Growing Up

I am now a proud participant of the daily Phoenix commute.

Every morning I leave my house at 6:45, and head south on the I-17. I am usually stuck in traffic for the majority of the trip. I get off at Van Buren, and drive east, through downtown Phoenix, until I reach 13th street and take a right. I arrive at Shaw elementary school at 7:30, and sit through a daily staff meeting. At 8:30, we head out to the field where we greet our summer school students, and escort them to the gymnasium. I am student teaching, and have been assigned a P.E. class, even though I will be teaching science in the fall. Today we played field hockey, barnyard and kickball. Tomorrow we are playing soccer and basketball. I am not thrilled at having been placed in a P.E. class, but I'm dealing with it. At 11:15, we get 30 minutes for lunch. This morning I woke up late, and didn't have time to put a lunch together, so between the time I woke up and 7:00 pm this evening, I ate an apple. After lunch, we have two and half more hours of activities before the children are dismissed at 2:30. At 2:30 we have another daily staff meeting, and then I leave in order to make it over to Garcia elementary school at Buckeye and 27th avenue by 3:30. From 3:30 to 6 pm I take part in teacher training courses with other Phoenix Teaching Fellows. Sometimes I leave these training sessions to meet with principals who interview me to see if they'd like to hire me to teach at their schools in the fall. I have been on three interviews in the past month. At 6 pm I leave Garcia elementary school and head north on the I-17, towards home. I am usually stuck in traffic for the majority of the trip. The next day, I do the same thing all over again.

I have never in my life felt so tired.