I might go visit Chicago again! - 05/19/2014

Okay it’s not definite so that’s why it’s the might, but I’m like 90% sure I’ll be there.  Whoo!  I’m heading up from Arkansas and I’ll stop there (kinda) on the way back to Ohio.  I’ll be doing anywhere from zero to three interviews and counting lol.  I’m going to be there for maybe a day and a half.  I was initially just planning on attending an interview day (if invited which still may not even happen hence the zero).  But I received an invite for a second interview, in-person, with a school I was previously talking too.  Then just a couple hours ago another school contacted me to see if I would be available.  This is a traditional school on the South Side so it’d be my first interview with a traditional, non-charter.  It’s also an elementary school which is slightly intimidating, but the more I think about it, I think I’d be just fine in it.

I’m glad schools are getting interested in my resume and stuff.  Hopefully this will continue to happen!  I did some interview prep work with a TFA staff member last week to go over some things.  I’ve been on about ten interviews already without an offer so I just want to make sure that I’m doing everything right or at least as right as I can get it.  He told me that a little over a third of the corps has been placed so far so it’s good to know that I’m in good company.

I turned in some pre-work last week for the summer training.  They assign us a bunch of readings and reflections that we have to do.  It wasn’t too bad and most of the readings were pretty interesting.  They are also bombarding us with other work and tasks to do before.  It’s a bit overwhelming, but it’s all necessary so I just have to keep organized and go with the flow.

On a quick side-note, I’m not really digging the teachforus website that this is hosted on.  I’m looking into switching over to blogspot or something like that.  I’ll write it down here just to be sure.  For all like three people reading this haha.  Actually I have no clue how many are reading this so who knows how many there are.  I do like to see how many are reading and blogspot lets me do that.  Just keep your eyes out for it!

Until next time.

**This post was originally featured and written on my original blog, chicagoteaching.teachforus.org, on 05/19/2014.

Cities are expensive - 05/05/2014

Yeah it’s kind of a bummer.  So this year, TFA Chicago is doing something brand, spanking new and they holding a regional Summer Training rather than the traditional Institute the majority of TFA regions go through.  Part of the new configuration of it is how we can choose to live in a residential setting with other CMs or we can live independently.  I’m going the residential route as I have mentioned before.  However, I planned to still bring my vehicle since I didn’t want to just leave it in Ohio and have to make an extra trip to go get it.

Butttt then I realized how much it’s going to cost to simply park my car in the city.  Well, let’s just say it’s a bit more than I had originally thought.  I guess I knew it would be somewhat pricey, but I never really put a number on it, until I did some research and the best bargain would be something like $18.00 a day.  I have ZERO interest in paying over $500.00 to park my car in Chicago when I probably won’t be using it much during training since 1.) I’ll be super busy and it’s not like I’m going to be able to go on leisurely drives throughout the city and 2.) I’ll be living in the residential housing in the Loop (downtown) which is the center of Chicago public transit.  This makes it really hard to justify splurging for parking.  So now I have to think of how to get to Chicago initially and after that, how to get back to Ohio to bring my car with me.  I ultimately do want to have my car there and it’ll be a lot easier (and cheaper) to have it, once I’m out of the Loop and into my regular neighborhood.  I’ll probably have to take a plane or bus or something.  Ugh.

On the bright side of things, my interview last week went really well.  I got to talk to the principal and a few other staff members over Skype and I was feeling good vibes between all of us.  It’s definitely a school I can see myself teaching in for the next two (or more) years.  The principal is going to check in on some of my references and then we’ll take the next step from there.  I also have another interview tomorrow for another charter high school on the South Side.  This school is particularly high-performing so I’m really interested in learning more about them.  Both of these schools are pretty far south which is a bit of a bummer since I’m probably not going to live too far south so it might make for a longer commute.  I’m not planning on going all the way to the North Side, but ideally, I want to be about in the middle.  Just hope it won’t be too long a commute wherever I get placed.  But I suppose I need to worry about getting placed before I go off about the commute lol.

I do feel very lucky to have all of these interviews coming in though.  When I’ve done the job search last year, I applied to at least 30-40 schools before I ended up in the position I am currently in and I only went on two interviews (and of course, after I was hired I received two more interview offers).  Have to count my blessings that’s for sure!

**This post was originally featured and written on my original blog, chicagoteaching.teachforus.org, on 05/05/2014.

Moving back to the Midwest! - 04/25/2014

Alright the title is a bit of a stretch, but whatever.  I’m trying to keep the continuity of it all, but I don’t know how long that will last.  Anyways, I am just itching to get back to the Midwest and into a more urban/populized(if that’s a word) setting.  After nine months of rural living, I can, without a shadow of a doubt, say that it isn’t right for me at this point in my life.  I’m just craving to see people again and explore the city I live in, and it’s not so easy to do in such a small town.  I’m also really excited to be closer to friends and family back home.  Also on that front, one of my closest friends that I grew up with might be moving to Chicagoland with me!  It would literally be the first time in about ten years we are in the same area.  He’ll be in the northern suburbs, but hey it’s a lot closer than the current 14 hours that is between us.

