Catching up...

Student quote of the week. "I'm gonna break you. You ever been hit by a dump truck?"
Well, it has been a while since I updated this blog, which is unfortunate because my intent was to update it weekly. We will see how that goes from this point on. My last update was immediately after my first day of school and boy have I learned a lot since then.
Our four day weekend gave me the opportunity to prepare for class somewhat, although I am quickly learning that there is no such thing as truly being ready for class. There are good days and there are bad days. A part of that has to do with me being adequately prepared and a part has to do with which students are in class on any given day and how they feel for that day. Since the first day of school we have had all sorts of excitement. There have been ten kids who I had who have now left and another seven new ones have been added. To put that in perspective, about 40% of the faces that I see are different. It will take me quite a while before I really understand this system. There isn't necessarily any notice of when kids are leaving which is sad. To go home one night so that I can work to create an extra extension for a kid only to show up the next day and have them gone is a real bummer. The other bummer is half the kids are gone every day anyway for court or some other appointment. It makes teaching math fairly difficult, but we are pushing on. The kids are so great though and I really do feel as though I am beginning to build a stronger rapport with my kids.
At the moment I am still the lead teacher in a math class which is technically illegal, but who cares about technicalities.
The past two weekends have been a little bit crazy. I started out with out many plans, but the NYC nightlife sort of got to me. I don't plan on getting home at 6:30am again anytime soon, but the life experience of seeing a fight (crazy dude with a cane) and dancing in a night club are things that really are a part of experiencing the city. Matt and I now have a couch ordered and on the way and a TV coming soon to round out the apartment. The final thing we need is a roommate who we hope to find soon. I am sorry I haven't been more thorough in updating my blog.
Just as a hint to those of you out there, I really do enjoy catching up with friends so give me a call. I am free (meaning I can put off lesson planning if you call) every day after 3pm except Mondays until 8pm. That is 3pm eastern time so if you have some spare time during your afternoon give me a call.

First Day of School

First day of school. I am actually writing this between classes while I wait for the curriculum to for the class to be faxed over to my site. I have taught two of my three classes for today and I haven't started crying yet. This year is definately going to be a handful. The kids are interesting to say the least. I suppose that it is similar to all the classes I was in when I was in highschool. The each class has its clowns and its model students. Being at passages with this student population there are things that I see and worry about that I hope my teachers never had to concern themselves over. It is hot and the AC is out, so naturally you want to open the windows...well that is fine, but I need to make sure that the window above the fire escape is not open becuase that could be a problem. Having to hlod on to penicils and erasers until we are actgually using them, thne collecting them again after class also seems a like overkill, but these people know what they are doing. It is also a little bit strange to have one or two of the staff memebers in the room who are responsible for removing the kids if they get over aggitaded. Who knows, this experince is going to be great. I do also have to get used to a completely different set of names from what I am used to. Say good by to John and Jane, because a regular name now is Tymaine, Shaquille, or Spanky. I teach math. I will be teaching algebra and middle school math. I am actually the only math teacher at my site at the moment. Woohoo. When was the last time that I worried about slope or linear equations. Well I guess I get to learn it all over again then teach my kids. At this point I have finished teaching my classes for the day and I have to say as a whole it was successful. Successful in that my lesson was about why math is important and not actually teaching them any new math concepts.

I also think that it is I can say a little bit about my new apartment. The apartment as a whole is great, but I do have two slight complaints/things that just make me laugh. The floor in the apartment is uneven. When I say uneven I mean that there is nothing that is flat at any point. In the living room the table leans to the left and when I go to sleep if I lay down on my bed in one direction my feet are definitely above my head. The other slight problem is the noise. We are right along a main road and there is always something going on outside. So now that I have said my little bit of negative about the apartment I feel that I should say that I love it. Apparently Labor Day is a bigger deal in my neighborhood than I have seen it be anywhere else. Both Sunday and Monday we had people out in the street everywhere. Sunday night there was music until about 5am. When I say music we are talking steel drums and all sorts of other fun stuff. People were dressed up like it was Mardi Gras or something. Full on bright Vegas showgirl outfits with feathers and all. Of course the body types aren't necessarily ones that you would want to see in such outfits, but the spirit of the whole thing was great. That is all I can think of for now. God Bless.

This preview for an upcoming film is pretty good. Definitely worth seeing if you care about education at all. It is a documentary looking at the charter school movement.

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2518550297/

Apartment plus some...

