July -- Breaking Through

Oh what a long while it has been since this blog has been used! Thoughts:

- First year of teaching: complex, challenging beyond belief, moments of absolute hilarity, moments of realized passion for education as liberation, authentic, genuine relationships that I never could have understood until I was a teacher

- Summer: Working at Breakthrough as Dean of Students...3 years ago, I was a teacher with the program, and returning has given me more than I could ever possibly explain.

- Overall state of mind: Exhausted. Hopeful. Full. Ready. Heart wide open for another year with my students.

Does any of this make sense? Probably not. I do, however, intend to write with more frequency than last year. Which, given it has been almost a year since I last wrote, shouldn't be hard to do!

Thoughts on my 2nd year:

- I would like to teach The Kite Runner in my curriculum next year. Thoughts? Or suggestions on other novels? Short stories? Poems?

- I think that I am getting to move up with my students! 11th grade! Woo!

That's all I have for now. A more thought out post is promised in the next few days! :)

All in all

Today, I have...

1. Attended my first day of professional development at Bartram HS
2. Found out that I will be teaching 5 sections of English II [contrary to my prior notion that I would be teaching ESL English]
3. Been assigned a classroom [Room 218!] and set up my desks
4. Found teachers that I can carpool with to work
5. Met and felt supported by my entire staff at Bartram--I couldn't be happier to work at this school.
6. Discovered Staples closes at 7 when I tried to go buy supplies for my room
7. Discovered the incredible resources that veteran teachers can supply [both tangible, physical support in addition to emotional]
8. Driven to Target to go through the aisles wandering around looking for things to spice up my room.
9. Made lists of all procedures, expectations, and norms that I could possibly think of
10. Written out what my actual vision looks like for all of these
11. Written my letter to my parents
12. Created my first two weeks of lesson plans [thanks in large part to said veteran teachers!!!]

All in all, I feel like a lot has happened today. And yet, I am still awake at 1:07 am feeling slightly panicked. I will continue to remind myself to breathe and go with the flow. Things will certainly not be perfect. And this has been the greatest [and I mean this] lesson to me in learning to go with the flow and let go of things that we cannot control. Yes. This is all good.

And, what is deeply rooted in my heart, I get to work my kids on TUESDAY. I am so excited. And so nervous. But mostly excited!

September is just around the corner...

Hello! I apologize for not writing with frequency. However, I am convicted on working on this and writing more. I honestly think it is a big key to growing as a teacher over the next two years! Here are some random thoughts...

- We began our master's courses at UPenn at the beginning of August. The course serves as a foundation to understanding education and education theory. We were given two main lectures from Professor Sharon Ravitch [http://www.gse.upenn.edu/faculty/ravitch] and from Professor Howard Stevenson [http://www.gse.upenn.edu/faculty/stevenson]. The lectures, honestly, changed me. They were groundbreaking. The lectures helped me to frame so much of what I am doing as a part of Teach for America. A highlight that I found especially insightful, came from Professor Ravitch. She discussed the idea of searching deeper in to the root of things as teachers--taking a stance of inquiry. One of the issues that must be explored most is what we are doing here. What are we doing as teachers? What are we doing as TFA Corps Members? What I loved was that she followed this by saying, "People will say 'oh my god, you're so incredible for doing this. You're such a good person.'" Professor Ravitch paused and looked up at all of us and said "and you need to take a moment when someone says this to think. Because it's bull shit. You need to question and push on that, because what that represents is a microaggression of racism." I think it very easy to succumb to the idea of being a do-gooder as being part of TFA. Thus, I found it inspiring to have someone so eloquently (she really did an amazing job!) help me to frame what I am doing and help push me to think about my role and identity here as a corps member. 

- I was assigned a school! I will be teaching at John Bartram High School in Southwest Philadelphia. I went out to visit the school on Monday. It takes me about 40 minutes, all by way of public transportation, to travel to school. Not bad! I get to take the trolley which allows me to just sit and look at Philadelphia pass by. So, I walk in to the school and am immediately greeted by one of our police officers--an extremely friendly woman. She directs me to the office, which in turn directs me to another office. We (at this point, we is me two other TFA '09 corps members and a few other new teachers) all wait in the roster administrator's office. We then get to talk with the roster admin and our new principal, Constance McCallister. Turns out, I will be teaching ESL English this year! There is a well sized immigrant population from West Africa in my community, and many students come to Bartram with limited English skills. I will be teaching ESL classes to my students to help with the language issues that might arise. I am really excited about this! I will find out more details on Thursday. While at Bartram, I was thrilled to meet everyone. It really felt like a family, and I couldn't be happier about it!

