What? English? in Philadelphia?

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 have officially been in Phily for over 36 hours right now. I spent today wandering around my new home, specifically between 15th and 5th on Market. Today I visited Independence Hall, and then went to the Constitution Museum, which was sweet. They had a room that had life-like statues of all of the Framers, and (Nerd Patrol) I almost cried. It was really cool. Additionally, they had a cool presentation about how the Constitution shaped our culture, and they have a really neat area with different exhibits about our Constitution. It was definitely worth the $12.

 One of the really suprising things for me was the number of homeless people I see. They seem to be everywhere in the city. I saw two to three on every block that I walked down today. It was definitely eye-opening.

 One of the people I met at my Sojourners conference told me a story. He worked in Philly for a year, and said that after September 11th, one of his friends commented that she was scared that something would happen in the city. But then, he said, “she looked around, and said “but then I realized that we had already been bombed, and no one was paying attention.” I’m beginning to understand what they meant.

Also, on the topic of creepy. At the end of my Sojourners Conference last week, as I was walking out of my hotel, I saw the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The headline was “Aspiring Teacher Killed.” It turns out that a 23 year old man from Austen, Minnesota had moved to Philly to become a teacher through the Philadelphia Teachers Fellowship, a program similar to TFA. He was shot and killed, police now believe, for his I-Pod. Now, as a soon to be 23 year old who went to college 90 minutes from Austen and is here with TFA, it was kind of a combination wake-up call and reality check. It was weird, and a reminder that but for the grace of God…

 Interviews on Monday. Induction on Tuesday. Institute in one week. TFA, here I come.

I am currently chilling with my friend Sarah in New York City. It’s been a blast, as we have covered a good portion (in my mind) of the city. Today I got to see the Statue of Liberty for the first time, which was pretty neat.

 I hit a major milestone yesterday, as I watched the last of my TFA training videos. Now I just need to finish off my pre-institute writings and I will be good to go. Also, I got my information for the Job interviews next Monday. Looks like I will need to buy a blazer between then and now.

I think travelling has been a great way to prepare me for living out here. When I was at the Sojourners conference, I got really homesick for some reason. Since then I’ve been able to sit down, look myself in the mirror, and realize that there is no turning back. I’m out here for good or ill, and I have to embrace that fact.

Only 3 days until I move to Philly.

I was reading on Andrew Sullivan’s blog today and noticed this quote about the primaries that we just completed and the Obama campaign:

Tomorrow I will go to the African American cemetery outside of Chicago where my great-grandparents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, friends, neighbors, and my mother and father are buried. And I will tell them that they were right — that if we studied hard, worked hard, kept the faith, fought for justice, prayed, that this day would come.

And it has.

In other news, I’m over halfway through my institute materials, which feels good. I’ve even been able to sneak in some other readings from time to time, a rare occurrence. I’m currently working my way through Why We Aren’t Emergent, a book by a couple of thirty-something evangelicals about the issues that they have with the emergent church, as well as Schools of Conversion: 12 Marks of Neo-Monasticism and Beyond Racial Gridlock.

In other news, my tour of the East Coast is coming up soon. In 9 days I’ll be in DC, and 20 until Philly.

So, today I turned in the final draft of my Capstone to my advisor. Which means I’ve turned in one of my final papers at UWEC, and additionally that Graduation is now 15 days away. This also means that, for better or for worse, the end is almost here.

 It’s been weird to think about what’s going to happen in a little under two months. I’m going to move half-way across the country to teach a subject I haven’t studied in a city I’ve never been in to a culture I’m not a part of.

But, at the same time I know that God is good, and that he does not load us beyond what we can bear. And I know that since that is true, this won’t be too far outside of my comfort zone.

 In seperate news, I ordered two new books today: The New Monastics and 12 Schools of Conversion. I’ve already begun to work on my reading list for between the end of school and the beginning of institute.

Go team.