Career Change: Summer Institute (Week 5)

I can say it now - the party's over!  And none too soon. I think if summer institute didn't end this week, someone was going to go postal. Not necessarily me, but someone. By this week, nearly everyone said "enough is enough!"  Even though there were still one or two Kool-Aid drinkers in the mix, everyone else was cooked.

Even my students had had enough. Their behavior this week has been out of control.  On Monday afternoon, the dean of students, the principal and the head of security held my class for 30 minutes after the end of the school day to have a long discussion about the class's behavior - how they weren't meeting the school's expectations at all. It came to a head on Monday morning when one of my students (normally a quiet, respectful boy) decided to practically overturn his desk and curse out another student during my class and I had to throw him out of the class, because calling someone a "mother eff-er" is not acceptable behavior...in any classroom.  They were slightly better on Tuesday but by Wednesday, they had returned to their beastly ways.  The only decent behavioral day was Thursday due to them taking their final exam for nearly 2 hours and even then I still had to put one kid in detention. All things considered, I love my students and I will miss them, but I am glad to be leaving them here and heading home. There is one student, Richard, whom I would love to carbon copy and take home with me.  He's that one of a kind student who is mostly on task, rarely goofs off, is smart, funny and adorable, and is eager to learn.  (See the photo?  So sweet!) 

As bad as my students were this week, nothing compares to how horrible the TFA sessions were.  I never want to hear the words "let's reflect on..." ever again!  I'm pretty much done with "reflecting" on anything.  Seriously, this place got more and more cult-like over the last couple of weeks and very few corps members at my school were actually on board with this.  So of course, we all sat together, making snide comments to each other. All I can say is that I'm glad that summer institute is over and by tomorrow night, I will be home, annoying my cat and watching 5 weeks of saved Hell's Kitchen episodes.  Huzzah for snarky Chef Gordon Ramsay.

So to summer institute I say the following:  Farewell, dorm room with the uncomfortable twin bed, which squeaks horribly and wakes me up nightly. It's like sleeping on a crouton. Ciao, dining hall which I have a feeling will continue cause me intestinal issues for the next week or so. Toodles, shower stall that has something growing in the corner which frightens the hell out of me. Buh-bye, soggy PB&J sandwiches on over-sized white bread that was my daily lunch. Auf Wiedersehen, yellow school bus that is not air conditioned in 93 degree humid weather. Good riddance, annoying co-teacher who is a shallow, insincere git and probably won't last long in this profession! I will not miss any of you.

There are 2 things that I will miss from this time in hell - (i) my corps member adviser, George, who was the only person who completely understood my frustrations and annoyances with TFA and kept me focused on the importance of what I was doing with my kids, and (ii) the only decent thing to eat in the dining hall - the cookies, which explains the five pounds that I gained!

On another note, it appears my placement at SeaCoast High School is in jeopardy. I finally got an answer from the TFA placement office on what happens if (more likely, when) I fail the ESL MTEL. Apparently they ask the school district to get a waiver which will allow the unlicensed teacher to teach for a year while studying and taking the test again. (A really bad idea in my humble opinion. Particularly with a specialty subject like ELL, you really need to have someone licensed who is knowledgeable in the subject.)  So the placement office put in a request to the Revere school district on my behalf for a waiver and this was the email I received from the placement director: "I spoke with Revere today and it seems unlikely that they will be able to request a waiver at this point for the position.  I'll have a definite answer on Monday." So now it's back to square one on finding a position. I have mixed feelings about this. To put it mildly, I wasn't thrilled about teaching ELL students because I feel unqualified but I liked the school, the principal and the location.  <sigh>  Oh, well.  Not much I can do about that now. The perfect position is just waiting for me somewhere! I just have to have patience.