I’m a new 2010 corps member and trying to delve into the whole thing. I’m glad I found this blogging community, the blogs are really great, I can’t get enough of them!

It’s certainly a big change in my life, moving to Philly to teach secondary science. I’m currently trying to study for the Praxis, I have my first batch of the PPST I tests (reading, writing, math) on Saturday. Standardized testing makes me more nervous than I ought be. I haven’t taken a standardized test since my SAT in 1998, which I did remarkably poor on. After this Saturday I have the Praxis II: General Science exam in March which I am a bit nervous about, as my only science background is a little bit of college earth science. However, I will say that brushing up on basic science has been an unexpectedly good time. Re-learning the basics of matter, energy, atoms, cells and evolution as an adult is quite the thrill. In fact, it’s a bit distracting. I unnecessarily read a whole chapter on evolution and had chills thinking about the idea of common descent and the fact that we have evolved into such complex beings from a simple organism billions of years ago. Then I got excited about the prospect of teaching such incredible concepts… So, yes, it is hard to study amidst grappling with the life change of acceptance into the corps. I hope I can get a functional study schedule going soon though.

About actually moving to Philly I have heard the gamut of comments from friends, acquaintances and cafe customers: from “It’s amazing! You’ll love it!” to “You’re gonna get shot. Those kids are going to be out of control!” which is pretty interesting. I am mostly apprehensive about dealing with the east coast winters again as it’s been going on 8 years since I’ve done that. However, as a highly adaptable homo sapien, I’m sure I’ll work it out just fine…