Brown University's Inman Page Black Alumni Council - Metro NY Chapter

Below is an article on Chazz Woodson '05. Chazz is definitely a good brother, and we wish him well in all that he does!

CHAZZ WOODSON - CLASS ACT


June 5, 2006 - BY: Rachel Spates

If your only exposure to the sport of lacrosse in recent months has come by way of the national media, you may have concluded that it is a sport dominated by privileged, raucous young men. If you elected not to investigate any further, it would be easy to miss that among the players of Major League Lacrosse for example, many were exceptional students and are accomplished professionals. Several players have also chosen to give back to their communities through such professions as coaching and teaching.

Chazz Woodson is one such player.

Acquired by the Boston Cannons from the Long Island Lizards during this past off-season, the 2005 graduate of Brown University was one of the top lacrosse players in the Ivy League, leading his Bears team in scoring during his senior season.

Yet, despite his many athletic accolades, it could be argued that Chazz Woodson's greatest impact can be seen off the field. In addition to a stellar collegiate lacrosse career, Woodson is also responsible for establishing Makin' Moves, a youth mentoring program that he created while still a student at Brown. And while Woodson will be suiting up for the Cannons at attack this summer, the rest of the year he can be found at the Phillis Wheatley Elementary School where he teaches 4th grade as part of the Teach For America program.

A Classroom of His Own

Phillis Wheatley Elementary is located in Florida's Miami-Dade County, which is the country's fourth largest public school system. This school is a member of the School Improvement Zone, a grouping of 39 low-performing schools created to improve student achievement, with particular focus on literacy and student development through the utilization of small group instruction. The students at Phillis Wheatley are predominately African-American. Of the school's 350 pre-kindergarten through sixth grade students, 98% currently qualify for free or reduced price lunch.

This is the first year that Phillis Wheatley Elementary has had teachers from Teach For America, and according to Principle Cora Portee, it has been a wonderful experience. In addition to Woodson, there are three other participants from Teach For America at the school, and Portee praises the program for the excellent professional development opportunities that it provides to its members. Portee has been impressed by the work of these four teachers, even though they are young and still in the early stages of their careers.

Teach For America aims to provide highly-trained teachers to low-income areas in order to tackle the educational inequities encountered by children in these communities. Participants are generally recent college graduates, who agree to teach in selected rural and urban areas for a two-year period.

The program, founded in 1989, originally had roughly 500 members teaching in 6 areas throughout the country. Today, there are over 3,400 members teaching in 22 areas. It is a competitive admissions process, with accepted members having to then participate in a rigorous summer training institute before they are given a class of their own.

For Woodson, his entrance into Teach For America was a whirlwind experience. "I had graduation and the MLL draft was two days later. I went home for a day and then had to travel to the Lizards first game. I went home for another day, maybe a day and a half, and then it was off to Florida. It was hectic."

The first week of the program essentially served as in introduction to the area and gave teachers the opportunity to secure housing and to become familiar with the Miami.

After that, participants began training at the summer institute, an intensive five-week program which those who have gone through it refer to as "Teacher Boot Camp."

"Brutal," according to Woodson, was the only word that truly describes the experience.

"It's the most intense training that you can imagine going through to prepare for teaching," said Woodson. "It definitely prepared us as well as it could have…we were better prepared than other new teachers at orientation."

The soon-to-be-teachers spent mornings teaching, and afternoons attending workshops which covered topics such as classroom and behavior management, curriculum, and lesson planning. Woodson taught a kindergarten class and the energetic youngsters proved quite a challenge.

After an exhausting summer in which he also managed to play in three games for Long Island, Woodson was ready to take on his own classroom at Phillis Wheatley.

"But nothing can prepare you for the reality of it [being in front of a class]," he said.

In addition to adjusting to his new classroom and students, Woodson was just out of college and living in a new city where he did not know a soul.

Woodson currently teaches a class of thirteen fourth-graders, though at one point he had as many as seventeen students. When the school year first began, there were several discipline issues that needed to be addressed and he was initially concerned that the students would try to take advantage of his "rookie" status. He worked at finding the proper balance between being a disciplinarian and demonstrating that he was someone who could also be there for his students. He worked to be consistent and genuine in his process because, as Woodson cautions, "the kids can smell out a fake."

"You also have to figure out your style and I'm still doing that right now," said Woodson.

