As I alluded to in my last post, I once again had the opportunity to chaperone the annual student council trip to visit different colleges in the northeast. This year, the students wanted to visit Penn State University and the University of Scranton (where my sister is currently a junior), so that is exactly the two colleges we went to go see.
In front of the Old Main building at PSU
After leaving before the crack of dawn on Thursday, we arrived at Penn State at around 10:00am, giving us plenty of time to visit the bookstore and eat lunch before our campus tour at noon. Having spent a few days at Florida State University, I was expecting Penn State to feel more like a city than a college, but I was (admit-tingly) very surprised at how Penn State managed to have a small-school vibe.
The East Side High School Student Council at Penn State University
Thursday night was one of my favorite moments of the trip. After teaching students how to play some card games, I explained to them the math behind blackjack (as portrayed in the movie 21). Later, we played Taboo in the hotel lobby until 1 o’clock in the morning. I would be lying if I said it didn’t bring me right back to my college days, running programs as an RA. Once the clock hit 1am, it was officially lights out, as we had another long day ahead of us on Friday.
With Kim overlooking the University of Scranton
After eating breakfast and departing from State College, we headed for the University of Scranton. Once at Scranton, we met up with my sister, who gave us our meal vouchers. We then had an information session, and I was able to see my sister give an outstanding tour of her school. (Note: My sister and I often have a rivalry over which school is better – Marist or Scranton. The U.S. News & World Report often ranks the schools pretty evenly, but they are both tremendous academic universities that are slowly growing onto the national stage). I have been to Scranton many times (mostly to help my sister move-in and move-out), but I was still impressed by how nice the University was.
The East Side High School Student Council at the University of Scranton
And then we left to go back to Newark. It was such a great trip, and I once again learned so much in every way possible. When I got back on Monday, I found out that my fourth block, which is typically a great class, wasn’t well behaved for the substitute teacher during the trip on Friday. I was very disappointed in them, and explained this to the class the following Monday when I got back. After talking with them in a very quiet voice for a few minutes, I had every student sit in silence and write a letter of apology to the substitute and my vice principal (who had to come to my class to calm everyone down). I have never had to do that as a teacher, but you could most definitely tell how bad the entire class felt. After they started writing, not one student said one word for close to forty minutes. That period, there was such a profound feeling of respect, and I would be lying if I said that it wasn’t one of the most surreal experiences of my teaching career to date.
My board when I walked in on Monday.
Last side note – my birthday was last week, and the amazing students of East Side High School once again outdid themselves and couldn’t have made my birthday any nicer. Between signing my board, decorating my door, and singing “Sapo Verde” to me countless times (including five times in my last class alone), they honestly made my day. Below is a photo of some of the remnants of my birthday, and I honestly cannot thank them enough!
¡Muchas gracias por un cumpleaños fantástico! Muito obrigado do por um aniversário grande!
These last few months have been busy, very fast, and quite exciting. Between subbing summer classes, working on random projects, and tutoring SAT prep sessions, I honestly feel that I started school a month early this year! In August, I found out that I would officially be changing rooms, and was going to be teaching in room 301. I was really excited to get a new classroom. Just like my experience last year, it took a lot of cleaning to get my room in order. After spending about two full weeks cleaning up the room and making everything look nice for the first day of school, I was ready to start year two at East Side.
Panorama of Room 301 before the first day of school
On my first day of school, I tried out an activity my Vice Principal told me he used about working hard and achieving goals. In essence, I had a student jump as high as they could, and mark their jump with a marker. After leading a conversation with the class, I got a chair, and taped a $5 bill an inch above the mark on the wall. Each student then had a chance to jump up and get the bill. After all of the students were successful, we talked about how this related to life. Intrigued? I guess you’re just going to have to sit in on my class next year to find out…
East Side vs. Central football game at School Stadium in Newark
This year, I was appointed the school’s head academic coach, allowing me to run team eligibility reports, identify at-risk athletes, tutor them, and help council them on a wide variety of issues. I consider this a tremendous opportunity not only for myself and my personal ambitions, but for student athletes that often use sports as a coping mechanism for a wide array of issues they may be going through. Although this is my first year in this position, I see the potential this role has to really improve the school, and it should be interesting to see how this plays out.
Working Breakfast Duty in the morning
In addition to being the head academic coach, I also started an official SAT preparation program this Fall. After privately tutoring a student this summer, I realized how much SAT prep classes were needed at East Side. After pitching my idea of starting this program, the administration loved it, and gave me the green light. Originally, we had over 65 students sign up for free SAT prep classes (that met on Saturday mornings)! To me, this is yet another indication of how hard our students want to work to attain success, loosely defined. This also reinforced my personal idea that many students want to do well, but are unsure of exactly how to get there and what to do to get them to their next steps in life.
Early in October, I found out that I won a contest to take four students on a shopping spree at American Eagle. After randomly picking four students (and some hectic organization along the way), we all met up at the American Eagle in Jersey City; it was quite an exhilarating experience. I think it is safe to say that all of the involved parties were extremely grateful for this opportunity, and I personally cannot thank Teach For America and American Eagle enough for providing it to them.
In front of America Eagle after the shopping spree
My classes are going very well, also. Often times, my classes keep me laughing, especially when we are talking about sports teams, “growing corn,” yelling “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble,” or even using an exuberant amount of Lysol during class. Whether it is a student going back and forth in my first block about how funny I am (or not) or blasting songs to end the week in my fourth block, I recognize how fortunate and blessed I am to teach such a talented, amazing and fun group of students that truly make my day every day.
Halloween in the Math Office at ESHS
Between going to Marist, grad school at Seton Hall, running SAT Prep sessions on Saturdays, countless football and soccer games, and even going to my first Bar Mitzvah, I cannot believe how fast the first two months of school went this year. This upcoming week, I am once again privileged to join the Student Council on their annual college visit trip, which I expect to be just as powerfully moving as the previous trips I went on. There have been plenty of “new” things to start this year, but it seems as least one thing is the same: We barely have any school in November. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em I suppose, so: Here’s to No School November!
Andrew Paulsen 