Week 4...and I have a job!!

This week has truly been an adventure on many levels! Apparently this was the week for my kids to test ALL of the boundaries that we had established, and I cannot say that I was successful in preserving all of them. I am not sure what was going on with my kids this week, but they were restless, sometimes belligerent, and a couple times downright disrespectful. One even called me evil. I think she is from a pretty volatile environment, so that one does not ultimately surprise me. One of my fellow teachers unintentionally started a trend of giving this student the attention she desperately seeks, and so now the student acts out at every available opportunity. Punishing her does not work, since she doesn't care what form the attention takes, and I doubt calling home would have any positive effect. Another student just decided he didn't want to be there anymore, and because of his similar attention-seeking behavior, I took the approach to warn him sternly, and ignore him to the best of my ability. It worked for a while, but by the time the next teacher came in, his bad mood escalated to throwing a pencil at her. Incredible, huh?

So if nothing else, this week was a wonderful lesson in how to address larger misbehavior issues. I think I needed to experience that before I get to my region; now I know what it looks like, and even if I am not entirely sure how I could possibly address it, I at least have some strategies!

Which brings me to my great news! I now officially have a job! I know that to many, including myself, it seemed like I already had a job and I am doing this Institute thing in preparation for the fall. But I soon came to realize that while TFA was going to do its best to make sure I had a placement, a lot of the hiring depended on the actual school districts. Up until Tuesday/Wednesday, the Mississippi state legislature was in a stalemate about passing the budget, which meant that the state funding for public schools was similarly in limbo. Until the school districts could be guaranteed their funding, many were on a hiring freeze, which meant that about 90 of the TFA corps members who had been promised a job were not yet employed. I was one of those 90. Even though TFA swore that the budget difficulty would be resolved and we would all be placed very shortly thereafter, some of us still had our doubts. While I was not worried, I was quickly getting impatient. My parents were scheduling vacation so that they could bring down the rest of my stuff, and I needed to be able to tell them where I would be living. I hated the thought that come July 17, I would still have nowhere to go, and my parents would have taken the vacation for nothing. I didn't care for that complication.

BUT, all of those concerns are resolved!! As of yesterday afternoon, I have been placed to teach 3rd grade language arts and social studies at Oliver Elementary in Clarksdale, Mississippi! The school is a magnet school for performing arts, which will be an interesting combination. I will teach two 2-hour blocks of language arts in the morning, and then two 1-hour blocks of social studies in the afternoon. I am kind of excited about this, because that means fewer lesson plans and (hopefully!) a better balance of teaching and personal life! I have been told, on the flipside, classroom management will be more difficult to establish, but I hope it will not be too different than what I experienced this summer. I had the kids for 2 hours each day, 1 hour I shared with the other two teachers and 1 hour was completely mine. And that wasn't too bad. Besides, the classroom will be my own, so they will be in MY space, which might make a difference. :) In celebration, I went to a local Dollar Tree and splurged on some classroom supplies. I say splurged kind of flippantly, though: 30 bucks gets you a TON of stuff at a dollar store! :) Doing just that much has me absolutely thrilled about my classroom!

Institute will soon be over; this coming week is the last of it! I will have three actual teaching days, one day of testing, and then one day of celebrations. It is going to be awesome. I am teaching science for the final week, and just to show you the personal growth I have experienced---I am really excited about it! I am teaching about natural resources for two days and then one day on the planets! It's going to be wonderful! I think my lesson plans are fun and engaging, and these are things that the kids will love to learn...much better than the scientific method, that's for sure!

So, reflecting on the summer so far, you could say that it started extremely rough; I wasn't sure I wanted or could do this, but now, I have gained some confidence and lots of enthusiasm. I can't wait to see what this next step will bring, and even though I know it will be hugely challenging (I mean, look at this past week!), I also know that it will be deeply rewarding. And that is all I can ask for.