WHS grad takes on teaching challenge

By Jeff Eason

You hear it from newcomers to our area all the time. They moved here for the scenery, the cool weather and the quality of the public school system. High Country schools consistently rank near the top of the state when it comes to student test scores. And our art, music and extracurricular activities programs are all rated as among the best to be found in North Carolina.

With our region turning out such bright students, it’s always good to know that some of them are giving back to the public school system.

Hannah Whitaker, a 2003 Watauga High School graduate, is doing just that. She is nearing the completion of her first year as a public school teacher at P.S. 307, a kindergarten-through-5th grade elementary school in the north section of the Bronx in New York. Her teaching position is the result of her participation in the Teach For America program, affiliated with AmeriCorps.

Whitaker is just one of several recent Watauga High School grads participating in the Teach For America program. Others are Lauren Sumrell and Eli Tiller.

“Our school is one of the Empowerment Schools in New York, meaning the principal has more control over the budget and the hiring of teachers than in other schools,” said Whitaker. “That creates a completely different tone in the school. There is more stress but there is also more ownership of the classroom and responsibility. The teachers are expected to rise to the challenge.”

Whitaker stated that approximately 60-70% of the teachers at P.S. 307 are Teach For America teachers. Of the 22 kids in her first grade class, about half of them are learning English as a second language.

“The majority are from Dominican backgrounds, but there are also a few from the Philippines, Jamaica and Mexico,” said Whitaker. “I teach the kids English, reading, writing and math. Some of them are behind in their reading levels from last year. Teach For America training is designed to produce gains of one-and-a-half or two years in a single school year.”

Whitaker got much of her Teach for America training at the summer training camps that the organization holds for TFA college students at five locations around the country: Houston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, New York City and Atlanta. The camps last five weeks each and Whitaker and her camp roommate Molly Appel compare them to military boot camps.

“A typical day at camp lasts from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m.,” said Whitaker. “Every single day is filled with teaching, classes and meetings. They only accept the best and the brightest and then they test you at camp to see who will make it as teachers. The training is designed to weed out the weak before they get into the classroom.”

Teach For America recruits potential teachers all over the United States in colleges and universities as prestigious as Yale and Harvard. Whitaker was recruited while a student at North Carolina State while Appel was tabbed while attending Skidmore College in New York.

“The TFA goal is that one day all the children in the nation will have the opportunity to attain an excellent education,” said Whitaker. “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done or will ever do.”

Appel, like Whitaker, is a first year teacher in the New York City school system. She teaches first and second graders at P.S. 189 in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan.

“My specialty is English as a Second Language (ESL), but I don’t have my own classroom,” said Appel. “I work with seven different teachers and 72 kids during the course of my day, moving from classroom to classroom. I’m also a substitute teacher for the fourth and fifth graders.”

Like Whitaker’s school, Appel’s P.S. 189 is a K-5 school with approximately 1,200 kids in attendance. Unlike Whitaker’s school, however, P.S. 189 is staffed entirely with TFA teachers.

“There are 500 TFA Corps members in New York City alone,” said Appel. “But every teaching situation is different.”

Appel and Whitaker stated that one of their biggest challenges is teaching classes made up of students from wildly different home environments. Their schools’ neighborhoods have a large majority of non-English speaking immigrants, as well as gang problems, crime and racial tensions.

“The Teach For America program tries to support you, but at the end of the day it’s simply a question of can you handle all of it and provide a quality educational support system for your students,” said Appel. “There are a lot of bright kids, but some of them are dealing with life issues such as parents in prison.”

“You constantly have to remind yourself that your students are dealing with a lot more than their education,” added Whitaker. “A good teacher can overcome that.”

Currently there are more than 12,000 Teach For America alumni working across the United States. Many of them are fulfilling the TFA’s two-year teaching commitment, while others have moved on to other career choices.

“The Teach For America Program has two goals,” said Whitaker. “Number one is to put as many excellent teachers in the classroom as possible. Number two is for TFA members to complete their commitment and then go on to any other field while continuing to have a positive effect on education. You carry this mission with you for the rest of your life.”

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