Today was my favorite day so far, by far. Woke up again at 5am, having won the battle over my bed for the second day in a row (disclaimer: I actually have a huge advantage… it isn’t that comfy, I don’t have a mattress pad, and it is THE creakiest bed I have slept on in my ENTIRE life including the two years I lived in a third world country). But I rode the bus with full energy and excited for a new day of learning. Today we learned about making a vision for our lesson.  A lot of it seemed liked common sense at first, but when I thought about it… I probably wouldn’t be as deliberate about implementing the concepts if they weren’t  specifically highlighted (and, looking back on the worst teachers that I have had, none of them had specific objectives or assessments that kept in mind things such as “Are my formative assessments designed such that I know exactly where any gaps of knowledge in the concepts are?”)

We got a chance to apply what we learned… and it was potentially very frustrating because it felt like the instructions and expectations were not very clear before they turned us loose, but… I surprised myself. I actually had learned from past frustrating experiences. I took a step back, asked exactly what they were expecting, and realized that this was only our second day they are not expecting perfection. As a result, I was able to clear my mind and be the only person in my group to actually finish the assignment.  The thing that surprised me most was that it wasn’t because I was the smartest or the most hard working (everyone around me is waaaaay more accomplished than me in those and many other respects), rather, it was simply because I did not allow myself to become paralyzed and frustrated.  For one of the first times in my life, I was able to detach my performance from my personal worth. I didn’t let outcomes (or fear of bad outcomes) keep my present hostage.  I am learning so much here! Love it!

But that isn’t why it was my favorite.  The reason it was my favorite day is because of what happened this evening.  One of Teach for America’s core values is diversity (we had an entire session devoted to it on our second day of induction).  I really didn’t think much of it at the time, though. Diversity, for me, is one of those words that gets used so much in the media and in other context that it has lost its meaning. Today, though, it regained a significant portion of meaning.  You see, Teach for America set up affinity groups in order to connect with people with common backgrounds and experiences.  At first, I only heard that they were going to have an LGBT and an African American group.  But when I looked at the announcement board that said the room each affinity group would be meeting in, I was touched to find… that they had set up one especially for Latter-day Saints!  I was able to connect with two other members who are here at institute. We swapped our mission and Teach for America stories, became friends, and have already arranged to go to church together.  We even made friends with the general Christian affinity group later in the evening. They are just as supportive and amazing!  I really feel like I am a part of a community again—one that wants to do other weekend activities outside of drinking J. Maybe together, we can think of something so fun, that my other awesome friends will join us!  One step closer…

The first week of my new life as a Teach for America corps member here in Philadelphia is now over. It has felt a lot like the MTC--Large group meetings, discussing the vision and mission and goals of the movement in order to get us pumped up to work hard, living in tight quarters with (at first) total strangers, and a hierarchy that permeates everything we do.  I've loved it. It really has a mission feel. So hard, but so going-to-be-worth-it.  My favorite part so far, as usual, is the people. They are all... AWESOME. They are driven. They are ambitious. They are smart (I've already had a conversation about philosophy, psychology, vocabulary, and--my favorite--TWO about grammar!!!). Totally my type of people.  I have to admit, though, I do feel a bit like the odd man out as everybody's idea of a good time seems to consist solely of going to bars... how do I relate to that? How can I better take part in the social scene? No one seemed interested in my board game night idea, alas... will work on that.

Here are some notes from the meetings we've had, using my usual system (more *'s = more life-changing amazing):


Story of Ghandi and a mother coming to him with her son who ate too much sugar. His advice: Wait two weeks. Came back, Ghandi told him to not eat sugar, so he stops. Mom asks why:
"I felt I had to be the change I asked in your boy."

"The long arc of history bends toward justice." MLK Jr.

***Great students aren't made by teachers, they find it in themselves.

Step it up, step aside

June 22
Most Impprtant question: what can I do for my students?
Second most:how is it perpetuated?

TFA's theory on the cycle that perpetuates the achievement gap:
1 children in poverty face extra challenges
2 school systems lack the capacity to meet these extra needs
3 students don't perform well
4 prevailing beliefs haven't led to policies and investment needed to break the cycle.

What would it take to close the gap?
Attract Best Teachers
Change prestige of teachers
Kill tenure
Family, business, community investment--
teach Malleable vs fixed intelligence
Home issues. Value of edu

Don't want you to just 'go with the ideological flow':
****In the seeds of doubts are often the answers to the very questions we are trying to solve.

This entire work is about realizing your little successes

I'm doing good, and I need to do better.

Get granular.

*****Haven't you realized that the 'they' in 'They should really do something about that' is really you. Malcolm X
Don't engage in pointing the finger. It's your fault.

Our system is jacked up. Mike S. (VP of district of Philadelphia)

Advice:
1 ask for help
2 document everything. Excel.

Lori Shorr:
Competition between schools is needed. Didn't believe this 15 years ago (lifelong democrat).

