kiddies & cohorts

I alluded earlier (if you can call it an allusion) to the fact that I’ve been butting heads a bit with one of the other girls in my cohort. We worked together pretty intensively today, and it seems like our problems are getting ironed out as we all get used to each others’ working styles; three of us are very big-picture, freeform thinkers, and this last girl is very methodical, organizing as she goes along and mentally blocking out time slots. I think we need to work in more explicit clarification and reassurance that we’re all on the same page, plus more frequent check-ins in general, but it seems like we’re all dedicated to making this work, so I’m optimistic. Everyone who’s team-taught in this way tells us the same think: it’s really a lot like a marriage. You’ll bond, bicker, learn to read their signals and predict their needs, and grow to loathe each other – but no matter what happens, you’ll just have to make it work. For the next five weeks, anyway.

Today was the first day that kids have been at school, though we don’t enter the classroom until Monday. There are a couple thousand of them. I had the good luck to leave for my interview while they were out on nutrition break, and I have to say, it boosted my energy and confidence more than anything all week up until that point. I kind of remembered – oh, yeah! Kids! Really, teenagers are teenagers, and I’m so much more comfortable around these teens than I was around all the richie Caucasian kids at LMU computer camp. They remind me of my kids up in Oakland: extra-tall t-shirts, meticulous hair, too much jewelry, and big fake attitudes to mask their curiosity and insecurity. A couple of kids yelled out at me, “Hi, teacher!” It felt so good to say “hi” back, to not have to correct them. Very weird.