So much has happened.
We had a holiday party at Mitchell a week ago: City Year worked 13 hours, about 700 people attended, and I ate one amazing red velvet cupcake.
In our after-school program this week, we've held "Santa's Workshop", crafts (ornaments and potholders) the students made and then can give to their families.
Class attendance is falling in everyone's classes. Apparently the cold (albeit frigid, icy cold) is enough of a reason to stay at home all day. Not in my house...
Honestly, the past few weeks have been stressful. My roommate Andrew has struggled with depression on and off for years and a few weeks before Thanksgiving it took over again. The week after Thanksgiving found a very depressed Andrew curled up in his bed where, after talking with me, his teammates, and his father, he decided to check himself into Rogers Memorial Hospital, a mental health facility. This was so scary for us all on Cramer Street. After four days in the hospital and a week and a half of intense therapy and counseling, Andrew has decided he is not going to finish the City Year program and is moving home to Kentucky. And Heather and I begin the search (again) for a roommate. So if anyone knows anyone in Milwaukee that needs a place to live...
In school we've gotten some frustrating news too: a middle school student was intensely bullied, resulting in her parents getting involved with our administration. The parents want the media to get involved too, in order to show the public how "bad" Mitchell is at handling bullying. Ohhh boy. And today in particular, one of my student's was crying hysterically because of the hurtful names her friends were calling her. How do I say "Middle school girls are some of the cattiest, meanest girls ever" to a middle school girl?? Parents? Any advice??
On a positive note, our Thanksgiving in Virginia was wonderful and delicious. I get to see my family again in less than a week for Christmas...hurray!
And I wanted to share this:
http://www.cbs58.com/index.php?aid=15221&mid=Making-Milw-Great2
City Year at Mitchell was highlighted by the news last week and my classroom got a lot of face-time. Check it out if you can.
And of course, happy holidays my friends!
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Funnies.
Martel is writing a narrative on the Great Depression. He has titled it the Grape Depression.
Jeff wrote a paragraph outlining his ideas for improving his grades and study skills for the next quarter. One downfall: "Math is the weakness out of me because sometimes I don't get it." And to conclude, he writes: "I hope I can get profission, not nonprofission."
Jeff wrote a paragraph outlining his ideas for improving his grades and study skills for the next quarter. One downfall: "Math is the weakness out of me because sometimes I don't get it." And to conclude, he writes: "I hope I can get profission, not nonprofission."
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
One of my students added me on facebook this evening. Oh lord. The protocol on this is to not add them as friends. Do I reply to his message though? Times and dates are documented on facebook messages as well as email, but I'm going to address this tomorrow in-person, in-class instead of a reply. The simple "Hi Ms. Gaynor this is Romeo" cracks me up though...but not as much as his self-portrait of a huge, goofy grin topped with a green baseball hat.
Tonight we had a "Family Math Night." Another one of my students, Joey, was there with his parents, his sister, and three of his nieces. The littlest girl is two and has a perfectly round face and a perfectly perky ponytail. In class Joey is a pretty good kid, but gets off track so easily and prefers to draw instead of take notes or do math worksheets. (Really, who can blame him?) But to see him with these three little girls was the coolest thing to me. He was so, so gentle (he's a pretty big kid) and he knew exactly how to carry the two year old and how to coax marker caps out of her mouth. Adorable.
I've said it a million times and I'll say it again: I adore my students.
Tonight we had a "Family Math Night." Another one of my students, Joey, was there with his parents, his sister, and three of his nieces. The littlest girl is two and has a perfectly round face and a perfectly perky ponytail. In class Joey is a pretty good kid, but gets off track so easily and prefers to draw instead of take notes or do math worksheets. (Really, who can blame him?) But to see him with these three little girls was the coolest thing to me. He was so, so gentle (he's a pretty big kid) and he knew exactly how to carry the two year old and how to coax marker caps out of her mouth. Adorable.
I've said it a million times and I'll say it again: I adore my students.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Fast-Forward.
Sometimes I feel like I'm sleepwalking through my days and then I wake up and it's November 8. Gracious.
Two weeks ago I got sick with the worst cold I've had since Senegal, though I did get to lay in bed for a day. My students were very curious as to where my voice had gone or if I would be getting them sick too. (Some reacted to this with the typical 'Ew, get away' but one girl asked if I could cough on her so she could be sick too and not come to school...I did not oblige.) Pumpkin carving and an 80s Halloween costume helped me bid adieu to October; the realization that our furnace didn't work greeted these chilly November mornings. And afternoons. And nights. But! As of today, all is fixed: I can wear one sweatshirt at a time and function outside of my bed covers.
My father visited Ethan and I last week, always a wonderful time. He worked a visit to my class into his schedule, and my students loved it. When he asked who wanted to work with cars, every boy's hand shot into the air. He explained where Volvo's engines are used, which was impressive, but the fact that each engine is green was much more impressive. Some of my favorite questions from Room 204:
"Are you famous?"
