Welcome to the challenges, joys, frustrations and life of education. Tulsa compacts the experience of first year teaching into a brief window, one semester of Algebra curriculum crammed into only four weeks. That is one method of becoming a better teacher, allowing great exposure to material in a short time frame.
To sum up, here are the top five moments of Institute thus far…
5. Day one, my first morning of teaching! Ready to roll with nametags on desks, a beautiful introductory PowerPoint ready to roll and a lesson plan discussing slope of graphs. Easy! As the students go in, the power goes out. Fine, we have flashlights to look at the nametags.
“Uhhhh, Mister WhatsYourName, this is not my name.” Oh cool, the class rosters got switched. Time to roll with it, throw some math on the whiteboard and talk about myself for the next ninety minutes!
4. Hitting the town in Tulsa after a great ceremony at the Universalist Unitarian Church (reflecting on the recent violence), we land in a bar called the SoundPony. Bicycles hanging from the ceiling, NW Brews on tap, and live music. I am happy. Then, a man steps up to the mic. Is that Dan, our Seminar Leader?
You bet, a fellow TFA member is also a rapper with the MC name Algebra. Solid!
3. Speaking of seminars and ceremonies, the recent, tragic events in Baton Rouge and Minnesota have led to some trauma among the CMs and students at the high schools in Tulsa. One afternoon, the tension breaks and a brief meeting turns into a two-hour social justice forum. That is how progress is made and perspectives are changed.
2. Typical day in the classroom of Mr. Frost. Projector humming, students chatting, pencils breaking, heads down, teacher roaming, hovering, squatting, climbing on stools to talk about the glorious sensibility of “mathematics as the language of nature.”
Who is this crazy dude from Idaho? How old is he? Where does he come from? Why is he in Tulsa? What time is break?
As these questions buzz through the minds of my students, I cannot help but feel I am where I belong. C understands how to apply exponential laws to get to 100,000, even though he struggled to establish a linear rule 10 days ago. M who always responds “I dunno” sees that he does know, because slope is not so bad when you see it as distance over time or rise over run. Teaching is such a wonderfully human pursuit, connecting with students on a personal and academic plane in order to promote curiosity and confidence about your topic and the human spirit.
1.Top spot goes to… the state of Idaho and the amazing group of humans we have together to teach. From Cesar living in a dorm for the first time to Isiah renting a car to visit WalMart World HQ, our eclectic family contrasts so sharply from the party scene generated by other corps from across the country. This Friday, Idaho members can be found eating candy bars, watching animal documentaries and… writing blog posts. I cannot help but feel a deeper sense of purpose and connection within our family.
Between the stress, “Caf” food, difficult days, hugs, learning hundreds of new names and lack of outdoors, I know I am improving as a teacher. But the road to mastery is arduous. Challenge is good.
Grit. Empathy. Focus. 