First Day of School Tomorrow!

Please excuse my 1 month hiatus.  Here's a quick recap of what has happened since July 7th - August 7th:

• I flew home to LA
• In 40 hours in LA: I hugged the kitties, walked the dog, ate tamales, watched tv, had a lovely bbq with friends, made a last stop to the karaoke dive bar, and packed my car 
• I drove from LA to Memphis, which is 28 hours of drive time.  It took me only 48 hours total time.  Spent the night in Flagstaff and Amarillo.
• I went through teacher training at my school
• I went through teacher training with TFA

And now the first day of school is here.  And I don't have a classroom yet.  Our first day of school is going to be held in the auditorium all day.  Hopefully construction will finish on our classrooms soon - maybe even tomorrow.

Despite the chaos and having a million things still to do, I'm oddly at peace with it all right now.  I think that may change soon.  But right now I feel like I've done as much as I can in the time given with the resources available to me and it's time to play ball.  Hopefully I don't strike out.



      

The End of Institute!!!

In case the three exclamation points don't convey the sentiment - I am excited to get out of Atlanta.  It's not that Institute was even all that bad.  The past 5 weeks (has it really been 5 weeks?!  has it only been 5 weeks?!) have been challenging in the best of ways.  I've had to push myself harder in many ways than I ever have before to learn the basics of the art of teaching.

I'll admit, I thought teaching was basically presenting material.  I thought that since I'm comfortable with public speaking that I'd be a decent teacher.  I didn't realize that the presentation of new material is just one small slice of the teaching job.  In many ways it's much more like coaching than public speaking.  I've learned that one of the most important parts of the lesson is letting the kids practice the skills you're trying to teach, and that my role during that time is more about coaching and correcting them along the way.

Tonight was Atlanta Institute closing ceremonies and it turns out that teaching has not only challenged me, but has also turned me into a hot emotional mess.  Seriously, everything makes me want to tear up.

Seeing an auditorium full of fellow teachers/corps members - choked up.  Hearing stories about teachers and students - choked up.  Seeing people I've worked closely with being applauded for their successes this summer - choked up.  Really, anything sets me off right now.  

In all likelihood, my 36 hour stint in LA this weekend is just going to turn into a big tear fest. 

Waiting for Superman

I've been carrying around a dirty little secret.  Until last night, I had not seen the documentary "Waiting for Superman."  I've been too ashamed to admit this to any of my fellow teachers.  It's as if that film is our education movement's manifesto.  It'd be like going to church and admitting that, while you actually believe in Jesus Christ and have signed up to eat his body and drink his blood in communion, you have never actually read the bible.  While it may not make you any less of a believer, it's just frowned upon. 

So I took the opportunity to catch myself up with the rest of the TFA world and watched "Waiting for Superman" on my laptop in my dorm room on Saturday night.  Meh.  It didn't rock my world.  Perhaps because all of the revelations made in the documentary have been given to me in large and small doses over the course of the last 6 weeks of training?  I've learned about the achievement gap, I've learned about tracking in public schools, I've learned about how bad a bad teacher can be, I've learned about the impact of a good teacher, I've learned about how high the stakes are to make big changes in public education in our country.  I am wonder to what extent the fact that all of the content of the documentary has been the subject of my daily training lessened the impact of the film for me.  I'm encouraging friends and family to watch it and let me know what they think.  At the very least, it will give you an idea of what I'm doing with my life these days.

I did find the film to be very anti-teacher unions, which I actually don't yet have a strong opinion on yet.  I do agree that public school teacher's tenure is ridiculous and am glad to say that in Memphis they're attempting to make significant changes to when and how teachers get tenure.

Despite not being blown away by the film, it did sit heavily with me in a mostly motivating way.  There are so many kids out there who want and deserve a better education and I am now responsible for giving it to them.  At moments during the past 3 weeks of teaching, the weight of this responsibility has been almost crippling.  I wonder how one person, especially me, can make a significant enough impact on a life in such a short time.  TFA keeps telling us that incremental change is not enough.  We need to be making transformational change in the lives of our students.  At times, I've thought that I'm probably not the best person for this job and I'm not the best person for these kids and maybe I shouldn't be  here.  Watching the film reminded me of the responsibility I have, but also motivated me to want to work harder to become the right person for the job. 

