Student Profile: Gaining Academic Courage Transcript

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Card:
Deeper Learning
Marlina:
a student profile
Lower Third:
Marlina
11th Grade Student
Springfield Renaissance School, Springfield, MA
Marlina: I was really bad when I came here. I had disciplinary issues every day. I would fight with my teachers, other students. But then I left and I realized that what Renaissance has here is really good for me.
Lower Third:
Ron Berger
Chief Academic Officer
Expeditionary Learning
Ron Berger: They have to have the courage to be different, to work hard, to not be embarrassed to bring their books home and study and do homework, to speak up in class, to use academic language and not just the language of their neighborhoods and realize it's a different thing to push yourself to be a scholar.

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Marlina: I was always more interested in pleasing my friends and hanging out with my friends and talking and not focusing on my schoolwork.
Lower Third:
Student Roundtable

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Marlina: But over the summer, before 11th grade, I had a reflection. I was like, well, they’re not going to college with me. They’re not going to be the ones who are going to see me through the rest of my life. Coming into 11th grade, I was like I have to change, I have to start giving back. And so, I decided to not be friends with the people I was friends with anymore and that was really hard. I made the choice to distance myself from those people. I felt lonely at first, maybe for like a week but then I was like, you know, I’m doing a lot-- I’m doing way better. My grades got better. I became more involved
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in things. I realized that choosing to not be friends with someone doesn’t make you a bad person. You’re bettering yourself and it’s not selfish and it’s not wrong. It’s okay to say, “I can’t be your friend anymore.”
Lower Third:
11th Grade Honors Math

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Hilary Ducharme: So we’re looking at a multiplier of two, right? And if we think to our mental sort of note of what…

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Marlina: My teachers in 10th grade, they were like, “Marlina, you’re really smart, try harder.” And so, they all suggested me for honors classes and I was like, okay, I’ll take that challenge. I’ll try and I’ll try to do it and do my best. So I had questions on the homework because I thought we were supposed to do the transformation part and so I started-- math is something I’ve struggled with my entire life. I remember in first grade, they were teaching us how to count and I was like why does one plus one have to be two? Why can it be bleh? Why can’t that be a number?
Hilary Ducharme: And then where does it cross the y-axis?
Marlina: At zero.
Hilary Ducharme: Mm-hm, according to…
Marlina: Oh okay, yeah, I got it.
Lower Third:
Hilary Ducharme
11th Grade Math Teacher
Springfield Renaissance School, Springfield, MA

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Hilary Ducharme: You’ve kept me on track to help me remember when things are kind getting a little bit too fast or just too complex, that you really are a grounding force for not just you but for many of the students that are in the class as well.
Marlina: I came to Miss Ducharme to ask about college prep math and she was like, “Of course”. I was scared that she would say no because that’s too complicated, that she’d have to do different lesson plans to remember to give me this and give me that but she’s like of course. She’s like, “We’ll just struggle together and figure it out.”
Hilary Ducharme: You should be able to do some pretty accurate sketches.

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Ron Berger: She is a gifted writer, I think a gifted scholar but it took a lot of bravery, I think, for her to decide she’s going to make a different pathway for herself then the world that she came from.

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Marlina: I read a story called “Hot Comb Heirlooms” and it’s basically a story about what black women and their hair and their attachment to their hair and specifically what does my hair mean to me. It was only being submitted to be graded. It was only going to be my two English teachers reading it but when he wanted to publish it, that was a bit scarier. People at my school had heard about it, that I had read it for my class and they were like, “Oh, I want to read that.” And I’m like, “Oh, you don’t need to. It’s not for public eyes.” It was kind of scary knowing that people were going to be seeing my writing.

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Ron Berger: Public explanations of their growth as scholars and as human beings is built into the day here. They are working together to support not only their own education but the education of everyone around them.
Marlina: I have a little fan group now for the eighth-graders who read “Hot Comb Heirlooms” and they come to me in the hallway and they go, “Oh, my God, that was so cool. I know what you’re saying, I get it. I had the same problem.” I’m like, these kids are watching me. And teachers were like, “Oh, I see a difference in you. Would you like to help me with this and with that?” And I became a name that people tuned to when they want something done. People know who I am and they appreciate what I do for them and that makes me really happy.
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