Bouncy Erin!!

To my devoted readers,

I am *so* excited!

Eeeeeeeh! *squealy, excited noise*

I just got my school and community assignments for ICTC! I am going to be teaching 6th grade home room, social studies and religion, and 5th through 8th grade science at Santa Maria Addolorata (Our Lady of the Sorrows) in West Chicago. The student body is primarily hispanic (so I will get to practice my spanish, yay!) and Bill, one of the directors of the program, told me that he really likes the school.

Oh my goodness, I am so excited, I am all bouncing around the Meyer library!

I also have my housing assignment, which is the Rooney Community. I have no idea about the history of the name, but I visited there for the final gathering of the Come and See Weekend in January, and it was very homey. Apparently they are getting new carpet and painting the house, so it will be all sparkley and new when I get there! I'm living with 5 other people (4 girls and one guy). Dominic, the guy living in Rooney, sent out an email survey late last night that I jumped on as in one of my fits of procrastination (that is another story entirely). It has been so much fun to hear responses from everybody in the program -- I am *so* excited to see what God has in store for us this year. I know it's going to be absolutely incredible.

It's just coming together all right before my eyes! I also just got an email from Bill about assignments that I'm to have completed by the time I get to Chicago for my first week of school (we'll be taking classes at Northwestern):

***

Week 1

ESSAY – Elementary/Secondary:

The first assignment for your portfolio is entry 1a. This is due June 17th. Please bring two copies of your essay. June 17th?! Aiya! That is just 4 days after graduation, and slightly over a week after finals end! Plus, I just stayed up until 4:45 this morning working on a paper! (another story entirely) Now I have another paper, eeep!

Entry 1a) Over the course of the next year, you will be developing your philosophy of education. As a first step in this process, please reflect on the following issues:

What are the aims of education?

How do people learn?

What is the role of the teacher?

What is the relationship between the school and society?

Given your analysis of and reflection on these questions, please write a three to five page essay outlining your basic philosophy of education. aahhh, okay, yeah I can definitely talk about this. Only three to five pages? hm... We are not asking for bullet points or discrete answers to the questions above; rather, please submit a narrative essay embodying your answers to these questions. In addition, include a section in which you briefly describe the ideal teacher (elementary) or your ideal math/science teacher (secondary), and identify the most important challenges that you believe might be obstacles to the realization of that ideal. Please note, we are not asking for a research paper whew!, and therefore you do not need to consult reference sources.


Readings:

*The Skin That We Speak by Lisa Delpit –
Read selected Introduction and Chapter 1 by June 17th.
Additional readings will be assigned from this text during the
summer; dates TBA.

*Savage Inequalities (Selected readings) by Jonathan Kozol -
Read the Introduction and Chapter 2 by June 17th.

*Teaching to Change the World (Selected readings) by Oakes &
Lipton –
Read Chapter 1 by June 17th.

*Educational Psychology by Robert Slavin –
Read Preface (pp. xvii-xxiii) and Chapters 1-3 (pp. 1-99) by June 17th.

*Today’s Schools (Selected Chapters 9-12) by Hewitt & Whittier –
Read Chapters 11 & 12 by June 21st.
Read Chapters 9 & 10 by June 28th.

*****

Okay, that sounds do-able. That sounds more than do-able, it sounds preferential to the other work/studying I have to do now. I am so excited! (Flashback to 12th grade calculus teacher who assiged me "I'm so excited" by the Pointer Sisters as my personal theme song.)

But, let's not get carried away. There is still work to be done between now and then-- and miles to go before I sleep. Thank goodness for cafecito.

With fondness,

Erincita

P.S. I love God!