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!