You see, Institute is a stretching experience. Learning to become a teacher is an overwhelming experience. And not having enough time to sleep, breathe, or do anything else but lesson plan makes it that much more stretching.
Every Institute is different, but this is how the Phoenix Institute goes. Two Sunday's ago, we had pretty much the whole day to get checked in and settled. Then, we had an opening kick off day where we met as a whole Institute and had performances by a local dance group, speeches, and activities. For the rest of Institute, we work and meet with other corps members at our school sites. Based on the placement in your region i.e. if you will be teaching elementary vs. high school, English vs. Math, they try to place you to teach a subject during summer school that matches what you will be teaching come Fall. For example, I am teaching middle school Social Studies. At Institute, I am teaching 9th grade English.
For the first week, you meet with your school site and do a variety of sessions all day. We learned about lesson planning, basic classroom management techniques, and a variety of other must-knows while writing half of the first week's lesson plans. The first week was LONG, as we pretty much sat all day in one room taking part in session after session and then lesson planning.
This week was the first week of actually teaching and that's when things got real. The bus for my school leaves at 5:55 a.m. and we don't get back until 6 or sometimes 6:30 each day. Then, we have to revise the lesson plan for the next day as well as write a rough draft for the lesson plan two days ahead. There have been some major logistical hiccups at my school site, one of the major ones being not having internet that worked. Also, we've all been pretty confused about the schedule and so it's been frustrating not knowing exactly where we're suppossed to be going. Alas, feedback is a gift and we've given a lot of feedback to the staff. Every school site and every Institute site is different, so each experience will be different.
Each corps member has a Corps Member Advisor (CMA) that gives you feedback on your lesson plans as well as observes you teaching in the classroom. You also have an FA (Faculty Advisor) who is an actual teacher from the school district that is in your classroom every day and observes you and gives you feedback on your teaching. My FA is awesome, and I'm so grateful to work with a veteran teacher that can give pointers, advice, and helpful hints.
There's just so much that I need to learn as a teacher. I am so incredibly humbled by everything that I need to learn--everything from giving clear directions to scaffolding to good classroom management to good assessment. Teaching high school English is a completely different ball game than teaching ESL. I've definitely either felt like I've gotten run over by a train most of the week or hit in the face with a baseball, take your pick on imagery. One thing is for sure: I love my students. Each and every one of them is amazing and I have already learned so much from them in one week.
Teaching continues for another two weeks and then the last week, we spend most of the days administering the state testing. If you have any questions, PLEASE contact me. This was a bit jumbled, which is exactly how I feel about Institute :D
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