Preparing for TFA

Lately I have been reading many TeachForUs (the TFA blogging website) blogs. I have found them more helpful than almost anything else I have read so far. They are about the ups and downs that you face through-out the time in TFA. It has just made it so real for me, like this is something tangible now. I cannot be more excited!!! To teach kids and to grow more as a person! Reading real accounts of corps members struggle to help their kids and find a balance with personal life has helped me prepare. During this process I have been told too many times to count that it is going to be hard. That I will struggle and feel like a failure. Reading these blogs has left me with a sense of reality, some idea of what that really means. I now have the ability to think about what my experience is going to look like more concretely. So, based on this there are somethings that I have decided are going to be my personal goals for the first semester in my classroom:

1) Not be consumed by my classroom

2) Go out at least once a week – have fun

3) Take care of adult things – like bills and learning how to cook dinner

4) Call the important people in my life on a biweekly (minimum) basis

5) Make where ever I live feel like a home

6) Spend time with other CMs – make new friends

7) Find someone at my school to go to with questions – someone who has worked in ECE for many years – a mentor

8) See the sights in Tulsa – explore my new city

9) Find a coffee shop – where I can relax and drink my java in peace

10) Make connections in my community

This all seems really ambitious and I will be happy if I reach half of these goals