chronic misbehavior

i was asked to give a written statement on the behavior of one of my worst behaved students today... it included the following... none of this is a lie or exaggerated...

"Examples of ________’s misbehavior in my class include, but are not limited to the following… cursing, talking back to the teacher, attempting to fight other students in the middle of class, verbal altercations with other students in class, sleeping in class, calling me “pimp, little gangster, player, boy” and other disrespectful phrases, discussing smoking weed in class, discussing fighting and or harming other students physically, slapping other students in the middle of class, getting out of his seat and leaving the classroom in the middle of class, threatening students, threatening the teacher, discussing sex, discussing drugs, discussing bowl movements, and other general lewd comments."

Also another one of my students who is a serious behavior issue was going Christmas caroling at a nursing home today with an after school program. When asked how she felt about the upcoming carols she responded. "Them old people better not mess with me or I'll slap them upside their head." I think she may have missed out on the Christmas spirit of the carols. Oh and one last one... here is a poem written by a student who I do not have in class, but who comes by my room every day and demands candy. It was written a couple of years ago, but is a gem nonetheless. It is entitled "Angry Poem"

"Roses is Red... Violets is Blue... Why everybody don't like Obama? That's some bullshit."

Have a nice day. Peace.

a welcome change...

so i was all ready for today to be a normal saturday consisting of me vacuuming my house, going to wal-mart, and grading papers. but instead my friend joe davis posted a link to this website which has now distracted my attention for the past hour. it has so captivated me, and distracted me from the normalcy of teaching that i've now been thinking about changing the world as opposed to "why do they still not know what a linear function is?" anyway... i'll give a quick rundown of the week, and then i've posted the link (on my facebook page) to this website that has me thinking grandiose world-changing thoughts. if you are interested... check it out. while teaching has taught me quite a bit about the pains of idealism, i still can believe in an young idealistic movement such as this.... you can look at the website... my friend originally tagged me in a note about this movement and i will also post what i commented on said note below. you most certainly don't have to read that part. ok so this week.... i think i had some idea that after thanksgivng things were going to be "all better" HA! not quite. it wasn't a terrible week, but things still aren't going so hot in my classroom. i still lack lots of classroom management skills, even in my classes that are like 8 kids. things are most certainly better, but i'm still not very good at this. i have a lot of ideas of things i want to change after christmas break. i am hoping to get a few of my classes changed around so that i can go much quicker in two of my classes (i'm like 4 weeks behind where i am supposed to be... oops) last night at a basketball game i threw a candy bar wrapper at one of my students to pay them back for all the things they throw at me. it probably will end up being a bad decision come monday when she returns the favor in the middle of 6th period. ohh well. anyway, i hope to keep improving, and i am posting my comments about the website i spoke of earlier below. some of the comments have to be taken in the context of the conversation we had on that note, but most should make since when it stands alone.... hope all is well. peace.


ohhh dear goodness thank you so much joe davis for sending this my way. it was a much needed break from grading papers on a saturday morning. i've had a deep longing for this type of discourse this semester as i don't get much of it in my algebra one classes. i now feel the need to add to the conversation

1. i really really like the "let us rise movement" i think it is founded in some deep and true ideals. if a movement like this were to ever really get rolling here in the US i think it could begin to break the chains of intense rhetoric and polarization that so plagues or current political system. the movement currently seems to be a bit idealistic, but i hope it can hammer out more concrete stances as the movement grows.
2. growing up in the church leads me to the same thought process that you have here joe. that is, "why are we (we as in christians) not at the forefront of a movement like this?" however, the more i think about it, the more i begin to wonder.... why do we have to put the label of "christian" on it in order for us to truly believe that Christ is a part of a movement such as this? after reading the mission and guiding aspirations of this movement its obvious to me that Christ is very much a part of this. "choosing love at every opportunity" is Christ. we don't have to label it as "christian" in order for Christ to be very much in the middle of what is happening.
3. all that being said, i am in no way putting down what you are saying joe. i could not agree more. i just wanted to add that element to the conversation. i do firmly believe that it is sad that we as the church don't have these type of mission statements at the forefront of what we are doing. we have a lot to learn from an organization like this. which will be hard for the church to do as long as we continue along these lines of polarization... church vs. non-church... christian vs. non-christian.... saved vs. not saved.... if we as the church could realize that those harsh lines don't really exist and embrace a movement that seems completely dedicated to love (which according to 1 john 4:8, isn't that what God is?) i think we would be much better off. ... See More

ok i am going to return to those papers that are calling my name. thank you for this joe davis. and to you and johncarl both.... duke... i'm coming. give me a couple of years and i'll be there. peace.

