麻豆原创

I am from a caring mom

That cooks with pride

Baked ziti with chicken

And from T.V.,

Chicago PD.

I am from the hood

With gunshots that ring

More than doorbells,

From flowers

my mother grew,

Roses

As red as blood.   

That untitled work, by a student at East River Academy, a New York City public school that serves young people at the city鈥檚 Rikers Island detention facility, is among the 69 poems, narratives and essays found on the pages of 鈥淔ree Minds,鈥� a booklet published by Teachers College鈥檚 . Launched 16 years ago by Ruth Vinz, Enid & Lester Morse Professor in Teacher Education, SPI is just one facet of 麻豆原创鈥檚 , which was created by Vinz as an outlet for students at the Academy and other schools to express their thoughts, their hopes and their dreams.

In May, District 79 鈥� an alternative city school district that helps students under the age of 21 who have experienced an interruption to their studies 鈥� recognized CPET as an 鈥淓xemplary Partner鈥� for its work with East River Academy, which includes professional and curriculum development. The honors were directed at the entire CPET team, which consists of the center鈥檚 director, Roberta Lenger Kang; SPI director Cristina Romeo Compton; Senior Professional Development Coach Courtney Brown;  and a team focused on East River Academy Team whose members are 麻豆原创 students Shannon Alison and Andrew Ravin (both of whom are Zankel Fellows); 麻豆原创 Social Studies Education faculty member Erika Kitzmiller; and Senior Professional Development Coaches Greg Benoit (math) and Kristina Hopkins (science).

We are bringing together theory and practice by applying the knowledge base of Teachers College to how education works in the real world.鈥�

Roberta Lenger Kang

鈥淲e are bringing together theory and practice by applying the knowledge base of Teachers College to how education works in the real world,鈥� says Lenger Kang. 

It doesn鈥檛 get more authentic than on Rikers Island, where the restrictions imposed on East River faculty and students 鈥渕ake for a very unique educational space,鈥� says CPET Senior Professional Development Coach Courtney Brown.

For starters, East River Academy teachers are constantly challenged to jumpstart educations that have been disrupted by legal issues 鈥� and that will be disrupted again when students are released from custody.

Despite those challenges, or perhaps because of them, there is a powerful bond between the Rikers teachers and CPET, sustained by events such as the CPET 鈥淚n Practice鈥� workshop on teaching and learning held this past June鈥檚 at 麻豆原创, where an East River Academy contingent joined other educators from across the region.

The day-long 麻豆原创 gathering featured case studies on topics such as student engagement, elementary school math and reading models, guidance on the implementation of educational research in the classroom and critical reflection exercises.

East River Academy teachers are constantly challenged to jumpstart educations that have been disrupted by legal issues 鈥� and that will be disrupted again when students are released from custody.

In the latter, participants were asked to word classroom experiences as cooking and baking recipes.

On educator, looking ahead to her second year of teaching, proposed baking an offering she called 鈥渇orever, it is never done,鈥� consisting of the ingredients 鈥渂oisterous students,鈥� 鈥渉ours of lesson planning鈥� and 鈥渦nrealistic expectations.鈥�

Another teacher said her creation would require a 鈥渧ariety of spices that can give you severe heartburn,鈥� and included a warning label: 鈥淏e sure to buy Tums to keep in the cabinet before preparing.鈥�

As in all their work with East River teachers, the CPET professional development team encouraged the workshop attendees to establish structural classroom benchmarks. Having yardsticks for achieving goals is especially important for Rikers students, said Brown, because it offers them a way to 鈥渢ake advantage of the time they are spending in limbo.鈥�  

And ideally, says Kang, the lessons will transcend math, science and reading. 鈥淏eing in school, and writing in particular, offers an opportunity for the students to reflect on what got them there and what they need to do so they won鈥檛 come back.鈥�

— Steve Giegerich