I think that the sad spell that has lasted three weeks so far may be broken. It has been a great week, and it started off strong Monday. This is progress report week at Seabrook Middle School, so students knew where they stand on Friday. In social studies, the teacher handed out records of grades to his class and gave students fifteen minutes to organize their binders and begin making up work that is missing. "Sophia" and I spent some time working on figuring out which assignments she is missing and making a game plan. We agreed to meet during Learning Lab to work on some of those assignments. Learning Lab is a half hour period at the end of the day when students can do homework, makeup work or study. When I went to Sophia's Learning Lab, she told me that she decided that she wanted to work on English. Unfortunately, this degraded into social time with other students. I shifted gears and began working with other students in the classroom on their math homework. Still, I was disappointed that helping Sophia improve her grades is a slow process – but improvement is happening and I can't forget that.
There was another disappointment during the day: "Mike" told me that he has decided to quit our Destination Imagination team. I talked with him at lunch and he told me that DI just isn't fun anymore and he can't work with "Jacques" on a team. I was sad that we have lost another team member, but I'd rather Mike make a hard decision to leave something causing excessive stress than to stay and be miserable. Later in the week, Mike told me that his parents wanted him to continue with DI so he was there on Thursday. It's still the most draining and challenging aspect of my service, but Destination Imagination will help me and the team members grow in our ability to work with others, an essential skill.
I felt extremely productive during Tuesday in classes. My portion of math class is going well. I am improving on the Warmups -- we now have review questions and a challenge question – so they've become integral to students' learning. On the other hand, I am concerned that I am encroaching on the teacher's territory of responsibility. The important thing is that progress is being made and the students are becoming more organized. We'll see if this translates into better grades. In science class, students are beginning to work on a five-month long project that will synthesize all of their lessons on cells, heredity and the various body systems. Obviously it's a bit complex so I spent science class rushing from one side of the room to the other, helping students figure out creative ways to illustrate the various organelles found in cells. It was a blast.
Work continues on the Holocaust in English class. Tuesday, students watched a movie featuring interviews with Holocaust survivors. This topic is very depressing and consistently moves me, making me wondering how such atrocities could be committed. Some of the students do not feel this way. One student was making fart noises and laughing during the movie, so I brought him into the Pod to talk. (The Pod is a central room from which all classrooms for a particular grade are accessible.) I asked him why he was making noises and he said, "I don't want to hear Jews talking." Why? I asked. "Because they're Jews." The student quickly recanted his reason, but still claimed that the film was boring. I told him that while the stories may not be exciting, it is still important to respect the people as human beings, as well as respect the other students who may be moved by the interviews. I can't believe that after all these years, anti-Semitism still exists, even in relatively mild forms like this. Overcoming intolerance is a long battle and I won't see the conclusion of it in my lifetime. But I can't give up. I don't know if I made a difference or changed the student's worldview, but at least I didn't look away from his disrespect.
The students are also working on a Holocaust project. They are creating posters for important events during that period that will hang on lockers in the hallway, forming a timeline. "Erica" asked me to work with her in the Pod; she needed help looking up pictures about the Nuremberg war trials. I told her a few details about it and she then asked, "How did the Holocaust begin?" I saw it as a Teachable Moment and told her a little bit about how the treatment of Germany after the First World War created a void into which Hitler entered. I also said that a lot of the actions that she sees in school – people making fun of others while others ignore it – is similar to what led to the systematic murder of millions of people. I don't know if that will affect her daily life, but I think that she was certainly receptive. It provided a nice juxtaposition with my interaction with the other student.
Upon arriving at work Wednesday, Diane told me some terrible news: three of our teammates were home sick. On any day, this would be troubling but on a Wednesday it makes for an especially rough day. Chris, our team leader, has to stay at the office for various meetings. At 7:20, Diane, Amber and I headed off to work. We didn't want another disastrous after-school program, so we sent out a request for Young Heroes to come help us during Homework Help. Chris said he would ask them; we waited in hopes that they would come. There are few things as exciting as seeing a fleet of red jackets coming to the rescue. At 2:35, in walked Peter, Nathan and Lauia, three corps members from the Young Heroes team, and Chris. Homework Help wasn't perfect, but it went so much more smoothly with the Young Heroes there.