thanksgiving

thanksgiving break may have been the greatest experience of my entire life. it was so nice to see auburn people, family, and just relax. i managed to read a 480 page book in two days, work a little (too much according to richard rogers), and eat a lot. ohh thanksgiving was just wonderful. three more weeks and then a welcome two week break. i know i can make it two weeks no problem. oh i don't know if i mentioned this but every time it rains for more than five minutes our basement floods. haha. so yeah that happened tonight. nice little welcome back to arkansas present from our house. just realized i hadn't posted in awhile. life is good, ready for three more weeks.... kind of. peace.

oh and if you just so happen to be a male person who begot my existence (aka richard rogers).... the telling of the basement flooding is not just "another attempt to make my life sound miserable" it is simply a statment of fact. it rains.... our basement floods, just the way it is. peace.

seriously?

so yesterday im giving a unit test which are worth 40% of the students' final grade. and what does a kid in my fifth period class decide to do during the middle of said test? answer his cell phone. and i don't mean answer it in a sly type of way in which you are attempting to hide it. i mean answer it, say hello in a normal speaking voice, and then proceed to have a conversation. "yeah i'm in class right now." you can't make this stuff up.

as a side note... i am extremely tired. it does not matter how much i sleep on the weekends i am always completely exhausted by tuesday afternoon. only a week and a half til thanksgiving. dear goodness i cannot wait. speaking of sleep... last night (friday night) i fell asleep on the couch around 7 o clock and slept til 6:45 this morning. it was pretty nice. hope everyone is doing well. peace.

a good day....

so since my last post was semi-negative, i feel the need to update today and say that i had an extremely good day. my fifth period, which was slowly becoming my worst period, decided to do everything i told them to do. they all worked and most of them understood what i was teaching. it was great. one kid who had literally done nothing all year took down every note and tried to work every problem. i also helped a girl that goes to my church with calculus during my planning period, which made me feel way smarter than i actually am. ohh... and a kid (who isn't even my student) keeps coming to me for girl advice which is wonderful and hilarious. anyway, just wanted to give a postive update. hope all is well. peace.

trying to teach...

so it has been awhile since i have updated. september and october have been pretty insane months. we just finished our first nine weeks of school so i am officially halfway done with my first semester of teaching. i can without a doubt say that this has been the most difficult nine weeks of my life, but has taught me more than i could even begin to imagine or describe. i can't even begin to go into what these nine weeks have been like, but if i had to sum it up in a cute, cliche phrase it would without a doubt be: up and down. some days have been great, some days kids seem to have learned something in my class, while others have been.... well... rough. a few quick notes...

the other day a kid in my second period class (the roughest class by far) stole a giant bag of candy out of my desk and proceeded to throw said candy at the rest of the class (i was not happy). the day before that i tried to help some of the kids out by letting them use calculators and they proceed to take out the batteries and turn off the screen displays and then tell me the calculators were broken just to throw me off. its amazing what kids will do to try to keep you from teaching your lesson.

i am planning on taking one of my worst behaved kids out to dinner this week, i really hope that helps me get through to him. some of my kids are so completly uninvested in my class, school, or really anything. i want so badly to get through to at least a couple of them.

our football team hasn't had the season we had hoped for... we are now 3-3 but still hoping for a big run in the playoffs. auburn has been horrifically dissappointing after a start that was way too good to be true. i was an idiot and ran my mouth of the week before the arkansas game, bad idea....

i've been blessed to meet some awesome people here in the helena. i've got three great roommates and several people at my school who are great at listening to me vent as a source of aleviating stress when things aren't going so well. i've also gotten involved in a church right down the street from my house, through which i've become involved in a community group on sunday nights which has been a welcome break from thinking about teaching 24-7.

i am giving this thing pretty much all i have right now, and so far i have experienced little to no data-based success. my kids are failing (gave out 40% Fs the first nine weeks.) however, at the end of the day as long as i can look myself in the mirror and say i'm pouring myself into this job and into these kids then i can sleep soundly. i know am i where i need to be, and i don't for one spilt second regret the decision to come teach in helena, arkansas. it is hard, but such is life. life is hard, but life is also good. keep me in your prayers. i hope to hear from some of you guys soon. peace.

