Three down, two to go. Two more weeks left of Institute, and finally today, I am getting a sense of urgency, as well as a sense of hopelessness and helplessness. Truthfully, after a week of positive encouragements and confidence-building, I felt I've made my students and myself believe that they have mastered all the objectives, learned all that they can, and would be able to score 100% on their midterm exam. Seeing the averages now, I realize there is still much to do, and I question, have all that I have done in the past two weeks been merely futile attempts at this thing called education? While 90% of the students actually improved, they weren't where I thought they would be, where I was confident that they would be. Such smart students who have aspirations to go on and become engineers, nurses, x-ray technicians, history teachers, dancers and choreographers. Faced with this conundrum, I question myself what it is I'm doing wrong and how I can make things work better.
Few moments I've had in the past week:
- Students are finally opening up and not being afraid to ask questions about the content and even outside the content. I am so impressed by this culture that I feel somehow they have created it on their own. At the same time, I am getting ahead of myself and thinking since they are asking the right questions, they must be getting the objective right? Not quite perhaps.
- Yesterday when I was teaching heterogeneous and homogeneous mixtures, I anticipated what was going to happen. In fact, I anticipated it a long time ago, and was having a hard time debating whether I should incorporate a lesson on diversity explicit into my lesson plan, adding a slide about discrimination into the powerpoint presentation or not. If I do, I thought perhaps my students would know that I've been trying to guess what I've been thinking, and this would also mean I have to take time out of my valuable lesson time in order to preach a message. On the other hand, I could simply talk on the spot if they act immaturely, hoping I would not have to go that far if they are mature. They are 9th graders... needless to say, as soon as I said "homogeneous mixtures", one student giggles and blurts out "homo", others around him began to giggle as well. All the way up until that point, we have been progressing through the lesson very well, talking about pizza and laughing together. I knew I was getting on a comfortable level with the students, but I needed to know my line. As soon as I heard what I anticipated, I immediately stopped the class, "Whoa, hold on, we need to have a conversation." I asked the students who laughed, "Why do you think it's funny? Please explain why it's funny." They knew I was being serious and quickly ended their laughing. I brought up the fact that no matter what a person is identified by, what they were doing was discrimination. While I'm not trying to ask them adopt my opinion, I wanted to know what is discrimination and what is intolerance. Moving on with the lesson, no one laughed again whenever the word "homogeneous" came up.
- Same lesson, at the end of the class, everyone went to the posting to look at their grades. Cariyell stays behind, "Miss, I want to talk to you." "What's up?" "Am I doing well in this classroom?" "What do you think?" "Yeah...?" "You have one of the highest grades in this class, you should be so proud of yourself!" She stood there for 10 seconds in a smiling state - it was a moment, I hugged her and told her that I was very proud of her.
- Yesterday morning, I get several hands up when I asked whether anyone thought the homework was difficult. "Can you go over the homework? I didn't get it." I was exhilarated that THEY asked ME, that I went ahead and showed them the problem.
- This morning, Rene asks me right before the exam what happens with N and O when they bond, what kind of covalent bond do they form. It was a question I couldn't even answer simply, because I couldn't even remember whether it was NO or NO2 that had a resonance structure, so I had to give a BS answer. Perhaps this weekend I can find an answer for him.
- Today after our midterm, we sat around in a circle and read together an article on Ellen Ochoa, the first Hispanic female astronaut in space, meant both as a motivational piece but also as a literacy piece. While my read-aloud wasn't as effective, and they weren't taking notes as they were supposed to mainly because I forgot, I stopped at each paragraph to ask some questions about the paragraph so they can relate to it better. But Joel was so excited today that he constantly raised his hands to make a comment, to the point I asked him several times to keep his valuable comments a bit while other students receive a chance to participate. Jeannette pointed out at the end of the class that his attitude is disrupting her willingness to participate, which is frustrating because finally one student is coming around, another is being pushed out of the picture.
- After lunch, I sat down with Danny to go over the homework that he didn't do correctly. While we talked, he asked, "Miss, how long did it take you to learn all this stuff [periodict table]?" "Like you, I went through high school and then college, a long time. ... Danny, you want to go to college right?" "Yeah..." "You will be an amazing engineer." I don't know what triggered it, instead of walking him, he sat in the cafeteria during his free hour of last period to do homework and extra credit. I was almost moved by his increasing confidence and seriousness for hard work. The positive phone calls definitely helped especially when he said his parents are a big influence for him.
