Brandon Buffin, Math Teacher & Instructional Specialist July 30, 2020 By wpengine I like the vision at Friendship and the high expectations for our scholars – to get to and through college, and to be an actively contributing citizen. We actually make sure scholars get to and through college. What was your journey to your current role? My journey started after I graduated from Virginia State University in May 2007. I taught second grade in Richmond’s Southside for two years. Then, I made my way up to D.C., teaching at DCPS for four years – first and third grade. I taught in PG County Public Schools for a number of years. This is my 12th year in education. I recently received my Masters in School Administration last May from Trinity University. In addition to teaching and cultivating our scholars, I am grateful for the opportunities to build teacher capacity at Friendship Southeast. Currently, I am in a hybrid position teaching 3rd grade math as well as the math instructional specialist. I like the vision at Friendship and the high expectations for our scholars – to get to and through college, and to be an actively contributing citizen. We actually make sure scholars get to and through college. This is different from other school systems. We put forth more of a conscious effort to ensure our scholars are goal-oriented and on the path to being productive and contributing citizens. This vision is what keeps me at Friendship. When I first arrived at Friendship Southeast, one thing that blew me away was that the librarian, Ms. Gray, and her team took our third grade scholars on a college trip. They went down to Atlanta and visited different colleges and universities. I thought this was so impactful – to implant this idea that “you’re going to college” from an early grade. I thought, “Wow, I don’t see any other school systems starting to do this in elementary school.” This is just one example of why I want to be here. What do you like about working with the elementary school age group? I love teaching elementary scholars because they’re like sponges. They soak up so much knowledge, and they’re very inquisitive. They’re willing to hear what you have to say, and they’re also going to ask questions because they want to get deeper into the content. That excites me. When the light bulbs go off, it always reminds me of why I love teaching. What strategies do you find most effective? I’ll talk about multiplication since I teach third grade math, and that is one of the most crucial skills scholars need to master to be successful. The “rolling numbers” strategy has been one of the most effective methods I’ve used to help scholars multiply. The ease of skip counting allows scholars to find the product once they have the second factor on hand. If it’s done with fidelity, this helps scholars to eventually become fluent in multiplication. Also, of course, I use tools from Eureka Math. The curriculum has been very beneficial during the past three years that we’ve implemented the program. It ensures that scholars not only understand the procedural aspect of math, but also the conceptual. When I was growing up, we focused more on procedural. Now scholars really need to understand why we multiply and to be able to apply that skill to everyday life. Last year, when we started dividing, I wanted to show scholars what it meant to divide, or share. I brought in a big bowl of candy and had five friends share with scholars. That’s when they started to make a connection. We took a word problem and turned it into real life. They made a connection immediately. Another example is when we’re learning fractions – of course, this is the perfect opportunity for pizza! If I divide this pizza pie into 8 slices and take one away, how many pieces are left? What is the fraction? Now, we’re doing math and eating pizza! Are there any fun facts you’d like to share? I’m from Dallas, Texas, and I LOVE horseback riding excursions. When I go home in the summer, I ride for about six hours. We go up to Oklahoma and ride along rivers, have dinner, then just ride out into the sunset. I am also a musician. I play the flute, piccolo, cello, string bass, clarinet and trombone.It definitely affects how I teach. I try to incorporate a lot of kinesthetic things into the classroom. Scholars, especially boys, need to get up and move. They really connect with music. If I teach a new concept with music, I’ve instantly got them engaged and hooked.