"How many hours do you work?"
--to which my dad replies "About 55, depending on the week..."
--and Jacob, the questioner, is stunned. "That's way more than 24...how does he do all that in a day?"
"Do you live in a mansion?"
"How many times have you been on a plane?"
--My dad has no numerical answer for this, so he tells Farri more times than he can count and Farri is unbelievably impressed. "I hate planes," Farri says.
And when my students realized the geographic location of Virginia, where my family lives, to Milwaukee, where I work, they stare at me in disbelief: "Miss Gaynor, you fly that far every day just to come to work?!"
We finished WKCE tests last week too, which is the other big news from Mitchell Elementary. WKCE, for those of you who did not go to school in The Badger State, are our state tests and were they ever a huge deal this year. Really, the testing time isn't that intense, just two 45 minute periods two mornings a week and one hour period two mornings a week. Room 204 was impressively focused and again I was grateful to be working with this particular class.
I'm headed to Madison this weekend to be with my old life for a bit; wish me luck with that. <3
Two weeks ago I got sick with the worst cold I've had since Senegal, though I did get to lay in bed for a day. My students were very curious as to where my voice had gone or if I would be getting them sick too. (Some reacted to this with the typical 'Ew, get away' but one girl asked if I could cough on her so she could be sick too and not come to school...I did not oblige.) Pumpkin carving and an 80s Halloween costume helped me bid adieu to October; the realization that our furnace didn't work greeted these chilly November mornings. And afternoons. And nights. But! As of today, all is fixed: I can wear one sweatshirt at a time and function outside of my bed covers.
My father visited Ethan and I last week, always a wonderful time. He worked a visit to my class into his schedule, and my students loved it. When he asked who wanted to work with cars, every boy's hand shot into the air. He explained where Volvo's engines are used, which was impressive, but the fact that each engine is green was much more impressive. Some of my favorite questions from Room 204:
"Are you famous?"
"How many hours do you work?"
--to which my dad replies "About 55, depending on the week..."
--and Jacob, the questioner, is stunned. "That's way more than 24...how does he do all that in a day?"
"Do you live in a mansion?"
"How many times have you been on a plane?"
--My dad has no numerical answer for this, so he tells Farri more times than he can count and Farri is unbelievably impressed. "I hate planes," Farri says.
And when my students realized the geographic location of Virginia, where my family lives, to Milwaukee, where I work, they stare at me in disbelief: "Miss Gaynor, you fly that far every day just to come to work?!"
We finished WKCE tests last week too, which is the other big news from Mitchell Elementary. WKCE, for those of you who did not go to school in The Badger State, are our state tests and were they ever a huge deal this year. Really, the testing time isn't that intense, just two 45 minute periods two mornings a week and one hour period two mornings a week. Room 204 was impressively focused and again I was grateful to be working with this particular class.
I'm headed to Madison this weekend to be with my old life for a bit; wish me luck with that. <3
Thursday, October 21, 2010
A Post Of Thanks
Our Executive Board procured free tickets for the whole Corps to see the new documentary "Waiting for Superman". The film is directed by David Guggenheim (he also did "An Inconvenient Truth") and it is "a deeply personal exploration of the current state of public education in the U.S. and how it is affecting our children." (http://www.waitingforsuperman.com)
Five children are profiled, all of whom reminded me either of my students or myself. Most go to public schools of various sorts and all care deeply about their education. (Daisy's story was particularly moving.)
Anyways, I don't want to write to completely endorse the film, though I think people should see it to at least start discussions around public education in America. I want to write to say thank you for my own education. Many of you were and are directly involved in it and not until this year have I fully realized just how much work it takes to get a child to love learning. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for reading to me so much that I could read faster to myself than you could read to me. While I've always been a little too proud of that, it's a pretty weighty gift that took an untold amount of your patience. So thank you for all the Goodnight Moon's, American Girl chapter books, and the Little Hungry Caterpillar's. Thank you to the rest of my family for setting our education standard so high: my grandmothers who went to college even though higher education for women was not the norm; my grandfathers' Master's degrees.
Knowledge is power and with power comes responsibility. I am grateful for my education--grateful that my schools' were never falling apart, never too overcrowded, always had academic options, clubs, languages, music, art, friends. I have been so blessed, there's no other word for it. And the best part is this year, the year that pushes me to see that my background is not the norm in my country, far from it in fact. The power I've been given is being used to show me the responsibility I have--we all have--to each other and to our future. We can't push the inequalities to the background anymore. We have to act, to be responsible to our community. We can't wait for Superman.
Five children are profiled, all of whom reminded me either of my students or myself. Most go to public schools of various sorts and all care deeply about their education. (Daisy's story was particularly moving.)
