Days Like This

There are some days - you went to bed at 1am, woke up at 6am, scurried around the classroom to get ready for school before it started, taught the same lesson four times to twelve-year-olds who are literally crazy (no really, their brains are rewiring at this stage in life), succeeded with getting some of them to be psyched about digestion, and failed with others, fought with the copier machine, written a new version of a quiz because 80% of them didn't pass the first time and have to re-take it, prepped for tomorrow, worked out for an hour, actually cooked a meal and froze some of it for dinner in a few days, washed your face, brushed your teeth, and gotten into pj's - where you feel like you earned your sleep.

This is definitely one of those days.

Reason #473 I love my neighborhood.

I live in Trinidad. I'll write a lot about it over the next two years, but in short, Trinidad is an area of Northeast DC that's been in the news frequently over the past year for high rates of crime and homicide. I thought long and hard about moving to Trinidad before we signed the lease on our cutie cute rowhouse on our quiet, tree-lined street. When it came down to it, I ultimately felt like the house was in an area where I could feel safe, and would be welcomed by the community.

Just north of our neighborhood is Galludet University, the nation's leading school for the deaf. On weekends, I spend a lot of quality time in our local coffee shop, Sova Espresso, working on lesson plans and the like. Today, it made me happy to stand in line to get my tea and biscotti with a group of people that was not only ethnically diverse, but diverse in other ways. Many of the people in line were signing to the person beside them, or writing down their order for the cashier.

If I learned a bit of Swahili to help me when I was in Kenya, and I learned a bit of Kinyarwanda to help me in Rwanda, shouldn't I learn a bit of sign language to help me out here?

Sometimes, I lie.

Sometimes I say I am going to do things, and then don't do them. Sometimes, I say I am going to start a blog and then write in it, and don't. Sometimes, you have the craziest three months of your life, ever.

In June I left North Carolina to attend 'Institute', Teach for America's machine of a teacher training school. I'll sum it up as concisely as possible. Six weeks in the heart of Philly at Temple University, living in dorms again, with almost a thousand other people, and a staff of almost four hundred. A veritable mini-city of lesson planning, stressful and late nights, and almost never more than five hours of sleep. We manned Philly's summer school, spread out over nine different elementary, middle, and high schools. I taught eighth grade science and social studies, and fell in love with a group of low-performing kids faster than I've fallen in love with any boy. Lasting friendships were made, of course. You really have no choice in such situations. The first weeks were hard, but I grew used to the stress and demands quickly, and actually enjoyed myself immensely.

Currently, I teach 7th grade science to ninety-six of the nuttiest, most inquisitive, and wonderful young people in existence. Kettering Middle School is across the DC border in Prince George's County, Maryland. I ride to school with a coworker and, because I stay so late every evening, typically take the Metro home to DC, a ritual that I've really come to enjoy. The job is everything I hoped and expected it would be - challenging, rewarding, maddening, frustrating, and absolutely wonderful. I am very much looking forward to the next two years.