Tag Archives: TEAM Englewood

They Say We Don’t Love Our Students

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So why do I feel so guilty leaving them?

In my twelve years teaching social studies in CPS, I’ve taught at two different high schools. I have recently made the decision to go to my third.

When I left TEAM Englewood, the first public high school I taught at, I felt like I had to. TEAM, which opened in 2007, was where I started teaching and where I learned how to teach. I was a part of that school. Our principal used to call the original teachers the “founding teachers.” She gave us credit for helping to create that school. We gave input on everything from the hall pass policy, to the hiring process, to what we learned in professional development, and everything in between. When I left TEAM after seven years, it had changed to a point where I didn’t feel it was healthy for me to stay. The principal and assistant principal who I learned so much from had left and we had gone through two other principals who I felt were not helping the school. I was also grieving the loss of a baby. So personally, and professionally, it became necessary for me to make a change.

The next school I worked at was Chicago Vocational (CVS), which is in the Avalon Park neighborhood. When I started teaching there, I wasn’t really prepared for the guilt I would feel about leaving TEAM Englewood. I felt like I didn’t belong at CVS, not because of the kids, but because it wasn’t TEAM. At TEAM I helped create the culture and influenced how the school ran. At CVS I was just another teacher.  However, I quickly built connections with students and began establishing my presence in the classroom and school.

This past school year at CVS has been one of my favorite years in the classroom. I have worked hard with my colleagues to create a curriculum that connects to kids while also pushing them to think, reflect, and analyze the world. I brought in twenty guest speakers from Chicago to speak to my students. These speakers included award-winning writers, poets, singers, rappers, veterans, and community activists. I helped coach our academic decathlon team. Our librarian and I created a spoken word program that got kids excited to write and perform poetry. Our students competed in Louder Than a Bomb, a youth slam poetry festival.

I was happy at Chicago Vocational.

Then in May I heard about a job opening for a social studies teacher at the high school in my South Side neighborhood.

At first, I didn’t even apply to the opening because I was not ready to leave CVS. But I eventually decided to apply due to some major personal and professional reasons I couldn’t ignore: it is a neighborhood public school located in the same neighborhood that my partner and I chose to live in twelve years ago for its racial diversity; it is the school where my partner works; and it is where eventually my kids will most likely attend high school.

The whole application, interview, and acceptance process took about one month. Throughout the entire process, I cycled through a huge range of emotions that I have been working through.  I had to decide when and how to tell my students that I was leaving and heading to a new school. When I left TEAM Englewood, the decision was made during the middle of summer, so I sent every student I taught an email telling them that I was leaving. But I made my decision to leave CVS during the last few days of the school year, so I decided to tell my students in person. I experienced a range of reactions from them. One student became angry and asked, “Mr. Stieber, how can you leave us?!” Another reaction, that was even more difficult to hear, was the student who simply said, “Mr. Stieber, I will miss you,” and then walked away. I told the kids that I am not leaving because of them, and I am not. The kids are what I love. But the kids don’t understand that, and to be honest, no matter my reason for leaving, I am leaving the kids.

In fact, during an interview, I was asked, “Do you even want to work here? Your body language seems like you don’t.” This caught me off guard because this person sensed how I felt. I had to tell them that I felt guilty for leaving my students at CVS. I told them that I am a loyal person. In fact I am so loyal I felt guilty for my first son, when my wife and I found out we were pregnant with our second son. I thought I might have blown the interview, and I was okay with that idea, but I also hoped that my explanation let them know that I was interested in switching schools—but the decision was extremely difficult.

For better or worse, teaching defines who teachers are. Schools can shape teachers as much as teachers can shape a school. Our schools, then, also become who we are. So when a teacher decides to leave a school, it is almost like they are losing a piece of who they are.