Anyways, I don't want to write to completely endorse the film, though I think people should see it to at least start discussions around public education in America. I want to write to say thank you for my own education. Many of you were and are directly involved in it and not until this year have I fully realized just how much work it takes to get a child to love learning. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for reading to me so much that I could read faster to myself than you could read to me. While I've always been a little too proud of that, it's a pretty weighty gift that took an untold amount of your patience. So thank you for all the Goodnight Moon's, American Girl chapter books, and the Little Hungry Caterpillar's. Thank you to the rest of my family for setting our education standard so high: my grandmothers who went to college even though higher education for women was not the norm; my grandfathers' Master's degrees.
Knowledge is power and with power comes responsibility. I am grateful for my education--grateful that my schools' were never falling apart, never too overcrowded, always had academic options, clubs, languages, music, art, friends. I have been so blessed, there's no other word for it. And the best part is this year, the year that pushes me to see that my background is not the norm in my country, far from it in fact. The power I've been given is being used to show me the responsibility I have--we all have--to each other and to our future. We can't push the inequalities to the background anymore. We have to act, to be responsible to our community. We can't wait for Superman.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Opening Day Ceremonies
I had a sleepover with my mom this weekend. Friday, October 1 marked our Opening Day ceremony, which she flew out from Virginia to attend. As we are the Founding Year this year, a lot of top brass was in attendance (obviously none as important as my own house guest): the CEO and co-founder of City Year, Michael Brown; a lot of other high-up people from the CY Headquarters in Boston; US Congresswoman Gwen Moore; Superintendent of MPS Gregory Thornton; Julie Uihlein, a very, very wealthy woman who donated $1 million to get City Year to Milwaukee and then another $100,000 to sponsor a school team; and of course the current Corps and our immediate supervisors and all our friends and family.
The ceremony consisted of a lot of speeches and some demonstrations of enthusiasm by the Corps Members and a reception afterwards, with food. Honestly, there only needs to be free food and half the Corps will attend anything.
Opening Day is really making all the City Year members into debutantes, being introduced to Milwaukee society. I've attached some pictures of my team in all our red glory.
Today was a hard day. Mondays always seem to be the hardest day of the week, no matter the job, but today was just frustrating. The students got their laptops today and it became even more obvious who can manage solo and who needs to be hand held through lessons. AKA: it became more obvious who will pass 6th grade and successfully go to 7th and who will fall further through the cracks. Perhaps I'm being too harsh.
Then we learned this: apparently, it is an MPS mandate that no one other than a teacher can take students out of the classroom to work this them. AKA: City Year cannot take their focus groups into the hall to tutor them. Remember our focus groups are 8-10 kids who are not Special Ed but who need more help than they can get in class. We have to work with these kids in class, while the teacher is teaching, while the other 20-22 kids are trying to learn. There is no space in my classroom for me to do this. I was explicitly told during the first week of school that I am to be as quiet as possible when talking to students during lessons. AKA: no tutoring in the back of the room. No group discussions; no time or space for extra help.
With all the AKAs one might as well just speak in plain language. It's the Founding Year of City Year Milwaukee and I am a guinea pig.
Overall, I'm all right with this; it's just wearing on me in particular today.
On a lighter note, tomorrow the Boys and Girls' Club's After School program starts and I will be assisting first with the Cultural Dance class then the African Drumming class, taught by a Senegalese man who I have yet to meet. How perfect is that!?
Then we learned this: apparently, it is an MPS mandate that no one other than a teacher can take students out of the classroom to work this them. AKA: City Year cannot take their focus groups into the hall to tutor them. Remember our focus groups are 8-10 kids who are not Special Ed but who need more help than they can get in class. We have to work with these kids in class, while the teacher is teaching, while the other 20-22 kids are trying to learn. There is no space in my classroom for me to do this. I was explicitly told during the first week of school that I am to be as quiet as possible when talking to students during lessons. AKA: no tutoring in the back of the room. No group discussions; no time or space for extra help.
With all the AKAs one might as well just speak in plain language. It's the Founding Year of City Year Milwaukee and I am a guinea pig.
Overall, I'm all right with this; it's just wearing on me in particular today.
On a lighter note, tomorrow the Boys and Girls' Club's After School program starts and I will be assisting first with the Cultural Dance class then the African Drumming class, taught by a Senegalese man who I have yet to meet. How perfect is that!?
