My Cohort

This is my cohort in our matching Rodriguez Elementary School t-shirts provided so generously by our CMA.  Although you might think we're reppin being #2, what we are actually doing is our sign for when we agree with someone.  (Teacher trick #2 to keep class quiet instead of 30 little voices screaming, "Me too, me too, me too!")  Our CMA is responsible for the 12 of us during the summer and edits all our lesson plans and calms us down when we're all freaking out.  Casual Fridays are the best.

You know what else is the best?  The weekend.  Today is my first completely free day since I arrived in Houston since last weekend I had the grand idea to fly back to California for graduation.  I got to sleep in until 9 this morning.  Just taking it easy and finally getting my room and the hundreds of papers I have accumulated over the past week organized.  And of course, I'm lesson planning.

Ms. Arrasmith

So it's been a while since I last posted.  Let me briefly give you a glimpse into the craziness of the past couple weeks when I went from Kiki, UC Davis Spanish/Communication major to Ms. Arrasmith, teacher.

Rice University

I left Dallas along with the other 190 DFW (Dallas, Fort-Worth) corps members and drove to Houston.  The time to myself in my car was a nice break from the constant social interaction at induction.  I arrived at Rice University and was greeted by friendly TFA staff and plenty of humidity.  They had a very smooth move-in process, and we had a short orientation.

Monday morning started early and the first week was filled with sessions ranging from data collection to family support to lesson planning clinics.  We found out which schools we would be teaching summer school at, and also learned who our fellow "collab" members are.  (Collab is short for collaborative.  TFA lingo is all  about abbreves and acronyms.)  Basically, I, along with 3 other ladies, are taking over one summer school class.  I am at Rodriguez Elementary School in the Gulfton area teaching 4th grade this summer.  Gulfton happens to be in one of the most dangerous zip codes in all of Texas, and the population of the school is about 97% Hispanic.  Most of the population of the school is comprised on newly arrived immigrants (most have been in the country for less than 5 years.)

Our class rules

Hearing this stats made me a little bit nervous to find out what teaching would actually be like.  But, I was very pleasantly surprised when I found that these kids are just like any other kids, and was reminded again about the reason that TFA exists; and that is that we believe that all kids have the ability to succeed and that our country is doing a great injustice in letting low-income communities' schools slip through the cracks.

Like I said, I am teaching 4th graders going into 5th grade this summer.  I have a class of 9 boys, and they are the best champions I have ever met!  Every day each teacher rotates and we all spend about an hour teaching our content area.  We rotate through the subjects as well and this past week I got to teach science.  Now, for those of you that know me well, you know that science isn't exactly my thing.  BUT.  I had so much fun teaching science this week!  It's pretty much all of my kids' favorite subject area and they were so excited to get to learn about reflection and refraction, mixtures and solutions, and melting and boiling points.  I was even able to relate the reflection and refraction lesson to soccer, which they just ate up.

And now I officially start being obsessed with my students

Our theme for our students is the Olympics because we want our students to strive to reach excellence by working hard and persevering just like Olympic athletes.  We know that they have many obstacles standing in their way, but we tell them every day how much we want them to succeed today, in summer school, in 5th grade, and beyond so that they can have a bright future by going to college.  Our class mascot is "Charlie the Champion" who embodies the four character traits that represent our class.  They are: bilingualism, self-advocacy, optimism, and critical thinking.  The first hour of every day all 4 teachers are in the room for what we call "Academic Intervention Hour."  Next week we will start working with the students in smaller groups to target those kids that need remediation or enrichment, but this week we got to use the time to teach the students about our big goals and visions, and to teach them about the traits.  Each one of the four has motions and all of the kids know them now.  Javier even used one of the motions completely unprompted during a different class!  That was definitely one of the highlights of my week.

Teachers on the bus in the morning

Life is so incredibly busy right now.  I get up around 5:30 every morning to catch my bus and be at school by 7:15, and stay at the elementary school until we get picked up around 5pm.  In the morning we teach during Academic Intervention Hour, and then I have my one hour of teaching.  Next week I will get to teach these kiddos about writing expository pieces!  So exciting!  After lunch we have different sessions which are a lot like lectures.  Unfortunately after getting up so early and being up so late, sitting in back to back sessions in the afternoon about phonemic awareness and planning an academic intervention can sometimes be tough.

The line for making copies at the copy center

Once we get back to Rice University, there's just enough time to grab dinner before it's back to work.  We're always revising our lesson plan for the following day while having to turn in rough drafts for the next few days.  I have been lucky and I have been pretty successful at writing these plans, but now I have to learn  how to do it more efficiently because although my lesson plan was great, it took me maybe 3 or 4 hours to write one for 45 minutes of instruction, and when I'm planning for 7 hours of instruction, that just becomes mathematically impossible.  (Ok, I don't know if that's actually true, but good thing I'm not teaching higher math).

