Arrived in LA- posting this from RD's computer in orange county. Will update further once I get some net access.

First off, apologies for not posting anything recently. Things have been so incredibly busy around here with the last week of summer school, and the last week of institute, that I never had a spare minute to sit down at my computer. Yesterday was the last day, and it was surprising how rough it was to leave kids who I'd only been teaching for three weeks really. One little girl, Daisy (who our FA said was "too sweet for the Bronx", gave each of us a little card she made saying that she wished we would be her teachers forever... and then was in tears because we were leaving. I only hope that LW, one of my collaborative-mates, gets placed in CES 70 and can keep up with the kids, let me know how they're doing. Our FA left us his email address, so on Monday I'll drop a line to the class and wish them the best of luck on their City Tests. The kids that we taught this summer were really so amazing... from Wascar, who was an incredibly cool little guy (watching him try to teach AY the "Crip Step" yesterday during our end of summer party was a highlight for sure) and could tell me nonchalantly about the attempted strangling he watched on the way to school, to little Daisy, to Jeremy, who's so smart and so scheming, especially when anything food-related happens (I had to stop him twice yesterday from just pulling his chair up to the snack table we set up for the party and digging in). I can't imagine how much stronger the bond is going to be with kids I'll have for the whole year (also how much more I'll want to kill them when they're screwing around, quite likely).

So Summer Institute is over, and I'm not sure what reflection to make yet... To a large degree, many things haven't begun to quite process yet- information overload and all that. Fortunately I'll have 45 hours of thinking time, especially on that long flat drive through Oklahoma (or Nebraska, or wherever, depending on what route DV managed to come up with.) All I can hope for is being even sort of prepared for when the door closes and I'm left alone with MY class in September...