Ben Guest’s Blog

Meet the new blog, same as the old blog...

2008-06-09T00:37:01Z

This blog started mostly as reflections on the Mississippi Teacher Corps, of which I am an alumnus, and for which I currently serve as the Program Manager. Over the past year or so I've spent more time writing about politics, religion, The Wire, the Boston Celtics, the Peace Corps, and other personal topics that are not really appropriate as an official representation of the Mississippi Teacher Corps. So I've reactivated my personal blog, First Take, here (I stopped posting on First Take last year when I created this blog). I've also set to "Viewable by Friends" on this Vox blog any posts that I feel would reflect a personal political or ideological viewpoint. This blog will continue as a somewhat official representation of the Teacher Corps, while my reactivated personal blog will host all of my posts on topics personal, political, and other.

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Favorite MTC Posts

2008-03-14T23:02:49Z

I'm working on my last two posts about attrition: a post on ambiguity and then a conclusion post. In working on the ambiguity post, which I hope to have up by Sunday, I started reading through some of the MTC Class of 2005's final blog entries (they finished in May of 2007), reflecting back on their Teacher Corps experience. Here are some of my favorites:

Elizabeth Savage: What seems impossible is simply a challenge to be met-- logically, step by step, one obstacle at a time. It's important, always, to remember the necessity of self-discipline. I think of this, in a large part, as growing up-- realizing the direct connection between action and consequence, between method and result.

To sum it up, Teacher Corps is where I finally became an adult in anything more than name. To know what is important to me, to set a goal, to ultimately create a meaningful and significant positive impact-- this is what will justify my existence on this planet, this is what makes my life worth living, this is what I can accomplish, now that I have learned order and discipline. For me, a life ruled by ego and unmitigated by compassion would be a waste of time.

Robbie Pollack: I remember reading that the University of Mississippi had banned sticks in its stadium, in an effort to reduce the number of Confederate flags at games without overtly violating first amendment freedoms. There was quite a hullabaloo apparently. I laughed about it, I think. I doubt I would have been confident to say that no such place existed, that no such controversy would erupt, that nobody cared about or took seriously that sort of thing, but I was surprised by it anyway. It seemed so strange and quaint. So archaic. I probably reflected on it for a few seconds, but if I had a thousand years I don't think it would have occurred to me that I might one day live and work in that state, attend courses at and be awarded a degree from that very school.

Dave Molina (and I have to say this is one of my favorite posts any MTCer has written. Dave was decidedly unexcited about writing this final reflection [it was the last required MTC post, hence the "give me my cake" line at the end] but I think he did a fantastic job in describing his experience over the two years starting with...): spring '05 wherein the protagonist applies to a slew of teaching programs: MTC, Worldteach, TFA, etc. ben guest contacts him and is very persuasive. plans are made to come to mississippi and teach math, rather than go to china again, or to continue the TFA process. primary selling point: intimacy of small program, organizational support, and free master's degree.

Jake Roth (fitting that he comes after Dave): But this isn’t what I want to talk about. I want to talk about AK. AK was a soft-spoken 4^th-period honors freshman whom I failed. Sure, heearned a 60% or whatever – but I failed him. I had him so many times, and not once did I actually win.

Ugly Cake: MTC has been an incredibly memorable experience, as I’m sure the first two years of teaching always are, but I can’t say it’s been the best time of my life. I can say it has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It’s been a time when all your weaknesses and faults are exposed and are exaggerated. Your life rarely goes outside of teaching, planning, or grading, as is evident by the constant vis-à-vis marker remnants on fingers and how conversations too often revolve around what James did or what the principal didn’t do or what Rachel said.

Matt Lochen: The Mississippi Teacher Corps produced some of the finest teachers I have known and it has been a privilege working and learning along side them throughout the past two years.

Anderson Heston: I write this at the close of one chapter of my life and the opening of another. I have survived my two years in the wilderness, and I am stronger for it. I can think of nothing harder than getting up every morning and getting up in front of those kids. I have been knocked about like no other, but I am still here to tell my story.

Reading over this post, before I hit the "Save" button on Vox that will present this for the world to read, I feel...

Wonder. At how many great writers have come through this program.

Nostalgia. I am going on five years as program manager. Groups have come and gone...

Pride. I played a part in bringing these incredible individuals to the students of Mississippi.

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On Transparency

2007-06-28T01:07:18Z

It has been a busy summer (as always) here at Teacher Corps central. I finally have internet at home so I should be able to blog a bit more. The MTC Summer School at Holly Springs is going well although we only have about 90 students. We are offering 12 courses so some courses have ended up with only one or two students while others have 15 or 20.

The new blogs on Vox also seem to be working out well. Each summer there are always issues that spring up and this summer has been no exception. Here are a few that first and second-years have, in the parlance of Ann Monroe, "blogged out":

Melissa's feelings of how the program has treated the first and second-years here and here.

Chris' response here. Melissa and Chris are both second-years.

Nathan's response to some comments I made here and here.

And, last but not least, Sam's feelings on the summer training here. Nate and Sam are first-years.

