Ole Miss This Someday

First impressions of Mississippi: (1) The people who warned me about the humidity were right, but I think it will be okay once I get used to it. I bet July will feel killer hot though. (2) The people seem proud--in a good way probably. People seem to feel genuinely (not arrogantly) proud of Ole Miss, proud of Oxford, proud of their culture in general, proud of their history (the good & the bad of it), proud of their food, proud of their sports, etc. (3) People for the most part seem pretty warm & friendly. Complete strangers have offered to help me when I look lost or confused. Very little sense so far of the black-white culture divide I have heard about, but mostly I have been sheltered under this little on-campus Teacher Corps community. Did get one interaction today with a couple friendly white Mississippian students who looked at me a little funny when I explained that we were going to teach in the Delta and who asked, "Why are you going there?" (4) People seem to take sports kind of seriously down here at Ole Miss and in Mississippi schools in general. Even the Teacher Corps seems to have a little of that sports-competitive culture to it, with a tradition of first- vs. second-year sports competitions during the summer. Perhaps it is my own background (small private Christian schools with virtually no competitive athletics to speak of) that is more unusual however.

We have an exceptional group of individuals here in the Teacher Corps. These are the best and the brightest and most motivated out of hundreds of applicants. Apparently we had a 9% acceptance rate this year, which makes me feel pretty special, to be perfectly honest. I know for dang sure I never would have made it into this group if it were not for my Peace Corps service. He have a Harvard Law grad, at least a couple Eagle Scouts, and 30% of us have worked in a homeless shelter before. Surpisingly there is only one other RPCV. We also have a lot of athletes in our group. One of our classmates even played on the Ole Miss women's basketball team.

At the same time, I feel like I have a lot of age & experience (esp. from Peace Corps) over most of my colleagues. I am literally the oldest person in the group, which was starting to make me feel pretty old until one of my classmates could not believe I was any older than 24. I'm actually 28! The majority of my classmates literally just graduated like a week ago from undergrad. That seems insanely young and naive to me. I have a feeling that for most of these folks--even though they are fabulous and many have great short-term experiences on their resumes--the next two years are going to be the most trying times of their lives, and most of them are not really aware of the completely. I mean it is one thing to be told the next two years are going to be the "most difficult" but also the "most rewarding" years of your life, but it is another thing entirely to actually walk through the fire. None of this is to say they will not be fine. I think everyone in this group can handle the challenge, and I certainly hope everyone stays for at least two years. I just have a sense that a lot of us are really going to get a rude awakening in a couple months or so--just how hard this teaching in a difficult environment can be until you start to get the hang of it and all.

The main thing that does bug me about Teacher Corps candidate selection is how many of the participants seem to think of it at some level as an intermediate time to decide what to do with life. I mean hello! We are being trained as professional teachers. Why is that not good enough? There should be more people really committed to the idea that they are going to be long-term teachers. It almost seems immature to me that people seem to think they just trying teaching out and maybe do their part for a couple years or so before moving on. That bugs me about Peace Corps too. I had so many colleagues who were probably better teachers than I was in Namibia, but I am virtually the only person from my group who was not a teacher before but plans to continue teaching. (Is there one other? Kris?) Maybe I am being too harsh. I hope that most of us continue to teach even after Teacher Corps is over.

Teacher Corps the organization has been pretty awesome so far. Ben Guest and Dr. Mullins are both very passionate--with very different personalities but completely devoted to Teacher Corps. I was touched on the first day we met how Dr. Mullins literally teared up when he got to talking about the impoverished kids we are here to help. The pride in the program is clear, and they tell us that the education faculty actually fight over who gets to teach the Teacher Corps classes.

Recently started reading How to be an Effective Teacher: The First Days of School by Wong & Wong, one of the free textbooks we get handed out for free and raved at about and then never mentioned again (from what I hear) here in Teacher Corps. The book has really got me thinking about how much I can and should do to improve the attitude and mood of my classroom. I have started to make a checklist in my mind of things I would like to do better, so let's see if I can get most of them down here so I can hold myself accountable later: (1) Smile more. Practice smiling in the mirror if I have to. (2) Say please and thank-you even more. (3) Shake kids' hands more. (4) Generally praise kids a lot, lot more. Criticize them less, and more privately when necessary. (5) Ceremoniously welcome kids on the first day of school (and ideally parents as well near the beginning of the year). (6) Create a welcome sign at my classroom door. (7) Post inspiring mottos at the door and all around the classroom. Continue to say the "Pledge to Myself" every day with homeroom. (8) Keep an eye out for any possible role models (famous or local) the kids would admire and aspire to in a positive way. Do my best to get them some sort of access (field trip? class visit? autograph?) for any such role model. (9) Constantly look for other ways to make my classroom, teaching persona, and procedures more inviting toward the kids and their learning.