(ps - this is simply meant as an honest update as to how my life is, not as any sort of pity party or venting session. i hate it when people do that.)

quick notes

before seventh period another 1st year teacher comes up to me and hands me a note. a student in my seventh period class asks as she walks away... "is that your daughter?" i ask another student in my class... "how old you do you think i am?" she responds... "forty."

3rd period... my pre-ap, extremely well-behaved class is doing groupwork, they seem to be talking about things other than math. i ask one of the students if their conversation is math-related. she responds "actually yes it is, we were just talking about how we were all three going to get together and write a letter to the state nominating you for teacher of the year. we think that you should be featured on television as the best teacher in the country." of course, these were all lies she was spouting forth, but despite the overt sarcasm, i pretended she wasn't lying and it made me feel better about myself.

2nd period... one of the 9th grade football players in my class is not doing any work. i take him out the in hall to have a stern conversation with him. each time i say "why don't you do the work in my class?" or some version of that phrase, he responds "i do do my work." it takes all i have not to laugh. (only the truly immature may understand why.) i may look forty, but we see where my maturity level is...

one of the football players to me today, "coach, you know how badly i could hurt you right?" my response.... "yes".

things are going well. hope all is well at home. peace.

greater things have yet to come....

just realized i haven't updated in awhile. i've been keeping pretty busy. as i said last post i work pretty much non-stop. i'm starting to realize that is just part of the real world though. i've had it much too easy my entire life, and in the real world you actually have to do stuff. doing stuff is hard. thefore this job is hard. but it definitely has its good spots. for example... i have decided that i will have four day weekend every weekend. this is why... my first two thursdays were really good days. i realized that both days i wore by orange and blue auburn tie. therefore i will now wear my orange and blue auburn tie every thursday, and every thursday will be auburn tie thursday. this means it doesn't matter how bad the day goes in class, that is trumped by the fact that it is auburn tie thursday. and then friday CANNOT be bad because it is friday and i get a break the next day. so there it is... four day weekend every week. oh yeah, i got my laptop stolen out of my classrom last monday (while i was in the room.) i turned my back for like two minutes and it was gone. i didn't realize it til the next class period though so by that time it was too late. so that sucked. i'm still somehow holding out hope that it will show up even though i know its gone. it was pretty sad because there are some files and things that i really cannot replace that were on that laptop. but i'm just going forward without the laptop. our football team is now 1-1. we lost the state championship rematch which sucked. we were down by 20 at halftime and made an awesome comeback only to end up loosing by two points. auburn looks pretty good to me so far this season by the way. i'm not getting too excited yet though. this job will continue to be hard and be a struggle but each day i will try to do everything i can to move my kids forward, even when they absolutely despise me (which it often seems like they do). that is all i can do, and that is all i will continue to do. there are lots of days that i really do look forward to going to school, not every single day by a longshot, but many days i do. even when after my last class i cannot imagine returning the next day, i do. its not near as hard as i want to think that it is. at the end of the day i'm just dealing with some kids that sometimes make me feel bad about myself. life is good despite the struggles. life is good. hope everyone is doing well. peace.

the ups and downs....

