The ACE Effect

Once a month, all corps members are required to attend an All Corps Event, or ACE. They take place on a Saturday, and often last about five hours. To a first or second year teacher, the idea of giving up ANOTHER Saturday often seems unbearable and cruel, and we often plot ways to avoid the ACEs, but for the most part, we go. And you know what? I always leave feeling a mix of emotions.

I leave with a new sense of community. Sometimes I forget that I'm not in this alone, and that I am part of a BIG, national movement to do something momentous.

I leave with a sense of urgency. OK, so that is a BIG TFA-ism (one of the MANY). It's almost a cliche, but it's part of the push this year. What we are doing needs to feel urgent in our classroom, and they convey that feeling at the ACEs.

I leave feeling confident in knowing what I can do to improve. This is a big change over the ACEs last year. Every time I leave my sessions, I take away one concrete thing I can do in my classroom to help my students. Yesterday's concrete idea: scaffolded checks for understanding.

I leave feeling like a pretty crappy teacher. I know this isn't the point, but at the ACEs, I am always confronted with my own short-comings as a teacher.  The fact that I wasn't already doing scaffolded checks for understandings really shocks me. There is so much more I could be doing for my students.  I can't imagine being a second year teacher NOT in TFA, and not having the opportunities to to continually build my skills and reflect on my practices. I would stay a crappy teacher. KINDA SCARY.

I leave inspired. This didn't happen at yesterday's ACE, but normally there is some sort of uplifting story about how one current or previous corps member changed the life of a student, and those stories are so wonderful to hear. They give me hope and keep me going. The fact that this has been missing from the ACEs this year is really starting to wear on the corps members, and could explain the absence of MANY of them on Saturday.

And now I'm thinking that I need to get to planning and implementing all of the great changes I need to in my lesson plans. I do get to end on a VERY positive note, though.  I will be in Portland this weekend to watch Dominic test for his black belt. It's a very big, awesome occasion, and I couldn't be a prouder sister! I can't wait to see my family. :)

2:1 done.

Sundays are no longer a day of rest. They are days of laundry, groceries, cleaning, planning, grading, printing, sorting and getting ready for the next week. And since this is the first Sunday of my second year of teaching, it's a busy one. All week long, I neglected anything that wasn't directly associated with planning for my classes. My room looks like a natural disaster, I am running out of clothes, and the only food I have is some cereal, a couple of Jell-O chocolate mousse cups, and some white American cheese slices. Oh, and some eggs. Not exactly the things one makes yummy meals out of.

The first week back went WAY better than the first week last year. My lessons were solid, my instruction has improved, and my classroom looks pretty nice. It's crowded, since I'm sharing a room with another teacher, and I have 10 tables stuffed into my room. But I think I have a solid start to the year. Now I just need to plan the next week out, and memorize the names of my students. I'm having trouble doing that and I need to find a way to get over it.

Alright, I need to get working. First thing on my list is grading/sorting. Here I go...