Still enjoying life...

Well this past week has been great. My parents and my aunt visited me. Getting to spend time with family really is great for boosting the spirits. It also meant that I had the opportunity to see a number of Broadway musicals. Thursday night we saw Promises Promises with Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenowith. It was absolutely amazing although I never realized just how short she is. Friday we saw the Broadway version of Elf. It was a ton of fun and thoroughly enjoyable. Saturday we was Chicago and Million Dollar Quartet. Overall there was quite a lot to take in, but I loved every minute of it. The best part by far was having family from home coming to visit. My parents were able to see my school and meet my co-teacher. It also didn’t hurt that instead of eating in all weekend I was able to eat out at some pretty great places. We found a wonderful little Indian restaurant right next to my apartment that I will definitely be visiting again.

This week in class has been pretty low key considering last week ended with a student punching a staff member in the face. Since it was a three day week and only half a day on Wednesday for classes we focused more on review than learning new material. I had a student explain to me his theory on how algebra was created by teachers to make busywork. I then set that as my facebook status. The best part is the first person to comment on that status was my old algebra teacher who I probably used the exact same line on. I also had a student who decide to make vulgar sexual noises all of the class period. That was one of those moments where I had to choose whether or not to address the issue. I did originally, but when it continued it I decided to focus positive attention elsewhere. He was convicted the week before and finding a way to invest him in the class was challenging. I also had a student ask me why we do work every day in class. My response was that we were in class to learn and it was my job to teach him so that is why we have lessons every day. He said that I should try taking a day and not doing a lesson. To which I replied, “Do you think it is ok for me to show up to work and not do my job? Who would want to have an employee who doesn’t do their job?” He then stated, “I couldn’t trust someone like you to do a job Mr. Hamilton. You are too perfect.” Well I’m not sure if I should take that as a compliment from my student or not. It is however slightly disturbing to think that he thinks you can go to work and some days just decide not to do anything. We are going to have to work on that. Students quiz scores this week were up significantly which is exciting.

I am in Boston for Thanksgiving with a friend from TFA. It is great to be out of the city and in a home. I’m sure I will have more to say soon.

A week in the life of...

So this week has been filled with new expreinces. I saw a pregnant clown on the way to work the other day. I can't say that I see the subway as the best place for a clown to hang out but who am I to judge. Grad school has been fairly low key. In my classroom however it has been a busy week. All four of my math classes are now at different points due to varying student abilities as well as the constant influx of new students. We have been studying perimeter and area with the middle school and the high school classes are at various levels of solving linear equations. I have a new student named Sirlancelot. Yes that is his real name on his transcript. Yikes! What loving parents. We also had a student punch a staff member today in one of the classes so tension is a little high for some of the students. My parents and aunt flew into Newark last night so I get to spend much of the weekend with them. :) One final thought/peice of advice. I found the greatest tv show on hulu. It is called Murder One and it was filmed back in 1995. The show is set up like any good cops and lawyer show except the entire season is focused around one trail which makes the whole thing much more intriguing.

Back to the blog

I wouldn't have expected gas to be a problem in an all girls class. But hey, I guess everyone does it. So I fail epically at updating this blog. Here are the things that have gone on in the past few weeks.

Improv Everywhere event. So I participated in a giant flash mob in Manhattan which consisted of about three thousand people doing all sorts of random things in stores and in a park. There is a video of the event here: http://improveverywhere.com/ Sufficient to say, it was one of the most unique experiences of my life. Being surrounded by people I had never met before doing things that you normally wouldn’t do in public was a blast. We had a gift exchange and I received a brand new copy of Pan’s Labyrinth. After that we (Matt, Mollie, and Robbie a TFA friend) went to Brooklyn to see a program called digital graffiti. It had a hippie/bohemian feel to it. There were all sorts of extremely obscure art. One of my favorite things that I saw was a woman on stilts with long flowing white robes dancing in front of a projector that kept changing. A local gym was also open and had all of its bouncy equipment set up which was quite fun. All together it was a really fun totally free night out in NYC.

By the way…major props to anyone who reads through this whole thing. In other developments I now have a new roommate. She just moved in. Her name is Simone and she was born and raise here in NYC. Matt and I are both exited to see how things work out. (cheesy intro) When it comes to working out I have now joined a gym. The sad thing is my biggest motivation for actually working out is the fact that I am paying for it. I am only paying ten bucks a month, but it is still hard earned money coming out of my pocket.

For one of my three day weekends I traveled to Baltimore to visit my good friend Joy. She has been doing TFA there for the last year. It was really great to meet up with her and her friends and just have some fun relaxing. Every time that I get to see people who I know from back home I cherish. It is not that I don’t enjoy the people here, but there is so much that they don’t know about me yet and so much that they don’t know how to relate to that I do miss home quite a bit. (Home qualifies as both Spokane and Fircrest in my book).

My students are so great, even the ones who throw desk across the room and the ones who put holes in the smart board, because each and every one of them is just a kid who is looking for attention. While I do have some days where I am frustrated, for the most part I come home each day pretty happy with what we’ve accomplished. If only there were more time. The bummer about being the only math teacher at my school is that I students only get one period of math a day as opposed to the double periods of social studies and English they receive. I feel that especially with math the more practice my kids get the better.

I’ll try to be more on top of updates. I promise myself that now, but we will see when I write again. For anyone out there who is feeling bored for some reason you are more than welcome to give me a jingle.

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.

School starts soon but before that...

So time here in NYC has been great. I was officially offered a job this past Wednesday. I will be working at Passages Academy in downtown Brooklyn. The school has multiple site and my site is at the boystown campus. http://www.boystown.org/new-york I'm still learning about the school and there is a whole lot more for me to learn before I really have a complete picture. the school is very small. They max out at about 46 students and there are 10 teachers on staff. The kids are at boys town for multiple reasons. Passages academy is a part of District 79 here in NYC. District 79 offers alternative education programs to students who have been incarcerated, teen mothers, and people aiming for GEDs. This district is a relatively new thing for Teach For America. They placed one person in District 79 last year and two of us are in District 79 schools this year. I couldn't be more thrilled about my placement. It will be a unique challenge.

When it comes to living in NYC there is always something new to see and something more to do. I have officially finished my first class for grad school and I got an A. (woohoo) A new student ID card and more student bills to pay. However, being a grad student at Hunter College is not a bad situation. My overall cost is significantly lower than what it was to be a Whitworth student. I don't think that I will be quite as proud of this diploma as I am of my Whitworth diploma. I certainly wont be paying as much for it.

Apartment hunting is not too fun. The cost to live in NYC is outrageous. I'm hoping to get housing figured out in the next day or two, but until then it is couch surfing. Today I was walking around downtown and found some fun stuff. Tim Horton's/Cold Stone Creamery, a Dunkin Doughnuts/Taco Bell, and life is never really complete until you see the naked cowboy...I mean cowgirl. She is especially unique because she is as old as my mother and looks about as fake as possible. This is NYC. If anyone wants to come join me here you are more than welcome. Short term visits are good too.