What? English? in Philadelphia?

Week Four is now in the books, and as I sit on the ledge, preparing to dive into week five, these thoughts bubble up…
Thunder and Lightning
I have now seen two thunderstorms in Philadelphia (today being the second). For some reason, I remember them being fiercer in Milwaukee (or Wisconsin). Apparently we don’t get tornados over here, so we don’t have that underlying “maybe this one will knock down our house” thing going. Perhaps that’s why they aren’t as scary.
Test Madness
I had a rollercoaster of a Wednesday. In the morning, I had an amazing class period. My class averaged an 86% on our assessment. 5 of the 9 kids got a 100%. No one got below a 56%. I was on cloud 9 because my summer goal had been for my students to get an 80% average on an assessment with no one below 50% (to clarify, at the start of the summer my kids averaged a 35% with only 3 or 4 over 50%. So yes, it was smaller big goal, but a big goal none the less.)
And then the afternoon came. We had some testing that needed to be done at school, and we had been warned that it could possibly adjust our schedule, but I had no idea what was coming. It turned out that on the original test schedule, my kids had their “midterm” on Thursday and their “final” on Monday. Additionally, my teaching period would be taken up on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for testing. Essentially I was left with two teaching days.
I had three of the days restored on Friday, but it was still a shock to go from 6 days to 2 in the drop of a hat. I’ve been told that teaching requires flexibility, but this makes me think I may be an acrobat by the time these two years are done.
 

Since I am from Wisconsin, I’m used to getting days off because of inclement weather. Usually, though, it is usually because it’s negative 30 or there are ten inches of snow on the ground. Yesterday, though, I experienced something new: a heat day.

At about 5:50 p.m., I walked out of my room and ran into a fellow corps member. He told me that school was cancelled tomorrow (today) because of the heat. I didn’t believe him, so I went inside and checked the School District of Philadelphia’s website.

It was true. School was cancelled.

I always thought the greatest thing ever was to be a kid and have a snow day. I now know that I was wrong. The greatest thing ever is to be a teacher and have a heat day.

Institute Reflections
 

This week we crossed the half-way through institute marker. Yesterday was the first day where we had fewer days left to teach than we have taught. Slowly, there is a light appearing at the end of the tunnel. And then we get to burst forth into the classroom to use our newfound skills.

I was talking with a friend earlier this week about Institute, and I explained it this way. We get up at 5:30 in the morning and go to bed at 11:30 at night. In between we teach, learn, and plan. We take about an hour off for supper, but aside from that, we go for 17 hours a day, 5 days a week, and work weekends.

So when people ask if I’m having fun, the answer is no. And when people ask if I’m happy at the moment, the answer is no. BUT, like a lot of things, it isn’t fun, and I’m not happy, but it is good.

I remember at Urbana that Rick Warren talked about how the point of marriage isn’t happiness but holiness, in that God uses the difficult things in marriage to make us more like himself. I feel the same way about institute. It’s not about being fun or loving teaching. It’s about waking up every morning and forcing yourself to go on, because often that is more vital than getting an emotional high from teaching.

So Institute isn’t about fun. It is however, about accomplishment. It’s about surviving the first day, the first week, the first wacky Wednesday. It’s about having lessons that go amazing and let you know that you can do it, even if the next one crashes and burns. It’s about a reworking of your understanding of what impossible is, what possible is, and where the line between the two is. And it’s about the sense of accomplishment that comes with going to bed each day knowing that you live to fight again.

Classroom Reflection

Teaching has been a trip so far, both in the positive sense and the negative. I had a great lesson about summaries this week that involved the Flintstones, Scooby Doo, and the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. And then I had a lesson on inferences last week that crashed and burned into an inferno of disorder and chaos. So it has been uneven, to put things mildly. But, the trend is up. My average score this week was in the 70s this week, up from 35% last week. Hopefully we can push up to the 80s this next week.

So, overall its been a good experience, even if it hasn’t been fun.

As a side note, we have an interview fair tomorrow, so I may have a placement soon. Details to come.

I survived.

 More to come.

I feel like I need to do a series of posts in one. Institute kind of cramps blogging time, so…

 Reflections on turning 23

Thursday was my birthday. I woke up at 5:30, went to work at 7:00, got back at 4:30, ate supper, went shopping for classroom supplies, worked on lesson plans, and went to bed. My collaborative group (and a few other people in the cafeteria) sang me happy birthday, and I got a present from home.

I remember last year that I dubbed 22 the first of the irrelevant birthdays, the first time that it didn’t matter that I had a birthday. If that’s true, then I think that 23 will always be my first adult birthday. I woke up, did my job, and went to bed. It’s weird, this transitioning into being an adult. I look at my clock at 10:00 at night and think, “holy cow! It’s late!” I work at least 8 hours a day, with minimal breaks. I don’t have time to read or talk to friends for four to five hours a day. I can barely sneak in a phone call home on my birthday, for crying out loud! I haven’t had to cook or clean for myself yet, but that reality comes in less than a month. I keep thinking, “So this is what it means to be an adult. This is why we were told to not rush growing up.” And it took til 23 to find out.

At the same time, though, I understand that I couldn’t stay 21 forever. And so now, two years after that date, I’ve entered the rest of my life.

 Reflections on Week 1

I just survived my first week in TFA. As you may be able to tell from my initial reflection, it’s pretty intense. We have work for about 9 hours a day at our school site and 4-5 hours a day after we get done with work. I usually try to work in an hour to hour and a half break into my day between school and homework. It helps me decompress, but I think that luxury may have to go by the wayside starting next week.

I feel like the week was a mixed bag. I definitely learned a lot, and I really like our school staff.  However, I haven’t had a chance to meet our Summer Mentor Teacher (SMT) who we will be working with this summer.

One of the funny things for me is that I always feel like I’m sitting in my different sessions going, “oh, I definitely did that wrong when I was teaching.” “Oh, I need to do that now.” “Oh, I can’t be sarcastic anymore in the classroom.” It’s definitely been eye-opening.

And on monday, the teaching begins. I can hardly wait.