So, where to begin? Two weeks after graduating, I started my epic journey with Teach For America. One week in New Mexico, five grueling weeks in Phoenix for institute where I taught kindergarten whilst learning how to teach, another week in New Mexico, one week off to "chill" in Colorado before returning to New Mexico for good (aka two years).
Life is absurd. I don't even know where to begin, so let's proceed with bullet form fashion, shall we?
- I live on the Navajo Reservation in the town of Pueblo Pintado, NM. Oh, Pueblo Pintado. This booming metropolis boasts 23.5 people every square mile, one federal K-8 school where yours truly works and lives, one high school 1.5 miles down the road, one gas station a mile in the other direction, a laundromat 5 miles away, and one Navajo chapter house. Throw in some wild horses, coyotes, rez dogs, jackrabbits, rattlesnakes, cows, sheep, dead horses in the ditch and that's home!
- May I reitterate that I truly live in the middle of nowhere? Even groceries are a full hour drive away. I should add that good ol' Durango, Colorado--home, sweet home--is but a mere 2 hour drive, which is SO good for my sanity. Booze is illegal on the rez but Durango has a beer festival every month or so, so I survive.
- I teach 2nd grade at a BIE (Bureau of Indian Education) school which is all sorts of interesting. The BIE is dripping with money yet I managed to inherit a classroom without books, pencils, and paper (or a reading curriculum-- hello, Ms. Bolster has no idea what she's doing). The school is a boarding school and my kids have recently discovered where I live. Tuesday one of them stalked me home because he didn't want to sleep at the dorm anymore. Yesterday one of them ding dong ditched me and left a stone turtle on my doorstep. (????)
- I love my 16 little tyrants and they love me but I'm pretty sure they were put on this earth to drive me crazy. For a good three-quarters of the day, I ask myself why I'm such a masochist to have accepted this position, but then my kids hug me at the end of the day and tell me they will miss me and I forgive them for their antics (mostly).
- "Ms. Bolster, are you ever not white?"
These ruins are literally my morning view. It's badass.
The school/dorm/teacher housing/"twin towers". You can even see my own little house on the far left! Hip hip hooray for cheap government housing ($192/month, no joke).Anyway, that's the major stuff from me. I need to grade math test #4. Who'd have thought that teaching 5 + 6 = 11 would be so hard?
xoxo gossip girl
(just kidding, this season is already awful.)
xoxo for realz, Ruby/"Mizzzz Booooolssterrr!"
Posts
rubix cubey, hello! first of all, I'm gonna have to admit that I didn't even know that gossip girl was on again! secondly, your position sounds really really cool/interesting/funny so i couldn't pick one of those little boxes to tick. the stone turtle business sounds precious. how are the other teachers? i don't know how you teach for america folk do it. seriously, i teach one two-hour workshop and it drives me nuts how bad I am at standing in front of people demanding attention. anyway, wonderful post. : )
ReplyDeletei agree with miranda. but i have one question: do you take off your white mask after the kids leave or do you wait until you get home?
ReplyDelete