"If I held a gun to your head..."

Today I went to the PGCTF Cohort Meet and Greet at DuClaw Brewery in Bowie. Some PGCTF program coordinators and current Fellows were there, but it was mostly incoming Fellows. Though the whole cohort couldn't be present, already we seem like a pretty diverse group. There are quite a few career changers, some post-grad students and some cohort babies, like myself, straight out of the great land that we call college. There are fifty of us and I feel very fortunate to have been selected to be one of such a small, undoubtedly life-changing group.

We all got to pick up copies of The New Teacher Project's Teaching for Student Achievement: Special Education Guidebook (all 600+ pages of it! I am super excited to be reading this for the next three months) and mingled among some good food. I met two early elementary ed fellows, a math fellow and an English fellow. Everyone seems pretty sociable (an excellent teacher trait) so it should be a good summer :) The English fellow especially was quite talkative and he definitely had a presence about him - very outgoing and unafraid to ask questions. At one point, we were talking to one of the site managers who was telling us about her experience at a DC charter school teaching intersession and he said, "So if you could teach anything now [for intersession], what would it be?" She said that she really didn't know, because there are endless options, to which he replied with: "If I held a gun to your head and you have to decide right now! What would you teach?"

Stunned. She helped to accept him into the program and now he is holding a gun, albeit imaginary, to her head. I laughed at the awkwardness (finally, not ensued by me) of the situation.

We also got to talk to a first year English fellow and she seems to be really enjoying her experience. She gave some very good, but typical advice:

1. Be on top of your game.
2. Don't put things off.
3. Be persistent.
4. Get in touch with parents as much as possible.
5. Plan individual assignments for students of different abilities.

Duly noted, but easier said than done when you are trying to wrangle thirteen kids while trying to excite the other twelve who are bored in their seats.

Regardless of how absolutely terrified I am, I am more excited than scared. I really think this is something that I can do well and if that's true, it's going to make a big difference - in my own life and hopefully others'.

I'm really glad that I got to go to the Meet and Greet today because I have been flip-flopping between the DCTF and PGCTF but being able to speak more with the program coordinators has made me feel like choosing PGCTF is a solid decision. I was (and still am) really drawn to the idea of teaching/being a fellow with DCPS - what I consider the Kilamanjaro of public school systems - but I am smart enough to know that my athletic fitness is just not up to par yet to deal with that trek (although I've tried to convince myself several times that if I have to do it, I will be able to do it). But, I mean, doesn't everyone want to be able to say, "I climbed Kilamanjaro. On a whim." I feel like being a DC Teaching Fellow would be incredible. Scary but such a huge learning opportunity. I've read through a couple DCTF/DCPS teachers' blogs (see semester reading list) and it just seems so rewarding (but again, scary).

As of now, I plan on training for Kilamanjaro through PGCPS, but if I happen to like the scenery and the rush I get here, I'll definitely stick around.