Exhausted but Inspired

Today has been a rather unremarkable day. My lesson went ok – the kids did pretty well but I was definitely not on my A game. I find the better the questions they ask, the less clear I was in teaching new material. I was teaching them to solve for x in one-step equations and R., one of my stronger students, asked a few good questions that I should have explained and did not. For example, is x = 4 and 4 = x the same thing? Most people know that instinctively, but for a struggling math student it’s not quite so obvious. Or I should have reviewed some basics – like that when you have 2x, the operation between 2 and x is multiplication. Had I said that in my third sentence or something, the whole idea of doing division to isolate x would have been a lot easier. But like usual, my kids learned despite me.

This is unrelated to my teaching, but it’s an ongoing observation about Teach for America in general. Overall, I have been very impressed with the people here. Sure, there are some crazies (like everywhere), but I find so many of them to be very inspirational people. For example, my friend Amanda (my travel buddy and future housemate) was placed in a teaching position in New Orleans that she was very unhappy with. She did not like the principal during the interview, was not excited about the model of teaching the school used, did not agree with the restrictions the school put on her, and the list went on. She spoke to people in the GNO office who were sympathetic, but really couldn’t change her placement. At first she was very upset, but quickly came around to the idea that she came to New Orleans to help students, and if this is where the need is then she is going to make it work. Just because she was unimpressed by the school, kids still needed to learn there and still deserved great teachers. I was so impressed by that attitude, and I hope if I am not totally satisfied with my placement (which I’m still waiting for…but that’s another story) that I can have the same take on it.

People in TFA also tend to be very practical and fiscally responsible. Maybe I notice this more after being at GW where both ideas seemed hard to come by sometimes, but suddenly wearing designer clothes seems foolish (or wearing uncomfortable shoes!), spending money on things you don’t need but just want is more carefully considered, or parents paying rent, cell phone bills (well, thanks for that Mom & Dad!), car payments, etc. is much less common. These folks are practical, independent, and responsible. I hope working and living in this environment drives me to be better at these things!