I haven’t really heard back from any schools in terms of hiring me.  I did have those couple of interviews that I mentioned but nothing has come out of them.  The west-side (not east side like I wrote for some unknown reason) middle school that did the Skype interview chose another candidate. They never followed up and I saw on our little facebook group that someone was hired there so I think I can safely assume that I was passed on.  The traditional, south-side school never got back to me either.  I think they probably went with a more local candidate that was able to make it to the group interview.  I’ll admit, I thought I would’ve been hired by now since I do have more experience than the average TFAer, but I’m still keeping my head up!  In fact, I just landed another interview this morning with another charter school on the far south side.  It’s a high school which is much more in my comfort level and we’ll be doing a phone interview next week.

I’m starting to look more into neighborhoods that I may want to live in next year.  I’m thinking of trying to stick in the central area, maybe going slightly west.  My range is really from Noble Square to East Humboldt Park going up to Logan Square and as far south as Pilsen.  Somwhere in that vicinity I think will be good for me.  Most of my fellow CMs are looking at Lakeview, Lincoln Park and other northside neighborhoods, but I don’t know.  It’s more expensive up there, plus I feel like it isn’t quite the same diverse, urban experience that I’m looking for.  I want to live in a neighborhood that has a little more grit to it I guess.  One that really has a solid identity and I can become a part of.  Right now my top choices are Ukrainian Village, West Town, and Logan Square.  But it all really depends on where I’m placed too so I can have easy access to public transit as I have no desire to drive to school everyday.  I welcome any and all suggestions of where to live!

**This post was originally featured and written on my original blog, chicagoteaching.teachforus.org, on 04/25/2014.

I pass the tests! - 04/04/2014

It’s been a while since I’ve done an update on here, but there hasn’t been all that much new to be honest.  The biggest piece of news, as you may have deduced from the title of this post, is that I passed my certification tests!  I’m pretty stoked about this, especially since it means that I don’t have to pay to retake the tests.  Those suckers can really add up to a pretty penny with all of the fees and things.
Since my placement is in Special Education, I took two exams.  One test was over special education techniques, pedagogy, etc. and the other was a general content test covering the four core content areas (math, English, social studies, science).  I scored pretty high on the SPED test and I had a good score on the general content.  I actually did really well on most of the areas for the content test, but my math grade was rather poor so it brought down my score quite a few points.  I was a little surprised since I didn’t struggle with the math problems while taking the test, so perhaps it was just careless errors.  Then again, I haven’t studied math in about six and half years so I guess I could use that as an excuse :)  I probably went too fast through the tests too.  I usually speed through exams in general, especially if they don’t have writing like this one didn’t.  I finished both exams with about half of my time remaining.  Anyways, I’m just happy that I passed!

With the placement front, I have decided not to go the April Interview Day.  It would just be too difficult with coordinating more time off from my current position, especially since I already did that with this last interview day in February.  Also, the flight tickets were a lot more expensive.  TFA does give us a stipend that we can use towards our travel, but since I live somewhat far from Chicago, I wasn’t really able to find a good deal on a flight and would’ve had to pay a good chunk of change out of my pocket to cover the whole thing.  So it looks like I’ll have to wait until summer to make it to any more in-person interviews.

I have had a couple of other prospects come up though.  Two other schools have reached out to me about interviews over the phone/Skype.  One is a traditional public high school on the South side that I’m really interested in.  They have a really unique curriculum that has caught national attention and it’s a pretty new school as well.  They initially invited me to an in-person group interview, but I was unable to attend since I live really far away so they agreed to a phone interview, but haven’t gotten back to me with a time.  I’m hoping that they will soon!  The other school is a charter middle school on the East side that did a Skype interview with me earlier this week.  I like the school and their philosophies and they are getting really good testing results, which is exciting.  I felt that the interview only went well, but it wasn’t stellar.  It was pretty brief, but you never really know with these things.  Regardless of the outcome, I love talking to these school leaders and learning about their school and the educational landscape of Chicago.  Since I’ve never been to Chicago prior to this year, it’s been really interesting to learn more about where I will be for the next year or two.

