Saturday, March 23

Clap Along if You Love ASB-Philadelphia 2014!

This morning, we here at Team Philly treated ourselves to a lazy morning breakfast of pancakes and eggs before venturing into what our friends at Overbrook called “Central City”, or downtown Philadelphia. This final day to play tourist has been a special treat to look forward to all week, and it had finally arrived. We began by following the Mural Mile, an impressive collection of gorgeous murals sprawled on brick buildings across the city. Each one was stunning in size, color, and unique aspect of city life that it captured. Our self-guided tour ended with a debate over where to try our first authentic cheesesteaks. With lunch decided and another item checked off our list, we hustled over 40 blocks back across the city to the Eastern State Penitentiary. There, our fabulous guide Ben lead us through the eerie abandoned prison blocks that once housed famous criminals like Al Capone. Lucky for us, Ben had worked prior in education and specifically at Overbrook! It was an insightful reminder to see just how many community members continue to be affected by the current state of public education in Philadelphia.

                After an essential pre-dinner run to Insomnia Cookies, we met Mr. Naas and Mr. Demetrius for dinner at Marathon, a restaurant close to the center square. As we ate together for the last time in Philadelphia, I couldn’t help but think about how fortunate I am to have shared this experience with this specific group of individuals. Maybe it’s all the communal living, but when “Happy” by Pharrell came on over the speakers in the restaurant we all simultaneously began clapping along, much to the amusement or perhaps disturbance of fellow diners. How appropriate for that song to become our anthem for the week. Overbrook High School showed me some truly frightening things and revealed some unbelievable stories of hardship, yet here I was reflecting happily on the week. In all that we do, it’s important to remember why we do it. Do we do it to make us happy? Or to make others happy? In service, the answer should most certainly encompass both. The things we encounter as teachers, social workers, counselors, and overall active citizens won’t always be pretty. But we can chose to end our days happy by rejoicing in the tiny victories each day brings, and relishing in the company of good people. So long, Philadelphia!

-Tracy & Lauren

Thursday

There probably are no words that can do justice to my experiences this week. Today we were able to film the final scenes for our PSA about what it means to be a student in the Philadelphia School District. I am super excited about the PSA because I love how the students have really been able to take the lead on the project, and make it their own. I can't wait to see the look on their faces tomorrow when they see the final product. Some of them really came out of their shells once we started filming, and as we made progress, they invested more passion. It was so important to me coming on this trip that we left the community with something tangible. I am beyond satisfied to say that we have been able to do that this week. Our work has gone way beyond the classrooms to making personal connections with students.  

The safe space the Hi-Step provides for students is one that they value, and that I am honored to have been a part of. 

-Abena Wariebi 

Day 3 at Overbrook

Wednesday, March 19^th 2014 was our third day at Overbrook High School.  I did not go to high school in America so I did not know what to expect going into Overbrook High. On the first day we came here (Sunday) Mr. Nas gave us a brief history of the school and prepared us for what to expect in the coming week. We had a PSA project to work on so on this day (Wednesday) we made our videos for the PSA. We got into our three groups and worked on our videos. My group worked on a video that highlighted the students’ positive perceptions of the school. It was a fun and interesting experience to video the students and hear the positive things that they had to say about their school because I have almost always heard them talk negatively about their school. My group was successful with the video and that was amazing. In the earlier part of the day, I worked with a teacher and I had the wonderful experience of talking to the students about my college experience. It was  such a pleasure for me to share my experiences before college and currently as a college student. The students asked insightful questions and I saw a ray of hope because they had the passion to go to college and succeed.

Overall, I have come to a realization that most of the students are misguided and have an inner d rive to go to college and succeed. But I feel like their circumstances tend to hinder this drive. I have really enjoyed this experience and I am grateful to be part of this amazing AB team. My team members are awesome and I have made lifelong memories here. There could have been no better way to spend my Spring Break.

-Ruby

Tuesday at Overbrook

Today was day two working with Overbrook High. Since the first day, I was told that this school was “not-so-good” and I believed in the overall assumption. But the more I invested my time in the school, I learned that, it’s not the school that is negative, it’s the bureaucracy. Much goes into a school to make it negative. The school district, for one, does not provide  much money for schools. There are less teachers, counselors, security guards, and assistant principals. Two, the school does not have updated and enough textbooks for all students. Three, the students do not feel that the teachers or staff in the school care about them. These are just a few things that I have understood that makes a school feel negative, when in reality, it’s more than just the school district and its problems. I am glad to be a part of this ASB program and learn more about how I can impact a community by experiencing something like this.

