These have turned into monthly updates I guess.

So, it's obvious that I haven't updated this in a while. I'm almost finished my first quarter of teaching first grade, crazy! The week's are getting a little easier as time goes on, but I'm still really behind. I can't get the required number of unit tests finished in time for the end of the quarter because I can't teach and assess my students the way the rest of my grade level thinks is the best way. So it feels like I'm always trying to cover the bases by teaching their way and then re-teaching in the way that I think is the most effective. By that time I'm behind and the grade level unit test is in no way aligned to what I taught my students (the way that I think is the right way). I greatly respect my colleagues but reconciling our styles is always a challenge. My students are in VERY different places as far as their academic levels and it's really hard to teach to all of those different levels at once. They are all SO different behaviorally also. I have absolute angels and I have kids who are umm... challenging. But they are all really interesting little people and they all definitely have special things about them. I'm really excited to be able to make great memories with them, like going on our first field trip next month, yay! :)

On the not so exciting end, I take classes from 4:30-9:45 on Mondays at Georgia State. And I actually have a lot of work to go do now for those classes. BIG waste of time!! I would be all for continuing my learning if I could go in there and learn things that are relevant to my class and going to benefit my students. (ie: classroom management, differentiation, planning etc.) But instead, we talk about our feelings for 5.5 hours and spend all day Sunday trying to figure out what the heck is due for that week. I could think of many more productive ways to use my time. Like, blogging obviously. Just kidding, going now to do my classwork, then do my work work, then maybe I'll have time for some house work. Fun, huh? Well here goes another week...

LOTS of updates!

I haven't posted in FOREVER because my life has been crazzyyyy! I didn't know what busy was until I joined TFA. Wow. Ok, so let's start from the beginning. I got placed a few weeks ago to teach 4th grade at Toomer Elementary School. I didn't really know what to think going in because I didn't think my interview had gone very well and the principal honestly didn't seem very nice. Well as it turns out I couldn't have been more wrong! The whole staff at Toomer was SO welcoming, friendly and helpful! It's a great school with great people working there. I immediately made friends and felt like I fit right in. The only bad thing about working at Toomer was that my classroom was being used for storage when I got there and I couldn't do anything until all of another teacher's things were moved out into her new room (which included everything that goes in a classroom, tons of textbooks, supplies, FURNITURE!). So that was A LOT of work. It took two 10 hour days but I finally got my classroom in decent shape that would at least be presentable for parent open house that Friday. But alas, Tuesday afternoon bad luck caught up with me. Things just can't go that right. They just can't. So Tuesday afternoon my principal walks in and tells me that the district had made cuts to Toomer staff and that I was being leveled to another school, to teach 1st grade at Cook Elementary. I was DEVASTATED! There went the school that I loved, the awesome staff, all my planning for 4th grade and the classroom that I had worked SOO hard to build. I had to start all over. In another disaster of a classroom. Not to mention I had TFA training at night and had to start my planning all over again. I student taught 8th grade math. Would someone please tell me how I am supposed to translate that experience into teaching 6 year olds?! So I worked my butt off in the classroom and it started to shape up. This time I didn't make any friends and honestly didn't feel as welcome, so I was on my own. I'm starting to build a few relationships with people who have helped me keep my head above water, so things are getting a little better. The 1st week of school was rough. My kids are soooo cute and sooo sweet, but 6 year olds don't know how to act in school, and I HATE being mean to them. The stress of it all and hating how I feel pressured to be Ms. Erika MeanTeacherDrillSeargent basically culminated in a nervous breakdown Thursday night. I had been working 14-15 hour days, not sleeping enough, barely eating and never taking any time at all to do something that made me happy. I hated the person that I could see myself becoming and those feelings affected how I did my job and how I treated my students. I just wasn't being myself. The beginning of the school year has been pretty crazy. Surprise deadlines, double booked specials and cancelled assemblies have resulted in maximum stress (and 0 planning time) for me and disappointment for my kids, which is a recipe for disaster. But I need to step back and realize that there are certain things that are out of my control, but come hell or high water I will turn this around. I can control the environment of my classroom and my outlook on my job. After some practice I can control my effectiveness as a teacher and my behavior management of my students in a POSITIVE way. I won over a class full of 8th graders, I think I can get 13 6 year-olds on my side. And I don't mean to say that this week didn't have it's good moments. My students are so cute, and some of them are really behind and will take some extra work, but some of them are really smart! Some of them love to hug me and draw me pictures and bring me cupcakes and muffins. I also got asked "Ms. Diven, why are you light skinned?" haha! Ya know, funniest thing, I was born that way. Clearly, I am a minority, but I have no problem with that. All in all, I have to remember that this experience will be well worth all the hard times. My students are well worth it. So I teach 1st grade at Cook Elementary school and week 2 starts tomorrow! Wish me luck!