Thursdays seem to be my roughest day of the week – but usually only in my mind. My schedule is slightly different; I have a longer afternoon and Destination Imagination after school. But instead of dreading Thursday, I reminded myself that I needed to start the day with a huge positive can-do attitude. This was made easier by the presence of my team. After two days of sickness, all of my teammates were reunited! It was a good start to the day and I was incredibly energized for our morning greeting. Each day, we meet students as they enter the school and say hello and make them feel positively about coming. On Thursday, I was singing and dancing, greeting the students and the many substitutes who came to school.
A school full of subs can be disastrous. Luckily, I saw very little madness during the day. In fact, there was a substitute in social studies who had a very positive impact on the class. The assignment was to read about a girl from Israel and a girl from Saudi Arabia and compare them with each other and how women are treated in America. Instead of simply handing out the worksheets and letting the students work, the substitute taught a little. When he asked for details about the different girls, two of my students raised their hands. In fact, "Whitney" raised her hand twice. This never happens in social studies. I am so excited for what this can lead to – I think that if Whitney develops more self-confidence, she's going to be a wonder to those around her.
In the afternoons, students have UAs, periods devoted to subjects like music, art and gym. I go to music class on Thursdays to help out one of Diane's students, "William." He doesn't have much experience with guitar, so I work with him one on one to bring him up to the level of the other students. Last week, the period dragged on but I told myself this week would be different. I started our session with asking how William's day was going. He said, "Crappy." So we talked for a bit about his day, his classes and how Diane is helping him. The rest of the time we spent working on remembering some chords, transitioning between chords and increasing the tempo. When William said, "My favorite chord is A," I knew that it was a successful day. When William is around others, he tries to entertain them in disruptive ways. But one on one, he's respectful and shows that he is a good human being, capable of working even when things aren't interesting to him.
Friday started off great – people were really excited even though it was bitterly cold. The school-based teams went to Manchester to meet the Hillside team's afterschool partner for a presentation on dealing with students in crisis. While we could have used that time to work on projects as a team, the training will be very useful for my work in the classrooms. Shortly after we returned, I met my mentor for lunch. He paid for it – one of the luxuries of having a mentor – and we talked about the past month. We hadn't seen each other since mid-December, so it was good to catch up.
At the end of the day, the Manchester Hillside team led us through our monthly community meeting. The community meetings are chances for us to come together as a site and learn a little bit about each other and regroup on our mission. It was phenomenal, plain and simple. The Manchester team clearly put a lot of work into planning each segment. There was lots of music, dancing and celebrating each other. There is a segment of each Community Meeting known as the "Life's Work." It's a chance for someone to tell about their past and how it's brought them here. Kiowa told us about her life but because the Manchester team is so large – they have 10 corps members – each person made a poster with details about their life's work. We had some time to look at each one, but I spent a few minutes looking at the people in the room and ruminating. I work with a group of people that consistently blow me away with their love of humanity. I have never been in an organization that values other human beings as much as the staff and corps in City Year do. It is an honor to be a part of this world and I thank the corps members on the Manchester team for setting up the prompt for that reaction. It was the perfect end to a great week and I can't wait for the next one.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Snow Day and Breaking Down Barriers
This past week was supposed to begin with a grand celebration. Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day and many people have a day off from work that they spend getting deals and sleeping in. At City Year New Hampshire, MLK Day means Young Heroes Opening Day. Young Heroes is a CY program that brings middle schoolers together on Saturdays to teach them about social justice issues such as homelessness and get them involved in service projects related to those topics. We had planned to meet in Portsmouth on Monday to kick off the Young Heroes program, march through the streets in honor of King's desire for justice and end the afternoon with a service project. Unfortunately, the weather had other plans. On our way to work, my roommate Karibean and I discovered that the march was cancelled due to the heavy snowfall. This was a very disappointing development. We were both looking forward to an intense and memorable day and instead, we had to turn around. There was a chance that we would be called in later in the day but the weather was just too bad.
