Snakes and Surprise Students

So I am walking back to a prospective apartment from the car where I had forgotten my driver's license to find a large black object on the sidewalk. "Hmm, what is this?" I thought to myself. Upon closer inspection, my eyes scrolled from the tail, along the 1.5 in thick body up to the head of a huge black snake! Ahh! At first I wasn't sure if it was real because it was so still, as I have never encountered a snake of that size (at least 2.5 ft long) outside of a zoo. After deciding that it was most certainly real, I hopped over it and walked briskly back to the apartment.

Perhaps ignoring a blatant sign from the All Mighty, we decided to go for this apartment. We had the most stressful 15 minutes that I have experienced in a long time as we went back and forth as to whether to go through the application process (competing with 5 other groups) or to pay a slightly higher price. After prolonged fetal positions and sounds of agony, we decided to make the call! We weren't quite set, however, because if we wanted the place it meant coming up with $1500 in cash in the next three hours. Luckily, a local Walmart hooked us up with cashing a personal check (something they supposedly do not do on a typical basis). All in all, we now have a place to live!

On the school side of things, this morning was a true challenge. I was just opening my lesson to a one person class when three students whom I had never seen before, except working metal detector duty, entered our classroom. Not knowing what was going on, I assumed I was the only one who did not know why this was occurring; I introduced myself and quickly learned their names. I also found out that the class that they had been in was behind where we were, which meant that it might be challenging for them to grasp the lesson. By the end of the day, I had rushed a bit through the intro and guided practice - so some students were still struggling. This is certainly frustrating, but I have no doubt that they will have a strong understanding of the material tomorrow.

I also had a successful call to K.'s mom! K. hasn't been in school for a few days now and we are growing concerned. It turns out that she thought her son could not return to school because he had missed 3 days. I urged her to call the school to make sure that he could absolutely not come to school - in which case I offered evening or weekend tutoring sessions to help K. pass the big re-test next week. Hopefully we will see him again soon.

Shout out to my mom for sending my quilt - I sleep so much better in the coziness!

4 day week and then only a few days before the test. Also, Atlanta Pride is this weekend. Should be a fun time!

A little 'tude.

So this morning started out a little shaky (again). We had two students - the student whose mother I called a couple of days ago was not there. We think something may be going on at home. Our faculty advisor is looking into it. One of our students had some major attitude, clearly not thrilled to be there. When it was my turn, I attempted my incredible motivational speech that I had been formulating for the previous 10 minutes (in my head - next time I'll take some notes...) - it began with "Who wants to spend their summer in summer school next year?!" Raising my hand to indicate "I do!" and asking this in a very sarcastic tone. I highlighted the fact that the test is two weeks from today and that we need to have a sense of urgency. I then tried to squeeze in the fact that we need them to say things in class with confidence, not just muttering answers under their breath so they have more confidence when they rock the test. "You know the answer, I know you know the answer, so be confident and say it!" Although it could have been smoother, I think it served its purpose.

The morning hour had drawn to a close, and it was my time to conduct my lesson. I hoped to spark the interest of my students with dramatic hand gestures, energy, and an enthusiastic tone. It worked a little, but in the future I need to find more sustainable and predicable investment strategies. For example! I planned my method for rational and irrational numbers for next week this afternoon. Relating the idea to girlfriends or boyfriends, you want one that is consistent and predicable, spends alone time with you, and in the end, is absolutely perfect - rational decimal numbers have either a consistent pattern or are terminal - unlike irrational numbers with that infinite, random drama at the end of them. Rational numbers, like super significant others, spend alone time with you, with just one of you in the numerator or denominator of a fraction without endless friends hanging around (can be expressed in the form of an integer over an integer - and they are perfect, because radicals with perfect square radicands are rational. Hope it goes well.

I handled the attitude with a firm, relatively harsh, approach. I also coupled it with warm, one-on-one interactions, however. In the future I must try to leave emotion out of it and calmly explain how students are being disrespectful and precisely what they can do to get back on track. Today N. kept making errors adding radicals with like radicands together. I said that this is what happens when we are not focused or tired - blaming her addition errors on her lack of focus. Almost too late did I realize that the real problem was that she cannot add and subtract negative numbers. So we spent the rest of the period reviewing how to add negatives - remember this is 8th grade - yet another example of how these students have been done a horrific disservice by their education.

