Michal Gendron, 23, is one of 15 recent college graduates to complete a two-year program for beginning teachers called the Inner City Teaching Corps (ICTC). The program, begun 10 years ago, recruits top graduates from across the country to work as teachers in Chicago Catholic schools suffering from severe teacher shortages. An interesting aspect of the ICTC program is that the teachers live together, often in an old convent or rectory, so they can lean on each other during what many consider the toughest years of teaching. And they learn to make do with less. Although their housing costs are taken care of, they make just $5 per day.
In the following interview, Gendron shares her thoughts about her challenging work as a relatively new teacher at St. Malachy Catholic School on the city’s Near West Side. St. Malachy serves an African-American community that struggles with violence and poverty. In her two years there, Gendron often took on the role of a social worker, trying to instill a sense of hope in the 2nd graders. After her first year, she started “Kidding Around Chicago,” an summer program that introduced a select group of children from St. Malachy School and Children of Peace School-Holy Family campus to some of the city’s best attractions, from museums and zoos to universities and parks.
A native of Vermont, Gendron is a 1999 graduate of Providence College in Rhode Island. At St. Malachy, she led student government and coached the soccer team. In the fall, she is planning to return to school full-time at Boston College for a master’s of social work degree, inspired largely by her experience at St. Malachy.
Q–What made you join ICTC?
A–I worked at a camp the summer before, a Boys and Girls Club camp. They take in kids who have been abused or neglected at home and it’s a residential camp. I would say that that one summer pretty much changed my outlook on everything that I wanted to do.
Q–What were you thinking about before that?
A–I was getting my elementary special ed degree. I’ve always known I wanted to be with kids, pretty much since I was little. But I think that camp changed my outlook on where I wanted to be. I wanted to be in the city, and I wanted to be with kids who really needed me, kids who didn’t have both parents at home. I did my student teaching in suburbia. They have problems too, but they weren’t the kind of problems I wanted to deal with. My dad died when I was young and so I have a strong connection with kids who don’t have fathers or who only have a single parent.
Q–What was your first day like at St. Malachy?
A–We were all just so nervous…Just the idea of looking at two lines of kids and thinking, “You are all mine.” The entire week before that I was setting up my classroom, and I had all my ideas of what I wanted to do and so I was definitely prepared and I was definitely planning for what I wanted to do. But things just didn’t go the way I wanted them. The first three days of school, the kids were definitely walking all over me. By the third of day of school, I was calling home and saying, “This is crazy!” I had 28 kids and they definitely know how to test adults. They knew it was hard for me to be strict because I’m more of a loving and smiling and happy kind of teacher. But the night before the fourth day of school, I was walking up the back stairs to my room, and I clearly remember it. I was picturing them in my head and I was picturing them at 3 feet tall and I was just saying, “Are you really scared of them? They are little kids!” So I wrote on this note, “They are little kids,” and I put it on my mirror and it’s still there. I came in the next day and I was just a different person. I was just saying, “There will be no more trying because I know you can do this. So from here on out, what I ask you to do, you do.” We were practicing walking in the hallways, and it was definitely a battle in the beginning. But by the end…they are just awesome kids. They call me sergeant with a smile. The kids just know what’s expected, and they come up with the rules on their own.
Q–Growing up in Vermont, you obviously wouldn’t see as many urban problems as you see now. Was that difficult to adjust to?
A–I had the whole summer to adjust to where I was living and the kind of environment that I would be teaching in. So by the time I got here, I already had student teaching in a summer school where a lot of the kids had the same problems. Still, things come up along the way and you’re like, “Wow, I never knew I would have to deal with that!” Like a little girl came to me last year and basically told me that she was being sexually abused.
Q–What did you learn from that?
A–It’s very hard to separate yourself emotionally. And I learned how frustrating it can be and how I would love to work to make it better. The entire process is so frustrating. It takes so long. I take it so personally because I get so close to my kids that I want them to be followed up with the way that I follow up with them.
Q–How long did it take?
A–A good three months for it to all be settled. (After an investigation by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, the adult offender was barred from contact with the child.)
Q–Did that experience solidify your interest in counseling?
A–I think so. I definitely go back to it and think about it. I didn’t really decide I wanted to do it until January, but it’s always been there in the back of my mind because when my dad died, my counselor just made everything possible again. It was like the world wasn’t just so sad anymore and things do go on, and kids do need to know that. Kids just basically need someone to listen to them. And just the idea of having the opportunity to do that for kids on a regular basis really intrigued me.
Q–How hard is teaching for you in reality as opposed to what you thought it would be like?
A–In the beginning, I thought teaching was going to be impossible. There are so many things that you have to do, and I’ve always been the person that if I’m going to do anything, I’m going to do it right. So when I was setting up, I had everything down as to what I wanted my classroom to look like and I was not going to be happy until it was all done. But you can’t think that way when you’re a teacher. So many things come up and there are so many things to do already. But I think the more I got into it and once I had an idea of what I wanted the kids to learn from me, then you can just go with it and you can be as creative as possible.