We did get a little bit of news regarding our summer training.  As I mentioned previously, our training is different than the traditional Institute that the majority of TFA regions go through.  This one is specialized for Chicago and Northwest Indiana.  We will be getting the first of our pre-work coming up soon, I think.  We were supposed to get it yesterday and maybe some did and I just missed the email, but anyways I’m really excited that it’s coming up.  I’ve heard stories about how the training is really difficult and time-consuming, but I’m still looking forward to that.  Plus the facility for where we will live is a dorm-style setting in the middle of the Loop/downtown!  You really can’t beat that location at all.  I think it’ll be good to live there with a bunch of other TFA people so we can have a little community going.  Some corps members are living independently with a stipend provided by TFA, but I didn’t want that option.  I wanted the community-style living so I could get to know people better and I didn’t want to have to deal with having to cook, shop, take difficult transit (everything is connected to the Loop), pay extra bills, etc. while going through training, especially if it is as intense as everyone makes it out to be.

So that’s what’s new in TFA world.  Oh I have to apply to the partner university, Dominican University, sometime too, but I don’t think I have to yet, since TFA is still working out the logistics with the new programming for special education corps members.  It’s getting closer and closer!  I’m just itching to get back into the classroom and the Midwest, and a big city!  I’m discovering more and more that rural life simply isn’t for me.  Oh well.  Just a couple more months now!

**This post was originally featured and written on my original blog, chicagoteaching.teachforus.org, on 04/04/2014.

Taking Certification Tests - 03/12/2014

I am going to be taking my certification tests coming up here in four days.  In Chicago, the special education cohort has two exams to take.  One covering special education techniques and philosophies and the other exam is about general education knowledge of the four core content areas (English Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, and Math).  I’ve taken a couple of practice tests and have looked over different materials for studying.  It seemed pretty easy to be honest so I’m not too worried.  But I’m still going to study because I don’t want to pay to have to take them again.

We received some info about Summer Training.  It’s a regional Institute, meaning it isn’t the centralized Institute that is the standard TFA model for most regions, but rather it is specialized and designed specifically for Chicago corps members.  Looking at the schedule, it looks pretty much the same as other institutes so maybe it’s the programming that will be different?  We don’t have a ton of details yet since they are still making decisions about the Institute.

Nothing new has really happened since.  I think I might be going to the Interview Day in April as long as I could get off for work.  I think I’ll be able to, but we’ll see.  I’m excited to go back to Chicago.  I really enjoyed being there and I’m super stoked to be living there.  I’m pretty much done with rural life down South.  It’s not that it’s horrible or anything, but it’s just not for me.  I need to see people more often, walk around, go out to restaurants, coffeeshops, just be immersed in urban life again.  I know it’ll be tough being in the city and working with high needs students, but I’m ready for that challenge.

Well there’s not a lot going on with TFA right now like I said so I guess that’s about it for this blog post.  I’ll check in again soon.

**This post was originally featured and written on my original blog, chicagoteaching.teachforus.org, on 03/12/2014.

In Chicago for the first time! - 03/02/2014

Hello world.  I am excited to announce that I am writing this from a cozy little coffeeshop in the lovely Ukrainian Village neighborhood in Chicago.  I came down a few days ago for my interview day so that was cool.  It went okay.  I talked to five schools but I don’t have any solid offers.  A lot of people did.  I was a little surprised I didn’t to be perfectly honest because I have a little more experience than most of my TFA peers, but I’m not too worried.  The school year doesn’t start until August so there is a ton of time.  One school and I jived super well together, but they don’t know their enrollment numbers so they aren’t sure if they need another special education teacher since the schools they are coming from haven’t sent in the paperwork determining if they have special needs, etc.  We’ll see!

But yeah a lot of my new TFA peers got hired so that was cool for them.  There were definitely some in my boat that will still have to look around, but it’s all good.  All of my interviews have been with charter schools thus far which is a little different too.  I think that the majority of TFA-Chicago teachers are placed in Charter schools.  I want to say maybe it’s like 65-35 for charters?  I’m not really sure how I feel about it.  I think that it really depends on the school itself as to whether it’s a great school.  Like I was talking to some really cool schools that are charters, but I know there’s some that are like eh not so fantastic especially back in my area of Ohio from what I can recall.  But the same can be said about public schools too I suppose.

I got to stay an extra couple of days and explore which was super cool.  I met up with my cousin and her husband that have been living here for several years now so it was really cool to see them.  They took me around to a few different parts and introduced me to my first Chicago-style pizza!  I liked it.  Not sure if I can have that all the time for pizza since it’s just a big cheese pie basically, but I digged it.  Got to chill with their two crazy dogs too which was fun.  I would love to have a dog, but I don’t think it’s gonna happen haha.  They live in West Loop which was a really nice area and their apartment was an awesome open-concept loft.  Most likely out of my budget, at least for the first year or two, but still cool to see.
We finally got some info about summer training.  Thank goodness.  Our training is a regional program rather than the traditional TFA Institute.  It seems pretty similar from what I can tell, but I guess it’s just more specialized for Chicago.  They are trying out a new living model where we can either choose to live independently on a stipend or live at the dorms like the traditional Institutes.  I have opted to stick with the dorms because I know it’s going to be crazy busy so I don’t want to have the added stresses of cooking, grocery shopping, extra transportation issues, etc.  I’ll just find a place on the weekends when we have a little bit of time.

