Antero Garcia teaches at a high school in the heart of Los Angeles, where bomb threats or fights on campus can disrupt the pulse of everyday academic life.
But once the pulse has resumed its usual tempo, Garcia makes sure class is still a little offbeat. He’ll play Michael Jackson as students walk into the classroom, assign students to write books during National Novel Writing Month or organize a scavenger hunt throughout the city.
“I try to do things I think are going to keep kids interested,” said Garcia, a doctoral student in education who works at Manual Arts Senior High School. “But I don’t do fun things in exchange of other things. If I can’t tell them why an assignment is relevant … (in the past) I’ve changed the assignment.”
This year, Garcia will contribute his experience with teaching in an urban school and his innovative instruction methods to the national discussion on education. Garcia, a former Daily Bruin editor, is one of four UCLA alumni who are currently working as Teaching Ambassador Fellows for the U.S. Department of Education.
The 15 fellows share their expertise, discuss policies and inform other teachers of the Department of Education’s work. Some fellows spend the year in Washington, D.C., while others work from the school where they teach.
The UCLA alumni are graduates of the Teacher Education Program, which focuses on social justice. As fellows, they hope to bring attention to the challenges students in urban schools face.
Students in the two-year Teacher Education Program, which is part of the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies, get their master’s degrees and teaching credentials while also working at L.A. schools, said Sheila Lane, faculty adviser of the program.
“Our school is in South Central, and I want to do anything I can to make sure students have the same learning opportunities as students in Beverly Hills,” Garcia said.
Though Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles are thousands of miles apart, policies at the forefront of the national conversation reflect the concerns of teachers at urban schools.
President Barack Obama is now pushing for the U.S. to reclaim the No. 1 spot in college completion rates. Linda Yaron, an alumna who teaches at the Edward Roybal Learning Center in Los Angeles, said many of her students will be the first in their families to graduate from high school, let alone continue on to a university.
“I hope that every student, regardless of where they live, their family income levels, their race … can have an opportunity to succeed,” Yaron said.
Besides meeting with students one-on-one to discuss college plans, Yaron has also brought students to campus for UCLA Live performances. Walking around a college campus can help students realize that what seems like an inaccessible dream is within reach, she said.
Garcia, who is working as a fellow in Los Angeles, has participated in conference calls with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. They have spoken on how to evaluate teacher effectiveness, and how to recruit new teachers using social networking sites and YouTube as the Baby Boomer generation retires.
“You can add your personality into large, wide-reaching initiatives,” Garcia said.
As a teaching fellow working in Washington, D.C., Yaron was part of a team that accompanied Duncan on a back-to-school bus tour that went through eight states.
“We asked teachers questions about what things they’re proud of, what challenges they face, how we can best support and meet their needs,” she said.
Yaron and Garcia are also working on the L.A. stop of the Department of Education’s National Youth Listening Tour, which gives students a chance to share the obstacles they must overcome to get into college and complete their degree.
As teachers in urban schools, both have seen firsthand the challenges that students face. Garcia’s students pushed him during the past several years and motivated him to apply for the Teaching Ambassador Fellowship.
“It’s the students who struggle and achieve, make me laugh and make me really angry, make me want to do this kind of work. It always comes back to what’s happening in my classroom and the people in my classroom,” Garcia said.