Q–Can you think of any children who illustrate the idea that you have to find different things to motivate different kids?
A–There was this boy Reginald in my class. He’s just brilliant, but you would never know it. He was retained in 1st grade and he was sent to me this year. When you were given the word “stop,” he would spell it “rstln.” It was that kind of idea. And then I got him and I was just thinking I have no idea what to do with him…All my kids have leadership roles at some point. Any kind of learner wants to be a leader. He was the first person to have the flag responsibility, which means they have cards that they read and they go up there and they tell the class what to do specifically, like “Please stand quietly” or “Push in our chairs quietly.” Reginald and I were practicing after school and he was taking them home and practicing the cards, and the next day he was up in class reading the cards for the kids. A lot of the kids looked at him and they were like “Wow” because they just thought Reginald didn’t know how to read. But really it’s about taking time and figuring out what it is that they need. I’ve learned so much from that one student.
Q–What are some of the benefits of going through a program like ICTC?
A–It’s set up in a way that you can’t fail. I think ICTC makes it so that there’s no possibility for you to fail if you keep going. You live with eight other people going through the exact thing you’re going through. You’re being observed all the time and people are giving you feedback constantly on what you can do better but also what you’re doing well. You need to hear positives just like the kids do.
Q–What made you decide to introduce the program “Kidding Around Chicago?”
A–It was just a dream that I had. I went on a trip with my class last year. We went to the Blue Cross/Blue Shield building downtown. It was my favorite day from last year. We were picked up in this luxurious bus that had padded seats and my kids and I were saying, “This is crazy. This is not a yellow school bus!” So we knew we were going to be treated like we had never been treated before. We got there and we sang Christmas carols to people and people were walking around smiling at us and stopping and listening to us. And the kids were so proud of themselves. But when we first walked into that building, we were driving down there in that bus and there were so many kids just saying “Wow! Wow!” when they saw buildings that they can see from their apartments but had never been in. And then they pointed to the water and they were like, “What ocean is that?” And when we walked into that building, one of my little girls looked up at me–I’ll never forget it. She said, “I don’t even feel like I’m in Chicago anymore.” And it just hit me. There are so many kids that have not seen any of the things that tourists have seen. To me it just seemed like this huge injustice. And so we decided to apply for the alumni fund (which taps teachers who have gone through the ICTC program) and that’s how it all started.
Q–Where did you go?
A–We went to Northwestern (University) to show them about college. We went to the aquarium, to the planetarium, to Navy Pier, to Sears Tower. We went on the architectural boat ride. And on the very last trip, we went to Indiana to this camp that’s called “There are children here,” and that was an overnight trip. You get there and it’s just heaven for kids. Every toy you can imagine is there and there’s just nothing but open land and grass and trees…and it was quiet. When it was dark at night, it was really dark. Just to expose them to things like that, just to show them that there really are places like that within their reach so when they get old enough to ride the bus, they can go there whenever they want.
Q–And is this continuing?
A–Yes. I’m staying for this summer. We’re also taking on two new ICTC members. They’ll be with us all summer so they know how (“Kidding Around Chicago”) is run. This is definitely something we want to see happen after we leave.
Q–What kind of impact do you think this had on the kids?
A–Those kids in my camp are always the ones who are coming back to talk to me. I had an entire year with them, but just that one month set our relationships apart. It taught me that as long as you allow it to extend, there’s just so much more that you can do with your position, and it will never be an 8-to-3 job. Just taking that one month out of my summer completely changed my outlook and just reminded me of why I was here to begin with.
Q–What did you get out of your involvement with extracurriculars?
A–Kids need it. We have an afterschool program that goes until 6 p.m. A school without that is not really a school. It’s such a unifying experience that brings everybody together. You’re part of a community. If they see you on a soccer field or they see you late at night, they know you care about them.
Q–Did you ever think about staying to teach here?
A–Yes. Walking out of this building on our last day (in early June) is going to be the hardest thing I’ll ever have to do. My kids have known I’ve been applying to graduate schools since January. We talk about it all the time. But my 3rd graders, my last year’s class, I didn’t tell until three weeks ago. I wanted them to know first-hand from me. It was very hard. I got out five words without crying.
Q–Why is it so hard?
A–Because I don’t want to be another person who comes into their life and leaves, especially because they know what abandonment feels like…I’ve struggled with that so many different times in the past three months: “Is my coming out here, did it do anything, or is it even worth it since I came in and left?” But I really came up with the conclusion that me being here for two years is better than me not being here at all.
Q–What do you picture yourself doing after you get your master’s in social work? Do you imagine yourself working with kids in a school setting?
A–I can talk to kids about their feelings forever, whether I just met them or I’ve known them for a while. I don’t know if that necessarily means I want to be in a classroom, but I know I want to be with kids. It’s just where I belong.