well i already have a new level of respect for any and every teacher that i ever had throughout school. this job is no kind of easy. i just calculated it, and couting today i worked about 85 hours this past week. haha, that is including football practice though so i don't know if that actually counts. things are going pretty well, its a very much up and down kind of job. monday-wendesday were not too hot, with wednesday being especially challenging. on wednesday the kids had to take this state test that covered an entire year's worth of information that they had not been taught. i would probably be in a bad mood too. but luckily, they got to take it all out on me. hahaha. thursday was definitely the best day of teaching so far and many of the kids almost seemed to actually enjoy my class that day. days like thursday will have to carry me through the rough times. i really did not realize until this week exactly what i had gotten myself into, but i'm still convinced that i am where i need to be doing exactly what i need to be doing. so many of my students here are so jaded and it definitely comes across in their attitudes in class. its like i've asked them to haul cement blocks up a mountain in 110 degree heat when i ask them to take their heads off of their desks in class. and oh dear goodness when i gave a homework assignment on friday i swear i thought they were going to punch me. its going to be a challenging couple of years, but no doubt a good couple of years. i also had no idea how tiring being a teacher is. haha, i now understand why my mother goes to bed every night at 8:00 (its true erin.) last night was the second friday night in a row that i passed out before 9. hahaha. tonight i swear i'm going to try to stay awake past 10, we'll see if i can handle that. first football game this friday, ohhh i'm pumped. we had a scrimmage on tuesday and we destroyed the opposition. friday is the rematch from last year's state championship. pulaski academy. ohhh we better destroy those fools. ok, i'm gonna go to wal-mart now. peace.

every range of emotion possible.

ok so i can't write too much because its 4 in the morning, and i need to quickly figure out just exactly what i am doing today. so yesterday was the first day and it was nuts to say the least. my first and second period classes were more or less out of control and did not listen to a word i said from the minute they walked in the door. third through seventh period were not nearly as bad but still seemed more or less uninterested in me in general. however, there were a few bright spots during the day. a couple of conversations with kids after class let me see that they really did want to learn despite their generally unpleasent demeanor in my class. one kid about made me cry because she was so sweet, shy, timid, and noticably scarred from the obvious effects of a rough life. this job is going to be tough. i can already see that after day one. i am nonetheless excited about going forward. just wanted to do a quick update. it will likely be awhile before i can get to another. life will be hectic starting right now. thanks for all the support. i hope all is well with everyone. peace.

the time draws near....

just realized i haven't updated in awhile. i've been doing inservice, football practice, getting my room set up, and all of those fun type activities. just wanted to say that the kids are getting here on wednesday. pray for me. i'm feeling pretty good about it at this point; we'll see what happens when wednesday rolls around. i'll be sure to give an update after school starts. peace.

community

ok first off i need to say something extremely important. it has come to my attention that most of the people reading my intensely important blog are doing so only via facebook. if you read the previous sentence and said to yourself something like "yes, that is true of me" you are missing out on something very incredible. the facebook updates are tied to my actual blog (http://thatdelta.blogspot.com/). you all must go there and look at it so the 45 minutes to an hour that i spend formatting the wonderful thing are not done in vain. ok, that is all on that subject.

things are still going well here in helena. my house actually looks like people live in it, which is strange. much props to my home decorators erin and cindy rogers for the wonderful job they did arranging my room and making it look like a grown person's. mom and i had several disagreements about things such as "throw pillows" which i saw as having no place in my new room while she adamantly disagreed. we compromised on one extra pillow. my house is pretty legit though. you should all come vist and check it out some friday in the fall when you come to watch the central cougars dominate the opposition while coach rogers excitedly fires up the team from the sidelines.

a quick story and then i shall be on my way. so we have these neighbors who are older and british and awesome. one of the first days we were here maureen (the wife) brought us some chicken salad and bagel chips. i found this to be quite a nice gesture so i, on a whim, invited them over for dinner on saturday night. i then returned to my kitchen and found that i had
a. nothing to cook b. nothing to cook with c. no idea how to cook. i quickly found a recipe out of the "hungry girl" cookbook my mother had so graciously bequeathed unto me and ran to wal-mart. i found myself buying things like can openers, measuring cups, etc. since we had none of these simple appliances. i then returned to the house to discover the george forman on which i was plannning on cooking dinner was smaller than i remembered and held but one piece of chicken at a time. the neighbors arrived around 6:30 (the time i told them dinner should be ready) and dinner was served promptly at 7:15 (the vegetables were also still cooking at that time). nonetheless, they seemed to enjoy the night. the food was edible and i now have lots of random spices in the cupboard. i plan on making the same chicken recipe about five more times so that none of it goes to waste. after the food we played some cards and neville (the husband) dominated us all in a game of presidents.

