Week 4: FINISHED

Happy belated fourth of July! More importantly, happy birthday to Ms. Lynn, who yet again is traveling the world on quite the adventure. Her pictures look pretty incredible if you want to do some face booking.

Cleveland threw it down for the members of t-eff-a. BBQ and $1 beers and smirnoffs kept us all pretty busy. The night ended with some lovely fireworks and a trip to Hey Joes and Pickled Okra. Hey Joes is a pretty neat bar in town, closes at 10 or 12 most nights. Pickled Okra is the closest thing to Red Rooster we have around here. Cari and Maddy stayed out pretty late dancing the night away. I, on the other hand, am an old lady these days and left around midnight.

Wednesday was probably the laziest day I've had at Institute thus far. Stayed in bed until almost 11 and watched Community on Hulu. It was over 100 degrees and while everyone else baked at the lake, I decided for my own sanity, I would not put myself through any heat exhaustion, even if it is a national holiday.

Which reminds me, National holiday. You know, when everyone and their mom gets off. Except us! Normally, I wouldn't complain, considering I signed up to work my butt off all summer, but on July 4th?! Our content leader brought us "American Pie" - apple pie and ice cream to make us a bit happier. It worked.

Annalise arrived on Thursday night, so Cari and I took her to Guadalajara in Cleveland. It was so nice to catch up. I'm going to miss her so so much. She's going to learn a ton about ed policy at Duke and share her discoveries with the world and change the way the system works. You watch.

Friday night, our school social was at Guad again so yay for more margaritas. Then Annalise, Liz, Cari, Anthony and I headed to Warehouse to meet up with Cari's school team and afterward we headed to Hey Joes. Annalise and Cari did a midnight shake run to Sonic and I drove Anthony's car home.  We asked some members of the management team (like who run ALL of institute) where to have brunch before Annalise left. Apparently you need to drive 90 miles for some decent brunch so we ended up in Oxford, MS - Sippi's hometown. We had a place called "Big, Bad, Breakfast" also known as BBB and spent the afternoon shopping at some really cute boutiques. The town has an old-school feel to it, as in there should be horses and buggies taking us around and I should have a fancy lacy umbrella to shield me from the sun. After a few hours we were drained and headed back to Cleveland.

Stayed in to do work last night. Emma texted to say Eliezah randomly showed up in Cleveland (all the way from Nashville on a wim) so they said hi for a bit before we went to bed. Liz came home complaining of itchiness from bug bites. The poor girl has about 20-30 on her feet and hands alone. Emma has already gotten a shot from an allergic reaction to the MS mosquitos.

Woke up too early this morning from a crazy monsoon thunder and lightning storm. It's only rained twice in the 5 weeks we've been here and hell, it really storms down here.

One more week and we head back home. Justin and I will immediately get in Monte and drive to NJ. I feel like this week is going to be the hardest because the countdown is near - and we don't have nearly as much LPs to do. It's mostly administrative stuff at this point, which means I'll have more free time to miss home. 7 days. Here goes nothing!

Best teaching moment of the summer

I taught a class about patterns on Friday. I told the kids to use prediction calls to try and figure out what the answers would be. Then I told them to transfer me their energy from their brains into my brain. Clearly, this was a high energy lesson. I made them think and think and think.

My little third grader A.Jaye says, "PICK ME PICK ME! [Falls over on the carpet.] My brain is working so hard I think I'm going to have a heart attack!"

Personal goal #852: Check

Went to bed at 6:59PM last night. With the exception of some text messages that stirred me during the night (Justin, Kristie, and Amanda), I slept until 7:13AM this morning. 12 hours. Take that achievement gap.

Teamwork makes the dream work

Institute Round 2: Best experience of my life. I'm pretty sure I could go back two years ago and see the craziness that ensued then.

Part of the reason why this experience has been so powerful has been my school team! Serious snaps and shout outs to Alice, Desiree, Shafi, James, Laura, and Melissa. These 6 people have shared everything and anything for the past month. We've laughed, cried, cried and laughed some more. I have been truly blessed to have them in my group. As Alice always says, "Teamwork makes the dream work."

Grappling with the Delta

The FA and I just had a long chat. Apparently it is legal for kids in this school district to spend up to 9 WEEKS each year in ISS - In School Suspension. It begins in Kinder and goes all the way up to High School. No wonder these kids are so far behind. They spend 1/4th of the school year in a room being paddled and doing busy work. There is a reason why these third graders can barely add 3 +7. If you're a behavior problem, you probably spend a great deal of time doing nothing in an isolated room from peers. Out of the 60 third graders we're serving this summer, at least 5 are repeating. 3 of them are super smart, but clearly have trouble keeping their emotions and behavior in check. They are being held back because their teacher couldn't keep them in control enough to teach them. My school in Nashville retained only two kids out of 200 kids. 

A child was paddled for the first time today at school. Maybe that's why I'm in a particularly reflective mood. I wonder how whipping a child will make them focus more in class. I wonder what type of implications this has for these students when they become parents. Will they use violence in their home to discipline their children too?