- If you are wondering more about issues of education, I've been really finding myself investigating different big figures in education. One of the first and probably the most visible of education leaders in our country at this point is Michelle Rhee. So, I just wanted to put this out there as a very interesting touch stone if you have any interest:

http://www.pbs.org/merrow/tv/leadership/dc/index.html

It is a great site that has a series of episodes where they discuss what Michelle Rhee [who is the Chancellor of Education in DC] is doing with her schools. Arlene Ackerman, Philadelphia's superintendent, is also featured on the site and in a few episodes. I'm curious to know what others might think about Rhee and the model she presents in changing the face of education.

- Finally, Philadelphia has been incredible! I love this city! I truly couldn't think of a better place to be. The city, while recently very hot, has so much to offer. I love all the parks, the museums, the cafes, the people, the different neighborhoods that are all so unique, but most of all I love that Philly is a big city with a lot of heart and still feels like a manageable sized city too. I'm working fervently to learn my way around, and feel like I am starting to get a grasp on it. So come visit! 

Hope all is well with you!

Almost there

It's hard to believe that this is our last week of Institute! It is already Tuesday...closing ceremonies are on Thursday, we start moving in on Friday and Saturday morning and then Saturday evening I fly home to Oregon for a week! This is craziness.

I am currently working on my review lesson plan that I will teach in about a half hour. Our focus this summer has been on non-fiction and informational texts. It is much more challenging to teach non-fiction than I ever would have guessed. But I have already learned so much about myself and about teaching from these past few weeks.

My CMA has been a crucial component of my experience thus far with TFA. Initially, I was definitely turned off on her. She was intense, expected more than what I thought humanly possible, and was absent to guide us 99% of the time. Even when we thought we had done our best, she would hand back our lesson plans, telling us they were not good enough, we needed to edit them, and have them ready within the next few hours. She would sit in on our classes and tell us why our classroom management was doomed. 

But now, I see much more from her. As it turns out, she is a genius and she is incredible. Her philosophy (which she has now taken the time to explain to us) toughened us up, made us turn to ourselves and to each other to get through many challenges. And who would have guessed how MUCH this woman cares. She is there endlessly, laughing with us and pushing us because she cares so much about what we are doing as teachers. It is something I really appreciate. I feel like part of this just stems from how incredible the professors at Kenyon are...it was shocking to have someone push so hard. In the end, I can already see growth, albeit miniscule. I am excited to begin teaching in the fall with the wisdom she has imparted.

Teaching itself has been amazing. I have a class of all boys and because of attendance issues has dwindled down in numbers. We make the most with what we have, and we have had an extremely memorable summer already.  We are taking the final tomorrow and I am both excited and nervous for my students. I can see their knowledge and their excitement in each minute of class. Yet, and I think every one of us can empathize, when it comes to sitting down for an hour and taking a test, it is much more challenging. I believe in my students. And I hope the most for them tomorrow and in to their senior year.

A is a particular student who gave me one of those teacher-moments. He is a tough guy, but has continued to be a student who I have enjoyed working with. He will often say he's not interested in reading or responding, and yet when I call on him again or if something catches his interest, his hand is flying up to respond. One day about a week ago, he was taking his time to leave class. I asked him what was up, if he needed anything. He said "Mister, you're gonna be a good teacher" I joking told him that he didn't have to say that, that it wouldn't make a difference in his grade. "I'm sayin it cuz it's true" and then he walked out. It's not like the world stopped and that I don't have any more issues with getting him to stay focused. But it was a moment where things felt purposeful. I hope that there are more of these moments to come. 

I can already tell that one of my biggest flaws as a teacher will be organization. I am an extremely disorganized person, it turns out. My goal over the week I am home? To overcome this trait. I've begun to seethat organization is key to teaching. The other thing I am hesitant with is being assertive in the classroom. While I think that I have surprised myself with being able to give a teacher-stare every once in awhile, I hope that I can prepare myself well enough for September to maintain a sound classroom environment. All in due time!

I think that is all for now. If you have the time, let me know how you are doing! I miss all of you very much!

Whew!

It is proving much harder to keep up to date in this blog than I would have guessed! As I'm sure all TFA teachers will tell you, they do keep you extraordinarily busy. Tonight is one of the first nights I find myself at home with a moment to write (though, I'm sure I could be doing a myriad of things). A lot has happened in a span of a few weeks!

- We finished our first week of teaching. I have been teaching 10th grade English to a class of all boys. So far we have covered topics such as fact and opinion, coherent and incoherent arguments, point of view in formulating an argument, and critically reading non-fiction texts. My time with the class of boys is the highlight of my day during the week. They wake me up from my nights of limited sleep and give me such perspective on why we are all here. They are incredibly intelligent, they are really excited to learn, and most/best of all, they make me laugh. 

