The start of a new year

So I got sucked into the TFA trend of blogging. I'm going to try to keep up with it, although I suspect that when school starts a week from today, time is going to be such a precious and limited resource that my consistency here will be lacking, at best. That said, I figured I'd give it a try, to keep friends and family in the loop, as well as using it as an outlet for reflection, since we all know the best teachers are those who self-reflect often.

For those of you who haven't been caught up with how I got to where I am, I'll give you a brief(ish) summary. I graduated with my bachelor's degree in psychology from Oberlin College on May 31st. I felt pretty good about that, because I had already taken a job with Teach For America, a nation-wide nonprofit that places (primarily) recent college graduates in low-income schools in rural and urban America. It's a two-year commitment, and many placement sites offer the option of getting a Master's degree while you're at it. I had requested a special education placement and offered to go literally anywhere in the country to do so, but ended up with a general education elementary placement in Charlotte, North Carolina. At first, I was a little bit disappointed, because working with children with developmental disabilities is what gets me up in the mornings. The more I thought about it, though, I realized that spending at least a couple of years in a general ed classroom is going to be invaluable to my development as a special ed teacher, because the general ed model is really what you want all students to be striving for. (Well, a GOOD general ed model...but that's another story for another day, or blog post, I suppose). In any case, after I graduated I went home for a little less than a week before packing up and coming to Charlotte.

I arrived in Charlotte on June 5th, stayed overnight with a 2009 corps member (the 2009 corps just finished their first year of teaching) and began induction the next morning. Our induction week was sort of an overview of TFA, an introduction to Charlotte, and a very surface preparation for institute, which was looming ever so near in the future. Induction was also an opportunity to meet our fellow teachers, of whom there were about 155 (we're down to about 143 now, for a plethora of reasons). That was both overwhelming, given how horrendous I am with remembering names, and very exciting, because everyone had so many interesting things to say and stories to tell. It was fascinating to hear how everyone came from such diverse backgrounds to join the same mission and work towards the same goal.

After a week of induction, we drove down to Cleveland, Mississippi (including a VERY sketchy stop overnight in Tuscaloosa, Alabama), where we spent 5 weeks of institute, teaching summer school and doing various teacher training activities. I could write a novel about institute, but I don't have the time or patience for it at the moment, so I'll sum it up for you. I taught students who would be entering 5th grade in the fall, I was lucky to get 5 hours of sleep each night, I woke up at 4:30 every morning, and for the first time in my life, mistook a mosquito for a turkey vulture. All joking aside, it was, without question, the most challenging experience I have ever endured. Mentally, physically, emotionally. I saw more young, vibrant, successful 20-somethings completely break down during institute than ever before (and I was in an all-women's a capella group in college, so dealing with 20-something breakdowns is something of a specialty of mine). I also saw a banding together of drastically different human beings that I had never seen. People you had never spoken to before became your best friends; complete strangers were your shoulders to cry on and your enthusiastic pick-me-ups. It was a really powerful experience. And what made it powerful were the kids. The students in the Delta live in poverty unparalleled with that of my wildest dreams. The impact of poverty in the Delta really smacks you across the face. You can't ignore it. You can't pretend it's not there. It's very present and very invasive. But those kids...they are vivacious, colorful, brilliant young minds that are aching for a good education and caring teachers. I could go on and on, but I feel very privileged to have taught there for a brief summer, despite all of the challenges that came with it.

After surviving institute (which I really wasn't sure I would do for a while there), I went back home for another 4 and a half days, and actually packed. My mom and I drove down to Charlotte in a rented cargo van (affectionately known as Rudy) and I moved into my new apartment. I bought a car (affectionately known as Rufus, Rudy's long lost cousin, though they bear no resemblance) and spent many hours at multiple DMVs getting my North Carolina driver's license. If you're thinking about attempting this feat, please let me know so I can give you my driver's handbook. If you don't study, you will be very sad. I assure you. We started work on the 28th of July with Teach For America, and worked for about 2 weeks on various goal-setting, planning, and preparation exercises. It was all helpful, but is all changing now that I'm actually working in my school.

DISCLAIMER: I won't specifically give out the name of my school here, nor will I ever use my own full name or the real names of any of my students or colleagues. This is for privacy and liability purposes, and for those of you who know some or any of this information and may happen to be commenting here, I ask that you please not disclose it.

In any case, I'll be teaching 3rd grade this year, and at this time next week, I will be winding down from my first official day as a full-time teacher. My classroom is beginning to come together, although there's certainly still a long way to go. We have an open house on Monday night where I'll get to meet some of my parents and maybe even some of my students! I'm excited to get to work with my students, because I've set ambitious goals for us for this year. They include, but are not limited to:
-each student will grow 2 years in reading as measured by the DRA (Diagnostic Reading Assessment)
-each student will master 90% of our daily objectives in math
-each student will create a capstone project, which will be an interdisciplinary exploration of a reading level-appropriate text of their choosing, and will integrate aspects of reading, math, science, social studies, and writing
-as a class, we will close the gap between my school's 3rd grade EOG performance and that of the 3rd grade EOG performance from the top 3 highest-performing schools in Charlotte by 24% (the EOG, or End-Of-Grade test, is a high-stakes state standardized assessment, given in reading and math in 3rd-5th grade, including a science assessment in 5th grade only)

I hope to get my students to a point where each student will score a 4 (out of a possible 4) on both EOGs, but don't want to set that goal before seeing where my students are coming in. If any of them are exceptional children (NC's terminology for special ed) or ESL students, this can affect feasibility for performance goals. I also may have students coming in multiple years behind grade level in reading and math, so to expect those students to grow 3 or more years in one year, to the point where they can achieve the highest possible score on a summative assessment of 3rd grade level knowledge, isn't a useful goal.

Anyway, I've spent far too long writing this when I really should be planning my first week of school, but as things begin to crystallize over the next week, I'll try to continue updating.

-Ms. H