Tuesday was a good start to the school week. We were supposed to start working on book two, focusing on geometry, in math class. The students are starting to work on angles and I wanted to give them a warmup that would serve as a bridge between solving equations and angles. Unfortunately, I didn't get to the classroom on time and we spent much of the period on older material. We didn’t start working on book two so it had to wait for later in the week.
We have changed the breakdown of our afterschool teams to better work in our Homework Help program. We now have someone from both sixth and eighth grade staying behind on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Three other corps members go to Seacoast Youth Services to assist with their afterschool programs. I am the eighth grade corps member who switched so I was at Homework Help on Tuesday. I had a lot of success with DC. He had been distracted from his math homework, but I got him back on target. He is a very intelligent young man but has some trouble taking instruction. I think that I am getting better at working with him and keeping him from shutting down. I'm hoping that I can get him to see it's important to work with others and not disengage completely when confronted with a challenge.
I had hoped that Wednesday would bring a strong start to the next part of math class. The warmup problem that I had prepared was very overwhelming. It was a relatively complex equation involving angles and most of the students gave up when they first looked at it. I salvaged the situation as best as I could; I wrote down all of the steps and asked the students to copy it into their notes. Still, I was afraid that I had turned them off of angles – a dreadful idea since they hadn't even begun studying them yet. But as with all things, there was a positive side. The students began using their notebooks for the first time, developing good habits for future lessons.
Throughout Wednesday afternoon, I felt overwhelmed combating inappropriate comments. The eighth graders are learning about Israel and Palestine in social studies class while reading Night by Elie Wiesel in Language Arts. I have heard too many comments from students claiming that "Why are we studying this? This isn't about America." Also, I’ve heard students joke about the Holocaust films we've been watching. This is incredibly distressing. I want the students to understand that it's jokes like these that lead to a tolerance of or blind eye to more severe acts of disrespect and prejudice. I complained about this situation to my roommates on the drive home. Instead of merely comforting me, Moshe suggested that I present a workshop on intolerance. I'm glad that I now have something productive to work on instead of merely shouting into the wind.
When I went into math class on Thursday, I was better prepared for the day's warmup. I had simpler exercises for the students that were more closely related to the work they had done the day before. When the students said they were confused by the directions, I referred them to the notes that they had written the day before. I think we are on a good path now; they’re learning that their notes are important and will help them in their work. If I can help them become more organized, they will be better prepared for high school.
Thursday's afternoon brought a thrilling meeting of the Seabrook Destination Imagination team. We have had a lot of fluidity in team members and participation this year. I hope that we have finally settled down and gotten our team lineup complete. The team was given an instant challenge to prepare them for the day of the competition. This team has never before worked together so well or been so creative. Sandra, the other corps member leading this team, and I were both incredibly proud. Unfortunately, team communication broke down and WS, one of the team members, said he is going to quit. Another team member, AC, consistently wants to be in control and he butts heads with WS. WS said he would quit last week and I am concerned that our team still has some issues to address. If WS quits, it won't solve the problem; the two boys will not have learned how to work with others.
I told my roommate Karibean that I wasn't sure how Friday would go. I always look forward to Fridays because the whole corps is reunited after a long week, and for the most part they're a lot of fun. Still, they have the potential to put me in a weird, pensive mood. In the first few hours of Friday, I was convinced that it was a terrible day. We had an activity in the morning to teach us about the history of social movements; it took the form of the game show "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" The setup of the game was hilarious and very well done, but when my team lost I became angry and irate. I am a terrible loser at times, and I just shut down. I know that "it's just a game" and the point of the activity was to learn about social movements, not win, but for some reason I got into a very unpleasant place.
