Four Days Until Induction

I am excited. This Friday, I will finally begin the next step in my journey towards becoming a teacher. I will begin induction, which seems to really be just another way of saying "orientation." I will be congregating with my fellow Teach For America Corps members at a small college where we will be staying for the summer, learning how to be the best teachers we can possibly be. Here are the parts of induction I am looking forward to the most:

1. Meeting other members of Teach For America and making friends
2. Being back in a classroom (hello comfort zone!) learning
3. Obtaining valuable knowledge about how to be an awesome teacher
4. Living away from home without being halfway across the country

I looked at the tentative schedule for induction online and it basically looks like every day we will have training sessions about teaching, because later on during institute, we will be teaching summer school! I know, it's crazy, but I'm sure it will be a great way to learn. What happens during institute is every day each corps member gets to "lead teach" for an hour as well as observe others teach for the remaining 3-4 hours of the summer school day. It will be a great way to learn how to teach quickly. I really hope that I end up teaching high school science of some kind, because it would be really great to teach the same grade level and subject I will be teaching in the fall.

Also, it seems that there are a lot of social events planned for induction and institute. For example, we're going to a Dodgers v. Angels game and having formal dinners. I guess I'm just the kind of person that can't be idle for long, because these three weeks of vacation are about all I can take. I need to get busy again. The college I'll be staying at during induction and institute is also about 45 minutes to an hour away from my house, which is grand because I can go home during the weekends if I feel like it...or not. This is a really different kind of arrangement for me, because my only experiences of living are of being at home or at college 3000 miles away.

So, it's going to be fun! I have been working hard doing my pre-institute coursework. The work is reading and reflection pieces, and they are the kind of things that can either take forever or no time at all, depending on if my brain's in gear or not. For the next few days, I'm going to have to kick it up a notch so that I can get it all done. Wish me luck!