A colleague told me, when I talked to her about switching schools, that teachers can’t be martyrs for their students. Ultimately, we have to do what is best for us. I agree. The issue is since our city has many issues (hyper-segregation, lack of democracy in our schools, police violence, intra-community violence, resource theft), if we all did what was best for us, many of us would want to leave Chicago.  As teachers, I believe there must be a balance between our willingness to stay and fight for our students, our schools, and our city, and our own mental health.

Despite my own personal and professional reasons for switching schools, it is still true that CPS, and especially on the South Side, schools experiences extremely high levels of teacher turnover. A 2009 University of Chicago Consortium on School Research study found that a hundred CPS schools, many of them with majority-Black student populations, lose at least a quarter of their teaching staff every year due to reasons like “principal leadership, teacher collaboration, [and] student safety.” Losing twenty-five percent of a teaching staff per year causes many issues. Students feel like they are the reason that their teachers leave them, and will refuse to allow themselves to get close to their teachers because of the likelihood that their teachers won’t be there the next year. According to the report, having to rehire a quarter of the staff every year also leads to the hiring of “inexperienced, less effective teachers” and can also “produce a range of organizational problems for schools, such as discontinuity in professional development, shortages in key subjects, and loss of teacher leadership.” Why is it okay for certain schools, many of which serve Black and Brown students, to have teachers with little experience, while others have more experienced teachers? What would schools like the one that I am leaving need to make sure teachers are supported and want to stay?

Ultimately, CPS needs to solve the rampant issues it has with inequality in resources and support for the sake of not only its students but also its teachers. Every school deemed “Level 2” should get twice the support of every school deemed “Level 1.” To make this happen, I am not saying we take from one school to give to another, but rather to get funding from other items in the city budget. One of the largest chunks of the budget is policing, which takes up forty percent of the city’s operating budget. Schools and the communities that they serve need resources, not more cops. There is currently $95 million slated for a new cop academy on the West Side, which many activists from the community have organized against.

As I am about to begin my twelfth year at CPS, I have learned that it is only through giving all schools the equitable resources they need that teachers can dedicate their careers to educating their students. With more funds directed towards CPS and schools that need more support, these schools could afford to have more counselors, who could work with students and staff to provide trauma services and individual counseling. A Level 2 school could have a teacher aide for every single class. By fully taking care of our students, you are also taking care of teachers.

This piece was originally featured on the South Side Weekly to view it click here.

Sifting through Senator Kirk’s “Chicago will become Detroit” threat

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Last week Republican Senator Mark Kirk said that the citizens of Chicago should “re-elect Rahm or Chicago could end up like Detroit“. Now the on the surface the comment seems to just imply that for whatever reason Senator Kirk believes that Rahm Emanuel will be more able to help with our city’s finances than his challenger Chuy Garcia. It is odd that Senator Kirk believes this, because since Mayor Emanuel took over our city’s bond rating has dropped five times. Clearly the mayor is great at raising money for his own re-election campaign, but raising money to help the city….not so much.

So lets go a little deeper into Mark Kirk’s comments threatening that if Garcia is elected Chicago will become like Detroit. My dad grew up in Detroit and like many white Detroiters in the 1950’s and 1960’s his family left the city during the time of “white flight” and moved to the suburbs. This white flight was caused by real estate agents and banks using a lot of scare tactics to convince white home owners to sell their homes quickly and cheaply because the “blacks” were moving in. Then these same real estate agents and banks would jack up the housing costs and sell these same homes to black families. This tactic eventually was made illegal, but not before it radically altered the housing landscape in Detroit and elsewhere .

Detroit had it rough from the 1960’s onward and only until very recently are things slowly starting to turn around. There were riots in the 1960’s, job loss in the 1970’s by the Big 3 (Ford, Chrysler and GM) deciding to close factories to find cheaper work forces so they could maximize their profits, with no regard to the people they employed. Without a strong economic base the 1980’s-2000’s were tough. Detroit had issues with drugs, poverty, and crime. Crime became such an issue that every year the night before Halloween called Devil’s Night , vacant homes would be light on fire and burned. The 1980’s movie Robocop was based on Detroit crime.

