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YES Prep Teacher Wins Teach For America Symantec Innovation in Teaching Award

May 16, 2011 by Jeremy Jones

YES Prep North Central teacher, 6th Grade Level Chair and Teach For America Alumna, Erica Bundy, was awarded the Teach For America and Symantec Innovation in Teaching Award at the 2011 Teach For America Alumni Induction Dinner.  We are excited to celebrate this accomplishment with Erica.  Below is some more information about her award and how she earned it.  I asked Erica about her reaction to winning this award and Bundy said, "I was really surprised that I won. EXTREMELY surprised. It feels really great to be a part of something where excellence is acknowledged. Sometimes we work so hard at YES Prep and we forget this isn’t the norm in other schools or other places. It made me feel really special to know that hard work not only is good for kids, but it is appreciated by the surrounding community as well."

About the Award

Symantec Corporation and Teach For America are excited to announce the kick-off of the 2011 Symantec Innovation Award program!  The Innovation Award was established in 2003 to recognize Teach For America corps members who demonstrate innovation (through a project, program, or approach to teaching), collaboration (with fellow teachers, their students' parents, and/or community members), and measurable gains in their students' academic achievement.

For the past eight years, Symantec has recognized Teach for America corps members that demonstrate:

• Innovation: through an innovative project, program, or approach to teaching;
• Collaboration:  with fellow teachers, their students' parents, or community members;
• Measurable gains: evident in their students' academic achievement.

Winners of the 2011 award will receive a $2,000 recognition award for personal expenses and a $500 grant to be used for his or her classroom.  This opportunity is available to all Teach For America corps members in the Bay Area, Eastern North Carolina, Houston, Los Angeles, the Twin Cities and Washington D.C. 

Erica Bunday's Award Winning Project

In a recent conversation I had with my students she told me that she wanted to be either a teacher or a bus driver. It seemed like students had a limited scope of what careers are available to them. Their world view is limited and their only knowledge of careers are the jobs that they see the adults in their neighborhoods doing. Later, I gave a survey to our 6th graders and only 60% of students knew clearly what job they wanted to do when they graduate and what college classes they need to be successful in this job. To combat this lack of knowledge, I created a Community Night called “The Real World.”

80 students opted to stay after school one night to participate in “The Real World.” This project was designed to broaden student’s horizons of various careers, to understand the concept of real world job competition, and to be a fun learning experience.  The following is the procedure for her community night:

1.  Students go to “college” and choose a career. At YES University, students meet with a “professor” who talks about what this career entails, what income is earned, and then some sort of activity was required for students to earn their “degree” in this career. Below are the different careers that students could have chosen from and the activity the “professor” engaged in with the students

• Eye Doctor- students gave an eye exam to other participants and, using a key chart, determined their eyesight
• Banker- after discussing wise investments, students had to calculate the potential income of different investments and decide on the best investment
• Engineer- students discussed various natural disasters. The professor emphasized that engineers are the people that help solve the problem of natural disasters or help avoid them in the future.
• Forensic Scientist- after discussing what is really part of the job and what is stuff we see on television, the scientists here took each other’s fingerprints and labeled the different elements of the fingerprint that they observe (loops, swirls, cuts, etc)
• Marine Corps Officer- after discussing the difference between being a soldier and officer (the largest difference being the requirement of a college degree), the students watched a video on leadership. Afterwards, the students practiced their leadership by being the officer leading student marches
• Lawyer- after discussing the different types of lawyers, students had to debate if texting should be illegal while driving
• Athlete- students saw the number of students who play in high school, compared to the number who play in college, and finally the number who play professionally. Then students were put through a vigorous work out.
• Author- after discussing the writing process and the role an editor plays, students created a paragraph evoking a specific mood, through the writing process and the teacher played the role of editor

2.  Students then mix back up into larger groups and enter the “Real World.” The students circle up, and the teacher stands in the center. The teacher has a certain number of contracts for careers (for example 10 engineering contracts, 1 professional athlete contract). The teacher puts one contract in the center, calls it out, and any student that has earned their degree in this career can compete for this. The first student to touch the contract earns it and the given “salary” in YE$ dollars. In this interaction students learned the idea of job competition, and what careers are highly needed, and others that are highly competitive.

3.  Students repeat the process going back to college and then competing a second time in the Real World.  By the end of the afternoon, all 80 students commented that this was the “best community night ever,” and all could clearly articulate some new concept they learned. Some lessons learned included:

• “There are so many opportunities to be an engineer, and they really solve lots of problems for people.”
• “It is hard to become a professional athlete. Everyone wants to be one, but only a few actually become successful ones.”
• “The more you go to college, the more money you make in those careers.”

Read more about how we celebrate teachers in our Teacher Talent blog and visit our job board to apply to teach at YES Prep. 

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