Induction: June 8-12, spent time getting to know our region, sessions on specific challenges we will be facing in the Delta
Institute: June 13 - July 17; five weeks of intensive teacher training, which includes four weeks of teaching summer school in local schools; regional corps come from all over to the Delta for Institute, I just got lucky because the Delta is the site for Institute
During Institute, I have been teaching entering third grade math and reading along with my Collab (collaborative) who is another Corps Member. We each teach a two hour block of either reading or writing. My collab this summer has been a wonderful Kappa (for my aunts) who is going to be working in the Charlotte region.
We are now entering the final days of Institute, and I believe everyone is ready to be done with this schedule. Its hard enough to be living in dorms again with people you had never met before, but add in an average of four hours of sleep a night and days that stretch into 15 hours of work, and you get one hot mess (as my southern friends would say). We're all tired and a little burned out and much more cognizant of the fact that the next two years are not going to be a walk in the park. Students in the fourth grade in the Delta are, on average, 2 years behind in reading. Eighth graders are, on average, 3.5 years behind in reading. Think about teaching your students how to write a math word problem when they cannot read or write let alone form full sentences. That is the reality of the achievement gap, and, after Institute, the 2010 TFA Corps has gotten a healthy dose of reality.
Institute has been rough. It is not for the faint of heart. However, TFA believes in trial by fire. The people who weren't completely committed to the cause at the start of all this have long since dropped out, and the ones that are left have the tenacity it takes to make it through two years of fire.
Yeah its hard, but, geeze, I have never felt so productive! We've built relationships that will last beyond these five weeks. We've gotten to know ourselves better than ever before. We've discovered that waking up at 4 a.m. day after day is actually possible. We've prepared hundreds of students for their next year of school! We've gone from the top of our classes at university to the depths of despair about ever becoming a real teacher to building a foundation for strong student achievement in our regions. Most importantly, we've survived.
When you step back and take a look at the big picture, its pretty cool, no?
Anyways, I am moving now into an unfortunate flex time after Institute. Since I have yet to be placed in a school, I cannot find housing, which puts a kink in everything. If worse comes to worse, I'll be living in what they call the "TFA mansion", which is where they put all the unplaced corps members while they wait to get a job. Its not ideal, but right now, it looks like that may be a very real possibility for the first part of August.
So for now, I'm finishing up and playing the waiting game.
Miss Claiborn
P.S. We tested our students in reading today, and each of them made significant gains!
No comments:
Post a Comment