Follow my year of service at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Houston, TX! My wanderlust continues as I explore yet another new part of the world- the south.
I think I'm definitely beginning to feel more settled here! Can you tell? I'm making time to blog! I also think I've been wanting to blog because life is really starting to pick up, and if I don't write things down, I'm worried I'll forget something!
I am starting to incorporate teaching techniques from other teachers I've observed into my own lesson plans, and I think it's been pretty successful so far! I have been subbing for a teacher who has been in Ireland for the Notre Dame vs. Navy game, and I sit in on many of John's classes since we share a classroom. I stole one of John's ideas today into my composition lesson plan, and I think it went pretty well :). Much better than kids just staring at me talk and trying to listen. John's control of the classroom and ease of conversation and engagement of students has been such an asset for me to watch day in and day out. One of his English classes for seniors is called "Hyphenated Americans." His class is mostly students who are stereotyped as various -Americans... conversation is SO COOL.
Andrew, who is in Ireland, is also a really exceptional teacher. He has been sending the students videos to watch each day where they have to solve mysteries... and they are simultaneously working on being showing, not telling writers. This is quite helpful for my writing class, but also such a great idea, and I can't wait to talk with him about spicing up my lesson plans when he returns! His videos also make me quite Ireland-sick... Andrew also studied at TCD, and is spending time in Dublin. His character, inspector Hoytzito, was wandering down Grafton Street, and my heart was breaking. We listened to Irish trad music for the rest of the class while different groups worked on solving their mystery.
I'm excited to really improve upon my lesson plans and engage my students in the way that Andrew does his, and take some time to really plan out the next few weeks! I'm off on Friday and Monday, and while I will definitely take some time to relax, I am excited to take some time to really plan out where I'm going with my lessons.
Here's what school looks like when I arrive each morning... it's pretty, isn't it?
Update: We have power :). Thanks to everyone for your thoughts, prayers, well-wishes, and offers of couches on which to crash!
It has struck me in the past few days how much imagery about light and darkness has struck out to me, especially in prayer. I've started trying to read the night prayer part of the Liturgy of the Hours, Compline, every night before I go to bed. It was my favorite part of the day in Kenya and I really like having a concrete way to settle myself before sleep. Last night's compline had a lot of light/dark and illumination imagery... so coincidental when all I wanted in my house was a little bit of light in the darkness.
I stayed at Casa Helen Prejean last night, and pulling up to Cristo Rey this morning was like a light in the darkness. I do so enjoy my students, and today was a big day for many of them! They met their future bosses for the year... half of the corporate workstudy partners were on campus for a breakfast this morning, and they were given tours of the school by their future students. Many of my students popped into my room and introduced me to their new co-workers... that felt good :). I'm also really connecting with one of my drama classes, and I really look forward to spending time with them each day!
Pulling up to CRJ was literally a light in the darkness... the new facade features a beautiful, giant cross: illuminated for all to see. I'll post a photo when I get the chance to snap a good one... it's really so cool, and a great greeting every day!
As I sit in the beautiful, air-conditioned library at Rice University, after having a fun though stressful weekend, I'm still smiling. The struggle to keep my head up gets a little bit bigger with each turn of events, but I am trying to push through the small mess we're in with a good attitude. As I tell my students, "for success, attitude is equally as important as ability," and if I don't have a good attitude, I won't be able to do my work tomorrow.
You may be wondering why I've chosen "Dancing in the Dark," one of my all-time favorite Bruce songs, to be the title of this post. Well, it's the perfect descriptor for this weekend.
I arrived home on Friday after my first exhausting week of teaching, and thought that my house was a little toasty, but just that we had turned the A/C down and it needed to kick back on. I was wearing jeans, it's Texas, and I was warm. Nothing out of the ordinary here. Except for when I flipped the switch for the ceiling fan in my room, nothing happened. And the light switch didn't work. Neither did the one in the bathroom.