Luckily, I work for City Year, an organization that doesn't let that mentality fester. Whenever I talked with someone about what happened, they didn't brush aside my feelings or try to tell me empty words of comfort. Sometimes people go through rough patches and that's okay. After work, I talked with Dylan, my first friend at CYNH. We were the only ones at the weekly meeting of C Y We Think, a philosophy discussion group. We talked about how CY cares about human beings. City Year is full of people who will let you express your feelings without judging you, without making you feel like you're wrong for being unhappy. I am incredibly lucky to be working for an organization that values me because I'm a human being, not because I can do something to benefit it. I am surrounded by vast amounts of goodness and support. It's mindblowing how fortunate I am to be here, and I'm looking forward to giving back, to other people at CYNH and the children I work with, that goodness and support.
Tuesday was a good start to the school week. We were supposed to start working on book two, focusing on geometry, in math class. The students are starting to work on angles and I wanted to give them a warmup that would serve as a bridge between solving equations and angles. Unfortunately, I didn't get to the classroom on time and we spent much of the period on older material. We didn’t start working on book two so it had to wait for later in the week.
We have changed the breakdown of our afterschool teams to better work in our Homework Help program. We now have someone from both sixth and eighth grade staying behind on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Three other corps members go to Seacoast Youth Services to assist with their afterschool programs. I am the eighth grade corps member who switched so I was at Homework Help on Tuesday. I had a lot of success with DC. He had been distracted from his math homework, but I got him back on target. He is a very intelligent young man but has some trouble taking instruction. I think that I am getting better at working with him and keeping him from shutting down. I'm hoping that I can get him to see it's important to work with others and not disengage completely when confronted with a challenge.
I had hoped that Wednesday would bring a strong start to the next part of math class. The warmup problem that I had prepared was very overwhelming. It was a relatively complex equation involving angles and most of the students gave up when they first looked at it. I salvaged the situation as best as I could; I wrote down all of the steps and asked the students to copy it into their notes. Still, I was afraid that I had turned them off of angles – a dreadful idea since they hadn't even begun studying them yet. But as with all things, there was a positive side. The students began using their notebooks for the first time, developing good habits for future lessons.
Throughout Wednesday afternoon, I felt overwhelmed combating inappropriate comments. The eighth graders are learning about Israel and Palestine in social studies class while reading Night by Elie Wiesel in Language Arts. I have heard too many comments from students claiming that "Why are we studying this? This isn't about America." Also, I’ve heard students joke about the Holocaust films we've been watching. This is incredibly distressing. I want the students to understand that it's jokes like these that lead to a tolerance of or blind eye to more severe acts of disrespect and prejudice. I complained about this situation to my roommates on the drive home. Instead of merely comforting me, Moshe suggested that I present a workshop on intolerance. I'm glad that I now have something productive to work on instead of merely shouting into the wind.
When I went into math class on Thursday, I was better prepared for the day's warmup. I had simpler exercises for the students that were more closely related to the work they had done the day before. When the students said they were confused by the directions, I referred them to the notes that they had written the day before. I think we are on a good path now; they’re learning that their notes are important and will help them in their work. If I can help them become more organized, they will be better prepared for high school.
Thursday's afternoon brought a thrilling meeting of the Seabrook Destination Imagination team. We have had a lot of fluidity in team members and participation this year. I hope that we have finally settled down and gotten our team lineup complete. The team was given an instant challenge to prepare them for the day of the competition. This team has never before worked together so well or been so creative. Sandra, the other corps member leading this team, and I were both incredibly proud. Unfortunately, team communication broke down and WS, one of the team members, said he is going to quit. Another team member, AC, consistently wants to be in control and he butts heads with WS. WS said he would quit last week and I am concerned that our team still has some issues to address. If WS quits, it won't solve the problem; the two boys will not have learned how to work with others.
I told my roommate Karibean that I wasn't sure how Friday would go. I always look forward to Fridays because the whole corps is reunited after a long week, and for the most part they're a lot of fun. Still, they have the potential to put me in a weird, pensive mood. In the first few hours of Friday, I was convinced that it was a terrible day. We had an activity in the morning to teach us about the history of social movements; it took the form of the game show "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" The setup of the game was hilarious and very well done, but when my team lost I became angry and irate. I am a terrible loser at times, and I just shut down. I know that "it's just a game" and the point of the activity was to learn about social movements, not win, but for some reason I got into a very unpleasant place.