Monday, September 20, 2010
City Year in the News
Here are some recent links of City Year Milwaukee activity in the news:
http://www.biztimes.com/nonprofitweekly/2010/9/3/city-year-kicks-of-inaugural-year-in-milwaukee
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/46584662.html
http://www.biztimes.com/nonprofitweekly/2010/9/3/city-year-kicks-of-inaugural-year-in-milwaukee
http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/46584662.html
Tales from Room 204
I have been in the classroom for about three weeks now and have a plethora of stories to share:
First, I'm disappointed but not surprised by the high levels of obesity in both my classroom and my students' families. Mirrors the poverty levels. Something I really, really want to do with my kids is some nutrition education. I'm beginning research into a community garden, or at the very least a potted garden we can start during our after-school program. With that, I want to incorporate healthy eating habits and bring in healthy snacks and treats whenever I can. (This is where my food stamps will come in handy...and lucky for my students I love to bake.) Discussions around a healthy body versus an "attractive" body are important to cover as well. Good thing I have nine more months. :-)
Let me describe my classroom set up: There are 29 kids, my teacher (Mrs. Kuscielak, pronounced "ko-shell-ak"), and a Special Ed teacher, Mrs. McQueeney. These 6th graders do not switch classrooms for different subjects and don't have lockers. It's really a glorified 5th grade, which does make my job easier. Mrs. Kuscielak has a SmartBoard that she allows students to use and the students will get laptops to use within the next week. (If you want further explanation of what a SmartBoard is check out the following website. Basically it's a giant touch screen computer that can be written on and erased with special tools. http://smarttech.com/) The laptops the kids will have are 5 or 6 years old, but much of their work will be done on them. Text books are online and students submit essays and homework through a virtual classroom. Apparently all hell breaks loose for the first week these laptops are available. I can't wait.
Each morning I do homework checks, armed with a sticker chart of the class list, star stickers and heart stickers, and "Missing Homework" sheets students must fill out if they do not bring in their work. This has become a ritual that absolutely cannot be skipped, lest I overlook one student's finished work. Students come up to me on the playground before school: "Miss Gaynor, Miss Gaynor! I finished my homework today!" (Also: getting called Miss Gaynor has taken some getting used to. Early on I established that no, I am not married; and no, I am not getting married anytime soon. Apparently I'm young enough that being single is still acceptable.) Right away in the morning I sit in the back of the room, call each student back to me, and get the opportunity to check in with each one for a couple minutes. It's amazing. These little people are so many things they don't even realize: sneaky, honest, embarrassed, proud, sad, tired, hungry, so stressed, and excited. I feel so lucky to be a part of it.
While homework checks seem glorious, I spend most of my classroom time patrolling, making sure students are on task. Translation: I constantly remind students to stop drawing, to face the front, to quit cutting up their erasers, to leave their neighbor alone, to sit up, and no, you can't go to the bathroom. You just went.
However, I adore my kids. Some of my favorite moments:
Brianna didn't get her homework done for that morning's homework check, so she asked me if she could stay in for recess to get it down. My jaw dropped down to the first floor. And she stayed in, and got her homework done.
Trevor is a Special Ed student who had not brought in any homework at all through last week Friday. We have talked endlessly about remembering to check his mailbox for worksheets at the end of the day, remembering to bring his homework folder to and from school, and remembering to ask questions in class. Finally, I looked at him and said, "Trevor, I know you can do this. You are so smart and I know you can get your homework done on time." I asked if I could write that on the top corner of one of his notebooks, and he let me. And guess what? Sassy, stubborn Trevor brought in his homework this morning. And three worksheets that were due two weeks ago.
Romeo, who will forever be too cool for me, caught me walking to the classroom from the water fountain. "Where'd you go?!" He demanded, with a tone that seemed worried, like I'd abandon him. I told him I just got a drink, and his body language relaxed. "Oh, all right."
This morning I congratulated Romeo on having a perfect homework record; he hasn't missed one day out of the 15+ days we've had so far. In his very tough way, he looks at me and says "It didn't use to be like this. I never brought my homework in last year." He started to walk away as I complimented him on his hard work again, but I got him. :-)
I had to walk Enrique, who has severe behavior and learning disabilities, to the nurse the other day because Mrs. Koscielak saw something behind his ear. She was afraid it was lice (apparently lice is a realistic problem at Mitchell...oh lord) but it was just a harmless scab. After the nurse assured Enrique that his ear would not need a band-aid and that he would be fine, he and I washed our hands in the hallway sink. The timing and scenario was perfect, so I poked him to show off the huge bubble I made in my soapy hands. An impromptu bubble-blowing competition ensued and the ear scab was forgotten.
Demetrio is, I have to say, one of my favorite students. He is a tiny boy compared to most of his class but holy crap is he spunky. His peers recognize that he is smart yet cool, so his reputation is set. Last week he stopped me to ask that I wait for him in the morning to play Ninja, a game my City Year team plays with the kids every morning before school on the playground. Two weeks ago every one from my class was too cool to play, but here's Demetrio asking me to wait for him. And today on our way in from lunch he asks me how long I'm going to be at Mitchell. "I'll be here til about 5:30, Demetrio." No, not today, he clarifies. "Oh, we'll be here until the end of the school year, don't worry." Okay, but what about next year? "Will you be here next year, Miss Gaynor? Can you come to 7th grade?"
Like I said, I adore these kids. Of course, don't be fooled, not everything is so endearing and nothing is easy. But because of them I love my work and I am so, so grateful to Room 204.
