Thursday, You're Really Here?

"Cause when push comes to shove

You taste what you're made of

You might bend, till you break

Cause its all you can take

On your knees you look up

Decide you've had enough

You get mad you get strong

Wipe your hands shake it off

Then you Stand, Then you stand

Life's like a novel

With the end ripped out

The edge of a canyon

With only one way down

Take what you're given before its gone

Start holding on, keep holding on"

-Rascal Flatts, Stand

Let me start by saying that I thought I was tired last week, boy I was kidding myself!  THIS week is beyond exhausting.  When they say it's like Teacher Bootcamp, it is no joke.  Let me preface this by saying I'm still beyond glad I'm doing this and before you read on, in case you're wondering, I'm just tired, worn out, and excited for the weekend to role around again.  I still love that I'm doing this, and still have no regrets! =)

Last Friday was the first day with students, but all they did was testing so none of us actually had time to see/meet/do anything with our students.  The first official day was Monday.  I was the only person teaching a real lesson from my Collab (group of four TFA people teaching the same kids, that I'll be teaching with all summer.)  The lesson actually began first thing in the morning, BEFORE Academic Intervention Hour, where we teach the rules and the whatnot to our students.  Let me tell you- I HIGHLY underestimated the power of a 4-5year old.  (These students are all kids who are entering kindergarten, none that have been in a school setting before and even learned the basic rules of behavior.)  Throughout the summer our leader has to watch us twice a week- one 30 minute session, and one 10-minute session, as well as random pop-ins from whoever, whenever.  My first observation, 30 minute observation was Monday, of course, during the lesson I taught before behavior lessons took place.  There was obviously some leniency given when observing for that mere fact, and behavior was not going to be counted against me.  I however, felt like I butchered the lesson, and was just happy to get through it. I did have my debriefing with my CMA (my head "teacher" that watches me and whatnot) not long after and she asked me how I felt.  Having been in a classroom before, I didn't feel so good about it at all as I was constantly calling them out.  She ended up saying that my lesson was wonderful, and my perseverance was impressive because its hard to stick it out a whole lesson with kindergartners that haven't had behavior taught to them yet.  I personally felt, and shared with her that it bothered me more, because I had been through school to teach unlike so many of these other people.  She reassured me I would be fine, and there would be a difference after rules were set in place.

I have to say, things have gotten better, but heaven help and bless anyone who deals with Pre-K, and Kindergarten.  It is highly underrated as a hard age to work with.  I'm just glad I'm getting the opportunity to work with them this summer before I'm in my own kindergarten class on Monday.  We have had several criers in the morning, and I've given over the fact that having personal space is gone when you work with little kids.  hahahaha...I've never had more hugs, tears, kisses, hands held, and even my butt tapped because they need my attention.  They are adorable though, and that makes it worth it, even if I am running on VERY little sleep.  

Tuesday, the second day we had Community Day.  All day was summer school, like normal.  I got up at 4:45am, got on a bus after getting breakfast and lunch and showering and on the bus by 5:55am, and made it to school by 7:15am.  From there, summer school lasts until about 1:00pm, when the students go home.  On a normal day, we have sessions at the school, and leave to come home at 4:30pm, putting us back on campus somewhere between 5:30-6:00pm.  This particular day we stayed at the school all day.  Community Day is when the parents and students are allowed to come meet all of us and have dinner with us.  The event lasted from 6-8pm.  The community day was wonderful, and we did get to meet several parents, which was GREAT.  However we didn't end up getting home until a little after 9pm.  Talk about a long day... and having to come home and do lesson plans all night, and be up again at 4:45am.... draining.  One thing that was really interesting was that at this dinner, the school officials and parents and everyone had a prayer before we ate.  It's so hard to imagine ever seeing that in a school in North Carolina, and it was nice to witness.  I know church is a big deal down here, and highly recognized, but I didn't know it was still so prevalent in the schools.  A lady from a local church even stopped in and had made goody-bags for all of the TFA staff.  I definitely felt welcomed at the school that night.  Oh- and I took a picture of the sun set on the way back, not because it's a great picture-it's not, but because it was funny that I have one of the sun rising, and now setting, because that's how long our days are.  It was actually very pretty, I just can't get good pictures through a bus window.

Moving on though- Today was a half-day, which is fantastic, and the only reason I have time to update right now.  We got back about 2:30pm, and then of course a fire alarm was going off in the dorm so we couldn't go inside for a while.  I'm headed to dinner soon, then off to do some more lesson plans.  I'm attaching a few more pictures to the bottom of this of random stuff.

When I say we don't sleep much- we don't sleep much.  There are nights when you really get like 3.5hours of sleep.  Good thing we have an hour+ bus ride there and back.  We're all making use of that time for naps!  In lite of the moment, these sleep-deprived days do lead to some prime picture moments.  Of course I try to capture them whenever I can.  Below I have a picture of a worksheet I made copies of, only to find out after the copy room closed that they didn't copy correctly... yay, a picture of the room we meet with our CMA in.  (She is absolutely wonderful!)  She constantly gives us amazing feedback, asks how we are doing, has a ton of patience to explain everything, and even supplies us with constant coffee, snacks, and bought us a cake to eat after our first day of teaching.  She truly does love what she does, and it shows, and means a lot.  Anyhow- there is a picture of the sign she made us, as well as the cake on the table in the right.  It's super small, but was so nice!  The next picture is down in our lounge, about 1:30am.  There are also people with computers, papers, and everything surrounding all the walls that I couldn't fit in there.  That is just how many people are up all hours of the night getting stuff done.  That is also only one of the lounges in my whole dorm.  The next few pictures are of the sun setting before we even made it home, and the last few pictures are during lesson planning sessions.  Megan-my roommate was so excited to be done and go to bed a little earlier, and was so tired and loopy, bless her heart that she really just sat on the floor.  All of her papers fell on top of her.  It was a very funny moment.  Ian was still awake writing a plan, but was also caught falling asleep during work time.  Enjoy.

I now have to go eat and get started again.  I'm aiming for a no later than midnight bedtime tonight, along with the fact that tomorrow is FRIDAY!!!!!!