Luckily, I work for City Year, an organization that doesn't let that mentality fester. Whenever I talked with someone about what happened, they didn't brush aside my feelings or try to tell me empty words of comfort. Sometimes people go through rough patches and that's okay. After work, I talked with Dylan, my first friend at CYNH. We were the only ones at the weekly meeting of C Y We Think, a philosophy discussion group. We talked about how CY cares about human beings. City Year is full of people who will let you express your feelings without judging you, without making you feel like you're wrong for being unhappy. I am incredibly lucky to be working for an organization that values me because I'm a human being, not because I can do something to benefit it. I am surrounded by vast amounts of goodness and support. It's mindblowing how fortunate I am to be here, and I'm looking forward to giving back, to other people at CYNH and the children I work with, that goodness and support.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
A Daily Roller Coaster
I went into this week feeling unusually sullen. I think that last week was a little more difficult than I was conscious of and I wasn't quite ready for work on Monday. However, I didn't remain in a bad mood or let it infect my teammates and I had a good day of service. After work, I accompanied about 20 other corps members on a trip to City Year Headquarters in Boston for a presentation on becoming a senior corps member. The van ride down was fun; it didn't feel like the ordeal that driving into Boston usually is. Walking into headquarters, I saw many familiar faces. There were corps members from Boston and Rhode Island, many of whom I had met at NELA. It was a blast to see them again – I got a few hugs and said "thanks" again to Brendan, the guy who let me stay with him – but I felt bad for those who hadn’t been at NELA. I did not enjoy seeing my teammates and best friends standing on the side, feeling ostracized and awkward. I had seen parts of the presentation before at NELA and the panel Q&A session did not focus exclusively on becoming part of the senior corps. But while I may not have gotten any insight on what it's like to be a senior corps member, my desire to see City Year grow and improve was reinvigorated.
Tuesday was a roller coaster. The first three classes were full of success. In math, I spent 20 minutes explaining how to solve equations with fractions to the class. Each class starts with a few warm up problems; the math teacher has given me a great amount of power in allowing me to go over them. It is helping me develop my teaching abilities as well as letting me work with the entire class at once. However, the wave of success did not continue all day, crashing after lunch during science. There was supposed to be a substitute but he left early and I was told the regular teacher would arrive shortly. I started working with the students on a brief vocabulary review. Trouble arrived when one student spat a spitball at another student and several kids began pointing and laughing. The student, after rubbing the spitball out of his hair, said, "F—k you" to the spitball shooter. I immediately went into panic mode and remained there for the rest of class. I couldn't get myself into gear and continued reacting to the troublesome behavior of the students instead of being proactive. This seems to be my biggest flaw as a corps member – I can't step back when I'm in the middle of a fire. It doesn't help the situation for me to try to stop kids, to have them conform to what I want when what I want is complete compliance. I know other people might believe we should treat kids as lesser beings, but I believe that the way I treat my teammates is the way I should treat my students – with respect, patience and courtesy.
The whole day wasn't a disaster, though. I stayed at SMS to help DC, the student who had been hit by the spitball. I wanted to talk with him about the incident; I knew that he had felt ganged up on and I wanted him to have someone to go to when he feels overwhelmed. We spent the hour that DC was at Homework Help working on his social studies binder. We wrote down the list of papers that should be in the binder, organized the ones he did have and discovered the ones he was missing. DC only had four assignments missing; we planned on him talking to the teacher to get replacements and working on the assignments during Homework Help on Wednesday.
Wednesday was another day with two distinct halves of good and bad. The math teacher gave the students another warm up on solving equations with fractions. I spent most of the class time helping students individually and going over the problems on the board. I had the students come up to the board and do them. I am aware of the limitations of this approach – students might feel embarrassed working on the board and I may only be helping the student that is at the board. But I need to remember that if I'm only helping one student, she will be better prepared and that's a success.
