When UCLA alumna Andi Gustavson took two days off from teaching
to recruit students on campus for Teach For America, she left her
high school class with videos of herself instructing and her
personal cell phone number.
“I gave a cell phone number out to my students to make
sure they would have absolutely no excuse for not turning in their
homework,” she said.
As part of Teach For America, Gustavson is one of 3,000 teachers
who spend two years teaching in under-resourced schools throughout
the country to help bridge achievement gaps in lower-income
communities.
Last year, Gustavson spent Monday and Tuesday on campus,
recruiting prospective candidates and explaining what challenges
they might face in Teach for America. Nineteen students from UCLA
joined the program as a result.
The 2003 graduate teaches an English class of ninth and 10th
graders at Signature High School in New Orleans, and says the class
is never boring.
“I’m dancing in the classroom, I’m jumping on
tables, I’m running around in costumes the first day we start
a new novel. My students really think I’m dorky, which is OK
because at least they’re paying attention,” she
said.
Gustavson said Teach For America has been both her most
difficult and most rewarding life experience.
The school where she teaches had no textbooks during her first
seven months there, changed administration every few months, has no
sports teams, yearbook or newspaper, and Gustavson’s class
has an average reading level of fifth grade.
The school is on corrective action, meaning it will be taken
over from the district by the state if it fails to achieve the
state and national reading standards set by No Child Left
Behind.
“It is difficult. I would never want to paint it as
easy,” Gustavson said.
Her class has begun the challenge of reaching expected grade
level. Last year, they made about one and half years’
progress, and this year the goal is two years’ progress, she
said.
“You feel so proud of your students when they finally
understand something you have worked so hard to get them to
understand,” she said.
Gustavson said treating her students firmly and with respect is
the best way to get them to work hard.
“I had a student who, on the first day of school, screamed
at me that I was never going to make her learn.” she
said.
After a couple of months of greeting the student at the door and
telling her how excited she was to be her teacher, the student
began occasionally doing homework, Gustavson said.
“Eventually, she was working probably harder for me than
any of my other students,” she said, adding that low funding
requires Teach For America teachers to be innovative. Because the
school had no textbooks, she had to ask community law firms to
donate photocopies of her textbooks from UCLA.
“You have to be creative; you have to be persistent,
someone who sets those high goals and works just relentlessly to
meet them,” she said.
Gustavson said she felt as well-prepared for the challenges that
faced her as any first-year teacher, and added that the program
paired her with veteran teachers and put her in contact with many
others in the program.
“You never feel alone. There’s something exciting
about that: 200 other people in that city who all know how hard it
is, and they’re all working as hard as you are. You do feel
like you are a part of a national movement,” she said.
Teach For America is not for everyone, though, Gustavson said.
Some participants leave without fulfilling their two-year
commitment.
“One girl did leave the program in New Orleans. I think,
for her, it was the emotional stress of the situation,” she
said.
Tritia Samaniego, a Teach For America participant in Houston who
graduated from UCLA in 2003, described the program as
“absolutely phenomenal,” but said she did know people
who left the program.
Several friends left to get married or because a family member
became ill, and one felt the program simply was not working for
her, Samaniego said.
“There was a friend of mine who just felt like, despite
all the support that Teach For America was giving, and despite the
experiences that she was having in classroom, that the program
wasn’t working for her,” she said.
Samaniego said she thought her friend left because of
differences with the administration at her school and because she
lacked social support while her friends and family were not in
Houston with her.
A good candidate is committed, controlled and relentless, she
said.
“While there are a lot of things that are outside of your
control, you really have to focus on the things that you can do and
you can control, and recognize that sometimes you have to let it
roll off your back,” she said.
Samaniego said she joined the program to feel like she was part
of a civil rights movement, but that others join for teaching
experience or to become more qualified for graduate programs.
Jolene Mitchell, a third-year microbiology, immunology and
molecular genetics student, is considering joining Teach For
America when she graduates because she plans to become a teacher,
and the program would let her to earn a teacher’s salary
while working toward a degree in education.
Starting her career in Teach For America will be a challenge
added to the difficulty of beginning to teach for the first time,
she said.
“It’s nerve-racking, but I think if you want it to
happen and you’re dedicated enough, it will,” Mitchell
said, referring to facing the challenges of teaching at an
under-resourced school.
Mitchell added that she believes it is important for her to
teach in low-income neighborhoods.
“Everyone said it’s the hardest thing you’re
ever going to do, but that it’s definitely worth it in the
end,” she said.
Program participants benefit from different aspects of teaching,
but Samaniego said civil rights continue to play a role in
participants’ lives afterward.
“(Teach For America) is not trying to develop teachers,
it’s trying to create awareness so that ultimately whatever
career a member decides to go into, they will be aware of
what’s going on in education, and they will always be
lifelong activists for equality,” she said.