This past weekend was my cousin Sarah's absolutely gorgeous wedding in Chicago. Still without a job, I was leaving Houston on Thursday afternoon for the Windy City. Two hours before I left, I got a call from TFA telling me someone might call me for a special education position at a charter school, was I interested? (Note: I have been telling TFA since the very beginning that I wanted to be involved in special education, but they weren't sure about how big the program was going to be, or what the demand for SpEd teachers would be, so that never materialized...until now.) I waited until the last minute to leave my apartment and drive to the airport, barely got my bag checked and still, no call. So I got in touch with TFA who got in touch with the school who called me right there by Gate B7. I frantically set up an interview for the next day, rushed back from the bridal shower to prep for 15 minutes, gave my schpiel, and then got a text 15 minutes after from TFA saying I got it. Wasn't that easy?
So now, about the job! Its at a public charter school called YES Prep (formerly YES College Preparatory - a condition of graduation is that each student is accepted to a 4 year college) and I'm teaching at the Southwest campus. I think there are 7 campuses altogether across Houston, and we're the Mavericks (awesome). It was founded by a TFA alum and something crazy like 60% of the teachers are either current corps members or alumni. I am teaching Special Ed as a Learning Lab Specialist. The Learning Lab is like a resource room for special education students, but we do not pull them out of their general education classes, rather, they come to us when they need assistance on an assignment, quiz or test. And just in the first week, I have met tons and tons of students. The Learning Lab turns out to be a pretty busy place!
Another part of the job is supporting general education teachers and providing them with strategies, accommodations and modifications that will help the special education students succeed in their gen ed classrooms. And then another part of the job is the large amount of paperwork which still seems to be written in a completely different language. But, in addition to working closely with the students and their teachers, we get to build strong relationships with their parents, as well. So, best case scenario, we can support our students on many different levels and do a lot to push them towards academic achievement.
The first week was crazy: I signed things, observed other YES classes (amazing teachers and students), took a special education certification test (passed), read a lot of files, and tried to remember all the names and faces of the YES SW family, staff and students. Thank goodness I have Kate, an '08 corps member at YES SW who is the other Learning Lab Specialist. She has been so helpful and understanding and made me feel so welcome. And she is phenomenal at her job, so I'm looking forward to learning everything I can from her and I think we'll have a great year!
There will be so much more to come, but I guess that was a brief, basic rundown of the whirlwind week where my life shifted completely. If it is confusing to you, then I think you've got the right idea. I can't quite follow it either!
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