Miss Bennett in the Bay

I’ve said it before (though I don’t think on here) and I will say it again: I love Teach for America. I have learned more at Induction in the past four days than I ever thought possible. Before I came here, my attitude was something like, “Yeah, I’m going to be a teacher. I close the achievement gap. It’s not a big deal.” But now I realize that it’s so much more than that. And it IS a big deal. And I have so, so much more to learn.

The last day of Induction was only a half day of sessions, which was really nice. In the afternoon, we could do whatever we wanted and in the evening we had a celebration dinner in downtown San Francisco, sponsored by Wachovia. We learned about our credentialing program through Alliant University. I can do this early completion option, if I pass a standardized test in August. (Tangent: what is it with all these standardized tests? Seriously.) With this option, I will get my intern teaching credential in 9 months instead of two years. It is 12-15 credits, depending on whether I test out of the technology course. All of those credits will transfer directly to the Master of Arts in Education program that Alliant offers, which is a total of 30 credits. So, assuming that I get my credential and start right away on the master’s, I would be done with it easily by the time I’m done with my two years of Teach for America. Pretty sweet. And, for every credit I earn beyond my bachelor’s degree, I earn more money in Alum Rock. The money is not, of course, why I’m here, but it’s a nice perk.

The other session highlight from Thursday was the session about maximizing Institute. Some ‘06 corps members came and talked to us about their experience at Institute and gave us tips for surviving it. One guy told us that he got 7-8 hours of sleep every single night he was there. I’m thinking I’m going to have to be like that, since I know that I cannot function on less than 7 hours of sleep. 8 hours would be ideal. He said that all you have to do is work efficiently with the time that you’re given during the day and then you can sleep at night. That shouldn’t be too much of a problem for me. That is another great skill that my thesis gave me- the ability to know when to quit for the night because of diminishing returns. I’m also not really a perfectionist, so, if the lines aren’t straight on my poster, I’m not going to be too worried about it.

In the afternoon I stayed in my suite and had a nice fun chat with two of my suite mates. TFA is everything that college should have been but wasn’t. I get to hang out with these totally awesome people and learn so much about their experiences that are different from mine. They’re not carrying trunks of makeup around, they’re wanting to chat about whatever. And no, teachers don’t talk about teaching all the time.

Then we had that really nice sponsored dinner in downtown San Francisco. We navigated the BART much more successfully this time and had a few minutes to wander around the financial district (where the restaurant was). We stumbled across this random wedding dress store and went in. A woman was in there trying on the most hideous dress I’ve ever seen in my life. I think she had the cross between a dead polar bear and a dead swan draped around her shoulders. Anyway.

The dinner was super fun. They had free wine, which everyone knows I love. The food was amazing and I got to spend some time talking to my future Program Director, Julia. She is super. I want to be her when I grow up, and I told her so. She told me that she needs to keep me with her at all times. If I can find a way to create a pocket-sized Chris for her, I will.

The highlight of the evening was when Eric Scroggins, our Executive Director, and some of our fellow corps members gave little speeches. It was a cheese-fest, but I like that kind of stuff, and I’m used to it anyway from PSP. This is what I learned about our corps:
We are the largest Bay Area corps to date, with 150 members.
75% of us graduated from our colleges or universities with highest honors.
We speak a myriad of languages, including Mandarin and Swahili.
We’ve had extensive leadership experience and helped out with various tutoring or children’s activities in college.
Together, we will impact more than 18,000 students in the Bay Area alone.

Imagine what a nation-wide movement of those kind of people with that kind of impact can have. It’s truly mind-boggling to me, and I have never thought about Teach for America in that way before. Whenever I think about TFA now, I think about how we are really closing the achievement gap all over the country. I’m still wrapping my mind around it, but I am proud to be a part of it.

I cannot believe how exhausted I am.