First, I'm disappointed but not surprised by the high levels of obesity in both my classroom and my students' families. Mirrors the poverty levels. Something I really, really want to do with my kids is some nutrition education. I'm beginning research into a community garden, or at the very least a potted garden we can start during our after-school program. With that, I want to incorporate healthy eating habits and bring in healthy snacks and treats whenever I can. (This is where my food stamps will come in handy...and lucky for my students I love to bake.) Discussions around a healthy body versus an "attractive" body are important to cover as well. Good thing I have nine more months. :-)
Let me describe my classroom set up: There are 29 kids, my teacher (Mrs. Kuscielak, pronounced "ko-shell-ak"), and a Special Ed teacher, Mrs. McQueeney. These 6th graders do not switch classrooms for different subjects and don't have lockers. It's really a glorified 5th grade, which does make my job easier. Mrs. Kuscielak has a SmartBoard that she allows students to use and the students will get laptops to use within the next week. (If you want further explanation of what a SmartBoard is check out the following website. Basically it's a giant touch screen computer that can be written on and erased with special tools. http://smarttech.com/) The laptops the kids will have are 5 or 6 years old, but much of their work will be done on them. Text books are online and students submit essays and homework through a virtual classroom. Apparently all hell breaks loose for the first week these laptops are available. I can't wait.
Each morning I do homework checks, armed with a sticker chart of the class list, star stickers and heart stickers, and "Missing Homework" sheets students must fill out if they do not bring in their work. This has become a ritual that absolutely cannot be skipped, lest I overlook one student's finished work. Students come up to me on the playground before school: "Miss Gaynor, Miss Gaynor! I finished my homework today!" (Also: getting called Miss Gaynor has taken some getting used to. Early on I established that no, I am not married; and no, I am not getting married anytime soon. Apparently I'm young enough that being single is still acceptable.) Right away in the morning I sit in the back of the room, call each student back to me, and get the opportunity to check in with each one for a couple minutes. It's amazing. These little people are so many things they don't even realize: sneaky, honest, embarrassed, proud, sad, tired, hungry, so stressed, and excited. I feel so lucky to be a part of it.
While homework checks seem glorious, I spend most of my classroom time patrolling, making sure students are on task. Translation: I constantly remind students to stop drawing, to face the front, to quit cutting up their erasers, to leave their neighbor alone, to sit up, and no, you can't go to the bathroom. You just went.
However, I adore my kids. Some of my favorite moments:
Brianna didn't get her homework done for that morning's homework check, so she asked me if she could stay in for recess to get it down. My jaw dropped down to the first floor. And she stayed in, and got her homework done.
Trevor is a Special Ed student who had not brought in any homework at all through last week Friday. We have talked endlessly about remembering to check his mailbox for worksheets at the end of the day, remembering to bring his homework folder to and from school, and remembering to ask questions in class. Finally, I looked at him and said, "Trevor, I know you can do this. You are so smart and I know you can get your homework done on time." I asked if I could write that on the top corner of one of his notebooks, and he let me. And guess what? Sassy, stubborn Trevor brought in his homework this morning. And three worksheets that were due two weeks ago.
Romeo, who will forever be too cool for me, caught me walking to the classroom from the water fountain. "Where'd you go?!" He demanded, with a tone that seemed worried, like I'd abandon him. I told him I just got a drink, and his body language relaxed. "Oh, all right."
This morning I congratulated Romeo on having a perfect homework record; he hasn't missed one day out of the 15+ days we've had so far. In his very tough way, he looks at me and says "It didn't use to be like this. I never brought my homework in last year." He started to walk away as I complimented him on his hard work again, but I got him. :-)
I had to walk Enrique, who has severe behavior and learning disabilities, to the nurse the other day because Mrs. Koscielak saw something behind his ear. She was afraid it was lice (apparently lice is a realistic problem at Mitchell...oh lord) but it was just a harmless scab. After the nurse assured Enrique that his ear would not need a band-aid and that he would be fine, he and I washed our hands in the hallway sink. The timing and scenario was perfect, so I poked him to show off the huge bubble I made in my soapy hands. An impromptu bubble-blowing competition ensued and the ear scab was forgotten.
Demetrio is, I have to say, one of my favorite students. He is a tiny boy compared to most of his class but holy crap is he spunky. His peers recognize that he is smart yet cool, so his reputation is set. Last week he stopped me to ask that I wait for him in the morning to play Ninja, a game my City Year team plays with the kids every morning before school on the playground. Two weeks ago every one from my class was too cool to play, but here's Demetrio asking me to wait for him. And today on our way in from lunch he asks me how long I'm going to be at Mitchell. "I'll be here til about 5:30, Demetrio." No, not today, he clarifies. "Oh, we'll be here until the end of the school year, don't worry." Okay, but what about next year? "Will you be here next year, Miss Gaynor? Can you come to 7th grade?"
