Induction into the South Carolina Charter Corps

Traveling to South Carolina, I wasn't sure exactly what to expect.  Traveling to South Carolina was an adventure in itself.  The flight from Minneapolis to Charlotte (NC) was unadventurous.  Once I arrived in Charlotte, I was glad to see three DIFFERENT Starbucks in the airport (and yes of course I got a LARGE coffee, which I believe I deserved).  Charlotte airport was a lot larger than expected.  Once I finally reached my gate, I saw a group of girls chatting.  Something about the group just screamed Teach For America, so I approached the girls and asked if indeed they were "TFA," which luckily just so happened to be the case.  There ended up being twelve of us corps members (CMs) on the same airplane from Charlotte to Florence, SC.  On the way to Florence I talked with another CM about Pre-Institute work, nerves, excitement, etc. WHICH helped me focus elsewhere, for the plane was a small propeller plane.  Not the quietest plane I have ever been on, and I definitely knew when the plane touched ground.  Florence airport was one of the smallest airports I have ever seen with only one baggage claim. We waited for our luggage (many of who went over on weight and had multiple bags, so I didn't feel so bad) and was picked up by two TFA members.  One being our Executive Director, and another corps member who works in the Chicago area, but came to SC to help during induction.  Immediately I felt welcomed into the SC region.

Since being here in the SC region, I have experienced some definite positives about the region and some definite obstacles that I will face during  my two year commitment.

POSITIVES:
*We have an enormous amount of support behind us.  Our directors and managers have been absolutely amazing in welcoming us into the region, answering our million questions, and working really hard to get us here (this is the first year TFA is in South Carolina, so we are setting the bar and expectations for this region.

*We have many people in the community that are behind us.  We have already had dinner with one of the biggest contributors to the TFA organization and with one of the former governors of SC.

*The corps members themselves.  I can honestly say I get along with each and every corps member.  We already have extremely bonded as a group.  We all know each other's names, backgrounds, likes, dislikes, etc.  We also already have inside jokes and a similar sense of humor.

*The interviews we had went extremely well.  There are more teaching positions than corps members.  One of the Districts wanted all 30 of us in their district, pretty awesome.

*I have already learned so much about what we are actually going to do in the schools (make TRANSFORMATIONAL change in our students, schools, and community) and I could not be more excited for the next two years.

OBSTACLES:
*While we do have a lot of people supporting us and people in the community behind us, we also have people that are not so fond of us coming into the community.  It took a lot of work to get us here (policies, laws, etc), and we needed a lot of support from the community to make this a reality; however, there are views that we are taking jobs from "real teachers."

*Students are extremely behind.  These are the statistics for the Pee Dee Region and/or South Carolina
   -SC ranks 50th (yes last) in rural high school graduation rates (38% graduate and those that graduate are on average about an 8th grade level in reading and math skills)
   -By 4th grade, only 20% of low-income students are proficient in math
   -Only 13% of low-income students are proficient in 8th grade reading.
   -SC has more rural "dropout factories" than any state in the country.
   -Along the I-95 corridor (our region) 18% of adults lack basic prose literacy.

We have to help our students make extreme academic gains.  Our students are far behind and we need to not only get them on level, but push them beyond.  It is hard to digest that there is such inequity in our education system, but this is real.

I am off to Houston, TX tomorrow for an intensive 5 week training called Institute.  This is where we learn even more how to make transformational change for our students and where we can make such change now at the summer school where we will be placed during Institute.  Not sure how much time I will have to update this blog during Institute, but I will definitely update after Institute.  I fly back home on July 9 and the tentative time that I will need to be moved in to SC is July 25.