Getting Back on Track

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.