Skip to main content

First Week in Chicago: (new intersections, right?)


One week ago today, myself and my three housemates moved into our new lives in Chicago. In the elapsed time, it’s actually become difficult to think of much that hasn’t happened. In the course of our busy week, we have moved into an apartment that started off a disaster (cabinets pulled, sinks on the floor, drywall-dust covering the floors), tapped into new social communities with past LVC volunteers, gotten to know our neighborhood, started our new jobs, picked up our local organic vegetables CSA share (yum), attended a movie-at-the-park, biked all over the city, I saw my brother Blake, and also saw my old housemate Jacob Swenson, went back to work, realized that I’ll actually be the one teaching tomorrow, and lastly, I learned how to bake bread (it’s rising right now). Basically I think they say, “he hit the ground running” for occasions like this.

In this current moment, school is probably the biggest deal to me. During the first two days in the school, I’ve more or less laid low in Elizabeth’s (lead teacher) courses. Basically, I’m trying to get a feel for how I should and shouldn’t present myself in front of everyone. I notice that I’m really questioning myself and my confidence as a authoritative figure in a video production classroom, which is a stressful event in itself. With reflection, it is becoming more obvious to me that the students’ mature age combined with their cultural difference from myself is the intimidating combination that causes me the stress. Tomorrow, when I ride my bike past the several neighborhoods to the south and west, I need to remember that even though I come from a world apart, I can still take the seat as a teacher. After all, they don’t know more than I do about video production, at least not these sets of kids.

Still, I notice that my summer backpacking job with the Asberger’s kids was simply laid out for me to feel successful. It always seemed like I had the responsibility and capabilities to get them both through and out of the backcountry. With video, I doubt my leadership more. So I struggle forward right now, knowing that I need to learn how to see myself as part of a team of educators that will without a doubt succeed at relaying good and useful knowledge to these kids at North Lawndale. Right now, I may not know the most about video, but then again I didn’t know the most about backpacking and Asperger’s syndrome when I set off on my summer job. It’s definitely my hope that I will rise to this new occasion in a similar way as what happened on the summer excursion.

I’m sure I’ll have more to write in another week. Not to mention probably another thousand un-job-related items… like moving in a new gas stove - TBA. On that note, I have a stomach that needs the attention of the newly baked bread.

Comments

Unknown said…
Brandon, You're on your way. Your confidence will come as you gain experience in this whole new arena of teaching. If you don't feel totally confident yet, let me say for you that I have really no doubt that you are going to be a terrific teacher. You have the temperament, the character, the passion and the skills. Those are concrete attributes! Breathe deeply when you can, stay real, and keep reminding yourself that you can do this! Lots and lots of love... Your fan,
Nancy

Popular posts from this blog

This is real now

It is starting to sink in that I have a year ahead of me. Through the event of working my first work-week in a high school setting, it occurs to me that this is my first real job. My commitment is expected to be more than the months of summer. I have a year in this position, and with that, I’m feeling something between exhilaration and terror. The exhilaration is that I am working with Free Spirit Media. This educational setting is one of my dreams. In it, youth are not taught as objects into which information must be banked, but rather creative instruments that can be enabled by way of handing over cameras and basic skill sets. One of the jargons that I hear commonly in this community of media educators is “youth voice,” and it reminds me that the very basis of our teaching theory will be continually be based on the idea that education is meant to be empowering. I find myself in a role where my job is to hand over the camera and skills, and then guide youth to be both creative a...

An Idea

The idea for this blog started after some talking with my best friend and love Kara, reading some of the gospels in the Bible, watching Motorcycle Diaries, and then dialoguing over lunch with Erin Murphy about the necessary commitment to live a life of intentional human relations. The purpose of this space, then, is to get me to record my encounters of what I perceive as meaningful events and human intersections in my life. I hope to talk about what I learn of our human selves from thoughtfully communing with others in a fully present kind of way. While this space may have the usefulness of updating people on my life and thoughts, the most honest reason that I started this is because I wish to continue to step courageously out into conversations that may yield insight and spiritual connectivity between people in the world. I see this blog as my accountability to keep these interactions up, write about them, and reflect the deepest layers of our being alive with one another. I want...