Like I said, I adore these kids. Of course, don't be fooled, not everything is so endearing and nothing is easy. But because of them I love my work and I am so, so grateful to Room 204.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Y'all Better Git!
Each school team has a call back to use when the whole Corps is assembled. A team member stands up and "declares" (announces to the group his or her name and the school he or she is working at) and the rest of the team yells out this call back. Alexander Mitchell Elementary School's call back is each and every form of "git" you can think of. It started because one of our teammates, Jeff, saw a youtube video about some hillbilly thinking Big Foot was in his backyard and it has evolved to be so many things to us. Definitely one of those City Year-isms.
I introduce "GIT!" because I want to introduce my team. They are becoming my family here and I'm really proud to be serving and working (and eating and complaining and exploring and everything else) with them.
Will is our Team Leader. (TL: remember I said there would be a lot of acronyms?) He is 19, South-Korean American, graduated from high school in a Milwaukee suburb, and has served one year with City Year in San Jose, California. He is an unbelievable listener, very real, and has insight to rival Mamichou.
Sovannra is 24 and has a BFA for Costuming (and something else, though it escapes me at the moment). She has this really cool tattoo of a thunder cloud with a lightening bolt through it raining three little pink hearts on her neck, which the kids find endlessly impressive. Her heart is open and she is anxious to connect with her class, as we all are.
Tia is 21, from Milwaukee, and has an excellent mohawk-ish haircut. She writes constantly and I love to listen to her read her words aloud to us. Her laugh is infectious.
Jerrion is from southern Illinois and he's 22-ish. He's black but has beautiful, piercing blue-green eyes and speaks slowly, with a half-drawl. I love that Jerry is very upfront about politeness and that he loves my snickerdoodle cookies. :-)
Rachel is Filipina-American, adorable, and sassy. She grew up in West Bend, WI, speaks Tagalong and some Spanish, so she is in a bilingual class. Her iPhone has come in handy bunches of times when we need to check bus schedules, as has her realism when I need to escape CY life for a moment.
Jeff is 18, from Baltimore, MD. He plays more instruments than can remember and can be both hilarious and very introspective, which make him easy to relate to despite the college gap.
Angela just graduated from UW-Madison with me, May 2010, with a degree in Theatre and African Studies. She studied in Ghana for a semester and wears a bracelet made of beads of the Ghanaian flag every day. She is truly sweet and a nationally recognized Bavarian dancer.
Last in Nano, nee Nathaniel, my neighbor and boyfriend of Tory (a girl, just to be clear), also my neighbor and a good friend. Nano graduated from Seattle University with a degree in Creative Writing and is from Burlington, Vermont. We bonded over knowing the locations of the only two Dobra Tea Rooms in the country, and through his awesome beagle Finch.
Voila the City Year team of Mitchell Elementary. Now git 'em!
I introduce "GIT!" because I want to introduce my team. They are becoming my family here and I'm really proud to be serving and working (and eating and complaining and exploring and everything else) with them.
Will is our Team Leader. (TL: remember I said there would be a lot of acronyms?) He is 19, South-Korean American, graduated from high school in a Milwaukee suburb, and has served one year with City Year in San Jose, California. He is an unbelievable listener, very real, and has insight to rival Mamichou.
Sovannra is 24 and has a BFA for Costuming (and something else, though it escapes me at the moment). She has this really cool tattoo of a thunder cloud with a lightening bolt through it raining three little pink hearts on her neck, which the kids find endlessly impressive. Her heart is open and she is anxious to connect with her class, as we all are.
Tia is 21, from Milwaukee, and has an excellent mohawk-ish haircut. She writes constantly and I love to listen to her read her words aloud to us. Her laugh is infectious.
Jerrion is from southern Illinois and he's 22-ish. He's black but has beautiful, piercing blue-green eyes and speaks slowly, with a half-drawl. I love that Jerry is very upfront about politeness and that he loves my snickerdoodle cookies. :-)
Rachel is Filipina-American, adorable, and sassy. She grew up in West Bend, WI, speaks Tagalong and some Spanish, so she is in a bilingual class. Her iPhone has come in handy bunches of times when we need to check bus schedules, as has her realism when I need to escape CY life for a moment.
Jeff is 18, from Baltimore, MD. He plays more instruments than can remember and can be both hilarious and very introspective, which make him easy to relate to despite the college gap.
Angela just graduated from UW-Madison with me, May 2010, with a degree in Theatre and African Studies. She studied in Ghana for a semester and wears a bracelet made of beads of the Ghanaian flag every day. She is truly sweet and a nationally recognized Bavarian dancer.
Last in Nano, nee Nathaniel, my neighbor and boyfriend of Tory (a girl, just to be clear), also my neighbor and a good friend. Nano graduated from Seattle University with a degree in Creative Writing and is from Burlington, Vermont. We bonded over knowing the locations of the only two Dobra Tea Rooms in the country, and through his awesome beagle Finch.
