INSTITUTE- Or, The Beast.

I just started my first week of Institute, described as “teacher boot camp,” which is an extremely intensive training program to make a good teacher out of me in 5 weeks. To give you an idea, I’m sitting here in my dorm room at ASU in Phoenix, my roommate (another New Mexico corps member) is asleep as I type. I should be asleep. Seriously, why am I not asleep? Oh yeah, ‘cause I’m listening to Patrick’s last show on KCSB right now! So good!!

Anyway, this is pretty much every day:
5am- Wake up and get ready.
6am- Get on a bus to my K-8 school site.
7am-4:30pm: Attend training sessions and actually TEACH math and literacy to 4th/5th graders at Summer Success Academy at Pastor.
5-6:30pm: Work out, then eat dinner.
6:30-8pm: Work on next day’s assignments and lesson plans.
8-9pm: Attend subject-specific workshops.
9-10[m: Finish assignments and lesson plans.
10pm- Go to sleep!

Of course, it won’t always work out like that. I’ve heard horror stories of corps members staying up all night to finish their assignments and lesson plans, then having to teach the next day. So far it’s been okay though. When I call it a beast, it's not so much a wild beast as a domesticated beast (for now). Yeah, not to get TOO geeky here, but Institute actually sort of feels like Hogwarts to me. It has a prestigious-sounding name, all corps members represent their region (like the Hogwarts “houses”!)- New Mexico, Phoenix, Greater New Orleans, or South Louisiana. Anyway, that’s just my interpretation. Which I’m going to refrain from discussing with people here. Others have compared it to diverse experiences of joining the military and going to summer camp.

I will keep you all updated if I burn out and decide to be a janitor at ASU instead- Statistically, at least 10% of us will drop out during Institute.

PS- I’m excited to administer a DRA test to my students tomorrow! I'm excited to know what a DRA test is! :)