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!