The summer program currently serves rising fifth through ninth graders in the Philadelphia area, with this year’s fifth grade cohort being the first. Breakthrough also provides opportunities for students from fifth through 12th grade during the year.
The programming during the school year also includes “career conversations,” Palmer said. “Where students can hear from different professionals in different varied backgrounds to just know that there’s so many different career paths out here.”
A teaching fellow leads a classroom during Breakthrough’s programming. The teaching fellows teach the class as if it’s their own, being able to decorate and lead the class in their own style. (Courtesy of Breakthrough)
Teaching fellows, such as Banks, receive two weeks of intense training from teachers at Germantown Friends School, then spend the rest of the time teaching the Breakthrough students and getting feedback from teachers in the Philadelphia area.
“For me, the feedback throughout the summer was just super important,” Banks said.
Banks also liked the freedom she had in designing her own electives, such as “Let’s Talk Money,” which was about financial literacy, and “Who’s Got Talent,” which was designed to help students gain confidence in areas they had talent.
This freedom is what separated Banks’ time as a teaching fellow from the traditional college teaching experience.
“You have control of how the classroom is managed, so how the students act, what expectations you want,” Banks said. At “Howard, it’s kind of like we have a mentor teacher, so yes, it’s their classroom and we’re kind of just following along with what they’re doing while putting our twists or spin on it as well.”
Banks was a teaching fellow for three years until she got hired by the School District of Philadelphia recently.
According to the organization, 85% of the eight-grade students at Philadelphia’s branch of Breakthrough got accepted to one of their top-two high school choices. Nationally, the program has had three out of four teaching fellows stay in the field after completing the program.
More teachers are a good thing, said Gianeen Anyika, the principal at James G. Blaine School.
“The city and the entire state is in search of teachers. And it’s another pipeline,” Anyika said.
Anyika said she was impressed by Banks’ training.
“She knew exactly what to do, what to say to the children, how they should be moving throughout the classroom,” she said. “Even her communication to the parents in our messaging monitoring how she’s messaging and making sure she’s informing our parents of the you know expectations and what they can look forward to overall she’s been doing an amazing job.”