oh yeah as far as school goes... i've just been doing lots of planning for algebra 1 even though i'm still not 100% sure that i will be teaching that subject. i really do hope so, but i should find out later this week. the lineman are off this week for practice because the skill positions are still working 7 on 7 drills. we start practice in full pads at the beginning of august, and i am ready for that. one of my lineman is rated as one of the top ten in the state; that is pretty exciting.

the sense of community here is incredible. everyone has been so receptive and tfa seems to have a high reputation around helena. i've got a lot of "you guys do so much good work here." but also a lot of "well good luck with that" yesterday even a "do you have a concealed weapon permit?" but nonetheless, the way people have reached out and greated us has been inspiring and overwhelming. the sense of community i can already feel is why i wanted to teach in a rural area. people seem to find such wonder in the small beauties of life in rural communities. even though i know life will get extremely crazy once school gets started, i hope that i will continue to be able to reflect on the goodness of community. so many things have fallen into place so far that i can't help but believe this is exactly where i need to be. its now just up to me to do what i came here to do, invest in some kids lives. ok, that's enough for now. i'm out. peace.

new home.

all moved into my new home in helena, arkansas. through some awesome networking i was able to find an actual house to live in over the next two years. the house is amazing and the rent is very very reasonable (less than the rent i paid for my small little aparment in auburn.) it will be myself and three other first year tfa guys. the house is already furnished and just overall amazing. its much nicer than anything i was expecting. over the past couple of days i have been getting acquainted with the town and doing as much moving in as i can. so far i love it here. the tfa support network is truly amazing and the second year corps members in helena have been overwhelmingly helpful. so far i've gotten a bed, end table, and computer desk for a total of $35. haha. i bought the computer desk and end table at a thrift store type place but had no way of getting it to my house. to help me out, the owner of the store decided to give me the keys to his truck and let me drive it over. ahh, how i love small towns.

i went and talked to the head football coach one of my first days being here and he said that he would be glad for me to help out so yesterday was my first official day of football practice. it was fantastic. our team made it to the state finals last year, only to loose to a team that they had already beaten earlier in the season. we open our season on the road against said team and i already have a deep dislike for them and i'm ready to beat them. the guy we are renting from is out of town and our "contact person" for the house just so happened to be a local preacher at a church that i was already thinking about checking out. so yesterday i went up to the church and talked to him for an hour or two. i have a feeling i will be needing much prayer over the next couple of years so i think that was a pretty good contact to make.

so to sum up, its been fantastic so far. i already feel like a member of this community in only two and half days.
our team is currently at a 7-on-7 football camp at the university of arkansas. yesterday i went up to the school to wish them luck before they left for camp. hearing three or four of them say "see you next week coach" was a particularly wonderful feeling. i can already see that the small, rewarding occurances such as that will help me make it through the next year. i've heard lots and lots of stories from second years about how difficult this job will be, and after only five weeks of institute i already can forsee much hardship coming my way. but, as i said, the small victories can and will push me through. hope everyone is doing well. update me on your lives. peace.

i knew my degree would come in handy

so tomorrow i start to teach my kids about economies. i find that ironic. so four years of studying economics actually paid off. tomorrow i get to teach my kids all about supply and demand, equilibrium price and quantity, price floors and price ceilings, externalities in the market, and heteroskedasticity. ok i lied, tomorrow we are learning this... economy = jobs and money. should be a good time. i need to go finish my lesson plan, just wanted to share that irony publicly.

long weeks that fly by....

so i realize that the last entry was a little depressing and probably preeminently so. i have way too long to go and way too many things that will be much more difficult than anything i have experienced so far to be getting depressed already.

on that note, things the rest of the week were much better. i felt much more effective with the my three childrens and i felt like they were actually learning. they've all been doing better and better on the end of class assessments that they take each day so hopefully they are learning at least something. i found out on friday that i will probably be teaching 6 classes of about 25 students in the fall so i don't know exactly how well my three kids are preparing me for that experience. i guess we will see. i also learned on friday that my high school went to the state finals in football last year. hopefully the offensive line coach also quit his job. we will see. i want to coach. end of story.