The weekend ahead...filled with emptiness

Well, it's 5:45pm on Friday night and I have no plans for the entire 4th of July weekend.  I'm feeling pretty bummed out about it.  I know I should be relishing in the relaxation, but right now I just feel drained and lonely.

Teaching today didn't go so well.  I couldn't keep my students on task.  They didn't take my directions seriously and one of them called me out by saying "it seems like you're getting annoyed."  I really need to work on my behavior management skills.  If I'm struggling at all with a class of 7 now (with 2 other adults the room), how will it be when I have a class of 25 all on my own?  I know I'm not strict enough with them.  I ask for things too nicely.  I hate to be so demanding, but I guess I need to work on getting myself in the mindset that I am the one who knows best and they MUST listen to me 100% of the time.  It's hard since I'm generally much more laid back than that - but I can see how things can quickly spiral out of control if I don't manage correctly.

If I could turn back time...

So, I haven't blogged in ages.  Here's are all of the things I wanted to blog about but haven't had time to do so:

• Wednesday, June 22 - HUMP DAY!!!  I can hardly believe it - I'm half way through institute.  (Seriously, this was a major milestone).  Just like on a rollercoaster, I have a feeling the downhill portion of institute is going to go by super fast.  (It has been).
• I can't believe how much I actually love my students.  It was an instant love, too.  Knowing that they were my students made me just automatically love them before I even got to  know them.  Is this what it's like to be a parent?  (Note that kids at my school who are not my students frequently bug the crap out me...so I know I'm not completely crazy yet).
• One of my students came to school last week with a huge tattoo on his neck.  My heart sunk.  Of all places.  Does he realize the impact this is going to have on the doors that open/close for him for the rest of his life?  The sentiment of the tattoo is sweet - it says "in loving memory of - " his deceased baby brother's name, who apparently was born with a birth defect.  The sentiment is real sweet.  Put it on a tattoo on your forearm with all of your other tattoos, please - I wish I could've said to him the day before he got the tattoo.  And who is giving 8th grade students tattoos on their neck?
• This same student has been one of our most stellar students since getting the tattoo.  I don't know if the timing is related in some manner...but he's been focused and trying every single day in class.
• Monday, June 27 - today was my last day of lead teaching a full lesson!  OMG!  What will my life be like without the constant stress of lesson planning?
• Tuesday, June 28 - Today was my last day of lead teaching.  I taught a 45-minute lesson that went absolutely amazing.  Really, what am I going to do with all of my free time?
• Wednesday, June 29 - Today I felt really old.  I was talking with my co-teachers about 9-11.  They were saying how our students (14yearolds) barely remember it happening since they were so young at the time.  But they (my co-workers) remember exactly where they were when it happened - "in 7th grade math class".  WTF.  My co-workers were in  7th grade on 9-11.  I was graduated from college and years into my career.  I feel so old.
• Thursday, June 30 - Today was a good day.  Although I haven't had just hours upon hours of free time, I am a lot less stressed.  And I went to bed at 11pm last night - the earliest bedtime I've had since arriving here - and woke up with an incredible amount of energy, which I'm sure contributed to my great day today. Unfortunately, it's now pushing 1pm so there won't be a repeat.  Today I went to the gym for the first time in a week and a half.  Today at the cafeteria it was "Everybody's birthday" themed with streamers and signs and birthday cake!  Yay!  Today at 9pm there was a 30 minute dance party in the courtyard.  Today I called all of my student's parents and got to have nice conversations with some of them.  Today was a good day.

Happy TFA Day!

Today at our first afternoon session our school director sat us all down and started giving us a lecture. She told us that there has been some inappropriate things happening and that needed to be addressed. Then she called out the staff (our beloved advisors) on specific things that had been reported about their behavior. The tension in the room was thick... and then- Surprise, just kidding it's Totally Free Afternoon Day!

We got the afternoon off! It's embarrassing how much we all freaked out when hearing this news. Instead of sitting through a few hours of professional development classes the buses took us back to campus where we were greeted by staff with lists of fun free activities for us to do. Having three extra hours is like winning the lottery. It changed my life.

I spent my TFA day napping. After 3 hours of sleep last night I needed it. I just woke up from my hour nap and feel amazing. Ready to crank out another lesson plan.

TFA Day = Totally Fucking Awesome Day.

