TITLE: What I wish I Could Tell Them About Teaching in a Title I School

SUMMARY:
Title I is a federally funded program for school districts that is designed to improve
academic achievement of disadvantaged students and to provide a fair and equal opportunity
for them to experience high-quality education and to acquire proficiency level on state
achievement tests. Focusing and giving more emphasis on reaching proficiency levels, schools
are now using Title I funds to accommodate students in need to attain academic goals. Before
making and implementing programs, it is very important to understand what exactly Title I is
and how it can be utilized. Just as important, however, is expanding a comprehension of the
unique needs of Title I students in order to maximize opulence
On the other edge, teaching naturally often comes with stress and burnout. Educators
are in need to fill several roles during the day including record keeper, classroom instructor,
playground monitor and member of school committees. Teachers inevitably experience stress
on a daily basis, and some studies clearly shows that they suffer from stress at a higher-than-
average rate.
In the article entitled “What I wish I Could Tell Them About Teaching in a Title I School”,
a fifth-year English teacher in a Title 1 middle school blogs anonymously as Teach at the
loveteachblog. It conveys both the delight and enormous burdens of working in an under-
resourced school with a very large population of high-risk student being governed by a system
that makes it unsuitable for students and teachers to succeed. Though these are only the
experiences felt by one of the teachers, they may as well reflect those of others across the
country.
The author demands on anonymity out of concern of recrimination by administrators,
and to protect the identities of students. Some rarely publish anonymous pieces like this, but
do so when they know and understand the urges and risks it accompanies with, believing that it
might as well inform, explain and reason out ideas to correct everyone’s misconceptions about
the subject matter. Somehow, their reasons for deciding to remain unidentified are valid,
supposing that they are exposing an important and relatable truth about public education that
will have resonance beyond a single classroom.
Teach adores the students and his/her teaching team as well. The author love’s teaching
and is really good at it. Also, respects the school administration and feel valued by them. But
sadly, at the end of his/her teaching year decided to leave. Teach isn’t really sure whether to
continue teaching elsewhere or start a new career. The author emphasizes the consequences of
his/her actions after leaving the profession of teaching, pointing out the possibility to be one of
the 40-50% of teachers who leave during their first five years. Additionally, stating that it is a
“drop in the bucket”.
There are a lot of key factors accumulating that contributes the idea for someone who
loves her job and is good at it to decide leaving. Simply, it’s not the teachers alone who need to
know what it’s like or what it’s all about but it’s for everyone else as well. Especially, people
who have no idea what it’s like teaching in a Title I school or even for those who haven’t taught
at all. Some of these people has their own different experiences and perceptions about the
topic at hand and is likely to be making important decisions about education.
There are so many things Teach would want to tell them. The author would want to
express about the hardships he/she is going through while teaching. These are the few: Teach
points out all the hours spent outside of class time writing grants to get novels because the
school doesn’t have the money for them. The teachers aren’t allowed to fail a student without
turning in a form that specifies all instances of parent contact. It is impossible to complete some
forms. Leaving a voicemail doesn’t count as contact and phone numbers of many parents
change over time and are disconnected during the school year. It is very unreal to document
every time you help a child when you have lots of them, and how this act results in so many
teachers passing students who should be failing. Teaches argues how systems that have been
put in place to not leave children behind are allowing them to fall even further behind.
The author deeply emphasizes that even though that he/she loves his/her job and work
harder at it than anything they’ve ever worked for, the loudest voice in the author’s head is the
one that is constantly saying that “you’re not doing enough”. Teach would want to tell them
that students who break rules at school often don’t receive consequences. The author’s
personality has even changed under the stress of the past five years. The stress has started to
overrun the part of teaching Teach loved so fiercely. Teach greatly hates all of those choices.
His/her story isn’t alone. The story is all too common, and that far too many teachers who have
it worse than Teach do.
Questions and negative reactions may arise as to how bold the author is in expressing
such negating ideas, but the reason behind why he/she wants them to know these things is
certainly not for the glory. If Teach had learned anything in his/her time as a teacher, it’s the
fact that the only heroes in this story are kids who go to school and do their best despite the
systems that are keeping them down. Teach isn’t writing this for proof or validation of him/her
working so hard and documenting it. The author doesn’t have anything to prove about his/her
work ethic or value as a teacher, to himself/herself or anyone else, and this is not meant to
portray a game of “who has it worse.” Teach isn’t also writing this to incriminate and state
prejudices to the school administrators or their district. The arguments presented would not be
sharing this publicly id it has been only confined within the boundaries of their school alone.
The problem presented is nation-wide.
Simply, the author is writing this because he/she deeply cares about what happens to
the students, and other children like them in Title I schools across this country whose needs are
not being met and provided with. They are also learning harmful lessons given by the larger
systems in place that are supposed to be helping them. Teach is clearly writing this to give
others an idea or a definite picture of the kind of learning and teaching environments that are
being created by these systems. The author presents these ideas because too many children in
their country are still receiving a lower quality education. Teach doesn’t know what to do to aid
it. There are some, but his/her knowledge about policies are insufficient and it is hard to even
know where to begin. All ideas being depicted points out that what author and others see at
the front lines every day, clearly isn’t working at all both for students or their teachers.
This is what Teach would want to tell them. It may be start of the very long process of
many justifications and may as well roast in the process, but Teach will never stop fighting for
these kids’ rights, their families, or the teachers who deeply care about them. 
