In the Lou

Today was the first day to report for work at our schools. I woke up at 7 a.m. on the dot. Plenty of time to shower and get ready (~15 min) and then check my email, etc. It’s my normal morning routine; I like going at a non-frenetic pace.

I left my apartment at 8:06, admittedly 6 minutes after I had planned. But it was ok. The drive to my school is only 20 minutes with traffic.

I turned left to take the cut-through street that I have been using for two weeks on-and-off. Unfortunately (and strangely) I missed the correct turn to get to my school. (more…)

This past Wednesday was the first in-service day for St. Louis Public Schools. I’m returning a positive review of the first two days.

First, I want to say that the Teach for America gang stuck out like bright green new sprouts in a field full of teachers. All of us showed up, “professional dress” as instructed. Hehe. It’s ok. It made it easy for us to find each other and talk. I’m sure all ties were off within the hour.

Middle school science teachers had a fun surprise. When we picked up our schedules, it said we were going to a room called “zoo.” Now, I have to admit, I was a little offended that they would call a place inside a high school “the zoo,” but who am I to judge? As it turns out, there was no “zoo” or “science center” inside the high school and we were going to actually go to the St. Louis Zoo on Wednesday and the St. Louis Science Center on Thursday.

In short… awesome. (more…)

I received an excited email on Friday from my program director. I am officially placed at Long Middle Community Education Center Academy, a middle school in the St. Louis Public Schools system. This ends several months of waiting and, more recently, procrastinating for fear that I would not end up there. In a twist, I found out Friday that I might need to be following the same dress uniform as the students. This was a shock. I’ll have the choice of a green or white polo. While I’m not necessarily ecstatic about this as I think about the bag of new work-clothes I bought a month ago, a dress code like this is certainly going to make it very easy to get dressed every day.

(more…)

Today the lot of us went to a St. Louis Public Schools orientation for new teachers. Um. Great. I’ll leave it at that.

In exciting news, though, the school district did come through and deliver a contract to each Teach for America member. This was exciting as none of the other “off the street” hires (like us) have any sort of contract nor do those that have been in the queue since job fairs in the spring.

While reviewing the contract tonight and signing it, I was thinking how silly it was that we were so contract-focused. While, yes, we all know that we officially have a job with SLPS now, no one knows his or her final placement yet. So much of the angst among the masses continues as Human Resources tries hard* to match us to open positions in the district. (At least mom’s of St. Louis corps members can be happy that we will be able to pay our bills come September.)

I haven’t decided if I’m lucky or cursed with respect to the principal who filed the intent to hire form. I’m inclined to become very entrenched and prepared during the next week before professional development days. But there is the distinct possibility, as explained today, that I might get assigned elsewhere since landscape of open positions is changing quickly. This change could make any of my preparations for not. Oh well. Onward and upward.

*not sarcasm