Week One of Teaching: I Survived

...but my computer didn't.  Thursday morning, in the middle of my final lesson for the week - the screen starts turns black and all of these numbers and letters run across it.  I turn the computer off and it won't reboot windows.  After 2 1/2 hours on the phone with HP tech support, they tell me they're sending me a new hard drive.  Thankfully, I am not lead teaching again until next Thursday.  Hopefully I will have my computer back up and running by then.  I really think it sucks that my 1 month old computer would give up on me like that.  I thought we were a team - late night lesson planning, presenting powerpoint in class.  I basically took my laptop everywhere for the last week and apparently it didn't appreciate it. 

After the first day of teaching, the week got progressively worse.  The students became less and less interested in what we were teaching, my plans became less and less rehearsed as I was throwing them together at the last minute and I was becoming more and more tired with less sleep each night (starting with a maximum of 5 hours of sleep and reaching a minimum of 3 hours of sleep).    

 

Other highlights from the week include-    

• A student slept through most of my entire lesson on Wednesday
• I cried twice in front of others (not my students) - once over feeling hopeless about my ability to help a student who is really struggling and a second time during a session where the 8 people I work most closely with were all sharing their life stories.
• I lost my lunch bag (so now I bring my lunch in a plastic target bag)
• One of my students might have a crush on me, as he called me at 10:30pm Saturday night
• I made parent phone calls and got to tell 3 mothers how much I enjoyed having their child in my class
• Out of seven students, only four showed up one day
• One girl told us she's already getting sick of us and to stop treating her like a kindergartner

But perhaps the biggest highlight from my week:

One of my students is extremely shy.  I'll call him Griff (though this is not his real name).  Griff hasn't hit his growth spurt yet so he is smaller than all the other students in the class.  He is also a slower reader.  When he talks in class, it's mostly mumbling that is hard to understand what he's saying even when you're standing right next to him.  On the first day of class he wouldn't even look me in the eye.  Over the week we saw him come out of his shell a bit and start participating more in class, even smiling and having fun.  But when he gets the wrong answer on anything, he shuts down again and won't look at you or talk to you. 

On Friday, he was sitting in the cafeteria at a table by himself, so I went over and started talking to him.  He wouldn't look at me - just responded quietly facing the other direction.  I asked him why he was late for school.  He told me he missed the bus.  I told him I was glad he came, even if he was late.  I asked him about getting me his parent contact information.  At this point another student, Tor (another made up name) from our class came and sat down next to him.  I said to Griff, "I want you to give me your phone number so I can call your mom and dad and tell them how much I like having you in class - just like I got to call Tor's mom last night and tell her how much I like having him in class."

Griff looked at Tor like he couldn't believe I really called his mom and said that, but Tor nodded and told him that I did.  A little smile of shock showed up on Griff's face.  He still wouldn't look at me, but he nodded when I asked him to get me his mom's number.

When the kids came back from lunch, Griff shoved a crumpled up piece of paper in my hand as he passed through the doorway.  It looked like garbage.  I followed him into the classroom, saying "What's this?  Did you just give me your garbage?!"  Griff wouldn't look at me, he just kept walking.

I opened up the crumpled piece of paper and he had written down his telephone number for me. 

First day of teaching!

I just finished my first day of teaching and am feeling pretty great overall. 

First, I was mostly well prepared - I'm not sure how I will sustain this level of preparedness every day - seeing how I put hours in over the weekend, but the lesson itself went mostly well.  Obviously there are a lot of ways I want to improve my planning for the future - but what I had planned, went as planned.

Second, we had a small group of 7 mostly well behaved kids.  I feel extremely fortunate.  Some corps members were crying at the end of the day due to behavior management problems.  I just heard one corps member talk about how he broke up a fight in the first 5 minutes of class.

Third, my TFA school director left me a nice note of encouragement after my first lesson: "Thanks for letting me observe Day 1/Lesson 1!  Super impressed!  Your students are really engaged and already mastering being able to describe character traits!  You have a great presence, volume and tone in front of class."

Fourth, my fellow TFA co-teacher sent me the most awesome email I've received since arriving at institute: "You're in the middle of your lesson, but I just saw an awesome moment so I wanted to let you know.  It was great to see your students shout the answer to how you inferred that Sunita was angry.  They had clearly understood the concept and your modeling of it.  You seem to be teaching with a very good pace.  Great job.  I'm excited to be here teaching with you."

