Scholars

tomorrow is the FIRST DAY. 

i think i'll see everything from the itty bitty pre-schoolers, so nervous and overwhelmed, to my students, some of whom invariably don't want to be there and will probably...show that. 

i hope to take it all in....

and to go with it, whatever it brings.

B-B-B-Benny and the Vets

So veteran teachers.

In our program, we spent a lot of time learning that it is a Good Thing to seek out veteran teachers.  We even learned the Best Ways to do so.

All I can say is, after this past week of professional development, I don't think it's a Good Thing to seek out veteran teachers.  It is a NECESSITY!! Do people ever really walk in to their schools without asking at least 8942375 questions?  

Everything from, and not limited to: where the custodial room is to how I plan field trips to how my schedule will work with pulling students out to do you know anything about my students, anyway? to what is the reading program we use in the school to what is a lattice square to what does PD stand for to where is the music room to do I have to sign up for lunch duty? to where do I sign in in the morning to how do I sign up for an email address to how do I sign up for my HR benefits to how do I log on to a computer to how many copies per month do I get to how do I print out lesson plans to when will I be observed... phew, that was a big breath.  But seriously... thank you, thank you, veteran teachers.  

(New Teacher) Orientation

Tomorrow, my brother heads back up to college to prepare for O-Week (Orientation Week--for new students).  This is something I was a part of for all four years of college.  Embarking on tomorrow's New Teacher Orientation, 400 miles from the serene college life, I wonder how similar those two O-experiences might be.

Let's see.  In Freshman orientation at school, we always (arguably ad nauseum) learn the Fish philosophy, borrowed from the Pike Place fish market in Seattle, which teaches four simple skills for doing customer service-y things that you're not necessarily having a blast with.

1) Be there.

2) Play.

3) Make their day.

4) Choose your attitude.

Simple enough.  And probably applicable for working with students---who I certainly do not and will never view as customers---just as I never viewed my freshmen and women peers as customers, either.  

What else?

Johnny the bagger.  Overly, overly, overly sappy, buta good message about how each person can do a tiny thing that makes a big difference. Yadda yadda, I sound very Mr. Rogers right now. It's late. And... I'm trying to get into Mr. Rogers mode.  Which  I think means getting rid of my trucker mouth.  And getting some neighbors.  And some sweater vests.

(life) lessons from the past month

Okay, so I've been really bad with keeping this up.

And by really bad, I mean.... terrible. 

It's been over a month.  But that hasn't been completely accidental.

It's really tricky to keep a blog---as a DCPS employee, you are working for the District of Columbia government.  It is incredibly hard to navigate a space whereby I can write about my frustrations... but also cover my butt.

A lot of other fellows have started blogs, too.  One of them wrote about how he/she was observing all the immediately post-college fellows and already placing bets on which naive ones of us would leave by December.

Do not get me wrong. We do not know what we are doing.  But nobody does.  And it is strange to me that somebody in our program would have divided up the diverse life experiences of the group into two nice little packages----the (fresh-faced, innocent, naive, in-for-a-damn-rude-awakening) immediately-post-college kids, and the (toughened, been-out-in-the-real-world) career changers.  

Look, I also feel that the complications of this year will be even more heightened for me because I admittedly have not been out in the real world yet.  Filing all this paperwork through HR, choosing an insurance policy and a beneficiary, that is new stuff for me.  I get that, and I am working to hike up this learning curve.

But being a teacher doesn't have to do with what you've done before you were a teacher.  It has to do with a lot of things, including how humble you are, how unafraid you are to ask for help when you need it.  And, if I were to dip down low and divide up DCTF into "career-changers" and "post-college kids" (which, by the way, I don't know of anybody else doing), I could argue that us post-college kids have a leg-up in the humility department.  This program is filled with question-askers, the kinds of people that make the best teachers...because they understand what seeking knowledge is, they understand what curiosity feels like, they are intrinsically motivated to seek those answers to own their own knowledge.

It just feels... counter-productive to all of us being a tight-knit group of colleagues to "make predictions" about who will last and who won't.  Which is sad,  because I really feel that I left this summer training experience with a tight-knit group of colleagues.  

This anonymous (as of right now) person also continued to write about how maybe some of the people in our program are in it because the job market sucks.

And I can say unequivocally that that is NOT why anybody has gone into teaching in inner-city DC.

Yes.  Some people in our program are justifiably concerned with money right now, and are checking the mail every day for our summer school stipend.  But to imply that some people are in this just for the resume-building or for "just having a job" is truly.... ignorant?  And makes me feel like this blogger experienced a different reality from me this summer.  Because I saw people, already, sit through such intense conditions in the six weeks of summer.... and now I am seeing them at professional development, starting at 7AM today and tomorrow, eager and ready to get in the classroom in (ah?!) 10 days.  

If that doesn't say something about energy, committment, drive despite the bureacratic obstacles that have already come up, then I don't know what does.