O Pioneers!

A lot of the facets of TFA require a lot of trust and blind faith. I don't have a background in education, but I'm expected to become a teacher, and I trusted that TFA will magically morph me into a damn good one in the five weeks of Intenstitute. I moved to Phoenix having never been here before, but trusted that TFA would orient me around the city enough to the city that I would be comfortable here, the heat notwithstanding. Hell, I signed up to move here not even having a job placement - just the obscure promise of a job placement to come.

TFA places in all Title One schools - schools deemed by the federal government to have sufficiently high populations of students subsiding below the poverty line (and subsiding is about all you can do if you're below the poverty line) as to qualify for additional federal grant money. Those are the schools in which the achievement gap is most pronounced.

Think of your pre-existing archetypes of a low-income school...what do you think of?

Now think of the exact opposite, and you're picturing the school in which I now work. Pioneer Preparatory School is a brand new K-8 public charter school sponsored by The Challenge Foundation serving the low-income Maryvale neighborhood in Phoenix's underprivileged west side. Everthing gleams and glistens, from the walls to the tiled floors, to the employees' smiles. The staff is a young, energetic, and dedicated team of professionals dedicated to closing the achievement gap. The facilities are state-of-the-art, and the finishing touches are literally being applied to the brand-spanking-new building as we speak. The school is completely wireless, and classrooms are equipped with laptops, printers, document cameras, and LCD projectors. The library is fully stocked.

I'm not trying to brag - OK, wait...I'm trying to brag. It's just that I'm really excited, and certainly lucky, that TFA could have placed me in literally dozens of decaying schools throughout the Valley with jaded staffs, and I am at Pioneer. I don't know what I did to deserve this, but I'm thrilled, and it's up to me to take this gift of a placement and run with it - these kids deserve it.

peace and love from the grand canyon state,

pb

PS When I said the school was brand-new...I lied. It existed last year as a K-2 school with 4 teachers, 80 students, and borrowed rooms in the Boys and Girls Club. We now have a staff of 30 and 423 students and growing. But when I mentioned the staff was dedicated...I did not lie. The four original teachers had to set up and take down their classrooms each day - here's a YouTube clip of them doing just that.

That's dedication.