This is my first year at Citizen Schools as a National Teaching Fellow and I love the work that I am doing!  I joined Citizen Schools because I wanted to experience first hand, the daily ins-and-outs of the life of a public school teacher.  With this experience I want to go on and shape either state or national education policy, and it is this kind of experience that I think is lacking in the politicians who make the education policies today.  What struck me about Citizen Schools is the model of connecting exsiting public schools with their surrounding communities to enhance the relevancy of what students were learning in the classroom.  Public education is a national endeavor and seeing the Citizen Schools model integrate ordinary citizens and communities into the lives of our students is truely inspiring.

 

As my campus completed our first lessons of apprenticeships this past week, we could see the positive impact of the Citizen Schools model at work.  This semester is the first time our students have the opportunity to participate in the Mock Trial apprenticeship, working and learning alongside attorneys at Fenwick and West in partnership with lawyers from Cisco.  For the next 9 weeks, our students will continue building their negotiation skills, and will be able to fully litigate for themselves at their WOW! presentation.  After just one week of apprenticeships, I have seen how our Citizen Schools program has already started opening up career pathways for our students who would not normally be exposed to these opportunities. 

 

Become involved in our movement of providing these opportunities through expanded learning days for middle school students, by contributing what you can today.  And more importantly, make a difference also by giving your time as a volunteer Citizen Teacher with us. What will you teach?

Check out this one minute video about why a few of our Citizen Teachers volunteers took action for public education and joined Citizen Schools:

http://www.vimeo.com/16429685