The past two days of Induction have felt like two weeks. I really can’t even believe that all the stuff that’s happened has happened in just 48 hours. I mean, it shouldn’t be physically possible. I’ll try for a quick, short recap.

Yesterday I took the CBEST. It was ridiculous. There is a reason that people who can’t pass that test can’t be teachers. One of the math questions wanted me to identify the equivalent of 72% in decimals. Seriously.

The discussions were quite interesting. I really meant to blog about them yesterday, because now I can hardly remember the important parts. I do remember that the Superintendent of San Jose Unified School District was talking about schools getting money from private companies. You’d think that they’d get a lot, being in the heart of Silicon Valley and all, but companies really aren’t interested in what’s going to educate kids. They’re interested in making money. And he said, “We’re here to educate kids. Not make widgets.” Which I thought was hilarious.

Then we went to the ball game. It literally took us an hour to get there and an hour to get back on BART. We got to the game during the 7th inning stretch. It was cool and all, but I think once is enough.

Today was very very exciting. We had our district processing, which means that I am officially hired and I will definitely have a position in Alum Rock in the fall. I found out my salary, and while I won’t post it here, I will say it was higher than what I was expecting, and we get a signing bonus supposedly so that is awesome. I drove past my school today. Every step I take towards the classroom makes this more and more real for me. My school is what used to be Shields Elementary, which has been underperforming for a number of years. They have one more year before the state shuts it down, so they are splitting it into two smaller schools in a last ditch attempt to achieve. There are 9 new corps members who will be teaching at both schools. The site is staying the same but they’re splitting it into two smaller schools. There are only 4 returning staff members from the old school and everyone else will be new- including the two principals. I am not sure of how the logistics will work yet, but I can hardly contain my excitement!

We also had “community orientation” which was a panel of 3 principals from Alum Rock talking about the achievement gap in our district. We could also ask them our own questions. It was quite possibly the most helpful and amazing hour of the entire Induction so far. I learned so much in such a short amount of time that I wish that all of Induction could be that way. Afterwards, a fellow CM (corps member) who is teaching at Russo and I talked with the middle school principal, who was awesome. I found out that second grade in California is the first time that students take the California standardized test. I didn’t know that before, and I am actually really, really, really excited about it. I feel like I have such an incredible chance to make a difference for my students in that capacity. I mean, not only will I help them all ace the test (because, yes, I AM that amazing), I will prevent them all from having chronic test anxiety. I think that a bad testing experience early on could have really detrimental effects for the students later in life, so if I can help them with testing techniques and whatnot right away, I can prevent that. I am really excited!

The internet here sucks, and when I tried to upload this post on Monday it wouldn’t work. I’m trying again.

It is 6:11 am on Monday, and I just spent the night on one of the most uncomfortable beds I think I’ve ever slept on. I’m here at Cal State- East Bay, and aside from the shitty beds, their dorms are really nice. Way, way nicer than anything I ever knew at CU. They are suite style, so there’s a kitchenette and living room area, two showers, two toilets, two sinks, and three bedrooms with two beds each. The whole thing is bigger than my apartment in Sunnyvale, but that’s not hard to do.

Yesterday was our first day of Induction, and actually quite fun, exceeding my expectations. They had originally told us that registration was from 2:30-4:30, but after that nothing until dinner at 6. So, I didn’t think it was necessary to get here early, so I left Sunnyvale at about 3:45, which put me here in Hayward at about 4:15. I found the place without getting lost, which means I’m finally starting to get a handle on California roads. I got my stuff out of the car and went to stand in line for registration. While there, a Program Director (PD) informed us that the first session was at 4:30 and we would have to just leave our stuff behind the table and go right to the session and register later. Ok…. I thought. It’s fine if they want to start things right away, but it would have been nice if they had told us beforehand that the first session was this soon. Anyway, I went right to the session and I suppose it was a good thing because other corps members (CMs) were late and chided for being so. The first session was all about the steps we have to take to teach in the fall- fingerprinting, district processing, and enrolling in a credentialing program. After that I got my huge binder of information, found my way to my room, and then went straight to dinner. Dinner was quite palatable, followed by an opening by the executive director of the region and a speech by a 2006 CM. Then we had Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) where we got to break into smaller groups by sub-region and placement level. That was pretty fun. We all had to make “life maps” and talk about our life experiences that brought us to TFA. It was really cool to see the diversity in the program. After the PLC we had a “speed social,” which was described as “speed dating except not.” It was also really fun, we got to talk to a lot of different people. We had 2 minutes to talk with our partner on a given topic, such as family, social life, or celebrities, and then they would randomly call somebody’s name and ask that person a question about their partner. If you got the question right, you got a prize. I was called on to say which celebrity my partner would date. Apparently he thought Angelina Jolie is hot because I won a t-shirt.