(Actually, I have a sub for Monday and Tuesday because I have training all day, but let's hope my first sub plans work well!)

Back to business....

Well I haven't posted in a while because I had two weeks off from all things Teach for America. I went home to visit family and friends in Baltimore. I bought a new car while I was home!!! SO exciting!! It's a pretty little "Radiant Red" Toyota Matrix. Four doors that actually work, a really spacious hatchback, black interior and air conditioning! Hallelujah!! I love love love it!
Besides my trip to Baltimore, I have been hauling butt trying to get moved into my new apartment. It's a nice place, I am ready to be settled in and finished up. I will try to post pictures of my new ride and my new crib when I get some decent ones.
I started a portion of Teach for America training called "Round 0" tonight. Basically I will be planning a big goal for my classroom as well as creating my unit plans and assessments for my first units. I also spoke to my principal today for the first time since our interview, which was exciting! She actually put me on speakerphone and I "met" several other important people at the school. (though I don't remember exactly who or why, haha.) I can't wait to get into my classroom!! :)

Oops...

Oops, in my last post I focused on my move and totally skipped over my last day of school. It was actually pretty fun! I made a "Who Wants to be a Math-ionairre?" game that the kids got into. Seeing them enjoy it was really gratifying. We had pizza that they earned for good behavior, and just had an all-around good ending to our summer. I wrote them little cards that they seemed to really appreciate and gave them my e-mail address. I'm worried that some of the girls have anger problems that are going to land them in serious trouble one day, so I told them that if they were ever angry enough at someone that they were tempted to make some bad choices, just go somewhere where you can write me an e-mail about what's happening and let all your anger out. I've done that before and it's really therapeutic. haha. My girl student who tends to play the role of the tough, takes no crap girl teared up when she gave me a hug goodbye. That was really touching. Then I teared up, so I had to just get out of their fast because TFA has enabled me to go from normal human being to emotional wreck in about 2 seconds flat. But yeah, that was the basics of my last day, all of my students wanted to give me a hug goodbye, which meant a lot. So they did like me after all. :)

I'm a survivor!

Institute is over!! Yay!! I survived!! Well it actually has been for a few days now. Our last day was Friday. But right after that the weekend got kind of crazy with moving shenanigans. As soon as I got back from school on Friday I packed up my room at GA Teach and made the trek back to Clemson. I was really surprised at how emotional I got as soon as I got into campus. Smelling the distinct Clemson smell and seeing familiar sights, but knowing that I was only here to pack my things up for good, that I wasn't coming back this time, was really overwhelming. But anyway, I spent all of Saturday loading up the U-Haul with all of my furniture and then on Sunday morning Ben and I drove down to Atlanta. (I never thought I would survive driving a U-Haul through Atlanta, so there's another accomplishment!) With the help of my new roomie, we immediately started unpacking and then after a nap returned the U-Haul and drove Ben's car back to Clemson. Needless to say, it was a long, tiring weekend. I mostly just chilled out yesterday, I wasn't feeling very well. I packed a few things last night and hopefully I'll be able to work hard and finish most of it today. I'm planning on heading back down to Atlanta tomorrow, and spending a few days unpacking and hanging out by the pool. Then I fly up to visit the fam in Baltimore on Friday. Pretty excited about going home, plus I only bought a one-way ticket because I'm pretty sure I'm going to come back with a new car!! Woo hoo!! The Beretta has served me well since high school, but Atlanta is no place to be pushing your luck with an aging car. Well, off to be productive!!

