Induction and Institute ... so far!

I'm pretty loopy and punchy (I'd combine the words -- as I am wont to do -- if it weren't for the unsavory results ... and I'm not talking about "lunchy") after 16 hours of Institute today (inclusive of lunch and dinner "breaks") and 2.5 hours of post-institute homework tonight. Tonight's assignment: Churn out as many "Lesson Visions" as I can stomach. I think I've about had my fill of Objectives, Key Points, and Assessments.

The past couple of weeks have actually gone fairly well. Induction -- the first week "away" (in which I actually only spent one night away) with TFA, primarily orientation to what TFA is -- is a distant and blurry memory now, having been supplanted by the rush of information that's come in the past two days of Institute. But I moved in to Lewis Hall at the Illinois Institute of Technology a week and a day ago and met my roommate, floormates, future coworkers, and a bright-eyed, eager-beaver group of mostly 22-year-old Type A personality overachievers. There are around 170 of us in the Chicago corps, teaching a variety of subjects and grade levels and in placements in Chicago and Gary, Indiana. We reflected and explored, laughed and cried, heard inspirational story after inspirational story, and yet I didn't gag once!

Some highlights from Induction:
-Getting to see Rachel more than expected. As mentioned above, the schedule was considerably more relaxed than I had anticipated, so I got to spend pretty much every night at our apartment.
-Meeting my future coworkers and getting to know them. They're impressive people, I must say.
-Formally and Informally planned social events, like an impromptu outing to Wrigleyville, a pizza dinner at an Auxiliary Board Member's house, cocktail reception for '08 alums at the Chicago Public Library, and a golf pub crawl through Wrigleyville (yet again ... a fairly despicable neighborhood, if you ask me, but apparently the only one that anybody from TFA goes out in).
-Facing (in my own way, which wasn't particularly successful, I suppose) my not inconsiderable social anxiety and feelings of isolation and shame associated with my old age. This is still certainly a work in progress ... but each day yields new results. I've gone from Day 1, in which noisy Jesus (a fellow corps member) said "How old ARE you? You look a little older than the rest of us?" to people looking shocked and impressed by my announcement (always accompanied by a flourish of my left ring finger) of my pending two year wedding anniversary. Sorry ladies and gentlemen -- this geezer's taken.

So with Induction behind us, Institute finally began. I've been hearing horror stories about this thing since I first inquired about Teach For America, and I'm not going to say that it hasn't lived up to the hype, but I am going to say this: if one can somehow manage to acquire a social anxiety not unlike the one mentioned above -- an almost crippling inability to make friends or introduce oneself to people without misidentifying oneself, mixing noun-verb agreement in simple speech, or muttering and mumbling into an audible ellipsis punctuated by a timid "never mind, sorry, I guess, oh gosh" -- then the challenges of Institute will pale in comparison.

That said, it has been an intense couple of days so far. We are spending the rest of the week learning about lesson planning and teaching literacy skills. Just to make things interesting, I'll be skipping out on classes on Friday to attend the festivities associated with the nuptials of close friends in Seattle ... only to return on Monday to teach a remedial class on using "branching" (some newfangled math thing) to add a set of single-digit numbers. You're not gonna want to miss that one.

The onset of actual student interaction will be a very good thing, I think for this blog. Looking back over the last 30 or so entries, it's clear that the focus needs to switch from my neuroses to the pithy and cute utterances and antics of small school children ... or at least the focus can be shared.