Camelot Teacher Profile: Jake Benke

Jake Benke is in his second year at Chicago Excel Academy, teaching U.S. and World History. He is a graduate of St. Xavier University in Chicago where he studied history and social studies education.

This is not only your second year but it’s also the second year for the school. Does the environment feel different this year from last?

We started to see this last year but it is clear that our students have bought into the culture of positive attendance, behavior and academics, and helping other students by modeling those expectations. We have more students confronting other students to get other students to follow them. The student government of our program has really taken shape. That’s the biggest difference from year 1 to year two.

Can you cite an example of how the Camelot Excel culture has had successful impact on a specific student?

We had a particular student who although he was not classified as special ed most of the staff prejudged him as special ed and in need of additional services. But he was not classified as special ed. He was failing a lot of his classes, but just by raising his expectations and working one on one with him he started to become more confident and his grades started to improve and now he is part of our student government. He struggled mightily with reading and writing. He is still not where we want him to be but from where he began he has dramatically improved. The work ethic is there and by the time he graduates he has a shot at being at grade level in reading and writing. He is a great example of how by raising his expectations a student rose to the occasion.

How does a student with the clear potential to succeed fall years behind academically to the point where teachers assume he is a special ed student?

A lot of the students have told us that they like the closer attention they receive here. Every teacher knows their name. It’s more of a family atmosphere whereas in other schools there are more than 40 kids in a class and it’s hard for a student to get all the attention he might require. My feeling is because his grades were so low this student was ignored by some of the teachers and that their efforts were directed elsewhere among the 40 students as opposed to him.

What do you like about teaching at Camelot?

I like the flexibility. Our school strives to have high standards but one of the biggest perks of working here is that if I want to spend a month on the Civil War to make sure the kids know everything there is to know about the Civil War you can really deep into it and that way they get more informed instruction as opposed to rushing through a bunch of smaller lessons and getting a bunch of history in. In a public school all teachers in the department have to teach the same material at the close to the same time. Obviously, a subject like math is more content driven and must stay on a set schedule, but with history you can work on the Common Core skills no matter the content.

Do you have a special teaching technique that you use that students indicate they like?

Students like my classroom talks where we look at a document from history and I narrow their focus and we talk about each line individually. That way each student feels like their voice is heard and they hear what others are saying as opposed to having to do it by themselves. We do it as a class so everyone can talk, one at a time.  For example, we take the Declaration of Independence and each student will take a turn reading a paragraph and after each paragraph we’ll reflect on what it’s about and when I ask them what it’s about each student will take a chance to answer where they raise their hands one at a time. No one makes fun of an answer if it’s not right.

Unlike last year, you have a smart board in your classroom. How does that help you teach?

It’s something that students seem to really like and it keeps them engaged. I can pull up internet clips or a map and it’s more interactive so if a student wants to come up and describe how he saw something they can write it out or use pictures and describe their thought process as opposed to having them erase what another student wrote and start over. We can keep one page with one student’s perspective and another page another – and go back and forth rather than erasing the board so we have everyone’s thoughts on the topic.

From your perspective, what is the importance of Camelot’s mission in Chicago?

I believe we are sending a message to the community that failure is not an option. Every kid has a second chance or even a third chance. When kids graduated last year there was a sense of pride that we actually accomplished something and those kids will go on to further education or go into the workforce ready where other people had abandoned them and gave them no chance. The community involvement has been growing as well because people are seeing an immediate impact. In our first year we graduated 60-plus students and this month we’re going to graduate another 60-plus. So we have created a sense of hope that a few students in this community who seemed lost now have. In addition, we have people in our community now that come up to the school and are participating in our accreditation process. That’s a great sign of support from the community we serve.