Yes, I did email Oprah this week. I didn't hear back. Which is fine. Ever since I was an intern in Camden for Urban Promise, I've thought it would be cool if Oprah found out about UP and wanted to give us lots of money. But I never did anything about it. On Monday I was at the gym and caught the beginning of her episode about the new documentary "Waiting for Superman." It was really good and lots of my favorite education people were on it, especially Geoffrey Canada. I had to leave before the episode was over unfortunately, because I had to speak at the Urban Promise board meeting. But when I got home I got on Oprah's website to see if there were any clips I could watch or anything. And it said she was doing a reaction show on Friday and there was a link for you to click on if you were a teacher or parent who had a response to the show. So I figured this was my chance to tell Oprah about Urban Promise. I tried to make it relevant to what had been on her show, but I was not at all surprise that I didn't hear anything back. But at least I can say I tried before her last season was done!
I really want to see "Waiting for Superman," but it's not playing around here yet. The book "Whatever It Takes" by Geoffrey Canada is one of my favorites, and the film is largely about his work with the Harlem Children's Zone. I hope I can see it soon! Plus when you buy a ticket, you get a $15 voucher to use on DonorsChoose.org to help fund a project for a classroom in need. So of course I thought, hmm, I need to go on DonorsChoose and find out how I can sign up to get a project funded. At which point I find out that only public school teachers are eligible to sign up. Warning: brief rant ahead. That really annoyed me. I get that Urban Promise School is kind of a unique type of school. There aren't a ton of private or parochial schools that serve underprivileged students. But I make half (or less than half) of what most public school teachers make. So it's annoying for this website to tell me I can't try to get a project funded. I know I might not actually feel like this if I was teaching in a public school, but right now I feel like if I was a public school teacher and I really wanted a new set of chapter books or a listening center for my classroom, I'd just buy it. OK, end of rant. DonorsChoose is still a cool website.
Emailing Oprah was not the only thing that happened this week. I also had the opportunity to see The Color Purple (the musical) at the Dupont Theater. Catherine got tickets for the teachers and the students at the Urban Promise Academy. It was really good, and it had been a while since I'd gotten to see a musical. It was fun to see it with the teachers, because some of them have grown up loving the story of The Color Purple. Plus I got to get kind of dressed up, which is always fun.
We've had 13 days of school now. Things are still going pretty well with my class, but I've been having some attitude/following directions issues with the 3 boys. I feel bad that it's just with the boys, but that's just the way it is with this group. And I really like the boys too. Part of it is that they're not scared of me, and they were scared of the Pre-K teacher. They've come right out and said this to me. I don't want them to be scared of me, but of course I want them to listen to me and to know that I mean what I say. I feel like this will take some time, but that it can happen. At least there have not been any major tantrums yet. Someone knocked over a chair this week (a girl actually) when she was mad, but no one paid any attention to her, and she just picked it back up and put her head down like she was supposed to. Oh children.
I think I'm realizing that even though school is going well so far, I'm still not really enjoying teaching that much. I've kind of thought for the past two years that I've felt like I don't like it mostly because the kids weren't behaving. But I think I just don't really want to be a classroom teacher. I guess I've always known that. But I'm glad I'm doing it now, because I feel like it's important to have experience in the regular classroom before I go on to do whatever I'll do next in education. And I really don't know what it'll be. For a while I was pretty sure I wanted to do my master's in reading. But now I don't know again. I really liked helping with administration stuff this summer, so I was thinking maybe I might like to do that kind of thing. I don't know.
I've been working 10 hours days at school and then doing an hour or two of work after I get home. It's been tiring so far. I'm going to try to chill out a little bit this week. Maybe leave school a little earlier or not bring any work home. I have some TV shows I want to catch up on now that the fall season has started! Thank goodness for Hulu!
I really want to see "Waiting for Superman," but it's not playing around here yet. The book "Whatever It Takes" by Geoffrey Canada is one of my favorites, and the film is largely about his work with the Harlem Children's Zone. I hope I can see it soon! Plus when you buy a ticket, you get a $15 voucher to use on DonorsChoose.org to help fund a project for a classroom in need. So of course I thought, hmm, I need to go on DonorsChoose and find out how I can sign up to get a project funded. At which point I find out that only public school teachers are eligible to sign up. Warning: brief rant ahead. That really annoyed me. I get that Urban Promise School is kind of a unique type of school. There aren't a ton of private or parochial schools that serve underprivileged students. But I make half (or less than half) of what most public school teachers make. So it's annoying for this website to tell me I can't try to get a project funded. I know I might not actually feel like this if I was teaching in a public school, but right now I feel like if I was a public school teacher and I really wanted a new set of chapter books or a listening center for my classroom, I'd just buy it. OK, end of rant. DonorsChoose is still a cool website.
Emailing Oprah was not the only thing that happened this week. I also had the opportunity to see The Color Purple (the musical) at the Dupont Theater. Catherine got tickets for the teachers and the students at the Urban Promise Academy. It was really good, and it had been a while since I'd gotten to see a musical. It was fun to see it with the teachers, because some of them have grown up loving the story of The Color Purple. Plus I got to get kind of dressed up, which is always fun.
We've had 13 days of school now. Things are still going pretty well with my class, but I've been having some attitude/following directions issues with the 3 boys. I feel bad that it's just with the boys, but that's just the way it is with this group. And I really like the boys too. Part of it is that they're not scared of me, and they were scared of the Pre-K teacher. They've come right out and said this to me. I don't want them to be scared of me, but of course I want them to listen to me and to know that I mean what I say. I feel like this will take some time, but that it can happen. At least there have not been any major tantrums yet. Someone knocked over a chair this week (a girl actually) when she was mad, but no one paid any attention to her, and she just picked it back up and put her head down like she was supposed to. Oh children.
I think I'm realizing that even though school is going well so far, I'm still not really enjoying teaching that much. I've kind of thought for the past two years that I've felt like I don't like it mostly because the kids weren't behaving. But I think I just don't really want to be a classroom teacher. I guess I've always known that. But I'm glad I'm doing it now, because I feel like it's important to have experience in the regular classroom before I go on to do whatever I'll do next in education. And I really don't know what it'll be. For a while I was pretty sure I wanted to do my master's in reading. But now I don't know again. I really liked helping with administration stuff this summer, so I was thinking maybe I might like to do that kind of thing. I don't know.
I've been working 10 hours days at school and then doing an hour or two of work after I get home. It's been tiring so far. I'm going to try to chill out a little bit this week. Maybe leave school a little earlier or not bring any work home. I have some TV shows I want to catch up on now that the fall season has started! Thank goodness for Hulu!
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