karenika - pictures - tfa summer institute

Starting Teaching For the next four weeks, my schedule looked as follows:

6:30 - be ready to pick up bagged lunches and get on the bus
6:45 - bus leaves
7:15 - arrive at the school, get ready for the day
8:00 - students start arriving
8:30-12:30 - teach or sit in curriculum sessions
12:30 - 1:00 - lunch
1:00-4:15 - curriculum sessions or cma sessions
4:15-5:00 - go back to campus
5:00-7:00- shower, eat dinner, check mailbox
7:00-10:00 - go to two workshops
10:00-who knows? - get ready for tomorrow's lesson

To be completely fair, we were only required to go to 6 workshops all summer, but since I was stuck in a dorm away from my husband, I figured I might as well go to as many as I could. Not to mention, they were one of the only practical classes I sat in.

I had promised myself that I wouldn't cry and get upset until week three of teaching. I figured that way I only had one week left and even if I spiraled into grief, I'd be out of there in a week. Makes sense, right? Well, it did to me.

On the third day, I was scheduled to teach math. Math was always taught at 11:30 to 12:30, right after their lunch hour. Over time, we proved that it was the single worst hour of our day. The class came and went and as soon as they walked out the door, I bawled. I didn't want to see anyone or say anything. I just wanted to be alone and think what I had just done. I had yelled so much in class that I had given myself a headache.

So much for waiting until week three.

The next three weeks came and went with moments of frustration and joy as we tried to teach some English and Math to aaron, allen, buenavee, chynna, dj, ebony, francisco (who was pulled into a bilingual class after week one), jovanny, shaquana, tyreek, taquan, marielen, miguel, raymond and steven.

I think I probably burst into tears at least once a week. But I did have amazing moments of joy when a student understood what I was trying to teach and most of those kids learned something they didn't know before. Mara and Brendan proved to be awesome team members and they helped me tremendously.

There were many ups and downs but between Dave, Tammy, Mary, Charlie and Tacha, we had a great staff. And I did stay awake through most of the curriculum sessions. I have my own opinions and battles on how things could have gone. But most importantly, I taught a few lessons and made a bunch of great friends.

And I survived.

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