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Well I thought I should perhaps “get my blog on”, as has been suggested to me.

Honestly there’s this weird internal struggle here as I figure out how to “market” my blog. If it’s for other TFAers, I feel like I shouldn’t give the Institute run-down because honestly….everyone already has. No point. But if it’s for TFA outsiders, I feel like I’ve gotta start defining some acronyms…We’ll see. It’s tricky.

So I’ll try to do a little of both I guess.

Summer has been interesting. I teach 4th graders in the Bronx, and I already love them. It’s crazy how quickly you can attach yourselves to these kids, even after only one week of teaching them. A kid I’ll call “T” is my favorite, and I just want to steal him…in the least creepy way that could sound. Haha….oh man.

A lot of the kids are English Language Learners though, which can be really difficult at times. Sometimes I need to explain concepts in like 5 different ways for it to register in a way that they understand. I guess it’s good practice for the school year though.

Also I would like to say that I think the people who stay up til 3am during Institute are absolutely certifiably crazy. Like whaaaaaaaat are you thinking. I get between 5.5 and 6 hours of sleep a night, and I can’t imagine getting less and still trying to be a decent teacher. Like I don’t see the point in perfecting my rough drafts of lesson plans when I KNOW I am going to basically rewrite them for finals after I’ve seen more info on my kids or had more Curriculum Specialist sessions.

Oh so for placement news: I FINALLY went on an interview, and I think it went very well. It was at a DANCE ACADEMY in the Bronx, which absolutely blew my mind. The school is only like 250 kids, grades 6-8, and get this: 88% girls. Whew…talk about some cliques! The interview was for a 6th grade social studies position, which would just be SO ideal for me. The only thing I would worry about is that I’ve spent all summer teaching 4th grade. I know a lot of things cross over, like with management, lesson planning etc. But I think I might have a slight disadvantage. Who knows. But yeah, the interview went really well. The AP said that he thinks I would fit well with the school “culture”, and then he said the next step was for me to come in to another school and meet their “hiring team” and do a demo lesson with actual children. I’m a little nervous about that because 1) I have never taught 6th grade or social studies and 2) my placement associate is not exactly on top of things, so I hope he actually gets this interview SCHEDULED. He did randomly go on a week-long vacation last week. Cool. I will probably call and bug him tomorrow.

Last night was really fun. Living in the boonies of Queens at St. John’s University for the summer is not exactly like living in New York City. People keep asking me if I’m loving the city, and I just keep going “I’ll let you know when I get into Manhattan more than 3 times…” But last night I had my first true New York City nighttime adventure. My TFA roommate and I went into the city and got sushi with her two cousins who happen to live in Manhattan, and it was so wonderful to talk about more things than lesson plans or students! Then we went to Carolines, the comedy club in Times Square to see her sister’s boyfriend open up for Joel Mchale of “The Soup” fame. The whole show was hilarious, we got in free VIP style (including free drinks), and it was just really fun. Then my roommate and I parted ways, with her heading to New Jersey for the night to visit her boyfriend and I heading to the West Village to meet up with a few friends. We went to some bars, had a couple of drinks and had a great time.

I finally just let go and forgot about all the work I had to do. It was GLORIOUS.

Except now I do have to go do some work…or nap. Hmmmm….