Day One

Yesterday was my first day of orientation at my internship, and it was really exciting!  I only ended up sleeping about 3 hours the night before, but at least I didn't oversleep, as I was worried.  But I arrived early, and I met such interesting people.  I'm not even sure where to begin.  

There are five other interns, four from my same school.  They all seem fascinating with lots of interests.  They're all from different places, and they're all interning in different subjects: science, humanities, visual arts.  I wanted to spend more time talking to them and getting to know them and why they want to teach, but I suppose that will happen all year long.  

It was also orientation for new staff, so I met some of the new teachers.  They also all seemed amazing with all kinds of interests and backgrounds.  I met the French teacher who I almost lived with.  I hope I'll get to speak French with her at some point.  I could use a refresher since it's been over a year since I studied abroad in Paris.  There's also a substitute Spanish teacher who sings opera, and I would love to talk about singing with him and hear him sing.  There's a new band conductor and a new part-time acting teacher.  She specializes in Shakespeare, and I would love to talk Shakespeare with her!  Everyone has so many interests, and I want to share with them, and I want to hear from them, and I just really want to get so involved in everything.

  

We went over some logistical stuff, but the day was mostly spent getting to know the concept of their school.  We discussed how we cannot friend students on facebook and how to use their email system and how to get keys, etc.  But more importantly, we discussed their mission statement and how it drives how their school is run.  I learned that the school is a pilot school, which means it is a public school with its own autonomy, so it can change rules, curriculum, schedules, but it is still part of the system - in the district and in the union.  I found that a really interesting contrast to a charter school, which is still a public school but outside of the system.  I don't really know how to explain it better than that.  They also explained how this school was created 14 or so years ago from six colleges, I believe, so they're part of this consortium of arts schools.  So the high school is highly connected with these six schools, and they receive a lot of support from them.  The school is also heavily involved in community outreach.  It sounds like they do a lot of performing in the community, and they're always interested in having master classes.  Apparently they had Bill T. Jones a while ago.  He is my favorite choreographer, and I am so sad I missed him!  They also require that all of their students either register to vote or have a conversation with a registrar upon graduation.  They cannot force them to register, but they do their best to encourage it.  I am just incredibly amazed at how much this school does.  I know I did a lot of performing at my high school, but I wish all the staff/faculty had been this passionate about getting everyone involved in the community.  It just seems like such an incredible school.  I have been infatuated since I visited in February for my interview, and I can't believe it's actually time to get started.

They also talked about the grade requirements for the students.  It is a little untraditional, but what isn't at this school?  :)  Students must receive a D- or better in their academic classes, but if they slip below a C in their arts classes, they are warned.  They use a positive term instead of probation, but I forget what it is.  The idea is that we all make choices about what we're going to do and learn, and it's their choice if they don't do as well in an academic class.  But why be at an arts school if you're not interested in your art?  It seems backwards at first, but it really makes a lot of sense.  

Also, their academic curriculum is incredibly fascinating and innovative.  Let me start with the math curriculum, as that is the curriculum that I need to know most.  Instead of having Geometry, Algebra, and Calculus as courses, they simply title their courses Math 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.  So they somewhat align with the traditional course sequence, but the courses are highly integrated with an arts curriculum.  So they teach math through animation and through lighting design, etc.  It sounds so logical to teach math this way to arts students, but I am still so curious to see how it works.  Also, I may be good at math, but I know little about lighting design, so that will be interesting to see what I'll need to know.  So presumably students will be excited about learning math!  Also they've structured it so that more students will complete Math 5 before they graduate, because they realized it's important for students to get through high school calculus before they go to college.  I also forgot to mention that their courses are semestrialized (yea, I made that word up, whatevs).  So each academic course is only for a semester, and they take two academic courses at a time, plus their arts classes.  It is such a cool system, and I can't wait to see how it works.  Also, all of the teachers, including math and science, co-teach seminar classes, which are reading/writing skills classes.  This means I will be teaching this too - ahh!  I hope I can read and write...  Also, they teach Humanities instead of English and Social Studies.  So it's all combined, and they especially focus on teaching history through the lenses of different groups of people, it's not just the European white male's perspective on stuff.  It's really fascinating, and I can only imagine that I'll be learning so much from this school, the staff, and their students.  Also, they send 96% of their students to college, which is a really, really awesome statistic!  So many of these students' parents never went to college, so the school really helps provide them with the resources and opportunities and support to go through the college admissions process.  Can you tell I'm excited yet?

They talked a lot about things that I don't understand yet.  I know they have an advisory program, but I am still unsure of what it is and how it works.  There's also a student support team for counseling and stuff, but I don't know how that works either.  I also really have no idea about the schedule of the school, so I have no clue when I'm teaching and whatnot.  So there are still a lot of unknowns.  However, I experienced so much warmth there yesterday, and I am more confident going into this week knowing that I have a lot of support around me.  I can't wait to meet my mentor teacher.  Hopefully that will happen Monday, but if not, it will later in the week.  And I really can't wait to meet the students!  They sound so motivated and passionate.  I know that I've definitely built up this school in my head, and there will definitely be downfalls, but I just hope that there won't be too too many.  

Overall, I'm really, really excited to start interning here.  I'm so excited to meet everyone, and I can't wait to see how a school day will actually go.  I can't wait to spend some more time with the other interns, and I know I'll learn a lot from them too.  I can't think of what else we did/talked about yesterday, so I guess I'll leave it at that.  I'm also sure that some of what I said is incorrect, because it was a LOT of information in one day, and I easily could have misunderstood something.  Oh well... I'm learning!