I'm beginning to enjoy this job called teaching. While there are the ups and downs, everyday, the one thing that's always constant in my mind is my students.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Two down, Three to go
After first week at institute, I thought about reporting my progress, my mental and physical well-being etc. So many things happening at once, I didn't even get a chance to visit this website. Now it has been 2 weeks, with one week of officially teaching, I decided to finally record all that has happened as much as possible.
They told us that institue was going to be hard, and no one believed them. With a daily schedule of: waking up at 5AM, getting on the bus at 6:30-6:45, starting your day in the school at 7:10-7:20, ending every day at 4:00, returning back to dorm and continue working on lesson plans until the wee hours into the night, many of us are breaking down from the pressure and stress.
Davis High School is a nice place for the kids, despite the shanty and run-down conditions of the neighborhood that surrounds it. Everyday, you forget what environment you are working with because you are inside this giant bubble. Only on my way home do I realize the reality of the world outside. I have officially been teaching for a week now. It's quite exciting going to class everyday facing my 9 students (1 student seem to have officially dropped out because of family conditions). It is not exciting to go back to my room, writing up lesson plans for the next 2 or 3 days.
All my students are brilliant, they just don't fully realize it. After a week of introducing contents, I truly think they can master the first half of the questions on the test already, especially when they have already see the materials before. With an average of 5 hours of sleep every night, there are definitely times when I feel like a zombie in the classroom, my mind a completely blank slate when I stand in front of my students. Everyday, I realize I'm doing something unsatisfactory, either not delivering my content clearly, giving out poor instructions, not finishing up the guided, and consequently independent, practices on time, etc. My biggest goal for this past week is to get organized and to keep a track of all students' formative assessments, something for some reason, I had not done before. By Friday, I was very organized, and was able to check for tardiness, preparation and homework. Next week, my goal is to follow my lesson plan! Sounds simple, but when I'm in the classroom, I want to make sure everyone understands the material, and it is very difficult when everyone is on a different level. I am finding myself pushing back content material because at the opening of each lesson, I focus so much on review, a result of rushing through practice the lesson before. Although, we are not in any way behind my calendar schedule, but I hope to be on track by the end of the week. Next Thursday, I'm planning for a mid-summer assessment/exam, also a chance to review all the material and catch up.
After this past week, people are already leaving the institute, which is a huge decision that must have taken them a long time to think out. One good friend left too, and it was very disheartening and discouraging to hear, and definitely makes me begin to doubt my own ability as a teacher. It has been a lonely few days even though I don't see him very often around Moody Towers and in school because we teach different subjects, but his departure has left me thinking about a lot of things. I know that whatever decision people choose is one that makes them happier. There is no such thing as a right or wrong decision, it simply means that we are a different track in life, a way which will take you somewhere else than you initially planned. Which is OK, and I am fine with that. "Quitting" is such a negative idea, as if not doing Teach for America is the wrong choice, but it really isn't that way. I am confident that I can continue and the same for the rest of our New Mexico corps and the rest of our CMA group, and I know that whatever happens at the end is the choice that will all of us happy. All we need along the way, is a little perspective. Why am I here for the summer? My reasons: Joel, Danny, Cariyell, Jeannette, Gustavo, Azahel, Christopher, Efrain, and Rene.
Two weeks down, three more to go before heading back to the land of enchantment.
They told us that institue was going to be hard, and no one believed them. With a daily schedule of: waking up at 5AM, getting on the bus at 6:30-6:45, starting your day in the school at 7:10-7:20, ending every day at 4:00, returning back to dorm and continue working on lesson plans until the wee hours into the night, many of us are breaking down from the pressure and stress.
Davis High School is a nice place for the kids, despite the shanty and run-down conditions of the neighborhood that surrounds it. Everyday, you forget what environment you are working with because you are inside this giant bubble. Only on my way home do I realize the reality of the world outside. I have officially been teaching for a week now. It's quite exciting going to class everyday facing my 9 students (1 student seem to have officially dropped out because of family conditions). It is not exciting to go back to my room, writing up lesson plans for the next 2 or 3 days.
