Heading Home.

The one nice thing about flight delays is that they provide some extra time to reflect. Today is Saturday, Teach For America Institute is over, and I am heading home to Indiana for the week (whenever my flight ends up leaving from LGA). Once again, I find myself experiencing a variety of emotions. I am excited to see familiar faces- friends and family, but sad to leave all the individuals that have become such an important part of my life in 6 short weeks.

I am going to miss my 8 awesome suitemates with whom I shared many a late night, “poster”ing, lesson planning and otherwise. I am not quite sure what I am going to do without the staff and corps members at my school who made the X118 family a place where kids came first. There are countless other NYC 2008 CMs that I will miss, but, fortunately, contact information was shared and next week's orientation at NYU will bring us together once again : )

The individuals that I am not sure if I will see again are the ones that I am most disappointed to leave. My students were my best teachers this summer, and I would love to have just a couple more weeks with them. I was surprised by how close we became after just 16 days of teaching and inspired by how much progress they have made. One student went from an 18% on her pre-assessment to an 84% on her post, some students were showing up early for “breakfast club” or leaving late from school for extra help, and others were taking home their books to read more about Rosa Parks during the evening. Even the simple fact that everyone finished the final exam was a huge success from where we started on Day 1.

Unfortunately, their growth was not shared by 100% of the class. There was one girl in particular who struggled with basic computation and reading. She was lost throughout most of my classes, and it is my greatest regret that I did not help her more- even if to just make her feel more confident in Math- during the summer. I am sure that I will have similar students in the fall, and seeing her disappointment at the end of the summer recommitted me to the goal that *every* child will succeed in my classroom.

So, I have one week in the Midwest before heading back to the Big Apple. Then it is a fury of orientation, training, moving, and starting the school year on September 2nd! It has been quite the experience thus far and I am excited to see what the next two years will hold.

Well, that is it for now. They just announced that my plane is approaching the gate : ) I can’t wait to see many you soon!

Love from LaGuardia,
Katie