Overall a good day as I look forward to giving my lesson tomorrow using the Jordin Sparks' song "One Step At A Time" to talk about how we need to take problems one step at a time so we don't rush into things and make mistakes.

Oops and The Big Fake Out

The day started off a little shaky. Everyday we are given "daily sponge" problems, which are warm up problems for students to do prior to the formal lesson. Today's problem asked about how many square wood pieces a carpenter would have left over after she created a square top with the most pieces possible. I proceeded to outline the problem, as the two students who were in class today were having trouble beginning. Opposite the ideal way I might have started the explanation, I began to find the greatest perfect square factor of 195 - which, unless I have done my calculations incorrectly is, in fact, 1. Not the right way to do the problem. Having realized my error and pointed out to the students that this was not the correct approach, I began the correct method: finding the perfect square factor that is closest to 195, but does not exceeding it - 169, leaving 26 pieces remaining.

After this, I ran into another hurdle as a problem asked about interest rates and making a deposit in a bank. The student understood the problem doing it one way, but I wanted to show her a more efficient way to get the same right answer. This student is very quick to pick things up; therefore, I assumed that this would be no different. To my chagrin, however, the concept did not flow like DMX free-styling. To make matters a little harder by heightening my nerves, an observer of the highest rank entered the room during the explanation. Although I was nervous to receive her feedback, she actually left a very positive message relating that my "explanation led the student to really get it!" This was a welcome reassurance.

At 1:30, signs all over the school read "TFA, Emergency Meeting 1:30, CS Room." Confused and anxious, all corps members reported to the CS room promptly. A Corps Member Advisor addressed the group, "Our school director is upstairs in an important meeting so I will be the one to deliver this bad news. I just heard it myself about 15 minutes ago, so bear with me. Although you guys are doing an awesome job in the classroom, A. Public Schools has made the decision to have your faculty advisors step in and teach the rest of summer school. They do not believe the students are making enough progress. You will still turn in lesson plans, but you will not teach any more during institute; instead you will observe everyday." At this point a murmur in the crowd suggested that this must be a joke. The speaker replied to this with, "I am so far to the opposite of that. This is really hard for me to tell you" with tears emerging in his eyes. At this point, I began to imagine the rest of institute at the back of a classroom - it would be frustrating, but maybe it was best for the students, and I would still learn a little. Other corps members were taking it much harder - bursting into tears all over the room.

To deal with the harsh reality of the moment, the speaker suggested that we discuss what TFA means to us to bring our spirits back. Corps member advisors held up signs with different slogans on them. Finally, the last member raised her sign which read, "Totally Free Afternoon!" Stunned, corps members looked around, searching for answers from each other. "The bus is waiting, we were just kidding!" we were told. Long story short, many were very bitter and hurt that our leaders would play such a cruel joke on us. But, either way, we had the afternoon off! Spectacular. Apparently this is a tradition that they insert when they feel that people are wearing thin - a well-timed choice this time, as just this morning I heard a couple of corps members sharing that they had thought about quitting the program the night before because the work was getting to be too much and sleep too little.

Anyway, speaking of sleep, I am off to dream land.

First Call Home

This evening I made my first "teacher call" to a student's home. One student in our class is not only chronically late, but also absent frequently. When summer school is only 4.5 weeks long, every day counts. I made a call in the early evening and got an answering machine. Identifying myself with my name, I revealed that I am one of K.'s summer school teachers. I began by mentioning how much all teachers missed the student in class today, emphasizing that K. is an active participant in classroom mathematical discussions and a patient, hard-worker. Wanting to stress the importance of his daily attendance at school, I commented that if there was anything that they could suggest to the teaching staff or if there was anyway that we could work out together to ensure that he gets to school everyday, we would like to make every effort to make this happen. Hopefully K. will be in class tomorrow.

On a side note, I made the unfortunate decision of eating too much dried fruit as I snacked yesterday and seem to be battling some form of a cold - a rough combination.

This evening I participated in a discussion with a number of current and past corps members about their queer experiences in teaching. All veterans reported that they remained closeted at school - I think most people in the discussion left feeling pretty discouraged. However, technically there are no legal protections in many states (here or in other regions in the US) for "alternate" sexual orientations. Therefore, from the perspective of protecting one's job, perhaps this is the best way to go.