Today is another jam-packed day of events. I have to get ready to go to breakfast, followed by the CBEST, which I am not at all worried about. Then it’s lunch, followed by a session on California education reform with the Deputy Superintendent of the California Department of Education. Then a session about “Operating as Leaders Within Our Movement,” followed by a San Francisco Giants baseball game. They keep us pretty busy- not many breaks during the day and not much free time at all. I got back to my room at 10:30 after the speed social, and I’m sure we’ll be getting back later tonight because of the baseball game. Maybe the game will be boring and other CMs will want to leave early with me. We’ll see. But, the important thing is that so far, I’m enjoying myself!

Ok, it’s for real this time. This morning, in my inbox waiting for me, was an email called “Tentative Alum Rock Placement.” My eyes got wide and my heart did a flip flop. Finally, what I’ve been waiting all this time for- my school and grade level placement! I must cherish this moment.

Ok, I can’t take it any longer! I open the email and read it about as fast as I can. Congratulations on your tentative placement in Alum Rock Union Elementary School District! Ok, this is already better than the previous email I got about placement. Then, it gives a list of all the corps members in Alum Rock and their tentative placement. I search the list for my name… oh, there I am! I’ll be teaching at Russon, 2nd grade! WOO! I wanted early elementary. I’ve never heard of Russon, but that’s ok, I know what I’ll be teaching.

The email continues: We use the term “tentative assignment” because is it relatively common for grade levels to change. Even school-site assignments can change due to shifts in student enrollment. If this happens, you may be assigned to a different grade level or school within the district. Well, such is the life of a TFA corps member. I suppose I would rather have a tentative assignment that could be changed than no assignment at all.

My next step is to look on the Alum Rock school district website and find out where Russon actually is. Hmm, that’s odd, it’s not listed on there. I do a Google search for Russon in San Jose and the only thing I get is a “Did you mean Russom?” No, no I didn’t. Not according to this email anyway. So, that’s interesting. Maybe there was a typo. At any rate, I have to call TFA today anyway to figure out my transcript situation. Oh, that’s something I forgot to mention. I realized yesterday that I gave the transcript people at CU the wrong address for my new apartment, so the transcripts I worked so hard to order will never get here. At this point, it’s too late to order another set before Sunday, so I need to find out exactly what they want me to do. I checked my unofficial transcript this morning and my degree has finally been conferred. I sort of doubt it, but maybe they will accept one of those. We’ll see. Anyway, I have to call them today so I’ll ask them about this mystical place called Russon.

The first thing that I’ve learned in my time in Silicon Valley is the art of making the U-turn. It’s not like I never made any back in Colorado. There, they are an occasional occurrence- a special maneuver kept only for emergency situations. Here, the U-turn is a part of your daily commute. Don’t believe me? Consider this: when I was taking my parents to find a new hotel, we were driving down El Camino Real, which is one of the main roads. There is a median down the entire middle of it, pausing only for a select few intersections. You are forced to drive past the hotel and make a U-turn to get there. Not enough evidence? We had breakfast at a restaurant on El Camino and watched the stoplight in front of the hotel. For every light cycle, on average, only one car actually made a left turn. The rest all made U-turns. El Camino is not the only street where this happens. My dad thinks that since the U-turn is such a common occurrence, the right turn on red should be outlawed. I don’t know about that, but it will take some getting used to.

