2016 Spring Break Trip to New York City, New York
This year for our spring break trip we took the east coast again, but to New York City, New York. Fifteen UNITE members left the Redbird Country to NYC Saturday night for a seven day excursion to explore and learn more about NYC, their education district, and volunteer at two local food pantries. During these seven days, we lived like true New Yorkers and took the MTA everywhere. We visited four out of the five boroughs of New York City and experienced different activities in each one. On Monday, we visited the PS MS 71 school in the Bronx where we participated in a professional development workshop for teachers and administrators in the city. In this professional development session, the administrators of this school were sharing out a strategy called "Visual Thinking." In this strategy, students are encouraged to think critically and use accountable talk. After attending this very informative professional development session, we volunteered at The Concourse House, a local woman's shelter. The next few days we toured around the city visiting important spots like Times Square, Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, MoMA, Central Park and the 9/11 Memorial. Wednesday and Thursday we had the opportunity to volunteer at two different food pantries -- Brooklyn Rescue Mission Urban Harvest Center and St. John's Bread and Life. On our final full day, we volunteered and visited Uncommon Charter High School to learn more about the charter school system of New York. Overall, this was a busy trip, but it was SUCH a fun and educational trip. For more stories and experiences, come to any of our meetings or email us!
2015 Winter Break Trip to East Garfield Park, Chicago
Nine of our members attended the our Winter Break trip to East Garfield Park, Chicago this past December. The group visited an elementary schools and volunteered at the local community center, Breakthrough. The members also had a chance to walk around the city and go to a Barrels of Monkeys show!
2015-16 Day Trips
We provide our members with something more than material. We provide our members with a deeper involvement within urban schools. This year we have offered our members opportunities to visit Bloomington Junior High School, Woodruff Career and Technical Center (Peoria), Manual Math and Science Academy (Peoria), Grant Middle School (Springfield), Lincoln Magnet School (Springfield), and Perspective Charter Schools (Chicago). From fresh hair cuts and flipped classrooms and curriculum to historic buildings with the latest technology, UNITE provides our members with more than a line on their resume or an extra set of resources. UNITE gives our members firsthand, professional development that carries throughout their lives, personal and professional.
2015 Alternative Spring Break to Charleston, SC
Twelve members, including five executive board members, participated in an alternative spring break trip to South Charleston, South Carolina. With the help of ISU's rental services, we borrowed a 15-passenger bus with Reggie RedBird keeping us company and promoting ISU through each state on our journey through the southeastern United States. We observed and participated in several in- and after-school community organizations that bring new and fresh ideas to the educational world. Along with the community organizations, we also visited several schools in the Charleston County School District.
Southern hospitality is real and alive in Charleston! Our first day encompassed a clinical observation within North Charleston High School. The common themes we found among each school we visited were high rates of students with IEPs (close to 25%!), high mobility rates of students, and nearly each student receiving free or reduced lunch and breakfast. Sanders Clyde Creative Arts School offers full wrap around services including dinner! On our second day, Jerry Zucker Middle School of Science allowed us to observe and participate in the classroom while Engaging Creative Minds held one of their theatrical lesson plans and after a Shakespearan insult poetry slam! We trained and prepared for our Junior Achievement lesson plans on Wednesday and taught in Cainhoy Elementary/Middle School the following day. Even though Cainhoy can be classified as a rural school, the common themes carried over into their school as well. After a day of teaching, we visited Sander Clyde's after school programs specifically following the Yo Art! community organization in the school. With any proper spring break trip to the Southern United States, we visited the beach on our day off. Also, as true to UNITE form, we were all offered jobs within the schools we observed and made the professional connections to visit again in the future. Next time, we will have resumes in hand.
All of the pictures can be found on our Google Drive here. All of the resources and connections we made can also be found on our resources tab above.
Southern hospitality is real and alive in Charleston! Our first day encompassed a clinical observation within North Charleston High School. The common themes we found among each school we visited were high rates of students with IEPs (close to 25%!), high mobility rates of students, and nearly each student receiving free or reduced lunch and breakfast. Sanders Clyde Creative Arts School offers full wrap around services including dinner! On our second day, Jerry Zucker Middle School of Science allowed us to observe and participate in the classroom while Engaging Creative Minds held one of their theatrical lesson plans and after a Shakespearan insult poetry slam! We trained and prepared for our Junior Achievement lesson plans on Wednesday and taught in Cainhoy Elementary/Middle School the following day. Even though Cainhoy can be classified as a rural school, the common themes carried over into their school as well. After a day of teaching, we visited Sander Clyde's after school programs specifically following the Yo Art! community organization in the school. With any proper spring break trip to the Southern United States, we visited the beach on our day off. Also, as true to UNITE form, we were all offered jobs within the schools we observed and made the professional connections to visit again in the future. Next time, we will have resumes in hand.
All of the pictures can be found on our Google Drive here. All of the resources and connections we made can also be found on our resources tab above.
2015 Project 43 at ISU
At Project 43 this year, UNITE National took a road trip to ISU to provide intensive professional development to our members. This year's activities focused on examining the changing drop out rate in Chicago Public Schools and what has attributed to this. Members simulated a typical Instructional Leadership Team meeting, became students in an intervention group, and broke down the On Track program. Concluding the event, UNITE National members provided UNITed Talks on motivation and attendance rates. As a final reflection, Kate Kloepper facilitated a restorative justice group to reflect on the event.
Homestretch Documentary Screening
UNITE, along with the College of Education and INFUSE (Innovative Network of Urban Special Educators), hosted a screening of the documentary Homestretch. The film "follows three homeless teens as they fight to stay in school, graduate, and build a future. Each of these smart, ambitious teenagers - Roque, Kasey, and Anthony - will surprise, inspire, and challenge audiences to rethink stereotypes of homelessness as they work to complete their education while facing the trauma of being alone and abandoned at an early age." After the screening, Assistant Professor in Special Education Dr. April Mustian and YWCA McClean County CEO Dr. Dontae Latson mediated a panel discussion with several community members including CPS teachers and local organizational leaders, such as Project Oz and Home Sweet Home Ministries. Illinois State alumni and keynote speaker Dakota Pawlicki lead the discussion with his personal tale of homelessness. The event was a huge success! Look for more events hosted by UNITE and INFUSE as we become better urban educators!
2014 Fall Workshop
Creativity in the Classroom: The Classroom as a Canvas
"In the culture of high-stakes testing, student creativity is often stifled within the walls of the classroom. As aspiring urban teachers, we believe that creativity is a vehicle for instilling the values of problem-solving, divergent thinking, and ultimately making learning fun!" We organized our annual fall workshop around these ideals bringing in resources from all over the state. From drama to slam poetry, a variety of outlets were discussed and we finished with a creative reflection session. Check out them out here and here! Oh, and we also had food and a raffle with prizes from Avon to teacher supplies!
2014 Winter Break Trip to Albany Park, Chicago
Eight members participated in a three day excursion to the third most diverse zip code in the nation, Albany Park in Chicago. One cohort of elementary majors visited William G. Hibbard Elementary School and another cohort of secondary majors visited Theodore Roosevelt High School. We took a guided, walking tour of the neighborhood, ate at local restaurants, volunteered at the community center, visited the Chicago Teacher Education Pipeline's new office in East Garfield Park, and even caught a Barrel of Monkeys show! It was a more enriching educational experience that could ever be found in any classroom.
Pictures and reflections from previous UNITE trips and events can be found here.