Great TFA Article

I came across this today: http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695260491,00.html.

This article by Megan Morton tells of her Teach for America experience in Houston, TX where I will be next year. It truly speaks for itself. God Bless her and her work.

Spring Break Toledo

After a full-throttle Green Beer Day in Oxford, which included a big class presentation in MGT 414, I slowly but surly slipped into a lulling Spring Break mode. I stayed Friday to work 11-1 and was able to go out to eat with Amy, Emily, Kate and her dad. We had some tasty grub at Mac and Joe's then headed to BW3's for a drink and the trivia games. (For the record: Kate, Emily, and I beat Kate's dad and Amy.)

On Saturday I cleaned up my room, did some laundry, wasted a lot of time, and eventually left Oxford for Sylvania and the start of "Spring Break Toledo." I met Kate's family at "The Bunker" where I nibbled at the left-overs from a few meals. Both the Hawaiian Barbecue and Taryaki wings served in aluminum pales were very good.) We all left "The Bunker" for another drink at a Mexican restaurant and bar. Eventually we landed at Kate's house where she and I put together our AT-ST Star Wars lego kit. Lego kits are one of our hobbies.

After I attended Palm Sunday services at Kate's church, I met Rob at his new house. It was beautiful. I hung out there for the rest of the night, reading, watching Fox News, and taking in 3:10 to Yuma (which I hardily recommend). The rest of the weekend was a bit of a blur. Kate and her mom took me to the Toledo Art Museum and Rob introduced me to Tony Paco's food and Anderson's market.

On Wednesday I left Toledo to pick up my sister at her horse riding lesson just north of Columbus and meet my brother at his house (also in C-bus). We had some tasty Pizza Hut and hung out for the night before Melissa and I ventured the rest of the way home Thursday.

This whole while I've been making progress on my Pre-Institute work for TFA. I have the first lesson reading done and am well into the second. I'll have to catch up on the reflective essays once back at school. Also, I picked up another book as part of my personal preparation. It's called Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire by Rafe Esquith, and although I'm only a little less than 50 pages in, I'm enjoying it thoroughly.

Guess those are the main highlights.

Missing Kate today...

Long Week

Being that it's Tuesday, I'm sure one would find this hard to believe, but this is already turning into a very long week. I spent my weekend beginning my "Pre-Institute Work" for Teach For America. The box of spiral-bound books arrived last week and, although I haven't completed an official tally, it must contain over 1500 pages. This of course seems fine until you add that to a sixteen credit hour school load and a ten-hour-a-week part-time job.

I worked four hours of that job yesterday, as I do every Monday from 8:30am-1pm. Washing dishes for a campus dining hall may not be the most glamorous work, but the full-time staff members are very nice. It also doesn't hurt that I've spent portions of three summers washing dishes (and mowing) at a 4-H camp back home. (I never would have expected that experience to pay off.)

Today, my MGT professor returned a two-part paper that I turned in with my partner last week. The prompt for the assignment required that we work in duos, and I had the awkward displeasure of working with my EX-GIRLFRIEND! (Ah!) Fortunately, the experience of writing the paper was not completely dreadful, but we didn't pull off the best grade. The first part received a B-, but the second part remained ungraded. When asked, the professor provided a confusing rationale for the missing mark and offered us the chance to re-do the second essay by Friday. Didn't he know I had a busy week already!?!?

Ramble, ramble. Back to work.

First Blog

I'll be graduating college in two months (+ one day), and here I am opening up my first blog. I wish I would have started this my first day on campus. Still, I believe this blog will be fun during my transition out of my undergraduate career and into my first professional career.

I have chosen to join the Teach For America corps in Houston, TX where I will be teaching elementary school. The past few months have been full of email updates (called email blasts) as well as FedEx-ed transition packets. The UPS man brought the most recent box filled with my "pre-institute" assignments. It's exciting to think that all of this is materializing so quickly.

I envision this blog as a series of snapshots about my transition from a business school undergraduate experience (mgt major, eco minor) into the world of education. I will soon be a struggling first-year teacher in an already struggling school. At this point, I have more questions than answer, but I hope you will ask the questions with me.

Until next time...