I got aboard a red-eye flight from Salt Lake City at 11:35pm, arrived at JFK airport at 5:35am, and my life will never be the same again. It has officially happened. I am a part of Teach for America, a movement dedicated to the goal that one day, all children will have an excellent education.  It was quite the trek to bring my 3 bags and backpack from JFK to our induction campus at Temple University in Philadelphia… though I saved about $150 by flying into JFK rather than Philly directly… I wondered how much it was really worth every time I had to carry those bags up a flight of stairs… but after a few subways, an Amway track, and a few trolly stops, I arrived safe and sound and everything intact (well, except the things I had to leave behind because I had to meet the 50-pound weight limit for my flight).

               I didn’t really sleep at all on the flight, so I arrived at Temple quite exhausted. I unpacked and took a quick nap before our one activity of the day, our official welcome dinner.  It was quite good, a lot of pep talks.  One speaker spoke of how we all need to step it up—the age of living for ourselves is over.  And, in order for great students to be made, we also need to remember to not just ‘step up’ our teaching, we need to also remember to ‘step aside’ as great students aren't made by teachers, rather, they find it in themselves. Another speaker talked about our long-term vision and how Americans have a mindset that the achievement gap is ‘just the way things are’ but that, in the words of Martin Luther King, “The long arc of history bends toward justice.” And the needed changes start with us--we need to be the change we seek in others..

I haven't been AS diligent in recording all of the nuggets of wisdom I have come across since coming back from my trip (I have to keep some reason for people to want to interact with me face to face :), but I have read the rest of the posts I wanted to from Raptitude.com. Here they are:

I didn’t realize it, but writing is something I’ve needed in my life for a long time. From here on in I will never not write. It helps me clarify my thoughts and my values. It helps me figure out who I am. In a brief half-year, my goals have become clear to me, and I have no ambivalence about what I want to do with my life.
http://www.raptitude.com/2009/09/whats-your-problem-and-why/

"Children have a precious talent. They become enamored so easily, and by anything. Take a walk through a park with a young child, and it doesn’t take long before he’s stopped, crouched on the side of the path, captivated by a red leaf or line of marching ants. Wide-eyed and oblivious to you and everything else, he just watches.  He’s become enraptured by a curious sight that is — to him — a miracle.
"...most of us feel like we’ve lost most of our capacity for bewilderment, somewhere between childhood and high school.With a bit of attention, we can get it back... One eye-opening method is to incorporate the idea of ritual into your daily tasks. 
"One thing that all rituals have in common is that they are performed with attention.  The participants are fully absorbed in what they are doing, because they believe their actions are important.Essential to this idea is respect for the things and people involved.  Throughout your rituals, recognize the value and usefulness of objects as you pick them up.  Recognize the sensitivities and virtues of people as you interact with them.  Carelessness and haste have no place here.The purpose of ritual is to remind you that what you are doing is significant simply because it is what you are doing right now. Rituals need not have any lofty spiritual or religious pretensions; we’re just trying to cultivate attention.The whole operation doesn’t take any more time than doing it absent-mindedly, and the experience will leave you grateful and mindful for the next part of your day.  Those steps all have to be completed anyway, so what would be the benefit in letting your attention wander to something else?  There is none that I can think of, but it’s what would happen if you didn’t make a point of doing it all deliberately, by ritualizing it."
http://www.raptitude.com/2009/03/how-to-improve-your-quality-of-life-by-up-to-90/

"Please don’t only do what’s comfortable! That’s a perfect recipe for mediocrity. The older you get, the greater will be the gulf between what you could be and what you are, and the more sorry you’ll be."
"When it comes to meeting people, it’s easy to avoid it because they’re only strangers then. You can always write off a stranger as irrelevant to your life, as you know it right now. But you don’t realize that that stranger could have been your best friend, your mentor, your key to a fantastic opportunity, or even your wife. Everyone you know now was a stranger once.A new person in your life can open a new chapter. They can lead to new lines of work, new passions, new insight about the world and a broader, more colorful identity for you.""What can you do instead [of working for someone else]? Do what your would-be boss is doing. Create something of value, and find the people who value it most. A service or a product that people value, and that others aren’t delivering as well, or at all.If you need help to produce it, you will certainly be able to find a lot of people willing to sell you their time for a flat rate. If you need a method, there are hundreds of established, tested models in the library, online (yes, online), and at the bookstore. Pick one that speaks to you and see what happens."
http://www.raptitude.com/2010/02/3-pieces-of-advice-id-give-my-18-year-old-self-if-i-could/

"The bottom line of almost all self-help, spiritual, or religious literature is that our ability to be happy is determined by our ability to stay in the present moment. The Buddhists, the Toltecs, the Bible, Eckhart Tolle, Ram Dass, Emerson, Thoreau — anyone at all who is known for having found a path to consistent, recurring joy — cites staying present as the essential teaching.
Only when we’re present do we see beauty, enjoy gratitude, and experience happiness. It’s the moments we’re present for that make life good, so it only stands to reason that being present is something we’d do well to get better at."http://www.raptitude.com/2010/03/how-to-make-mindfulness-a-habit-with-only-a-tiny-commitment/

This post was interesting,http://www.raptitude.com/2009/05/the-results-are-in-experiment-no-1-day-30/

But this one was my favorite:http://www.raptitude.com/2009/04/how-to-always-have-something-better-to-talk-about-than-the-weather/


Oh, and this was a great quote from the Times:

"Fulfillment is a byproduct of how people engage their tasks, and can’t be pursued directly."http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/opinion/31brooks.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212