OUSD FLASHBACK! East Coast Girl Heads West: You mean we're not 45 mins away from DC?

I just (officially) booked the first hotel for our first night on the trip.  Very exciting and very... well, real!  I cannot believe that my family will be all here in a week to start our trip across the country! 

I had 4 very new-to-the-district Oakland Teaching Fellows come visit my summer school classroom today.  With all these blog posts about my first days in Oakland, it was definitely interesting to see where they are in their OUSD process and where I was at the time... My favorite question of the day was "What is your biggest frustration with the district?" AHAHAHAHAHA.  Where to start??? I feel bad for this cohort of Fellows, since their school year will most likely include a longer strike (one day this year was crazy; I can't imagine having to do it more than one day.  Striking is hard!) in addition to a crazy first year experience.  Or, I should say, a CRAZY first year experience.  And these Fellows are all teaching non severely handicapped middle school and high schoolers.  GOOD LUCK!  A preschooler is miles away from a teen, and then to add in a disability, forget about it!  I do feel good that my colleagues and I have created an amazing space at the new school and that there will be a lot of support for the incoming preschool teachers.  They will definitely need it!

Yes.  I honestly thought that [You mean we're not 45 minutes from DC] today.  It went a little bit like this: (And, keep in mind, I was eavesdropping on a convo between a teacher and one of my fellow Fellows...)  Teacher: "So I'll get you connected with the teacher X, but she's in DC, so I don't know when you'll be able to talk to her," etc. etc.  Okay, so I didn't have to write it out like that...  Okay.   So they're having this conversation, and I'm all "DC's only 45 minutes away.  Why is that such a big deal?"  And I think about that for awhile, and forget about it for awhile, and revisited after lunch, when it FINALLY hits me that DC is not 45 minutes away.  DUH.  You can see that I'm adjusting to my new surroundings... ssssssslllllooooooooowwwwwwwwllllllllllyyyyyyyyyy.

 

I got a JOB! Yes, we should all be very proud of me!  I will be a pre-kindergarten teacher for children with severe handicaps.   Apparently I was a better match for this class, instead of the class of kindergarten-second grade for children with autism.  *Let's give the class for children whose handicaps that she's never experienced!*  I think that was the logic... apparently I need a challenge...

 

Which brings me to this week in class.  Thankfully, we have redirected the biter.  We have, however, replaced the behavior with kicking our friends.  In the face.  Huh.  "Lena, please stop kicking Ricardo in the face."  And then Ricardo cries and wipes snot up and down my arm.  At least he's not puking this week.  I'll taking snot over puke, any day.  Is it weird that I have a preference? Because I definitely do.  Anyway, I've learned that misbehavior is what I will be addressing in my classroom, more than colors, or letters, or names... Too bad they've taken corporeal punishment out of the classroom...

 

In Oaktown news (that's Oakland's nickname... not so hip... I will use it never again...) we are in the middle of a heat wave.  Yep, we're in a 'power-watch' mode because we topped out today at 76.  No, I wrote that right.  Seventy-Six degrees farenheit.  Everyone's in a tizzy, aides are complaining (that's nothing new), children hanging out underneath the climbing apparatus... You'd think Oakland's never hit higher than 65.  There are no elderly neighbor/children warnings ("Check on your elderly neighbors/Don't take children outside" etc) It's just "IT'S SOOOO HOTTTTT."  Umm.  Okay.  I literally jumped for joy when I got a sunburn on Tuesday, because that means it's:

          A) Warm enough to outside

          B) Sunny

   You have no idea how thrilling that combination was for this girl.  Especially for those of you out there who have compared me to a reptile.  (Not always a flattering comparison, but I definitely need a heat rock out here.)

 

Anyway, I'm off to nurse my sunburn and write lesson plans.  I did none of the aforementioned activities yesterday, when I crashed after I got home at 5:30.  And pretty much slept until 7:15 this morning... and still ended up being late for work.  (Old habits die hard!)

 

Love from left to right,

Torrey

Looking back, I am turning NorCal... I'm right with the weatherman when we have a "heatwave" although the winter temperatures that we are experiencing this month (high of 66 today) make me want to move back to the heat so much!   Summertime in the city!

OUSD FLASHBACK! East Coast Girl Heads West: Little Kids Make Me Sick

So, here is the first update from being in the classroom.  I was blessed to get a classroom with an actual teacher who had actual experience with actual children.  You would be surprised at how rare that is (especially 5 years ago) for a Fellow to have.  In general, though, I was still super nervous to be in the classroom and was still getting used to what OTF was telling us in our silly afternoon sessions and what was REALLY going on in the classroom.   Naive, naive little me!

First I would like to let you know that WE HAVE INTERNET! Yep, the bird has landed and I'm now writing to you on a secure internet connection that assures my credit card number won't be stolen again.  We hope.  Because, yes, my credit card number was stolen and charged with purchases from heavymetal.com.  Thank you Chase MasterCard for realizing that Iron Maiden is not my favorite band. 

 

Now for school news... I have been placed in a classroom of 8 preschoolers with autism.  Seven of them are sick.  Seven of them cough, sneeze and wipe their little germs on me.  I am now sick also.  It's just a preschool size cold, but I am sick none the less! 