In terms of academics, reading and math were the issues that most needed his attention when he began. There were a number of students in his class who were achieving far below grade-level in both subject areas. Woodson and his students have worked throughout this past year to bring those levels up.

Yet, Woodson also believes in the importance of incorporating "real life" into his classroom, even if that means straying from the lesson plan. "These things are important too, and they can make a real impact," he says.

One of the life lessons that Mr. Woodson brought into the classroom was his experience with lacrosse. In a region dominated by Miami Hurricanes football and Miami Heat basketball, lacrosse was not even on the radar for these kids. His segment on the sport quickly changed that.

"The kids were excited to learn about lacrosse," said Ms. Portee, adding that they particularly enjoyed learning about the opportunities that Woodson has had to play in college and for Major League Lacrosse.

Woodson is a tough critic of the impact that he has had in the classroom and admits that at times, the challenge is sometimes daunting. "I'm literally responsible for 13 kids in my class. You're asked to do so much for them, and in so little time."

But Phillis Wheatley's principle has wonderful things to say regarding his performance this past year. "He's a wonderful teacher, in addition to being a positive role-model." said Portee, noting, "He dresses well for work…neat and well groomed. He's also soft-spoken, which many of the students weren't used to at first."

Planting the Seeds for Makin' Moves

While this may have been his first year as a full time teacher, Chazz Woodson has spent plenty of time in front of a classroom. In addition to his many years as a classroom volunteer in high school, Woodson had the opportunity to be a student-teacher in New York during his junior year as part of the Venture Consortium's Urban Education Semester.

His experience greatly influenced the creation of the Makin' Moves program. "The kids were amazing," said Woodson. "You'd never believe the things that these kids went through." Despite the hardships that many of his students had faced, Woodson found that his students wanted to work hard, and he was inspired by their dedication.

One project in particular, "Setting Goals and Choosing Role Models", stands out. During that project, students were asked to develop their own pledge and Woodson was able to bring in a number of guest speakers, including WNBA star Theresa Witherspoon. The students did an amazing job, and Woodson has kept several mementoes from that project.

Returning to Brown in the spring of 2004, Woodson spoke to several alumni to enlist their help in getting his classroom from P.S. 20 to campus for the final lacrosse game of the season. Nearly the entire class was able to make the trip, and for many, it was their first trip outside of their neighborhood, let alone outside of New York City. Woodson says that he still stays in touch with many of those children via e-mail, and that he tries to visit the school when he is in the New York area.

Last year, he met with Ms. Isabel Torres, who taught the classroom that Woodson was a student-teacher in during the fall of 2003. A former student had given her a letter to pass on to Woodson the next time he was in town. It is a letter that Woodson has held on to, and still reads it every now and then to refocus and remind him why he teaches.

Woodson says that it was due in large part to his experience as a student-teacher in New York that he renewed his efforts to build a mentoring program upon returning to Brown.

The idea of creating a mentoring program for children originally came to Woodson during his freshman year. Through his work with children as both a classroom volunteer and as a youth camp councilor growing up, Woodson had seen the need for such a program. He had always been interested in diversity programs and in working with children. On a personal level, he knew how valuable such support could be to a child. As he recalled, "A lot of older people looked out for me and helped me along when I was growing up."

Brown University is a campus that at times can seem very isolated from the larger Providence community, and Woodson was disappointed to see many local youths who looked as though they were directionless. He noticed that there was a public school nearby, but that there appeared to be no connection between the school and the University. Woodson hoped to build a link between the two, and contemplated holding an open gym night at Brown where the kids from the school could come to play basketball, listen to music, or to simply hang out and talk. But being busy with lacrosse and classes, he could never find the time to make it happen.

However, he had actually completed the academic requirements for his program by the end of his junior year, giving him plenty of time to focus on his pet project during his senior year. Woodson started doing research into mentoring programs and gave a lot of thought as to the type of program that he wanted to create.

By Thanksgiving break, he had a proposal for an independent study that he sent to Professor Fayneese Miller in hopes that she would agree to sponsor it. She did.

Woodson then went about recruiting other students at Brown in order to serve as mentors. He found seven other students to join him, with all but one being student-athletes. Woodson choose three seniors and the remaining members were freshman and sophomores. Woodson said the choice to have younger student-athletes on board was a deliberate as he wanted to guarantee that members would still be around to manage the program after he had graduated.

