First day of school, 2011-second edition

September 7th, 2011. The mark of another "important" landmark in my life-my first day of school as a graduate student. As I sat in my first class as a graduate student, it felt unlike any other "first days" I've had. For one, I hadn't been stressing the night before about what I'd be wearing (it didn't help that I had gotten home from orientation at 9:30, which, on any other day, is my bedtime). I also didn't feel any sense of urgency. The fact that I hadn't officially received my acceptance letter until 3 hours before my first class probably didn't help matters either. To be frank, this really just increased my frustration with the whole situation (my education at TC has been denied to deal with all of these logistical uh-ohs? Again, had I known, I probably would've made different post-graduation plans). I was late-or so I thought-to my first class because I thought I'd cleverly take the orange line instead because it has less stops, only to find that the train itself moved at half the pace of the red lines. In short, my first day of school as a graduate student was incredibly anticlimactic.

**at this point, my computer ran out of batteries, and I lacked the energy to walk all the way downstairs to get a charger, hence the day-late upload.

I will say, however, that I am excited for my education. Although I really appreciate everything that my undergraduate program provided, I always felt like I was lacking the fundamental content knowledge that would improve my teaching. My struggles at institute this summer were a testament to my severely limited content knowledge (and yet I still passed the teaching exam with flying colors-such high standards...). Obviously, most adult know how to add two digit numbers with regrouping. But I challenge you to try explaining what REALLY happens (what, exactly, does carrying mean?) to a group of second graders, or even other adults, and see how successful you are. And I'm definitely struggling to think of ways to best support my students, and so I'm optimistic that this opportunity will really inform my classroom teaching.

I've made it a priority to consolidate my two classes (a math and a literacy course) into one night, so that I don't have to go to school twice a week, from 7-9, which means that I have two back to back classes every Wednesday, which means that my day starts at 5 AM, and ends at approximately 12 PM (after I've showered, gotten ready for bed and all). I anticipated an unproductive next-day, but was pleasantly surprised by my sustained energy throughout the day. We'll see how long that lasts for.

Still, I've begun to consider living in the city-waking up at dawn, only to be in a windowless room for 9 hours and return home just in time to eat and sleep at late hours, the stresses of a commute (e.g. today we were delayed 30 min., with delays at all 3 transfer points I must take) have been enough to make me second guess my living situation.

In short, along with my general sentiments regarding my placement in this program, my first day of grad school was lackluster. But hopefully, from here on out, it can only get better!