Boston Collegiate Charter School
Dorchester, MA
During my Junior Spring I searched for a while to find a job for the summer that interested me. Before this summer I would always tell people that I wanted to teach in a charter school, not having any background on what a charter even was. On a train ride back from an interview in NYC I was searching for jobs on the internet and stumbled upon Boston Collegiate Charter School. I immediately applied and received a phone interview shortly thereafter. After my initial interview I moved onto an interview with the Middle School Principal. While I was answering one of her questions she stopped me in the middle and asked, "Do you ever slow down?" I panicked and did not really understand the question, I asked her to repeat herself. She then clarified and explained that I have done so much for only being a Junior in college and asked if I ever give myself a break. I went on telling her that I try to, but I am a person that likes to stay busy and involved on campus. Right then and there she offered me the position.
As I stated in my "Bag Speech", Boston Collegiate Charter School (BCCS) showed me what a well-run, successful school looks like. Furthermore, BCCS helped me learn about what a charter school is and the differences between normal public schools and charters. During my internship I participated in weekly professional development sessions in which we discussed relevant issues in our education system and tactics of how to be the most effective teacher in the classroom. I was the only intern that was chosen to teach a summer course. This course was for students who were placed in Pre-Algebra instead of Algebra, but showed their school-year teacher that they could be placed into Algebra II that following year by taking the summer course. The 8th grade Algebra teacher told me the four topics I needed to cover and she helped create the final exam, which the students needed to pass in order to be placed in the more advanced math class. I taught this course for three weeks, two hours a day. I felt that this student teaching experience was the final transformation in feeling ready to teach in my own classroom after I graduate. Also, it confirmed my admiration towards charter schools.
Attached is a link to my lesson plan and a video of the actual lesson from one of my last lessons of the summer. The lesson was all about putting everything the students have learned together to investigate about quadratic inequalities. Over the previous three weeks I had taught about solving and graphing linear inequalities. I used the technique of the sticky dots to show where to shade multiple times throughout the semester. The students really enjoyed this and it helped them see visually where to shade by the different colors of the sticky dots.
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