I feel sick.

It begins…

I’m teaching 6th grade Social Studies in 6 different classrooms throughout the week. Cool. If anyone else is a “cart” teacher, I’d love to hear what strategies you’ve used with classroom culture, materials etc. Right now, I just feel like a nomad infringing on everyone’s space

Real life is upon us, and it has thrown itself at me. My principal has decided to take a mini vacay (yes I just said vacay), and I have no idea no what GRADE I’m teaching. I’m either 6th or 7th, but now we’re doing all this content specific stuff at orientation, and I feel a little behind the curve here. I’m either teaching ancient civilizations or American history…that’s quite a difference. Well at least I have a job. My roommate doesn’t know whether she’s teaching middle school science or elementary. How scary.

I really love my apartment, but right now, all I have is a bed. I did make a trip to bed, bath and beyond today (where I spend a RIDICULOUS amount of money), and it doesn’t even seem like I got anything! I am hoping to make other trips to the Container Store and to Ikea this week to get some more storage stuff. Hopefully this week and the next, I will start to see this apartment come together. We have our couch coming in in a week and a half, and my TV should be here within the week. We get cable and real internet (I’m stealing a neighbor’s shitty WiFi) on Thursday. So excited to watch crappy reality TV. Jon and Kate Plus 8 marathons, here I come. Oh and Top Chef. S

The very first thing I have to look forward to schoolwise is a new student orientation (and I guess somewhat of a new TEACHER orientation as well) on the 26th. I need to draft a student/parent “welcome and expectation” letter. I also want to make sure I have a copy of this is Spanish because many of my students’ parents will not be proficient in English. Because I don’t speak Spanish, I have to figure out how to do this…Is there any resource you guys use?

Anyways…Session doesn’t start til 1pm tomorrow, and I’m about to go listen to some Coldplay and just CHILL OUT.

6th/7th grade social studies at a middle school in the Bronx.

PS: The school is a DANCE ACADEMY. I am so stoked.

Now here’s the dilemma. Ok it’s not really a dilemma. If I get this job, I’m taking it. But I wonder if 6th grade single subject is what I really want. That’s what I wanted coming in. I applied hoping for secondary history. I majored in History and Art History, so I felt like that is what I absolutely wanted to teach. I also have dealt really extensively with middle school kids for all of college, so I felt really comfortable with that age group (haha can you imagine?). However, I got placed in elementary, which was a little disappointing. The thing is…throughout institute I’ve been teaching 4th grade and falling in love with it. I love teaching kids about reading comprehension and math problems. I love the idea of having them for the whole day and building a class community. I also feel like that’s so much of what I have been learning about this summer. I know many things will carry over to middle school like classroom management and lesson planning, but all these little tips and tricks. I feel like they’ll be lost on middle school kids. Will they be as excited as my 4th graders for 30 seconds of “doodle time” on their whiteboards as a reward for good behavior?

I need motivational stories of classroom community from secondary teachers. Maybe I took Ms. Lora’s story too much to heart…

Honestly I do think Institute has gone well for me, for the most part. I’ve only had two lessons that completely bombed (so far…). I do teach Math next week though…that worries me. For the most part, I really feel like I’ve done a good job engaging my students to the point where I feel confident that they want to learn from me. That feels amazing. I love my kids, and I love my collab. I also love my SMT. She’s all kinds of sassy.

I have a second interview coming up for that same Dance Academy school. Come onnnnnnnnnnn….I reaaaaaally need a job. Even if I do get this job though, I’m a little worried. I do realize that things like classroom management and lesson planning will help you in all grades, but 4th and 6th grade seem so different. One is single subject MIDDLE SCHOOL. That’s a big difference. I don’t know. I just want a job. Honestly, I do.

Tomorrow is a really weird day at school. We don’t teach on Fridays but usually have to be there at 7 anyways. However, I think they were trying to throw us a bone tomorrow in a really weird way. We still have to be on the bus by 6:15, but we don’t start until 8:30…

Why? Just let us out early. Not cool.

However, my collab and I are about to find a pre-K classroom with mats and nap.

We’ll see.

My soon-to-be roommate and I found this beautiful (quite affordable) place in Harlem, where I have all this wonderful natural light, hardwood floors, multiple closets and new appliances in the kitchen. Needless to say, I am a really happy girl. Signed the lease today, so now that’s ONE major stress out of my life

However…our AC at St. John’s is broken. Oh my god I hate this awful university. 2 MORE WEEKS.

I do like teaching a lot though

I had a totally fine day. My CMA said hey to me and asked me how I was doing. I started bawling.

What. Is. Wrong. With. 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….

Got my package. Induction is fun. People here are very cool. Life is good