The Official Website of Kendel Christensen

First Week of School

The first week of school. It was only four days, including one shortened schedule day. But it felt like about a month of life was drained from my soul. I came to school the first day with a plan. I had a vision and a big goal for the year, I had a management plan, […]

First Day of School!!!

First day of school. Wow. The stuff of legend. The stuff of which books are written.  The stuff that makes you want to go through 6 weeks of training, read multiple books on the subject, go to hundreds of hours of workshops, call and email every expert worth their spit, and compile it all into […]

Teach for America’s Boot Camp

Though many things have happened since then, I feel that I can’t get to any of that until I explain where the month of July went.  And there is a good explanation. A week ago, I finished what is known in Teach for America as “institute”—which was really odd to call at first considering how […]

Best. Day. Yet.

Today was my favorite day so far, by far. Woke up again at 5am, having won the battle over my bed for the second day in a row (disclaimer: I actually have a huge advantage… it isn’t that comfy, I don’t have a mattress pad, and it is THE creakiest bed I have slept on […]

Notes, and the End of Induction

The first week of my new life as a Teach for America corps member here in Philadelphia is now over. It has felt a lot like the MTC–Large group meetings, discussing the vision and mission and goals of the movement in order to get us pumped up to work hard, living in tight quarters with […]

Arrived at Teach for America Induction!

I got aboard a red-eye flight from Salt Lake City at 11:35pm, arrived at JFK airport at 5:35am, and my life will never be the same again. It has officially happened. I am a part of Teach for America, a movement dedicated to the goal that one day, all children will have an excellent education.  […]

What The Gospel of Jesus Christ Means to Me

What was the lesson about last week? Pause. Write notes, make commitments to yourself, ask yourself ‘when I go home and someone asks me what I learned in Church, what are some things I could say?” It’s like, God put us into families for a reason. Quote 1. The Gospel is a two-edged sword, so […]

Two Weeks in Denmark and Sweden!

     I’ve known since January that I would be dedicating my life to Teach for America and earning a Masters Degree at the University of Pennsylvania, so when one of my good friends asked if I was interested in joining him on a trip to Sweden and Denmark. Thinking it would make a fitting last […]