and then I can breathe again. I have my interview with North Star on Friday. I am really, truly fighting to stay calm. I know this is a bad idea, but I am still tweaking my lesson plan and trying to make things clearer. I still have no idea whether it will be age-appropriate. I…

Save for my boyfriend and my roommates, I have been ignoring everyone for the last few days. I have been in hiding. I have 6 voicemails and a million and a half missed calls. Have you ever been so unsure and confused about something that you just can’t even pick up the phone to talk…

Yesterday evening I received the e-mail with more info on my Monday interview with North Star. I will be teaching thirty real-life 5th graders a 55 minute lesson on droughts and forest fires. There are, specifically 5 objectives within the lesson. I have to submit 5 copies of my lesson plan with the North Star…

It’s been a slow few weeks since my last update. I have been working through Institute work and studying for the Praxis on the 30th. I don’t know if it’s just me, but the Institute work is taking me FOREVER. I scoff at the approximate times they list at the head of each assignment. I…

Ugh. I contemplated leaving that as the full body of this post. This morning did not go well. Everyone has been telling me that ‘you probably did better than you think’ and ‘you always think you do poorly’– but I am quite convinced that I could not have passed my Middle School Science Praxis this…

So with 3 days and 7 hours until I take the Middle School Science Praxis II, I am starting to feel a little bit confident. This new wave of faith in myself is the result of a fairly successful practice test. I had been saving the practice test in the ETS study guide until today,…

I have no idea where the time has gone. I almost feel like I haven’t learned anything new since I posted 12 days ago! I looked up what score I need to pass NJ’s DoE requirements- a 145. Of course the actual grading is somewhat elusive, but it’s roughly a 73%. If the test were…

22 days left in the Middle School Science Praxis II countdown. I have to be honest and say that studying is going less than ideally. Some of the problem stems from self-discipline. I guess I am a little out of practice with studying, even though it’s only been a few months since I graduated. Some…

I thought it would be nice to chronicle my TFA experience thus far. I applied in October during the 3DL. I waited until the last day to submit my application, to ensure that everything was in order. I must have had 5 drafts of my personal statement before I trashed them all and just wrote.…

Hello, indeed, world! I am so excited that I figured out how to start up a blog on here! I spent a lot of time reading other blogs during the application process trying to figure out what TFA was really like. I hope that maybe someone else may see this blog sometime and I will…