I am getting closer and closer to what I have been considering my “official” start date with Teach for America- this coming Sunday, June 24. From that day forward, there’s no more waiting to be a teacher- I AM a teacher. I haven’t quite figured out exactly how I feel about that. Sometimes I feel like there is some key piece of information that I’ve somehow missed, and I get this overwhelming urge to sift through the zillions of emails and website pages for the hundredth time to figure out what that is. Others, I’m really excited and ready to jump into this experience. Still others I’m wondering what in the hell made me think this was a good idea and I’m ready to jump back into my car and drive back to Denver. But none of the time do I feel ready for this. Ever. I suppose that this feeling of un-readiness is somewhat universal- systemic of the TFA set up. “Let’s take a bunch of high-performing college graduates, most of whom have no education experience whatsoever, and thrust them into the most difficult schools with the highest challenges. They will be able to close the achievement gap due to the simple fact that they performed highly in college.” And yet, somehow, every day TFA corps members do close the achievement gap for their students. TFA is highly data-driven, so they know that what they are doing works. Something about the training, or the corps culture, or the ongoing support makes TFA teachers highly successful in their classrooms, even in the face of such adversity. Which, logically, extends to me. They believe that I can affect change, so I suppose I should believe that I can do it too.

I realized yesterday just how much I have to get finished before I can be a teacher. There’s the pre-institute work, which has totally stopped since I had to crunch to get everything moved. There’s studying for the CBEST, which I am taking on Monday- and I have not even thought about- oh, god. There’s studying for the U.S. Constitution exam, which I haven’t even gotten a study guide for yet. And there’s unpacking the rest of my stuff and making my apartment feel like I actually live here and not like I’m just visiting Scott for an extended holiday. Yes, I said holiday. That’s part of my ongoing campaign to be more like the British, due to the simple fact that they are hilarious. I’d better get on this growing list of things to do. Tally ho!

Here I am, finally, in Sunnyvale, CA. That was the longest drive of my life. The entire state of Wyoming was windy as all hell, so bad I was having difficulty keeping my car on the road. No offense to anyone out there, but, seriously, I don’t understand why anyone would ever want to live there. Maybe that’s why their population is actually shrinking.

Anyway, we only managed to get lost twice, both actually in Silicon Valley. We had stopped for dinner at an Applebee’s in Reno which actually ended up killing 2 whole hours. This is a warning to anyone taking car trips through Reno: if you want to be quick, don’t eat at Applebee’s. I don’t know what their problem is, but it was like pulling teeth to even get a glass of water. Plus, they wouldn’t turn on the air conditioning.

We finally got to Scott’s (and now my) apartment at about 10:45 pm. We unloaded all of my stuff from my dad’s car and the stuff that was in the backseat of my car. Then, we crashed. My parents went to a hotel, and I just talked to them this morning and apparently it was not very nice. My dad said it had ants. Gross. This is another example of how anything referred to as “The Sundowner” is disgusting.

Today is just a lazy day of unpacking and organizing. Maybe we’ll get a little crazy and go into downtown Mountain View or Palo Alto. Tonight we are having dinner at Google so my parents can experience the amazingness and get the “grand tour.”

Oh, and I found out today that I passed the CSET. So, I’m one step closer to actually becoming a teacher. I suppose one cannot avoid the inevitable.

Today is my last day in Colorado. Well, at least it was until a little issue arose with my car. Yesterday I was driving from Boulder to Highlands Ranch and I noticed my brake pedal slipping a little bit. It was just barely happening, so I thought I was just imagining it and ignored it.

