What a Day...

Wow! Thank God today is over with! It was quite a dramatic day for Miller Intermediate School. Here's what happened...

-This morning 9 teachers were out, and 4 of them had no subs. That means that the kids in those 4 classrooms had to be spread out among the remaining teachers. My class had three students added, all of whom spoke Spanish.

-One of those teachers with no sub was on my team, which meant more work was shifted to me in order to cover there not being a teacher in her classroom.

-A kid was hauled off by the police this morning for several reasons. First, he brought a pellet gun on campus. Second, he had already shot 6 kids with it at the bus stop. And third, did I mention he was shooting kids with a pellet gun?

-One of the mentally handicapped students had a severe breakdown today. Their classrooms are basically in the middle of the building. The Special Education Team had to put her in a classroom by herself to try to control her. The teachers and counselors worked all day to get her calm. Everyone in the entire building could hear her screaming all day long - it sounded like they were killing her or something. Try making 30 6th graders be quiet in the hallway when you have a girl screaming in the room next door.

-I was approached by a parent in the cafeteria today (they are allowed on campus to eat lunch with their children - why? I have no idea!) who basically accused me of physically attacking his daughter's art project with a marker and then verbally assaulting her. All this was in front of my entire team - not just my class of 26 at the time, but all 80 students I see everyday. Not the time, nor the place.

To top it all off, the laminator broke today!

Like I said, what a day!

The World is in my Classroom

This week, the learning objective for Social Studies has been for students to understand that many of the families in our community originally came from countries all over the world. Wednesday night, I had them interview their parents about their family's cultural heritage. Yesterday, we pulled it all together through a crafts project.

I had each child create the flag of the country their family most identifies with. By the end of the day, I had seen 13 different flags... there are 13 countries represented in my classroom! Well, technically there's only 12... Palestine is not officially recognized as a country, but you get the idea.

In all, we had America, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Romania, El Salvador, Cuba, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Iran, Nigeria, and Palestine. Take a look at the ones hanging in the hallway...


That's so amazing to me - I've never been in a place where I had so much diversity! With all of this excitement in my classroom, I decided that I wanted to take this to a school-wide level. I've proposed a project to my principal where my students would survey the student body at Miller to see how many different countries we have represented at our school.

The grand idea is to change our mono-chromatic cafeteria that reeks of institutionalism into a bright, colorful representation of the diversity in our school through the use of flags.

Hopefully, my principal will be onboard and will give me the go-ahead to get this started. I think I can really get my students invested in this project, based on the excitement level we had in class yesterday. The worst that could happen would be a group of students from America engage in a conversation over their smiley-face french fries about where Romania is.

Evangelical Parents?

So, two posts in one night is a bit extreme, but trust me - you want to read this one.

Anna Lee, my "Southern" friend from UVA, is working at Cafe Artiste with me. She's making several parent phone calls regarding disruptive students.

On her third call, she stumbled into quiet an interesting conversation.

"Hello?"

Anna: "Hi, may I please speak with Mrs. Rodriguez?"

"First, let me ask you about your relationship with Jesus Christ. How is it?"

Anna: "Excuse me? This is Anna Lee - (so-and-so)'s teacher. Is Mrs. Rodriguez home?"

"She's out right now, but do you consider yourself a Christian?"

Anna: "I'm sorry; are you related to (student so-and-so)?"

"Do you consider yourself a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ?"

"Ok, well, um, can you please just tell Mrs. Rodriguez that, um, I called to talk about her child's behavior and that I'll call back tomorrow?"

"Okay, God bless."


Not quite the conversation you expect when you make a parent phone call. Funny - it's just plain funny!

Coffee and Cheese Grits

Today is Thursday, which means tomorrow is Friday. That means my lesson plans for next week are due tomorrow.

So, I have setup shop at Cafe Artiste, an ecclectic coffee shop in my neighborhood with lots of tables, outlets, and plenty of booths to spread out graded papers and lesson plans. Think Jittery Joe's, only more room.

I had a good afternoon today, mainly because I decided to come home early today (5pm) and take a nap. It's amazing how refreshed you can feel after a 30 min nap!

Back to planning... next week we're learning about the USA and Cananda in Social Studies, and we're planting Wisconsin Fast Plants in Science.

Help from a Neighbor

So today I came to a realization. One of the teachers at my school had a pep-talk with me in the hallway. As I was delivering the finest lining-up orders to my students, she invited me to plan for next week with her afterschool tomorrow. Of course, I agreed and told her that I was going to go home tonight and put together a draft lesson plan for the week.

Then, she stopped me and asked, "Why?"

"Matthew," she said, "this week is stressful enough. You have the whole year, there's no need in getting all stressed-out this first week. Go home tonight and work on tomorrow's lesson, but not next week's."

Normally, my TFA-brainwashing would have taken over and blocked Senora Rivera out, but real-world Matthew kicked in and thought she made a lot of sense. Why get overwhelmed with next week now?

So, I've finally found the calm that I've been looking for the past few days. I'm working on tomorrow's lesson and taking the rest of the week one day at a time. I'll work on next week's lessons tomorrow and Thursday and have them ready to go by my Friday deadline, but no need in stressing about them tonight.