At Homework Help club, I had another disaster. I was expecting that DC would be ready to get down to work but I was wrong. We have been having a lot of trouble with students getting on computers in the library; DC has been surfing Facebook instead of working on assignments. While I was unsuccessfully trying to get him to do work for social studies, another student asked me if he could get on the computer. When he complained after I said no, I said, "Too bad. This is Homework Club and you need to do your homework." As I watched him walk away, red-faced, I realized that I had taken a rude tone with him. A few minutes later I went over and apologized to him, saying, "I was frustrated with another student and it's not fair for me to be rude to you. You deserve respect. Just because you’re younger than me doesn't mean I shouldn't respect you. I need to work on that and I apologize." He was feeling better when he left but I still felt disappointed in myself.
Things had been rough, but I was ready for Thursday – slightly. My teammate Bear was going to Manchester Hillside Middle School for the day and a corps member from Hillside, Cameron, was shadowing me. The day had no troubles but it was difficult having a guest in my world. I told Cameron that I hope I wasn't being too overbearing, but I acknowledged that, instinctually, I felt that Seabrook was my territory and he was threatening my control over my classrooms. That's a silly way to think – especially considering that I am a guest in the teacher's classrooms – but it's one more thing to work on. Overall, the experience was mutually beneficial. Cameron helped give me tips on running Destination Imagination sessions and he got to see other ways of helping in the classroom.
Friday was the first day of this week that I was really happy for the whole day. I was not in a good mood when I woke up but sometime between when I left my apartment and when I pulled into the parking lot, I was ready for a great day. I think I've finally readjusted to City Year. The only unfortunate part of this is that it happened at the end of the week on a day that I'm leaving early. But I'm already excited to get back to work on Monday for the Young Heroes Opening Day. The next two months are going to be hectic and intensely stressful. However, I'm feeling pretty confident that my happiness and excitement will last through these weeks and I’m looking forward to restarting this year with a smile on my face and a mind ready to serve.
Tuesday was a roller coaster. The first three classes were full of success. In math, I spent 20 minutes explaining how to solve equations with fractions to the class. Each class starts with a few warm up problems; the math teacher has given me a great amount of power in allowing me to go over them. It is helping me develop my teaching abilities as well as letting me work with the entire class at once. However, the wave of success did not continue all day, crashing after lunch during science. There was supposed to be a substitute but he left early and I was told the regular teacher would arrive shortly. I started working with the students on a brief vocabulary review. Trouble arrived when one student spat a spitball at another student and several kids began pointing and laughing. The student, after rubbing the spitball out of his hair, said, "F—k you" to the spitball shooter. I immediately went into panic mode and remained there for the rest of class. I couldn't get myself into gear and continued reacting to the troublesome behavior of the students instead of being proactive. This seems to be my biggest flaw as a corps member – I can't step back when I'm in the middle of a fire. It doesn't help the situation for me to try to stop kids, to have them conform to what I want when what I want is complete compliance. I know other people might believe we should treat kids as lesser beings, but I believe that the way I treat my teammates is the way I should treat my students – with respect, patience and courtesy.
The whole day wasn't a disaster, though. I stayed at SMS to help DC, the student who had been hit by the spitball. I wanted to talk with him about the incident; I knew that he had felt ganged up on and I wanted him to have someone to go to when he feels overwhelmed. We spent the hour that DC was at Homework Help working on his social studies binder. We wrote down the list of papers that should be in the binder, organized the ones he did have and discovered the ones he was missing. DC only had four assignments missing; we planned on him talking to the teacher to get replacements and working on the assignments during Homework Help on Wednesday.
Wednesday was another day with two distinct halves of good and bad. The math teacher gave the students another warm up on solving equations with fractions. I spent most of the class time helping students individually and going over the problems on the board. I had the students come up to the board and do them. I am aware of the limitations of this approach – students might feel embarrassed working on the board and I may only be helping the student that is at the board. But I need to remember that if I'm only helping one student, she will be better prepared and that's a success.
