Hello friends,
Welcome to my Arkansas Teacher Corps experience.
At this point I have already been through the summer training program, and the process of transforming the caterpillar into the butterfly is well underway, and perhaps finished. It is now up to me to teach. I will have a support network, and a wonderful community.
Giving updates is tough for me, since each of you will want to know something different and it is difficult for me not to ramble or get too personal. So, I will keep it mostly to these categories: Practical things, and Mindsets.
Since this is my first entry, I am going to also give some background information.
* Background: What is ATC and What have I been doing?
The Arkansas Teacher Corps (http://arkansasteachercorps.org) is a non-traditional teacher licensure program similar to Teach for America, but with a focus on Arkansas' needs. It is headed by the University of Arkansas and attempts to find potential teachers (fellows of ATC) who are highly qualified in their content areas and place them in areas that desperately need teachers in Arkansas. Some of us from this year's program are placed in the Delta & Mississippi River region, some in Pulaski County, and some in Southwest Arkansas.
This summer I have spent in and around Little Rock, observing and teaching summer school in Maumelle, and spending the afternoons learning from invited speakers and our 1-2 year TFA-er mentors about the finer aspects of teaching. We also had assignments, readings, and lessons plans which we completed to help us gain the knowledge we need to teach. I certainly have learned a lot, and both the drinking from a firehose and the treadmill analogies work well to explain the level of input and output we experienced.
Two weeks before the end of the institute, I (and two other ATC fellows) also went with my school district to the NewTech Network conference (http://www.newtechnetwork.org) in New Orleans. I will be part of the Hope Academy of Science and Technology for two of the classes I will be teaching, and this part of Hope High Schools uses project-based experiential learning together with technology such as students accessing their work through MacBooks in an online format similar to Blackboard to teach the students.
* Practical Things
Where to start on this section? Perhaps the largest practical challenge has been housing. We all spent several Fridays attempting to find a place to live that was 'just right' for each of us. I found my place the day before we ended the program, and will be moving down in the morning.
We have had amazing chances through this process & from a meeting with the Chamber of Commerce to get to know the people of Hope some, and to get to know about the community. That has been absolutely wonderful, and I look forward to getting to meet even more people and know the area better.
Most of us ran out of our stipend towards the end of the program and began asking family members for support, since most of us will not be paid until halfway through September. Our pay (by each of our districts) will be good though, at least compared to my last couple of jobs, so I suppose it is a trade-off in the long run. :)
I am going to be starting the process of lesson planning and all of the teachy school things, which I am trying to see as an adventure rather than this overwhelming amount of work. I am sure that as long as it is an adventure, both I and the students will get more out of the school year.
I will also be doing everything involved with settling into a new community (drivers license, electricity, trying to find a washer & dryer, etc.) and that also means finding a new church.
* Mindsets
Thinking about the practical things connects to what I want to say about mindsets in that it is easy to think about going and doing something short-term to have a positive impact until you realize that this will be your life, at least for the next few years most likely. I originally had the idea "I am going here for 3 years (or less) as a mission, like if I was going overseas to a place for a short time to make a positive impact. I am going to help myself get some education and a useful skill in the meantime as well, but the focus is to help." Now it is more like "I am going there and there are a lot of assets there; this is the next step in my life but I am going there to help the kids BUT a lot of other people are doing that there from the community already; I won't be there forever BUT it is my home & my life. Its not so bad there, there is a lot of normal & good stuff, & a lot of resources. I am living there." There are ideas about a place from outside of it (crime rates, race, literacy or poverty issues) and then there is the reality of the place from the inside - an amazing community with lots of welcoming people, a decent amount of resources, its a good home, where the people love to live and feel safe. My personal view about whether I am there short term or long term is still open to change and honestly does not help me feel very settled, but I know I am there now, to learn and to do good. I hope (haha) to be able to have a positive impact in Hope, while I am sure the experience, the place, and the people will have a growing impact on me. :) I have been thinking of what I want to do in the summers and after this, and so these things are open to change, and I want to continue dreaming and planning.
This photo was taken on our first visit to Hope at the Chamber of Commerce and appears at <http://myhopeinfo.com/?p=255>.
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