Goodbye Phoenix, Hello Vermont!

I said goodbye to my first classroom of kindergarten students today and truth be told, it was tough. Who knew that 5 weeks of 5 am wake up calls, 19 five year olds, and countless soggy roast beef sandwiches could leave such a bittersweet set of emotions! Our last day of kindergarten mirrored many of the last days of schools I experienced as a wee one, "parties", speeches, popcorn, read-alouds and general giddiness! I have never seen so many excited 5 year olds, anxious to show off their refined reading skills to their visiting parents. And to top it all off, our students reached their individual growth goals for the summer and exceeded our expectations for improvement in reading, writing and math!

Yes, Institute is over and now it is time to board my plane to JFK and onto VT for several glorious days on Lake Champlain before I head south (this time for real) to the Big Easy. Much awaits me in the Crescent city - my undiscovered apartment is waiting for me, along with a soon-to-be found job! And I can just about taste the beignets already.

But alas, my plane is boarding and so begins my red eye journey east.

More later, Kari

Kindergarten Kari - in action!

A quick update from the trenches to satiate any hungry appetites for teacher stories - Institute is half way over which is a bit difficult to believe! Our time here in the Phoenix oven is flying by! We have been teaching for 2 weeks and I have to admit, I am seeing visions of academic mastery coming to fruition! Jose now knows his plus sign from his minus sign. Eddie can sit criss-cross applesauce for 30 seconds without fidgeting and with a silent but deadly teacher stare/glare from Ms. D. can quickly resume criss-cross formation. We have had a daily bout of tears but not from the same child so I suppose that is an improvement.
Exhibit left/above is Ms. D. and her Math group - Jose in the white shirt, Gary, Angel and Julian! In the picture I think I'm telling Gary to stop playing with his skiddles (our addition manipulatives).

I love kindergarten and am keeping my fingers crossed for a K placement back in New Orleans. Still no word yet on school placement or employment prospects but I've been assured that there will be a job for me.

More later, Ms. D.

Day One, Done, and I'm officially Ms. D.!

Hey Folks - I successfully completed my first day of kindergarten, as a teacher! Considering I never even went to kindergarten as a kid in VT, I guess you could say kindergarten itself was a first for me today!

So today was in actuality, a ton of fun! 19 5-years olds gearing up for first grade, with a short summer school stint to prepare them! My team of 4 - Mr. Orrick, Ms. Siwa, and Ms. Dawson and myself have been paired up with a veteran teacher who actually happens to be the lead kindergarten teacher in our school! Ms. Callahan is a super-pro and has been sharing various tricks of the trade over the course of our short time together. It is rather hysterical though to watch her get the kids attention with a catchy song the kids know by heart, in comparison to our feeble attempts to implement a new attention-getting procedure - one of the many we have been tasked to execute in our training. Oh well, I suppose we will one day be super-pros just like Ms. C., imparting our own catchy songs to rookie teachers!

The day started out, like all other days, at the crack of dawn. I have timed my alarm to coincide with the rising of the sun over the mountains of Phoenix and at the raw morning hour of 5, the thermometer reads a mere 90 degrees, winter! The dining hall is buzzing by 5:30 with 800 of us zipping between the cereal bar, scrambled egg buffet line and always-seems-to-be-empty coffee pot. Our buses depart at 6:10 and if you're not on the bus when the minute hand strikes 10, you're SOL and have to quickly find a taxi to the SW side of Phoenix. Fortunately that hasn't happened to anyone on my Southwest Elementary-bound bus but who knows, we still have 3 1/2 weeks to go! We all dress professional, which ranges from business suits (for real!) to quasi flip flops (the kind women wear that look somewhat nice, I am guilty of this indulgence) and skirts and t-shirts. I don't think anyone is keeping tabs on our attire but it's important to be aware of skirt slits, low neck shirts, and other eye-catching fashion pieces. Especially if you teach 10th grade boys! Fortunately 5 year olds haven't reached that phase of cognition yet.

Once at school we have about 1 hour to scramble together any last minute lesson plans, manipulatives (aka: counting/lesson materials - I just spent 1 hour cutting out mine for tomorrow's sorting shapes lesson), and taking care of anything else we need to do before kid-time. The kids roll in around 8 and the day starts with a reduced-meal breakfast (government subsidized) in the cafeteria and then off to class! Needless to say, we spent much of the morning in tag-team mode, teaching our students the basics of, what to do when snot is running out your nose (use sign language to ask for a kleenex); when is it okay to use the bathroom (preferably before you've actually gone to the bathroom in your pants); lining up at the door and walking in the hallway (and not stepping on wayward cockroaches); and the most important lesson of all, how vital to your survival it is to wash your hands! Believe me, 4 1/2 hours with kindergarteners and you too will be sold on constant hand washing!!

We have 19 cuties in our class, mostly Hispanic except for 2 white boys. Most kids appear to speak English but there are definitely some English Language Learners (ELL students for all you people in the Ed world). AZ law forbids class instruction in Spanish so we're left to our own non-espanol devices to translate and explain confusing words, phrases and directions. The day ends at 1 for the kiddies, but continues on into the afternoon for the rest of us. Teaching in the am, learning in the pm is how I like to think about it. Plus, all the lesson planning, photocopying, printing and running around in the late pm. Most people stay up past midnight, in the computer labs, TFA stocked resource room, or in their own dorm rooms (like me), cutting out shapes, finalizing lesson plans and thinking 3/4 days ahead about the literacy lesson we're supposed to teach next week!

I'm getting ready to do it all over again tomorrow, which happens to be my 29th birthday. Celebrations will be limited as we have evening sessions on specific grade level instruction. I'll just have to wait until I'm back in the Big Easy to live it up a bit, 29 style!

Photos and stories to follow shortly. Till then, enjoy the taste of kindergarten, minus the smells :)

Hot times in the Desert!

Greetings from the desert non-sands of Tempe! Check out the view from my dorm room (exhibit left). I had an early departure from Nola today (the bus shuttle picked us up at 4 am, ugh) and then I flew through Houston to the desert. Teach For America has every logistic planned out to a T - very impressive, and very encouraging! We, the GNO (Greater New Orleans) crew of 264, are participating in Institute alongside Corps members from Kansas City, Phoenix, Indianapolis, New Mexico, and South Louisiana (our buddies to the northwest). Our group (of around 500) have taken over a small section of the Arizona State University campus. I got my school assignment for the next 5 weeks - Southwest Elementary. I'm not sure of the details yet but starting next Monday 6/23 I will be co-teaching with a group of other Corps members. We will be teaching in the morning bright and early - the school bus leaves campus at 6:10 (!!!) and then attending professional development sessions in the afternoons/evenings. In our "free time" (I'm still not sure when that is) we will write up lesson plans, sleep, go to the ASU gym and/or pool and probably just breath. It will most definitely be an intense few weeks but I'm feeling prepared.

In other news - I took my two big certification tests (PRAXIS) yesterday and am on the road to becoming a certified teacher (with a license to boot). It was an interesting scene at the test center as LA only recently started to require the PRAXIS exams for its veteran teachers so a huge number of teachers were taking the test for a second/third/fourth time in order to pass and keep up their certification....adds a bit of perspective on the whole achievement gap when you meet teachers who have not passed the basic elementary education content knowledge exam!

More to come, KD.

Breakfast of champions - in DC. (June 8, 2008)

Kari and Lizzie Liz (new engaged). June 8, 2008