Week One of Chicago Institute

So this week has been absolutely insanely crazy busy! I checked in to my dorm room on Sunday evening and made a run to Target to expand my "professional" wardrobe. I spent way too much money, but I can wear the clothes all throughout my teaching career, so that is how I justify it:).

I woke up on Monday morning at 5:30, because our bus leaves from our school at 6:55am and we need to eat breakfast and pack up our lunch. It is actually really nice that I don't need to worry about grocery shopping for the next month.

My schedule every day this week has been as follows:

5:30am Wake up, pack lunch, eat breakfast, walk to bus

6:55am On bus

7:30am Arrive at school

7:30am-4:30pm Sit in sessions discussing the Achievement gap, lesson planning, diversity awareness, and classroom management. Working lunch between 11:30am and 12pm.

4:30pm On bus

5:05pm Back to campus, grab dinner and change

6:00pm Evening sessions begin

9:00pm Evening sessions are over, shower and start lesson planning

11:00pm Bed time

It was really hard to adjust to this new schedule, but I am sure that as the summer goes on, it will become a little easier.

We met the kids we are going to be teaching this summer! We had to administer the DRA (Diagnostic Reading Assessment) and it was so difficult to see some students doing so well and other 3rd graders reading as a pre-pre-kindergarten level. It just makes it even more clear to me that I am here for a reason.

A few complaints...

-The air conditioning in our room doesn't work, so it is about 85 degrees in here all the time. It is so humid and some other rooms have started to grow mold. I have submitted quite a few maintenance requests, but nothing has been fixed yet. It isn't exciting to put on damp clothes every morning.

-The schools that we are in all day have no air conditioning. It is hard enough to stay awake just being tired, but being hot makes it almost impossible.

-We have so much work! Our work load is the equivalent to what an education major studies in a full year of school, except we complete ours in 4 weeks!

The good news is...we have Saturday and Sunday completely off! Well, actually only Saturday, because we have a ton of work to do on Sunday before we start teaching our classes on Monday morning.

I went out last night with a few people from my school site and got to experience the real Chicago. We got on the "L" at the baseball stadium and the Sox and the Cubs game just finished. It was crazy to see so many die-hard fans. We went to this bar called McGee's and for $20, we got unlimited drinks and unlimited food! I definitely got my money worth on the drink portion:). It was a lot of fun, but I ended up coming back to the dorm at 11pm because I was so tired!

BOTTOM LINE: I am hanging in there and I look forward to my weekends every Monday through Friday morning:)

I miss everyone from back home so much!

Always,

Allie

Oh and PS: I didn't get the job, but after talking with some fellow TFA members, I realized that it wasn't the right fit:). So I am excited to continue interviewing and securing a job! I will definitely keep you posted:).

Interview!!!

I have an interview at Hazelwood North Middle School tomorrow! I am so incredibly excited because the school seems like such a great environment and the kids have access to so many great resources! There is one other science teacher and three communication arts teachers also interviewing at the same school tomorrow. The rumor is that the school has quite a few positions available. I spent the evening preparing for my interview and trying to predict which type of questions they are going to ask.

Tomorrow is our last full day of induction and we will end with a few hours of sessions on Friday morning, then off to Chicago!

I will let all of you know how my interview goes! Keep your fingers crossed:)

Always,

Allie

Induction

Greetings from St. Louis!

Sorry in advance for this crazy long post:).

I went to sleep at 1am early Sunday morning and had to wake up for the airport at 3:45am. I spent about six hours on the plane and had issues with my carry-on luggage being "too large." I finally arrived in St. Louis at 1:45pm on Sunday afternoon only to be greeted by 85 degree weather. I can handle 85 degrees, but I can't handle the 85% humidity:). I am slowly adjusting to sweating and being ridiculously hot all the time!

I took the shuttle to the hotel where I met Candy and picked up my car:). For those of you who don't know, Candy drove my car from Portland, OR to St. Louis, MO. After picking up my car, I drove straight to my new house! It is so much more beautiful that it was in the pictures and my roommate is so very nice! I have yet to meet the second roommate, but she is moving in tomorrow! I think it is going to be so much fun!

I woke up this morning at 6:30am, got dressed and walked to go eat breakfast. We are staying at Washington University and the campus is huge! Our dorm room is also huge, so that is great news! After breakfast we went to registration and turned in important paperwork, then to introduction. The staff is continually reassuring us that we are here for a reason and that reason is to close to achievement gap in St. Louis. It feels so good to finally be a part of something that I am so excited about!

After introduction, we attended a few sessions about Teach for America and how it operates then we went to lunch. After lunch we attended a Diversity and Inclusiveness workshop and got a feel for what our classrooms will look like in St. Louis. I really had to motivate myself to attend the event in downtown St. Louis tonight. I was so incredibly exhausted from only sleeping about 8 hours over the past few days, but I mustered up the energy to go!

We had dinner at a bar in St. Louis and received one free drink. Then we toured an apartment complex, which definitely reassured me that I LOVE my new place! We then walked a few blocks to another roof top terrace bar. The city of St. Louis is so beautiful but I think it is only like this a few months out of the year!

I got back to the dorm room at about 9:25 then had some reflection questions to complete. I thought we were going to get a little bit of a break, but it really seems like induction is a lot of work!

In regards to my placement... I have not had any interviews. Quite a few people have already been interviewed and placed in their schools. I have been told by everyone that I will get a placement and if I don't, TFA will supplement my income until I get a job:).

I am off to bed right now, because I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow:)

Love you all, goodnight:)

Graduation Party

My graduation party was yesterday and thank goodness for good weather! A few of my friends from Western drove up, but for the most part it was just family and friends of the family. It was so much fun getting to visit with everyone because for some people, it has been quite a long time since I have seen them! So many people came from so far away! My cousin Courtney drove down from Seattle, my uncle Gary and his girlfriend Jan drove over from Idaho, and some family friends drove over two hours to celebrate the day with me! It really does mean so much to me that everyone is so supportive and truly happy for me. It has been a long and difficult road to get to where I am right now, and I could not be more thankful to those who have helped me along the way!

The food was fantastic, the cakes were amazing, and the gifts were extremely generous! I honestly could not have asked for a better party:).

Well... now that the party is over, I really need to focus on PACKING!! A family friend is leaving to drive my car back on Wednesday, so I need to have everything packed up on Tuesday and I haven't even started. I have my very last final on Tuesday, so these next few days are going to be extremely stressful! My amazing mom is helping me do my laundry and I am headed over to my grandmas to clear my things out of her garage. I think that after Wednesday, I will be feeling a little less stressed, because all I will have to worry about is physically getting to St. Louis:). Keep your fingers crossed that everything goes as planned! :)

Oh, and my birthday is in 3 days! I will be turning the big 2-3!

Official Countdown to St. Louis: 7 days!!!

Always,

Allie