TFA-robots, at a store near you

wow...seventeen days since i last updated... i'm going to blame it on TFA and all the lesson plans i have to write nightly. actually, not just the lesson plans, but all of the insane amount of work we have to do around here. below is part of an email i sent to my aunt julie that is a great synopsis of my life in this place:

things are going really well, considering we work about 19 hours a day and get up to 6 hours of sleep. we get up, eat bfast and are on a bus to compton by 6:40. to school by 7:20, kids start coming in at 7:50, class starts at 8. we have two blocks with two classes, each staring with a 30 minute literacy period, and then english class broken into two sections for two teachers and two different objectives. i leave my classroom at 8:30, go to teacher class or observe other classrooms until 10:20, when i'm back for another 30 minute literacy session, and then i either teach for 45 minutes or have prep/observation time for 45 and then i teach for 45. school's done at 12:20, we have lunch from 12:30-1, then classes all afternoon until we load the busses at 4:30. we get home usually by 5:15, have some dinner and then there are various group meetings, lesson planning clinics, learning teams, workshops, copies to make and lesson plans to write and rehearse until bed, which can be anywhere from 11pm to 1am- then the cycle starts over bright and early the next day at 5:45am.

it has been a lesson in perseverance against everything your body is telling you to do- sleep is the big one and relax is the next. we go, go, go from dawn to well past dusk. by about thursday, you are just in a fog of sleep and energy-deprivation, only to be woken up by the 19 sweet, un-trusting faces glaring at you during summer school. in the classroom is the only time that i am truly awake and enthusiastic, every other minute is a blur of work and counting down the mintues until bedtime. i wake up and my first thought every morning is "when do i get to go back to bed?" then i think about my kids and the day to come, hoping that i can do something to help them read beyond a 5th grade reading level (they are going into 8th grade), and teach them the elements of an argument and support and all about plot and characters and how to write well. it's a tough neighborhood, but a great school with wonderful kids. granted, not all of them want to be there or are stellar individuals, but they all have grad potential that we are trying to tap and show them that they can be great students, since the system has given up on them. i just can't fathom how schools can pass kids grade to grade without noticing or caring that they can't read or write a sentance. i've drank the TFA kool-aid and i do agree that the education gap is one of the biggest tragedies in our society. that, and TFA has made me a teacher-bot.

needless to say, i'm happy its the weekend. i will be working a great part of it, but at least time is my own, and i can get up, eat, do what i want and when i want to do it. only one more weekend after this and then i'm home, for a grand total of 24 hours. it would be great to see you that weekend! are you thinking of coming only to madison, or to st. louis too? what a grand adventure it will be- and even grander if you are there! next weekend a group of us are planning to go to disneyland, which i am extremely excited about. my deadbeat parents never took me to disney-anywhere so, i've got to go and be awed and amazed before i'm not kid-like enough to enjoy it.

that's about it for now; i'm going to write a lesson plan about conflict in narrative texts, make some phone calls to parents/students, and perhaps go to the pool. hope your saturday continues to be fantastic; i wish i was there to join in the fun!

schedule for summer: here until aug 3rd at midnight, home to madison aug 4th at 9:41am. moving to st. louis on aug 5, orientation aug 8th through the 11th, and hopefully starting school around the 20th.


P.S.: I STILL LOVE MAIL! see the last post for my address. thanks in advance!