All my students are brilliant, they just don't fully realize it. After a week of introducing contents, I truly think they can master the first half of the questions on the test already, especially when they have already see the materials before. With an average of 5 hours of sleep every night, there are definitely times when I feel like a zombie in the classroom, my mind a completely blank slate when I stand in front of my students. Everyday, I realize I'm doing something unsatisfactory, either not delivering my content clearly, giving out poor instructions, not finishing up the guided, and consequently independent, practices on time, etc. My biggest goal for this past week is to get organized and to keep a track of all students' formative assessments, something for some reason, I had not done before. By Friday, I was very organized, and was able to check for tardiness, preparation and homework. Next week, my goal is to follow my lesson plan! Sounds simple, but when I'm in the classroom, I want to make sure everyone understands the material, and it is very difficult when everyone is on a different level. I am finding myself pushing back content material because at the opening of each lesson, I focus so much on review, a result of rushing through practice the lesson before. Although, we are not in any way behind my calendar schedule, but I hope to be on track by the end of the week. Next Thursday, I'm planning for a mid-summer assessment/exam, also a chance to review all the material and catch up.
After this past week, people are already leaving the institute, which is a huge decision that must have taken them a long time to think out. One good friend left too, and it was very disheartening and discouraging to hear, and definitely makes me begin to doubt my own ability as a teacher. It has been a lonely few days even though I don't see him very often around Moody Towers and in school because we teach different subjects, but his departure has left me thinking about a lot of things. I know that whatever decision people choose is one that makes them happier. There is no such thing as a right or wrong decision, it simply means that we are a different track in life, a way which will take you somewhere else than you initially planned. Which is OK, and I am fine with that. "Quitting" is such a negative idea, as if not doing Teach for America is the wrong choice, but it really isn't that way. I am confident that I can continue and the same for the rest of our New Mexico corps and the rest of our CMA group, and I know that whatever happens at the end is the choice that will all of us happy. All we need along the way, is a little perspective. Why am I here for the summer? My reasons: Joel, Danny, Cariyell, Jeannette, Gustavo, Azahel, Christopher, Efrain, and Rene.
Two weeks down, three more to go before heading back to the land of enchantment.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Davis High
6/11/07 Jefferson Davis High School, Houston, TX
5:30 AM Slowly woke up from the alarm clock. It's too early... but I did get enough sleep the night before.
6:00 AM Breakfast in the RfoC (cafetaria) - 500 people congregated together, fighting for the breakfast line, coffee line and the fruit line. Stepping outside the common, the lunch line is jammed with professionally-dressed bodies - everyone needs a lunch at school. Knowing I very well might miss the bus, I stepped into the line because I cannot miss the opportunity for food.
6:36 AM "Davis bus is right there", the TFA staff pointed to the first bus. I followed her finger and we both stared for 5 seconds as the bus slowly pulled away. Amidst all the chaos, I wanted to chase after it like I normally do, but thought of a better alternative. Ben and I rode followed the bus, I was still slightly bitter that I couldn't catch up to it. Starting tomorrow, my goal is to catch the bus at all times - that's my big goal for the summer.
7:00 AM - 4:00 PM Nine hours of presentations after presentations, speeches followed by more. So much information to take it, yet so little time. The one deeply ingrained motivation that sustained me throughout the day were the stats on state standards in the TFA regions. The results of low expectations is finally hitting me as I read aloud the stats for New Mexico:
"By 4th grade, apx. 92% of Native American students score "basic or below basic" on a national reading exam (leaving only about 8% proficient or advanced). By 8th grade, apx. 96% score basic/below basic on a national math exam (leaving only about 4% proficient/advanced)"
We also broke up into our Corps Member Advisory (CMA) groups, which we will be spending a lot of times with for the next 4 weeks. That's mind-boggling, 25 days altogether at the insitute, and only 20 days altogether to teach students, who are in a credit-recovery program, which would enable them to either graduate or move onto the next grade. Such a short amount of time to cover materials and watch them grow in terms of academic progress.