Voila the City Year team of Mitchell Elementary. Now git 'em!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Alexander Mitchell Integrated Arts Elementary School is in the hood. The barrio? A "bad" neighborhood.
I love it.
Today was the official first day of school, our third day in the building, and the students' first day back. It was chaos but within half an hour of our class being in the room I was in love. This year is going to be so, so tough but just as rewarding and that's a great sentiment to have on the first day. There are 27 students in my sixth grade class: 10 girls and 17 boys, which is abnormally unequal. I'm wondering if the extra testosterone will make for a more hostile classroom environment. Two students quickly proved to be the most challenging--Austin, whose right arm and attitude are broken and Enrique, who so obviously wants attention and needs serious medication but only gets it periodically for reasons that have yet to manifest. My favorite students of the day: Joshua, a very small, very quiet boy with dark, sad eyes who is soft-spoken but very respectful; and Azalea, a girl who proudly told her friend she wanted to go to Hamilton College upon hearing that I went to UW-Madison. How she knows about Hamilton I have yet to find out, but she seems really spunky and bright. We're going to get along great.
This afternoon was spent perusing the neighborhood. Most signs in store windows are all in Spanish and most store owners spoke primarily Spanish. Again I wished I had taken both French and Spanish, but as a team we talked about getting a copy of Rosetta Stone. Anyways. The neighborhood is run-down, but people were so friendly. I love that kind of meandering exploration. We went into a bakery about two blocks from school and I was in heavennn!! So many pastries and breads, homemade churros, and the lady behind the counter only spoke Spanish and doesn't take plastic. Between the nine of us we split a pastry made with sweet potato (two of my favorite things combined!? How have I not known about camotes!?!), a coconut cookie (another favorite!), pound cake, and some kind of pastry with a marscapone-like cheese. If nothing else, I will learn enough Spanish to ask for those recipes and make them myself. Also, there are frequently men pushing ice cream carts with lots of bells on them in the street which reminds me of Nicaragua or maybe Morocco. We talked to one man today, in Spanglish, and he was so freaking friendly. We also found these chips called Takis, rolled corn chips with different spices. Fuente, aka chili pepper with lime, and guacamole were our successful purchases.
So what I've learned from the barrio today: the food is great.
And I want to go finish the guacamole Takis before bed. :-)
I love it.
Today was the official first day of school, our third day in the building, and the students' first day back. It was chaos but within half an hour of our class being in the room I was in love. This year is going to be so, so tough but just as rewarding and that's a great sentiment to have on the first day. There are 27 students in my sixth grade class: 10 girls and 17 boys, which is abnormally unequal. I'm wondering if the extra testosterone will make for a more hostile classroom environment. Two students quickly proved to be the most challenging--Austin, whose right arm and attitude are broken and Enrique, who so obviously wants attention and needs serious medication but only gets it periodically for reasons that have yet to manifest. My favorite students of the day: Joshua, a very small, very quiet boy with dark, sad eyes who is soft-spoken but very respectful; and Azalea, a girl who proudly told her friend she wanted to go to Hamilton College upon hearing that I went to UW-Madison. How she knows about Hamilton I have yet to find out, but she seems really spunky and bright. We're going to get along great.
This afternoon was spent perusing the neighborhood. Most signs in store windows are all in Spanish and most store owners spoke primarily Spanish. Again I wished I had taken both French and Spanish, but as a team we talked about getting a copy of Rosetta Stone. Anyways. The neighborhood is run-down, but people were so friendly. I love that kind of meandering exploration. We went into a bakery about two blocks from school and I was in heavennn!! So many pastries and breads, homemade churros, and the lady behind the counter only spoke Spanish and doesn't take plastic. Between the nine of us we split a pastry made with sweet potato (two of my favorite things combined!? How have I not known about camotes!?!), a coconut cookie (another favorite!), pound cake, and some kind of pastry with a marscapone-like cheese. If nothing else, I will learn enough Spanish to ask for those recipes and make them myself. Also, there are frequently men pushing ice cream carts with lots of bells on them in the street which reminds me of Nicaragua or maybe Morocco. We talked to one man today, in Spanglish, and he was so freaking friendly. We also found these chips called Takis, rolled corn chips with different spices. Fuente, aka chili pepper with lime, and guacamole were our successful purchases.
So what I've learned from the barrio today: the food is great.
And I want to go finish the guacamole Takis before bed. :-)
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Getting Down to Business
I am two weeks into City Year Milwaukee and feel like I've traveled miles, physically and emotionally. So, I have no idea where to start. Bear with me while I attempt to explain the basics and of course, more will follow.