Beginning of the end...

Well, not entirely. This is the beginning of the end of Institute (me teaching summer school). This is my last week of in-the-classroom training and the last week that I'll be teaching my students at Harper Archer. But then I begin the REAL DEAL: my classroom in a school where I'll be teaching for two years. There will be a class of students who will be "Ms. Diven's class". I don't know who they are, what school they're in or even what grade they are in, but I bet they are awesome. As far as my students now, they have had some challenges this summer in meeting their growth goals, but they have all made progress in both their math skills and their levels of self-confidence, which is really inspiring. Algebra skills aren't what's going to make a difference in their lives, let's be honest. But, I'd like to think that the values that I've worked hard to expose them to in 4 short weeks will have a lasting impact. They take their big test tomorrow that determines whether they move on to the 9th grade, so I hope that I have prepared them well. I found out today when I had an almost empty classroom that literally half of my students were suspended last Friday and weren't allowed to return today for review for tomorrow's huge test. Not ideal to say the least. Not to mention, these are students who are always very well behaved and from what I hear some were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's frustrating, but that's out of my control now. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow after the test and Thursday and Friday because those will be times when we get to have some (educational) fun with the kids! I have a sweet inspirational video for them to watch and discuss tomorrow afternoon, Slope Bingo planned for Thursday and "Who Wants to be a Math-ionairre?" for Friday. Then we're finished and I get two weeks off! Woo hoo!

On a more personal life topic, I'll be visiting Baltimore in my time off! I fly home Friday the 16th with a one-way ticket because hopefully I'll be coming back to ATL with a new car! The Beretta has served me well for the last 4 years, but Atlanta is no place to gamble with whether your car is going to start. Like most things in my life right now it will be bitter sweet I'm sure. I also had to buy a new laptop because my old one decided to kick the bucket at a REALLY inconvenient time. Life is expensive, especially when you are an unpaid summer school teacher. I will be accepting donations. lol. Speaking of expensive, I move into my apartment this weekend! Woot woot!

Well, I think that's all I've got for now. More updates soon! :)

I can't BELIEVE it's ALMOST OVER!

Well, I only have one more week left of teaching 8th grade math at Harper Archer. It's so crazy how the time flew by even if the days seemed to last forever. We barely have any classes next week due to the holiday and testing. I just planned a closing lesson for my kids and it's pretty bitter sweet. I'm just getting to know them really well and I want to see all the growth that I know they can and will make as they start high school. But now it's time to start focusing on my elementary school placement for the next two years and investing myself in a new group of kids. On the last day that our students are required to come I am going to facilitate them discussing relentless pursuit (TFA term!) of their goals and confidence in themselves. And oh yes, it's all going to be inspired by my favorite motivational celeb: Michael Jordan. Really he is an urban school teachers DREAM. haha. This video is really inspiring to me, so I'll leave you with this.

Long overdue update...

I haven't posted anything in a while because I never have any time! Institute is so busy, I barely have time to eat or sneak in a few hours of sleep each night. But this weekend I am taking a break from working because Ben came to visit! Yay!

As far as last week goes, it had some high points and some low points, but mostly low points. I'm getting into harder math concepts so my students aren't understanding as quickly, which makes my lessons run too long and we don't get everything in that we need to. I haven't been getting to their "exit ticket" which is absolutely crucial to seeing if they have mastered the objective I taught that day. The room is about 500 degrees everyday and the students are getting really sick of being there, and aren't afraid to show it. It's frustrating because I can empathize with them, but at the same time, being on the other side, I can see how important it is that we push past that they are hot and tired and work hard on the material. My more serious topic that I didn't post about before: my school has a gang problem and one of my students has a drug problem. This KILLS me. They are in the 8th grade! I have found out that gang/drug activity starts in late elementary school for a lot of these kids! They are so young, they don't realize that they are throwing away their futures, and that the life they are getting themselves into has no future. I can see right through my student though. It all stems from serious issues with insecurity. But even if it annoys the heck out of him at first I'm going to be his biggest cheerleader. He just doesn't have a choice in the matter. lol.

