First Day Thoughts

I've just completed my first day at Western International! Though there were no students attending class today, it was still an eye-opening experience and I learned an enormous amount about the school and faculty. While there were a number of negatives I noticed almost immediately, I'm only going to focus on the positive aspects for the inaugural blog post.

First and foremost, my mentor teacher, Tom Hoetger, is a truly dedicated professional. He responded to my barrage of rookie questions with thoughtful, detailed replies and a great sense of humor. I believe our teaching styles will greatly suit each other and lead to a successful year.

The Western International administration also recognizes the school's problems and genuinely cares about helping teachers. Every administrator I encountered seemed to care deeply about ensuring that each teacher would be able to effectively educate their students, even when resources were scarce. I even heard a number of references to the taxonomy and lesson-planning strategies we've been studying in MAC!

In all, it was a busy and tiring first day (and the kids haven't even come in yet!). More to come tomorrow!

End of August

Well, the blog has been on a bit of a hiatus during the August recess, but I'm finally back! I have my first day of class tomorrow at Western International High School in Detroit. I'm sad to report that my almost all of my relatives (whom I spent the majority of the break catching up/vacationing with) gave roughly the same response when I informed them that I would be teaching in Detroit:

"I hope you're bringing a flak jacket."

This sort of immediate aversion to Detroit schools seems to be a sad reality among many suburban Michiganders. Though my family failed to discourage me from student teaching in the city, I can only imagine how many other teachers the city has lost to this type of pressure. I hope that my experience at Western will allow me to have a more informed discussion about the real issues facing Detroit schools and dispel some of the damaging misconceptions surrounding them. This blog will play an integral part in logging my experiences and helping me analyze my viewpoints as they change to account for new teaching experiences.

My blog will really take off tomorrow evening, so check back if you're interested!