some days are awesome, some days are rough. that continues to be the theme of this extravaganza. i realize each day how much more i have to learn, and i try not to let that overwhelm me. to relate this post back to the subject, its crazy that i've been here for three weeks, almost four if you count induction. the weeks are so long, yet they fly by. by wednesday i'm usually ready to see friday come, but it seems like i blink my eye and the week is gone. there is just so much going on at all times during the day it makes things go by pretty quick like. two highlights of the week:
1. all three of my kids have problems with the english language. they know how to speak it, but reading and writing are a struggle. one day we just sat down and read a story because it was "review day" and i attempted to help them learn how to read. it was pretty amazing, made me wish i was teaching reading.
2. on friday one of my three asked me after class, "so are you going to be teaching here like when real school starts?" when i informed him that i sadly wasn't, he dropped his head and walked off.... extremely sad, but also gave me some hardcore motivation.

to sum up - life is good. there are days that are hard, but that just makes the good days even more rewarding. its only beginning, i hope people will be interested enough to keep reading when it really gets good. peace.

ahhh... i get it now...

so yeah..... all that stuff that tfa said about, "you are going to feel like a failure lots of times" is now actually starting to make sense. i only have three students right now, and i feel like i am failing them. how am i supposed to teach three or four classes of twenty or more students in the fall if i can't even teach three right now? its not as easy as one might think, this whole teaching thing. i have no misbehavior issues, but that doesn't mean that my students are actually learning anything in my class. today i was outside of class because the fire alarm had gone off and i asked carlos (one of my three) what we had learned in class so far this summer. he responded with a solid.... "uhhhh..." and was silent for another good 10 or 15 seconds. he then luckily was able to rattle off a few key topics, but trust me it was not a good feeling. i know i've only been teaching for a week and i know it will get better, but failure does not feel too good. this is what i asked for though. i wanted something challenging and this is and will be extremely challenging. i can't imagine what it will be like in the fall with 20 to 30 eyes on me, some interested, some not, waiting for me to teach them. its going to be a long road. just wanted to rant for a bit, back to lesson planning.

placement.

found out my placement today. i'll be teaching and living in helena, arkansas teaching either algebra 1 or geometry at central high school. i'm extremely pumped. perhaps even more exciting than anything, a former tfa corps member and auburn alum (former plainsman at that) lives in helena. i was very worried about who i was going to be able to watch auburn games, problem sovled. war eagle, gotta go do stuff. peace.

actually teaching...

so monday started my actual first day of teaching. its been ridiculously awesome so far. last time i talked about how i had gotten the short end of the stick on schools because we have further to go meaning less sleep and because i'm teaching social studies as opposed to my actual placement (high school math) BUT to make up for all of that, i got an amazing class. there are FOUR kids in my class, haha. only two were there today. it makes the dynamic a little different, but i have zero behavioral issues. it also means i get to work one on one with the kids constantly. as i said, i'm pretty lucky but it will make things much different when i get my class of 20 something kids in the fall. still haven't heard about placement yet, supposed to be finding out this week.

so sunday night i had fully convinced myself that i was going to be absolutely terrible at this. i felt totally unprepared to teach on the following day, and as i laid down i wondered the typical thoughts of "what i have i gotten myself into?" i had given up on re-writing my first day agenda for the 20th time around 1230 and just went to bed not feeling good about the day that was to come. because tfa is stocked full of the perpetual overachievers people had made posters, elaborate art projects, and laid out extensive behavioral and investment plans. as i went to bed with my white butcher paper containing my lousy two expecations and one semi-fancy poster containing the first line of the auburn creed, i knew i was doomed. i woke up around 2:00 and again every other minute (literally) after that and finally pulled myself out of bed to start the day at 5:30. in the end, it was fine. my first day wasn't perfect, but i'm pretty sure i wasn't alone in that. as i said, i lucked out beyond belief with the kids they put me with. they are awesome.

