Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Sunday morning after church I began the drive down to Atlanta. I knew what I was in for, but was still optimistic is wouldn’t be that bad. The drive down was easier than expected. Along the way, Kevin happened to be driving back to Lexington from Atlanta and we realized we were about two miles apart so we waved when we passed. I was a bit worried about getting there because in the morning they told us there was construction and the exits were changed. However, the wonderful GPS that finally came in the mail got me there with no problems. Check-in wasn’t too bad – considering how many people were coming from different corps around the region. The Atlanta Institute includes corps members from Atlanta, Charlotte, Eastern North Carolina, Miami-Dade, Jacksonville, Memphis, maybe a few others?

Monday morning was a very rude awakening. My bus leaves at 6:30 (others vary between 6:15 and 6:40) to get us to the schools. Of course the first session was in a darkened auditorium for most of the morning. The days have been really long. We don’t really have a break – except a working lunch – until we leave at 4:30. Every night we’ve got a plethora of work to do and some nights have extra sessions when we get back. Not going to lie – it’s rough.

I’m assigned to teach 8th grade math in summer school to students who failed the CRCT – Georgia’s high stakes test that determines if students can continue on to the next grade. The diagnostic test results were miserable. Out of the 25 objectives, there were only two questions that 44% (8 of the 18 students) got correct. Most of the questions had about 20% of student get the correct answer. Keep in mind the questions are multiple choice with four possible answers. Just chance would dictate that 25% of the students would get the answer correct. The students don’t have textbooks, as teachers we don’t get much more from the school. TFA has given us a bunch of objectives and tracking tools.

Monday evening was easy because since I’m teaching math I didn’t have to go to the DRM (literacy testing) session, so I got horrible lost on my run instead. I looked at a map and measured out a nice 5 mile run. However, being very new to Atlanta, I took off in the wrong direction. When I finally got turned around, I found that the roads I had chose didn’t always have sidewalks along them. I thought by picking main roads they would, but I guess not, and since I don’t know Atlanta that well I didn’t have much choice but to keep running and hope for the best. The heat certainly didn’t help. I ended up finding my way back eventually – after about 6+ miles.

Tuesday night was busier. We had to finish up group work when we got back and then we had opening ceremonies at 7:00 so I didn’t think I was going to be able to run. Opening ceremonies was fairly interesting. A few TFA alums spoke and then Wendy Kopp gave a speech as well. A lot of the speeches focused on race as almost a bigger issue than socio-economic status. One of the speakers, a TFA alum, spoke on how, after fulfilling his commitment, he founded a foundation to help minorities travel abroad. While I don’t doubt there are many minorities who want to travel abroad and don’t get to, I feel like the bigger problem is the lack of fund – so why make it only blacks? Or Hispanics? Or minorities in general? The most amusing part for me was that before we left our school, we were specifically instructed that we were not allowed to chant because several years ago the chanting go so rowdy at opening ceremonies that some of the big donors who were that were turned off. Somehow the ceremonies lasted just over an hour so I decided to go for another run. This time I managed to stay on track as I made my way through downtown Atlanta. It’s not smooth sailing like running in Lexington or along Lake Michigan but its not too bad. And running later in the evening is a lot cooler.

Last night we had a small group meeting which was actually a good discussion but I think should have been done on a night that we didn’t have our first two activities due. Those of you who know me know that I need my sleep and so far I haven’t been getting enough if it. Even if I’m in bed by 10:15 – which means I’ve basically spent all my waking hours working – that still only gets me seven and a half hours if I’m lucky. Last night, lesson planning took a long time so I wasn’t in bed until close to midnight.