Everyone has bad days here at Institute.  You don’t sleep the night before, they’re all out of ice packs for your lunch box by the time you get down there, your kids organize a malicious mutiny, and you get tracked for dozing off in your CS session.  Well kids, I think I have you beat.…

Every night, Alaina and I walk through the Moody Commons to watch the “crazies.”  These so-called “crazies” are the ones who are working relentlessly on their lesson plans, collaborating, and studying.  It doesn’t sound so bad, but it’s like watching a feeding frenzy.  Every face is panic-stricken.  There will undoubtedly be tears.  And for some…

As I start my third week in the classroom, I have a lot of things going through my head.  First of all, we started rough drafts on Friday.  Even after countless lessons on Narrative Writing, only a handful of my students actually produced what I would call a narrative.  Others almost made it, but most…

This morning, Wednesday June the 25th, marks a milestone in my Institute experience.  That’s right.  It’s Half Way Day.  For the past 2.5 weeks I have lived, breathed, and loved TFA.  Part of me is thinking, “Just another 2.5 weeks?  Psh, I got this.”  But the other, ‘bigger’ part of me is thinking, “Just another…

I’m gonna be honest.  Institute is tough.  It’s rigorous, it’s demanding, it’s emotional, it’s exhausting.  Yesterday I learned that many of my colleagues have decided to leave Teach For America.  It’s not even Week 3 yet and people are throwing in the towel.  It made me really appreciate the difficulty of what we’re all doing…

I realize I haven’t written anything in a while.  Mostly because I haven’t had a second to myself since…wait…what’s today? A quick recap before I get back to my amazing lesson plans.  My first day was…an experience.  All I did was give them rules and a test.  Grading the diagnostics certainly validated our being here…

My attitude when I walked into Moody on Sunday was one of confidence.  “I’ve got this.”  I’ve been singing TFA’s praises for a year now.  I know the stats backwards and forwards, I know the alumni and have talked to them, I know just about everything there is to know about this.  I felt like…

First, I would like to begin with an open letter to the University of Houston Drumline: PLEASE STOP PRACTICING OUTSIDE OF MY DORM AT 9:00 AT NIGHT.  NO, SERIOUSLY.  I WANT TO DIE.  THANK YOU. They’re so loud my window is vibrating.  I’m blasting some Damien Rice to try to calm my nerves, but I…

Well, fortunately the food isn’t as bad as the bathrooms.  Actually, it was quite good!  The breakfast was relatively healthy, though we all learned the hard way that we should probably get to the cafeteria earlier.  After breakfast, we packed our lunches (read: crappy sandwiches and cookies) and started a looong day of motivational speaking. …