Managing the Move & Orientation

I have officially made it to Brooklyn and moved into the LIU (Long Island University) housing that Uncommon has provided. It is a large apartment in the heart of Brooklyn; I'm about 3 blocks from the Barclays Center which makes travel anywhere extremely easy. I have 4 roommates, all girls, so it's a little overwhelming, but I have my own room and I've staked out a local Starbucks with wifi where I can get away (where I'm currently writing this post).

Sunday I had 5 hours of orientation which consisted of going over the company mission, goals, program details, some team building activities, and Q&A panel with some Uncommon teachers who began as interns and then were offered jobs. In the session I learned that last year, Uncommon only had 40 interns for all their schools and this year there are 79 of us selected from a pool of over 400 applicants! It's really neat that such a cool and effective charter school is growing enough to accommodate all of us.

Of the staff I've met so far, they are all amazing. In school and talking with people about why I want to teach, I frequently get that I'm too idealistic about my expectations for teaching and the impact I'll have on students so it's really refreshing and empowering to be surrounded by staff that all believe the same thing and have the data to prove that their teaching styles and efforts have been instrumental in getting urban youth through (not just to) college.

I have one more full day of professional development before I get my first opportunity to be in a classroom with my mentor teacher on Wednesday. My mentor teacher's name is Jade and she has been an Uncommon teacher for 2 years and was hired on right after she went through the internship. From the emails we've exchanged, she's seems really nice and I'm excited to be working with her. She's a special ed teacher which I'm also really excited about because I don't have much experience working with special ed students and we're only required to take one general class on the laws surrounding special education at IU. I'm happy for the opportunity to work with these students for the first time with a mentor who can give me feedback on my skills.

Now I have to go create a presentation all about  myself and why I want to be a teacher to introduce myself to my students. Cheers!