Last week was frustrating outside of school too. My car and my laptop decided not to work within 24 hours. During a stressful time like Institute that nonsense will send a person into nervous breakdown mode. But 3.5 hours in the shop and $180 later, my car is fixed up and my computer will turn on, but still takes about 30 minutes to load a website and freezes up alll the time. A new car is in my near future (as long as I passed my certification exam that I took last Saturday), maybe at some point I'll be able to find a deal on a laptop. Mine is too old to have serviced, which is really lame.

But this weekend has been good, and I'm going to go enjoy my Sunday before I have to get to serious work. :)

What a Rollercoaster Ride!

Ok so my first few days of teaching were really great... until yesterday. I was being formally observed yesterday by my advisor. And you see, the problem is that 13 year olds are old enough to know exactly why that person is sitting at the back of the room and exactly how to push your buttons and act obnoxious just because they know you are already flustered. And oh boy they did. They saw right through what I was doing just to look good in front of my advisor and called my bluff. Little punks. Haha. I'm over it today, but my lousy observation on top of my insane workload and lack of food and sleep brought me to meltdown state last night. I finally got to sleep around 2am... until the fire alarm went off at 3:30am and we had to evacuate... and I had to wake up at 5am. But despite my exhaustion today was a better day and my kids were back to their normal attitudey, chatty, but overall well behaved selves. Thank God. I also warned them that based on my lack of sleep, I wouldn't recommend trying to test me today. haha. Well I have a more serious matter I was going to post about, but I'll save that for another time because I need to get to sleep. I have an interview fair with APS principals tomorrow! Wish me luck!

2 days down!

So I've taught for two days now and it's going so well! My kids are between 13 and 15 so there are little issues of chatting and the occasional disinterested attitude, things typical of teenagers, but I've heard of some teachers with some really serious issues in their classroom. I am so blessed and thankful for my kids! I hope they don't go and change on me. I think they like me and they show me respect (as much as you'll get out of a 13 year-old). I've been trying really hard to get to know them on a more personal level when we have some free time and I think the investment in them is really paying off. To them I'm totally legit because I'm from Baltimore and I've seen Lil' Wayne in concert. haha. Hopefully I'll have more good things to write later, but for now it's time for bed.

Oh ps: I have interviews with principals on Friday! Woop woop!

Call me Diven... Ms. Diven

Just a real quick post before work... I start teaching today! AH! I'm so nervous! I haven't had time to practice my lesson enough... ahh!! But I'm really excited to get to know the kids! Gotta run!

This made me cry...

Click here: Why I "Teach for America"

Two weeks down!

Well, it's the end of my second week in Atlanta! My first week of institute is finished! Woop woop! I start teaching on Monday! Ahhh! I had to sign my name Ms. Diven today.

Ok, so ADD moment done. This week was really tough, but I know it will be worth it when I get to know my kids. I got to observe their class yesterday (I'm too tired to remember if I wrote about that yesterday.) and they seem really respectful and well behaved, which was honestly a pleasant surprise. I'm really nervous and get overwhelmed a lot, but my wonderful boyfriend gave me a great perspective on it the other night. :) People that we read about in the Bible who were asked to take on great challenges questioned themselves and doubted their ability. Just like me they were like "You must be crazy, this is ridiculous, I can't do this. I'm not doing this." But eventually everyone comes around. :) What great advice! :P

But I'm soooo tired after this loooong week, so I think I'm about to pass out. I should be studying for the GACE (my certification exam) more, but I might just need to sleep.

<3

"Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good."

