My "Vacation"

So, even though I'm not crazy busy now that institute is over, I do not have the internet in my apartment which makes keeping up with this just as impossible.

Now that I've had over a week to relax and chill out a bit after institute, I've been able to reflect a bit. I still think it was a horrible, horrible time in my life that I definitely would never repeat. But I also realized that I did learn a lot, meet some amazing people, and have a few really great experiences. Even so, I've been pretty miserable since Institute has ended. There aren't a ton of people around right now, which doesn't help the cut-off feeling I have from not being online all the time. My apartment is HUGE but empty, which is sad. I'm also extremely broke after having spent nearly all my life savings on the down payment for my car (Carmen Elantra- I'm so funny!) soooo going out isn't really an option. Today is also the second time that I've planned on going to rugby practice, only to find out that it's been cancelled. (Damn rain!) I've still been running on the treadmills at my apartment complex, so at least I'm somewhat active nowadays.

I think that I've done a lot of growing up since I got here though. I'm doing a lot of things (and paying for a lot of things!) for myself for the first time. Even though I felt pretty independent at Rutgers, when it came down to it, I was still only 20 minutes away from home- and I knew that my parents not only could but would bail me out of any rough situation I got myself into. Even more than that though, some of my interactions with other corps members have made me reflect on some of my less-mature traits. Seeing something in someone else that others have been trying to help you see in yourself is a lot more... something. I'm starting to learn that even though it feels like all of things things are happening to me, things are just happening. You know what I mean? Like -pardon my French- shit happens. That doesn't mean that I am a victim all of the time or that the world is going to end. People have it easier and harder than me and I just have to play the cards I've been dealt. I mean, don't get me wrong- I already knew this, but now I seem to actually be internalizing it.

Anyhow, I'm trying to enjoy these last few days of having time to myself before I'm immersed in unit plans and bulletin boards. And even though it's being interrupted with some training sessions, I also have a visit to look forward to from one of my most favorite people of all time! (Let's hope for Karina's sake that I have the internet before she gets here!)

Last week of Institute

I know, I know- I'm not meeting my minimum post requirement. Let me just preface this post with the following explanation/excuse: institute has been brutal. Anyway, continuing:

Week 3 and 4 of institute were really hard. I'm not going to bore you with the details, but I came really close to quitting a number of times. It was extremely frustrating that so many of the kids stopped trying, or all-the-sudden became behavioral problems. I ran short on time on almost all of my lessons for one reason or another prior to the end-of-summer assessment (which didn't actually happen at the end of summer school.)  

Last Monday was the final assessment for the kids, which is the main factor in determining if they'll be retained or if they'll move on to the next grade. If the test was the sole factor, only ONE of my kids would pass. Now, I can't blame this entirely on myself for a few reasons. First, I have a "partner" teacher who teaches these kids for a period in addition to my own- they are tested on the material that we both teach. Also, the kids just blatantly did not do some of the work that I gave them, and for some crazy and ridiculous reason, we weren't allowed to assign mandatory/graded homework. (Which was ridiculous because we only had something like 9 days of instruction... moving on...) I taught the kids 2 days of "fun" lessons (fun for me- I taught basic French and Intro to Judaism) before the final day, which was "investment day"/end-of-summer celebration. We tried to get the kids invested in their education/pumped for college. However, the day ended with report card distribution, which also meant that the kids found out if they were retained or not. A few kids ran out of the room right at the end of the period, including my (dare I say it?) favorite, who I'm pretty sure didn't want to be seen crying. (I'm fairly sure he did not pass, but us TFA teachers weren't informed about who passed/who was retained.) It wasn't all bad though- one girl that had been a little bit difficult looked over at me after she got her report card, smiled, and discreetly gave me the thumbs up. It made me really happy that she wanted to share that with me. Then, at the end of the period, one of my more "rambunctious" boys came up to me, grinning ear-to-ear, and (very loudly) told me "Miss! I passed! Can you believe it!?" 

Last, Ruben, a kid that I had decided was kind of a project (if you know what I mean) walked up to me with a blank-ish face. Ruben came in with really, really low test scores. He was really quiet the first day and definitely thought he was dumb. Both my partner and I knew after talking to him that this was definitely not the case (like most of his classmates, his English proficiency wasn't exactly up to grade level) and that we'd need to give him a little bit of extra attention because we knew that he would benefit from it immensely. He got a little bit of extra one-on-one time and probably got a few more pep talks than the others- I guess we just saw a lot of potential in him. Anyway, he finally cracked a smile and quietly said, "Miss- I passed." I wanted to hug him, but I knew that it would probably embarrass him in front of his friends, so I settled for a smile and a whispered, "I knew you could do it! I'm really proud of you." This all helps me block out most of the tears.

