The Delta

I'm finally in the Delta. When we arrived in MS we got a bus tour of the Delta by one of the professors at Delta State. We went to Dockery Farms where many of the Delta Blues artists got their start before heading up to Chicago or Memphis. We also saw Fanny Lou Hamer's town and resting place along with Mound Bayou. We then finished with visiting the site where the levee's broke (greatest natural disaster in America before Katrina). When I get a little more time, I'll add some pictures and elaborate on what I learned at each location (the Delta has a ton of history about the blues and civil rights).

The best part, though, about orientation was the trip to Po' Monkey's Lounge (yes, that's how it's spelled and pronounced). It doesn't look like much from the outside (http://www.mississippideltabluesinfo.com/images/Po_Monkey_s.JPG), but it's a true jook joint--term for a southern establishment featuring blues music, alcohol, and dancing. It's one of the last original ones in the south (do a search on wikipedia or google for "jook joint" for more information). They had an authentic blues band there that night and it was tons of fun. The music and everything was amazing.

Yesterday I met the Superintendent, her AS, and the principals at each school. They surprised us by bringing in pizza and cheesecake in the middle of our meeting, and they all seemed really happy to have TFA teachers at their schools. I am now teaching 8th grade science--I had thought I was 7th all summer. My room is pretty nice as is the whole school. I've got a white board instead of chalk board, which I'm pretty happy about as I can't stand writing with chalk. I lucked out too with science books as 8th grade is getting new books this year. I get to go into my room tomorrow and take a longer look at everything in it and to begin setting it up. In other news, I passed my Praxis 2 in Biology Content Knowledge!

I've been looking for houses in the past two days and the search has been pretty good. We've got one near the lake that we may take, but we are looking at a bunch tomorrow and I should have a decision by then. Right now my time is taken up by either house hunting, going to Delta potlucks (tfa 2nd years host them), or unpacking my standards. I take the standards set down by the state of Arkansas and figure out how to teach them--what previous knowledge do students need, what skills do they need to learn, how does this standard fit in with others? It's invigorating. I'd probably find it more exciting had I learned that I was 8th grade before doing alot of the 7th grade standards. I won't complain too much. I'm sure I'll have to adapt to much more in the next two years.

I will repost soon with more details as I've given a general story for most parts of my time here.