And lastly, when we got off the bus after our long first day of teaching, TFA had arranged a party for us on the lawn.  There was music playing, staff members standing around with signs saying "Great job", etc, I got handed a Mr. Freezee ice pop the second I got off the bus and was given a cool TFA 2011 corps member t-shirt. 

Despite having an overall good day, I can't tell you how much this energy and support lifted my mood...perhaps enough to sustain me through another long night of planning for tomorrow!

Institute Week One: I survived

Well, institute is turning out to be as time-consuming and challenging as rumored to be.  This last week has felt like a month and despite there being about a million things to blog about, I have not had time or energy to do so.

Dear readers, of which there potentially 2 of you, please forgive my lack of regular updates.  I can only commit to weekly updates on the weekend from this point forward.

Here's my week one update:

The Schedule
Everyone has to be to their school site by 7am.  Buses to the schools leave between 6:30am and 6:45am depending upon how far away their school is.  Lucky me, my bus leaves at 6:30am on the dot every morning.  Which means I usually shower the night before, set my alarm for 5:30am, am out of my dorm before 6:00am, walk across the street to the dining hall, go through a line where I pack my lunch bag for the day, then go into the dining hall for breakfast, find some food and have about 15 minutes to eat and then walk to the bus at 6:25am.

Fortunately I have not yet had a problem waking up on time.  I think the threat of missing the bus is too great.  All of my suite mates and I have agreed to make sure each other is up before we leave for the day.

I am at a middle school with about 50 other corps members from either Memphis, Atlanta, or Greater New Orleans regions.  Most of the corps members are going to be teaching 8th grade math, about 8 of us are teaching 8th grade reading and 4 are teaching all day 7th grade reading. 

This first week, we spent from 7am - 4:30pm at the school each day in sessions/workshops mostly learning how to lesson plan.  On Wednesday they finished teaching us how to complete our lesson plans and we were expected to turn two rough draft version in by 5am Thursday morning, with a third lesson plan due Friday morning at 5am.  They also introduced us to classroom management (making sure kids behave) and investment (getting kids to care) on Wednesday and Thursday and we had to submit detailed management and investment plans on Friday morning at 5am. 

I understand the rapid pace, because basically they're taking a group of people who have mostly no idea how to teach and getting them ready to stand in front of a classroom in 5 days.  Unfortunately there is no time to process and internalize the great information - rather you just have to do it and do it quickly. 

For example, I strongly believe that classroom management and investment are the most important thing to establish- if the classroom is out of hand, no teaching can occur, and no learning will be done.  Yet, since we had to create an entire classroom management plan and an investment plan only hours after having our first training on it, and since it was due on the same day that we also had to complete our third lesson plan, and since I was already exhausted from staying up late the night before to complete my first two lesson plans, I found myself just completing the template as quickly as possible so that I could get it off my to do list and move on to the next thing so that I could go to sleep, rather than actually putting a lot of care and thought into it. 

Each night this week, my bedtime got pushed back a little bit later.  I feel like I've been managing my time well and using every moment possible to work productively, yet the most sleep I got any night was 6 hours and two nights I stayed up to about 1, giving me a whopping 4.5 hours of sleep.  Even with the lack of sleep, I didn't really finish two of my lesson plans (submitted just bullet points, not full scripts) - but there was no way I was pulling an all nighter.

I don't think I've ever been more happy about a Friday.  The weekends are completely unscheduled - so I get to use the time to catch up on what I didn't do well the week before and get organized/ready for the week to come.  So I have two lesson plans to work on this weekend and have to get prepared to be in front of kids at 8:30am Monday morning.

On Monday morning at 8:30am, a group of four of us (two math and two reading teachers) will present our management and investment plan to our students.  At 9:30am my "collab" reading teacher will present a 10 minute lesson on synonyms and antonyms and then I will lead teach for 60 minutes.  This scares me.  How will I keep a group of 8th graders engaged for a full hour?  I don't know that the lesson I have planned will last that long...and obviously we can't just do nothing with them for 20 minutes. 

So, even though my weekend is unscheduled, it's not exactly "free-time."

The Awesome Gym
After paying for my membership last Sunday evening, I didn't make it back until Friday night.  My goal was to go to the gym at least 4 times a week.  I plan to go again today, Saturday, so at least I will have gone 3 times this week.