I found the title quote on the cover of a calendar at the beginning of the year. It really inspired me and summed up my life's ambition (plus, it's black and white so it matched my room :P) so I had to buy it. It has an inspirational quote for each month. Well the other day when I was feeling really frustrated and overwhelmed and honestly felt like giving up I noticed that I had to change my calculator to June. Well what quote pops up for the month of June? That's right, the quote in the title. The one that inspired me in January... and now, the one that I wrote all of my personal statements for grad school about, the one that I will look to to keep me going during institute and my two plus years with Teach for America. It really does encompass my experiences here. We work really hard (like, really really hard) to do well in our planning and create progress and results in our students' test scores, but we can never lose track of what we are really there for, the reason for the movement. We are here to do good. We are doing what we have to do to put children's lives on a different path through education.
So I started Institute on Monday and my first week is already over. It's been hard work learning how to lesson plan, manage classroom behavior, create assessments, teach content and motivate learning in a week before we start our version of student teaching. Oh, and did I mention that I'm teaching 8th grade math... yeah, which is really fun considering I don't understand 8th grade math. Oh and did I mention that my bus leaves at 6:25am and doesn't get back until 5pm-ish? But I'm going to try not to complain too much. It's just something we have to do for the kids. This is a high stakes class. They failed a state assessment that they must pass in order to move on to high school. They have one more shot or they have to repeat the 8th grade, which would be a killer for esteem and motivation at such a critical age. The difference between kids and teenagers, middle schoolers and high schoolers. Our work is going to be really challenging, but it is also very important and hopefully in the end very rewarding for our students and ourselves.
I have more work than I ever expected. It's all due at 5am each day, which just shows they don't expect us to sleep... ever. But we all know that I just can't do that. So I better go finish up my plan for getting students invested in my class and get to bed. Good night to all! :)

Your life is not about you. (& a lot of info about the achievement gap!)

Wow, so much for writing every day. I had NO IDEA how insanely busy I would be during induction week and apparently it only gets worse from here. Tomorrow starts the 5 weeks called institute. The first week will be spent in orientation sessions for our school, lectures on lesson plans and classroom management and knowing TFA, a lot more. Then the following week we will get our students that we will be student teaching. We will be teaching summer school for kids who didn't pass their grade yet. (At the end of the summer schools will pass most students regardless of how prepared they are for the next grade because the pass/fail rates get reported to authorities and reflect upon the school's effectiveness and success. This means it is our job to catch them up to standards or else they may never get on track and keep falling further and further behind their peers. Big task for student teachers, huh?) I'm teaching at Harper-Archer Middle School, but I don't know what subject yet. I thought induction required early mornings and late nights... not even close. My bus leaves for Harper-Archer at 6:25am, and most people say they didn't get to go to sleep until the wee hours of the morning. I'm really nervous, but also really excited to get to student teach and actually see the faces of some of the kids whose lives TFA can change. I'm sure that will boost my drive and my "sipping of the Kool-Aid" times a million!

One cool thing is that a bunch of other corps (Hawaii, New Orleans, Memphis, Nashville and some others) just moved into GA Tech today because, although everyone goes to induction week in their own placement city, there are only a few summer institute locations and Atlanta is one of them. We really lucked out there. We have already become acclimated to our host campus, and to the city somewhat and we didn't have to travel twice (and then they have to travel back). There are hundreds and hundreds of TFA corps members here now!!

Another update, my content placement got changed. I'm no longer teaching special education students, I'm teaching elementary school. I'm pretty excited about the switch because this means I will definitely have the younger children (where I was more likely to have high schoolers as a special ed. teacher) and I'll definitely have my own classroom (where I could have co-taught students in someone else's class room as a special ed. teacher). Some lucky room in some lucky school will be Miss Diven's room... Yay! :)

I won't give all the loooooong details about induction week and everything I learned, but here are some not-so-fun facts that I learned, food for thought about the very REAL achievement gap and disadvantages students of minorities and low income households face, specifically in Atlanta.

1) Many states, including Georgia, decide how many additional jail cells to build each year based on how many third graders can't read. (This is one thing we learned that hit me the hardest. Third graders are essentially, statistically being damned to prison in their futures based on their literacy level as an 8 year old! Their schools, their teachers and "the system" are failing them beyond belief! Someone has to interfere and stop the trend, the vicious cycle that keeps people from achieving. That's where a TFA corps member can completely change lives.)

