Induction Week... AND PLACEMENT!

Of the many things I've learned this week at Induction, foremost is that I actually just needed to buy an ethernet cable to get internet in the dorms... whoops. So here I am.

This week has been rather odd. It's intended mainly to be a time just to meet each other but ends up at times feeling a little restless. Every day we have some sort of professional development, though it hasn't been anything practical, more so information on what we can do as alumni, talk about diversity, etc. Which is fine and it's nice to have a week of little expectations, somewhat.

The first night we all went out after dinner, which was okay, the usual bar scene and everyone asks each other "where are you from? have you been placed? where? what grade? what subject?" It gets a little old of course but I'm still trying to keep up the momentum to meet new people. It's hard because although I now feel that I have a few ties, they are very surface level and that's frustrating because I feel that I'd been surrounded by people I was close to and could be deep with, and I'm just not there yet with these new folks. Most everyone is nice. There are definitely some little cliches forming, which is really irritating. I was also right in my realization that I'm on the older side of people there. Not the oldest. Not by a long shot. But older than everyone I'm buddying up with. It's been mostly fine, except the other night when a guy, actually from OR, said in a pretty confrontational way (as I interrupted it) "so why DID you join TFA [at your age]?" I said something like oh sorry, I didn't realize it was only for 22 yr olds to want to make a big change in their lives to teach and work for a greater good, my bad. FYI there are around 180 of us new corps members in the Valley for 2008.

We've had a lot of free time and they suggest some "adventures" that we can go explore in the Valley but it's been much less organized than I expected. One day I went with an 06 corps member and another couple 08 members to the South Padre Island Aquarium, following the activity guide they gave us and directions... only to find that the aquarium doesn't exist. We ended up at a sea turtle rescue center instead, which was interesting.

Yesterday was the most important day so far. I drove out to Rio Grande City with two other gals (one is from Oregon City) to meet our new principal. That's right. I have a job: Veterans Middle School in Rio Grande City. I'm teaching 7th grade writing. In Texas they split reading and writing in some districts. Seventh grade is also a tested year so it's high pressure. Additionally exciting, according to the other 7th grade writing teacher with whom I'll be working closely, we teach personal narratives in 7th grade, which is what my master's thesis was!

The school is BEAUTIFUL. It reminded me a little of High Desert MS that I attended, which was new when I was there. Veterans just opened in September. They have the nicest little classrooms, band equipment, etc. There's definitely no shortage of funding; that's not the problem with the students' low scores (apparently it's primarily not having quality instruction or qualified teachers, and having pretty low expectations for student achievement). The principal was younger than I expected and very energetic. He seems like a good person to work for because he seems to really support TFA and even echoed some of our rhetoric about setting big goals, closing the achievement gap, backwards planning. And, Dad will like this, he's a hunter. He has heads & pelts all over his office. The school has a really interesting layout. There is a hallway for each grade that branch out from the main office, so the principal can step out of his office and look all the way down each hallway, 6th on the left, 7th in the middle, 8th on the right. Each hallway has a subject classroom on each side: e.g. down the 7th grade hall, two writing classes, one on each side of the hallway right across from each other, and right next to the reading classes. I guess we get free breakfast as teachers, but it doesn't sound great. Not sure what I'll be paid & haven't signed the contracts so it's not 100% but sounds pretty sure thing. The other two new gals are teaching math and we got along very well. We also have an 07 corps member who teaches social studies and she showed us around all day. Having walked around there, I'm very excited to get started.

Rio Grande City and the "West Valley" in general is growing on me. Most corps members are placed in the Mid Valley (McAllen, Edcouch, Mission, Edinburg) where we are currently staying, or in the East Valley (Brownsville, Harlingen). The biggest city west of the Mid Valley is La Joya and then about 20+ miles of farmlands before Rio Grande City. There is one further city out that we serve, Roma, which is about 12 miles from RGC. Anyhow, apparently the TFA members in the West Valley are pretty close because there are fewer of them -- maybe 20 or so -- and because it's about 30mins to where other corps members are placed.

So my most recent dilemma is where to live. After Institute (in Houston which starts Monday), we are put up in the RGV for a few days in mid July to find housing. In the West Valley, the most popular place to live is called "The Ranch" or "The Lane," which is basically a short gravel road between RGC and Roma that has 8 little houses on the edge of a ranch owned by the landlords. Almost all of the houses are rented by TFA members, two to a house. The houses are a bit small (but so far the other apts that we saw in RGC were also pretty small), tile floors, A/C. Pretty cheap rent, they're like $400/month. The houses are all about 15 feet apart. They are nothing special themselves, except for the surroundings. There are a few trees planted by the houses but they're on the edge of these beautiful fields. There's a trail leading along a fence in one field that goes out to two different ponds (apparently one can fish there). And the skyline is open so (we had a group dinner out there last night) the stars were so amazing and vivid out there in the country. There are about 40 cows that the landlords own that roam nearby. And I guess it's easy to run out there (FYI, I swear MOST people I've met are distance runners, most go hand-in-hand with all the Type A personalities that join TFA, or that running requires discipline (and self-depreciation as someone else jokingly pointed out) ). So the plus side: it's gorgeous and it made me feel so at peace out there. One guy even has his own composting and little garden. It's only a 10 min drive to the school. I'd be surrounded by a whole community of other TFA'ers so I can have people with whom to confide, and to relax. Plus it's cheap. The down side: a drive, it's a bit hot & windy there (like everywhere around here), and I'd be surrounded by TFA'ers with not a ton of my own space. It's like it's own little community and everyone is in each other's business. I sorta already said I'd live with someone there, awestruck by the landscape and just the sheer remoteness feeling of it, I thought why not go all out on this rural experience? But then during dinner, I started feeling conflicted. Would this be too college dorm-esque, where everyone has little parties (or is that only because they're not in school right now and everyone's out trying to meet each other and form bonds)? Would I rather live on my own? Or closer to town? Or try to find a larger house with other people and just go to The Ranch if I needed to get into the countryside? Or would this be fine for now? A place where I will at least have lots of people around me that are in a similar experience, as opposed to trying to meet neighbors? I feel so conflicted. It sounds nice but it also sounds a little intense now and I'm not sure what kind of experience I want, what would be the best situation for me as I'm working my butt off to get used to teacher, what would be most nourishing, what would be the best way to take care of myself??

Anyhow, I have classes tonight, a study session I can attend for my certification tomorrow, need to put more stuff in my storage unit, and then I'm driving to Houston on Sunday. Ugh.

I'm starting to meet some key people whom I like, and last night met the ones who will actually be living and working near me. But I feel this deep sense of loneliness and it's still an effort to put myself out there so often and go out so often because I feel like that's the only way I'll meet people. At times I think I'm too old to do this. And then at times people have joking reinforced this. But I think this was still the right path for me. If anything, although I think there is a ton of rhetoric thrown at us and some ideals that I am skeptical of, I am proud to be part of this organization and the meetings we've had about options for alumni make me interested in perhaps, if I don't want to teach, being involved with this organization long term (as a program director, or staff member, etc). I have always wanted to feel really deeply about my connections to an organization and to feel aligned with their mission and to have connections and opportunities to move within the organization, and I definitely would have that with TFA.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. First I need to learn more about teaching. I've heard the Institute is pretty intense. Good. I'm looking forward to learning a ton. I'm looking forward to getting my first taste of teaching. I'm looking forward to really getting started and then being able to have more fruitful conversations with my colleagues once we're doing more than bar hopping.