- Institute itself is intense. There really is no word to really indicate how Institute is, but "intense" is the best word I can come up with. My CMA (basically, my advisor while at Institute) is a disciple of tough love. She is really amazing, and incredibly insightful, but essentially will not take any BS. She continually pushes and pushes and refuses to accept anything but the most excellent of work. At first, it was a shock. However, on Friday, she opened up to us explaining why she felt she had to be so hard on us. And as the moments have gone on, I feel such genuine support, wisdom, and friendship with her. She makes me want to push myself to be a better teacher so that I can do as much as I can for my students. 

- I have been extremely exhausted this entire week. I literally find myself falling asleep when I am at dinner, during sessions, or just sitting down to work. However, I have discovered that your body adapts to just getting 2 hours of sleep night after night. Arguably, I would like to un-discover this fact. 

- The people here are wonderful and incredibly and inspiring. In the group of people I have ended up spending most of my time with, we have people who are teaching pre-K, elementary, middle, and then I teach high school. It is so fun to come home and hear all the different stories about students. The challenges and the joys of teaching each grade are so vastly different. But I love to hear all of it. 

- We signed a least on an apartment today! It was very exciting. It is the first time I've ever gotten to do something like that. I couldn't be more thrilled. The apartment is a steal! It is within walking distance to many fun things around the city AND walking distance to public transportation. Additionally, the apartment has a washer and dryer in the house! Hooray! Moreover, I really feel a strong connection with the 3 individuals I will be living with, and I couldn't be more excited to know that we will be able to go through this experience together.

I think this is where I will end for tonight. My eyes are involuntarily closing, and I need to rest up so I can lesson plan and prep all day tomorrow! Hope all is well with you!

This is fun!

Institute is funny. I haven't slept very much the past two weeks (averaging about 5 hours a night) and tonight is the night before our first big set of lesson plans are due. It is 1:23 am and I am only, I'd say, 55% done. This is like college but more intense! Woo!

Eet

Hello from Philly!

So much has happened in the past few days, it's hard to even begin to explain. On Sunday we, along with the Baltimore and DC regions, moved to Temple University in one giant dorm that is housing all 500ish (give or take) of us here for the next 5 weeks. This week began Institute. If Induction (last week) was more like orientation, Institute is the twin of training. It has been crazy. So far the schedule runs something like this:

5:10am - Wake up, shower, get ready (I learned how to tie a tie! It was such a great day! But now I've learned how hot and oppressive ties are)

5:40am - Leave dorms to go eat breakfast

6:30 - Grab lunch box (which has not been bad actually. While everyone else waits in line, I get to beeline to the vegetarian station which is infinitely smaller--woo!) and board bus. The bus leaves promptly at 6:45. We make the 15 minute or so drive through West Philly, and I can't help but take it all in. I suppose the sociologist in me is crying out with many, many questions. I wish now that I could have taken an urban sociology class! The most noteworthy observation I have made is seen in the dozens of murals that are painted across buildings, tunnels, bridges and more. They are really incredible and speak to social inequality in the city, relaying various messages of hope. They help me feel a lot better about being awake so early

7:00 - Arrive at Thomas Edison High School in West Philly. Go upstairs and check our mailboxes and sign in, and then our day begins.

For the rest of the day, as it stands now, we are in various sessions learning about lesson planning, how to plan a day a week a month and year of education, working with the test but not teaching to the test, pedagogical theory, classroom management, and much more. It is an inundation of information which they have neatly tucked into an enormous book and then go over with us in various sessions. While they are very intense, long and it takes every effort not to fall asleep, I find all of the sessions to be very helpful and interesting and I am very thankful for our staff at Edison--they are very passionate individuals who are deeply invested in helping us access everything we need, emotionally and tangibly, to be ready to teach on MONDAY (!!!)

I will be teaching 10th grade English this summer along with my collaborative group members Ben, Linda and Kim. Ben and I will be teaching a lesson on distinguishing the differences between fact and opinion, in addition to understanding how belief and attitudes affect our perceptions of fact and opinion. While it may seem easy, after Ben and I spent about an hour trying to create a solid definition of the operative words, we realized we were in for a treat! Lesson planning will be fun...

There's so much more I want to talk about...

- We got to hear Wendy Kopp (Founder of TFA) speak

- I've gotten to explore more of Philly

- I am getting really excited to teach

- Philadelphia is very hot and our school is very un-airconditioned

- I am exhausted a lot of the time

- The people here are truly incredible and amazing

- I miss all of you!

OK, so that is my update for now. Love and hugs to all of you!