Journal #1

January 25, 2007

Pulling into the Jordan High faculty parking lot this morning didn’t feel natural. It didn’t feel like home—like a place I knew and felt welcomed at; however, it did feel good. It felt like a place that had the potential to feel natural and a place that I would soon be completely comfortable with. This was our third morning at Jordan and each time I feel a little less nervous, a little more excited, a little more certain that the ArtsBridge experience is going to be unforgettable and invaluable in my career as an educator. For the past three sessions, Jena and I have gone in to observe Kori’s teaching style, meet the students, and get familiar with the school. Luckily in Kori’s class it’s impossible to just observe, so we have been working with students on their dialogues, wandering the classroom and sitting in on partners practicing together. Through this I have started to have conversations with the students and get to know them and their strengths and opportunities for improvement. This knowledge is going to be extremely valuable once we start to teach. If I had just gone to the first observation day and then dove right into teaching, I would probably drown. Now I feel like I’m learning the strokes, the size of the pool, the temperature of the water. I know what I’m getting into and I love it.

On the practical side of things, it is also becoming apparent how important scheduling and planning is going to be. We have already decided what periods we are going to teach, but we need to figure out the exact dates and make sure there are no scheduling conflicts. In addition, we still need to have a curriculum planning meeting to be sure that what Jena and I wish to accomplish is in line with what Kori expects of us, although I do not foresee a problem with that as she has been incredibly supportive of our plans and goals. Hopefully we will have a meeting time by the beginning of next week because our first day of teaching will be the following Thursday. In addition, Jena and I need to finalize our goals for our students—the skills and knowledge we want them to have by the end of our residency and what our culminating activity will be. This way we can assess what they know at the beginning of the residency and where our launching pad is to start from.