We'd had a thunderstorm that morning- that must be it! The powerline must have gotten knocked down. Except that the traffic light on the corner worked... Maybe someone blew a fuse in the house before she left for work? I looked for the circuit breaker, found it, realized that I had no clue what to do with it once I found it, and caught a quick glance at the calendar across the kitchen. August 24th. Shoot.
The JVs before us had left us a note- make sure that your utilities are all set up before August 24th, or else they'll be shut off! We knew this, we talked about it, and we waited for a bill to come for us to pay. We were told that the Houston Program Office would be setting up our utilities.... and they thought we would be setting up our utilities... so no one did anything, and now we're hot and in the dark.
Casa Helen Prejean to the rescue! Once I called Karen at work in a panic to set up the rest of the utilities and see what she could do about the power situation (she's the house bookkeeper), called/emailed approximately every adult in Houston I know (not many, but still a lot), and texted the other house to let them know that we'd need a place to crash, Rachel came home. Then Megan, Eva, and Cassie, and after Karen and her boss Maria sorted things out with our utilities, we went to pick Karen up at work.
We ate the ice cream in the freezer (priority), packed the rest of our food into a cooler, and packed clothes and pillows and loaded up in my car and headed to our temporary home on Wichita St. It's honestly been a lot of fun for the weekend, kinda like a giant sleepover. Luckily, Casa HP has a lot of extra beds and had a lot of extra room in their fridge, so we were welcomed with open arms. It's been like one giant super-community!
We are, however, quite anxious to get back into our own house. The other community has been so gracious in letting us take over their living room, but enough is enough. Fingers crossed our power will be back tomorrow, and I'll come home from work and walk into a nice, cool house. It's been fun... a little funny at this point, but did y'all know that it's really hot in Texas? And a little bit humid?
I'm trying to keep my head up throughout all this mess. We went to a great mass at St. Anne's in downtown Houston this morning, where I saw Chris and Ryan AND Mr. and Mrs. Reed!! (Kathleen Reed, my college roommate's parents and sister and brother-in-law) It was so nice to see familiar faces! We went to the ministry fair at St. Anne's after mass, and we were able to get information on what seems to be a lot of cool volunteer opportunities throughout the city.
Yes, I know I'm already volunteering a lot, but it would be nice to meet people outside of the world of JVC! Also, I could probably dedicate an entire blog post to Chris and Ryan and how amazing they have been to me already- I am probably the only teacher at CRJ (or in Houston/Texas/the US) to have leftover duck, green beans, and delicious potatoes for lunch on the first day of school. They are definitely looking out for me, sending me home with a lovely bag of goodies beyond my delicious lunch, and I will be eternally grateful to the Reed family for all the amazing things (and people) they've given me over the years- the gift of friendship is truly amazing.
This whole ordeal is definitely frustrating. It could have absolutely been avoided and I'm disappointed that we had to go through this, but it has definitely been a DEEP look into living simply. Lots of JV communities don't have A/C (Tom doesn't in Philadelphia), and lots of my students don't either. Not having electricity in the house is, yes, quite annoying, but lots of people in our surrounding community of Houston use it sparingly because they have to financially. We had a place to go, and people to help us sort everything out. We're not evacuating our home because of Hurricane Isaac (yet...). We may be in the dark, but if you put it in perspective, we're definitely dancing.
So, that's all for now... hopefully my next post will be a lot more upbeat :). Here's to the second week of school... and Labor Day in sight!
xo
You can't start a fire, worryin' about your little world falling apart.
Another quick update: today, I don't have to teach!!
It's Building the Kingdom Day here at CRJ, so all 400 students as well as faculty and staff are out at various service sites accross the city for a few hours this morning! I will be at the elementary school next door with two other staff members and about 25 kids. Not sure what we'll be up to, but I'm excited!
For those of you who haven't heard me go on about service learning for everyone... I am SO excited about today! I think that service learning is necessary for every person, regardless of background or his/her own needs. You can get something out of serving others always, and I would some day love to be a service learning coordinator at a school like CRJ. So yes, I am so excited about today. I'll post more when I get back from the day itself... first bell just rang, I have 15 minutes until I have to take attendance!