DeMark Bowman, FPCS Alum, Recruitment Manager & Former Teacher June 29, 2020 By wpengine We have a lot of autonomy at Friendship. We are also provided with benefits to make our life easier. If I am able to worry about fewer things, I can be a better teacher. Can you talk about your journey to your current position as a middle school math teacher at Friendship Chamberlain? I started at Friendship Blow Pierce in 8th grade. My mother took me out of public school because it wasn’t a good fit for me academically or socially. I had a great year at Blow Pierce, and from there I went on to Friendship Collegiate. I participated in the Early College Program and was part of POSSE. I received a Friendship Scholars scholarship. If you had asked me ten years what I wanted to be, I would have said “an architect.” After leaving DC for college at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania and then returning, I saw my city differently. That was when I began to consider teaching. Then my mentor, Rictor Craig, helped to make this decision final. He introduced me to different teaching training programs including the DC Teaching Fellows, Urban Teacher Center, and Teach for America. After a lot of research, I decided that UTC was the best fit for me. It was a 4-year program and it included a dual master’s degree and placement in a school. I graduated from that program in 2015. I have enjoyed this opportunity to give back to my community. What has it been like to teach Eureka Math? This is my fourth year at Friendship. During my first year we taught Go Math, which was less holistic. When we switched over to Eureka math it was overwhelming at first because it was a new way to teach math. Eureka requires students to know conceptual versus procedural. Growing up, we learned procedural, “This is how you solve it,” but not necessarily, “This is why it works.” I tell parents that Eureka is probably the best thing to happen to our children for a couple reasons. It introduces the correct vocabulary to students, like “decompose/compose” versus “borrow,” etc. It starts with place value which is required to truly read, understand, and manipulate numbers. Even my own understanding of math has deepened because of Eureka. What do you like about teaching math? I wasn’t always a math person. Growing up, I was a big reader and writer – poetry, reading stories, Harry Potter, fantasy fiction. I was all about books, all about words. I was a philosophy major and a religious studies minor. However, I believe that reading helps you become a better mathematician. Many math problems are simply word problems, applying skills in a real world context. The greatest joy that I receive from teaching is knowing that my students are learning and look forward to coming to my class. As much as it is about each student getting better at math, it is also about me improving my craft, too. Every year I am getting better. Not only at teaching math, but at building relationships with my students, the way I communicate with parents, and the way I work with my peers. I give all of my students my number and tell them to call me if they need help with their homework. I enjoy being a male role model for my students. I recognize that some of my students are missing something in their life that I am helping to try and fill. When students feel comfortable sharing the personal struggles they are experiencing with me, I know that I must be doing a good job. Sometimes in class I say, “Alright, story time.” “Story time” means that Mr. Bowman is going to tell you something about his own life when he was your age, as well as lessons learned from mistakes. I believe this makes my students feela more comfortable with me because they know a lot about me. This is my favorite sound of all time: “Oh!” We could be taking a test when everyone is supposed to be silent, but if I hear a student say, “Oh!” I am ecstatic. It lets me know you just had an “Aha moment” and something illusive now makes sense to you. Recently we were talking about the metric system, and I realized I was not explaining it effectively because they were not getting it. I thought about what I was saying and how I could change what I was saying so that they could understand these concepts. I sat down with my math coaches and the special education teacher and we discussed the kind of language we needed to use for students to understand. I went home for the weekend, and the next week I told my class that I made a mistake – this is how I should have taught the lesson. And every 45 minutes after I started explaining something with a new approach, I saw face after face light up with understanding. They may not have completely grasped the conversion process, but they were beginning to understand. We need to think about our end game. Do we want students to only be able to convert the units or do we want them to understand why we are converting units? Sometimes I ask students, “Based on these questions, what operation should we use to solve this?” A lot of learning happens through discourse and trial and error. It is the struggle with knowledge that helps you to retain and internalize it. You don’t learn if I give you the answer. You learn from trying it yourself, making a mistake, and trying again. Are there any tips you have for new teachers? Absolutely! The first one would be, “Don’t do this work if you’re not ready to commit to it.” In addition to being a teacher, am I ready to take on the role of “social worker, father, brother?” Am I ready to stretch myself for the betterment of other people? My mom was the type of person who would give everything she had to others. She sacrificed so much without ever looking for anything in return. She always went out of her way to be there for other people and that trait definitely rubbed off on me. I want to do meaningful work, and I want my work to be impactful to the world around me, not just myself. My mother was a big inspiration. What is special about Friendship? We have a lot of autonomy at Friendship. We are also provided with benefits to make our life easier. If I am able to worry about fewer things, I can be a better teacher. Friendship helps you to be in a good space overall. Now I am excited to wake up at 5:45 a.m., drive for twenty minutes, and wait three minutes for the building to open at 6:30 a.m. I plan to stay in education for the rest of my career. Had I stayed at my previous school, I would not have stayed in education. I have never felt so happy and at ease with a job.