Other than the kids, the other corps members can be hard to deal with. I was basically getting picked on by one of the older corps members who needs a serious attitude check. That aside, I still feel like it's been slow-going with making new friends and hard to have quality time with the ones I've already made. The bright side/exceptions to this is my soon-to-be-roommate Kelsey (more on this in another paragraph,) Jake (guy friend I've already talked about,) Rachel (super awesome but in the Dallas corps) and Montine (also really awesome, technically in the South Carolina corps, but may try to stay here for a number of reasons.) Guy (my Israeli friend) also was definitely a huge factor in keeping me sane. After Israeli soldiers finish their IDF commitment, they generally go on a several month-long trek. Guy decided to take his in South America and has been traveling for the past few months, which was been awesome for me because he was in my time zone/chatting with me all the time through first my thesis and now Institute. Basically, I love him and owe him forever because it was seriously amazing to be able to just talk and unwind after a crazy day. He flew back to Israel today, and I'm going to miss talking to him while I'm winding down for the day- the time difference is going to stink. :-(

Ok, so back to Kelsey- she is awesome. She's kind of quiet but, hey, sometimes it's hard to get a word in edge-wise around me. I think she's going to be an awesome roommate. When we finally found the apartment that we eventually ended up leasing and finished up all of our paperwork, she goes, "So- how do you want to pick the rooms?" Of course, I didn't want to be pushy and asked her which one she wanted. Of course, she didn't want to be pushy and didn't say. There are definite perks to both bedrooms: the master is slightly bigger and has a HUGE walk-in closet, but only has a shower. The "guest" bedroom is slightly smaller, has a smaller closet, and doesn't have its own bathroom-- it's attached to the rest of the apartment BUT it has a bathtub. I decided to be decisive and state that I didn't have a strong preference but would slightly prefer the guest room which was AWESOME because Kelsey wanted the master. Being friends with Kelsey during institute has had the added benefit of her brother (who is on Institute staff) and his car (lol!) This weekend we went to Austin, which was AWESOME. I got to hang out with Dusty and Sean, shop, explore Austin, and lounge around the pool/get tan. It was a great escape from Houston/institute and overall a great time- Dusty/Sean are the hosts with the mosts! (hah- I'm horrible.) We got back on the 4th just in time for Kelsey and I to head downtown for the "Freedom Over Texas" fireworks, which was seriously the best fireworks display I have ever seen. It was awesome. 

Now it's back to the institute grind for a short, student-free week. I'm feeling better about everything, but still exhausted and a little weary. Everyone keeps telling us how the next year is going to be the hardest year of our lives or how difficult it is to be a first year teacher, which is honestly a little bit horrifying.

Now I'm off to bed- I definitely have more to write but it's past midnight, I'm exhausted, and I have to be up for moooooore training tomorrow. Hope all is well, wherever you are! Stay in touch, and I'll hopefully be posting more to re-cap what you've missed within the next few days!

Institute Week 2

WOW! So I have not been good about keeping up with this already- I promise, it's just because institute is so so busy. So, this week was definitely difficult. Lesson planning is so time consuming- I have SO MUCH more respect for my teachers (...well, the ones that didn't just run off a million worksheets every day.) But I like my kids a lot, so at least the actual teaching part of my training is great. On Thursday we were learning about how to identify compare and contrast in a text, so as a warm-up activity we compared-and-contrasted Texas and New Jersey in a venn diagram-- they LOVED it. They love hearing about New Jersey, and yes, they are too young to know about Jersey Shore :-)

This week I also started to get a little taste of Houston- last night I went to a Houston Dynamos soccer match with 3 other corps members and it was definitely a blast. (There were also 2 Jersey guys on the opposing team! Whodathunkit?!) Next week (like, one week from Thursday) I'm going to an Astros game- $20 MLB tickets?! MADNESS! I'm super excited.

In other news, I was finally able to pick a car with the help of my dad yesterday (Hyundai Elantra- wooo!) and it looks like I'm buying new- AHH! I'm waiting a little bit to actually make the purchase, but now that I made a choice it seems a lot more "real." Between buying my first car, graduating, moving away from NJ, and the Harry Potter era ending (July 15... omggg,) I think I might actually be an adult now. (Cue crying.)

Anyway, I'll be honest- I'm having a little bit of a rough time. I'm making a lot of "acquaintances" but actual friends are coming a little slower than in college- that being said, I definitely have two "real" friends that I'm so excited to get to know better over the next 2+ years. Also, institute is definitely comparable to the amount of work/sleep deprivation I had while I was freaking out about my course load + thesis this year. However, we only have 1 more week of "real" summer school before the kids take their test to advance to the next grade, and then I can teach whatever I want (HISTORY!!) which will make life a lot more enjoyable. And of course, I cannot WAIT for institute to be completely over so I can get to know my new city-- right now, all I know is that it's really, really hot and humid all day (and most of the night).

PS Sorry Mom and Dad, I reached out to a rugby team yesterday (for practice info and also for recommendations of sports bars that play rugby matches.) I need some type of team to keep me sane, but I'm not 100% committed to playing rugby again- I'm still keeping my eye out for other things to do :-P

Institute- Week One

Greetings from Rice University! I've officially completed my first week at institute, and it was nuts. First of all, this is the earliest I've had to get up regularly since high school- my bus leaves at 6:50. This week was mostly just training- and a LOT of it. We get back from the school between 5 and 5:30-5:40. This week, we had a lot of 8pm sessions, so I only had time to run once this week :-( but it was not entirely pleasant anyway- even around 6 the temperature is around 90 and the humidity is nuts! At night, I spend crazy amounts of time lesson planning, but now that I've had some practice I think it will be a lot easier.

