"My Name
is Tom Poulos and I thought I was bad..."
by
Tom Poulos
My name is Tom Poulos,
and I am currently on staff at the newly completed
National Teachers
Academy (NTA). The NTA is the first of its kind
professional development
school serving an inner city population. My
responsibilities
have been to develop a model physical education program for
an urban school
district. The NTA is located in Chicago's south loop area
and currently services
children from the Chicago Housing Project's Hillard
and Ickes Homes.
The majority of the
children attending NTA came from the Daniel Hale
Williams Elementary
School. Closed by CPS last June due to continued
academic failure
(16% of the children were reading at grade level at
closure), the community
felt that the board had betrayed them by closing
their neighborhood
school.
Prior to the NTA,
I have taught PE in the Chicago Public Schools for the
past 28 years, developing
several highly successful programs for inner city
youth. I was
recruited by CPS to become a member of the planning team for
the NTA. During
this time the team's responsibilities were to develop a
professional development
school that would serve children, pre-service, and
residential teachers.
Our primary vision is to recruit and train teachers
to teach in an urban
environment.
During this time,
I became involved in the Adventure Education program at
Northeastern Illinois
University under the leadership of Prof. Dan Creely.
From my brief exposure
to Adventure Education prior to my planning team experience, I felt that
there was a place for teambuilding initiatives within a well-rounded PEcurriculum.
Upon completion of the program, I felt I had a good
understanding of
Adventure Education and was prepared for its implementation.
As I reflect back
on my first quarter, I believe that Adventure Education programs are situational,
and one must use the theory in practice as he sees fit. I
thought my first
step in developing an Adventure Education program would be
to implement a contract
of some sort. Little did I realize that it would be
a major challenge
to get the children to listen attentively and follow
simple directions
prior to organizing a contract developed by the children
and the teacher.
I struggled with how to organize the class and maintain
discipline.
Through my trials and tribulations, the one thing I kept going
back to that showed
success in building meaningful relations and a caring
community with this
indigent population was the talking circle.
I journal each
class I teach daily (26 classes per week, pre-k thru
8th), and in doing
so I came to the realization that the talking circle
achieved the goal
of laying the groundwork for building a "caring community"
within my school.
In regards to the contract, I feel I can sum it up in one
phrase, "self-control".
Rules and regulations for this indigent population
were too vague,
and using a verbal message to indicate a violation of the
contract was a put
down in itself and would disrupt the class at times
beyond control.
As frustrating and
challenging as the first quarter has been, I must
say I have seen
positive changes occurring in the children. They still tend
to become disruptive
and disrespectful at times, but I feel the
relationships we've
been developing are becoming stronger with every class.
We haven't reached
critical mass, but we continue to move in that direction.
As I continue
to seek ways to engage my students, I must confess
that the talking
circle was my savior in bringing order into my classroom.
For teachers working
with students from low socioeconomic environments where
environmental problems
greatly impact their success and development, talking
circles are a method
that allows all participants to share and reflect their
daily experiences.
I highly recommend you try it!
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