Recruits become teachers

JESSICA HUANG
news@columbiamissourian.com

Brenda Smith and Kelly Schokmiller both made it through the TFA gauntlet and started teaching in St. Louis in fall 2007.

Smith was recruited directly from MU, where she majored in math. When she started at MU, she went from being the top student in her high school math program at Vashon High School in St. Louis to having to work — hard — to keep up at the college level. But when she was encouraged to give up by an adviser who said she was facing twin obstacles of race and gender, Smith dug in and turned frustration into fuel. She was determined to change that message for other young blacks. Northwest Law Academy, where she now teaches ninth- and 11th-grade algebra, is predominately black.

“I really want my students not only to do math but to enjoy it,” she said. “We need to get more minorities in the field, especially women.”

Schokmiller majored in parks, recreation and tourism, graduating in 2003. For the next four years, she worked at EF Education First, a Boston-based company that provides language education through exchange programs and international field trips. She started by organizing tours for schools and eventually was promoted to sales manager. But Schokmiller discovered she wasn’t destined for a life in sales, so she applied to TFA. Now she teaches communication arts to sixth- and seventh-graders at Busch AAA.

“I want my students to have everything that I grew up with in my classroom — and I went to a school where we didn’t lack many things,” she said. “I have to put in the time and energy and know that I’m going to have to do extra little things to make that possible.”

Kim, the third St. Louis-based teacher, was eager to get into the classroom, too. She had graduated from Michigan State in 2005 with degrees in social sciences and women’s studies, and worked with a youth program in the inner city, where she caught the teaching bug. Less than three years later, she joined TFA.

Every day last year, Kim met her class at 7:45 a.m. in the cafeteria of an inner-city school in St. Louis. By then, even the stragglers had finished eating the breakfast the school provided; most were on free and reduced-price lunch plans. Kim would gather her students and walk them to her classroom upstairs. But before they went inside, the third-graders lined up and shook her hand, one by one.

“I explained to them that this is their job,” Kim said, “and in the professional world, we shake hands.”

The days were structured. First, the students deposited their coats and backpacks in their cubbies and turned in homework. Then, they lined up for bathroom breaks. After the break, they switched classrooms for reading and writing.

Kim taught the highest-level reading/writing group. Because the pressure of No Child Left Behind is inescapable, standardized testing often drives a school’s curriculum. Because Kim was a first-year teacher, she worked with students who were expected to make passing scores. She spent all of each morning devoted to reading and writing.

At 11, the class was released for lunch. The rest of the day passed as follows: independent reading, math, one of five “specials” (music, Spanish, art, gym, technology), another bathroom break, recess, another special, science/social studies and, finally, home.

The yellow-painted walls of Kim’s classroom were covered in handmade posters — construction-paper reminders of the math skills that her third-graders acquired and the alphabet letters that opened up new worlds to them. Cubbies sectioned off a reading corner, carpeted in peach, that housed an old van seat attached to a plank of wood. There were blankets for warmth, SpongeBob pillows to lean upon and posters depicting determination and responsibility — all donated. Here, students could lose themselves in one of more than 500 books that Kim organized by genre.

But for all her efforts, Kim said she felt isolated and overwhelmed. When she reached out to TFA to ask for help with some especially difficult behavioral challenges, she said she received no response and was left to fend for herself.