The rest of the day was a blur with an overload of information that I don't think I'll be able to absorb all at once.
4:50 PM Discovered the University of Houston's athletic center and the natatorium. Huge pool! So many lanes... Luckily I bought a swim suit not too long ago. The swim felt great, definitely a much needed stress-reliever from a day of chaos.
6:00 PM A rushed dinner, fighting for the multiple food line.
7:00 PM After the little time I had with to eat my food, we rushed over to the auditorium to attend the opening ceremony. Each corps region had their own cheer, the bigger groups obviously was a lot louder than us. All the crazyness was very intense... The night went on after all the regions were introduced, 3 corps members went on the stage to describe their teaching experience. Wendy Kopps, the founder and now CEO of TFA, also came on stage and gave a speech, but it wasn't as aspiring and exciting as the three corps members' story. Most people were almost on the verge of tears, including myself. It's good that we are getting more and more aspired and motivated.
5:30 AM Slowly woke up from the alarm clock. It's too early... but I did get enough sleep the night before.
6:00 AM Breakfast in the RfoC (cafetaria) - 500 people congregated together, fighting for the breakfast line, coffee line and the fruit line. Stepping outside the common, the lunch line is jammed with professionally-dressed bodies - everyone needs a lunch at school. Knowing I very well might miss the bus, I stepped into the line because I cannot miss the opportunity for food.
6:36 AM "Davis bus is right there", the TFA staff pointed to the first bus. I followed her finger and we both stared for 5 seconds as the bus slowly pulled away. Amidst all the chaos, I wanted to chase after it like I normally do, but thought of a better alternative. Ben and I rode followed the bus, I was still slightly bitter that I couldn't catch up to it. Starting tomorrow, my goal is to catch the bus at all times - that's my big goal for the summer.
7:00 AM - 4:00 PM Nine hours of presentations after presentations, speeches followed by more. So much information to take it, yet so little time. The one deeply ingrained motivation that sustained me throughout the day were the stats on state standards in the TFA regions. The results of low expectations is finally hitting me as I read aloud the stats for New Mexico:
"By 4th grade, apx. 92% of Native American students score "basic or below basic" on a national reading exam (leaving only about 8% proficient or advanced). By 8th grade, apx. 96% score basic/below basic on a national math exam (leaving only about 4% proficient/advanced)"
We also broke up into our Corps Member Advisory (CMA) groups, which we will be spending a lot of times with for the next 4 weeks. That's mind-boggling, 25 days altogether at the insitute, and only 20 days altogether to teach students, who are in a credit-recovery program, which would enable them to either graduate or move onto the next grade. Such a short amount of time to cover materials and watch them grow in terms of academic progress.
The rest of the day was a blur with an overload of information that I don't think I'll be able to absorb all at once.
4:50 PM Discovered the University of Houston's athletic center and the natatorium. Huge pool! So many lanes... Luckily I bought a swim suit not too long ago. The swim felt great, definitely a much needed stress-reliever from a day of chaos.
6:00 PM A rushed dinner, fighting for the multiple food line.
7:00 PM After the little time I had with to eat my food, we rushed over to the auditorium to attend the opening ceremony. Each corps region had their own cheer, the bigger groups obviously was a lot louder than us. All the crazyness was very intense... The night went on after all the regions were introduced, 3 corps members went on the stage to describe their teaching experience. Wendy Kopps, the founder and now CEO of TFA, also came on stage and gave a speech, but it wasn't as aspiring and exciting as the three corps members' story. Most people were almost on the verge of tears, including myself. It's good that we are getting more and more aspired and motivated.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Hello Houston!
We started off from Gallup two hours after induction ended on Friday the 8th. A large group of us caravaned south towards Texas. The first night we ventured all the way past Van Horn and stopped in Fort Stockton, TX at 2 in the morning. I drove for the last bit of that trip, and soon fell asleep on the floor as we all settled in the tiny motel room.