I got a job!
Tuesday evening I had a phone interview, and apparently it went well because 30 minutes after the interview I got an offer letter!  I will be teaching 9th grade writing at a small charter school!  I'm extremely excited.  From what I hear, this school is doing great - it has a great student culture, the kids generally perform well on the state tests, my classroom size will be between 20-22 students, I will teach 7 periods and have one period free for planning and all 7 periods will be the exact same lesson.  My school year is 2 weeks longer than the public school year, though, so my imagined summer time off has gone from 2.5 months (what kids get in CA), to 2 months (what kids get at Memphis city schools) to 1.5 months (what kids get at my charter school).  Also my school day is longer - my working hours are 7:15-5pm every day, except Wednesdays when we have staff meeting...which I assume means I have to stay longer.  I think the actual classes are from 7:30 to 4:30. 

My students
I actually got to interact with students this week!  We administered a reading assessment to all the reading students and will re-administer again at the end of the 4 weeks of teaching so that we can quantify their progress.  These kids are in summer school because they failed their 8th grade reading and/or math test, and need to pass it in order to move on to high school. 

The first two kids I assessed are reading at a 3rd grade level.  Both of these kids will be in my class.  One of them was too cool to actually look me in the eyes and would only give me one word answers when I tried to engage him in conversation. 

The third student I assessed took an hour to read a 10 page book, he was really pouring over it and trying to fill out his during reading worksheet accurately.  Afterwards when I asked him to tell me in his own words a summary of what happened, he gave me a bunch of disjointed details - some of which never actually happened in the book.  This happened with many of the students...they would tell me details from the book that weren't actually in the book.  At least this student seemed to really try and he was reading at a 6th grade level.   

The fourth girl I assessed was pregnant.  8th grade.

I think the previous statement deserves its own paragraph.  She had a very gentle demeanor and read at a 6th grade level.  About half way through she stopped trying though.  I'm not convinced she actually read the entire 10 page book.  In her defense, some of these books were beyond boring.

The last student I assessed had a full inside forearm tattoo.  8th grade. 

He was a great reader (comparatively) - 7th grade level.  He tried hard on his assessment, but had a little bit of difficulty with the comprehension.  He also had a conversation with me.  Of all the students, he was the only one who answered "yes" when I asked him if he liked to read. 

When I told my CMA (corps member advisor) about one of the students being pregnant, she said that in her first year one of her students confided in her that she lost her virginity the night before.  My CMA taught 6th grade.

Atlanta Arrival!

One of my corps members said that he thinks the only other organization in America that might be run more efficiently than TFA is the military.  I don't think the military is quite as efficient.  TFA is a well oiled machine. 

My institute is being held on the lovely Georgia Tech campus. 

We arrived Sunday afternoon around 3pm, were met by a well marked table of staff directing us to parking and bright signs leading the way to registration.  At registrations, we're giving an list of stations that we are supposed to circle through to pick up information, room keys, make optional purchases, etc.  At each station, they have our information organized alphabetically and while one person finds our specific data, another person puts a time-stamps us out on our agenda for that station. 

Our dorm rooms are divine compared to our Induction accommodations.  We each have our own rooms and share a bathroom with only one other person.  I get to eat a buffet every day, which is actually very exciting for me.  And to combat all of my buffet eating, I have joined their awesome gym, which was built for the 1996 summer olympics.

The gym has two pools, a huge floor of machines (as evidenced by the picture above), a rock climbing wall, a jacuzzi, racquet ball courts, and a water slide.  Yes, a water slide. 

After spending about 1 hour on this campus, I was hit with a clearer vision of where I personally fit into the achievement gap that we've been discussing for the past week.  The Georgia Tech campus is larger, more historical, more beautiful, more prestigious than any other campus I've spent time at before.  I knew such places existed, obviously, but to be here in person almost felt like landing in foreign country.  It's so different that the type of school I attended.  Which makes me wonder, why didn't I attend a university like this?  Or at least apply to attend one?  What type of learning opportunities are available to students here that were not available to me at my small state school?  I know that it's possible to have a great education at a small school and a poor education at an ivy league school, depending upon how you apply yourself - but the potential for the best education which leads to best life opportunities seems greater at a more prestigious school.   

