Donate Now

I think that’s really what Institute is about. I survived.

I’ll have a much longer post with reflections and such this week. I have free time, so I can do that. However, in between now and then, I’m going to get some well deserved sleep.

 And stand up in a wedding tomorrow. In 90 degree heat. In an outdoor wedding. Good thing I packed deoderant.

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.

 More to come.

 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.

It reminded me of my kids. It’s weird to not be in Milwaukee this summer, teaching my kids and living in the mission. It’s weird because this is the shortest amount of time I will be teaching in the summer, and it may end up being one of my smallest classes ever also. I don’t want to get over-confident though, and I feel that I need a solid dose of humility.

On the topic of Milwaukee, it’s really funny, but all of us from Wisconsin, whenever we get together, instantaneously begin to reminisce about the state, the city, and everything wisconsin. There are 5 of us from metro milwaukee, 1 from Eau Claire, 1 that went to Marquette, and 1 that went to Madison. We all miss it, too. Which is ironic, because I don’t think any of us would have said in High School that we would. Funny how that works…

 But, Institute begins in t-minus 2 days. And to be honest, I’m ready to get going.

I went to a church today called Spirit and Truth Fellowship. It’s located in North Philly, about 3 miles from where Shane Claiborne is. I read about it in the book, The New Conspirators, so I decided to check it out. It’s a really cool multi-racial congregation, and I really liked it. But, funny story:

 According to the website, the church has two services, one at 8:30 and one at 11:30. Since I had to check out of my hotel room by 1:00 p.m., I decided to check out the 8:30 service. I woke up at 7:10, showered, packed, moved all my stuff to storage, checked out of my room, and hopped on a bus, all by 8:03 a.m. This for me is an accomplishment. I get to the church around 8:20 a.m., and all the doors are locked. I have no idea what is going on, until a man, named Jose, appears to unlock the church. It turns out that they switched to a summer service, and start at 10:00 a.m. He was getting their early to set up the church service. I showed up an hour and a half early for my first church service!

 Lastly, I realized today how happy I am, just to be here right now. I know the next six weeks are going to be brutal, but I’m authentically happy to be in Philly, to do TFA, even to teach English. It’s good to be home.

 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 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.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2138304&id=59500437