Then, today, my dad and I were driving from the nice car wash to Sears to get some new windshield wiper blades. The brake pedal was so loose that whenever I would brake, the pedal would go almost all the way down to the floor. The car would stop, but the pedal was not tight like it normally is. When we got to Sears, I mentioned it to my dad and he asked the Sears guy what we could do. The Sears guy thought we were just low on brake fluid, so we bought a small bottle of that and went back to my car. Well, turns out that my brake fluid is clean and completely full. So I ask my dad if he wants to drive the car so he can see the symptoms for himself. He does, and immediately turns out of the Sears parking lot going the opposite way from our house. “Where are you going?” I say. “To the Honda service center,” he says. (I have a 92 Honda Accord).

We get to the Honda place and walk around to the back so we don’t have to deal with the receptionist. My dad finds an experienced looking mechanic and explains to him what is going on, and basically begs him to look at our car without an appointment. He’s nice enough to do so, and gets in the car, turns it on, pumps the breaks a couple of times, and then gets out and tells us that the main brake cylinder is shot. Super. So the mechanic goes and talks to one of the service guys and tells him that I’m moving to California and since the brakes not working is a safety issue, we must get the car in today. They’re nice enough to squeeze us in tomorrow sometime, and luckily they managed to find the part they need. But, the car won’t be done until tomorrow at 1 pm at the earliest. So, the whole moving to California thing is getting pushed back a bit. That’s ok, though, we’re actually not quite ready to leave tomorrow morning anyway. I would rather have the brakes fail in Colorado where a) they can be fixed by our trusted mechanics and b) I’m not going down the western side of the Rocky Mountains. Plus, it gives us at least a few extra hours to get everything finished and we don’t have to run around like crazy people. My old Honda: a blessing in disguise.

Today is my last day in Boulder. Yesterday my parents came up from Highlands Ranch and helped move all the rest of my furniture out, so the apartment is now half empty. My roommate’s stuff is still here since she’s not leaving till the end of July when our lease actually expires. I spent last night on the couch, and now I feel like I spent the night on a couch. I have to stay in Boulder until at least 2 pm today because I have to get my TB test read. Until then, I’m just cleaning and packing up the rest of the small miscellaneous items that are left.

Yesterday was the first day that I actually felt like I could get everything finished in time for the official Saturday leave date. I think that’s because now the furniture is out, which is always the hardest part. I will be glad when all of the moving crap is over. I hate moving. At least I know that when I get there I have a place to stay and I’ll be with Scott. I am sad to leave all of my friends, but I’m staying optimistic that everything will be really great when I get to the Bay area. I am still feeling frustration at some of the vague communications that I’ve been getting from Teach for America. I hope that things will fall into place next week.

Also, I’ve been reading other corps members’ blogs on the teachfor.us homepage. Other folks have already started their training institute. Reading about their experiences gives me a lot of mixed feelings. I am excited to begin teaching and to learn all of the stuff that I’m going to learn. But in the same token, I’m absolutely terrified and I am not so sure that I can actually do this. I know that I’m not the only one who feels this way, but I don’t know any of the other corps members well enough to talk to them about it. I’m hoping I can make some friends at Induction. It’s just so exhausting to think about going through the whole friends-making process all over again. Isn’t that why we went to college? To make good friends? Anyway, I’m sure it’ll be fine. As long as I can sleep and eat when I want to, I can be positive enough to make friends. Note to self: buy snack food for purse.

Well, in spite of karma’s best efforts to totally screw me over, things might actually work out. I’m still pretty stressed, and still have a lot of crazy hoops to jump through, but I feel like I can actually manage everything. For now at least.

