Post-Institute

So I finished institute last Friday. 

It was rather bittersweet.  Saying goodbye to my kids was tough, but it was also a huge relief to be done with the crazy schedule that they had us on.  What was a little strange about the whole experience was that there wasn't much build-up to the end.  Most times in my life when I have transitioned from one thing to another, there has been a good amount of anticipation of the end.  When I was a senior graduating high school and college, I had a lot of time to think about my time ending there.  Institute was such an intense and short experience that now it seems rather surreal that it even happened.  It felt a little bit like we were all just doing our best to push through the next couple lesson plans and figure out housing back in our regions that it was all of a sudden, over.

Going from an extremely structured schedule to having no schedule has been an adjustment.  Especially when currently I am technically homeless.  I am really excited about where I will be living, but unfortunately we can't move in until a week from today.  So, what this means is that all of my belongings are packed tight in my car, and that I am shamelessly crashing at friends' places.  Me, my air mattress, and my study materials are finding homes all around the Dallas-Fort Worth region.  It's an interesting experience when I would like something of mine, but I have no idea in which bag it might be.  I know that all I have is in my car somewhere, but for the meantime I'm using whatever is on top.  My new office is Starbucks because they won't kick me out and they have Internet.  Lucky for me, I know lots of amazing people who are more than happy to house me.

So what am I doing with all this free time?

Well, first...sleep.  Taking advantage of that time while I can.

First step into my school

 I got to meet with my principal and offically tour my school and my classroom!  I am officially teaching 5th grade bilingual in the fall and should expect somewhere around 24 students.  There will be five 5th grade teachers including me, 3 of which will be bilingual.  I got a really great feeling stepping into the hallway and seeing these banners up.  My classroom is basically a blank canvas which means that I have a lot of opportunity to create whatever I want.  For those of you that know me well, this also means lots of decisions which is not exactly good news for me.

I was able to grab some of the teacher manuals for some of the 5th grade curriculum.  I haven't quite had a chance to look at it yet because I'm supposed to be studying for the Bilingual Supplement test that I have to take on Tuesday.  This test deals with the history and theories surrounding bilingual education in the US and Texas.  I also have to take another language proficiency test next Saturday.  Right now of course I'm updating my blog instead of studying.  Luckily the test is only about 70 multiple choice questions so it shouldn't be too bad.  That's of course assuming that I actually crack open my book and get some studying done.

View from the door to the classroom

Other than that, I have been down to the district office a couple of times to fill our paperwork.  Today I got to sit through a thrilling four-hour orientation explaining some district policies and insurance benefits.  This is all the stuff that makes me think that being a grown up is just really bad luck.  Luckily I still have my parents who will help me become a grown up by helping me navigate banking, insurance, and everything else that comes along with the territory.

View from the front of my classroom

In addition to all that, I have been working on getting stuff set up for our apartment.  It's complicated by the fact that we won't actually be able to get our keys on our move-in day because we have training all day in Dallas.  This is where all the problem-solving and critical thinking skills that I kept talking about with all of my students come in. 

And yes, I have been having some fun.  One of the girls I'm staying with has family in the area and last night I was able to go with her to her home.  All I can say is that authentic Mexican food and family is the best.  Such a treat after 6 weeks living in the dorms.

Well I suppose I should get back to that studying now.

"Ms. Arrasmith, have you ever been happy in your life?"

So since today the kids took FOREVER taking their reading test, I didn't end up teaching.  I did, however, have an interesting conversation with one of the students.

F. had come back from taking his math test since he hadn't been here yesterday.  (When we asked him where he was the previous day he said that his dad had thought last week was the last week of summer school.)  I was walking around checking on other students when I saw him looking off into space.  As I walked towards him, he turned to me and said, "Ms. Arrasmith...have you ever been happy in your life?"

Quite surprised, I said, "Yes, yes I have."  F. just kept looking at me, so I thought to myself, "Well I guess I'm going to have to give examples."  So I continued, "I've been happy when I'm with my family, with my friends, or when I do really well on a test."  His response was, "Have you ever been scared?"  I said, "Yes I have," and simultaneously wondered what in the world might come out of his mouth next and racked my brain to come up with a student-friendly and relevant example of being scared.

