TFA tells its new corps members constantly that a most vital lesson is "Be flexible." So, that said, I found out today that I will be teaching fifth grade at M---- Elementary School, starting on August 23. This might still change. I've heard that I may yet wind up teaching sixth grade (still elementary) or second. After six months of imagining myself as a middle school teacher, specializing in language arts or history and conveying it to five sets of 13 year olds, I now have to wrap my head around the fact that I'll be teaching the same 30-odd 11 year-old faces everything from fractions to astronomy to the Constitution to character. Don't get me wrong, I'm really excited.
The effect on the corps was amazing. Everyone shed about 20 pounds of tension and anxiousness as soon as the slips were passed out. Suddenly it's so easy to talk to people. I can talk to fellow fifth grade teachers about curriculum and our future together, I can talk to everyone else about how they feel about their placement. Without this worry, everyone seems to be getting along much, much better. Now we can worry about our long distiance relationships, our house-hunting, our HR processing travails. These are things that seem to bring us closer together, rather than the simple pit of uncertainty of not quite having a job.
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Before it all begins...
I'm starting this blog now, in the two week "lull" between my graduation and departure for the Bay Area that begins my summer training. I have promised many people that it will exist (and be updated) and I suspect that unless I get it ready before I start, it will disappear in the whirlwhind of my life to come.
The title is reflective of my perspective on and anticipation of my first year of teaching. I do see myself as something of a foot soldier in a "war on inequity," fighting along the educational front. Teach for America is, after all, a self-titled "corps" that I will be "inducted" into, only after completing a 5-week-long boot-camp that we call "Institute." While I don't want to militarize teaching or valorize violence, I think there is some worth to recognizing that social justice demands a dedication, both personal and national, that rivals war. Teachers shouldn't be putting their lives on the line (hopefully) and the country need not black out its windows at night, but perhaps the same ferocious dedication and selflessness that we have inveighed against tangible foes abroad might be summoned against abstract wrongs at home.
The title is reflective of my perspective on and anticipation of my first year of teaching. I do see myself as something of a foot soldier in a "war on inequity," fighting along the educational front. Teach for America is, after all, a self-titled "corps" that I will be "inducted" into, only after completing a 5-week-long boot-camp that we call "Institute." While I don't want to militarize teaching or valorize violence, I think there is some worth to recognizing that social justice demands a dedication, both personal and national, that rivals war. Teachers shouldn't be putting their lives on the line (hopefully) and the country need not black out its windows at night, but perhaps the same ferocious dedication and selflessness that we have inveighed against tangible foes abroad might be summoned against abstract wrongs at home.
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