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So this week, in perspective, has not been that bad at all! It might have to do with a ton of factors that have everything to do with Teach for America and nothing to do with Glen Oaks High School.

It also might have to do with the fact that this was only a 4-day week for me. Tuesday I went to New Orleans for a TFA "excellent school visit." I visited two K-8 schools that are extremely high performing, but still serve very low-income students.
The first... I have no words at how awesome this school was. It was like lovechild of the best of TFA and a Nazi youth group. Students actually were flapping their arm-wings in the morning announcements/ confidence buidling session to remind themselves to soar to great heights every day. Yes, 8th graders were doing this. I don't even want to think of what would come out of y 8th graders' mouths if someone even suggested they do this.
The second was a KIPP school, and it made me totally bitter I did not get placed in NOLA. I mean I knew KIPP schools were awesome, and consequently I am obliged to resent any corps members that are placed there, but WOW. 80% of the middle school is either a current corps member or an alum corps member! It looked like the school had hired a bunch of jcrew models to come to the school for the day. But hey, that's TFA. We don't just strive for excellence in the classroom, but we must look flawless doing it.

My NOLA visit was made even better because I went up the Monday night before to stay with Ian (a very wise decision because everyone else got stuck in traffic coming in Tuesday morning). After school on Tuesday, I also got to go out to eat with Ian for dinner. It was definitely a great addition to my week.

Last night, I had the oppoortunity to have dinner with the chair of TFA/SLA's board of directors. Yeah, being a corps member you get to meet some pretty awesome people (did I mention how I met the owner of all of the Waffle Houses in SLA once at a TFA event?). It was INCREDIBLE. Despite the fact that I didn't get home until 9:45 (wayyy past my bed time), it was just an incredibly enjoyable evening. I've learned the people that support TFA totally kick ass. We talked about the root social injustices our students face and near-death wildlife encounters all night. It rocked.

My classroom is starting to look up... I've been able to get some rotations in place in my class with my program. It's still a work in progress, but I guess it's better late than never. My MTLD got me in contact with an alumni from his corps that taught Read 180 during her commitment, and I'm going to meet up with her next week. She faced a lot of the same issues I did during her two years, and ended up producing incredible results and saw great growth in her classroom. I'm very excited to finally talk to someone who's really in the same boat as me, and can give me some productive support for my classroom.

This week wasn't horrid, but I am welcoming in the weekend with extremely open arms.