inside Rhodes

Wow! What a whirlwind summer! I’ve been back at Rhodes for about 10 days now and it feels great. I ended my teaching experience at Breakthrough on the 13th and flew back to Rhodes to start RA (resident assistant) training on the same day. Needless to say, it was a stressful few days getting back into the swing of things. Now that we are trained and the first-year students are here, I’m getting really excited for classes to start, but getting nervous about it all at the same time.

I’m mostly nervous about not taking classes in my comfort zone. I do not know anything about Calculus or French…but both are on my plate this semester. I know it’s crazy, but grad school is looming in the near future as well. Additionally, I just put my concert dates for Rhodes Singers and Rhodes Orchestra into my planner and it looks like we have a booked semester! I’m not sure how I’m going to balance everything out, but I’ll definitely make use of all of my resources on campus to help me out.

I have started to miss New Hampshire, Manchester, and Breakthrough. My last blog talked about my experiences in student teaching this summer–I’m really starting to miss my kids, the school, and the other faculty members. My summer at Breakthrough was one of the best experiences of my life and in some ways I wish I could spend my year teaching rather than attending classes, but I know this will change as soon as classes start on Wednesday. The experience showed me that teaching doesn’t have to be a “fallback option” for me. I learned that teaching is a fulfilling, rewarding, and meaningful profession. Below I’ve posted a few pictures of my students hard at work…I miss you guys!

I’m also really excited to work with this year’s first-year students as an RA. I am the RA on the first floor of Williford this year. My guys have been great so far–full of questions, ideas, cares, and concerns. We have had one hall meeting and program so far and I have had the chance to talk to a lot of my residents one-on-one. It really seems like this year will be great in terms of building a strong community both in the Residence Halls and throughout campus. Good luck c/o 2013!