A Work in Progress

Woodson's initial vision for the Makin' Moves program involved a three-level mentoring system, where student-athletes of color from Brown would mentor high school student-athletes of color who would then one day in turn mentor younger students as well.
While the program has been geared towards student-athletes of color, it is open to anyone wishing to participate. In fact, students in the first group that participated in the program were predominately white, non-athletes.

In the beginning, much of their time was spent trying to spread the word about the program. Also, a lot of research still needed to be done as the group tried to figure out ways to get in front of local schools and to raise funds. "We did a lot of trying in the beginning." said Woodson. By graduation, the foundation for the program was set.

Natasha Barrett was one of the undergraduates at Brown that Woodson recruited. Barrett, a Human Biology major, just recently completed her junior year and is in Brown's Pre-Med program. She is also a member of the Track and Field Team and currently serves as the Public Relations Director of Makin' Moves.

Last year, Makin' Moves succeeded in starting an SAT program, with mentors going into local school to teach test prep. They received much needed help and support from people who had experience with SAT prep in the past. After the prep sessions, tutors were also on hand to help the students with their school work and to try to establish a rapport with them on a personal level.

According to Barrett, it is vital to the mentoring program that these students also view the mentors as friends, too. Makin' Moves plans to build on the SAT prep programs a stepping stone of sorts.

"It's a good way to get in the door at schools, but I want it to be about more than just SAT prep. There's much more to mentoring than that," says Woodson.

Natasha Barrett would also like to see more local businesses or youth organizations partner with Makin' Moves.

"Several groups have shown interest in the program, however, most of these programs seek to take over rather than collaborate, which would change the path which we see Makin' Moves following," Barrett said.

She would like to see a business come forward that is willing to help the program financially, even if it were something as simple as assistance with advertising costs. Despite these challenges, the program is making progress. This past year, Barrett reported that 13 tutors and 32 students were involved with Makin' Moves, which is a dramatic increase from the 8 tutors and 4 students that participated the previous year.

Spring Fever

Back at Phillis Wheatley, a few discipline problems have crept back into Woodson's classroom lately, although he admitted that his students have caught a major case of spring fever in recent weeks. Despite the fact that his students are anxiously awaiting the end of classes on May 31st, Woodson has reached many of them and he has taught them about much more than just lacrosse this past year.

One measure of his students' progression is their performance on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, commonly referred to as the FCAT's. On the FCAT Writing assessment, Woodson's students posted a remarkable increase of 50 percentage points, with 83% of those tested achieving scores of at or above grade level. They are still waiting for the FCAT Reading scores to be reported, but both Mr. Woodson and Principle Portee are expecting similar improvements.

As Woodson begins his first season with the Cannons and wraps up his first full year in front of the classroom, he has had very little time to reflect upon the past year. However, Woodson has a few things that he would like to work on prior to next fall.

"I'd like to be more consistent in everything that I do in order to become a better teacher. I need to be more efficient during the week," said Woodson. "If I can get that consistency, it will make a difference in the classroom."

Woodson worries that children today often fail to make the connection that the things they do today can have an impact on the rest of their lives. He also feels that many children fail to appreciate the adults in their lives. "They take for granted what their teachers and parents do for them, the long hours. They need to take advantage of the love and care that is there for them."

However, his advice to them is simple. "Everyday is an opportunity to learn, and to laugh," he says.

While Woodson is unsure as to how long he wants to remain in the classroom, he is confident that he wants to continue working with children in some capacity. He has contemplating starting his own academic-related or extracurricular-activity program. He feels that his time in the classroom will be invaluable experience.

"Many of the problems in education today are due to the fact that many of the people making education policy do not know what it's like to be in the classroom," said Woodson. "The people who make changes need to have been there in order to know what needs to be done."

"I'm not sure about his long-term plans," said Ms. Portee when asked about the impact that Woodson has had on the students at her school. "But I know that he'll be a wonderful teacher if he stays in the profession. He'll excel at whatever he does."

It's a sentiment that Natasha Barrett echoes. "Chazz has always been a leader at Brown, and searches for ways that he can help children in any way possible. He has one of the biggest hearts I know."

In the end, maybe Chazz Woodson is a privileged lacrosse player. After all, in addition to devoting his life to helping the next generation, he has gained the praise and respect of his peers, his superiors, and his students. We should all be so privileged.