A Week of Major Improvements

I was a bit nervous coming into this week. I had spent the weekend away from home with my brother and was returning with him to work. My team leader and teammates were fine with it but the feelings of leisure were lingering. Thankfully, the day was a success! My brother got the opportunity to meet students and people I've talked about countless times and gain a deeper understanding of the work I do. Even though he didn't spend the whole day with me, I was happy to have him there to support me in my transition back into service.

I was overjoyed in math class when "Shirley" asked for my help in solving two-step equations. She was confused on how to do some of the early steps but did the first one correctly – she wrote down the problem. From there, we worked out how to solve the equation. She was still shaky on the process, so she asked for help on number two. We ended up doing the rest of the problems together and even checked our work on the fourth. Shirley can be reserved and resistant to doing work sometimes. But on Monday, she was a math whiz. I want her to know how intelligent she is and the places her intelligence can take her. I hope that I am able to illuminate those things in the next two months.

"Sally" continues to impress me with her amiability and work ethic. She told me that I had to check out her game board that she created for a social studies project. She got her dad to cut out a piece of wood and she finished it over the weekend. At least, she thought she finished -- there were missing elements – but I pointed those out to her and she took care of them. My students are on the ball and I love it.

In English class, the students are working on poetry packets. The first one contains the poem "Sir Patrick Spens," a work written in the Scottish dialect. This poem is posing many students trouble, including "Erica." Erica speaks English as a second language, so she is doubly struggling with the odd spellings of words. To her credit, she tried very hard and picked up the words quickly with a little guidance. Still, it was difficult to guide her learning both because of my own mental fog and because we were sitting next to three students who were laughing too loudly for us to concentrate. Next time we're around a boisterous group, I ought to ask the student I'm working with if she'd like to go to another part of the classroom or out to the Pod. But even if students don't understand these poems completely, I'm glad that they're being exposed to works that are pushing their abilities instead of being coddled with childish poems.

Wednesday morning started with a snafu. Our van keys were missing so we had to take another van. I know I have to roll with the punches, but I was hoping to take care of some things during my planning period. Since some necessary materials were in the other van, I was unable to take care of them on Wednesday.

The confusion continued into first period math class. I was left in charge of teaching how to solve proportions with cross multiplication. I enjoy having the opportunity to teach but I felt like I was not being clear in my explanations. Teaching is an art and I was not feeling very artistic that day. Luckily, I was able to go around and work one-on-one with students to more clearly explain the process. I feel like I excel at that – being able to work directly with one student at a time.

Social studies served as the polar opposite of math class. The teacher handed out listings of their grades and gave students the entire class period to work on missing assignments. My mind, most of the time, loves this type of logical and orderly setup. The items to do were clearly identified and I feel fulfilled when I see those items knocked off. What made this whole period better was "Sophia's" incredible work ethic. She is missing many assignments but she got right down to work. She was able to do three entire things before the end of the period. Other students who are also failing did some work as well. I'm hoping they are able to bump up their grades.

My pride in my students grew by leaps and bounds at the end of the day. There was a substitute in English so the class was told to work on their poetry packets. Students were given the chance to work in groups; quite a few groups devolved into social circles. But all of my seven students were working quietly independently or with each other. They're an intelligent group and just need encouragement and positive reinforcement to improve their grades.

Thursday was a day of looking forward. I spent some time in the afternoon working on the dodgeball tournament that we are hosting in a few weeks. One of my roles in the preparation is to in-kind five movie passes as prizes for the winning team. In-kinding is the process of getting physical goods, such as food and materials, donated to a project we're running. I'll be doing a lot of work like this next year as the Resource Development Project Leader but I don't have much experience with it. I'm hoping that I'll be successful in securing the donations or else I'm in for a rough year.

Starting on Tuesday and continuing the rest of the week, lack of sleep began to effect my service and outlook. I recognize that when I'm lacking sleep, I need to make the sacrifice of my free time after work and go to bed earlier. If I'm not well-rested and ready to go, then I'm not performing as well as I could. I also feel like there is a lot more that I should be doing. GYSD is coming up and there are many tasks that go into our preparation for it. I don't want to be skirting anything if there's work to be done. On Tuesday, my uneasiness was tempered when our team leader Chris took us to South Main Street Park and showed us the areas we'd be working on. He told us that we would be spending the end of this week – including all of Friday – preparing for GYSD.

After Homework Help on Thursday, the Seabrook team returned to South Main Street Park to prepare one of our projects for GYSD. When we told the students we'd be doing service there, they said, "Oh! That place is terrible! People do drugs there!" That's exactly what we're trying to change. One of the projects we'll be doing is painting a mural on the concession stand. The mural design was drawn by a student from the sixth grade. I hope that once students see their creations and hard work manifested in visible physical changes, they will take pride in these areas that are now seen as crummy.

The last thing we did as a team on Thursday was prepare for our Community Meeting. A Community Meeting is a chance for the entire CY site to unite and reflect on our service. They happen once a month and each one is led by a different team. Ours is the last Tuesday of April and we're hoping to do something phenomenal. Each of us had taken a separate part on Monday and had a few days to contemplate how it would look. I don't want to talk too much about it now --- it might spoil the surprise – but I am really excited about it and I think it's going to be phenomenal.

We spent the entirety of Friday preparing for GYSD. I was concerned that it would be overwhelming, like the long final prep days for Winter Camp and Starry Starry Night, but it went well. The Seabrook team has a few additions to our team for GYSD, so they came with us to check out the sites of our projects and prepare some pieces. Unfortunately, the weather was dismal – it was actually hailing – but we got a lot accomplished. We had a few older murals made of wood and canvas that we cannibalized to make into smaller murals. I spent most of my time sawing wood. After my time at a previous service project that involved sawing, I was not feeling capable with a saw. But after Friday, boy – I was sawing like a maniac. It was good to get back and do some good physical service. Of course, I was exhausted at the end of the day but it was a day very well spent.