Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Summer in Review

In beginning this blog, I couldn’t help but go re-read my first blog entry.  I figured reading  my first post might remind me of how I felt before summer training really started.  It only took reading the first paragraph of my post to realize how I’ve changed.  I was uneasy, nervous, and scared of this whole new Mississippi thing.  I was just recently graduated and my mind was still back in Davidson.  I was in college mourning, still desperately holding on to my past chapter, a chapter I didn’t want to give up.  Now, I’m more comfortable here in Mississippi.  I’ve got to know my fellow classmates, the town of Oxford, and most importantly, I’ve become acquainted with the Delta, my new home for the next two years.  I believe that summer training has been a crucial part of my outlook on my current situation.
Summer training gave me a routine here.  I’m very much a creature of habit and having structure in my life really helps me adjust.  Before I dive into my thoughts on summer training, I should say that when I think of summer training, I think of summer school up in Holly Springs.  Teaching at HSHS will always be the dominating memory for first year summer training.  I believe that summer school was hands down the most beneficial, most practical, and most rewarding aspect of this summer.  Of course there were many other peripheral aspects that rounded out summer training and added to it’s benefit, but none could add up to my experience at HSHS.  Summer school gave me a much more concrete idea of what life will be like in the fall.  I realize that it will still be drastically different no matter what, but HSHS was the closest thing we could get and the best way to prepare us.
Part of the prompt for this entry asked us how we feel.  Right now I feel fine, but don’t be fooled.  For the past weeks I sported two feelings - stress and exhaustion.  If one wasn’t dominating my life, the other was, and that was only when both of them weren’t already competing for the number one slot.  For the most part, those two feelings have gone away, but that’s because today we ended role plays and last Friday was the last day of summer school.  Never have I realized the work and effort a teacher puts forth.  It really is amazing, and one cannot fully understand until he or she puts on the shoes and walks around.  Regardless of whether I teacher for the next fifty years, I will always view teaching in a different way, and that’s only after one summer of diluted teaching.  
Looking back on the entirety of summer training, I have to say it was helpful.  I believe we are as prepared as we can be in this short period of time.  Nothing can fully prepare us for what’s to come in the fall, but I believe the work that those in charge of MTC did was beneficial.  It kind of freaks me out that the next time I’m in front of a classroom will be the first day of school.  To avoid me freaking out, I’m going to finish with that.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

2 comments:

  1. Charlie I cannot tell you enough how much I agree with you. I'm so glad we are going to the same town. :) One of the biggest things you said was talking about letting go of the past. I so desperately wanted to remain in college it is the perfect life. I sleep tons party lots and learn. I am a bit of a nerd for wanting to learn, but I love it. I love the friends and being on my own. I've been on my own for a long time, but in college everyone is on the same page for the most part. I loved the basketball and I was and still am not ready to let that go. I lived for so long planning my life about getting to College. Just get to college and it will be ok. you will be better than your mother and better than your situation. I'm glad to know that i'm not alone and someone I love will be in the DDDDD DELTA.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have an odd perspective on the whole "hanging on to college life" thing because I taught for a year after graduation, then moved back to Boston for a year and led a lifestyle very similar to how I'd lived in college. Teaching is certainly much more taxing and less conventionally fun than going to school is, but it also carries a very different set of rewards - as you, Charlie and Jessica, have clearly discovered already. Stress and exhaustion are much more real when there are 100+ people depending on you to succeed - but each little success you do achieve is 100 times more rewarding for exactly the same reason. You've both been fantastic friends and fellow-teachers this summer, and I look forward to hearing stories from your teacher-lives in the fall - good luck!

    ReplyDelete