Instead, I turned it around and asked him, "Have you ever been scared?"  He replied casually, "Yes, I watched a scary show once."

Then I said, "Tell me what you're thinking about right now."  He went on to describe the scary television show he had seen.  So then I asked him if he had ever been happy before.  He said, "Ya, at my birthday party."  I asked him more about his birthday party and he told me all about it.  Then he started telling me all about how his older brother who is only a year older tells him that reading is important because he needs to get smarter.  (Yes!)  He also said that this brother "pranks" him at night so that he doesn't get to sleep very much.  He explained that pranking meant pouring water on his face.  Then F. went on to tell me about a show he had seen where a girl had a problem, that comes naturally, where she confused letters in words when she's reading.  I asked, "You mean dyslexia?"  "Ya, ya that was it."

I have spent a little bit of time wondering whether he was unsure if I have ever been happy or if he was trying to decide if he had ever been happy.  Now although I might be strict about students sitting in STAR (sitting up, tracking the speaker, asking questions, and raising hands), I'm pretty sure that I come off as a happy person, so I don't think that that was it.  F. seems like a perfectly happy person, so I don't know if this was the surface of something deeper or if it was simply a question from a ten-year-old boy.  Looking back I wish I had said something about the meaning of happiness and that being truly happy is not a fleeting emotion, but rather an attitude.  Next time.

Perhaps the best part of this conversation was the end where F. asked if he could bring family to the celebration time on Thursday (our last day of summer school).  He said that his brother really wants to come so that he can meet all of us teachers.  This pretty much melted my heart because it means that F. has talked about us to his brother, and that he has said good things about us!  Sometimes it gets hard to remember what this is all about amidst the lesson planning and making hundreds of copies late into the night, but moments like these always bring me back.  We haven't gotten the results of their post-assessments back yet, but this exchange today convinces me that we have been able to make a difference in the lives of these students, even if we were only with them for 4 weeks.

One student, J., the one who has improved the most this summer has his last day tomorrow.  He told us at the end of today, "I am going to Mexico at 5pm on Thursday."  Another student asked him, "Forever?"

It was funny, but also disheartening because it reminded me that this is the reality that my students face.  I'm sure that almost all of my students could tell stories of family members and friends being deported.  In fact, earlier this summer, one of our other students wrote in a writing assignment that he was going to Mexico and there was quite a confusion and some distress about whether he meant on vacation or forever.  In another classroom at our school, one student started crying when he heard that one of his peers was going to Mexico because he thought that he was leaving forever.  Many of our students have siblings that live in Central America.

I am glad to say that I can without a doubt tell F. that I have indeed been happy in my life.  Thanks to God for the abundant blessings in my life, and for all of the truly amazing people he has placed in my life to bring me such great joy.

4th of July, College Day, and a weekend in Houston

So right now I'm sitting in the copy center waiting for my documents to upload to the server so that I can print them.  Luckily this will be the end of my work tonight and I can get to bed early.  I've woken up with a sore throat for the past few days, and today the true "ickiness" hit.  I spent most of the afternoon in bed and even slept through both church and breakfast this morning.  Thanks to some DayQuil, I'm feeling much better now.

Teachers ready for the students to arrive

 College Day was so much fun!  We got to give the kids a tour of some cool spots on campus including a part of the Berlin Wall, this million dollar building that reflects light in such a way that when sunset happens it turns all different colors, a college lecture hall, and the basketball stadium.  Our three boys were very well-behaved, and one of them even brought a notebook and was taking notes at different points throughout the day.  That pretty much made my day.  Probably because I was that kid in elementary school.

The million dollar building

My favorite part of the day though was probably when we were walking past the swimming pool.  There was an older gentlemen in a speedo, and one of my boys said, "He's wearing mini boxers!" and all three of them could NOT stop giggling.  It was nice to see some of their personalities come out, even if it was over mini boxers.

