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!

New Beginnings

It's hard to believe this first day is over...I am completely exhausted and it's hard to believe so much has happened over a 12 hour period! Some tidbits of thoughts and memories of today...

- Checked in to our temporary housing at UPenn and I have three great, friendly roommates. The view from our room is fantastic! I am falling even more for for this amazing city.

- Immediately after checking in and setting all my stuff down, I had to leave to get to the District Office of Philadelphia. I left an hour early because I am fully aware of my poor navigation skills. I made it with just enough time to spare (thankfully due to a TFA member who noticed my schedule and lost expression...we walked together and it turns out he is from the west coast! Cool!). The interview was good, and I felt prepared for all the questions because of the different readings TFA had given us. Thus, I was really glad I had actually done the majority of them.

- After I was finished, I waited and read a book until I had to make my way to a welcome reception with community members and the welcome dinner. All in all, they were really pretty much what you'd expect from those events (a lot of welcome, get excited, be prepared to be challenged), but put in a very eloquent way that truly moved me. I left the dinner feeling very inspired to get started. 

- Finally, we broke in to small groups and went out for dessert (yummy Italian Ice--mango flavored). It was really fun to talk with current corps members about their experiences this past year. And it was really nice to just have some time in a smaller setting than the one we've been in all day (with 300 people! yikes!). Everyone wanted to go out for drinks, but I was just so freaking tired that I came home to prepare for Day 2.

I apologize if this is a little incoherent--I'm just that tired already! I know I will adapt. I think my mind and body are worn out by the shock of so much activity in addition to how overwhelming it is to continually meet new people. But I am excited and feeling really positive for tomorrow. 

Hope all is well and good with you and yours!

Just before the madness starts!

Hello from the east coast! I have made it to Philadelphia and have been here since Friday. I am really loving it despite having a brief bout of homesickness. Friday night Madeline and Scott picked me up from the airport and we came back to their house in Chestnut Hill (about 5 minutes outside the city) and had a delicious dinner, caught up, and played Scategories; it was truly a warm welcome that made the big trip much more comfortable! Philadelphia has so much to offer and I am definitely falling hard for this city. We went out for a nice dinner and drinks night out on Saturday (my favorite was a place called Tria which had really amazing beers and wines--one of which was from Oregon!), but I was definitely awoken to the realization that city life can be spendy! 

The weekend has come and gone and I am frantically (although, not too frantically since I have time to update the blog!) working on finishing up TFA's Pre-Institute coursework. Many readings, DVD watchings, and reflections are coming along, and with each one I complete, I get more and more excited to get started with the real thing. Tomorrow we start with Induction for Greater Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, meaning it will just be our corps members for the week. We will be doing orientation-esque activities and we've already received an incredibly friendly email from one of our group leaders. We will be moving in to and staying in UPenn housing until the weekend when we move to Temple University housing.  So tonight, I am going to try and get some good sleep, as I know tomorrow the madness begins and won't end until the beginning of August! I am full of anticipation and will write more as soon as I can! 

Love and hugs to all of you!!

While doing TFA Pre-Institute Work

So, I am sipping on a nice cup of coffee and watching some of the DVD that TFA sent to watch and reflect on as part of our Pre-Institute coursework. I have to say, I have been anxious about what is to come. I have been thinking a lot about how challenging the next two years will be and how extreme it will feel to jump in to it all at once on Monday. It just felt very overwhelming.

As I watch this DVD, however, I was reminded of the summer I worked at Breakthrough and some memories I have of that summer. At the end of the summer, every teacher was to select a "Student of the Summer" for their particular classes. It was tough to make a decision because all of the students had worked so hard the entire summer. Eventually, I decided on Riel. Riel was an incredible student, yet she consistently seemed to do everything in her power to push the limits during my class. She would speak out when I was talking, openly make fun of other students and myself during class, she would chat with her peers when I was going over something or when it was work time, she would refuse to work with students when they had to do things in groups. Yet, everytime I collected an assignment, I was continually blown away with what she would turn in.

So, when I told Riel that she was going to be "Student of the Summer," she took a moment to dramatically open her mouth, give a long pause, and look at me and say "Huh? Are you serious?" And I told her that I, of course, was serious and that she was an excellent student and I was very proud of everything she had done. She was so excited from that moment forward and the genuine enthusiasm she had for learning continued to thrive. She still emails and calls every once in awhile to let me know how she's doing in school.

Anyways, it was important for me to tap in to that memory because I've been really focused on how hard TFA will be. I know it will be. I don't doubt it will be even more emotionally and physically exhausting than Breakthrough, but with an even longer timeline. But it is moments and memories like the one I have Riel (and the countless other memories from Breakthrough) that propel me forward with faith in what is to come next. Even when things were at their most heartbreaking during Breakthrough, I would never give it up for all the incredible strength, courage and joy I found from working with my seventh graders that summer.

And now, I return to my Pre-Institute coursework!

Oh, and if you are interested in The Breakthrough Collaborative, there's more at their website http://www.breakthroughcollaborative.org/ and their blog http://teachbreakthroughs.org/