Pump Fakes and Starbursts

How to demonstrate the idea that word problems throw extraneous information at you? Bring in the pump fake! During our math lit hour this morning as people were going over rules and procedures, I began to daydream about better ways to invest our students in my lesson. It occurred to me to get physical. At the beginning of my time, I questioned the class as to who played basketball. A young man raised his hand and I asked him to rise, step forward, and show me his best defensive stance. After being entirely unimpressed I said, really man, I am going to get by you like none other if you don't D me up better. So he got lower and I pretended that I had the ball. I took it to the right and he followed. Going up for a pump fake, I said that he jumped out of his shoes and I dunked on him. But in round two, he knew it was coming so that he could say "get out of here" to my shot attempt. I was the test and he was the student. Tests are going to throw lots of pump fakes at you as you go through them. As the student, you must see those coming and react accordingly so that you are best able to defend yourself.

I asked our students to write down how they see their lives in 15 years - family, home, car, travel, job, etc. Sharing aloud, one student remarked that she and her current baby would have a 3 bedroom house and a porche. Another student pronounced that she would live in a million dollar mansion and travel all over the world. With the great help of an old middle school math teacher of mine, we broke down exactly how much more money per day you make by staying in school and one day graduating from college as opposed to not finishing high school. The students were not overtly impressed; however, I think that it demonstrated well to them the monetary value in continuing their education through college.

Tomorrow I teach perfect squares. A fellow teacher imparted to a group earlier that she intended to use starburts for this exercise so that they could have a clear visual of what a perfect square really is. I decided that this sounded pretty cool and made it my personal mission to get some darn starbursts for my students. After an incredibly inefficient, two-hour session at school processing (more finger printing for a new school district), I set off for the gas station that we always pass on the way to school, hoping for starbursts. Eureka! I now have a full ziploc bag (useful for many things!) full of colorful squares ready to help students remember what a perfect square is.

First Day as a Teacher

I am super exhausted but I wanted to right a quick one.

Despite my hard work over the weekend, I ended up getting to bed pretty late last night. However, our bus is leaving later now, so I intend to sleep in until 6am.

I had morning duty today. My role, along with 5 of my fellow corps members, took place at the middle school medal detectors. As students walked in, we searched their purses or small backpacks and patted them down. We were the ones feeling uncomfortable since they were all quite used to this daily treatment, almost laughing at the beginning because of our tentativeness.

The woman who instructed us in our duty relayed that she "lets the pregnant ones walk to the side of the medal detector." I thought to myself, "Makes sense. Wouldn't want them getting any unnecessary radiation." Five minutes later, however, I wasn't sure whether I should have been more shocked at this so plainly stated advice, or at myself for not thinking anything of it at the time I heard it.

After patting down 300 girls, it was time for morning class. We began with a grand total of 1 student in the classroom. However, by the time it was time for my first lesson we had 4, ending the day with 5 or 6 I believe (other teachers take the later lessons). In the morning we went around and discussed the classroom expectations and how each student would perform with them; one student mentioned that he had an anger management problem. A slight worry trickled into my headm, strongly led by images of me ducking to escape flying chairs. However, he proved himself to be quite the eager participant and active learner.

My lesson on scientific notation went well. I evidently missed the memo on providing students an assessment at the end, but I will be sure to get on this tomorrow.

My greatest pleasure of the day: finding some folders in the "grab pile" in which I organized the tons of paper given to us and which we must give to others everyday. Boy they were a sweet find.

Going to bed too late again. Yes, a recurring theme.

Long week followed by a longer weekend.

We are work-horses here. Machines really. I think I took about 5 waking hours off from doing work over these past two days, including meals. The group work is frustrating at times because we are not overly efficient. Most people here are either out or closet type Aers, and working with these super uptight individuals can be extremely trying. Overall, I have maintained my composure and look to the fact that the vast majority of group work has been completed this week and we will therefore not have a vast many procedures or consequences to dispute for comfort.