Brittney Lott, 10th Grade Geometry Teacher June 17, 2020 By wpengine You have to be able to teach to students’ potential; they don’t always show us the best side of themselves. You have to be the kind of teacher that shows it to them, that reminds them, ‘You can be successful. You can do this.’ Can you talk a bit about your journey to your current position? I’m originally from Georgia. I graduated from Georgia State University and I joined AmeriCorps, which is like the Peace Corps but in the United States. I worked at high school, and fell in love with the teaching profession after that. Then I moved to DC in 2013 and I got into a teaching program. I’ve been at Friendship since. I started as an 8th grade resident teacher at Tech Prep. Then I taught 6th grade. Now I teach 10th grade geometry at Tech Prep High School. I have seen many changes and a lot of growth here. You fall in love with the kids. You really do. Without the students, my passion runs low. I love teaching students something new and making them look at education in a different way. You have to teach them to love education and to love learning new things, even when they don’t see the direct benefits of it. This is why it is crucial to build a relationship with them, so you can inspire them to see the benefits of learning. I work to make learning relatable. There are many different ways mathematics can relate to them, but it’s also important to make them understand that the more they know, the further they’re going to go (I know that’s corny, but true). I try to assist them to see that they shouldn’t just be learning because they have to go to high school. They should be excited to learn because it is something they want to know to add value to themselves. That’s why it’s not at all helpful to tell students, “You have to do this because it is mandatory” without helping them see the benefit of learning it. When they come into class, I ask them to write down their dreams. I ask them, “What goals do you have for yourself? What do you want to do when you leave?” Then, when they tell me, “I don’t understand why I have to do this,” I always ask them to revisit their goals. I remind them that they need to have a high school diploma to become a police officer or a teacher—whatever they’re trying to become, they need to have a diploma to do it. Referring back to their goals helps my students. I also try to limit offering external rewards like candy. I want them to have intrinsic motivation. What do you like about teaching geometry? I feel like I was, in a way, given geometry. At first, I was not at all excited about teaching it. I was like, “Oh no, no, no, no…” You hear about all of the horror stories, you know, and I feel like this is the one subject teachers shy away from. I looked at it as a challenge and thought, “Okay, if nobody else wants to teach it, I know I’m going to be very valuable if I know how to teach it well.” So that was the challenge I set for myself. Then I fell in love with it because it is so relatable—it’s shapes, volume, it’s something that we actually use and it’s something you can see every single day. You don’t have to stretch so much. With algebra and pre-calculus you have to stretch really hard to make it relatable for them. Even if you used math to build a roller coaster, students still struggle to relate to such an abstract concept. But with geometry, I can actually show you the shapes I’m talking about. If a student comes to me at the beginning of the year with previously bad experiences in math, I tell them, “This is your time to shine. You may have struggled with algebra, but geometry is your opportunity to have a different experience in math.” Many students who previously struggled with math do very well in geometry and are surprised by it. It teaches them that math doesn’t just look one way. I love hearing, “Oh, my gosh, I got an ‘A’ in math! I never got an ‘A’ in math before.” They really start to build confidence and realize, “Wait, I am good at math.” When this happens, it’s a life-changing experience for me as well. It sounds like you really set them up for success at the beginning of the year. That’s wonderful. Are there any hands-on projects that particularly excite students? Yes, there are a few. Constructions are something we work on that they’ve never seen before. They design a portfolio of constructions, which really builds their confidence. They say, “Okay, cool. I can build a project and it turns out really nice.” They use color pencils and get really creative with it. They build a positive relationship with math—one where it’s about practice and getting better. Since I’ve been here for awhile, a lot of students know me. They have no problem with telling me, “I don’t understand” or “I’m not good at math.” I try to change the language at the beginning. I tell them, “Don’t say that or you really won’t be good at math.” During one class, a student who previously struggled with math was trying to hide his smile in class. He was so excited that he understood what we were doing, and he was the only one who understood at the time. He was able to come up to the board for the first time and teach the topic to the class. He then walked around helping the whole class. I’d never seen him that excited before. To this day, he will say, “Ms. Lott, remember that one day I understood the assignment and nobody else did?” And, I reply, “Of course I remember. When you sit down and really focus on something, you will understand it.” There are so many more stories like that. I could talk about student growth forever. Some come with certain feelings about math, and when they’re negative, we work to get past that in my class. Is there anything I haven’t asked you that you want to include in your spotlight? I want to reiterate that you have to be able to teach to students’ potential; they don’t always show us the best side of themselves. You have to be the kind of teacher that shows it to them, that reminds them, “You can be successful. You can do this.” You do this in a way that holds them accountable and builds them up to where they see themselves being successful in math. We recently had the second highest growth in geometry on PARCC, the second in the district, and that’s because of hard work of course, but also the belief that they could have success on PARCC. If other schools were doing it, we could as well. In DC, there’s been a stigma of, “on the other side of the Anacostia, they’re different…” I wanted our scholars to see for themselves and to show others that even though it’s not always about taking tests, they can be successful on a test as well. Students need to see themselves as capable, but also teachers need to see them in that light, too. Teachers need to know when it’s time to push them. We have some incredible students and they don’t always get portrayed in the best light. I always try to make sure they’re spotlighted in a major way when they’re doing well. They made history here and that’s what I wanted; now everybody is aiming to do that, which is really good. You have to be passionate about it. It’s hard work, but you have to build relationships and stay as positive as humanly possible. Recently, I had one of my roughest years personally. I thought I was awful at everything. I had just had a child and was a new mom. At the same time I was teaching a new subject. It was hard, but I pushed through it. I tell my scholars that story because they don’t always see teachers as real people. I remind them, “We all have personal things we’re going through, but you have to continue to push yourself to be the best you can and do well.”