There are a number of personal considerations for why I didn't apply to any college outside of the one in my home town: 1) boyfriend in home town, 2) laziness, 3) poor grades from first post-secondary option year.  But there are also a number of other potential other socioeconomic considerations: 1) cost of attendance, 2) not understanding what type of financial aid options might be available, 3) no guidance/help with application process, 4) no push from parents to attend a specific type of school - the fact that I was going to college at all was an accomplishment in their eyes.  I never thought about it during my college years, but I was in fact the first person in my family to graduate from a 4-year college.  My parents were not in a position to navigate me through the college application process, logistically or financially.  

I don't hold any grudge against my parents or the world about my college years in any way.  Clearly, if I had my sh*t together, I could've easily sought out guidance/help needed to overcome relatively small hurdles to at least consider attending a different school; but I didn't, and without it being instilled in me by someone else as a priority - that opportunity passed by without question until today. 

Actually, I am grateful to my parents for a middle class upbringing, placing an emphasis on education, and driving me all over to different extra-curricular, leadership building activities throughout my childhood.  But what about the children whose parents aren't making an income above the poverty line, who don't have a car to take them to extra-curricular activities, who work long hours and aren't home to help them with homework after school - how many opportunities pass these kids by without anyone questioning it?
 

End of Induction

Today is the last day of Induction!  Tomorrow, we are leaving for Institute in Atlanta.  Over the course of the last week we've done a lot of "reflecting" throughout learning.  The format goes like this:

1. Introduce topic
2. Individual reflection/journaling on pre-topic knowledge/opinions
3. Mini-group discussion with people sitting next to you about pre-topic opinions
4. Whole group share on pre-topic opinions
5. Get the TFA schpeel on said topic
6. Individual reflection/journaling on TFA schpeel
7. Mini-group discussion on TFA schpeel
8. Whole group share on TFA schpeel
9. Conclusion/debrief (which may or may not include individual reflection/journaling, mini-group discussion, and whole group share depending upon time available)

Today, we took an hour to reflect on the week as a whole.  It was actually quite beneficial, to summarize for myself what happened over the past week - since so much happened so quickly.

Essentially, everything we've done over the past week has focused on developing the "character" (leadership, perseverance, relentless work, etc)  of a TFA teacher, next week we will get the detail of how to actually do the teaching, and the week following we begin teaching summer school students!

It seems like I've been part of this education "movement" forever - not just seven days.  I wrote that I'm starting to feel a little disconnected from the rest of the world since all I've done is eat, sleep, breathe TFA for a week.  It's hard for me to remember what it was like to be worried about other things besides children getting a quality education.

My sanity grounding goals for institute are to exercise 3-4 times a week for at least 30 minutes, do something fun every weekend, and perhaps I should add to the list - have conversations with x-number of non-TFA people once a week.

The Holding Pen

Today was supposed to be a housing/logistics day.  We were going to have a few meetings in the morning, with most of the afternoon free to search the city for housing.  Since I already have housing, I planned to spend the day putting together furniture and packing for institute.  However, at 9am this morning, we were notified of an unexpected hiring fair that would take place on campus that afternoon from 11-4pm for some positions...and amazingly English was one of them!

We were told upfront that not all of us would be hired, nor were they guaranteeing that all of us would be interviewed, but that we should be dressed and ready should our names come up.

I am bad a estimating numbers, but there were probably 100 of us waiting around to be called.  One by one, names were called.  The process, we were told initially, would be completely random - but I think it was based more likely on which candidates the principals were interested in meeting.  Within the hour someone had returned having been hired!  As the day went on more names were called and some came back with feedback that the principal was going to meet with others before making a decision - while others came back with a job.

I saw one girl who I know is an English placement get called - she came back without being directly hired.  The principal told her they were planning to interview a few people...so I thought I would be up soon.  Shortly after, another girl came back and announced that she was hired by that same principal for their one available high school English position.  Another girl got placed in a middle school English position.  A lot of Math teachers got placed as well as some elementary teachers. 

Still, my name was not called.  At 3:00, they came in and told us that if we were assigned to teach English and our names had not been called, we could leave.

I won't lie, sitting around for 4 hours without getting an interview was not fun.  If I had the time or energy, I might worry about why my resume didn't grab a hiring principal's attention...but I don't so instead I'll just believe that everything works out for the best.