To many white people living in suburban Detroit, the name Detroit became synonymous with all of these societal issues. Many white people became afraid to go into the city at all or only go to certain parts.

This is the issue with Sentator Kirk’s comment. On the surface it seems like a just falsely mistaken economic threat, but under the surface lies a much more sinister comment. One that implies that if Garcia someone who is Latino is elected, Chicago will have big challenges, because he isn’t qualified for such complex things as improving the economy.

Implications that certain races aren’t qualified enough date back to the Eugenics movement used in the U.S. to claim only certain groups of people (i.e. white) were intelligent enough for certain jobs or privileges. This idea of Eugenics also led to the creation of tests that we now call “standardized tests” that are supposed to measure intelligence. This Eugenics idea was so wildly popular that Hitler himself and Nazi Germany picked up on this idea.

Republican Senator Kirk’s fear tactics shouldn’t come as a shock either, because Republicans have a history of these type of comments. In 2012 there were enough racist comments said by prominent Republicans that a three minute video compilation was made.  These comments were said by people like Newt Gingrich, Michelle Bachman, Rick Santorium, Mitt Romney, and Tram Hudson. This video is titled “Sh*t Republicans Say About Black People” and you can watch it below.

In 2012 a group of TEAM Englewood High School poets coached by Missy Hughes and myself came across that video and were very upset about it. The students decided to write a poetic response to the Republicans in the video. They titled it “What Black Poets Say to Racist Republicans”. Have a look.

Clearly Senator Kirk and Governor Rauner want Rahm in office and will use fear tactics to try to make this happen.

But now Chicago it is our turn to have a response to Senator Kirk and this new round of outdated racist comments, like how the TEAM Englewood poets responded to the Republican comments in 2012.

But how do we go about this?

The answer is much simpler than a choreographed and researched poetic response. We do this by going to the voting both on April 7th and voting Rahm out!

Posted on Gapers Block

http://gapersblock.com/mechanics/2015/03/11/sifting-through-senator-kirks-chicago-will-become-detroit-threat/

Lessons Learned in Englewood: 8 years of reflections from a CPS teacher

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A little over 8 years ago when I took my first job in CPS at a high school in Englewood, people of all races would look at me like I was crazy when I told them where I would be working. During my time teaching in Englewood I had people make assumptions about me, such as, that I must not be a very good teacher if I teach in Englewood , because surely, if I was a good teacher I would be working somewhere else.

Obviously if people were making assumptions about me working in Englewood, they were surely making assumptions about my students who lived in the community. I have written previously about when a random stranger on the bus called my kids animals and how I responded.

Through all of assumptions and stereotypes I realized that the students I taught were all that mattered. But I also very recently came to a point in my professional career that I needed a change of schools. Leaving the students was and is still hard. I didn’t officially make the decision until August so I told my students through email and text messages. That was the hardest thing by far about leaving. But the beauty of the students was they wanted me to be happy. Yes, they were upset and hurt, but every single student (I even messaged kids who graduated awhile ago to let them know) really just wanted me to be happy. So I write this dedicated to every single student I taught in Englewood which is close to 1,000 students.

 So here is some of what I learned from my time in Englewood:

1. Teachers know that kids can detect a good teacher in the first few minutes of meeting us. Well my Englewood students could detect a good teacher in seconds

When we hired teachers at our school we would always have students sit on the interview and ask questions. Once the interview ended, if our students had doubts then that person wasn’t hired.

2. The kids knew the stereotypes about them, but more importantly with guidance knew also how to beat those stereotypes.

3. That most of the kids I taught could make better politicians than many of the people who are in power in this city.

4. That Englewood produces genius. Yup, you read that right. Still doubting? Then watch this.

5. I learned that having open and honest conversations about race wasn’t always easy, but was always very necessary.

Lisa Delpit an acclaimed scholar on race once came to our school and observed me teach and talked to students that I taught. Because of my openness to talk about race and the stories my students shared with her, she was inspired enough to write about me in her 2nd book.