I got another email from the TFA Bay Area staff detailing everything for Induction. It confirms that yes, I do need 3 letters of recommendation and 5 transcripts. It also gives a tentative schedule, which includes what they call the “US Constitution Test.” Um, what is that? And why have we never heard about it until now? Do I have to memorize the Constitution or something? Because that is not happening. So, I email my Program Director in the Bay and ask what is going on. She replies today, saying that it’s just another requirement for teaching in California and that I have to either pass the test or have taken a class in college that covered the Constitution. I took a class my junior year called “Civil Liberties” and we did study part of the Constitution in it. So I email the woman who’s in charge of this test and ask her if that will count. She emails me back almost immediately to say she’ll check for me. At least there’s that.

But I still haven’t heard back about the letters of recommendation. I emailed my Program Director again just now asking her again. I have a feeling my first email slipped through the cracks since she replied to my email about the test and I sent that one after the one about the letters. So we’ll see.

Oh, and I thought I had gotten the whole transcripts thing figured out. I went into the Office of the Registrar and explained my situation to the lady. She said I could fill out a transcript request and just have them hold it until my degree is conferred. She said that would be around the 14. Great, I’ll still be in Boulder on the 14. I fill out the form and have her do it. Then, I get home and I have an email from her that says, “Actually it will be the 19 or the 20.” Well, crap. I’ll be in California then. So I just email her back and give her Scott’s address and ask her to mail them to me instead. Hopefully that will work.

So, we are shooting to leave Colorado for California on Saturday. I still have a zillion things to do before then, so I’m pretty stressed out. I just have to keep plugging away and I am sure that it will all work out.

I feel I should clarify about how I’m going to be doing this blog. I don’t plan on censoring myself when I’m writing. So if I’m happy, excited, frustrated, or sad, that’s what the blog is going to be about. I’m not trying to protect my anonymity or anything, but I will protect the identities of my students, when I have them, by only using initials. But I’m (obviously) not holding anything back on here. It’s cleansing for me to be very detailed in what is happening to me, including the good, the bad, and the ugly. So don’t expect a rainbow-colored view of everything that is Teach for America. Life isn’t like that.

Today, in the process of going through all the papers on my desk and deciding what needs to stay and what needs to go, I stumbled across the letter of recommendation that I used to get into TFA. Seeing this triggered something deep in my brain about needing letters of recommendation during the Induction in a couple of weeks. “Hmm,” I thought to myself. “I’d better investigate this.”

I get on the tfanet website (the website for TFA corps members and alumni.) Nothing. “That’s weird. I could have sworn I saw something about that.” I get into gmail and search through old emails. There’s the one from the Bay Area office about the May Hiring Fair. Ah, here we go, a link to a PDF about required documents at induction. Well, turns out that not only do I need three letters of recommendation (I only have one- and one more week until I leave), I also need five (count them- 5!) transcripts stating my conferred degree. The transcripts are not the problem. The conferred degree is. The University of Colorado, just like any major university, is a giant bureaucracy and drags its feet with everything. It’s been almost a month since I officially graduated and my unofficial transcript, which I can access online, still doesn’t have my conferred degree on it. That means that my official transcript won’t have my degree on it either. Crap. I do some sleuthing and find the phone number for the Office of the Registrar where I can get degree verification. Great. I call them, and I get a stupid recording that says they no longer do degree verification over the phone. I have to fax them. Hello, no fax machine. What college student has a fax machine?? I don’t even really need degree verification. I really just need a person so I can ask them exactly how long it’s going to take them to actually put my degree on my transcript. Maybe I could sweeten the deal a little bit if they put my transcript at the top of the queue- toffee bars anyone? But no, I get a stupid recording instead. Tomorrow I’m going into the Office of the Registrar to hopefully move this process along a little bit.

As for the letters of recommendation, well, I’ll probably use the same one I used for getting into TFA. Then I only need to get two more. But here’s the problem. No where have I been able to find any specific guidelines on what exactly they are looking for in these letters. Should they be from my professors? Supervisors? Random guy on the street? And what exactly am I being recommended for? TFA? My school placement? The next Food Network star?

All very important questions that need to be answered. Another email from the Bay Area office staff would be very helpful at this point.