PHX

I made it!  I arrived in Phoenix Monday night for Induction into Teach for America.  I was so nervous for this week and it has been great.  We've spent time in groups talking about different things like diversity, leadership, and how we can manage our classroom and become transformational teachers.  Wednesday afternoon we spent 3 hours "in the community."  Basically me and one other girl walked around downtown Phoenix looking for people to talk to and learn more about the city and the people.  Well in case you didn't know, Phoenix is hot.  No one in there right mind is strolling around downtown Phoenix in the afternoon, except for TFA.  The only person I talked to worked at a doll museum.  The dolls were slightly freaky.  Although I wasn't able to talk to many people about Phoenix, I was able to visit the downtown ASU campus where I'll be going to school and find a lot of places that I'm excited to visit and check out later on.

The definite highlight of my week has been the email I received last night.  This morning people were going out to schools to interview for their specific positions.  Last nights email said that I didn't need to be anywhere until lunch because I had been placed at a school.  Well, this was news to me!  I met our director of placement at breakfast and he informed me that I'd been hired at Tolleson High School.  I could not be happier with that placement.  My number one subject/grade preference on my TFA application was high school math and that's exactly where I'll be.

Next week will be tough.  And the next 4 weeks after that, but I'm looking forward to how much I'm going to learn.  There are so many institute horror stories, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be a positive experience for me.