Every summer, we welcome our new corps members to Chicago summer training: a rigorous, hands-on experience that combines intensive training with immersive teaching practice and coaching. This year, a staff member and a 2019 corps member will be blogging about their on-the-ground experiences! This third post comes from Adam Mogilevsky (Eastern North Carolina '15), a high school history teacher in Chicago. During institute, he'll be coaching teachers on teaching English Language Arts, and helping them develop their instructional skills. Check out Adam's first post, along with the first post from corps member Cristina Nunez-Ballesteros.

In my four years as a teacher and learning facilitator, I am always in awe of the rapid growth and development our teachers undergo during summer training. While we know that the summer training experience is rigorous, our corps members always rise to the challenge. This was the first week of teaching for many of our corps members, and to see them embody our core values—pursue equity, strengthen community, achieve impact, choose courage, act with humility, demonstrate resilience, and learn continuously—is heartwarming.

Some choose courage by overcoming their first day of school nerves, while others worked toward achieving impact by voicing their need to make our summer curriculum more responsive to our students in North Lawndale and Englewood.

They work to strengthen community through constantly prepping and planning for their students, while also engaging in deep conversations about race and privilege in seminars. This work is not easy, and every day we must work to remove the systemic barriers our students face. Day by day at summer training, corps members are beginning to see a new world, an alternative reality where One Day is attainable.

I have been in three summer training locations (Mississippi Delta, Eastern North Carolina, and now Greater Chicago-Northwest Indiana), and it’s obvious that Teach For America is committed to our learn continuously core value, and always works to perfect their craft in developing our teachers. I’m always inspired by how both parties grow from this experience: our amazing children and our amazing corps members.

As I look forward to the next teaching week, I’m working to tweak my sessions to ensure I am responsive to our eager group. I’m committed to doing my part so that our corps members feel prepared and ready to change the lives of our students.