teach for america/whoa
i finally have some downtime after getting up at 5:30 and going going going for 15 hours.
so far the site visit has been both good and bad- lots of type-a, crazily friend-tastic people. the attractive-to-ugly ratio is incredibly huge too- not many duds in the bunch. its like a eugenics project.. maybe it is... i was late to the first day so i missed all of the get-to-know you activities. usually this would be occasion for celebration, but in this case i was really kind of upset about it since i had to find myself in a room full of strangers playing human bingo. people kept coming up to me with a smile and a handshake and i had no idea what was happening. omg.
also, the early childhood ed people here, for the most part, seemed neither friendly nor remotely like myself. three of them go to santa barbara (enough said) while the others were not bad at all. most of the un-friendliness just came from the fact that they already knew each other and had no reason to be as super-friendly as everyone else. i did meet some great people, though, which is part of the point.
the other part, interviewing with directors and seeing classrooms, WAS AMAZING. my interview went pretty well, and the director and social worker who showed us around were very, very nice. the best part was visiting the site. i expected the headstarts to be run-down and depressing, but the school we saw was just like the private one i went to in boulder, only DIVERSE. one kid said to me, "you are so white" while staring at my pasty skin- a four year old. wow. i held my arm next to his and said, "i am, arent i?'- i had no idea what else to say... this center was a mix of lots of latino/a kids, some india indians and a few asian kids. the kids were adorable- some ran right up to us as we entered their rooms and introduced themselves, dragging us over to play with them. others were very shy but just as excited to find new adults in their class. i had to stop myself from hugging them within the first ten minutes.
this site visit has been worth the jet lag if only for the great feeling i got from visiting the classes. im also relieved that i can easily come up to kids and have fun and play with them... i cant wait to start teaching and i am also getting excited to the institute in june.
im a bit less sad about not being within the city of san fran. san mateo seems to be fine- kind of westminster-y with strip malls, a target, and general suburbanism. the areas we saw did look as though they were swiftly becoming uber gentrified... hmmm.
ready to come to my last week in south hadley. so strange.
so far the site visit has been both good and bad- lots of type-a, crazily friend-tastic people. the attractive-to-ugly ratio is incredibly huge too- not many duds in the bunch. its like a eugenics project.. maybe it is... i was late to the first day so i missed all of the get-to-know you activities. usually this would be occasion for celebration, but in this case i was really kind of upset about it since i had to find myself in a room full of strangers playing human bingo. people kept coming up to me with a smile and a handshake and i had no idea what was happening. omg.
also, the early childhood ed people here, for the most part, seemed neither friendly nor remotely like myself. three of them go to santa barbara (enough said) while the others were not bad at all. most of the un-friendliness just came from the fact that they already knew each other and had no reason to be as super-friendly as everyone else. i did meet some great people, though, which is part of the point.
the other part, interviewing with directors and seeing classrooms, WAS AMAZING. my interview went pretty well, and the director and social worker who showed us around were very, very nice. the best part was visiting the site. i expected the headstarts to be run-down and depressing, but the school we saw was just like the private one i went to in boulder, only DIVERSE. one kid said to me, "you are so white" while staring at my pasty skin- a four year old. wow. i held my arm next to his and said, "i am, arent i?'- i had no idea what else to say... this center was a mix of lots of latino/a kids, some india indians and a few asian kids. the kids were adorable- some ran right up to us as we entered their rooms and introduced themselves, dragging us over to play with them. others were very shy but just as excited to find new adults in their class. i had to stop myself from hugging them within the first ten minutes.
this site visit has been worth the jet lag if only for the great feeling i got from visiting the classes. im also relieved that i can easily come up to kids and have fun and play with them... i cant wait to start teaching and i am also getting excited to the institute in june.
im a bit less sad about not being within the city of san fran. san mateo seems to be fine- kind of westminster-y with strip malls, a target, and general suburbanism. the areas we saw did look as though they were swiftly becoming uber gentrified... hmmm.
ready to come to my last week in south hadley. so strange.