Induction Day 3

After a day of sitting in a lecture hall, we got to get out and see the community today.  TFA is a two-year commitment, and today all of the teachers who just finished their first year of teaching joined us for community service day.  There were a number of great volunteer activities to sign up for in advance, and I chose to learn about an organization called "Bridges."

www.bridgesusa.org

This organization provides leadership training to Memphis youth through "experiential learning."  For example, our experiential learning task today was to try to build a puzzle out of wood planks in the fastest time possible.  We had a group of 25 people and everyone had their own approach on what to do and how to do it best.  It was interesting trying to get everyone on the same page.  There were a number of different opinions and you could see some people trying to assert themselves more fully, others disengaging, others sitting back and observing.  After making a few attempts, we debriefed and discussed what we learned and how we can apply the lessons from this activity to teaching in the classroom.  It's a very cool organization and I would love to be involved with them and get my students involved with them this coming year.

In the evening we attended the National Civil Rights Museum.  The museum is at the site of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, the Lorraine Hotel on Mulberry Street in Memphis, TN.

I went to this museum when I visited Memphis last March, before I knew if I would be accepted into a teaching program and definitely before I knew I would be in Memphis.  

I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't even know MLK was shot in Memphis and then to find myself standing in the location where that occurred surprisingly emotional for me.  The first time I came, I was struck by how recent all of these events occurred.  In my parents' lifetimes.  In the lifetimes of men and women who are still of working age - people I have worked with who may have personally been denied the ability to sit at the same tables in restaurants or use the same restrooms as other people due to the color of their skin.  

I wanted to ask my parents, who would've been young adults at the time - what were you doing when all of this was going on?  They was not dinner table discussion about any of this in my home growing up.  I suspect that being white and not in the south, these events didn't affect them very much.  

During my second visit tonight, I was struck by how young the leaders of the 1960s civil rights movement were.  Young college students joined protests, sit-ins, and freedom rides, left school to help get black citizens registered to vote, and came as unpaid volunteers to teach at Freedom Schools set up to give black citizens the basic education.  MLK himself was only in his early 20s when he began working in the civil rights movement, and died before he reached the age of 40.


Both times, I come away inspired by all of those who came before me and motivated to continue their work towards equality in this country.  It's so easy to see how working in education to close the "achievement gap" between the wealthy and the poor is part of a larger historical movement.  It also humbles me to read about so many others who took much greater risks than I am taking now.  The risks of my plight were such things as not living in the same city as some of my friends, leaving a city I love, not being able to take improv classes, and receiving a smaller salary, where as their risks were being disowned by friends and family, arrest, beatings, and murder.  Their bravery gives me courage and reminds me that I can do even more.

Also, I walked to the museum tonight.  It is literally only 2 blocks from where I now call home.



 

Induction Day 1

Today we checked in to University of Memphis for Induction.
 
Induction is a one week introduction to Memphis and TFA core values...not to be confused with Institute, where we learn about teaching.

Living in the dorm is less glamorous than you might imagine.  The room is small, I share a bathroom with 4 others and you can hear everything that happens in the hallway.  I am lucky - my roommate is staying with her boyfriend tonight so I have the place to myself :) 

This is definitely the college experience I never had.

Today we ate lunch in the university cafeteria, played team building games, and then had a welcome dinner in a high school gymnasium.  The food is also less glamorous than you might imagine.  The vegetarian dinner option was a cold pasta salad.

At the dinner, I saw my first live step show - performed by a team from a local middle school and heard four corps members/alumni speak about some of the challenges and successes they've had in the classroom. 

This was the best part of the day for me.  Their stories were very inspirational, and made me see what an amazing difference one great teacher can make.  I’m excited for the opportunity.

I also met a corps member who taught English this past year and was surplussed – so he may end up teaching middle school math next year.  He told me that English teachers got hit the hardest, so while he doesn’t want to discourage me from thinking that I’ll get an English placement, he says not to get too married to the idea.  I kind of had that assumption going in.  If I get a different placement, I hope for middle school math.

It’s been fun being social and meeting people after 5 days of moving/keeping to myself.  It’s very cool that we have such a large group of interesting people to get to know and work with over the next couple of years.


 And, yes...I am officially staying at a school that flies a confederate flag.  It's weird.