In case you missed A Job History Part 1
While I was in Houston, I learned that it is the most air-conditioned city in the world. It was miserable in June and July. The daily highs were over 100 and humidity was often 80% or higher. As soon as I went outside, I felt drenched and sticky from instant sweating.
The five-week Institute was the most intense program I have experienced. We stayed on the University of Houston campus. Most of the corps members lived in dorms, but they ran out of room and the Arizona group was stationed in some apartments just off-campus.
The first week was mainly an orientation and boot camp to get us prepared to run a four-week summer school program for the Houston Unified School District. We were divided into pods of sixteen people, and each pod was assigned a Corps Member Advisor (CMA). The CMA was a Teach for America Corps member who chose to work at the Institute to help new corps members. Within each pod, we were assigned a collaborative of 3-4 corps members. Each collaborative was assigned to a summer school class, and we had to work very closely together to design lesson plans and figure out how we would cooperatively teach a class.
Once summer school started on week 2, here is how a typical day went:
While I was in Houston, I learned that it is the most air-conditioned city in the world. It was miserable in June and July. The daily highs were over 100 and humidity was often 80% or higher. As soon as I went outside, I felt drenched and sticky from instant sweating.
The five-week Institute was the most intense program I have experienced. We stayed on the University of Houston campus. Most of the corps members lived in dorms, but they ran out of room and the Arizona group was stationed in some apartments just off-campus.
The first week was mainly an orientation and boot camp to get us prepared to run a four-week summer school program for the Houston Unified School District. We were divided into pods of sixteen people, and each pod was assigned a Corps Member Advisor (CMA). The CMA was a Teach for America Corps member who chose to work at the Institute to help new corps members. Within each pod, we were assigned a collaborative of 3-4 corps members. Each collaborative was assigned to a summer school class, and we had to work very closely together to design lesson plans and figure out how we would cooperatively teach a class.
Once summer school started on week 2, here is how a typical day went:
- 5 AM: Wake up, shower, get to the cafeteria to get breakfast.
- 7 AM: Busses leave to take us to our schools
- Prior to 8 AM: As soon as we arrive at the school, we have some sort of school duty. This could be managing traffic flow in the parking lot or monitoring hallways or the playgrounds.
- 8 AM: Classes start. Usually, one teacher from the collaborative was teaching in the class. The teachers who were not teaching were usually observing other teachers, lesson planning, or other school duties.
- 11 AM-12 PM: Quick lunch, maybe more lesson planning or lunch duty.
- 2 PM: School is out, more duty, followed by hopping on busses to be transported to a nearby school to meet up with the collaborative.
- Between 2 PM and 4:30 PM: Guidebook sessions in which the pod meets with the CMA and learns about pedagogy, teaching methods, lesson planning, and lots of "sensitivity training"
- 4:30 - 5:00 PM: We are bussed back to the university, have time for a quick dinner, and then must attend required evening workshops on specific topics.
- 9:00 PM: Workshops are done. Time to meet with the collaborative, plan lessons, grade papers, read the material assigned by the CMA, and try to get back home to sleep at a reasonable time.
- After midnight: Get into bed and dread the alarm at 5 AM.
Rinse and repeat all the days of the week. Don't think they let us off easy on the weekends. We had plenty of activities that were planned for us including volunteering and "team-building" activities. There really was no rest for the wicked until either the last week or the penultimate week when they finally gave us a weekend off. It was the greatest news we had heard since we had gotten to Texas.
I also have heard that Houston is the AC capitol of the world. Although in a recent article I've read that some south Asian city is now even more AC'd. This seems inevitable seeing as how the most populous cities are in south Asia and that the temperatures are getting higher.