FRANKIE SAY RELAX

Ok, when you need to relax, here are a few suggestions that you or may not have thought of:

• Watch BAD teacher movies and yell at the screen when they make teaching look easy. My personal picks: Dangerous Minds, To Sir With Love (actually good), Take The Lead, Lean on Me (also Good).
• Pick out a fancy recipe and go for it! Even if it turns out horrible – it is fun.
• Take a float trip down the Mississippi (there are places in the Delta to rent kayaks and canoes).
• Day Trip out-of-state! New Orleans/Memphis?
• Sign up for NETFLIX. It is AWESOME!!
• Go to Wal-Mart (blech!) or another store, and buy yourself a present.
• Take photographs – especially of the Delta (Its BEAUTIFUL…really).
• Go to a museum.
• Plan your Spring Break early.
• Carve a pumpkin.
• Go to the STATE FAIR (this week!).
• Buy a bottle of wine and be SUPER snobby about it.
• Read a book NOT related to school in any way.

Wow, my list looks like a poor version of one of those awful Dos/Don’ts lists you might find in a Cosmo magazine. YIKES! Truthfully, last year I would invest in large portions of food and episodes of Grey’s Anatomy/Big Love almost every day. It was horrible! My advice when you need to relax after school: be active. I know that sounds weird, but teaching is so draining, that unless you re-fuel and energize yourself, you will feel yucky and tired from 3:30p.m. until bedtime. It is helpful if you can find an activity that you enjoy which requires you to be more active than sitting up.

A New School

I changed schools my second year. Last year I was placed in Leflore County, teaching three preps: 7th grade math, 8th grade math, and 7th grade science. I was in a school of less than 200 students, and I was the one and only math teacher. I had a mentor who taught a math class – but, for her, that meant giving them a book and writing the page numbers on the board. I was moved from a computer lab to a regular classroom to the special education director’s class. I also lived 45 minutes away from the school building itself. It was difficult to say the least.

I am extremely grateful to have been placed in the Delta and to have had the opportunity to live and teach there, but I am very happy to be out of it now. Of course I still miss it. There is no place on earth like the Mississippi Delta. The thing I miss the most is driving to school in the morning: there is nothing but fields and catfish farms for 30 minutes. In the winter the heat from the earth would mix with the cold air and cause this gorgeous fantastical mist everywhere. It was so beautiful. If I left early enough I got to see the sunrise, and the morning sun in the Delta is so big it’s scary.

As far as the two school experiences I have had thus far, hands down, I am in the better school. Everything, from the administration, to the buildings, to the faculty, to the resources, to the students themselves, to me – its all better. I credit some of the change to me, having more confidence and consistency after a year of teaching, but mostly, I just credit where I am – the community of Jackson is larger and people living there are more in touch with popular culture, wealth, etc. Because of the location of the school, my students have the opportunity to see and interact with wealth, liberal arts colleges, and diverse cultures (even if only a little bit). Also, the wealth that my students can interact with I also directly in the school building: I love leaving my classroom for the day, seeing the entire marching band on the field playing, the cheerleaders practicing, the girls soccer team running laps, and the football team on their field in uniforms. There is so much for the students to do, to care about, and they choose to stay at school and participate, sometimes until 7 or 8 at night. At my school in the Delta, not only students, but teachers, were asked to leave the school by 4.

The sense of community has been strong in both schools I have taught at in Mississippi. However, the community in the Delta is close in a (perhaps) dangerous way, caring not for education, but for relationships and reputations. Much of Jackson has the same emphasis on these two cares as well, but there is enough wealth and diversity to offer other cares, and other communities – those that will teach you something, and make you someone better. This year, I get to be a part of one of those communities.