I Teach For America because...

I decided that it was high time to do an update that just answered all the logistical questions of where and when and how and why... and because I need to catch up with others too, and hopefully this is a first step to reconnecting :)

Currently, I'm in Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University for Institute Training for Teach For America (teachforamerica.org). Pretty much, I'm teaching summer school for five weeks. I'll be teaching 3rd grade for the next 5 weeks, and I'm currently learning how to do so.

This means waking up at 5:30am. Every. weekday.

Life decision I've made: to try and do this whole summer institute without coffee. We'll see how long I last.

Today was the first day, and it was somewhat of an awful painful and glorious new beginning.

In the past few months, I've been busy graduating (read, tearing out my hair writing two theses) and just finishing up college life. Turn around was super fast, but I got to see a few people, and I definitely missed out on seeing a few before I headed down to Cali (let's get together when I head back up north!). Graduation was definitely bittersweet, and I'm definitely missing my Eugene folks and friends and chosen family :)

As far as my next steps... I'll be back in San Jose come early August (hopefully in time for Joseph's baptism!) to continue my training at Rocketship Elementary (http://www.rsed.org/about.html), where I'll be teaching 4th grade literacy. I'm excited to get into the classroom and finally start applying all the stuff I've been hearing about but not able to live out. Closing the achievement gap is definitely something that I've joined as far as movement wise... but I still got my issues with TFA itself as an organization... that'll have to be another post though (read: diversity, poc, inclusiveness, multicultural policy, demographics, whiteness... "Diversity Workshop" is on Friday. Wish me luck, I'll be callin people out left and right with the support of my fellow PoC and white allies.).

For relaxation, I'm definitely lookin forward to exploring LA and hangin out with my fellow corp members. Pretty excited to go out, hang out, chill out... it'll be good times. Let me know if you're in the area!

Hope all of your summers are well, and it would be great to hear back from you with what you're up to! Take care!