What am I Doing?

This isn't an "AAAHHHHHH I AM SO STRESSED OUT WHAT AM I DOING??!?!?!?!?" post. It's more of an explanation of exactly what it is that I am doing this summer so y'all know what I'm talking about when I talk about TFA Institute and understand why I go to bed at 10:45 every night.

So 97% percent of TFA Corps Members don't have an education degree, and TFA has one summer to get us all up to speed about how to become effective teachers in low-income communities. Basically, we learn in 5 weeks some of what education majors learn in 4 years. So you can think of Institute as Teach Boot Camp. We call it "Intenstitute".

A normal day is like this:

Wake up at 5 AM, shower, get into professional clothes (VERY different meaning in Arizona than back East), eat breakfast (haven't done that in 5 years), and then hop on a bus which leaves at 6:15 for Agua Fria High School, which is where I will be student teaching this summer.

I'm teaching 9th Grade Success English; basically this is a high school-prep English crash course for 8th graders who feel they need more help adjusting to high school or were forced to come here by the state. Students arrive next Monday (terrifying), so until then we have been in 9-hour days of sessions on how to lesson plan, manage a classroom without reverting to corporal punishment, and diversity training. We get about 20 minutes to break for lunch, and then the bus leaves Agua Fria at 4:15 to head back to Tempe.

By this point I'm usually starving, so I head straight to dinner at the ASU cafeterias. The food is wonderful here; I forgot how great dorm food was. Or at least how great it is when you can't afford to eat anywhere else. But I've always been a big fan of fast food/processed food/institutional food anyways.

The rest of the night consists of lesson planning, management planning, or whatever other homework there might be, and that usually takes a few hours. I then go to them gym for an hour (best part of the day), call someone from home (it's my way to escape all this - you're lucky if you win the Peter-calls-you lottery!), and try to be in bed by 10:45 (I always fail at this) in order to start it all over again the next day.

I worked a 16-hour day on Wednesday. That was tough.

Of course this all changes next week when the kids arrive. Actually, my whole life changes next week when the kids arrive.

When kids are in the classroom, I team-teach with 3 other TFAers, and we each present a lesson. Arizona state law states that a certified teacher must be in every classroom at all times, so that person is supposed to act as out Faculty Mentor, although since Arizona has run out of money and can't afford to hire any more Faculty Mentors, I was "emergency certified" as a teacher last week (terrifying!) and will be our group's FM (The state of Arizona really needs to raise it's teaching standards).

We'll get a ton of feedback from the Institute staff (there are 30 of them at my school site), and we're expected to immediately implement that feedback in our classrooms.

I'm just hoping the kids don't burn the damn building down.

(Imagine the Headline: "Idealistic New Teachers Fall Victim to Vicious Mob of Pubescent Arsonists at Agua Fria High")

We're also expected to have 100% of our kids pass their final exam this summer. And I have 19 instructional days to do this. The clock is ticking and I have my work cut out for me.

So that's why I'm super-stressed, caffeine-crazed, and hungry Monday-Friday and that's also why I'm a booze-fueled mess on Friday nights. But tonight I'm bone tired and am gonna try and get some rest tonight in order to power through and get all my work done tomorrow so I can go to happy hour all week next week. Simple pleasures.

They say TFA Institute is like pledging a frat: it's the most fun you'll never want to have again. And it is fun. The people are awesome, the nights out are epic, and everyone's in the same boat, willing to help each other out.

The bottom line is that I've never worked harder in my life, but I'm also really enjoying myself. Wrap your head around that one...I still can't figure it out.

So that's what I'm doing this summer. Please keep in touch (thanks to everyone who has reached out these past few weeks - it really helps me power through a tough day), and I miss everyone!

Only 19 more working days of Institute left.

peace and love from the grand canyon state,

pb