Cristo Rey Network New Teacher Orientation: Day 4/Final Thoughts

The final day of network training wrapped up at lunch time today and I'm left with a lot of time to reflect on the wonderful experiences of the training. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to learn valuable teaching and classroom tasks with these many wonderful people and I'm left wondering how I will implement everything to be sure my classroom is highly effective (I'm sure this is trademarked by Covey or somebody) every day.

Wednesday Evening was spent in Lincoln Square with my friend Adrianna, one of many people I've shared time with online but never off (until now). We had a delicious meal with tasty drinks at Bad Dog Tavern and were able to enjoy the nice Chicago evening on the patio with the city lights, the sleazy Christmas-style patio lights, and somebody's beautiful mutt of a dog. Five hours later I made it back to Loyola's campus, filled with food, drink and fantastic conversation.

Thursday morning turned out to be rather administrative, with training on how to find existing Cristo Rey Network resources for teachers. The interaction between teachers network wide is great, but the fact that we can contextualize it after this week's training solidifies the quality of the educators in the network (in my mind). Educators new and old working together to ensure that we "Transform Urban America One Student at a Time" inspires me to keep doing this work.

Also in the inspiration category is my (now former) district manager from Starbucks. She and I talked about me leaving the company today and I've never been so encouraged about quitting a job. She thanked me for the hard work and congratulated me on the full-time opportunity at Detroit Cristo Rey while also commenting that "the partners at the store are truly going to miss your presence at the store." A humbling comment from a good boss.

Found in a classroom building at Loyola University

Finally today wrapped up with a few hours of downtime with many of my new Chicagoland friends. A bunch of 20-somethings committed to social justice, working in a Jesuit school for low-income students and living together in community for two years. It reminds me of some dear people that I already miss....Dave, Megan, Hannah, and John (who will be back next year!)...we went to a local coffee house just blocks from Loyola's campus and laughed for hours. It was great to bond with them around such important affinities and make plans to hang out as often as possible.

It's exciting to bring back such a wealth of information (and stories!) to my classroom and students. Hopefully the energy and enthusiasm of the training will make a huge impact on the learning environment, the school and, most importantly the lives of our teachers and students.