It's been a while since I last wrote, so I think I should just catch you up. I took my LSATs and at the same time applied for a program called The Chicago Teaching Fellows. It's a great program. It takes people from various professions and academic backgrounds, gives them intense training to be a teacher, gets them an accelerated degree, and sets them up to teach at a high-needs school in Chicago. I applied for this program, went through some rigorous interviews, and somehow was accepted. I chose to teach Special Education and got a job at Uplift Community High School. Today is the last day of my institute training. It has been incredibly intense, fun, and exhausting. I don't know if I feel any more prepared today than I was a couple of months ago, but I do have confidence in the training they provided me with. I have more ideas now than I could possibly have ever had on my own. Along with such an awesome training, I also met some pretty amazing people. They are all from very educated and professional backgrounds, and I found them to be incredibly smart, funny, and cool. We've been together so much of the day, every day, that it feels like I was a part of a really fun summer camp, and it's coming to the end of the summer, and you want to know these people for the rest of your life. Granted, that might not be possible, especially when we all start officially teaching, but I love them all the same and I would be honored to consider any of them life-long friends.
I'm really excited about what this program is about, which essentially closing the achievement gap. It's no surprise that there is a huge educational achievement gap between kids who live in the city and kids who live in the suburbs. I want to be part of the solution to that. I want to take all of my energy, passion, and new ideas and inspire these kids to be better, do better. I'm so relieved that I got a job, and I really like everyone who is a part of it. One of the best parts of it is that Linsday, another fellow, also got a job as a Special Education teacher there, so it'll be nice to be near someone who is going through the same things that I am going through. Everyone else from my group (the Violet group): Courtney, Elizabeth, Hope, Cindy, Bianca, Melissa, Josh, Chris, Andrew, Micheal, Rhonda, and Pam will also hopefully be nearby. They are truly great, smart, successful people who I know will make huge strides in education. And there are a couple of other people too: Raquel and Dreamy-Eyes, who I'll hold close. lol.
The people who impacted even more, though, were the kids who I got a chance to work with so far. In my elementary class, the kids were so sweet and funny and cute. Deville, Alex, Santiana, Martiana, Kayla, Ania, Deshante, Ashanti, Demetrius, Jermaine, Jeremy. There might have been a couple more who's names I just can't remember right now. But I really love them all. I visited them for the two weeks after I was done with their class during their lunch time because I couldn't help but miss them like crazy. Especially since my next class was the middle school kids, who were really really unpleasant. The class I just got done with, however, has to be my favorite. Carlos (Charles, but he likes to be called Carlos because he wants to learn Spanish), Marcus (just the sweetest guy ever), Jerry (LOVES to sing), Robert (amazing artist), William (super smart), Alan (such a sweet smile and just the nicest guy ever), Dominica (super motivated, brilliant, and so hard-working), Johnathan (incredibly affectionate), Denzel (so smart, passionate about being a lawyer), Crystal (very funny), Jazmin (the happiest girl you will ever meet), Yesenia (soulful, smart, an amazing artist), Tracy (very cool), Lawrence (professional and kind).
I'm definitely going to remember these guys for the rest of my life. I hope that I could give them even an ounce of what they gave me. I'll miss them like crazy. I hope to stay in touch forever.