TFA encourages people to take off Saturdays, which is a nice thought, but is begging for a mass, stressful Sunday rush. Take the copy room for example. The copy center opened at 2pm today. I got there at about 2:03pm. People were literally picking up their pace so that they could inch their way ahead of me through the door. All copiers were already taken and I was given a number to wait. After a relatively short time I had the chance at "C.S. Lewis," one copier in a clever naming system. We are allowed 750 copies to use over the next few weeks - I now have 648. I will have to cut back on class worksheets in the future it seems. Even at this early hour this was not the room in which I would like to kick back and relax after a long day at work. To the contrary, it is quite the chaotic stress machine, a place in which I intend to spend as little time as possible.

I knew I would not be picking out my new favorite Bentley on a teacher's salary, but I didn't realize that I would be sitting in a dark room, working by the light of a dim desk lamp and eating cereal out of a ziploc bag. Times are tough. In truth, my overhead sadly burned out yesterday after a week long love affair with flickering sporadically and confusion at the grocery store the other day led to my failure to purchase an appropriate bowl. Hopefully things will pick up this next week.

On a lighter note, I saw a girl carrying a newly bought basketball this afternoon and hopefully asked if she played. After she offered that she does indeed play, I quickly got my phone out and asked for her digits. She did not leave until I had called her phone, so hopefully we can get a nice, de-stressing shootaround in this week.

I have also discovered laundry and a workout facility here in our dorm! These are little known treasures, so do keep it on the DL. This afternoon's moments of feeling a bit overwhelmed were assuaged by a nice little jaunt down to work it out, literally.

Tomorrow is our first day of teaching. Perhaps part of TFA's ploy in relieving any anxiety over this is keeping us busy as heck. Well, I have a feeling it will work. I look forward to meeting the students and seeing how the worksheets, into which I have put hours of work, pay off. Perhaps I should get my practice on one more time...

Goodness, the Week Has Flown By

It is hard to believe that after tomorrow we will be 20% done with institute, as our CMA enthusiastically relayed to us in an evening email just now.

Institute is like a constant finals week with 2 basketball games, but without the flexible free time. Your mind at the end of school is simply shot. Today I was trying to read and explain something very simple on the bus back. Although I did not feel physically exhausted, I just couldn't seem to say what I was thinking. We literally go non-stop with about 2 hours for ourselves everyday. And when those begin to cut into sleep time, as getting up at 5:45am is mighty early, you have even less personal time. Everyone is ridiculously driven and people thrive off of it, rarely outwardly showing a negative attitude.

Last night was intense. We walked into a small discussion room with huge white sheets and markers on the table and something about depicting a challenge you have been forced to combat in your life written on the wall. Oh no, I thought, not one of these. I fear that I will not get much out of this, perhaps lesson planning would be a better use of our time?...

Two and a half hours (ending 40 minutes later than originally scheduled) and many tears later, we walked out with a strong appreciation of the safe space and honest sharing that had just occurred. I would not have predicted that I would have shared the things I did with the group. Everyone was incredibly respectful and open, thanking everyone else for making themselves vulnerable in sharing intimate details of their life. These individuals have overcome some really crazy stuff; it is truly a miracle that some people summon the strength to rise from their beds everyday.

On a less heavy note, the weekend is almost here! The plan is to try to get to a hot club and dance the night away (partially...maybe until 12:30am) and get some sweet sleep this weekend...or maybe just sleep and lesson plan, yes, this sounds better.

We cannot wait to meet our students on Monday! Many of the concepts I will be teaching seem not overly complicated. I really want to get into the classroom and find out exactly where these students find confusion and remedy the situation so they can rock the CRCT in a few weeks! (the test they have to pass in order to get to high school).

To sleeeeep....

Learning the Ropes

Working for TFA is almost like cheating. Today our Curriculum Specialist introduced us to this incredible excel program. Here is the break down: State standards tend to be very brief and vague - for instance "Students will understand the Civil War." It is the responsibility of each teacher to take the standards and form specific individual learning objectives. TFA has already done this for us this summer in order to maximize our effect on positive student achievement outcomes over our 18 teaching days. (This is high stakes; if students do not pass, they will likely have to repeat a grade.)

Students took the pre-test yesterday, each question representing each of the 100 or so learning objectives. After entering student data, we were able to use this program to see which objectives students are proficient in and which ones students need help with. There are 6 students in the class in which I will be teaching. On only two questions did all students answer correctly. Each member of a collaborative team must choose carefully which objectives to teach to the students, since there are more objectives that have yet to be mastered than we have time for. Tomorrow we will get into the details of lesson planning - always working backwards!: What do you want your students to know/be able to do (learning objectives), what assessment will you use to measure whether they have achieved this, how will get your students there (lesson planning).

