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!