I'm writing to you all from the cozy teacher work room at my school as we wrap up final exams. Because I am not able to proctor an exam and my mentor teacher doesn't have any to do, we're just kind of hanging out for the day. This week has been incredibly stressful for students and teachers. The students have had to take Regents exams (3 hour cumulative tests from the State of New York) and also the final exams for their classes. Regents have been a particular pain because getting a certain score can allow a student to graduate with honors, so that is the score Uncommon requires of all students, so there has been a lot of remediation and review happening the past couple weeks in order to prepare them for everything. You can tell as each day passes they just get more and more exhausted and apathetic about these exams, like anyone who has to test for close to 25-30 hours in a single week. It's been stressful for teachers getting everything ready and trying to keep the students motivated, and because, of course, the copier broke during one of the busiest days when many teachers were copying finals.
In exciting news, the school I'm at is moving! Because Uncommon is still a relatively new program the high schools are not as old as the other schools. This means that as students matriculate from the middle schools into to high schools, the high schools need to expand in order to accommodate these students. As of right now in New York City, there is only one high school that's at maximum capacity for all 4 grades. The high school that I'm at only has 9th & 10th graders, so we're moving to the 4th & 5th floors (currently only on the 2nd floor) of the same building in order to give the juniors and new freshmen a place to go! It's all very exciting, but it means lots of packing. Today, the 2 other interns and I had to construct 250 cardboard boxes which took a long time and made my hands really dry, but was otherwise nice to have something to do without being underfoot. I think one of the pitfalls of the program is that we start right at the end of the school year when teachers are really busy and don't always have the time (or energy) to show us the ropes and give us tutorials. I've been doing my best to remain as useful and independent as possible so that it makes things easier for the teachers instead of just being one more thing they have to worry about.
Perhaps prematurely, I'm already considering a future here at Uncommon. I absolutely love the teachers at my school. They're all really young and energetic and are open to talking about anything school or otherwise. They're all really great about discussing their teaching experiences, philosophies, and giving feedback on my work. Plus, as the students in the school get older they're looking to do more college style seminar classes where teachers would have a lot of say into what topics and literature they want. Everyone says that Uncommon is a great place to work, especially when you're young, because you have a lot of opportunities to grow and try things professionally before getting set in certain ways. Because I'm feeling pretty confident from the feedback I've received so far from my mentor teacher, other teachers, and the principal about getting offered a position for when I graduate. It's definitely something I'm going to keep in mind and work towards as the summer progresses.
Other irrelevant discoveries and explorations: I ventured over to Prospect Park which is gorgeous and have definite plans to hit up the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens and go back when I have more time and energy. I'm definitely looking forward to when summer school starts because that's only 8am-1pm so I'll have lots of free time to explore. Also, I popped into this little corner store and ate the most delicious gyro I've ever had. NYC definitely dominates Indiana in the food department. Enjoy your weekend! I know I will :)
No comments:
Post a Comment