I am a little fatigued, it is time for bed. Can't wait to start lesson planning!

First Day of Institute

Today the achievement gap became very real. Our summer students took a pre-test so that we'll be able to discover their weak areas and track their progress over the next few weeks. This afternoon we got the results back. Out of 85 questions, at least 3/4 of students hadn't gotten past question 60; even the students that had answered only about 10-25 questions correctly - I do not exaggerate. It is truly horrific that these students have such a poor understanding of middle school math. I hope to see some great gains this summer. Tomorrow we input the data from the tests into an excel program that will tell us specifically what each student needs help with. I am beginning to realize just how much programs like TFA are needed.

To Hotlanta!

The 3.5 hr drive from Charlotte to Atlanta was a breeze...in stark contrast to the next 5 weeks here for sure.

In keeping with the friendly attitude, high expectations, and impeccable efficiency that is TFA, registration included smiling faces screaming "welcome to atlanta, charlotte corps!" as we pretended not to be overwhelmed getting our room keys and two gigantic (honestly about 2 inches of paper each) binders of learning materials.

At the key table my name could not be located; so the gentleman gave me a key to a room that had yet to provide residents with shelter. As he handed over the keys, ensuring that I realized that I was about to sign away my life should I lose them, he informed me that I had no roommates as of yet. One girl standing near soon got a key to the same suite; however, I have not seen her for hours...wait, she literally just walked in. So as of right now, we have a 4-person suite to ourselves, which means a bathroom each...pretty sweet!

In other news, a friend from school and I went apartment shopping yesterday afternoon - not necessarily as future roommates, just perusing the scene. We started out at apartments located in uptown Charlotte - absolutely gorgeous. Brand new, granite kitchen counter tops, 10 foot ceilings, hardwood floors. Incredible. My friend and I looked at each other and exchanged the shared opinion that we weren't sure if we are ready for "real people" living. With a 10% teacher discount and the first month of rent free these are very tempting. Honestly, these would go for at least $1200-$1500 a person per month in the Bay Area. I do not know if they will work out, but it would be amazing.

My bus leaves at 6:40am everyday, which means I actually get to sleep in a bit, since some leave at 6:15am. The gym was built for the Olympics so it is beautiful, I can't wait to break in there...gym nerd I am, but I have come to accept it.

Off to bed soon for an early start! Everyone is still in the blissful state of college freshman before they realize they have somehow chosen all upper-level classes with the toughest professors...we have no idea of the challenges ahead, but boy will we learn to teach.

I also beg you to forgive potentially horrific grammatical and spelling errors in future posts due to time restrictions and sleep deprivation.

Last few sessions and baseball...

Starting off the day bright and early, my roommate and I emerged from our slumber at 6:45am. The sleep deprivation starting to really creep up on the group, the girls and I brushed our teeth in a sleepy silence amid a few attempts at "Good morning."

Half of the group went to processing today (which I did yesterday) while the other half rotated through sessions on the importance of advancing our students more than one grade level, adapting to the Charlotte community, and TFA's diversity mission. The defining moment of the latter came when a young Black man answered a plea regarding how people of color in the room could help the White future teachers in the room relate to their students of color with, "As much as your students might think, 'Who is this White lady, I don't have to listen to them, the same students will likely say of me, 'Who is this guy, he might look like me, but he doesn't come from my background.'" It was fantastic to participate in a conversation about race that was really the conversation - as opposed to side conversations that might occur afterwards.

Our next activity took us to downtown Charlotte to an exhibit entitled, "From cotton fields to sky scrapers." It broke down the history of race in NC from cotton, to 'colored' drinking fountains, to the founding of the new Bank of America in modern Charlotte. A past corps member specifically designed this exhibit for teachers and their students and it is therefore very interactive, including real cotton to see and feel. If you are ever in NC, check out the Levine Museum.

In the evening we headed over to the local Knights Baseball stadium for some hardball action. Thinking I was the only Californian in the group, I was feeling a little regionally lonely - until...I spotted a young woman with a Cal baseball hat, however! I immediately inquired as to her place of origin, and she responded that she has recently lived in Berkeley and San Francisco. Overjoyed, I sat down and enjoyed the game with my new-found friend. Needless to say, even without this comforting discovery, I am certainly feeling at home among the heavily Southern and female-dominated group with whom I doubted I would find real connections only a few days ago. Off on a scavenger hunt of Charlotte tomorrow!