Clearly, incorrect.

The main point is that even though it can be more stressful and overwhelming than I have ever experienced, I have never felt like anything was more right.  It just seems so natural and I'm loving every minute that I get to be in that classroom.  I look forward to my time in the classroom with anticipation each morning, and I'm taking that as good sign.  But, as you can see by this assessment question on the left, I still have something to learn about getting knowledge into these kids' brains.

Charlie's Angels

I received the following text message from my principal last night:

"I'm confident that I have selected the best 2012 TFA Corps Members for T.A. Sims Elementary.  I have been bragging on you all to everyone.  Since you all are such an endearing and diverse group of 3, I have given you all the nickname of 'Charlie's Angels'

Again, welcome to the Brilliant Bulldog Team.  -Harper"

That's Bianca on my left and Cara on my right.  Bianca will take 5th grade, and Cara and I will be doing 4th grade.  On the far right is Catherine who is a Manager, Teacher Leadership Development (MTLD).

So, like I said, I think I've hit the jackpot.

Day 3

Today was a long and filled day.  We all went to a local high school and learned more about setting our visions and big goals for our classrooms.  One of the highlights was hearing from parents of some of the students taught by corps members, but the best part by far was getting to talk to some of the students!

The first pair that I got to talk to were 5th graders from T.A. Sims!  I teared up a little bit hearing them talk about how much they loved their teacher and how, when asked what they wanted to be when they grew up, responded, "When I grow up I want to be a doctor.  The steps I have to take are take pre-AP classes in middle school, go to the charter high school, take the SAT and ACT, go to either UT or Yale, and then go to medical school."  9 year olds.  Whose dominant language is Spanish.  I was blown away by how articulate they were and how invested they were in the goals that their teacher had set at the beginning of the year.  After those two lovely students, I was able to talk to students from 8th grade, a recent high school graduate, and two adorable 3rd graders.  The common thread throughout all of the conversations was students who knew exactly what was expected of them being inspired by a teacher who showed how much they cared by investing in their students personally and creating an engaging classroom environment where learning was fun.

Then we got to go out to dinner with our "transition teams" which are basically orientation groups.  Tomorrow I am so lucky to have most of the day off since I have taken care of testing and finger printing already.  I am planning to head out to Fort Worth to check out some housing and possibly drop by T.A. Sims.  In the evening, we have the pleasure of heading out to dinner hosted by TFA alumni.

Ta ta for now!

Hired!

So my biggest news is that I got hired today.  But let me back track a little and paint a picture of what the past couple days have been like.

Day 1

I drove to Southern Methodist University, which is where we're staying for the duration of what TFA likes to call "induction" which goes until Sunday.  It's our chance to get to know the other corps members and to explore the Dallas Forth area.

Check-in was super fast and easy, but what wasn't so swell was transporting the contents of my car to the dorm.  It was probably about 90 degrees out and I got to make three trips.  Some day I'm going to have to learn to pack lightly.

I put on my new business casual attire and headed over to the cafeteria with some people to get lunch.  I was surprised when it was full of about three hundred middle school girls in various matching outfits, all cheerleaders.  From there we all went to a big conference room and sat through different sessions for the rest of the afternoon.  They gave us a lot of information about what exactly is going on in the region as far as the education reform movement and what our role was going to be in that.  It was all very inspiring, but also got long to sit through.

After that we got to enjoy the opening dinner, complete with servers bringing us salad, entrees, and dessert.  The dinner included four different speakers who talked about the four pillars of the DFW corps: flexible, relentless, creators, and united.  After that, most of the group headed to various study groups for the TExES exam that will be taken on Friday.  Lucky for me, I took mine already on Monday.  Even luckier, I passed!

Day 2

Today was district day.  Since I was assigned to teach in the Fort Worth Independent School District, that's where I went.  There are 190 corps members in the DFW region, but only 17 of those are in FWISD.  (There are an additional 8 in charter schools in Forth Worth, bringing our grand total to 25 2012 corps members in Fort Worth.)  So the 17 of us, dressed in our suits, got into cars and drove an hour to Fort Worth.  The plan was to have lunch with principals that were looking to fill vacancies in their schools.  With the exception of one guy, we were all assigned bilingual elementary school, and these principals were looking for just that.

We walked in to find a few principals already waiting.  The beginning was a little bit awkward because there wasn't any real structure.  But then one of the principals started pulling people aside and interviewing them.  The rest followed suit and all of a sudden some of us were in one-on-one interview while others were doing group interviews.  I first sat down with two ladies who were principal and vice-principal of a school that had never had TFA teachers.  We talked, and then I went towards the back where everyone was standing when we weren't being interviewed.  Then a principal, Ms. Harper, pulled me and one other girl over to her table.  Ms. Harper was one of the most energetic people there, and I liked her instantly. She asked us about four of five questions, and then went to conference with one of the TFA staff.  She had 6 TFA teachers last year on her campus and absolutely loved them, and had 3 spots to fill this year.  She returned and explained that she was just going to take a risk, and choose her top pick out of the two of us and said, "Ms. Arrasmith, I would like to offer you a position at T.A. Sims Elementary."