6. That 4 Englewood high school students can stand up and poetically dissect every terrible policy Rahm Emanuel has put in place.

7. That when I experienced the worst loss of my life it was the students that I taught who knew how best to support me.

8. That when the first student that attended our school was murdered students and staff came together.

It was in my fourth year of teaching that I got a phone call at 6am on a cold January Saturday morning from our assistant principal who told me Travell had been killed. Travell was a very likable kid and a kid who had turned his life around from early in his high school career to just get accepted into college. His loss rocked our school. Everyone dreaded going to school that Monday after his death. But it was everyone at the school, students and staff that kept us all together so we could grieve and overcome this tragedy.

9. That when one of our staff members passed away the students and staff came together.

One of the most happy and upbeat people at our school, passed away last year. He was loved by students and staff alike. No matter what, he was always smiling and was one of those people that truly made school a better place. It was at his funeral that students stood up and spoke and shared stories of love for Stokes that helped us all overcome this loss.

10. That there are some amazing organizations, people, and teachers working in the Englewood neighborhood. If you never heard of RAGE then you need to.

11. That a public high school in Englewood had over 90% college acceptance rate, but the Mayor never came to congratulate us.

12. I learned that being white and bald would automatically lead me to be nicknamed Caillou.

13. That every student deserves so much more than this city’s government and poorly run school system is giving them.

14. That everywhere parents and students want to succeed.

While I was growing up and going to school, I have some teachers who still stick in my mind. The teachers who really helped guide, coach, teach, and inspire me. Well the thing that most people who aren’t teachers don’t know is teachers have kids who stick in their minds the same way. While there are way too many students to name individually who stick and will continue to stick with me, I know that I have become a better person, because of the “dangerous” Englewood students that I taught.

**I am still a CPS public high school south side teacher, just at a different school now**

Published in HuffingtonPost Chicago
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-stieber/lessons-learned-in-englew_b_5876554.html?utm_hp_ref=chicago&ir=Chicago

Published on Gapers Block

http://gapersblock.com/mechanics/2014/09/30/lessons-learned-in-englewood-8-years-of-reflections-from-a-cps-teacher/

Outside the Loop Radio Interview

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I’m interviewed on Outside the Loop radio about the TEAM Englewood Spoken Word group piece from Louder Than A Bomb 2014 in which our poets wrote the piece “Hide Your Schools, Hide Your Children, Hide Your Homes, Cause He’s Wrecking it All“. This is a poem written entirely by four Englewood public high school students about all Rahm Emanuel is doing to harm this city.

The interview is from 12:00-22:00

Hide Your Schools, Hide Your Children, Hide Your Homes, Cause He’s Wrecking it All

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A poem written by 4 TEAM Englewood Public High School students about all that Mayor Rahm Emanuel is doing wrong in Chicago. These students wrote this piece and took part in the Louder Than A Bomb spoken word competition put on yearly by Young Chicago Authors here in Chicago.

Hammer in one hand paint brush in the other
Rahm Emanuel is single handedly destroying our city
Mr. wreck it Rahm
look what Chicago is becoming
bending the rules to fit in the lie of building a new chicago
building new streets
when his own plan got some pot holes

Tearing down our dreams
its getting really windy in these streets
Red X’s mark the spots where his wrecking balls are next to drop

We are not included in the Blue Print of the New Chicago: we’re being pushed out
our buildings transformed into condos – and we know those AINT FOR US
Thermal shock is setting in from the whipping wind of the heartless sins
of the mayor

Norfolk Railroads is pushing us southern folk out
Homes replaced with tracks
that will be laid
where our heads used to
If dry wall could talk
it would speak many prayers to keep our homes
now vacant lots that hold lots of remnants
of 60 years of backyard barbeques
baby showers
and when electric sliding was the super power of the summer
55th and Normal
we are losing all of this

Torturing, tormenting us as we choke on the ashes of our memories
*Cough Cough*
Let’s hope we don’t get sick
Because he’s closing all our clinics
He needs to get treated
And then maybe we can sew back on the other half of the middle finger
that he has been giving us

Its almost as if he’s E Manuel of E-Limination
Exportation!
Extermination!
Eradication!