Lots of learning and spilled beans...

Started the day at 7:10am! Yes! Off to breakfast and our first training session of the day. This morning and afternoon we addressed everything from the mission of Teach for America: to close the achievement gap, to the details of the gap in Charlotte, to core values, to hammering away that each of us is a representative for TFA at all times...and specifically to be careful with what we write in online blogs...a good warning. Our director expressed her regret that we had started late. Expecting to find a reading of 8:15am at the earliest on my watch, I looked down to 8:03am. Goodness, I am going to be the most punctual, type A person ever after this experience.

This evening we enjoyed fine dining as we mingled with big donors to the Charlotte TFA organization. The high (slash low) point of the night was when the superintendent praised the work of our executive director and, to the surprise of 08 corps members, wished her the "best of luck this fall at Harvard University!" Appropriately, our executive director spoke next, explaining that this was indeed new information to us. The poor superintendent was heartily embarrassed and apologized profusely for revealing the confidential information. It is a true shame that we will not get to work with her in the fall as her sharpness, leadership, and professionalism are unparalleled.

No marsh mellows and toothpicks today, but we spent many an hour in an auditorium and broke out into smaller groups to compare high and low performing schools across categories such as achievement disparities relating to socioeconomic background.

Tomorrow we participate in district processing. This includes such fun activities as fingerprinting and drug testing. Super. SHOUT-OUT to my Mom for overnighting my driver's license! The closing remarks this afternoon went something like this, "Thank you for your active engagement today; and Katie Fisher, we have a package for you." This is clearly the least of all the amazing things you have done for me in my life, but still, this one is very helpful, thank you!

First Day of Freshman Year...Take 2

Rising from my bed in Oakland at 4:10am, I traveled through Denver, arriving in Charlotte, NC this afternoon. After some slightly awkward first interactions with fellow corps members, we eventually were all transported to Queens University, pictured at left.

The Charlotte '08 corps consists of approximately 145 members. While I expected a relatively equal sex distribution, there are only about 30 young men, making an extremely female dominated group.

Feeling a little cramped after the 5 hours of flying, I went for a beautiful run through neighborhoods of large brick houses with vast green front lawns. Goodness, the South is warm. I need to refrain from outside activity in the hot afternoon .

After enjoying a light barbecue, each group participated in a team-building exercise including many marsh mellows and a few toothpicks. Without speaking, the goal was to build the highest tower possible. Our team did not comply with the fundamental rule, and ended up whispering quietly; which I unfortunately started because I had failed to hear the no-speaking rule when it was initially announced. Our tower was a sad blob of marsh mellow and toothpick.

So far no "instant connections." But there will be maximum opportunity for them tomorrow, as the day begins before 7am.

Last Days at Home

In the chaos that was the packing up of my room at the end of school, I made the unfortunate decision to ship home boxes that, unbeknownst to me, contained both my driver's license and passport. Luckily, I was only gently patted down by TSA traveling from Burlington, VT to San Francisco, CA. However, I worry that the Oakland TSA officials will be slightly less pleased that I will not have hard copies of official, government issued forms of identification. I will also need these items for Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District processing in a few days as I perform my first official actions as a Teach for America corps member. Although certainly a nuisance, I am sure that everything will work out just fine.

A little timeline for those to whom I have not updated:

June 3rd: Travel to Charlotte, NC for Teach for America (TFA) Induction Events

June 8th: Carpool from Charlotte to Atlanta, GA for 5 weeks of TFA training, Institute, where I will teach summer school and participate in leadership, diversity, etc. seminars

July 12th: End Institute and hopefully return to Oakland for a little while

July 29th: Charlotte Orientation

August 13th: Teacher Workdays Begin

August 25th: First Day of School

In other news. I went into the doctor hoping simply for a pink eye remedy, and was convinced to get a whooping cough booster and Hep A shot. My right deltoid is now noticeably protruding from my body, not unlike a constant muscle cramp. I am hoping that this unforeseen consequence to fighting rib-breaking coughs will subside. With the wisdom from the father of old friend from preschool, I am confident that it shall.