At Homework Help club, I had another disaster. I was expecting that DC would be ready to get down to work but I was wrong. We have been having a lot of trouble with students getting on computers in the library; DC has been surfing Facebook instead of working on assignments. While I was unsuccessfully trying to get him to do work for social studies, another student asked me if he could get on the computer. When he complained after I said no, I said, "Too bad. This is Homework Club and you need to do your homework." As I watched him walk away, red-faced, I realized that I had taken a rude tone with him. A few minutes later I went over and apologized to him, saying, "I was frustrated with another student and it's not fair for me to be rude to you. You deserve respect. Just because you’re younger than me doesn't mean I shouldn't respect you. I need to work on that and I apologize." He was feeling better when he left but I still felt disappointed in myself.
Things had been rough, but I was ready for Thursday – slightly. My teammate Bear was going to Manchester Hillside Middle School for the day and a corps member from Hillside, Cameron, was shadowing me. The day had no troubles but it was difficult having a guest in my world. I told Cameron that I hope I wasn't being too overbearing, but I acknowledged that, instinctually, I felt that Seabrook was my territory and he was threatening my control over my classrooms. That's a silly way to think – especially considering that I am a guest in the teacher's classrooms – but it's one more thing to work on. Overall, the experience was mutually beneficial. Cameron helped give me tips on running Destination Imagination sessions and he got to see other ways of helping in the classroom.
Friday was the first day of this week that I was really happy for the whole day. I was not in a good mood when I woke up but sometime between when I left my apartment and when I pulled into the parking lot, I was ready for a great day. I think I've finally readjusted to City Year. The only unfortunate part of this is that it happened at the end of the week on a day that I'm leaving early. But I'm already excited to get back to work on Monday for the Young Heroes Opening Day. The next two months are going to be hectic and intensely stressful. However, I'm feeling pretty confident that my happiness and excitement will last through these weeks and I’m looking forward to restarting this year with a smile on my face and a mind ready to serve.
Monday, January 11, 2010
First Week Back
The first week of service in 2010 started on Tuesday for most corps members at City Year New Hampshire. However, I had the chance to speak before the Exeter Rotary Club at their weekly meeting on Monday. Ted Wing, our recruitment director, gave a brief presentation on what City Year does. When he finished, I gave a testimonial – a short speech covering who I am, how I became involved with CYNH and what I do at Seabrook. Though we didn't recruit anyone to join City Year – I'm pretty sure the Rotary members didn't fit into the 17-24 year old age requirement – it was a great way to get our name out to the community.
Tuesday was my first official day back at City Year and I was excited. When I zipped up my red jacket that morning, I started smiling, thinking about how great is to be back, seeing all the corps members and getting back into Seabrook Middle School. Our team had a short meeting in the morning so we could go over some plans for the coming weeks as well as catch up for a bit. Most of the day, though, was spent working. Seeing my kids felt familiar and most of the day felt like any other day. I did get a few special treats though. Before break, the Student Leadership Club participated in Secret Santa. Though I was at NELA (New England Leadership Academy in Boston) the last week that the Seabrook team was in school, my name was still included. A student leader that I don't know very well gave me a box made out of popsicle sticks. Inside were some chocolates and a City Year magnet that she had made. It's a memento that I'll keep on the desk and look at every day before work to help motivate me. It's cool that many of these students appreciate what we do as City Year corps members. While I am pumped to be back, I wish that I had had a chance to reconnect with my teammates before getting to work. We had some time later in the week for that, but it made Tuesday feel like just another day instead of our first day back.
Wednesday was more exciting. I helped out much more in each of my classes, especially math. They are working on equations with variables and they're struggling a bit with the process. They can easily guess and check solutions, but they aren't using the step-by-step methods to find the answer. Diane, my fellow eighth grade corps member, and I were talking about ways to help reinforce the proper way to solve these problems. While the methods they're using now are working, they will run into trouble once they get into algebra. I'm glad that Diane and I are starting to brainstorm more ideas to help the eighth grade instead of working completely independently on the same problems.
On Thursdays, I help run the Destination Imagination team at Seabrook with another corps member. DI is an international program that teaches students to use their creativity in problem solving. Teams work for a few months improving their abilities in teamwork and creative thinking in preparation for a regional competition in early March. There is a main challenge that students work on during those months and present at the competition. We tried picking a challenge and brainstorming ideas this week, but it did not go well. Most weeks are stressful because many times students aren't present or have a lot of trouble staying on track. Often I end the day feeling defeated -- this week was no different.
