My First Year in Fifth Grade: A Teach for America Diary

Cole Farnum left Commonwealth Avenue for Brownsville, Tex., when he joined Teach for America after graduating from BU. In this series, taken from letters to his family and friends, Farnum (CAS’06) recounts his first year in the classroom, with its beginnings, endings, and ups and downs in between. This year’s Teach for America application deadline is November 2; e-mail TFAatBU@gmail.com. Click here to read part one. Click here to read part two.

As time goes by, many problems remain in my classroom. While I have gotten more efficient and our classroom systems are up and running, it doesn’t look like the learning has increased like it should. Sometimes I get pretty scared about it; when the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) tests come I will see how well I actually did and whether I achieved “significant gains.” That stress is always there, and makes my head ache at night.

Despite all my time in the classroom and the successes I’ve had, I still dream about my problems. They never seem to go away; they just hide until you stumble on them by surprise. Today we completed our unit on using a two-digit divisor with a two- or three-digit dividend. After almost four months, three of my students all of a sudden forgot how to multiply two-digit by two-digit problems. I was shocked. I have to assume they know nothing at all times in order to keep them afloat. It takes a lot of energy and preventive planning.

My two dyslexic students are so challenged that it is overwhelming. While I don’t take points off for frequent reversals, I have no choice when they get stuck on simple multiplication or when they cannot sort out the information in a word problem. They try so hard, too, that it breaks my heart. They never show signs of discontent with the grades they receive, nor with the instructions I give them. It’s almost as if they know it’s coming or have become numb to the grades, since these marks have been normal for them. I try to reward effort, but what I see as the will to do well, the state will see as the failure to pass objectives.

There are, of course, good times. My “bubble” students — those who are closest to passing the assessment tests — and I were reviewing the week’s vocabulary. We got to the word “stunned” and went around the group using it in a sentence. One student tried this sentence: “I was stunned when my brother came into my room one night and said Mom was pregnant.”

“What?” I asked. “That’s awesome. Wow! You’re going to have another brother or sister!”

She was turning red with excitement, and I looked at another student at the table. “See? That was ‘stunned.’ I was stunned. Look at me, I’m stunned!” They started laughing, and so did I. The good times are the laughing times.

Today was another day to remember. I had been told that a Texas congressman would be dropping by to be the principal for the day, and I knew I was going to be visited. He dropped by at lunch with the principal, an educational manager, and a reporter and photographer for the Brownsville Herald. We were just about to leave for lunch, but I settled the class in for our discussion on this week’s reading, Carlos and the Skunk. These are roundtable discussions with proper communication skills, just as I experienced in high school. No hands are allowed in the air, and the children speak to each other, not to me. It was amazing to show that fifth-graders can generate an insightful and emotional discussion and open up their experiences for all of us. They have so much to say — they just have to be motivated to do it.

The principal was smiling the whole time, which means one thing — I was doing a good job. The congressman told me he was amazed. The reporter interviewed two students, and I swear things are just made to happen. I picked two at random to talk to him: the student with the highest IQ and the student with the lowest. I cannot wait to see this article. I hope my students see that although the boy with the lowest IQ is 14, in fifth grade, and working at a second-grade level, he’s no less deserving of the advantages and privileges that other students receive.

Cole Farnum can be reached at cole.farnum@corps2006.tfanet.org.