Step one: Take away our schools
Step Two: Put them out their home
Lastly: Destroy it all and
Deny Deny Deny
But remember, to always keep a straight face when you lie!

Try to pour the cheap paint over our eyes while stealing dollars from under our mattresses
There’s not enough? Close their schools
But he’s building a new DePaul stadium
Using our TIF funds to Transform the South Loop into the Promised Land of redevelopment
and some river walk
of course downtown
The paint is starting to streak.
Building a new Chicago or extending a new lie!
How can a city so in debt blueprint something so expensive?

Banneker Elementary – Closed
Woods Elementary – Closed
Yale Elementary – Closed

The paint is cracking:
From every west side basketball brotherhood
To south side sisterhood bonds through pom-poms
And every poetry team that had dreamed of being on this very stage
has been ripped apart,
Goodbye

Bad foundation for our future generations
struggling with 40 students in one class
so they learn from the streets
There’s not money for our schools, but, there’s enough to build a New Chicago
But that New Chicago is NOT for us.
The paint is wearing thin and so was our patience
Irreparable damage has already been done

Time to stop the destruction of OUR city
Prevent the further corruption of our already twisted politics of Chicago

25% of Chicago school children won’t amount to anything
25
50
75
100% sure that we will be something
See Rahm we are mathematicians
your lies are adding up
and this new Chicago is just another one of them

Our poets featured in the HuffingtonPost Chicago:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/11/team-englewood-spoken-word_n_4941587.html?utm_hp_ref=chicago&ir=Chicago

Our poets featured in the Chicago Reader:
http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2014/03/12/englewoods-message-to-mayor-wreck-it-rahm

Featured & interviewed on CBS Chicago:
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2014/03/14/youth-poetry-team-obliterates-mayor-wreck-it-rahm-in-viral-youtube-video/

Our poets discussed on Outside the Loop Radio show:(14:45-20:40)
http://www.outsidetheloopradio.com/2014/03/13/otl-episode-387-louder-than-a-bomb-poetry-slam-mayor-emanuel-needs-to-hear-from-the-kids-story-club-chicago/

Like & Follow our Spoken Word Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/TeamEnglewoodSpokenWord

The Power of Spoken Word Poetry

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Growing up I never had a love much less an appreciation for poetry. In high school and college there was nothing that drew me to admire, care for, or even really even respect the words from the typical canon of poets. It wasn’t until a few years into my teaching career when I went to a Louder Than A Bomb poetry event and heard students from all across our city and the Chicago land region putting their words out there for everyone to hear, that I realized the true power that spoken word possessed.

For the many of us fortunate enough to already know about Louder Than A Bomb or more commonly LTAB we know that it is one of the best things that Chicago has going for it.

You see, LTAB is put on by Young Chicago Authors which brings over 1,000 kids from nearly every neighborhood of our city, the suburbs, Indiana, and the greater Chicago land area together. As we know Chicago is one of the most racially and economically segregated cities in the United States. LTAB one of the few events that actually works to desegregate our students and our city. This “competition” of poetry gives students from every possible neighborhood, suburb, or region a chance for kids to listen, share, and build a community with each other through the simple ancient act of sharing their stories.

