Scheduling the Essentials

One of the things I miss the most from my pre-TFA days is sleep. At Amherst, I would sometimes sleep in till noon, then roll out of bed, pour a bowl of cereal, then roll back in to watch the Cosby Show. Those days are over.

These days my schedules look more like this:

alarm goes off at 6 am.
I actually wake up at 6:15
leave for the 7:18 train into the City
get coffee at 8
get to school at 8:20
clock in, prep, grade, teach, run around the school like mad until about 5:30 or 6
go to the TFA office to make copies upon copies because the kids STILL don't have books, leave for the train back home at 7:45 or 8:45 depending.
home by 8:30 if I'm lucky
eat, prep for the next day, do grad homework
Bed by 1, if I have my stuff together
rinse and repeat

Lets not even talk about the nights when I have class...
Real teachers (even first year novices like me) take plenty, plenty naps and drink their coffee strong and black.

some more school

There is so much to say about TFA's summer institute. There have been so many times that I wish I had the time to sit down at my trusty comp and write about all the things I've been learning and observing. But as I now know, teachers are always busy, and I've hardly had a chance to fully plan out my lessons as perfectly as I'd like no less blog and keep up with life in general.
But since institute is about to be a wrap this Friday, now is the time for reflection...
Teaching summer school has been the most difficult and rewarding thing I've ever done. I've always respected teachers (I was that kid in the classroom that wanted the kids to settle down, because I actually wanted to learn. In other words I was a lil nerd), but now that I'm actually leading classrooms, giving lessons, grading exams, and checking homework I realize that this profession is at once the most important and most under-appreciated. Teachers are expected to do so much (educate the populace) with so little (pay). And yet it is done, and we move on.
I get up early every morning, around 5ish, get on that bus at 6:15 and try my damnest to make sure my kids come away with something. I hope that they know how much I love them and believe in them and that my love of history rubs off on them just a little bit.

My kids come from the same parts of NYC as my own high school classmates, and sometimes roaming the halls gives me flashbacks to my days at APR (135th and St. Nicks, stand up!). A few years ago I was another public school kid in Harlem, just like them. And now I'm trying to familiarize them with the main aspects of WWII without the benefit of textbooks. Yes, its THAT real. Under the guise of meritocracy we say that all children can succeed. And that is certainly true, if indeed a true equal system were in place. One that at least gave my kids textbooks to take home. There are some things that even an Obama administration can't solve immediately.

But then there are the moments when I walk around my class and have one on one time with my students, and tell them to visualize their dream Regents score, writing them out on post-its and putting them on their t-shirts. Seeing them smile and realizing the possibility lets me know that there is no better way to begin my post-grad life.

(oh and the picture above is a shot of my high school, you betta act like you know!)