I know, I know... I owe you all a really big blog post...
But I only have time for a short one! So here's a brief check-in:
Students: Are awesome. They blow me out of the water every day. So smart, so diligent, so funny. First period freshmen are still tough, but today went a little bit better. Baby steps, right?
Drama: IS THE BEST THING. I LOVE teaching drama! I am having so much fun with my students, and genuinely laugh during every class period. They're so talented, I actually can't wait to work on more acting techniques with them!
I: am absolutely exhausted.
Community: Is so fun! We're going to see a movie in the park tonight... Breakfast Club! I'll probably fall asleep before the end of the movie but I'm still excited for the outing.
Lesson Plans: Are so much work. To my teachers: I salute you all. Thank you for your hard work helping me learn! I am pretty much at school until 5:30 every night fixing my plan for the next day. And I'm only teaching two courses, so I can't imagine teaching more!
I owe many of you emails, phone calls and text messages... and I promise I will get to them this weekend. After I sleep for 24 hours.
One down, four to go! And gosh, are freshmen awkward.
I was probably shaking the entire time, but I survived my first class. I got up at a very dark 5:45 AM and rolled out of bed, into my first day of school teacher dress, and was out the door by 6:30! Even though I wanted to leave by 6:15... I wasn't expecting anyone else to be in the bathroom before 6 AM, but my housemate Eva also has an early day. Iced coffee, hot tea, and a granola bar in the car (I could have opened a mobile cafe), and watched the sun rise on my way here, and after an exciting school-wide assembly, class started.
And really, freshmen are so awkward. But some of them were so much fun! And terrified, but excited to learn.
I'm currently at my desk, watching my amazingly talented co-worker John teach his juniors. I hope that I can some day teach as well as he can! That's all for now... just wanted to check in :). Thank you all so much for the tweets, texts, calls, and notes of support over the past few days and weeks. I feel so consumed by love and grace... and so incredibly lucky to have the support system that I do and to be in this incredible school!
xo
PS- I got a mystery package... who sent me a map of Houston and two Houston books from Amazon? THANK YOU! Please take credit so I can thank you accordingly :).
Not that they were really anything to survive.. but can you say overwhelming? Because I feel like that's all I've said for the past 24 hours.
People at Cristo Rey are amazing, let's start there. SO welcoming, warm, and supportive! I have a lot to do before Monday, like A LOT, but they are giving me lesson plans, books, classroom management techniques, DVDs... they couldn't be more helpful. I really like everyone here, and it's a fun staff to be a part of. They even made the blood-born pathogen training we had to do today a lot of fun.
I'm actually still at school! And yes, it is 5 PM Texas time. We have the senior mass this evening called the Cross of Constantine mass, which I'm really looking forward to being at! The seniors will receive their blazers that they can wear as a part of their uniforms, as well as special crosses for being a part of the first graduating class of CRJ. It's supposed to be a beautiful mass.
Today was a lot of planning on my part, since classes start Monday! I just finished my first syllabus ever, with a lot of borrowing from two of my other English Department members. Hopefully I'll have the syllabi for the two classes I'm teaching finished by the time I go home tonight, so I can make copies of them tomorrow to give to my new students! Then there will be lesson plans on lesson plans on lesson plans... yikes! My goal is to have my first week planned out, and then I can work ahead.. I have a ton of prep time during the day, which is great! Thanks, student work schedules!
What can I say? I love this. I love it here. Even though I'm the most overwhelmed, nervous, and clueless, I am SO excited about it. I get to teach, work with campus ministry, and help the seniors with the college process in a supportive learning environment for both myself and my students. AND, as my colleague Justin pointed out to me today, I am working for social justice every single day.
Did I mention that I'm happy? And my community is really great. I made dinner last night, and then we watched 7th Heaven on DVD and laughed a whole lot. I'll post pictures of my very own desk and classroom space once I get everything up. Maybe by next June.
