https://padlet.com/jamie_beth_nunn/ofcv3l93x6x6 Teach for America Appalachia en-us 2016-07-12 20:26:50 UTC 2025-10-09 16:16:10 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.com/jamie_beth_nunn/ofcv3l93x6x6/wish/116442887 Since we're such a small region, I'm wondering how many people put "neutral" or "somewhat" responses. If a sizable number of us put those responses, which were then taken out of consideration, the effect would be that our results could be heavily skewed by outliers with relatively extreme positions in either direction. It's possible that, struggling with everything else on our plates in the throes of Institute, the majority of us were simply fatigued and put neutral answers. Survey Fatigue is a real phenomenon we always had to be mindful of when we collected data from our students at UCLA, who had a lot going on outside of our surveys. Even if that is true though, there is still one big question left unanswered: given that other regions' CMs are operating under the same or similar conditions that we are, why are our results comparatively low? Why weren't other regions' CMs just as fatigued, just as neutral? Or, to re-frame it, why weren't we as satisfied with the controlled for experience? I don't know. I have some theories though: 1) we simply didn't enjoy or engage with the Delta as much as other regions. Thinking about it, Appalachia is the most northern region at Delta Institute. KY has a varied, rugged landscape, whereas all the other regions at Institute are, like the Delta, in what might be called the Deep South--an area with cultural and geographical similarities between states. I'm thinking that other CMs engaged more because they HAVE TO to succeed in their arguably similar regions. For non-AppalCorps CMs, this Delta scenery is going to be filling up their eye windows for the next two years--they have to get used to it, to seek out the beauty in it. Also, since a sizable percentage of every regional corps is made up of people from that region or state, for South Carolina, SLA, MS, and Ark CMs--the Delta is a good approximation of "home". For us in AppalCorps, it's not. For us, this could easily just be a place where we spend 4 weeks and never return to, and honestly a lot of us treated it like that. WE were the ones who had our bags packed first, who were mentally checked out of the Delta long before everyone else. Is that a bad thing? Maybe, maybe not. It is definitely possible that we're just responding to the disconnect between what we're going to see in region and what we experienced in the Delta. It's a tough and beautiful problem because Appalachia is such a unique region in many ways, I don't know which Institute, if any, would be a better "psychic" fit for us. 2) Homesickness. Some Mississippi, SLA, and Ark CMs were going home literally every weekend to spend time with family and friends. While that must've been nice, we in AppalCorps (along with South Carolina--I'd be interested to see their data against ours) didn't have that luxury. While other CMs could go home and eat home cooked meals on weekends, for us, it was DSU or the highway. I definitely think we all felt homesick in some way while in the Delta, and we had no way easy way to remedy it by just going home. 3) Delta Institute was one of the most racially tense places I've ever been. Amongst the set of people I knew in stunningly diverse California, where whites are a minority in LA and, for example, Koreans, Latinos, and whites live in equal proportions in a place like Koreatown (highly recommend Korean-Mexican fusion food if you're ever in LA--kogi tacos are the best!) people talk openly about race. There's dialogue, critique, and discussion mostly without animosity. In a place where people of different races do often live side by side mostly peacefully, Money is the Golden Calf people worship. At Delta, I felt that there was, though a far cry from a "race war" as some CMs put it, definitely a tense and maybe even hostile atmosphere. I don't know--there was definitely some fierce anger on the part of some black CMs and, on the flip side, some entrenched apathy on the side of some white CMs. Then there seemed to be a group in the middle wanting to care but also wanting to focus more on gaining skills to be a baseline competent teacher, with D&I taking a backseat for the moment. Of course there were also outliers bucking the trend, but in general, the set up didn't exactly invite the kind of wholesale engagement which would've overcome the apathy and anger. I think the overall effect of this was maybe that AppalCorps just didn't feel as welcome. I felt like some CMs from other regions viewed our regional mission and us with a measure of suspicion, as if we were somehow stealing resources for white kids that would've otherwise gone to children of color. I got asked, hopefully from a point of ignorance, "Why is TFA in Appalachia?" I never thought that that would be something I would have to explain. ]]> 2016-07-15 02:08:01 UTC https://padlet.com/jamie_beth_nunn/ofcv3l93x6x6/wish/116442887 https://padlet.com/jamie_beth_nunn/ofcv3l93x6x6/wish/116469256  I think the low satisfaction with TFA was more shocking and worth investigating. It would have been helpful to know if others felt that it was okay to be honest, but unfortunately I  think a lot of people didn't feel that way. The overall vibe I've gotten from other CMs is that they felt that the video was basically a tongue lashing. We thought that everything was okay, generally. I don't really know what else to say or where I was going with that, but I thought I should say something while I had a chance. I think the frustration will subside and it will be fine, though, when we have recharged. ]]> 2016-07-15 13:07:46 UTC https://padlet.com/jamie_beth_nunn/ofcv3l93x6x6/wish/116469256