We worked Wednesday the 4th, and then got Friday off instead.  I got to go out to dinner with some of the other teachers on Wednesday.  Getting off of Rice was a great change of pace.  We watched the fireworks from the top of the dorms with lots of other people.  Unfortunately we couldn't celebrate too much since we had to be up early to meet our kiddos for the college day.

Dinner

Thursday evening I got to go out for drinks at a Mexican restaurant which was a blast.  Friday since I had the day off I got to have a nice relaxed morning.  During the afternoon I went to downtown Houston with some girls.  We realized afterward that we had probably gone to the wrong part of downtown because there wasn't much to see there and we even had to cross the street at one point to avoid some sketchy looking people.  We did, however, manage to find Forever 21 and some froyo so we all counted it as a success.  Friday was when I started thinking that I might be coming down with something because I was rather sleepy.  So I had a relaxed evening and went to bed early.

The lecture hall where college students learn and teachers
go to class when they aren't teaching.

Yesterday I attempted to get some work done during the day.  I succeeded in some parts while failing miserably at getting ahead like I had planned.  Since I had rested most of the day, I felt just fine and I went to Chinatown for dinner with some teacher friends, and then went out in Rice Village to a few bars with some other friends.  First we went to a Spanish tapas bar where I was delighted to have some tasty sangria, but disappointed that the tapas weren't free.

This morning was when I woke up not feeling the best.  And now here we are.  Luckily I got all my copies made, and they're all paper-clipped and in folders to take to school in the morning.  I'm so glad that this is the last week of institute.  I will certainly miss the friends that I have made here and will definitely miss my students, but I am very ready to shower without having to wear shoes and be able to make some of my own food.  After 4 weeks of dorm-living during the most stressful and exhausting experience I have gone through yet, I'm ready to be settled in.  Just 4 more teaching days!

The poster our students made while at college

What I don't look forward to is trying re-pack the mess that I have made my room.  There are hundreds of papers that need to be organized not to mention the various items I have collected over the past few weeks that most likely won't fit nicely into two suitcases.

Well that's it from this end.  Oh, except Houston's hot.  And humid.  I don't know why people choose to voluntarily live here when there are so many other places that are so much better.  Yay hooray for being able to go back to DFW!

Also- you probably figured it out, but unfortunately I can't post pictures of my students online.

Ciao <3

Howdy!

My teaching team-these are the girls that I spend 12 hours a day with

So currently I really should be getting work done, but a little procrastination never hurt anybody, right?  Ok, well maybe, but I wanted to post a few pictures that I took during the past week.  The past week was crazy, but we got through it once again.  I had such a great time teaching writing because it's my favorite subject.

What we try to look like in the mornings

Highlight:  There is one student, J., and this is his first class in English.  His English is pretty good, but he still has some trouble understanding sometimes.  At the beginning of summer school, he was pretty hesitant to raise his hand and to speak in the group, but we have been working to encourage him to ask questions and to volunteer his answers.  On Wednesday, I called on him and he wasn't sure if he got the right answer or not, but he totally did, and I jumped up and down ecstatic.  He had the biggest grin on his face, and the boy C. sitting next to him, gave him a pat on the back and said, "See, I told you you knew it!"  Best.  Moment.  Ever.

What we feel like in the mornings

This week we only teach on Monday and Tuesday since Wednesday is the 4th of July.  On Thursday we are having a "College Day" where we get to bring 3 of our students to Rice University and show them what college actually is.  Due to budget restraints we can't take all of our students, and it nearly broke our hearts just to pick three.  But we did, and I think it will be a really meaningful day for both the students and the teachers.

Well I think that's about all I've got right now because like I said, I really should be doing lesson planning today.  Here are some pictures from my classroom!

Our class motto: "Awesome star camps work hard!"

Consequences and Rewards in our classroom

Snapshot of the room

Class goal

"Your choices today are your chances tomorrow."

"Thank you for teaching me.  Youre the bet Teachers I ever met."- A note from one of our students.

Our DFW staff paid us a visit and got us all matching duck hats.  "Ducks fly together"

My cohort- the people that I work with

Part of TFA Day- crazy spirit day here at Rice University