I actually got to watch an episode of "West Wing" with ALL of my roommates tonight. Rare for us all to be in the same room at the same time, and even rarer to be watching our favorite show during the week - we would normally have agreed that there's just too much work to do.

But today is different - today was a good day. Especially because we got a free dryer from the band director at Miller. That's great news, since the one that we bought a few weeks ago off Craig's list decided it would die as soon as we plugged it in.

Back to experimental variables and world geography...

Brain Dead

**Editor's Note: I took a brief hiatus, but I'm back and blogging better than ever. Read on my friends; I promise to do a better job of staying up-to-date.**

So, I had my first full day today. I have to admit that I'm in over my head right now. My lesson plans for the week are flimsy at best and I really have no idea what I'm doing.

I won't say that I'm having second thoughts, but I'm just realizing how incredibly hard these next two years are going to be. I know it's worth it, it's just hard when I'm so mentally tired all the time. Every night I have about 4-5 hours at home and have to spend them all working, so it's like I never get a break. Considering that I have been in Houston since the beginning of June, my brain feels like I've been going non-stop this whole time. I should have gone back to Georgia for a weekend or something. Thank God the Ole Miss game is coming up soon.

On a positive note, my students are all really smart and appear to work hard in class. I have a few rowdy troublemakers, but I can handle just a few.

Back to lesson planning...

A Broader Perspective

I've always considered myself to have a rather broad perspective on life. However, now that I find myself surrounded by so many amazing individuals (extremely smart, talented, dedicated, etc.) from every corner in America, I realize how much my perspective was lacking in Georgia.

I get so excited at the chance to learn from other TFAers about how life works in their home states and/or colleges. Many TFAers have had international experience (one lived in Germany for three years), which adds a whole other dynamic to the conversation. It's just really great to engage in a deep, thoughtful, and respectable conversation with truly incredible individuals who all share this same passion -- TFA.

I also realize how I am contributing to other people's broadening perspectives. Because I am in unfamiliar territory as well, I am able to provide language, dialogue, dress, and customs which are typical of my neck of the woods -- GEORGIA.

I get a lot of pride showing my Georgia experiences with others here in Houston. But, I also realize how limited my experiences have been in Georgia. And that makes me extremely thankful for this opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and learn so much about others and their unique perspectives.

Houston Area Survey

Today at TFA Orientation, we had a very interesting presentation by Rice Sociology Professor Stephen Klineberg, who annually conducts a public perception survey of Houston residents. He presented data to help us better understand the areas where we will be teaching, aligned along demographics and local mindsets.

Some interesting facts that I heard...

-the "blue collar path" to economic success has largely disappeared (an education is fundamental now)

-Houston has the best medical facilities "on the face of the earth," but it also has the highest percentage of kids without health insurance

-In 1999, Houston surpassed Los Angeles as having the most "highly dangerous" days concerning air quality

-All of Houston's ethnic communities are now minorities - Anglos: 37%, Hispanic: 39%; and have more equality among percentage of per capita makeup then any other "melting pot" city

-88% of all Indians in Houston are first-generation

-48% of all Indians in Houston are professionals (college degree or post-graduate/professional degree)

I don't necessarily believe the way the survey was conducted (random telephone households) was the most reliable or valid, but some interested numbers nontheless.

Check it out for yourself... www.houstonareasurvey.com

The Best News Ever

Today I began Teach For America*Houston Orientation. All this week, we'll be learning specifically about standards and practices for the Houston school districts and how that traslates to the work we will do in our classrooms.

I also discovered today something that I am absolutely fascinated by... some news involving one of my roommates. I found out today that Danny (from Chicago, mathematics major at Purdue) scored a whopping 180 on the LSAT. Not a 180 out of a 200, but a 180 out of a 180! He made a perfect score on the Law School Admissions Test! He's already been admitted to Harvard Law, where he will attend after finishing his two years with Teach For America.

This is amazing! Could it be possible that I have, living down the hall from me, in my very house, a living, breathing person who scored a perfect 180 on the very test that I will prepping for in order to take next summer?! Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about the opportunity to get some help from a proven success story when the time comes.

Trained and Ready to Go

I've officially been in Houston now for 7 weeks, which should make me a legal resident, aside from the fact that I haven't registered with the DMV yet (actually, in Texas it's the Dept of Public Safety).

That being said, I've already completed my official Teach For America training and am ready to begin putting things in order for my 6th grade science/social studies classroom at Miller Intermediate.

Not so fast though... I still have a TFA Orientation (beginning at 8am tomorrow), school district new teacher orientation, and a series of campus staff development sessions before I can focus solely on my classroom and kids.

A side note... I technically haven't secured housing yet. While my things might be all setup in a 4-bedroom house with 3 other TFA guys, the landlord is considering kicking me out. Get this - she only wants 3 people in her 4-bedroom house. Granted, she's 60 years-old and raised all her children in this house, so she has somewhat of a sentimental attachment on the property, but I think she's being unreasonable. I'm currently still trying to convince her that she could not find 4 better guys to live in her house. I've given her references, personal assurances, my official employment letter, and I've emptied my bank account to make the security deposit larger. We shall see what she decides.

Other than that, Houston is amazing! Okay; minus the weather and mosquitoes, it's not all that bad.