(no subject)
So after some deliberation, I decided to start up a TfA-centric blog. In a lot of ways, I hope my students do come across it, because I'm just the one telling their story at the end of the day. I want them to see how proud I am to share their successes as a class with people I know, and people interested in the Teach for America movement (which, I have to say, I'm buying into more and more every day). Anyhow, check that out at http://mrlakin.blogspot.com.
This space will be reserved more for non-Tfa type musings (probably more pop culture observations and inside jokes with the people I know still read this. That said, here's the "rest" of the news from my first week in Atlanta:
*One of the girls at the school I teach at apparently spent two years as an assistant pastry chef. She seemed surprised when I told her I knew multiple people back home who would be insanely jealous of this fact.
*I spent a pretty large chunk of my Saturday on my own exploring the city. After finding the requisite Target and wasting a pretty large chunk of time in Barnes and Noble reading the end of the audio book I took out of the library and didn't get to finish on my drive down (Michael Chabon's "The Yiddish Policemens' Union", which I definitely reccomend), I managed to track down the local indie record store, Criminal Records, in the middle of what appeared to be the hipster-ish district of town. Paste Magazine called it one of the best record stores in the country, and I'd have to agree with their assessment. I picked up two promotional copies of CDs I'd been interested in (the new Tokyo Police Club and Love of Diagrams, both band who have at some point shared a bill with Ted Leo) for a total of $5, plus an awesome notebook with a cover made out of an old Elvis Costello "Punch the Clock" LP sleeve. I'd been wanting a new "post-college" paper journal for a while, and though this is a little oversized, it was too cool to pass up.
*On my way back to Georgia Tech (which is a beautiful campus), I saw the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, the Coca-Cola building, and CNN. Though I;d already wasted enough time wandering, I put them on a running list of places to visit. (Also, I saw a campaign sign on the side of the road for John Lewis for Congress, and remembered I get to spend a month living in the district of one of my favorite congressmen/civil rights legends- though I'm pretty sure that only matters to me).
*I'm sure I'll use to TfA blog to write more about "corps culture" in the future, but the Eastern North Carolina corps have been pretty fantastic here at institute. Last night a couple of guys who played guitar got going and managed to amass a whole crowd of us out on a hill/grassy knoll type thing outside the dorms, where we all continued to just hang out for the duration of the evening. I haven't really seen any of the other regions bonding like that, and it really is pretty awesome.
Well, that's pretty much it in Atlanta... one week down, four more to go in institute, and a whole lot more to go in my career as a teacher (not that I'm counting down already).
This space will be reserved more for non-Tfa type musings (probably more pop culture observations and inside jokes with the people I know still read this. That said, here's the "rest" of the news from my first week in Atlanta:
*One of the girls at the school I teach at apparently spent two years as an assistant pastry chef. She seemed surprised when I told her I knew multiple people back home who would be insanely jealous of this fact.
*I spent a pretty large chunk of my Saturday on my own exploring the city. After finding the requisite Target and wasting a pretty large chunk of time in Barnes and Noble reading the end of the audio book I took out of the library and didn't get to finish on my drive down (Michael Chabon's "The Yiddish Policemens' Union", which I definitely reccomend), I managed to track down the local indie record store, Criminal Records, in the middle of what appeared to be the hipster-ish district of town. Paste Magazine called it one of the best record stores in the country, and I'd have to agree with their assessment. I picked up two promotional copies of CDs I'd been interested in (the new Tokyo Police Club and Love of Diagrams, both band who have at some point shared a bill with Ted Leo) for a total of $5, plus an awesome notebook with a cover made out of an old Elvis Costello "Punch the Clock" LP sleeve. I'd been wanting a new "post-college" paper journal for a while, and though this is a little oversized, it was too cool to pass up.
*On my way back to Georgia Tech (which is a beautiful campus), I saw the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, the Coca-Cola building, and CNN. Though I;d already wasted enough time wandering, I put them on a running list of places to visit. (Also, I saw a campaign sign on the side of the road for John Lewis for Congress, and remembered I get to spend a month living in the district of one of my favorite congressmen/civil rights legends- though I'm pretty sure that only matters to me).
*I'm sure I'll use to TfA blog to write more about "corps culture" in the future, but the Eastern North Carolina corps have been pretty fantastic here at institute. Last night a couple of guys who played guitar got going and managed to amass a whole crowd of us out on a hill/grassy knoll type thing outside the dorms, where we all continued to just hang out for the duration of the evening. I haven't really seen any of the other regions bonding like that, and it really is pretty awesome.
Well, that's pretty much it in Atlanta... one week down, four more to go in institute, and a whole lot more to go in my career as a teacher (not that I'm counting down already).