2.) Nobody cared enough to hold Clayton County school officials accountable for their decisions and let them fly under the radar for so long that the county recently lost accreditation as a school system. High school seniors who worked 12 years to graduate did not receive a high school diploma. Through no fault of their own they will have very very few opportunities for college or even jobs. (This one is probably tied with my previous fact for how sad it made me. It's a largely black, largely poor school system and authorities were apathetic to implement expectations and just plain didn't care.) Many of the school system officials were fired and others worked very hard to gain the county's accreditation back and this year TFA will be placing teachers there for the first time to turn some of those classrooms around.

3.) SAT scores: (And these reflect the highest achieving students in the disadvantaged groups mentioned and a much broader range of students from affluent schools considering who takes the SAT as it is optional.)
3a.) On the 2009 SAT in the US private school students scored an average of 185 points better than their public school peers. Let's do some calculations. I went to a public school and scored a 1290 (pretty good when compared to other students at my high school, but not so hot compared to other kids at Clemson). Had I gone to private school that score (based on averages) could have been a 1475, which is really high and I guarantee I would've gotten a scholarship and not be in debt right now. Wealthy families means more academically advantaged students.
3b.) The average difference between white and black students: 305 points!! More math: If I was an African-American student statistically I would have scored a 985. Latino and hispanic students score an average of 219 points lower than white students. That would not have even gotten me into college... any college.
3c.) But this isn't just about race. You can't "blame" it on something natural like race. Money matters. Students whose families make $100,000-120,000 score 258 points less.
3d.) Educational privilege is real and the cycle is vicious. On the 2009 SAT the difference between students whose parents who graduate from grad school and those whose parents did not graduate high school was 402 points!!!!!! This means that, on average, if your parents succeeded academically at a graduate level you would get the scores to get the scholarships to go to college and those who need the education and the scholarships most don't have nearly as much of a chance.

If you think the difference is easy to fix and make up with hard work, it's not. These students have less resources, less qualified and motivated teachers and often more social challenges and responsibilities outside of school. How can you stay after school for help when your parents don't own a car? How as a child can you improve your literacy when you don't have any books at home? You need motivated, caring and helpful teachers to help.

This isn't meant to make any people of privilege feel guilty and go into defense mode, which I think it often does. It's meant to make people realize how blessed we are and how many advantages many of us have had before we judge others and dismiss the achievement gap.

As for my title, it's a little something that I need to keep reminding myself. At the beginning of this week I honestly had a really bad attitude. I thought the TFA staff expected way too much of us and that this work was just too hard. But the truth is, they hold high expectations for us so that we rise to the occasion and they demand a lot of us because they care about these children more than anything in the world, more than themselves. And by committing to TFA we committed to doing the same... and I'm going to do it. Our lives aren't always about us. Sometimes God calls on us to do greater things. The next two years are about my students.

Well it's time for bed, early morning tomorrow!!

PS: One more thing. I signed a lease for an apartment in Atlanta. I got a fantastic deal on a 2br/2ba apartment in a really nice area just outside of Midtown in Buckhead. PRIME location!!! There are multi-million dollar mansions just down the street, and it's a little greener than the urban environment of Midtown, but still right in the middle of everything. We have HUGE walk-in closets, a patio, a pool, outdoor kitchen and picnic area, dog park, outdoor fireplace and 24 hour gym. It's a fairly new building and I'm living with and near some really awesome fellow TFA corps members. I'm so excited! I move in July 10th! :) Check out my new home!

I can't even think of a title right now...

Today was the first day of induction and I am ready to pull my hair out. I'm not as afraid of teaching as I am afraid of the Teach for America process. I'll write in more detail later. Right now I need to go to sleep because I've been running myself ragged all day and have to be up at the crack of dawn. Send some prayers my way, I'm going to need some extra strength.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.

Well, tomorrow is the big day! I move into the dorms at Georgia Tech to start Teach for America! I am really excited to meet the rest of the 2010 Atlanta corps members and see what institute and induction are all about! I'm also really nervous about moving to a new, HUGE city (from backwoods Clemson, haha <3), not knowing where anything is and living in a dorm again... AHH!! I had to load up on dorm-adaptable snack food today at Wal-Mart because I don't know that I will have a refrigerator or microwave or anything and we'll see how well I can revert back to dining hall food. haha.