I have truly fallen in love with the Delta. The cornfields, the food, the kindness from strangers, and the kids. I thought being called Ma'am would give me some type of complex, but in actuality, it makes me realize that these kids have manners, but know so little about the world. I taught a child what he word "borrow" meant this morning. They are excited to hear about adventures in different cities, states, and countries. They want to know who we are and why we are here. These kids deserve more opportunities than what life is giving them right now. I love Nashville and I can't imagine leaving my students anytime in the near future. I thought my kids in Nashville had it rough. The truth is, my kids in Nashville are lucky. They typically eat two meals a day, they have families that mostly love and support them, and most of their families moved from another country to the US to give their children something better. I just wrote "In the Delta, values are just different," and quickly deleted it. It's not fair to the generations of people who come from here to say that they do not value education or opportunities or want something better for their children. That is a ridiculous thing to say, they love their children and would probably do anything for them. I think the difference is that opportunities in the Delta are so few and far between that we forget they even exist. A cockroach just walked across the floor by my feet - I'm not even bothered because this is a regular experience here in schools in the Delta. 

That was not meant to be a complaining spree. I guess I wonder, in 3 weeks, I'll be leaving the Delta (maybe) for good. What can we do to fix the problem here because enough is enough. These kids deserve the best and it's not only about what we give them, but what tools can we give them so they can help themselves?

Week 2 in Review

Transformation. In one week. They really came into their own last week. I could not be more impressed with the amount of growth the CMs made in one week. Now that behavior management in under control, we're focused on serious learning. The teachers delivered super boring lessons the rest of the week, so we spent 3 hours today giving them pointers on how to make INM and GP more engaging. I just finished my LPs for the night and I already see some really engaging and interesting plans for the remainder of the week!

We celebrated Emma's birthday in Clarksdale, MS at a restaurant called Rust. It was my first real meal since arriving here. I don't count Sonic, McDonalds or the cafeteria. Even though there is little to compare it to, the food was amazing. The burger was amazing and totally hit the spot. We went to a blue's bar afterward for a few hours.

Friday night, we had an all staff social at Airport Grocery in Cleveland. Over 35 of our 48 CMs came out to celebrate with us. It is so nice to get to know these teachers outside of just coaching them and teaching them how to teach and constantly criticizing them. It was also nice to have a few drinks after a crazy first week of school. Afterward, we went dancing at "club" in Cleveland called "On the Rocks." Someone on t-eff-a staff was the person DJing and it was literally in a hole in the wall. Hot as hell and no AC in there. Afterward, I drove Shafi, James, and Desiree (my fellow CMAs) to Dodge's Chicken. It's a fried chicken joint in a gas station. Another weird MS thing (and by weird, I meant different) is that everyone eats food made at gas stations. This is a new phenomenon for me and I'm not sure I can make it a life-long thing, but I think I'll try it next weekend.

Liz was in a car accident on Thursday. The state trooper said she was lucky to be alive. It's hard to describe but basically the driver of her car had to swerve to miss a Ford 150 and ended up getting hit by a tractor trailer. Liz was in the backseat and got throw forward (thankfully Jackson was in the passenger seat) and blockaded her from going through the windshield. She was so lucky; it's insane. She went the majority of the weekend recovering. She ended up with a minor concussion and some bruising. She's back on her feet now thankfully.

Spent the majority of Saturday doing nothing but reading in bed. It hit 101 degrees at 11:30AM so that was the moment I decided I wanted some alone time. I can't remember the last time I was actually alone. As in weeks, maybe months. So I took advantage of my free time and finished the third Dragon Tattoo. I need another book to read when I have free time this summer, so please send suggestions this way!

Hit a weird wall this weekend and felt homesick. I haven't seen the great state of New Jersey or my Pop Leo since December (or eaten pizza or bagels since then either). Justin and I are going to drive to NJ for 2 days right after Institute is over so I can give Stephen Monte. I promised him that if he could get a job, I would give him a car. Didn't realize it would be that quick! Cannot wait to see my friends and family, even if it's for 48 hours!

Come to Jesus

I had a "Come to Jesus" chat with my corps members today. I understand that teaching is a new thing and there is a learning curve, but they handed in straight crap this morning. I spent the majority of my day reading these half finished lesson plans. I don't ever remember handing in anything less than my best work at Institute. Not even close, I gave it my best shot every time. My group was handing in entire sections missing or 1 practice problem or no assessment. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Many other CMAs are saying similar things about their corps members, so I don't feel bad that it's just mine, but still. We had a chat so that this is the last time I have to read such poor plans. These kids need great teachers and half-assed LPs are definitely not the way to close the achievement gap. It's also not fair that I need to stay up all hours of the night reading stuff that they didn't even try to do. I'll be very interested to see the difference in the LP that I read on Thursday. Fingers crossed that they get it together. Their deer in headlights look made me feel nervous that I was being too harsh, but their feedback at the end was that they appreciated that I brought it up now and was really direct about the situation and that I didn't sugarcoat it. A few corps members came afterward and apologized for not giving me their best work. That was nice to hear.

We also had our community night tonight at school. We invited students, their families, and community members to have a potluck dinner at school. Not many parents and students came, but the ones who did had a great time. Quin, a fifth grader, has a parent who works at our school. Apparently his mother stopped bathing him and taking care of him so one of the neighbors took him in. There is really no such thing as child services down here. Neglect is overlooked in the country. So, his guardian was there tonight and kept telling his teachers that they can try their best this summer, but Quin will be in jail before he graduates high school. Now, Quin is definitely not the easy kid. He struggles and raises hell in the classroom. But it's depressing that no one thinks he'll ever make something of himself. His parents abandoned him. He is not invested in finding a way out of crippling and unforgiving poverty.

I pray that these corps members can reach Quin before it's too late.