My First Year in Fifth Grade: A Teach for America Diary

Cole Farnum left Commonwealth Avenue for Brownsville, Tex., when he joined Teach for America after graduating from BU. In this series, taken from letters to his family and friends, Farnum (CAS’06) recounts his first year in the classroom, with its beginnings, endings, and ups and downs in between. This year’s Teach for America application deadline is November 2; e-mail TFAatBU@gmail.com. Click here to read part one. Click here to read part two. Click here to read part three. Click here to read part four.

We got the testing results in April. They called the fifth-grade teachers to meet in the conference room, and we all knew. For the first time since I started, I was nervous. We assembled and I refused a seat at the table — I wanted to be somewhere out of the limelight so I could take the news quietly. 

“These are not bad scores,” my facilitator says while handing the failure reports out. Numbers are everywhere, familiar names are on the page, but I cannot locate any of my students. I see my name and look to the right: 88 percent passed. Two students had failed. Both students are dyslexic; they had failed in the past, and worst of all, they tried very hard. I had the second-highest percentage of passing students in the school, but I was not excited.

First-year teachers never settle for less than perfection, I guess, and this was far from perfect. They both missed the bare minimum passing grade by four or five questions, meaning they answered a little less than half of the questions correctly.

Two students, however, passed this year after failing in fourth grade. It is an improvement, which is the most important thing to remember. Are they ready for sixth grade? No, they are not. One passed by one question, scoring a 68 percent, the other with a 72 percent. The thing about the pass-fail system is that once they pass, they are assumed to be at grade level and are forgotten. “Oh, he passed? That’s great! Make sure to focus your energy on the last two.” I see two more happy students this year, but I also see two struggling students next year, in a less supportive environment. I fear for them and a few other students who passed by two or three questions.

I also got my math benchmarks back: a quick look told me all my students passed the 68 percent mark. The average was 85 percent, which met our class goal. Yes, some passed by only one or two questions — but all passed. When my kids came to me in September, math was by far their weakest area. It is one of the greatest privileges to tell an 11-year-old that they can achieve.

Sadly, I realized that I had missed one name when I first saw the scores and thought that all my students had passed. There was one 66. It was the biggest and most irresponsible mistake of my life. The student kept asking why I skipped over her when I announced the scores. I asked her to come make a copy with me, and when we got out in the hallway, I apologized. This child, diagnosed with severe ADHD, had never seemed so calm. After discussing the situation in the conference room, she told me that she could do it next time, and I told her that I would be there the whole time to make sure that happened.

We went back to the classroom to evaluate the problems she got wrong, but the results didn’t make sense: she did the work correctly and proceeded with the steps. In fact, we found, she had circled the wrong answers. Her score would have been in the low 70s; she would have passed. She didn’t say anything, but the lesson was well understood. She won’t make the same mistake again.

Over the year, I tried to be blind to test results and to anything but the education of my students. While there were many more defeats than successes, the war was won in the end. All of them are going into the sixth grade next year, something that did not look remotely possible in the fall. After spending a year in a district where less than half of all high school students graduate in four years — or at all — I know that I have helped accomplish something tremendous.

I decided to close my first-year experience by writing a letter to each of my students to give them on the last day of school. This is part of the package that I have asked them to save for when they graduate college. I cannot honestly say that I think they all will graduate high school and then college, but I feel I have helped them learn to be resilient to the failures of their lives and to remain optimistic and consistent in their efforts to change things for the better. I just hope that they will carry these lessons into middle school next year and further on in their academic journeys.

I have promised them that I will attend their college graduation ceremonies. “Sir,” they asked, “what happens if we all graduate college on the same day but in different places? How can you be at all of our ceremonies?” I smiled and laughed, and hoped to have this dilemma 11 years down the road. “I’ll find a way,” I promised. “I’ll be there.”

Cole Farnum can be reached at cole.farnum@corps2006.tfanet.org.

On Monday, October 22, at 7 p.m. in the SMG Auditorium, the Boston University School of Education is hosting an event titled Traditional Teaching Alternatives: An Inside Look at How SED Prepares You for the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Teach for America, and Teaching English Abroad. The event will include SED graduates and others talking about how education courses can prepare students for work in these organizations.