Week 1 of Institute: Check!

I don't know how I can summarize everything that has been going on the past week, so I will just mention a few things.

When everyone said that institute would probably be the most exhausting and challenging thing you do, they weren't joking. However, I must say that I came here with such expectations and so it hasn't been a shocker. I have been fortunate enough to meet two girls that will be working at my school with me, so we go everywhere together when we aren't at our respective schools and they have been so wonderful and encouraging! It has been fun to get to know each other, especially since we will be spending all day everyday with each other from now on. I think I am getting used to waking up at 5:00 am. It doesn't seem like such a big deal and I honestly don't mind at all. I figure that I might as well make the most of it since I will be waking up in the 5:00 hour from now on!

I am living at Rice University, which is very nice. The campus is beautiful and the food is delicious. This is something that I am very thankful for, because usually TFA Houston institute is held at the University of Houston. Speaking of Houston, it is very hot and humid here. I love Texas, but I have to say that I wouldn't want to live in Houston permanently. I have a roommate and she just graduated from UT, so we of course had to agree that we would force ourselves to be friends for this one month only ;)

This week has been very intense and I hear that it only picks at. At 5:00 I wake up, pack my lunch, eat breakfast, get ready and then get on a school bus to go to Hartman Middle School. We stay there until 4:00 everyday. This week we have been learning and going to sessions taught by curriculum specialists, literacy specialists, veteran teachers, school directors and so on. In the evenings we lesson plan, work on classroom plans or other work assigned, meet with our corps member advisor, and so on. We have a lot of support and despite the constant work and lack of time, I am learning a tremendous amount and there are so many people behind me to help. I have a summer mentor teacher (a veteran teacher at HMS), a corps member advisor that checks and helps me with all my lesson plans, a program director advisor in Dallas, an 09 corps "transition leader" that checks up on me, a school director, and so on.

I am teaching 7th grade math, which I am really excited about. I get my kids on Monday, which is crazy. I also got my roster yesterday. I was entertained to find out that two of my students have the EXACT. SAME. NAME. First name, middle name and last name. They had to include their student ID numbers to indicate that they were in fact different people. I have all of their student data and we have summer growth goals for each of them that we will track daily. I got to set up my room for a few minutes on Friday, so it was nice to see where I will be.

Mitchell is leaving for Colorado tomorrow. He just finished training for his high school engineering class in New Mexico today. He had to go to New Mexico alone but is going to Colorado with the other two Project Lead The Way (engineering) teachers at the school. We haven't gotten to talk very much which has been hard. However, I am so excited that we will be working together in one month. He officially starts on July 12th and will be going on a school retreat the weekend I get back. We are trying to find a way for Mitchell to come to Houston for the 4th of July, but we have to pick up Boomer in Oklahoma on July 2nd when Mitchell gets home. Because of this, it's not looking promising.

1 week down, 4 to go! I hope that everyone is doing wonderful!

Katherine

"The joy of the Lord is my strength!" -Nehemiah 8:10