However, on Friday, I met up with the DI team managers from our other schools (Manchester and Nashua). Talking with them helped me refocus on the direction our Seabrook DI team will take. I am not as concerned about having the students win -- though that would be outstanding -- but instead, I want them to become better teammates and workers. Winning this year's competition will only happen once. Developing the ability to work with people they don’t like or on a task that isn' easy will benefit these students much more for the rest of their lives.
The rest of Friday felt anti-climatic, I guess. I always start Fridays off with an exorbitant amount of energy but sometime during the day I become sullen and pensive. I think it' my body compensating for my extreme behavior during the first hour of the day. The last thing we did was work with our teams. I shared my notes from NELA (as well as some delicious Tastykakes) with my teammates. However, our team leader had gone home earlier in the day due to illness. Perhaps that is why I felt a little off when I left. Overall, though, I think this week was tiring because it' a return to reality. While this job is intense, I' preparing myself for the coming week. The hard part, getting back into the swing of City Year, is over. Now comes the fun!
Tuesday was my first official day back at City Year and I was excited. When I zipped up my red jacket that morning, I started smiling, thinking about how great is to be back, seeing all the corps members and getting back into Seabrook Middle School. Our team had a short meeting in the morning so we could go over some plans for the coming weeks as well as catch up for a bit. Most of the day, though, was spent working. Seeing my kids felt familiar and most of the day felt like any other day. I did get a few special treats though. Before break, the Student Leadership Club participated in Secret Santa. Though I was at NELA (New England Leadership Academy in Boston) the last week that the Seabrook team was in school, my name was still included. A student leader that I don't know very well gave me a box made out of popsicle sticks. Inside were some chocolates and a City Year magnet that she had made. It's a memento that I'll keep on the desk and look at every day before work to help motivate me. It's cool that many of these students appreciate what we do as City Year corps members. While I am pumped to be back, I wish that I had had a chance to reconnect with my teammates before getting to work. We had some time later in the week for that, but it made Tuesday feel like just another day instead of our first day back.
Wednesday was more exciting. I helped out much more in each of my classes, especially math. They are working on equations with variables and they're struggling a bit with the process. They can easily guess and check solutions, but they aren't using the step-by-step methods to find the answer. Diane, my fellow eighth grade corps member, and I were talking about ways to help reinforce the proper way to solve these problems. While the methods they're using now are working, they will run into trouble once they get into algebra. I'm glad that Diane and I are starting to brainstorm more ideas to help the eighth grade instead of working completely independently on the same problems.
On Thursdays, I help run the Destination Imagination team at Seabrook with another corps member. DI is an international program that teaches students to use their creativity in problem solving. Teams work for a few months improving their abilities in teamwork and creative thinking in preparation for a regional competition in early March. There is a main challenge that students work on during those months and present at the competition. We tried picking a challenge and brainstorming ideas this week, but it did not go well. Most weeks are stressful because many times students aren't present or have a lot of trouble staying on track. Often I end the day feeling defeated -- this week was no different.
However, on Friday, I met up with the DI team managers from our other schools (Manchester and Nashua). Talking with them helped me refocus on the direction our Seabrook DI team will take. I am not as concerned about having the students win -- though that would be outstanding -- but instead, I want them to become better teammates and workers. Winning this year's competition will only happen once. Developing the ability to work with people they don’t like or on a task that isn' easy will benefit these students much more for the rest of their lives.
The rest of Friday felt anti-climatic, I guess. I always start Fridays off with an exorbitant amount of energy but sometime during the day I become sullen and pensive. I think it' my body compensating for my extreme behavior during the first hour of the day. The last thing we did was work with our teams. I shared my notes from NELA (as well as some delicious Tastykakes) with my teammates. However, our team leader had gone home earlier in the day due to illness. Perhaps that is why I felt a little off when I left. Overall, though, I think this week was tiring because it' a return to reality. While this job is intense, I' preparing myself for the coming week. The hard part, getting back into the swing of City Year, is over. Now comes the fun!
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