Saturday June 9th
Changed up partners in the car, and continued on towards Austin, TX where we were planning on staying in one corps member's apartment. Turned out there were about twenty of us, finding any space available on the floor to sleep. Many people still haven't finished their pre-institute work (what we have to do to prepare for the summer training) and were frantically watching DVD, reading the curriculum guide, and typing up reflections. Others, including myself, who have finished everything, went out to downtown Austin after dinner at a local bar/restaurant, to celebrate our diligence. Downtown Austin reminded me much of downtown New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina, with all the same type of people walking around and the same type of show going on. Suddenly, I miss Montreal very much. After a night of pub crawling, we returned to a silent house filled with people sleeping in all corners and positions.
Sunday June 10th
Houston in sight! The campus was bustling with cars and people. I felt like entering university all over again, with carts for moving luggages and boxes. Never been in a dorm before, except for New Rez, but that was very different I feel (i.e. we had our own bathroom). Went to Target and purchased some necesseities. Wondering what the next 5 weeks will be like.
Saturday June 9th
Changed up partners in the car, and continued on towards Austin, TX where we were planning on staying in one corps member's apartment. Turned out there were about twenty of us, finding any space available on the floor to sleep. Many people still haven't finished their pre-institute work (what we have to do to prepare for the summer training) and were frantically watching DVD, reading the curriculum guide, and typing up reflections. Others, including myself, who have finished everything, went out to downtown Austin after dinner at a local bar/restaurant, to celebrate our diligence. Downtown Austin reminded me much of downtown New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina, with all the same type of people walking around and the same type of show going on. Suddenly, I miss Montreal very much. After a night of pub crawling, we returned to a silent house filled with people sleeping in all corners and positions.
Sunday June 10th
Houston in sight! The campus was bustling with cars and people. I felt like entering university all over again, with carts for moving luggages and boxes. Never been in a dorm before, except for New Rez, but that was very different I feel (i.e. we had our own bathroom). Went to Target and purchased some necesseities. Wondering what the next 5 weeks will be like.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Week in Gallup
6/5/07
Interview day - Newcomb Middle and High school, right next to the elementary school, chapter house (of the Navajo nation - for tribal election and meetings), and a senior center.
The principal asked questions from a list that I could not discern how well i was doing: How would you teach creativity, responsibility, and critical thinking in your classroom? How would demonstrate discipline in your classroom? It was a tough interview, more so than some of the others I feel. He even took us two potential science teachers around teh school. Both middle and high schools were fairly new, less than 10 years old, with new astroturfs, desks, and computers. However, the principal lamented that the school has yet to achieve AYP (adequate yearly progress that stemmed from the No Child Left Behind legislations). What's happening right now across the country is that many corporates are buying out failing schools, rewriting its curriculums in order to raise the standard scores. This is true for Newcomb as well, it is bought over by America's Choice, which is supposed to "bring us the light".
In the afternoon, we had a presentation from one of our university partner, Western New Mexico University. Although I'm not sure if I will participate in their licensure program (first year teachers are required by law to go through courses in order to obtain a level IA license to teach across U.S.), one thing I was struck on was that they mentioned how people do come and go in this region, students are very much used to the idea of ephemeral presence. That's pretty powerful, and the thought in my head for a long time.
I couldn't get a handle on how i did during the interview, but during dinner at the Gallup's local Coal Street Pub, I found out that the Principal in fact did like me in the interview, and I am 99% hired (1% due to a more complicated hiring process) as the new 7th-8th grade science teacher at Newcomb Middle school. Ten feet away from there, two other Teach for America corps members are hired as a special education (for gifted students) and high school language arts teachers. Since we are on the reservation, we'll be sharing a room together on teacherages, which are trailer housings for teachers. Hopefully we'll be able to adopt stray dogs since they'll be common around the area.
After dinner, we watched an amazingly choreographed Native American dance in the square outside the town courthouse. Each dance, whether it was the weave or hoop dance, had a specific explanation that went along with it. It was so impressive...
I felt really lucky that night, because I didn't have to go through so many days of interviewing, stress and anxiety.
6/6/07
More presentation, but this time, University of New Mexico included a Navajo introduction greeting of the "Beauty Way" song, that I thought I wanted to hear more. The professor who performed the song emphasized the role of teachers to introduce "a world of unknown to a world that is unknown to everyone" and what education truly means in the Native American community. Perhaps this will be my university for the next two years, if not three?