I've kept myself extremely busy today preparing for my move, which helped me avoid being a big ball of nerves. I still have a lot to do but the nervousness is starting to find its way back in. Will I make friends? Can I comfortably share a room again? Will I be able to keep up with the vigorous work load? Are all of the kids there going to be smarter than me? Will I pass my GACE exams and even be eligible to teach in the fall? I have all of these questions and all of these doubts, but I just have to stay focused and keep my eyes focused on the goal: the students that I will get to teach. The more I immerse myself in the next few weeks and work hard and learn, the better equipped I will be to help them and better their futures.

God had this in his plan for me for a reason. I have to look to Him for the strength, perseverance and wisdom to get through it all: the next 6 weeks and the 2 years after. "When you come to the end of all the light you know, and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: Either you will be given something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly." With the help of God and Teach for America and the support of the people I care about, I will learn to fly. Wish me luck!

"Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms." 1 Peter 4:10

"Oh, I thought you were someone who liked to blog about their ideals..."

... So yeah, I guess I'm a blogger now.

I recently got accepted into Teach for America, a program that places mostly recent college grads into underprivileged schools around the country to teach for two years. They'll train me all summer (teacher's boot camp basically) to be the best teacher possible and in the fall I'll teach special education students in Atlanta, GA. Their goal is to close the achievement gap between students from families of a higher socioeconomic status and underprivileged students, especially minorities. It's a very real problem that often gets swept under the rug and blamed on the people who are essentially the victims, the students.

Teach for America is a highly reputable, very competitive program, so I'm proud of my acceptance and excited for a new opportunity to make a positive change, but I'm also really nervous. It's been an emotional roller coaster since Wednesday when I got my acceptance e-mail. I was put on a wait list for the program, so I basically took that as a denial and made other plans. I had an assistantship to stay at Clemson for grad school all but guaranteed and was even apartment hunting when I got my acceptance letter. I thought I was going to have a super flexible summer, go visit my family, my boyfriend's family, go to a friend's wedding, go to a development training event and hang out in Clemson with a great part time job. In the fall I would have a great job, work towards my MPA and be with a great boyfriend who applied to Clemson for me (and a good assistantship) ...all of which I was SUPER excited about... until my TFA acceptance turned my world upside down. TFA is such a great opportunity though, I will get certified to be a highly qualified special education teacher, get to live in a really cool city and TFA is so highly thought of and competitive that it's on Business Week's Top 10 places to launch a career, right up there with Google, IBM and Microsoft. It will look phenomenal on a resume and hopefully open up a lot of doors for me, whether it's a future job or scholarships to better graduate programs. Plus, most importantly, my biggest goal in life is to “Go into the world and do well. But, more importantly, go into the world and do good.” (Minor Meyers Jr.), so I could not turn down the opportunity to take a leadership role in making a positive difference in the lives of children through such a highly reputable organization... I just couldn't, without worrying that I would regret it later. It wasn't easy though, I cried about losing my sense of freedom, the things I'll miss and being away from someone I care about.

I have to leave for Atlanta in two weeks and I'll be in training more than full time all summer. This will consist of classes, tests and teaching summer school with a group of TFA trainees and a veteran teacher. I have to be on a bus everyday at 6:30 am!! Anyone that knows me knows that it will be a miracle if I don't miss this bus once a week. I'm the slowest person ever, especially getting ready in the morning and I am NOT a morning person. haha. From June 1st-July 10th I'll live in Georgia Tech dorms... fun, not. haha. And during that time I'll try to find someone in TFA that I might want to live with, and go apartment shopping on the weekends. This roommate must like dogs because I need a pup in my life... bad. haha.

Teaching for the next two years is said by TFA alum to be the hardest, but most rewarding thing I'll ever do... so here goes nothing.

To keep my friends and family up to date I'll try to post as much as I can during Induction, Institute and then teaching!! Wish me luck and keep me (& my future students) in your prayers! We'll need it! haha

Love,
Erika