 

I was enjoying the classroom until Thursday when the children's bodies were possessed by demons.  There was screaming, jumping, running, screaming, biting, kicking... it was crazy.  The thing that gets me most is that they'll be bouncing off the walls in the classroom and then it will be playground time and they will rest up underneath the jungle gym.  "Oh no, I am much too tired to precariously climb to the top of the monkey bars right now.  I will rest in the shade of this climbing apparatus, saving my energy for when I need to bite my next friend."  Children are tricky. 

 

I led my first "lesson" on Thursday--painting with ice cubes.  Anthony decided to paint the white board and make faces at the people observing me, Lena decided to eat the ice cubes (while telling me what color she wanted, so I couldn't be that upset), and Isaiah wanted to use the medium of soap instead of ice.  Good times.  Nothing could top Friday's gagfest, that ended with little Ricardo vomiting during closing circle.  Nice.  And to think that I only have to survive 2.5 more weeks. 

 

My head hurts.

 

Well, I'm in the thick of apartment hunting and I hope to have a new place by the end of the week.  OH! And I have my first job interview tomorrow morning AND I get to go into school late!  Woohoo!  It's not a good sign that I'm trying to get out of school already... I'm off to grocery shop and, let's be honest, take a nap! 

 

Love to you all,

Torrey

 

PS Did anyone else notice that the kids have sucked the funny out of me?  I'm too sick to be funny.... oh, woe is me....

 Oh memory lane.  I thought I knew a lot when I first entered Bambi's class, but I had a lot to learn!  Thanks, Bambi, for being the best mentor a silly New Jersey girl could get!

OUSD FLASHBACK! East Coast Girl Heads West, Teaching for Effective Time Management

So I'm finishing up my last week as an Oakland Unified School District teacher (5 more days!) so I thought it would be appropriate to revisit the posts of what happened when I first got to Oakland.  For those of you who do not know, I was a part of the first year of Oakland Teaching Fellows (OTF), which was both a good thing and a bad thing.  A lot of it, unfortunately, was mismanagement and threats of not getting a classroom, but I did meet a ton of great people, who will be mentioned in a later post and who read this blog!  (Hey Jess, Laura and Matt!) I was super lucky to get into the superNOVA co-hort (all special ed teachers) and we all coped by meeting at the tiki bar every Friday through summer Institute and into the beginning of our first year.  It was amazing and I feel honored to have started my journey with those guys.  But on to my original e mail from the first week of OTF's summer institute, 2005:

 

Well, guess who's in trouble with the teacher?  Yep, that's me.  Okay, I am embellishing a little bit, but I was told to tell the institute director for the oakland teaching fellows that I was late this morning, as dictated by my teacher.  I refused.  I was 3 minutes late, due to "Street Sweeping Thursday" and could not get my head around parallel parking this morning.  Yes, I did feel like a moron, but I was also enraged at a Miata who butted it's little self into a HUGE parking spot right in front of my station wagon eyes, and just couldn't be at my desk with my book open at 9 am. 

 

Hell, I was late being born.  I'm definitely going to be late getting to class.

 

That might give you a little picture of how my first week of classes is going here with the Oakland Teaching Fellows.  I have learned that this is the *veryfirstyear* that the program is in place, which has mitigated some, but not all, of my frustration with the organization.  They haven't even figured out that I'm not enrolled in a University Credientialing Progam, which was required by June 15.  And I maybe not ever apply!! Take that poorly-put-together-program! 

 

Needless to say, the program has been a fair amount of work, with the extra edge of having to know everything for July 7, when I'm schedule to do my first lesson.  AHHHHHHHHH!  And, to top it off, I'm in a class of Severely Handicapped children, which, though it's not an issue for me, we were told we would definitely NOT be put in a class to teach anything more than moderately handicapped.  (Side note: They're still using the word "handicapped," and not "disabled"... does anyone else think that's odd?)

 

Anyway, we're still working on the housing situation.  I have tornadoed through Bryan's two and a half rooms, to the point where the once gleeful "I'm living with a girl" and turned into an "oh crud, i'm living with a girl..."  I promise to keep my stuff from spilling into every creeping corner of the apartment (fingers crossed behind my back).  Living with Bryan is good; we're good roommates, it's the living out of boxes that is killing me.  I'd call it the "I need my black ballet flats before they go out of style and i'm not sure if they're in box 6 or 14 (out of the wondrous 22 boxes) and I want them NOW" syndrome.  If you all thought I was messy before, look out world!  Boxes, bags, containers, and still a full trunk load of stuff.  Let's think money for christmas, instead of tchotkes, k? ;)

 

Anyhow, I should get to my applying to grad programs and shopping for apartments ::torrey drags feet:: I hope to have some fun stories soon... and internet!!! We should be internet ready by next week and then life will be whole again...  Or I won't have to go to the bar to surf the web.  (Less beer to get on the laptop)

 

Here's to my first morning of teaching.... Shiver, shiver!

 

Sincerely,

Miss Campbell

*gag*

Welcome to Oakland! ;)
Victoria