After that presentation, we headed off to Rocky View Elementary School for some community service, laying down weed stoppers and then gravel to re-landscape the weed laden front yard. Today was so windy that pebbles and gravel constantly were blown across the ground, hitting our shoulders, backs, and legs, each resulting in some paintful resonances. Apparently, the wind went up to 69 miles/hour, crazy! but normal weather for NM it appears. I still felt that it was the most fun I've had this entire time.
The afternoon went by like a blur. Dinner at Salsa: the entire restaurant was closed for our purpose. The state question of New Mexico is "Red or Green?" which meant do you want red or green chili, personally, I prefer the green, but you can also mix, and it is then called "Christmas".
Karaoke tonight was insane, more fun then "Vocals" I'd say because everyone was really into it. We definitely discovered some bad singers. One previous corps member commented that we were "well-received by the community", I question it: really?
6/7/07
More presentation, last one with Santa Fe Community College - I spent the rest of the day weighing my options - between SFCC and UNM. Another option of Transition to Teaching Grant came up, which would potentially pay for all cost of the licensure program (i.e. the university or community college courses), however, it requires a 3-year committment to teaching at the same school I am placed at. I thought hard and long about it and talked about several times with my program director, and decided that a 2-year committment MAY in fact very well turn into a 3-year committment. Such an important and serious life decision, and I feel I have so little time to decide about it (approximately 3 months!). What astounds me is that a year ago, I would have never thought I would be a teacher, and now I'm contemplating on a third year in a place I am just getting to know. This is one of the core values that we have seen - upholding a sense of possibility - I do like the idea of options. The grant is for a 3-year committment, but if you don't finish the 3rd year, you can pay back that one year of payment, which is a cheap way of getting courses paid by the state. I don't want to burden the grant with such a decision because if I want to committ to something, I do want to think hard about it, especially when it is such a short amount of time.
We then moved to the JFK middle school to observe some schools, I won't go into the technics here, but getting a sense of the students age-group made me feel slightly more comfortable about teaching at the middle school. The school was made simply of a group of trailers that composed of classrooms. It was so different from the other schools that we have seen so far. It was such a different sense of communtiy especially from where I'll be, a more isolated and new school environment with new turfs.
The dinner at El Rancho Kitchen was a lot of fun, getting to know other corps members from our year or last year, Definitely some crazy laughing - finally, after 4 days, people's personality are gradually revealing themselves, hearty laughing, blatant joking, and discrete comments. We are getting a sense of who everyone is now, people we'll be spending a lot of time with for the next two years, if not three.
6/8/07
The last day of our induction. In the morning, we had some review of our core values as a corps, the panel on summer Houston Insitute was perhaps the most helpful throughout the last 4 days in terms of knwoing what life will be like down there all summer. We started off on the road shortly after lunch, caravan-style. A night of long-driving, but we finally stopped at Fort Stockton at 2 in the morning, 6 girls crowded in a miniature room, and were still able to get through the night.
6/9/07
Arrived in Austin through a series of adventures, passing through Fredrickburg Texas. More to come!
Interview day - Newcomb Middle and High school, right next to the elementary school, chapter house (of the Navajo nation - for tribal election and meetings), and a senior center.
The principal asked questions from a list that I could not discern how well i was doing: How would you teach creativity, responsibility, and critical thinking in your classroom? How would demonstrate discipline in your classroom? It was a tough interview, more so than some of the others I feel. He even took us two potential science teachers around teh school. Both middle and high schools were fairly new, less than 10 years old, with new astroturfs, desks, and computers. However, the principal lamented that the school has yet to achieve AYP (adequate yearly progress that stemmed from the No Child Left Behind legislations). What's happening right now across the country is that many corporates are buying out failing schools, rewriting its curriculums in order to raise the standard scores. This is true for Newcomb as well, it is bought over by America's Choice, which is supposed to "bring us the light".
In the afternoon, we had a presentation from one of our university partner, Western New Mexico University. Although I'm not sure if I will participate in their licensure program (first year teachers are required by law to go through courses in order to obtain a level IA license to teach across U.S.), one thing I was struck on was that they mentioned how people do come and go in this region, students are very much used to the idea of ephemeral presence. That's pretty powerful, and the thought in my head for a long time.
