My First Day of School

Today has been a really special day for me. This morning I joined the faculty of Daniel Hale Williams Preparatory of Medicine (DHW) on their first day back to school. I met my cooperating teacher, whom I have heard nothing but great things about and can already sense now is going to be a great mentor, toured the building, and participated in the Teacher Institute Days. Today I began to literally see and feel the transition between student to teacher. Although, I believe most educators pride themselves on being life-long learners, myself included, and will continue to see themselves as students regardless of age or acquired level of educational degree, it is at this point in my education and career that I find myself at that middle ground where technically I am still the student but I am also taking on the responsibilities and persona of the teacher. Today is significant because it is the day that I officially begin to piece together all of the knowledge, training, and information I've acquired through my education courses, as well as other equally important courses. I am beginning to see a peek of what it takes behind the scenes to pull off a successful first day, first quarter, first semester etc., and successful learning environment.

For all of my Nebraska friends and other readers out there, I want to describe for you as well as I can how this particular school works. For me, DHW is both foreign and familiar. It is familiar in the sense that it is very small, which I love. The class size is very similar to the high school that I attended, ranging from approximately 65 seniors to approximately 90 freshman this year. Along with a small student population comes a small faculty population. There are roughly 16 teachers and administrators, myself and the other student teacher not included. I have always attended small schools and I really appreciate the community and atmosphere that small schools bring, so in that sense I feel right at home.

In every other sense however, DHW is quite foreign to my experience and understanding of the make up of a school. For starters, DHW is somewhat like a magnet school because it is not a neighborhood school and it specializes in certain areas (technically however, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) doesn't recognize or refer to it as a magnet school). The school specializes in math and science and is a medical preparatory school for minorities. I believe the majority of the students are African American, roughly 95%. This will be my first long term experiences as the racial minority, so I am looking forward to learning from that experience, yet it may not be a completely accurate simulation of the traditional minority experience as I will have the power differentiation as the teacher in my favor.

Possibly the most foreign of concepts for me is the layout of the school. Originally, The building that DHW is now located in was built in the 1930's to house DuSable High School. For many years it was famous for it's music program and graduated many famous jazz alumni. In recent years however the school struggled to perform academically and was eventually phased out in 2005. In that year the only students attending were seniors. After the class of 2005 graduated the school closed. In its place now sits DHW along with Bronzeville Scholastic Institute and a charter school, the DuSable Leadership Academy. DHW is housed in one corner of this large square building. Although it occupies all three floors of the building, it is contained in one corner. The library, large gym, auditorium, and lunch rooms are shared between the three schools but there are certain boundaries between the schools' hallways and classrooms that separate the students of the three schools. Each school also has its own school uniform as well so that security can easily spot which students are to be in which area of the building. I believe that the extra curricular activities and sports are also combined between the schools but the classrooms, administration, and staff remain completely separate.

I need to clarify something: Much like the phasing out of DuSable High School, DHW has been going through a phase-in of sorts. This is the first year that school has seniors! From what I understand the seniors this year were the first students to start at the school when they were seventh graders.