Portland Marathon

i signed up for the Portland Marathon on October 5th.... I need some accountability now!

TGIF

As of now my certification issues are looking much better, sometimes you have to just go to the top of the ladder to get a situations fixed instead of dealing with all the different people below the director. This relieves a lot of stress... and might provide me the opportunity to go home for half of July and half of August... we'll see soon.

Last day of swim team is tomorrow and the last day of school is July 3rd, coming so quickly! I am attaching some pictures that were just emailed to me. The first few are of Herman Park in Houston, the one green area in the city, ha!

Summer Blues?

The new corps members just took over my summer school classroom about 15 minutes ago and it is so crazy watching them as they nervously stand in front of my 17 students and with shaky voices explain the "new" classroom rules and expectations. I remember being them just one year ago. I remember the crazy amount of stress, nerves, dramaturgical enthusiasm and tiredness I felt with my first week of institute. I hated it. I see the tiredness in their eyes and feel their stress. I remember the naivity as I looked forward to changing the lives of the students in my classroom and having an empact on the world. Right now they are explaining to my students "active learning position" or in my room we call it "scholar position" as if they have never learned active learning position before. It is VERY weird watching them take over my room, for once in my life I feel like I have some knowledge of the teaching profession, simply by having a year of experience leading a classroom. I will not claim I know what I am doing, but I feel like a strangely mature teacher being in here with the new corps members.

I came down with a terrible fever on Thursday before lunch. I somehow managed to make it through the school day although almost in tears and hurting horribly as my my body trembled while I made an attempt to teach my students. I stayed home on Friday because I was too weak to get out of bed... the sickness made for a pretty dull weekend. I also felt really lonely. I wanted so badly to be at home or at a place where I could be around people who cared that I was sick and were willing to bring over soup or gatorade. It sucked being sick alone! My roommates have left for a trip for an undisclosed amount of time and shut off the cable and internet prior to leaving without telling me, so it was truely a very boring stint.

I still can't shake off this unhappiness I have been feeling for the past month. I haven't ever really felt this alone and this down, I was so happy for the first few months of 08. But recently, it has been hard to be enthusiastic about much. A big reason is just being alone, something I hate with a passion. I am going to a gastrointernist at Baylor School of Medicine today to figure out what is going on with my stomach. I have had stomoach issues my whole life, particularly the last few years and especially the last few months. Hopefully all goes well. I am going to really work on trying to be happier... I am having severe certification issues due to the special education certification process and me no longer being a special education teacher. There are two classes I was supposed to take this summer. One of which I was told I did not need to take but then at last minute was told I had to take it but by that point I was already 2 months into coaching my swim team. The other class is supposed to be in July. Well, both classes have to be completed by August to be certified otherwise I have to be an "intern" another year. If that's the case then I am not going to take the class in July and just come home. The district will require that I take them next summer, but I am only teaching here for two years and my certificate, if I did get it, won't transfer anywhere anyway. So, I may be coming home for a big part of July and August. That makes me excited.

Summer School

I have been on a severe emotional roller coaster and I am unclear as to why... I mean there are a lot of things I am facing but I am normally not so up and down, but I have been lately, and it bothers me. For the most part life is going well. I do not like the fact that I am teaching summer school but I am really enjoying the students that I have. I actually love this class. But, it is hard to wake up everyday with the sun out and knowing that this is an optional thing and something that is extra. But this extra will be what saves me financially and allows me to save. Saving is just something I haven't been able to do and it frustrates me. Things come up. Tires get slashed and a new set of tires had to be purchased, gas now costs me $200 a month on top of $300 a month in insurance. I get so overwelmed by all of this. I find it even harder because in order to make friends and go out and be social, things cost money, like going out to eat or to the movies, etc. I need to grow up and get rid of all the debt I carry from college and paying for going abroad, text books, etc, then life will be a little easier, at least financially.

The new 2008 corps arrived in Houston this week and this is their first day observing classrooms and sitting through sessions. My elementary school is one of 4 elementary schools hosting Teach For America's summer institute... it honestly makes me cringe seeing them and seeing all the posters on the walls of their schedules, expectations, rules, etc it brings me back to last year and the horrendously tiring and tough experience TFA laid upon my freshly graduated and very naive to the urban teaching world soul. I do not wish to be them, not even for a second do I wish to go back to the beginning of TFA and start things over... I am ready for next year and one more step closer toward completing two years of very tough public service. Anxiety now begins to rest on what I to do next, I seriously am stuck, not even a clue anymore as what to do with life.

