Praxis scores and potential placements

March Praxis scores came out today – not only did I pass, I did so with flying colors! What a relief. I’d spent the last few weeks wondering if I’d made a mistake not registering for the April date. I did slightly better on Elementary than Middle School Content Knowledge, but regardless, I’m good to go for K-8.

I’ve been operating under the assumption that I would end up teaching smaller children seeing as most elementary schools in Nashville are K-4. However, I got a call from my region last week that implied that might not be the case. The initial message I received, mentioning “updates” and “questions for you” was the start of a bizarre round of phone tag. It took 3 or 4 or 5 tries, but I finally got connected with the staff member. Turns out it was the first talk of placement for me, which was incredibly encouraging! (and also a reminder that I have to keep plugging through the Pre-Institute work). I’m not sure if I would have gotten a heads up about the position if the PD hadn’t given me a call to check if I would be interested as it’s not an elementary position.

“It’s sixth and seventh grade social studies…”

I started cheering in my head. Social studies – right up my alley. I actually came within a class or two of completing the Social Studies certificate at my university. When I came back from abroad to declare it, turns out they’d decided to no longer offer it to undergraduates. I had also ranked working with Middle School higher than Elementary on my application, so that was also exciting”

“and science”

Say what? Erm…interesting. I always preferred math to science, but it’s never ranked up there in what I’ve sought out. In high school, I took the required biology, chemistry, and physics classes and did fine. Not sure how much chemistry I actually took away that year as my wonderfully sweet teacher was entering what was most likely in the early to mid stages of Parkinsons. She left in the middle of a subsequent year because her medication made her see little red men…As an anthropology major, there’s been some basic biology and earth sciences that I’ve covered but it’s not been what I’ve focused on. Now that I’ve got my test scores back, science was my lowest score on the Middle School exam.

I admitted that the Social Studies part made me excited, but that I was probably a little rusty on the Science side of things. While it is exciting to hear about any of the possibilities, I do also want to be open and honest about what I’ll feel prepared to teach. I may or may not even be called by this principal, and even that could take weeks. It’s unfortunate that I can’t make it to Nashville for the April hiring fair, but that’s right in the middle of finals.

The placement process is where I’ve heard the most concerns from TFA critics. As I’m going through it, I don’t know how much insight I can give into how it comes about. It is a relief, however, that the TFA office is coordinating sending out my resume for me. I would have no idea how to go about the process, especially since I’m not in Nashville nor connected with any schools, I would probably have a hard time being aware of vacancies. Now that it’s April, schools are going to start knowing what their vacancies are. Only one person in my corps as far as I know has been placed, and several others have been interviewing – all first round people.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll hear because the school sounds really exciting. In the meantime, I’m getting in contact with my friends in town in TFA to do my school visits – one first grade, and one doing middle school science. Had originally thought I would spend more time with the former and at her school, but will probably now put the same focus into the latter!

Nashville, New Orleans, and Next Steps

I’d been excited about my spring break plans for a while, to head down with the organization I lead on an Alternative Spring Break to New Orleans, but a few days before I left a friend pointed out we’d be hitting Nashville around lunchtime. Having not been to Nashville yet, the thought of getting to spend even a wee bit of time helped me push through the last week of midterms (and turning in my thesis! 105 pages I do not want to see again for a long while)

As it turns out, we had a rough start from the get-go. One of the guys in my car lives in a fraternity house and when he failed to show up at 8am or answer his phone call, it took us another half an hour to get home ready to leave (frat houses are only accessible to those in that frat). He fell back asleep as soon as we got into the car which was unfortunate, because those of us navigating could have used his Illinois knowledge to realize that we were headed in the wrong direction!

We ended up going far enough out of our way so that we hit Nashville at 3ish and did not have enough time to stop at all. Regardless, driving through on 65/24 and seeing the skyline was really the first time that everything felt real. I’m adjusting to feeling like I’ll be a teacher and that, at least, is something I can grasp having grown up around educators my whole life. But Nashville? Probably the most exciting place we passed through on the way down South.

While on Spring Break, I ended up taking my Praxis exams. Not super timing, and as people can tell you, the attractions in New Orleans are really 24/7. We worked all week during the day and Friday was our main day to explore and have fun. Like a dutiful student, however, I made myself go to bed early after some quick review especially since I’d added in extra time to get lost on the way to the University of New Orleans.

The extra review made essentially no difference – turns out I’d borrowed the wrong book! I think it went ok (but will kick myself in the behind if I don’t pass). Except for perhaps the science section, everything was pretty basic. Well, the science section was basic – it’s just been a while since I’ve done any Earth Science types of things.

So I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for the next month until I get my results and my procrastination is becoming more and more dominated by thoughts of Nashville and elementary school classrooms and children….