REFLECTION:

As educators, we desperately want the best for our students, and we recognize the fact
that all learners or students learn differently. By understanding the various and unique needs of
Title I students, we are being able to identify and help overcome the challenges, hindrances and
issues these students face every day. Having the right mind set, accessing the crucial tools to do
the job, and using Title I funds to implement needs-specific programming are necessary
requirements for ensuring academic success in the classroom and on state achievement tests.
The article resonated because the headline of “Why I left” is way more common than the
headline of “Why I stayed”. There are so many educators who graduated from college or
switched careers, and could have done anything. These teachers often decided to teach and
intentionally chose to do the work in the schools that needed them the most. It also resonated
because of the subconscious but exaggerated message that Title 1 teachers are leaving by the
loads.
Imagine if you were to pursue a career in accounting, then eventually you would leave
because the burden you would feel is too hard, overwhelming, stressful, and it’s not your
passion. This accounts, stories, testimonies would never be in the newspaper. But testimonies
about our teachers feeling this unpleasant way and leaving Title 1 schools are in the paper and
on the news. The negating ideas are so unpleasant, unbearable, and inactive racial bias that
some kids in Title 1 schools are suffering with and is all out of control and nobody wants to teach
them.
The conflicted feeling or restraint is present because of the unexpressed and obsolete
expectation disproportionately placed on Title 1 teachers that you are to stay in your job until
you retire, because if you leave you are a sell-out. Transitions are a natural part of life. People’s
transition in education for almost the same reasons employees in other sectors do have; a
promotion, relocation, sick family members, graduate school, they realize it’s not their passion
at all, or it just wasn’t a good fit to them in the end. Not everyone stays in Title 1 schools, but
also everyone doesn’t stay in any organization. Change is inevitable. However, we need
advocates for our kids at all levels. Being a classroom teacher changes your perspective while
simultaneously breeding an unwavering long-term commitment to advocate for our students.
The majority of amazing Title 1 teachers we all know that left the classroom has begun to do
more for our students.
Teaching is really hard. Teaching children in poverty is even harder. It’s often assumed
that anyone can teach in Title 1 schools, but this undermines the social consciousness needed to
understand the complexities of poverty and its impact. Cornel West said, “You can’t lead the
people if you don’t love the people.” It is impossible to work in a Title 1 school, be effective, and
enjoy it, without a deep love and passion for our students. It’s that deep love, passion, and social
consciousness that makes teachers in Title 1 schools so unique and inspiring.
There are lot of things others should know about working in Title 1 schools. It brings out
the true you. Sometimes people come into it thinking they are one person, and they find out
very quickly who they really are. It’s not for everybody and it’s not so much of a negative. This
teaching experience makes you stronger. A lot of people say, “Why do I get the kids who have
the most need?”, and later they say, “Oh that really helped me. I needed that”. And then what
you end up doing is transferring that experience into everything you do in life.
However, there’s another danger that threatens a teacher’s well-being that is often
overlooked. The threat is stress and it is something that nearly half of all teachers say they
experience at a high level every day. Teachers do much more than teach academic lessons.
They must also manage classroom behavior and keep an eye on helping students grow and
develop socially in a healthy way.
Chronic stress can also impact teachers’ job performance. Unwell teachers have a
reduced ability to teach and therefore call in sick. Research has confirmed that excessive
teacher absences are linked to student underachievement. If nearly half of teachers leave the
field within five years, and most that remain are disengaged, there is an epidemic of teachers
who are stressed out, burned out and merely going through the motions. Research suggests
that active teacher engagement and positive teacher-student relationships result in high
student achievement. Similarly, without active engagement, teachers cannot connect with their
students and teach them effectively.
Teachers also need to make sure they take care of themselves so that they can take care
of others. Without actively caring for themselves, teachers lose the capacity to care for others.
Given the demands of teaching, it may be easy for teachers to put their own needs last.
A comprehensive self-care plan may help teachers identify signs of stress and improve their
stress management skills.
On top of that, they must coordinate with other adults and keep records of just about
everything they do. Teachers are expected to perform these tasks effectively even when their
students face difficulties outside the classroom, from unmet needs to mental health issues. The
more needs students have, the more teachers are expected to do. The consequences of teacher
stress are far-reaching and adversely impact not just the teacher, but everyone around
them, most notably their students.
Teaching in a Title I school is not work for the faint at heart and it’s not work for
someone who can’t think or react on a deeper level. Some of the challenges we face have been
influenced by our society. We have been socialized to believe that “this is how a child should act
with an adult no matter what”, when really and truly that is how a privileged child should act in
school and within a community that has all the resources. School was built for children and
communities of privilege. To promote positive teacher-student relationships,
experts recommend a ratio of five positive supports for each punitive action. In other words,
teachers should be commending students for doing the right thing five times as often as they
take away privileges or scold them for doing the wrong thing.
As an educator in a Title 1 school you have to realize that you are working within
institution that was not built for the children that it serves. Our society has drawn redlines and
concentrated issues within a community; children living in that community who may be lacking
food at home, taking care of siblings, and trying to have a weekend job to make money for their
family. So when that child brings all that responsibility into an institution that wasn’t built for
them, you have to be able to look at that child when they have an attitude and see that’s not a
child pushing back on me, they are pushing back on a system that says you mean nothing when
you should mean the world. So you have to understand the system and I would say
wholeheartedly, you have to understand who you are and what you stand for.