i feel like i must inclue in every post a summary of my sleeping schedule so that i can thoroughly prove to people that this thing is as intense as i said it was going to be. so i "caught up" on sleep from last week saturday night, getting a wonderful seven and a half hours. so sunday night, slept from about 12:30 to 2 and last night from 2 to 5:30. i'm shocked at how not tired i am right now. it actualy works out pretty well: i get a cup of coffee in the morning, start to get tired on the bus ride home in the afternoon, but go for a run to wake me up, and then hit up some coffee around 11. so life is good, thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. im loving every minute of it so far, but i am well aware the lows will hit equally as hard as the highs. i'll keep updating as much as possible. hope everyone is well.

its hot as frick in houston.

i always claimed that auburn was about the hottest place on earth. i was sadly mistaken. its currently 97 degrees in the lovely city of houston, and it feels like 105. i've been running this week at around 5 o clock in the afternoon and it brings new meaning to the word humid. however, running is how i am keeping my sanity. i also just joined the university of houston gym, which is about the nicest thing i've ever seen in my life. to compare it to the auburn student act would be like comparing george w. bush's state of the union to president obama's. its ridiculous.

i got placed in the school that is furthest from the university campus, so that means our bus departs at 6:15 am. so i'm up at about 5:30 every morning and we get back around 5 in the afternoon. usually go for a quick run, dinner, and then work til anywhere from 10 to 12. i guess that is what is to be expected if you are learning how to teach in five weeks though.
to clarify, however, i love it here. there are moments i'm completely overwhelmed. but those moments have been few and far between. despite the stressful schedule, life is good. the other corps members are awesome and keep me going.

monday i actually start teaching, which makes me insanely nervous. i am teaching sixth grade social studies this summer, and the principal accidently "let it slip" to all the sixth graders that their "new teachers" had never been in the classroom before. the students wrote notes to us, one of the notes a fellow corps member received said "i don't care what you have to say. i don't like school. don't mess with me or i will get buck on you." so yeah, that freaked me out. we also watched a video of a tfa first year corps member last year at institute whose class was the most out of control thing i have ever seen. i thirteen year old girl, wearing large sunglasses shouted "blah blah blah" as the teacher tried to explain the rules and asked the teacher "do you know who i am?" so yeah, it made me nervous. i've convinced myself that i can handle it though. i've already signed a couple of people up for this, but if anybody would like to send me an encouraging text message around 11 o clock monday morning, it would be very helpful. haha.

i took that danged praxis test this morning and it was hard hard hard. i hope beyond hope that i passed. its questionable. so TONIGHT is the first night in a week and a half that i can relax and SLEEP PAST 6 O CLOCK TOMORROW. sadly for joel osteen i don't think i'll be making it to see him preach in the morning. i am determined to see the show at some point while i'm here though. i'm about to go out with some people for a wonderfully relaxing night of no work and, with all apologies to mee-maw and others of the like, a beer will never have tasted so good. i feel as if i've made this experience sound depressing, its really not. i love it so far. just stressful. thanks so much for all the thoughts and prayers. gotta go. peace.

in houston...

just finished my "induction" in the delta. we stayed at delta state university for the past three days in cleveland mississippi. so far everything has been awesome. induction was basically set up for us to meet the other tfa corps members in mississippi and to interview with principals. i interviewed with one school called KIPP, which is a ridiculously hardcore school in helena, arkansas. look it up (www.kipp.org). no telling if i will actually be placed at this school (likely that i won't) i think the interviews were more for us to find out information about the delta than anything. overall, the experience has been awesome thus far. there are 287 first year tfa teachers here, which is insane. we are now the 2nd largest tfa region in the country (behind new york) they are expecting a lot out of our group, which makes me all the more excited and nervous. i've met an insanely diverse group of people so far. there are peple here from oregon, new york, california, new jersey, boston, etc. etc. its a far stretch from my experiences in savannah or auburn. i live each day in a complex between optimistic idealism and pessimistic realism. what i have in front of me the next few years seems incredibly daunting but i will remain hopeful. in our region, only 10 percent of low-income eighth-graders score proficient in math. that is just one of the many statistics i could throw out to show how difficult this will prove to be. however, in hearing some of the stories of success from the tfa corps members i've met, i know this whole thing can happen.