Most of these posts are critical of MTC, in general, and myself, in particular. Truth be told, I am proud of that. Not the criticism, but the honesty. I feel strongly that MTC be an organization that embraces dissent and criticism. MTC is, in my humble opinion, a transparent organization where both the good and bad are right up front for everyone to see. One of the best things about the blogs is that it gives every single participant in the program a voice. I'm glad to see people using their voice...

Things are not perfect with MTC but, as alumnus Anderson Heston stated, way back when he was a first-year and there was some talk of squelching the blogs, the program should be strong enough to accept honest criticism. Amen.

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Latest MTC Update...

2007-05-07T19:40:28Z

Hi Everyone,

I hope you are all doing well. This has been a very busy time for MTC as one class finishes and another class comes in.

I know many of you want a recruiting update. Our application deadline was April 22nd. We received a total of 634 applications, falling well short of this year’s goal of 800 applications. Last year we received 405 applications so we had a greater than 55% increase in the number of applications. My first full year as Program Manager, in 2004, we received 120 applications. So, over the last three years, we have had a 450% increase in applications. 634 is the greatest number of applications MTC has ever received, breaking last year's record.

Of the 634 applications received, we gave out 47 acceptances for an incoming total of 28 participants. This gives us an acceptance rate of 7%. This is the most competitive year ever for MTC (last year our acceptance rate was 11%). To put this into perspective, Harvard and Yale accept about 9% of all applicants. Teach For America accepts about 16% of all applicants. So, viewed through the prism of either competitive four-year education programs or competitive teaching programs, MTC is the most competitive program in the nation (by percent of applicants accepted). We also instituted a phone interview as part of the regular application process (thanks to Joe Sweeney ’04 and Matt Bauers ’04 for their help with this) and that has been a big help. The summer internship was even more competitive. We received 124 applications for one spot. I’ll send out more information about the incoming Class of 2007 in June. The first day of training is Tuesday, June 5th.

News story this month is on the Class of 2005, who had "Portfolio Day" last Saturday. We’ve got YouTube clips and photos as well (hyperlinks below).

The portfolio is the final assignement for each MTC participant. About half of this year’s class chose to do an online portfolio. You can view them here. This year’s winner of the “Most Outstanding Portfolio Award” was Lily Chan-Chien. Jessica Wysopal was runner-up. Last year, Joel Harris was the winner. Joe Sweeney and Elizabeth Young tied for second.

The University of Mississippi has a nice story on Dave Jones and his championship winning Quiz Bowl Team. We presented Dave with a check for $500 (thanks to an anonymous donation) to help with travel costs. You can see the video here.

Photo of the Month is courtesy of Ruth Kuhnau.

Profile of the Month is on first-year Chris Caputo.

NPR ran two stories about the Delta and two of our teachers, Ashley Johnson and Elizabeth Savage. You can listen to both stories here.

I’m in the process of switching my blog to Vox. For this year’s incoming class, the blogs will all be Vox accounts as they provide several layers of security.

Speaking of the blogs here is the latest MTC Blog update:

AG contemplates not returning for year two.

One of ZJ’s students asks, “What is poverty?”

One of GM’s student’s likes Oreos and Gatorade.

At the end of her first year DM asks, “Am I glad I came to Mississippi?”

MD writes about the end of his two years in MTC.
Be sure to visit the website where you can watch movies (including our Teacher Spotlight series), read blogs, view participant profiles, and see photos. Our YouTube site is here. Our SmugMug page is here.

As always, please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Ben Guest
Program Manager
Mississippi Teacher Corps
Email: mtc@olemiss.edu
Website: www.mtcorps.net
Phone: 662-915-5224
Ben's Website
Ben's Blog

The Mississippi Teacher Corps is the most competitive teaching program in the country. The two-year program, designed for non-education majors, recruits college graduates to teach in the Mississippi Delta and offers a host of benefits, including teacher training and certification, a full scholarship for a master's degree in education, job placement that includes full pay and benefits and, most importantly, the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of students in one of the poorest areas of the country.
http://www.olemiss.edu/programs/mtc/

http://www.youtube.com/mtcorps

http://www.mtc.smugmug.com/

http://www.olemiss.edu/programs/mtc/Participants/Media/Websites/mtc_sites.htm

http://www.olemiss.edu/cgi-bin/news2000/display.pl?id=6149&mode=full

http://www.olemiss.edu/programs/mtc/Media/photo_month/main.htm

http://www.olemiss.edu/programs/mtc/Participants/monthlyprofile/main.htm

http://www.olemiss.edu/programs/mtc/Media/Audio/MTCaudio.htm

http://mtc.vox.com/

http://www.olemiss.edu/programs/mtc/Participants/TheMTCExperience/blogs/blogs.htm

http://trekabout.blogspot.com/2007/05/contracted-to-serve.html

http://unclecoy.blogspot.com/2007/04/mr.html

http://younevercantellwithbees.blogspot.com/2007/04/oreos.html

http://adventures-n-teaching.blogspot.com/2007/04/wish-ida-known.html

http://dmmolina.blogspot.com/2007/04/end-of-era.html

http://www.olemiss.edu/programs/mtc/index.htm

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