Friday came and went with half a day of mock-interviews and half a day of not-very-informative induction meetings. Saturday was Sojourner's birthday so Friday night the two of us and our next door neighbor, Susan, went out for some dessert. We walked around the Bronx for a while and then came back to Susan's room to watch the first episode of Queer As Folk. By the end, it was well past midnight. We wished Sojourner a happy birthday and went to sleep.

Saturday morning was city-search where we got up at the crack of dawn, formed random groups and walked all around New York City for those corps members who didn't know anything about the city. Around 3p.m. on Saturday, I went home. I dragged Jake out to see two movies in a row and then fell into bed.

Most of Sunday was spent stressing about what was to come and then I got on the Metro North to go back to campus. By this point I knew I was teaching at P.S. 156 for the summer, not that it meant anything to me. I also knew my friend Jenn was also teaching at the same school so that was good news.

The next morning, we were to be outside, ready to get our bagged lunches and on the school buses at 6:45am. I can't begin to tell you how hot it really was in New York. We got up, we got on the bus. My very first school bus ride to school ever.

P.S. 156 is in District 7 in the South Bronx. It is not air-conditioned. It is hot in there. Really hot. All day Monday, we had meetings. I found out who my CMA, corps member advisor, was going to be and she, Tacha, seemed nice enough. I still didn't know who was going to be in my collaborative, the two other people with whom I'd be teaching. From having talked to my friends, I knew the collaborative would make or break my summer. I already knew some people I really didn't want in my group.

The next day I found out two crucial news: My collaborative members were Mara and Brendan and we were to teach third grade for the summer. Room 209, and our Faculty Adviser was Ms. Casiano, who thought she'd be teaching summer school. Merely two days before we got there, the real teachers were told that they were supposed to let us teach during the four weeks we were there. Let me just say they were less than pleased and leave it at that. Oh, and we found out that there was no school on Fridays in P.S.156 so we'd only be teaching Monday to Thursday.

I didn't know much about Brendan or Mara but they both seemed nice enough. We agreed to meet that night and get as much done in advance as possible. We had our unit plan, rules and consequences, diagnostics, and our daily lesson objectives due in two days.

Having never been in the third grade in the United States, I had absolutely no idea where to begin. They gave us the New York State standards for third grade and picked a few important ones for the summer. We picked fractions and narrative writing.

I went home on Friday evening, thoroughly stressed and no idea if anything we'd thought would work. I spent the weekend sleeping, writing lesson plans, being difficult, and photocopying handouts.

Monday morning came and we walked into our classroom ready with a list of rules. We'd observed the room on Thursday and knew the students were quite rambunctious. The FA had no severe consequences and this class needed some structure and we were there to give it.

I was only scheduled to be in the room until 10:15 and we went over the rules and consequences and started playing the interview game during that time. Completely worn out, I walked out of the room and collapsed into one of the curriculum sessions. At 12:30, I went back to our room to see how the rest of the day had been. I found Mara and Brendan staring around in disbelief. Two kids had broken out into a fistfight and been sent to the office. This summer was going to be fun.

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