Summer plans are to finish coaching (2 more weeks) and finish summer school (July 3), and take two different classes to complete the certification process so that I can teach next year. The certification process is uberly irritating. In order to even transfer my teaching certifcate out of Texas I will have had to teach in Texas for two years, something I am not real thrilled on doing! If I stay in Texas it is not to teach. I hope to go home at some point for a week or two this summer... i just need to figure out when that is going to be. I also hope to go to San Fransisco for the 4th of July to be with John's family and meet mom there.

I have so much more to say but not really the urge to keep writing, maybe more later.

Much love,
Robert

Summer time is beginning!

While I will be teaching a few weeks of summer school and taking two classes to finish up m certification in both ESL and Special Ed... I am finding the time to have fun with fellow teachers at barbques to coaching at the Houton Racquet Club (I have a free summer membership due to being the assistant head coach! a $24,000 value :) ) Above are some random pictures of TFA friends and coaching.

San Antonio

Jake and I went to San Antonio last weekend and went to Feista Six Flags over Texas, it was an awesome adventure and felt so good to get away from Houston. We camped at a KOA campground (thanks to the grandparents for the introduction to KOA camping on our trip to South Dakota 10 years ago!) Six Flags was fun... I wasn't feeling very well after going on a bad first right that made me sick and eating tamales that I brought with us that one of my students gave me. It was fun people watching... Texans are a different breed! Why is the obesity rate so high here? I contribute it to the heat, lack of outdoor activity, and an abundance of restaurant choices.

On the second day in SA we hung out on the BEAUTIFUL riverwalk (see above pictures) and then did one of the more infamous things... floating the Guadalupe River on tubes. Nick Bomalaski, one of my Sigma Chi fraternity brothers was in town for the weekend, and he was able to join us for the adventure. It was an adventure to say the least! Imagine a 5 hour journey on innertubes floating down a river that is jam packed with other tubers all very intoxicated and rockin it red neck style. I seriously felt like I was in another world. We saw nudity, many fights, and VERY silly people doing very drunk things. It was a Texas experience. There were thousands and thousands of tubers floatin down. Jake saved a lady's life while I tried to make peace between two women fighting over who said what to whoever's boyfriend. Jesus. Nick, who is from San Antonio, but went to Whitman and now lives in Alaska, put it well by saying, "Robert, this is what Texans call an outdoor adventure!"... I tried to explain to Jake the beauty of white water river kayaking, rock climbing up steep peeks, and being in the mountains and what really cold water is (this water was around 75 degrees!)... I wish for all Texans to make a pilgrimage up north to the serenity and greenery of the Pacific Northwest... then they'll know beauty.

Last Day of School

Second grade has been crazy, but man am I ever glad it is over... it has been rewarding to have had the immediate and direct impact on the lives of the kids in this second grade class. I had them for a month. I came to them in the middle of a very chaotic period with different substitutes everyday and no real classroom community established other than one of meanness and bickering. I understand why they their behavior was so miserable and why learning had not been occuring! I felt for them. They missed out on a lot, second grade is such a fun year and they missed it. They did not have a healthy classroom setting. There was no discipline or structure set in place. Thus learning had not really been happening (on average their state test scores show that they are a year behind their peers). While I was not able to teach them a lot academically, I feel like I came in and created the stability, structure, and expectations that they needed in order to be in a place where each student felt welcome. It took a lot of compassion, patients, sensitivity, and VERY high expectations, but I feel I was pretty successful. It began with the first 45 minutes I had with them and learning to walk from the cafeteria to the classroom without pushing, shoving, and talking. Not one student was sent to the office while in my care whereas prior to me coming, the office staff saw a few of them everyday. I provided them one teacher for 1 month so that each day the little boys and girls came to class and knew Mr. Street would be there to pick them up from the cafeteria and then walk them to class and shake their hand and say good morning while they waited, sometimes too eagerly, to walk into my room and begin an actual routine. I have enjoyed these energetic and somewhat crazy ninos and ninas, but it is time to move up the ladder to 5TH GRADE!

I get to follow my 4th grade scholars to 5th grade next year and teach them Reading, Social Studies, and a little bit of Science, I couldn't be more excited! I will be able to have my same classroom and seriously cannot wait to begin...5th grade is an exciting period. I have such fond memories of my time in 5th grade (gosh, 13 years ago!)

Above are some pictures of my stint in 2nd grade.