-Funke

Day 2 at Overbrook

Today we went into the school for the first time. Yesterday we talked a lot about the school so I’m glad we got a chance to see it first hand. As expected, in the hallways a lot of the students roamed the halls and did not show a lot of respect for each other or authorities. The school is so disorganized, but there is a lot in the equation that makes it the way it is. We are not here to save the day but just to experience it first hand. Since it was our first day we didn’t get a chance to be in the classrooms, but we participated in the after school program. Normally there are up to 75 students but because of the snow today there were only about 20. We are proposing a project that we will work on for the next few days with the students. We will facilitate the project but the ideas are meant to be student produced. On the surface a lot of the students don’t care or they mess around with each other but when you talk to them individually they have so much potential. I think in general being in groups it is easier to take on a different identity, but if you challenge the students individually they care about a lot of things. One of the directors from the after school program says a lot of them are misled. I think that statement is beyond true. A lot of people say kids or students like this are doomed or they are messed up but if you look at where they come from then a lot of them are doing really well. Genuine connections and meeting them where they are is so important in getting to the students and breaking the cycle of the current education situation. Looking forward to the rest of the week I am so excited to get to know the students and experiencing everything first hand since it is something I’m considering pursuing as a career. I am so thankful to be around a group of people who care about this passionately and I’m excited to see where the rest of the week goes.

-Collin

Day 1 at Overbrook

I can honestly say that today I had the most in-depth conversation about education reform in my life. If I had to sum it up all that was said it would be this: There is no one way to educational reform. Through the three different perspectives:  a policy intern, a community advocate and a teacher, I have learned that each group has drastically different opinions about what is beneficial for the city of Philadelphia and it public school system. Oscar’s talk about funding, especially its effect on school closings and the barebones framework was eye opening. It is sad and frustrating that high school students are being failed by their schools and by their city and horrifying that they don’t have opportunities that we take for granted.  From Christian’s perspective I learned about the importance of community involvement, however sometimes even this isn’t enough. It was inspiring to hear of the community’s commitment to keep Germantown open but crushing to hear the school board didn’t listen to their proposal. This incident touches on another issue by emphasizing the disconnect between the school board and the community. The third perspective from Nas was one of an educator and someone interacting with students on a daily basis. For me he illustrated both the good and bad within the student body. He explained that it is important for students to develop ambition because it is through this hope that they challenge themselves to be more that what they see among their peers and those in the community.

In conclusion, I am truly grateful for my high school experience. Although not great, I still had opportunities for extracurriculars and enrichment programs. While Philadelphia’s students don’t even have access to these benefits, which is their right as kids and as students.  Overall educational reform is complex, however I think the biggest change can occur with policy makers, educators, and community advocates conversing on the issues and gaining perspective from each other, ultimately promoting change from a holistic approach.

-Janae Nelson

Tuesday at Overbrook

By Alli Hartley

Yesterday, we took a tour of Overbrook High School and observed the High Step Enrichment program after school, but today was our first day “in the trenches”—we assisted in classrooms and began running our Project Based Learning activity in the afterschool program. For our project, we are facilitating the creation of a short film about what life is like in Philadelphia public schools, and what the students want to see changed about their learning environments.

As a museum educator, I was really interested in the wide range of teaching styles we observed today. Classroom management in particular seems to be a real problem at Overbrook; there are only three security guards in the entire school, and many students who are either late to class or cut class just roam through the halls. Because of budget cuts, there just isn’t enough staff that they can devote to preventing cuts or preventing disturbances during class time, and that’s really frustrating to observe. We also observed teachers today who had literally mentally checked out, and who seemed so broken by the school system that they only gave out busywork or textbook work instead of actually teaching. Since most of the textbooks were written in the 1990s and were probably on middle-school levels (even in 12^th grade classes), this was particularly dismaying, but because the school lacks administrative personnel due to budget cuts, there is very little teacher evaluation. Luckily, we also observed other teachers who were really inspiring and seemed to be really engaging with students. High school, I think, is particularly rough—at this point these teachers get these kids, they have had eight to eleven years of failing schools, and it’s unrealistic to expect one year of good teaching to reverse everything else these students have going against their success. There were some really great teachers at Overbrook, and I think they made a world of difference.

We’ve noticed that these kids are really hurting for some kind of arts programs, and as a museum educator, this is really affecting me. I understand that many of the educational nonprofits who work in this district only have enough resources to concentrate on academic subjects such as reading and writing, and obviously it’s important that these students learn core subjects. But I think if they had more arts, music or even just nonacademic classes such as woodshop or dance, they would have not only a positive outlet for their anger and their incredible creativity, but a reason to engage. They would have a reason to want to come to school each day. I believe cultural institutions such as museums and archives can only be relevant as long as we have an educational mission. This trip has made me aware of what programs the public schools are lacking, and has given me some ideas on how some of the museums I’m affiliated with in D.C. can share our incredible cultural wealth.

We heard some incredibly eye-opening things today. Statistically, many of us know that it’s more likely that the students we met today will end up in prison rather than in college, but to hear a student say, “Our governor is spending more money on prisons than our schools because he knows we’ll end up there anyways” placed a face, a dejected voice, to the situation as never before. But at the same time, when asked “Why should Overbrook stay open?”, the students were able to speak more eloquently than ever about the school’s rich history, their personal familial connections to the school, the sense of pride the school once had, and what the cost would be to the district if the school was closed. At the same time, we were able to start moving the students today towards the ability to advocate for their own school, and to use their collective power and voice. There was so much we had to celebrate today—and celebrate we did, with an amazing UMD service-learning alum. As a group, we have grown incredibly close since Sunday morning, and I can’t wait to see how our students will surprise us with their finished project.