I could go on and explain the profound impact this event has had on me and my co-coach Missy Hughes for the past six years, but just read what students from TEAM Englewood High School feel about the importance of LTAB ,two years after they last took part in the event. All of the quotes are from graduated former students of ours who are nearly all in their second year of college. (By clicking on the students names below you will see their spoken word performances from their senior year in high school)

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From left to right: Melana Bass, Myara Robinson, Jeremey Johnson and Keith Warfield performing in the 2012 National Grudge Match Poetry Slam at Young Chicago Authors

Jonathan Nesbitt (Western Illinois University)- “What it means to me to be a part of TEAM Englewood spoken word is like being a part of a big family. We bumped heads, we argued, we loved and we always came together at the end of the day. Spoken word has changed my life around. You get to hear what people/ friends are going through and it makes me feel so blessed because you never know what people have been through until they spit their piece. Spoken word brought out a very very important skill which is writing and rewriting and editing. And then the adrenaline rush you get when you step out on stage and tell to your story to the world, the feeling is just amazing. I wish I could just go back to high school for one day to compete in LTAB!!! “

Jeremey Johnson (Columbia College-Chicago)- “Poetry gave me a positive outlet for some of my anger. It taught me that I not only had a voice, but that it was one worth listening to. I didn’t need to run from my problems because I could write them down. I could master them. Spoken word gave me courage to face the world and myself. I never would’ve gotten that if it weren’t for the Team Englewood spoken word team.”

Myara Robinson(St. Xavier University)- “Being on the poetry team has helped me to find my voice. I’ve made amazing friends and professional connections through spoken word performances. I have a better appreciation for literary devices because of it. By being engulfed in the world of poetry my ear has become a magnet to metaphors and deeper meanings. If my teachers had never seen something in me and my writing I would still be oblivious to the artistic and creative part of life. Also, being a member of the poetry team and being apart of the LTAB Festival was one of the reasons high school was so fun for me, very memorable. My writing has changed, gotten better thanks to spoken word. It’s kinda like I’ve been freed or saved in a way. Writing liberates me and gives me yet another artful way to express myself. It’s something that will forever be apart of me.”

Montrel Marks (Harold Washington College)- “Being on the Team Englewood spoken word team helped me realize what I can be and push me past my limits. I was lazy with school and I always used to pick the easy way out of things. The coaches pushed me to pull my grades up. I built a love for poetry. My team(Englewood) showed me how to truly love someone that didn’t come from the same parents. They showed me how to understand and relate to people. Now today my bonds and connection that I made are strong. I love poetry so much that I’m becoming a teacher to give back, what was given to me.”

Keith Warfield (Proud father-returning to college soon)- “Being apart of “NO DOUBT BABY!” (A.K.A. TEAM Englewood) was one of the best things that ever happened to me. We were able to build relationships aside from just being students and teachers and I honestly feel like that was the most important part. To all of my former teammates, I appreciate and respect you guys even more after watching you open your hearts up to complete strangers and showing them how valuable our voices are. To the coaches I just really want to thank you guys for doing more than just coaching and teaching because you actually became our best friends and I’ve NEVER been legitimate friends with any of my teachers. I love you all and every single one of you has played a very important and inspirational role in my life contributing to the man I am today!”

Melana Bass (University of Wisconsin-Madison)- “Being on this team was everything to me. I learned so many social skills that I didn’t have. I learned how to articulate everything through a creative lens. I was able to develop spoken word into a craft that helped me attain an online reputation, job opportunities, and connections to other great gigs. I created lifetime bonds with my coaches and teammates and even others that I met through the slam. Being on the team also taught me a great deal of creative discipline and how to hustle artistically and how to use resources to create shows or other artistic endeavors. This was at first a team I ran from and now this gift of spoken is paying for my college education!! I couldn’t be more grateful.”

The amazing thing is I guarantee of all the kids who have taken part and “competed” in LTAB there are thousands of stories just like these.

So if you have never seen this event before do yourself a favor and go watch and listen. The youth of Chicago are speaking and they have spent days, weeks, and months preparing their messages to be heard.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-stieber/the-power-of-spoken-word-_b_4763981.html

http://gapersblock.com/ac/2014/02/12/the-power-of-spoken-word-poetry/#.Uvvf6V71vOg