I had my first real teaching experience on Thursday, and I think it went really well. I'm teaching 6th grade English/Language Arts for summer school, which is a HUGE relief because a lot of social studies/english teachers were given summer math assignments. (That would have been the blind leading the blind- oy!) My middle school decided to focus on just English and Math for the summer, so the students have 2 ELA and 2 math periods a day. My "partner" teacher (the guy who teaches my kids' other English period) is really chill- I definitely lucked out! My SMT (summer mentor teacher) also seems really nice and my CMA (corps member advisor) is absolutely awesome and soooo patient while putting up with my type-A/OCD/perfectionist tendencies! (haha)

Yesterday I found out that I have officially been placed at a school- YAY! (The anticipation was killing me.) I'll be teaching social studies at the middle school level, but I don't know what grade yet. I'm really excited- I really wanted to teach social studies, and after this week I know that middle school is definitely the right age group for me. I can't wait to share more details once I get them! Since I have a placement, this means that I can also start apartment hunting and car shopping, which is also a huge relief!

That brings us to this morning- I had to wake early on a Saturday so I could take a practice TExES exam. (It's like the Praxis, but Texas has it's own teacher exam for some reason.) I can't wait until tomorrow morning so I can actually get up AFTER the sun rises. Anyway, I have some lesson plans to write and then I might actually get to the gym today! Happy weekend!

Okay, so QUICK update because I absolutely must get to bed soon:

I got here around 11 a.m. on Thursday, which was a record-breaking day- apparently it's the earliest Houston has reached a 3-digit temperature ever(?)

Anyway, induction has been so crazy- I feel like I'm taking in a ton of information AND taking in Houston (ish.) I'm always FREEZING because the hotel is ridiculously air conditioned and I did NOT bring enough sweaters! Tomorrow I'm interviewing for a high school social studies position (9th grade geography) and I'm SUPER excited- keep your fingers crossed that I get it! The only downside to the switch to high school is that I'm going to have to pay some dollas to switch my certification exam to reflect the specialization change.

Anyway, I definitely want to write more induction (like visiting the East End and my dinner tonight with a 2010 corps member) but that will have to wait until tomorrow or Sunday! Goodnight from the central time zone!

Moving Day!

So I'm (almost) all packed- which is good because my flight takes off in less than 5 hours- AHH! Today was a pretty sweet last day in New Jersey: I had some delicious gelato with the lovely Catie Carr and Jennifer Zimmermann. I also had an AWESOME massage (happy graduation to me!) and a haircut (...ok, trim.) My mom and I enjoyed some awesome Chinese food (from Hungs!) for the last supper (hah!) before I went into packing-denial (watching reruns of Top Model... ew) and then finally going into a packing frenzy.

My official very last person that I will see (other than my mom and dad) will be Karina and I am very excited that I'm seeing my twin for one last time (until Thanksgiving) in a few minutes. Karina and I had dinner and went to the pub in Fanwood yesterday before getting some quality HGTV viewing time in. She was also super sneaky and left me a present which I will hopefully be able to post on here when I have a break in a few days and can upload some pics!

Anyway, I'm pretty excited about tomorrow- the nerves have taken a temporary hiatus. Gahhh!

New chapter, new blog

So, with graduation over a week behind me and my move to Houston a little over a week away, I decided it was a pretty good time to start blogging about my Teach for America/Texas experience, even though I'm still in New Jersey.

On January 18th, sometime around 3:30 pm, I got the most-anticipated email of my life: after a nearly 5 month long application process, I had been accepted into Teach for America. Although I didn't get my first choice placement, I was thrilled. Then, sheer excitement turned into excitement with a little bit of nervousness mixed in- TEXAS?! My apprehensions about trading in my liberal, suburban experience in temperate New Jersey for the southern lifestyle, more conservative social atmosphere, and sweltering summers didn't stop me from accepting my offer to become a TFA Houston '11 corps member. 

Now, in this strange in-between phase, I'm spending my days doing a ton of preparatory work for TFA Induction and Institute, getting back into running shape, and enjoying the time that I have left in NJ with family and friends. This week I'll be doing classroom observations at Terrill and Evergreen- ahh! It will definitely be weird to be in a real classroom again with colorful walls, decorated bulletin boards and such rather than large lecture halls or the job ad/study abroad poster-covered walls of college classrooms!

So, I plan to use this blog for 2 main purposes: to record my experience as a teacher/TFA corps member and to detail my first true experience living away from home. I'm going to try to post updates at least once every other day, but definitely a strict minimum of once per week. Hopefully, other TFA/prospective corps members find the teaching part interesting and you guys can keep up with me when I'm a little too busy to catch up in a more personal way!!