Knowing that school is getting ramped up back at Whitworth makes me a little bit sad, but school here is going to be ramping up as well so I’m sure that I will have plenty to keep me busy. Well after finding out that I had a job I had to go on and face the next step…finding an apartment. Fortunately, I my friend Matt from home and Whitworth is also new to the city and we were looking together. This is actually quite a daunting task here in NYC because there are so many and yet so few. I have to consider the location, the cost, and the apartment itself. I knew that for me cost and location outweighed the apartment’s look I didn’t really want to end up in a closet. Throughout the past few months friends from TFA have been finding apartments all over the city and some have had it easy while others find it to be a battle. I took almost two weeks to get mine. Craigslist can only get you so far and broker’s fees are expensive. I budgeted for about $1000 a month for an apartment. With TFA friends spending anywhere from 700-1300 a month I figured aiming to be in the middle would be a good plan. Well in the past two weeks I have spent countless hours looking at advertisements for apartments and visited at least ten different places, some nice and others not so nice. I sort of wanted to get one with a doorman and a pool/gym/billiards room, but that was a little bit out of my price range. Matt and I found a great one with a good location and low cost that was not too bad looking, but someone else beat us to it. Yesterday we went to check out a place right next to Prospect Park, the largest park in Brooklyn, that I had found on facebook. It was titled, $1450 / 3br - *Cash* Beautiful 3bed on Rutland Rd. and Flatbush Ave. !*CASH*, and had no pictures. Well after visiting the apartment we were pretty stoked. The maintenance man for the building was the one who let us in and we were shocked at how big it was. So we saw the apartment at 2pm then called the broker afterward to say that we wanted it. We met him at 4pm and put down the deposit which was one month’s rent in cash. (I struggle hand that much money to someone who I just met.) He was a great guy who’s name I still don’t actually know. Then we met again today at 2pm to file our final paper work while in the back of his car and pay last month’s rent along with a security deposit. Money seems to be flying here. So within twenty four hours I now have my keys to an apartment that is unfurnished. Well of course we decide to head to IKEA. Matt and I ended up spending five hours in IKEA and we only really got about half the stuff that we are going to need. This whole process has been a whirlwind. Oh and in case you were wondering if the whole cash upfront thing is sketchy I think so, but apparently in NYC it is actually quite common and I do actually have a legit lease form so it has all worked out. I wouldn’t suggest to friends however that they regularly run around the city with thousands of dollars in cash. I’m sort of over IKEA and all that it has, but I get the feeling that I will probably be back there again in the next few weeks. One more thing to add on to the housing tangent that I just went on, we now have an extra bedroom that we will probably end up renting out and I will be paying about half of what I budgeted for housing. Yippee.

The city as a whole is still a very interesting place. When traveling on public transit you never know what you are going to see. I have witnessed a young boy physically fight the woman he was with (I’m not sure if she was his mother or not). I have seen countless musicians/artist of some kind run into a packed subway car and begin playing expecting people to give them some money. To be a real New Yorker though you need to sit there staring straight ahead and ignore them otherwise they really will come up and get in your face when asking for money. The other day an older woman got caught in a subway car door. You may ask, how does something like this happen? Well I will tell you. I was on the D line heading to Coney Island and we got to a stop and the conductor announced that this train was now going to run on the N line. Well that sucks because more than half the people on the train have to get off and wait for the next D. So we get off and wait. The next D pulls into the station and we all get on only to wait a minute and hear another announcement, this train will now also be running on the N line and we should get out and wait for the next D. So there are a lot of frustrated people on the platform not really sure what is going on, the next D pulls up and the same thing happens only the conductor doesn’t speak very clearly so we are all quite unsure of what is going on. Well I get off because at this point I just want to walk or take a bus. As I get off the train doors close and this old woman is caught in them. She is not just a little bit caught, but a lot bit. Basically the doors are pressing directly against her belly and her backside. Well her head is turning one way then another and she looks very confused. She didn’t look confused about being stuck, but more about whether or not she wanted to be on the train. (Don’t worry, the trains won’t move without all the doors closed so she wasn’t in any danger). Well after about thirty seconds I go up to her and ask if she is trying to get off and she says yes. At this point I realize that this poor old woman was legitimately stuck between these doors that whole time with probably fifty people on the platform and another thirty in the car waited not wanting to step in to help. I guess there is still something to be said for being from Washington and not having as thick of a skin as New Yorkers. I was still willing to step in even if it was a little bit late.

Another fun travel story has to do with me walking down the street and stepping on a rat. That’s about it for that story. Yuck. The neighborhood that I have been staying in for the past few days with a friend from TFA is almost entirely Jewish. I have begun to see the world in black and white. That is really the only colors people here wear. I don’t have a yarmulke or long curls on either side of my head so I don’t really fit in. It is strange walking down the street and hearing Yiddish more than English. I was in a McDonalds the other day where the staff was all black and speaking Spanish. I guess my understanding of diversity in America has grown pretty substantially. Well that is about all I can think to say for now. Hopefully this hasn’t been too long and boring.