What is this? I’m reposting my emails (exactly to the day) sent to family and friends during my summer 2006 Institute experience in Atlanta. TeachFor.Us didn’t exist at the time — hence the title. For some of you, this will be a trip down memory lane. For my hundreds of current readers, I hope you find these emails interesting. I feel they are an important part of the Teach for America experience that would otherwise be absent from my blog. Without further ado…

First, let me apologize for the method of delivery. I know that receiving a “mass email” is somewhat impersonal, but I’ll only send out one of these. My reasoning is that I have, for the most part, been remiss in getting in touch with most of you personally to let you know what I’ve been doing, what I’m doing, where I’m going, etc.

The Sparks Notes edition:
After graduating school in 2005, I went to work for my fraternity overseeing leadership programming and alcohol awareness education on the international level. Then, this spring, I accepted an offer with Teach for America to teach middle school science in St. Louis for two years. I’m in Atlanta now at “teacher training,” and I will be officially moving to the Lou July 15.

And now the novella:
It has been a whirlwind year for me since I graduated from Carolina in 2005. I took a job last July with my fraternity to help oversee educational programming on the international level. I moved all my life in my tiny car from Chapel Hill, NC, to Indianapolis, IN — also known as IndiaNOplace and Naptown according to my (former) boss. I’ve visited colleges and conferences in 16 states, Canada, and the District of Columbia (several places I visited more than once). It was a blast. A job is certainly a job, but waking up everyday and believing in the mission of my employer is something very special. I was able to effect change in an organization that I care deeply about.

In May, I wrapped up my year term to start on a new adventure with Teach for America. I will be a middle school science teacher in St. Louis, MO, for the next two years. You’re probably thinking, “Didn’t he major in broadcast journalism?!? Those poor kids.” Well, I’d first like to remind everyone that I accidentally got a minor in chemistry (my GPA is still sorry). But the better news is that Teach for America exists to help people like me transition into being a teacher.

Before I continue with the saga, maybe I should provide some reference info about TFA, as not everyone is familiar. For the really adventurous, see www.teachforamerica.org. Anyway, TFA works to recruit recent college graduates who are willing to commit to two years of teaching in a traditionally underserved community. This year, more than 19,000 people applied for the 2,400 spots in the 2006 corps. I tell you that not to make it seem amazing that I’m in but to illustrate that this is a large organization. Currently, TFA operates at 25 sites in the United States where approximately 5,000 teachers work relentlessly to close the achievement gap. There are 1,000 corps members working in New York city; in St. Louis there will be 130 total next year (80 are from the new 2006 corps). So in addition to providing resources about St. Louis and assisting in the interview process with St. Louis public schools, TFA runs a five-week teacher boot-camp, called Institute, for all of its new corps members. I’m in Atlanta right now, actually, living on the campus of Georgia Tech. We are really lucky (especially compared to the other institutes) as our dorms were part of the housing built for the Olympics in 1996. So I’m living with three others from STL in an apartment-style dorm. Very nice.

Now that the stage is set, for where I am, why I’m here, and who I’m working for, let me tell you a little about the experience I’ve been having for the last week. My weekdays start at 5:10 AM so that I can get ready, get breakfast, get lunch, and be on my big yellow school bus before 6:35. That bus does not wait for anyone! This summer I’m working at Brown Middle School in the heart of Atlanta where I’ll be teaching 7th grade math (I haven’t had a math course in five years).

This past week though was 100% teacher-training. We sat in class and learned about lesson planning, literacy, diversity issues — the list goes on for a while. We were dismissed from school promptly at 4:20 to run to the bathroom before the buses left at 4:30. Each day we have had approximately 1.5 hours to relax and eat dinner before evening sessions began. Basically, they are working us hard.

What’s amazing about this Institute is that the complexity of the logistics involved — there are 500 corps members here working at 7 different schools. The whole thing is an amazingly efficient machine. Each school has a TFA “school director” who is basically my ultimate boss for the summer, then there are several levels of underlings before things get broken down into 4 person collaborative groups working with one faculty advisor. Of course, it is hard to convey the efficiency to someone who is not here, but to impart the level of detail in planning — there is someone who times how long it takes us to get our food in the dining hall to ensure that the systems in place enable us to maximize our time most effectively.

To give you a more detailed look at one aspect of the life here, I’d like to tell you about our make-shift copying center set up in what is usually the student convenience store. Each corps member gets 750 free copies for the whole summer. While this might seem like a lot for “only four weeks in the classroom,” it’s not. And it’s definitely not when we are expected to have 2-3 handouts for our class of 25 each day. Quick math says that, if we average 2.5 sheets a day per student and there are 18 teaching days, I actually need 1125 copies, which puts me over my limit by 375 at a cost of $37.50 to me. Obviously, this stinks. Each of us has copy codes in order to track our copies.

Today, I made my first visit to the copy center along with most other people — tomorrow is our first day and every single teacher is required to give his or her students a diagnostic exam that is four pages long. Oh, I forgot to mention that there are nine copiers for all 500 of us!! Anyway, I wait patiently for a seemingly short 45 minutes to get onto my copier. It is at this point that I discover that due to a technical glitch, the copy codes aren’t even working. (As a side note, I actually found 200 copy codes in the recycle bin this morning, too. So much for security.) Seeing a window of opportunity, I rushed back to my room and prepared ALL my worksheets for this entire upcoming week and went back to the copy center. I couldn’t risk the codes being in effect tomorrow when I could have 300 bonus copies today. So after a few hours of work and 30 minutes of waiting, I had scored a big one (for the record, two of the copiers had broken down by the time I returned). While maybe I should feel bad about this, in fact, I feel that I was just exemplifying one of the Teach for America Teaching as Leadership principles we have been learning about all week: plan purposefully.

Ok. I still have to go print, staple and hole punch approximately six more documents that are due tomorrow. Luckily, I’m using my personal printer to do that, so there will be no waiting. Then, I can fall into bed shortly thereafter. (It is DEFINITELY past my bedtime)

Please excuse any non sequitur feel to this email. I don’t have enough energy or time to revise what is basically a rough draft. I did however, for the sake of not looking like a total ignoramus, run spell check and catch some funny typos.

If you’ve made it all the way to the end of this, thanks. Hope all is well. Be in touch. Stay safe, and any other thing like that because, knowing me, it will probably be a long time before I motivate myself enough to stir up the communication lines.