Sunday, August 22, 2010

The night before...

Finally the big day is almost here. Last week was pretty stressful.... because they finally let us out of orientation and training lectures and into the classroom. Then we realized how little we actually knew about the fine details of being a teacher. Paperwork, reports, standards, special education students, lunch counts, discipline... in other words the practical side of being a teacher. Although it was honestly overwhelming, things are better now, and we are as ready to go as we are going to get. This coming week will be a busy... and learning to be a teacher will be a sharp learning curve. I would be lying, however, to say that I am not excited to start. This is the next stage of my life and I am ready for it.


We are still trying to find things for the apartment. We need much in the way of living and dining room furniture. Right now though, we lack the time and the money to acquire too much. Perhaps this is the "hope that furniture falls from the sky" approach. I realize how unrealistic this is... Regardless we are all happy with where we are now. We have settled in nicely and are anxious to begin work. Now to just make it through the first day...

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Boston Update!

Two weeks ago I loaded up my 1997 Honda Accord and moved to Boston. A lot has happened in two weeks but I will try to provide something of an update of sorts.

Ian, Nathanael and I are moved in to our apartment in a suburb of Boston called Winchester. We are approximately ten miles from downtown Boston. In this area everything is very close in proximity. We are only about seven miles from the lower school, where Nathanael and I will teach, and about five miles from the upper school where Ian will teach. Unlike West Michigan though, this means absolutely nothing as far as times goes. Very quickly I learned you would need to double, triple, quadruple, etc the projected time to and from places. Traffic is very heavy especially at peak times during the day. Driving here has actually not been too terrible. I refuse to drive downtown Boston since the roads are absolutely not meant for modern day vehicles and the parking can be anywhere from $10-$40 an hour. Boston does have a nice transportation system which is much more affordable and convenient if you want to get downtown.

As far as the actual driving itself goes, the drivers here are somewhat strange. They can be either friendly or really unfriendly. Sometimes when you are trying to make a left turn and the oncoming traffic has the right of way, traffic will just suddenly and for no apparent reason, yield to you.... even if they have a green light! Merging into lanes is also never a problem. Cutting people off is common and people are relatively patient... it is as if they expect people to end up in the wrong lane. Which is another interesting thing about Boston roads... they sort of add, change, and drop lanes without any warning whatsoever. Perhaps this explains the patience of the drivers being cut off. The other side of Massachusetts drivers is that they are FAST. The speed limit is 65mph on the highway, but once you get on, you quickly realize that the outer three lanes are all going 75-85mph... and there are essentially no cops on the highway. Traffic signals do not mean much to Massachusetts drivers either as I already pointed out. Just because you have a green light, does not mean a driver will turn left in front of you or that oncoming traffic will stop. It is kind of a different world out here but I am getting used to it. And of course, we will try to avoid the really busy times.

Winchester, Massachusetts is a beautiful, high income "village." Village not in the Borculo, Michigan sense, but in the population of 22,000 people sense. The average home in Winchester costs $830,000. The average household income is $120,000. The average income per person is around $65,000. Needless to say, when we tell people that we live in Winchester, they naturally assume we have money. The town itself is very beautiful. They have a small, quaint downtown with lots of neat stores and a river that runs in the middle of it. Winchester is also known for its excellent schools and low crime rate. Even though we lock our doors, the landlord basically told us that we shouldn't feel the need to do that. For a city ten miles from Boston, it is remarkable how safe it is out here. We are very thankful to have found a place to live here for a very affordable rent. Even with utilities, we estimate that it will cost us all about $700 a month for each person to live here. We would probably be hard pressed to find that good of a deal in this area.

The three of us plan on commuting together to work every day. Since the high school is on the way to work, we will drop Ian off to work first and then Nathanael and I will take the car to the lower school. I think Ian and I are planning to alternate driving sine we both have cars... the commute is anywhere from 15-30 minutes.... and we have to be to work at 7:30am. So there will be early mornings.

Now a little about the school.... Mystic Valley Regional Charter School began in 1998 as a K-6 school. It has now grown to about 1,500 students... roughly 1,050 in the lower school (K-8) and 350 in the high school. This year's graduating class is the first K-12 class so they are very excited about that. We are ranked in the top 1% of charter schools in the country... #278 to be exact. For the record... I turned down the #3 charter school in the nation to come to Mystic Valley which shows why I think highly of the school. Mystic Valley is named for the river valley it is located in... the Mystic River shockingly flows right through this area. Technically we serve five different towns outside Boston. Kids are selected by an impartial lottery and there are over 2,000 kids on the waiting list to get into the school. We are a high performing, academically based school. Of our 31 graduates last year, every one of them is in colleges including Harvard and other prestigious universities. Our mission statement is to provide the best education possible to our students while teaching them how to be a good human and give back to the community. This sort of well-roundedness is similar to what we do so well at Hillsdale for we look at each student as a whole person. Thus, the school does not just emphasize academics, but also extra curriculars, sports, and good character. We have what we call Character Education classes in which students are taught virtues by which they should strive after in order to become a better person. You have to remember that while many of our kids are from white and blue collar families, some of them are from very poor, low income families... some of which lack a parent or any sort of structure in their family. These students would likely be lost in the inner-city public school system which continues to fail thousands of our nation's children each year. Although charter schools are not perfect, it seems that schools like Mystic Valley gives these types of students, and all their other students, a far better chance at success and opportunity than your typical public school.

Mystic Valley believes in order and structure to their system of schooling. Students are praised for good actions, even if it is as simple as following the strict uniform code. Or for looking at the teacher during the lecture. Or for opening the door for another student. They are reminded gently to emulate these types of actions if they are not doing so... but if they do not abide after their first warning, there will be detention and other consequences. The school, however, strongly emphasizes a positive attitude as the best way to motivate students to do the right thing. The K-6 schools use a brilliant system of note cards in which each kid gets a card and depending on whether or not he does anything wrong, he gets a different color card. It sounds crazy but after hearing the training on it this week, I am convinced it is the most brilliant thing I have ever heard.

At Mystic Valley, the teachers and administrators strive to be firm, fair, and consistent. Most of all we are trained how to love the kids... not as their friend, but as their teacher. Although all of us new teachers are a bit overwhelmed right now, we are excited to meet our students. Orientation stared this past Wednesday and goes for one more week. School begins August 23.

I hope to tell more about the school but this update is plenty long enough. I will end by saying that for this upcoming school year, Mystic Valley now has five Hillsdale graduates on their faculty. Three of the six or seven English teachers are Hillsdale graduates. Two of the six or seven History teachers are Hillsdale graduates. I think this reflects very well on the strengths of our college. As for me, I will be teaching one character education class every morning and one class to help students prepare for their standardized tests every Monday. My main duties will be the 120 seventh grade students divided among four classes. I will be teaching American History from the Colonial Period through Reconstruction. As many of you might know, this is the area of history I know and love the best so I am really excited to begin.

For now I apologize for the really long update and I hope I did not put any of you to sleep. Please let me know if you have questions... and I will hopefully try to post again sometime soon.