A day in the life of an instructional leader

So here I am, in Houston, deep in the hole that is Teach for America institute. I've been immersing myself with sessions, lesson planning, and other teachery things, so I can maximize my effectiveness as an instructional leader! Yeah!

So how has institute been? Well I guess I just can’t believe I’m almost done with one week of teaching. I’ve been in Houston for 2 weeks, Texas for 3. The first week of induction, I remember feeling so tired – all those seminars, the meeting 99 other corp members. That was NOTHING compared to institute. Last week, we had 5 days to prepare to take over a classroom. That's right, I have eighteen 10th graders in my hands...

So my typical day:
5:40 AM – Wake up.

5:45 – Stumble into the communal bathroom. People say good morning. I have no idea who because my contacts aren't in yet. Wash up.

5:55 – Stumble down 5 flights of stairs to pack lunch in my little blue insulated bag. It’s cafeteria line style – pick up a polar pack (which are reused and getting pretty battered), a salad (preferable over their really sad looking sandwiches), a bag of chips, a pack of cookies, a fruit (usually a baby apple), carrot sticks, and a mini-bottle of water. Swipe. They check bags to make sure you only have one "entree."

6:00 – go to RFOC (and yes, that is how we refer to it - the R fock) – U of H’s oh-so-lovely dining hall. Hot breakfast on Wednesdays! The scrambled egg mush is now the highlight of every week. Otherwise, it's cereal and milk for me. And of course, coffee.

6:20 – Run back upstairs to get ready. Put on my teacher clothes.

7:03 – Step outside with my huge backpack, stuffed with laptop, ridiculously humongous bound TFA curriculum book, and teaching materials. Big yellow school bus picks us up. Go to Davis High School.

8:00 AM-4:00 PM – Teach 10th grade English, lesson plan, attend ridiculously tiring lectures for 3 hours, meetings, and generally attempt to absorb a fire hydrant of information aimed at my dixie cup.

4:00 – Get back on yellow school bus. Go back to Moody Towers.

4:00 and on - Dinner; attempts to do pilates or race someone to the single elliptical in the workout room; shower with water that either drizzles or has a jetstream so hard it hurts, and scalds you every time someone flushes the toilet; lesson planning; crying; laughing; commiserating; etc...

12:00 – sleep! (Hopefully).

...and then it starts all over again.