arts and/or Math and may be in danger of failing the MCAS test.

Lecture Series:
The 2nd Annual TEACHBoston Summer Lecture Series

Coursework:
Introduction to Teaching I: The Introduction to Teaching I course was taught by Dr. Denise Patmon, Chair, Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the Graduate College of Education at UMASS Boston. The course provided students with the time to study in depth the concepts of pedagogy, curriculum, and lesson planning and to apply the knowledge in their field placements. The learning was carefully constructed so students learned to become critical thinkers, observers and reflectors of their practice and experiences.

The College Planning Seminar: Romaine Mills-Teque, the TEACHBoston Summer Program Director, facilitated this seminar. It was designed to provide students with accurate information regarding the college planning process and to be useful not only to underclass students, but to those graduating seniors as well. The course focused on the following:

• To create a planning portfolio for college
• To become familiar with resources for college planning
• To become familiar with the Higher Education Center at the Copley Library
• To take a college tour
• To begin applying to colleges
• To begin acquiring information regarding financial assistance for college.

The Reflective Practice Seminar: This seminar entitled “Why Learn, Why Teach?” was taught by Junia Yearwood, English Teacher at English High School (2002 Boston Teacher of the Year) and Christy Zarrella, TEACHBoston teacher at East Boston High School The seminar was designed to allow students time to process and reflect upon their week’s work collectively. Students were asked to do preparatory reading and to write responsively to a common question in journals. In addition to the reflective dialogue and journal writing sessions, students were introduced to some core elements of teaching and learning: Interpersonal Skills, Professionalism, Effective Writing, Classroom Management and Supporting Diverse Learners. The main text used in this course was What Keeps Teachers Going, by Professor Sonia Nieto (TEACHBoston Board member).<.i>

As the nation experiences an unprecedented need for new teachers (half the teaching force will be retiring by 2010), TEACHBoston intends to continue to offer innovative authentic teaching and learning experiences that help prepare Boston high school students to claim their place amongst the ranks of the new generation of educators.

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