i'll be teaching at sharpstown middle school in houston, texas for the next five weeks. from everything i've heard about institute, (which is where i am now) it is supposed to be crazy intense with our schedules going from about 6 am to 10 pm M-F, with lesson plans to be done after that. so it all starts tomorrow. keep praying for me. i'm going to be tired, but its going to be good stuff. the people around me have already proven themselves to be incredibly supportive and helpful. i need to be up at 5am so sleep beckons. peace.

ready to roll..

i know that it is likely that people are uninterested in what i have to say until the actual teaching part of this journey begins, however i feel compelled to write something if for no other reason than i almost always have something i can ramble on about (note the subtitle of the blog)

i'm currently in auburn, and as each day passes i become more and more ready to get started with all of this. i have done all the talking i can possibly do about my new opportunity with teach for america. i am ready to actually do something. thursday is the big day, i travel to mississippi to meet with different principals and interview in order to be placed in a school district. i won't find out about my exact placement until sometime at institute, which is causing me a little bit of nervousness.

as i previously stated, i'm just ready to do this thing. in reading the assigned work, reflecting on these readings in writing form, talking to people about tfa, reading about the delta, etc, i just get more and more excited and more and more nervous at the same time. the continued theme of all of this seems to be: "this is an great opportunity that will make you a much better person, but its going to suck majorly at times." this opinion(which seems to be widely held by most involved in the program) for obvious reasons is the subject of much concerned excitement at this point.

i am tempted to go on a long rant about these books i've been reading lately. i've been doing a lot of reading about postmoderism, deconstruction, philosphy, and religion (most of it is written on a very simplistic level though, don't worry i'm not as smart i want to sound) anyway, the ideas i have gardered from these books are not developed well enough to try to rant about them even in my ranting zone over here in blog world. i also don't want to make myself an oppurtune target for the criticism that would surely befall my leftist, liberal, watered-down, heretical beliefs. however, if anybody is interesed in reading up on this stuff here's what i've been reading. brian mclaren (a new kind of chrisitian, the story we find ourselves in, everything must change) jack caputo (what would jesus deconstruct) and robin meyers (saving jesus from the church) oh yeah and i'm also working on the appeal by john grishman but he hasn't mentioned postmodern philosphy yet. but if anybody is interested in talking about any of this good stuff, let me know. (unelss you want to tell me that all of the books i just listed were written by pagan racketeers that are sending me down a path to hell.) at least let me get my beliefs about what they are saying in order before you condemn me with them. ok that's enough... oh i just got my address for houston so if you want to send me some mail for some reason.....

Levi Rogers/Corps Member
c/o Teach For America
University of Houston
Moody Towers
4401 Wheeler Street
Houston, TX 77004

take two...

ahh, so lots of you are thinking, "first off, i wasn't planning on reading this anyway, why are you making another one of these?" well, for a couple of reasons, one is that i had some technical difficulties with the other blog and second, i can do cool stuff on this one that the other wouldn't let me. so tough, this is the actual blog though.

so i went back and read my first post and i don't know who put me up on my high horse over there, but i sure sound like i'm trying to be awful "look how social justicey i am over here," and that is worthless. so, to sum up from my last blog post: i just graduated from auburn and now i am moving to the mississippi delta to teach high school math. why am i doing this? because it sounds pretty cool to me. i get to teach for the next two years in a place that sounds like it needs some people who are excited about teaching some kids. i think the last post came from my ivory tower because i was so tired of getting those "what on earth are you thinking?" looks from people. but i am learning to live with that. what i am doing is not for everybody, but i am becoming convinced that it is where i should be for the next two years. while all the quotes i threw out last time in my first blog post (the first post is on my facebook page if you haven't read it) are no less true or no less pertinent to my reasoning for doing this, i need not be so arrogant as to say that my efforts will have an effect on these "systemic injustices." i can only humbly try, which is what i'm doing.

so there's the scoop on what i am doing for the next two years and why. i will attempt to update this as often as possible with what is going on. for those of you who know me, i tend to rant beyond belief so if you are looking for conciseity, might want to venture on over to another blog. but in an effort to shut up before i talk for an hour, i will end this. for those curious, i head to mississippi june 4th. that is when it all begins, from then til now i'm in savannah and auburn, reading the 1230492309 pages they assigned us and studying for this test i have to take so that i can teach. that's all. sorry about all the blog confusion. peace.