I couldn't get a handle on how i did during the interview, but during dinner at the Gallup's local Coal Street Pub, I found out that the Principal in fact did like me in the interview, and I am 99% hired (1% due to a more complicated hiring process) as the new 7th-8th grade science teacher at Newcomb Middle school. Ten feet away from there, two other Teach for America corps members are hired as a special education (for gifted students) and high school language arts teachers. Since we are on the reservation, we'll be sharing a room together on teacherages, which are trailer housings for teachers. Hopefully we'll be able to adopt stray dogs since they'll be common around the area.
After dinner, we watched an amazingly choreographed Native American dance in the square outside the town courthouse. Each dance, whether it was the weave or hoop dance, had a specific explanation that went along with it. It was so impressive...
I felt really lucky that night, because I didn't have to go through so many days of interviewing, stress and anxiety.
6/6/07
More presentation, but this time, University of New Mexico included a Navajo introduction greeting of the "Beauty Way" song, that I thought I wanted to hear more. The professor who performed the song emphasized the role of teachers to introduce "a world of unknown to a world that is unknown to everyone" and what education truly means in the Native American community. Perhaps this will be my university for the next two years, if not three?
After that presentation, we headed off to Rocky View Elementary School for some community service, laying down weed stoppers and then gravel to re-landscape the weed laden front yard. Today was so windy that pebbles and gravel constantly were blown across the ground, hitting our shoulders, backs, and legs, each resulting in some paintful resonances. Apparently, the wind went up to 69 miles/hour, crazy! but normal weather for NM it appears. I still felt that it was the most fun I've had this entire time.
The afternoon went by like a blur. Dinner at Salsa: the entire restaurant was closed for our purpose. The state question of New Mexico is "Red or Green?" which meant do you want red or green chili, personally, I prefer the green, but you can also mix, and it is then called "Christmas".
Karaoke tonight was insane, more fun then "Vocals" I'd say because everyone was really into it. We definitely discovered some bad singers. One previous corps member commented that we were "well-received by the community", I question it: really?
6/7/07
More presentation, last one with Santa Fe Community College - I spent the rest of the day weighing my options - between SFCC and UNM. Another option of Transition to Teaching Grant came up, which would potentially pay for all cost of the licensure program (i.e. the university or community college courses), however, it requires a 3-year committment to teaching at the same school I am placed at. I thought hard and long about it and talked about several times with my program director, and decided that a 2-year committment MAY in fact very well turn into a 3-year committment. Such an important and serious life decision, and I feel I have so little time to decide about it (approximately 3 months!). What astounds me is that a year ago, I would have never thought I would be a teacher, and now I'm contemplating on a third year in a place I am just getting to know. This is one of the core values that we have seen - upholding a sense of possibility - I do like the idea of options. The grant is for a 3-year committment, but if you don't finish the 3rd year, you can pay back that one year of payment, which is a cheap way of getting courses paid by the state. I don't want to burden the grant with such a decision because if I want to committ to something, I do want to think hard about it, especially when it is such a short amount of time.
We then moved to the JFK middle school to observe some schools, I won't go into the technics here, but getting a sense of the students age-group made me feel slightly more comfortable about teaching at the middle school. The school was made simply of a group of trailers that composed of classrooms. It was so different from the other schools that we have seen so far. It was such a different sense of communtiy especially from where I'll be, a more isolated and new school environment with new turfs.
The dinner at El Rancho Kitchen was a lot of fun, getting to know other corps members from our year or last year, Definitely some crazy laughing - finally, after 4 days, people's personality are gradually revealing themselves, hearty laughing, blatant joking, and discrete comments. We are getting a sense of who everyone is now, people we'll be spending a lot of time with for the next two years, if not three.
6/8/07
The last day of our induction. In the morning, we had some review of our core values as a corps, the panel on summer Houston Insitute was perhaps the most helpful throughout the last 4 days in terms of knwoing what life will be like down there all summer. We started off on the road shortly after lunch, caravan-style. A night of long-driving, but we finally stopped at Fort Stockton at 2 in the morning, 6 girls crowded in a miniature room, and were still able to get through the night.
6/9/07
Arrived in Austin through a series of adventures, passing through Fredrickburg Texas. More to come!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)