I shook her hand and accepted my first real job!

TFA has a stipulation that all corps members must accept their first offer.  As soon as the first principal hired her first teacher, it was almost like an auction or a shark feeding or something.  Principals were talking to the TFA staff saying, "Ok, now is she hired yet?  Ok, let me talk to her before anybody else does...Ok, I want him.  Dang, he's already taken!"  16 of us were hired within the hour.

Ms. Harper ended up hiring that other girl that was in my interview group, as well as one other.  Two of us will be teaching fourth grade, and one of us will be teaching fifth (all bilingual).  I am most likely going to be doing fourth.  The school has an extra long school day (7:30-4:30) and also way more evaluations than most other schools.  One of the 2011's told me that Ms. Harper had fired about half the teachers the previous year, and that she had a fantastic vision for the school.  It's predominantly hispanic, and all of the students are part of the poverty class.  It's definitely going to be something unlike anything I've ever experienced before.  But, I think I'm in good hands...Ms. Harper had us all take a picture together and do a group hug before she left.

From there, the 2011 corps members had set up a scavenger hunt around Fort Worth for us to get to know the area.  Our first destination was the Stockyards where all the real Texan things happen.  Unfortunately, as soon as we got there, a torrential downpour started.  For the rest of the scavenger hunt, we simply drove to the locations and stayed in the car to avoid the floods.  The only place we got out was at the gelatto place where we watched a patio chair fly by outside due to the crazy wind.

After that, the 2011 Fort Worth corps members hosted a dinner for us at one of their apartments.  It was originally intended to be a poolside BBQ, but the weather changed that plan.  I got to meet most of the 2011 six teachers who will be at my school which was really awesome!  They're all so supportive and they've already done so many amazing things.  I can't wait to be part of that.  This dinner is not uncommon for the Forth Worth crew as they do potlucks almost every Sunday and for every holiday.  It felt like I was in Fountain Circle again with all of my College Life friends.

Over the past two days, I have felt so many times that this just feels right.  Everything about it.  In some cases I feel like this is what I was made for, and that all the preparation of AP classes, college, and studying abroad are coming to a point and finally allowing me to make something of it.  I'm so glad that I'm in Fort Worth and that there's such a tight-knit community there.  I feel like I hit the jackpot with my school placement and the support that I will have there.

Also, lightning is really cool.  Texans are over it.  The sky just lit up!  It's cool.

Journey.

What's it like to drive halfway across the country?  Usually, I would say awful.  Motion sickness has always accompanied me on all my trips.

This almost caused me to have a nervous breakdown because I realized Thursday, the day before I left, that I was incredibly unprepared for the test that I had to take on Monday.  There was no way I was going to feel ready if I wasn't able to study in the car.

BUT.  By some miracle (thank you for your prayers), not only was I able to sit in the car for thirteen hours without getting nauseous, but I was able to read!  The entire time.

Also everything important has gone smoothly.  We had to stop by the Finnish embassy in LA to renew my passport, and I was done by the time my mom was able to find a parking spot.  There was relatively little traffic most of the way, and somehow we weren't exhausted when we reached our destinations at the end of the day. I took my test this morning, and we got there with plenty of time to spare.  I really hope I passed.  I have to pass.  I will know in about a week what the results are.  I also had to get fingerprinted today, and that was super quick and easy.

My thoughts about Dallas so far- SO much traffic.  Like LA status.  So many freeways.  So few clearly marked freeways and exits.  No carpool lane?  SMU is beautiful.  I have never been so happy to see a Whole Foods in my life.  (Comfort in the familiar things.)  Ahhh, my official first day is tomorrow!!  What have I gotten myself into?  I'm so excited!

The Beginning.

So I was unsure about having a blog, but I read somewhere that people who are public servants owe it to their communities to share their stories.  It feels rather narcissistic detailing my own life, but I realized that this new adventure that I am embarking upon is a story far bigger than just me.  As many of you know, I'm in Dallas with Teach for America, entering the classroom as a young,  idealistic, driven, recent grad that (perhaps foolishly) believes I truly can change the course of the lives of my students.  I'm sure that the next year, and even just the next month, will hold challenges and obstacles that I can't even imagine at the moment, but intertwined with those moments of despair, loneliness, joy, and accomplishment will be the beautiful stories of many others.  I hope to share these with you all in the hopes that you will continue to share with me your own stories.  Let "la aventura" begin!