I have to fly back in a couple of hours so I suppose I should wrap this up as I have to head out in a few hours.  Thanks for ready and I’ll check in soon!

**This post was originally featured and written on my original blog, chicagoteaching.teachforus.org, on 03/02/2014

Preparing for Interviews - 02/19/2014

I learned earlier this week that I am going to have my first interview in a couple days.  I’m pretty excited.  It’s for a charter school on the south side of Chicago and, I believe, it is for a high school position.  My contact is a principal of a high school in the charter network so I think (hoping) it’s for a secondary position.  It’s a phone interview so they’ll just get a feeling of how I am and if I would fit into the school culture and I won’t be doing any sample lessons or anything.

It’s Teach for America’s policy (at least for TFA-Chicago) that corps members accept the first teaching position they are offered.  For a person that loves to be in control of where and what they’re doing, it is slightly unnerving for me, but I understand why they do it.  Hopefully there will be additional schools expressing interest in hiring me.  I will be attending the TFA-Chicago interview day/hiring fair next week so I’ll be talking to schools there as well.  It’d be nice to know what school/grade I’ll be working with before the summer training.

Right now, I’m just doing a little research on the charter network I’ll be interviewing with and just preparing for the phone interview.  It’ll be my first teaching interview (other than the TFA interview) in a while so hopefully it’ll go well.  The school has a lot of other TFA teachers so that’s pretty good that they are familiar with the program and everything.

Those are pretty much the only developments thus far.  Still don’t know much about the summer training or interview day coming up, which is kind of annoying to be honest, but I know they are working on it.  We’ve been told that Chicago’s training is a little different than the traditional TFA Institute so I really have no clue what to expect.  I’m itching for more info about these things, but we’ve been promised that it’ll come soon so I’ll just have to sit on my hands and wait (semi)patiently.

**This post was originally featured and written on my original blog, chicagoteacing.teachforus.org, on 02/19/2014

Introduction - 2/07/2014

Hey there!

Welcome to my lovely Teach for America blog.  It is here that I will chronicle my time teaching in Chicago as a Teach for America teacher.  I have been assigned to teach Special Education so I am excited to get started and get back in the classroom.

So I guess I should start this blog by giving you a little bit of my background and who I am.  My name is Ben and I hail from the great state of buckeyes and ever-changing weather, Ohio!  I graduated from college in 2012 with a degree and teaching license in secondary social studies.  After I finished college up, I somehow convinced the U.S. State Department to give me money to live and teach abroad for a year through the Fulbright Program.  After a year of living that adventure (which you can read about at myfulbrightadventure.blogspot.com if you’re interested in seeing what that was like!), I went down to work at a boarding school in the South where I worked in residence/student life.  After deciding that I realllly want to return to the classroom and want to teach and live in an urban setting again (I did my student teaching in an inner-city, high needs high school), I decided to take my chances and apply for Teach for America.  I found I was accepted this past January and shortly afterwards accepted my offer of admission and here I am as a 2014 Corps member!

I initially wasn’t sure about TFA for a while and I admit that I have analyzed it with a critical eye it in the past.  However, I do think that good of the program does outweigh the negatives and I think it is a good fit for a person like me, someone with a passion and background in education.  I am going to be using this blog as a way to record my teaching experiences in Chicago.  I know that realistically I am going to be ridiculously busy this upcoming two years and there’s a good chance that I may not update this very often, but I am going to try my darndest to be a faithful blogger.

Last thing I want to do really quick is explain the title of the blog.  I spent a very contemplative twenty minutes struggling to think of an apt title for this blog, even researching the titles of the many other blogs that are featured on the Teach for Us site.  I eventually settled on Surviving and Thriving in Chicago.  I know that these next two years will be a struggle and I will feel at times that I am literally just trying to survive and get through to the next day.  I have taught in a high needs school before and I know how challenging and frustrating it can be.  But I also know that it can be a rewarding experience.  It is a place where you can truly make a difference in a person’s life and help the students find that path of success and thrive in a setting that is very challenging for many of them.  I am anticipating that there is going to be a lot more thriving than surviving but I suppose only time will tell.

Alright I guess that’s it.  There isn’t a tremendous amount to update you about since I haven’t taught yet.  In fact, I’ve never even been to Chicago!  But I’m going in like three weeks!  I’m stoked!  It’ll be for this job fair where hopefully a school will think I’m a pretty fantastic guy and have potential to be a great teacher and will hire me!  We’ll see.  If not then, than I will for sure later on in the year.  Until then, have a good one!

**As a side note this has been published on the original blog at chicagoteaching.teachforus.org on 02/07/2014.