Kyle Walker ’19

Generation Teach, Denver, CO

This summer, I had the opportunity to serve as a Teaching Fellow for Generation Teach (GT) in Denver, Colorado. While I had worked in classrooms before—I was a Classroom Helper at Williamstown Elementary School for the better part of the past three years, and I participated in the Teach NYC Urban Education Program as a sophomore—this was my first time being the primary teacher, and it was a new experience to say the least. We spent the first two weeks in training, where we learned about GT’s mission and core values, developed our teacher presence, and familiarize ourselves with the curriculum for our respective subjects (for me, math). On June 18, it was finally time to meet our amazing students!

Club J snagged a victory in the academic triathlon.
Club J snagged a victory in the academic triathlon.

The first few days were chaotic as kids and adults alike adjusted to the rhythm of school. Our schedule was as follows: Every weekday, Fellows and our supervisors gathered in the faculty lounge to prepare. Each of us greeted the students in our club—likened to homeroom—and ate breakfast with them. We started off the day with core classes, which included social studies, reading, math, and engineering. We then went to recess and lunch. Afterward, students attended electives that teachers designed themselves. These ranged from basketball to chess to songwriting to Spanish. I taught “Social Justice Superheroes” (more on that later). We finished up the day with club time or a community meeting. Once the children departed, we met for a faculty meeting to close out the day. Occasionally we deviated from this outline. For example, we took three field trips throughout the course of the summer to the park and the pool, the University of Colorado Denver, and Skate City. We also had special events on certain Fridays, such as an academic triathlon and a community celebration to conclude the program.

The math curriculum emphasized hard skills less than growth mindset (as opposed to a fixed mindset), which encourages kids to make mistakes and learn from them to become a better mathematician. Certain lessons, however, did stand out as successes for the kids, and by extension, for me. In the third week, we worked on logic puzzles to start each day. At times, I had struggled to keep George—who was in my club as well as my Period C class and had a lot on his plate due to a tough home life—on task. He was determined, however, to complete his puzzle. In fact, he became the only student to do so, and he was so proud that he asked me to hold onto it so I could show his grandmother at our open house for families. The task for one of the last lessons was to play NIM-7. In this game, each pair starts with seven counters. They take turns removing either one or two at a time, and the player who takes the last one wins. A few students who tended to be less engaged became very invested in the activity. At one point, I heard one of them swear because he had lost. While I gently reminded him that the choice of language was not in line with our classroom norm of respect, my heart was warmed to see the kids so excited about math. The next day, I deviated from the lesson plan I was given to do an introduction to game theory, one of my classes last semester. We began with the strategy behind NIM-7 and then took a look at the prisoner’s dilemma, arguably the best-known game in the discipline. I was impressed by the speed with which my students, not yet in eighth grade, caught on to concepts that I learned as a junior in college.

Dressing up in clothes from different decades to celebrate the end of the program.
Dressing up in clothes from different decades to celebrate the end of the program.

The projects I tackled with my students and fellow teachers were not limited to math class. In my elective, we learned about various superheroes who have furthered the cause of social justice—Martin Luther King, Jr., Malala Yousafzai, and the Water Protectors of Standing Rock, to name a few—and how we can emulate them to become superheroes ourselves. Toward the end of the summer, we wrote letters to migrant children who have been separated from their families. The poignant notes and pictures the kids produced speak volumes to their wisdom and compassion. One boy even shared with his pen pal that his father had been deported, and he reassured them that things would not stay bad forever. Outside academics, I served on the Word of the Day committee along with my co-club leaders. It was our job to announce the day’s word every morning. We also used prizes to motivate them to write a definition for each word, use it in a sentence, and illustrate it. Each teacher came up with coupons that a winning student could redeem to make them do something silly. Over the course of the summer, Mr. Dillon dyed his hair pink, Mr. Rafael participated in a dance battle, and all of the fellows went to the front of the room to sing Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” I was proud of the engagement this system garnered from the kids.

This internship clarified that I would like to work with children, although I am not yet sure what form that will take. There were many difficulties during the summer. I broke down during class one day because I felt so helpless in my efforts to help one student with his burden. I dealt with burnout from a lack of time to myself. I experienced disenchantment with the organization because they could have done more, from my perspective, to honor their stated commitment to justice. My colleagues certainly supported me through this. We had long conversations on sunset walks; we brought each other gifts to show our gratitude for each other; we went on weekend outings downtown and to the mountains to escape the stresses of work. When all was said and done, however, my students gave me a reason to get up every morning and face the long day ahead. At the end of the summer, one kid even told me that I should be a math teacher.

I don’t know right now whether I will heed his advice. As I explore options for the years to follow, teaching remains high on my list. My tremendous gratitude goes to everybody—the Alumni Sponsored Education Internship, the ’68 Center for Career Explorations, the staff at Generation Teach, and most of all my students—all of whom made this summer’s experience possible.