And The Summer Awaits...

After spending a week and a half at home with the family, I'm back in St. Louis busily getting last minute chores done before Induction (which begins Sunday at Saint Louis University). Writing this actually just reminded me that I need to go pick up my dry cleaning this evening! I still have several TFA assignments I need to get done today and tomorrow, and I still have stuff I need to move from my old apartment over to the house.

Here is the schedule for this summer:
-Induction (St. Louis) ... June 1 - June 5
-Institute (Houston) ... June 8 - July 12
-Orientation (St. Louis) ... July 28 - August 2
-School Begins ... August 18

The entire St. Louis contingent (100 strong for the '08 class) will be at Induction. Items on the agenda include an induction ceremony at the Arch, sessions that deal with how to make the most of the summer Institute, the TFA-STL support structure available to us, diversity training, our partnership with AmeriCorps, information on the Master's and certification programs, and a whole lot more.

At the Houston Institute, I will team-teach a summer school classroom with three other people. I will teach a one-hour lesson every day, as well as work with small groups during a morning "literacy hour." Besides being responsible for my class, I will attend seminars detailing things like lesson planning and instruction. The days begin at 5:30 and don't end until well into the night, so it should be a very tiring yet rewarding five weeks.

My goal is to update the website twice a week during Institute. So, check back often.

New York Times TFA Editorial

The New York Times published an editorial on May 16 about the effectiveness of Teach For America teachers. While I think the article's broad generalization comparing education programs to diploma mills is a little unfair, I thought I would pass this along.

Also, here is an Associated Press article about the growth of TFA this year. 25,000 applicants and 3,700 new corps members - both new records.

Commencement & Carnahan Visit

Some of you may have already heard about the controversies surrounding the 2008 Wash U Commencement. A few weeks ago, Wash U announced that it would give alumnus Phyllis Schlafly an honorary degree. Schafly is an 80+ year old outspoken leader of the social conservative movement. Over the past few weeks, Wash U students and faculty organized a protest of the Schlafly degree. Two Facebook groups that were created in response to the University's decision garnered over 4,000 members in only a couple of weeks. The result? Over half of the student body turned their backs to Mrs. Schlafly when she was awarded the degree at the commencement ceremony. Furthermore, several faculty members walked off the stage in protest. The controversy was featured on CNN and created quite a buzz in St. Louis.

I am all for political and social engagement. I am all for the right to protest. I think it's great that young people seem to be getting more interested in politics. However, Wash U students, for all their strengths, are not politically active on the whole. Rarely is politics discussed on the way to class or in a campus coffee shop. Obama stickers cover many student's mac laptops because it's the cool thing to do. If you were to ask those same students to name on legislative accomplishment of Senator Obama, you would get a blank stare. This is why I had a problem with the protests. The drill is the same every year: once or twice a year, students will get organized to protest some conservative that comes to campus or some incident that they see as a grave injustice to liberal thought. The whole show will last about two weeks, and then Wash U will go back to the same apathetic place that it was before. Wash U students are among the greatest in the world; however, it has always been disappointing to me that there isn't more REAL political discourse on a daily basis at one of the elite institutions in America. Instead, many Wash U students fool themselves into believing that they are actually politically and socially aware because they periodically join a Facebook group devoted to some en vogue liberal cause.

HOWEVER, commecement was terrific in every other way. Mom, Dad, Brittany, Brady, Bryce, and Brooklyn came, as well as both sets of grandparents. The weather was beautiful, and Chris Matthews gave a really good commencement address. It still hasn't really hit me that I am an alum of Wash U, with a bachelor's degree in hand.

The highlight of the weekend came an hour after commencement when I visited Carnahan High School with my family. Mr. Green (the assistant principal) took us on a tour of the school. The technology at these kids' disposal is amazing. Every student has access to a laptop, the rooms are equipped with SmartBoards, there are multiple computer labs, video-making technology, etc, etc. The school is beautiful. I was able to visit several classrooms, which made the wait to actually start up my own classroom almost unbearable. The students that I talked to were all respectful, and some of them said they couldn't wait to have me as a teacher next year. I CANNOT WAIT TO BEGIN IMPACTING THE LIVES OF THESE STUDENTS. Carnahan has great resources and a very supportive administration. The students just need teachers who will invest in them, teachers who will set high standards, teachers who believe in them.

I visited the classroom of a fellow TFA teacher, Greg Laposa. Having him as a colleague will immensely help with my transition to the classroom. He has already been very helpful, and I'm excited to learn from him. My principal, Dr. Roach, is receiving an award on Wednesday for her work at Carnahan. She is one of 25 principals across the country to receive this service/leadership award -- the prize is $5,000. Dr. Roach has decided to donate the money back to the school. This fact tells me everything I need to know about her committment to her students.

Have I said that I can't wait to get started??

Carnahan High School!

I just found out that I was hired at Carnahan High School Of The Future! This is the school that I interviewed with two weekends ago. The more that I researched the school over the past two weeks, the more I fell in love with it. Carnahan has partnerships with Dell and AT&T, which give the school state of the art technology in every classroom. Basically, Carnahan has suburban resources in an inner-city setting. The building is only a few years old, and they actually just recently converted it from a middle school to a high school. They are adding a grade each year during their transition into a full-fledged high school. I can't wait!!

I'm home for the next few days, but I can't wait to visit the school next week when I get back back to St. Louis. I feel so blessed to know where I am teaching already, as it often takes until August to find out your placement.

Results

After watching cable news for more than 6 hours, it looks like Indiana has finally been called for Clinton. Results as of 12:12 CST -

Indiana: Clinton +2
North Carolina: Obama +14

My predictions were close, but Obama definitely had a great night. For all intents and purposes, the race is over. MSNBC is acting like Obama is already the nominee. I agree that there is really no chance that Obama loses the nomination, but I wonder how long it will take Hillary to drop out. She will most likely easily win both West Virginia and Kentucky, but it doesn't matter in the long run. Running mates? Perhaps.

Off to bed.

Quick predictions

So, we're only a few minutes out from the polls closing in Indiana and North Carolina. My predictions...

Indiana: Clinton +8
North Carolina: Obama +10

The word is that a lot of Indiana Republicans turned out to vote today, which bodes well for Hillary. It's a combo of Rush's "Operation Chaos" and I also think there is a touch of sincere voting going on here -- Hillary has transformed herself into a gun-toting, beer drinking, good 'ol girl social conservative.

And the fight goes on...