Reinvigorated

Official second-year TFA programming began this week.  I was not ready.  I forgot what it was like to work 12 hours a day for a whole week (I was in my school too) and I shouldn't have been surprised when I found myself asleep on a Friday night before 11:00.

BUT- and I know this is cheesy, but bear with me- I'm feeling like I should change the "Fear/Dread" portion of my teaching graph to "Reinvigoration."  Which spell check just told me is not a word... oh well.  The program staff in Charlotte is very "excited" (a much overused adjective in this region) to be starting this year off on a different foot.  I'll admit that I was pretty jaded and grouchy and skeptical about it the first day of programming, but yesterday was actually extremely motivating and- I'll use the word again- reinvigorating.

The whole mission has become much more urgent in that they're stressing significant change in EVERY classroom of EVERY corps member without excuses.  I've felt many times that Charlotte a city where if you want to escape from that guilt you feel about your kids being two grade levels behind or living in extreme poverty or not having the love and support that every child deserves, you can do it.  It's easy.  So in some ways, as hard as I worked last year, I checked myself out from it and eventually lost sight of what I was trying to do from the beginning.

My program director is really cheesy when she meets with us, using a lot of quotes and youtube videos set to inspirational music and all of that.  I'm including two below so that you all can feel as motivated as I feel right now.  Maybe it's about going to the gym instead of public education, but whatever- I won't judge.