Placement:

On Friday I found out I was going to be teaching in North Philadelphia (which was NOT a surprise as it is the "rough" side of town) at a local elementary school. Here in Philadelphia they are slowly getting rid of Middle Schools and turning Elementary Schools into k-8, but making them smaller and more community like.

Today I meet the principle and the staff. The Elementary School is k-6 and it currently has 410 students. I found out I will be doing Learning Support/Emotional Support 4-6 grade for Special Ed. I will have about 8-10 students (right now it's 8 boys) and they are all LS and ES. I know that this is where I am needed and I am excited. It was hard hearing the staff tell me that NO teacher has stayed there longer then a year, that my students are uncontrollable and one teacher even went far enough to say that they were going to eat me alive (those are my nice words for what she said). From these short conversations I soon found out who were the positive teachers and whom were not. After that all went down a young lady named Caitlin pulled me aside and informed me that she was TEACH FOR AMERICA 03 (The Charter year) and we had a huge looong conversation and I left feeling extremely better. I felt better because she knew my training and how I will go about approaching the class. Don't get me wrong there is A LOT of work ahead of me, I am excited to have Caitlin there, I am also excited that TFA thought I would be the best person for this job and that I am going to be able to build an outstanding relationship with this school and get other TFA folks in there next year.

Here is a little about North Philadelphia

North Philadelphia is located just north of Center City, along Broad Street, and includes Fairmount, Hunting Park, Spring Garden, Strawberry Mansion and West Kensington. Also home to Temple University, North Philly is an area full of students, young families and a community rich in history and tradition, particularly Philadelphia's civil rights struggle in the '60s. A diverse group of ethnicities live in the area and the impact is reflected in bars, restaurants, shops and local culture. New homes and rental units are currently in development around the area, attracting a mix of low-income residents and middle-class families.