This quote is what I am attempting to avoid. I’ve been feeling really down lately and I’m not quite sure why. Whether it’s because I graduate in 51 days or I’m overwhelmed with school work, pre-institue work or working my two jobs (I sell makeup at Clinique and work with old folks at a non-profit)…one…

I love quotes. It will probably become blatantly evident over time. I subscribe to this website called The Daily Love. They send out an e-mail each morning with a few inspirational quotes (usually all on a similar topic). One of my favorite quotes from these e-mails is “You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your…

I can officially check the Praxis I off my to do list now. Since I took the exam on the computer I immediately knew my math and reading score but have been anxiously waiting for 3 weeks for my writing score. I passed. I purchased a test prep book for the Praxis II: Math Content…

Starting this blog is both exciting and nerve racking. The future is within reach. I feel like I have spent a lot of my life wanting to be in a different stage of life. Graduating college and becoming an “adult” has been something that I’ve wanted to be here for the past four years and…

As I have shared before on this blog, I like birds, and I feel like they are an appropriate metaphor for what I am doing here. It doesn’t have to do with the fact that the very first time I ever saw a wild Bald Eagle was as I was walking across the Francis Scott…

Here I am, two weeks deep into Institute. I have finished all of my work for the week and am in the unprecedented position of having some free time (after a 20-hour work day yesterday). So, am I going to talk about my students and the potential I see in them, as well as my…

I’m in the middle of Induction and yesterday they gave us some statistics to chew on. I’ll throw this one out: The 2009 America’s Promise Alliance study ranked Indianapolis 50th out of the nations 50 largest cities in terms of graduation rate (it’s under 50% in IPS). When you hear a number like that, it’s….…

For anyone who wants to read something that will make you perplexed, angry, and enlightened (mainly about education in the United States and how far from perfect it currently is)…. Anything by Jonathan Kozol, for example: Savage Inequalities. Ordinary Resurrections. Amazing Grace. Rachel and Her Children. One Day All Children by Wendy Kopp. 36 Children…

May 31st I am driving off toward Indy for Induction, Institute, and Orientation before coming back to finish packing and officially leave toward the end of July. The reactions that people have given me (after a short explanation of Teach for America and going to Indy) are, to say the least, extremely diverse. It’s interesting…

The band Vampire Weekend is fronted by a former TFA corps member. How cool is that?