Cynthia Gonzalez-AUSL Resident Teacher

 The National Teachers Academy

 Communities and Schools as Social Agents for Change

"All school communities have a base of resources that can be drawn on to leverage school change"-

(Organizing Schools for Improvement: Lessons from Chicago-Anthony S. Byrk)

Throughout my residency, I have had the great opportunity to work in three of the AUSL schools;The Chicago Academy in the Austin Neighborhood, The National Teacher's Academy in the Armour Square Neighborhood, and Curtis School of Excellence in the Roseland Community. Each school has its own individual identity within the context of the AUSL network and the dynamics of relationships and interactions amongst staff, parents, and community members was different at each site. My time in all three school settings has allowed me to gain an understanding of how positive school climates and relationships amongst staff, families, and community members is essential to the success of a school. Not only should a school environment offer students a safe and nurturing environment that will adhere to providing a rigorous and equitable educational experience, but is should be an environment that fosters the growth and development of all the members of its community.

As I take the next steps towards becoming a new member of a Turn Around Community at Marquette School of Excellence, I look forward to becoming a part of a team that will foster a positive school climate, so as to embrace some of the initial barriers that may come along with the dismantling of a prior school climate. My goal is to become an active member that will help create and support a common vision and  language to set standards for student behaviors and academic expectations. My goals also include to establish positive and authentic relationships with students and families to be viewed as a partner in the significant process of change and utilized as a resource for growth and development. Through a strength based approach to instruction, along with a mantra to helping students to develop and become socially competent citizens, my job will be to create an environment that is reflective of:

"Having students perform well academically, develop tools of critical analysis and critical consciousness, have opportunities of intellectually rigorous curricula and high academic expectations, teaching that values and employs their cultural knowledge, and critical pedagogical approaches"

(The New Political Economy of Urban Education: Neoliberlism, Race, and the Right to the City- Pauline Lipman)

Schools as Systems and Bureaucracies 

In the book “The Flat World and Education: How America’s Commitment to Equity Will Determine our Future” Linda Darling Hammond argues that the inequitable current educational structures within our society play a significant role in the disconnection between our students’ academic and social abilities when compared to other educational institutions at a national and worldwide level. The current infrastructure within our school systems does not adhere to complying with the essential need to provide students with authentic learning experiences in which they are allowed to develop their social, inquiry based, and critical thinking skills. Darling Hammond argues that our society places little to no value on reform and the distribution of financial resources for high quality education. She confirms that in order for our society to develop socially competent citizens that can thrive and positively impact our society, then we must be able to adopt practices that focus on “the quality of teachers and teaching, the development of curriculum and assessments that encourage ambiguous learning by both students and teachers, and the design of schools as learning organizations that support continuous reflection” (pg. 8). Only then, would we be able to move from a society that allows for unequal access to education for our low-income and minority population of students.
As a resident in training, I feel that the AUSL network has demonstrated its ability to publicize their efforts as a current network that is determined to take affirmative action towards the reform of school improvement. As I read about several flourishing pedagogical practices that exist in other countries, I wonder about how the AUSL network is willing and able to construct the same sort of learning environments within their new turnaround schools. Reading about peer assessment opportunities, the integration of modern technology,use of student exploration with inquiry based projects, and the decreased amount of topics that are taught in a school year, I find a strong disconnection between daily practices that I experience in my classroom. Unfortunately I feel that I have viewed the ramifications of a test driven school environment that eliminates individual responsibility for learning. Students are told what to think, write, and do on a constant basis. Behavioral issues are rarely addressed, and I find that my students constantly struggle with coping skills and how to communicate effectively with others. As a new turn around teacher, I envision the initial part of the school year dedicated to character development and community building within our classroom, so that students acquire the skills necessary to function within our classroom, so that our learning can be reflective of some of a balanced approach to content areas, mandated high stakes policies, but also leaving room for authentic real-life experiences that revolve around social justice curriculum.
During a professional learning meeting this week, we discussed specific practices that could be adopted to guide students towards developing intrinsic motivation for learning. After reading chapter 1, I wonder how we can accomplish such a goal, when society places little to no support in helping students from low-income and minority populations. How can we expect students to hold respect for education, when the education infrastructure does not respect or support their individual learning?