Induction

I did two exciting things yesterday:

1. I did the triathlon! It was pretty painful, as I was undertrained, but I finished. 2:00:49.

2. I drove to Connecticut. It's beginning.

Today marked the first day of Induction. 109 new Teach for America Corp Members and about a dozen staff members converged upon a hotel in central Connecticut to play ice breaker games and discuss the Achievement Gap, as well as introduce us to our two-year commitment to being "excellent educators."

Connecticut has one of the worst Achievement Gaps in our great country of equality (real statistics to follow in later posts). Students who are born into poverty enter terrible school systems from which they are unlikely to graduate. This creates a cycle of poverty that is often associated with high crime rates. Meanwhile, just outside the cities' borders the rich folks continue to do just fine. This socioeconomic segregation is very closely correlated with race.

Our mission in Teach for America is to address this gap.

We spent many, many hours today learning about the mission of TFA. It was tedious, but fortunately for my attention span, we were given opportunities to discuss the topics periodically. I'm also sitting at a table of interesting and hilarious corps members and staff. One of the more fun activities was a discussion of goals for ourselves and our students, and how to achieve them. The discussion was held entirely on paper. That is, each of us at table 5B was handed a marker, and a giant piece of white paper was put in the middle. We had about 10 minutes and weren't allowed to talk. We discussed everything from ideas for motivating our students to how hungry we were. It was a great opportunity to share feelings without being embarrassed. We ended up with a paper full of marker scribbles and discussion and check marks of agreement. I will never forget to bring my camera or phone again.

I also had an interview this morning. The second school that had rejected me over the phone had decided to call me back for an in-person interview. It went well, considering it was 7:30 AM. In the morning. It was at a really awesome school. I'm not super hopeful, given that they had already decided previously I wasn't good enough, but who knows?

Over the rest of this week, and the next five in Institute, I will be busy. But, like in Africa, I will try to write. It makes it easier to process. It makes the overwhelming slightly less...whelming. I will write somewhere between once a day and once a week. Or more. Or less.