iNSPIRE

This semester I started a second volunteering experience similar to the SSEA, but a little more structured and with a different demographic.

The program is called "iNSPIRE" and is run by iPRAXIS, a non-profit whose goals include providing exposure and education within the sciences to students from K-12. The iNSPIRE program has a few components, and at this time of the academic year they partner with a number of Philadelphia Schools for the annual Science Fair. Other activities include career days and even lessons/classroom activities.

I got an e-mail about the program through a graduate student listserv (similar but different from how I learned about SSEA), and I saw this as another opportunity to interact with students and develop my teaching/mentoring skills. This program required a little more legwork from me (including submitting various background checks, etc) and recruits a wide range of volunteers including undergraduate and graduate students, teachers, professors and professionals.

Today was my second day with the program, and so far it looks like it will be a good run. I am at the Alain Lock Elementray School, which houses K-8, and is literally blocks away from my apartment (which isn't so convenient considering I'm usually at the lab before hand). We come in every Thursday for a class period (about 1hr 15min) and we guide our group (avg. 4 students) work through a science fair project.

These first two weeks have been much more educational for me than for my students, by far. The school is a public school in the heart of West Philadelphia, so in many ways it is very different from the schools I went to growing up (which were in upper-middle class, suburban, predominantly white public schools). I remember the first day I arrived at the school, the first thing I noticed was the enhanced security...it wasn't severe, but it was not as inconspicuous as it was in my high school. At least one of the guards looked like (and probably was) an actual officer. I signed into the visitor desk at the front and was directed to the office, where they cleared me to go to the classroom upstairs. On my way up I encountered a young, white woman who was probably no more than two or three years older than me, patiently dragging (literally) a small child (maybe 2nd grade?) who was clearly being sent to the office. The rest of the class followed in tow, orbiting the pair like a cloud of electrons (or perhaps a plasma membrane? ha ha, I love science). The kid was yelling and complaining but the teacher just calmly tugged him inch by inch down the hallway. As I gingerly picked my way past and started up the stairs I asked myself "what I have I gotten myself into?"

Once I got to the classroom, I discovered I was a bit early, and saw that the class was wrapping up. I introduced myself to the other "Scienteers" (as we are called) most of whom were on their way out. I met Scott, the coordinator for the program and whom I had been e-mailing to set things up.

I took a few minutes to collect myself and figure out what exactly I had thrown myself into. Ms. McGinness, another young white woman (again, probably two or three years ahead of me, if even that) was apparently taught seventh and eighth graders. I was surprised (and happy) to see the classroom outfitted with a smart board, and I later saw that she also had about twenty Mac notebooks which stayed in the classroom (locked) but which the students used every day they were with us.

These two weeks showed me the incredible juxtaposition of the difficulties inherent in teaching inner city kids (mainly behavior issues) and the lack of funds (making certain things inaccessible) buttressed by clear attempts to improve the educational potential of the classroom, evidenced by the costly smart boards and laptops.

Honestly, the kids themselves were not very different from middle school students anywhere else. The only possible exception was a more frequent disregard for authority and rules, which made running the classroom much more about controlling out-of-line behavior than about actually teaching...to a degree that was more reminiscent of elementary school.

My group of students included (initially) Amir, Jermirr, and Tyree, and they were later joined by Laneigh, a soft spoken girl who quickly proved to be very creative and the most engage of all of them in the project. I initially had my doubts about how well my group was going to work together, but by the end of the first day (where we came up with our hypothesis) all of them seemed to be on board and interested in the project. Today was the second day, and they all continued to show interest and worked well together (meaning there was no bickering our other behavior problems), which was definitely not true for some of the other groups.

I think it will be a good run with these kids, but only time will tell. So far the experience has already been richly rewarding for me, and I am looking forward to being re-immersed in the drama of middle school...and to later extricating myself from it. I have been quickly reminded why I decided that teaching anything below high school was simply not an option for me, ha ha. Still, it should be fun, and I am looking forward to the coming months.