Pros
The only pro was working with the Summer Education Specialist--she was amazing--and*some* of the kids, teachers, and coaches.
Cons
Where do I begin? Dream really put 0 thought into organizing the summer program. I keep hearing that last year's program was much better than this year's. So what changed?? Firstly, DREAM'S leadership team are all exceptionally rude. The type of people who you say good morning to and they just look you in the face and keep it moving; they 100% hear you. The only people they care to interact with are other senior leaders. If you're a teacher, coach, etc. you're not worthy of their attention or kindness. The only people who were polite were those sitting at the security desk, the janitors, most of the summer teachers, some coaches, and the summer education specialist. Everyone else had huge chips on their shoulders. The founder of the summer program has gained a reputation for being unpleasant. The men within the leadership office walk around with their chests puffed out...it's all very weird because this is an elementary school. Should we not be focused on the kids instead of ourselves?! As a teacher, you just have to sit back, shake your head, laugh, and countdown the days until the end of the summer program. Next, the kids at DREAM are WAY below grade level in terms of academics. It's shocking! This is a summer enrichment program, but the summer program founder expects summer teachers to get these kids up to speed in time for fall 2022. Huh?! I'm shocked to see that there are DREAM students in 1st-5th grade that can't solve even simple addition and subtraction problems or retell a story, etc. One student in 3rd grade couldn't even tie his shoes, so the Ops team was always on the teacher's case to do it! I was only aware of how the students within my grade level performed. During the summer camp assessments, students would draw smiley faces and hearts in the answer box because they were unable to solve. One student was honest and put "I don't know" as his answer. And this wasn't just 1 or 2 students, nearly the whole entire class from each grade did this!! Out of 100s of students only approximately 30 were at grade level--not even exaggerating! Why doesn't leadership better train full-time teachers and raise the expectations that they have of them instead of putting it all on summer camp teachers? There's no way we can teach a year's worth of lessons within 6 weeks. Another issue is that DREAM hires teachers who have years of teaching experience and/or certification, and yet, they have the summer Ops team--a group of early 20-somethings with only high school diplomas--telling teachers how to run their classrooms and manage poor behavior. Seriously? How can these young adults tell me what I should be doing when they have no experience doing it themselves? Why is this allowed? DREAM gives these young kids titles--that they haven't really earned and seem unnecessary--and all of a sudden their egos are through the roof and they feel as if they run the show. They barge into classrooms--without saying hello or good morning--with their laptops to perform observations of both teachers and coaches. Really?! A 21 year old with no educational background is going to tell me how to do my job?! Due to this, nearly all of the teachers had a hard time taking them seriously. If the summer Ops team needs something to do, how about they train coaches, learn how to adequately handle students' poor behavior, or help order the supplies needed to run the summer camp successfully? Which brings me to my next points: this program was underfunded/lacked crucial supplies. During camp, teachers are expected to teach ELA/phonics and math. However, the teachers for the upper grades were expected to PHOTOCOPY chapter books for 20+ summer campers. Really?! It was so much work that the Summer Education Specialist would have to chip in and help. Printers constantly breaking down, subpar lesson plans provided for the program, etc. For lunch, they provided a class of 20+ campers with only 4-5 containers of milk...just a mess!! Another thing many took issue with was DREAM's decision to DISCARD 100s of brand new books instead of donating them to the Salvation Army, the public school next door, or a local church. There were some amazing non-fiction and fictional books regarding black history, world wars, etc. Again, a disgusting display of the lack of care that they have for the Harlem community. Next, the behavior management of the students was HORRIBLE. Teachers constantly being cursed out and physically assaulted by students from ALL grade levels and yet nothing was being done. Students--who needed paras, but DREAM wouldn't provide--were constantly throwing objects, such as desks and chart paper, at teachers and other students, slapping/hitting/punching teachers and other students in the face, stomach, back, and legs, threatening teachers, calling teachers out their name, etc. and yet there weren't any consequences for such actions. Instead the inexperienced summer Ops team would come in, see the behavior, and offer the kid a reward or a walk around the school to bribe and encourage good behavior. The improv teacher even told several teachers that one student bit her during a lesson and nothing was done. I, myself, have several small bruises from students hitting me. And yet when teachers raise these concerns with upper leadership, they just look at us like we're crazy and should be willing to deal with such behavior. It's really horrible and why a lot of teachers and coaches are not/do not want to return to DREAM. As full-time DREAM teachers most of us don't want to return. That's how bad it is! Parents openly admit to not being able to control their kid(s) at home, so rely on the 8.5 hour camp day, Monday-Friday, for relief. A really great teacher even ended up quitting halfway through the program because she thought the summer program founder was unfair/rude, the program lacked structure, there was a lack of supplies, and she couldn't handle students' atrocious behavior. Several coaches quit too. Also, as a teacher, leadership is constantly coming in--with or without donors--to observe your class. They don't greet you or anything, just barge through the door and angrily stare at you. It's ridiculous. I didn't take a summer job to stress myself out and constantly be belittled. You barely know how to run a summer program, so please don't try and criticize my teaching methods when I've been recognized for being a great educator on multiples occasions. And lastly, as a teacher, you're not only expected to teach a class of 20+ students with various behavioral issues and no para, but you also have to help train/guide a group of l8, 19, and 20 year olds that DREAM refers to as COACHES. These coaches have no desire to help out, they're just there to collect a paycheck. You can ask them 50 times to do something, and they won't. But then Ops and the leadership team will come and ask why you aren't utilizing the coaches more. Ummmm, I cannot force grown adults to do what they don't want to do. Why doesn't leadership and Ops intervene?! Don't believe the positive reviews for this school. It's an open secret amongst DREAM staff that while very few are authentic, the rest are written by the school's upper management/HR team. Rely on the negative reviews for an accurate depiction of the school.