My house: it's comfortable. Nicer than my house in Madison, with painted walls but smaller bedrooms. Mine is blue, happily reminiscent of my bedroom in Fond du Lac. I have three roommates: Andrew, from Kentucky, who is three years through college and using this year to gain some life direction; Heather, who just graduated from Marquette with a degree in English; and Ryan, Heather's boyfriend who also just graduated from Marquette and the only one in the house who is not doing City Year. Ryan and Heather have a cat named Dr. John--a boy cat yet he has a purple, rhinestone studded color...Dr. John and I aren't really friends yet.
My neighborhood: it's excellent. On the East Side of Milwaukee, I am within walking distance to Whole Foods (though I don't go there often...it's been called Whole Paycheck by City Year people), numerous bars, a movie theater, hair salons, lots of restaurants, and best of all, Lake Michigan and the lakefront parks, Milwaukee Art Museum, and Summerfest grounds.
My job: surprising is the first word that comes to mind. First of all, City Year tries very hard to be a very diverse group. We have people of all races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, religions, and social classes and because of this City Year (CY from here on out) has created its own "culture" so one group won't be more represented than another. This culture has simultaneously reminded me of Stalin's Red Army; the 1960's Civil Rights Movement; and my 8th grade Student Council experiences...weird combinations which take a while to get used to. The first week of training was a struggle for me to balance my individuality with the necessity to conform to this culture and the second week was an emotional preview of how next ten months will go: how I will cooperate and lead within a diverse large group and diverse small group; how I will be constantly tired and have fewer financial resources than ever before; and how I will probably make some of the best friends of my life. I'm really, really excited.
Our corps is made up of 60 Corps Members (CMs) and 10 Senior Corps Members (SCMs) who have either done a City Year (CY) before or have had similar experience to a CY. (Get ready for a deluge of appreviations.) We are serving on six teams of seven to ten corps members and one SCM at six schools in the Milwaukee Public School District: one high school, working with just freshman, and five schools where we will work with 5th to 8th graders. We will show up at school before the students in order to greet them in the morning, be at school all day with the students, then run after-school programs for the students. This means a few things: we will have very long work days (with transportation time, we're looking at a potential 12 to 13 hour day) but also that we will have time to form strong bonds with the students we serve.
This total immersion into the schools and into the Corps reminds me a lot of my study abroad experience. I'm really grateful I have that to look to when handling my emotions or when I get too microscopic about how I imagine the year (or the month, or hell, even the week) turning out.
I don't want to overwhelm anyone with too much more information, so I'll finish with this. I'm going to the beach soon with a large group of new friends (who I feel surprisingly, wonderfully close to already) and tomorrow we get down to business, our first day at school. More
on my day at Alexander Mitchell Integrated Arts Elementary School soon. :-)
My house: it's comfortable. Nicer than my house in Madison, with painted walls but smaller bedrooms. Mine is blue, happily reminiscent of my bedroom in Fond du Lac. I have three roommates: Andrew, from Kentucky, who is three years through college and using this year to gain some life direction; Heather, who just graduated from Marquette with a degree in English; and Ryan, Heather's boyfriend who also just graduated from Marquette and the only one in the house who is not doing City Year. Ryan and Heather have a cat named Dr. John--a boy cat yet he has a purple, rhinestone studded color...Dr. John and I aren't really friends yet.
My neighborhood: it's excellent. On the East Side of Milwaukee, I am within walking distance to Whole Foods (though I don't go there often...it's been called Whole Paycheck by City Year people), numerous bars, a movie theater, hair salons, lots of restaurants, and best of all, Lake Michigan and the lakefront parks, Milwaukee Art Museum, and Summerfest grounds.
My job: surprising is the first word that comes to mind. First of all, City Year tries very hard to be a very diverse group. We have people of all races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, religions, and social classes and because of this City Year (CY from here on out) has created its own "culture" so one group won't be more represented than another. This culture has simultaneously reminded me of Stalin's Red Army; the 1960's Civil Rights Movement; and my 8th grade Student Council experiences...weird combinations which take a while to get used to. The first week of training was a struggle for me to balance my individuality with the necessity to conform to this culture and the second week was an emotional preview of how next ten months will go: how I will cooperate and lead within a diverse large group and diverse small group; how I will be constantly tired and have fewer financial resources than ever before; and how I will probably make some of the best friends of my life. I'm really, really excited.
Our corps is made up of 60 Corps Members (CMs) and 10 Senior Corps Members (SCMs) who have either done a City Year (CY) before or have had similar experience to a CY. (Get ready for a deluge of appreviations.) We are serving on six teams of seven to ten corps members and one SCM at six schools in the Milwaukee Public School District: one high school, working with just freshman, and five schools where we will work with 5th to 8th graders. We will show up at school before the students in order to greet them in the morning, be at school all day with the students, then run after-school programs for the students. This means a few things: we will have very long work days (with transportation time, we're looking at a potential 12 to 13 hour day) but also that we will have time to form strong bonds with the students we serve.
This total immersion into the schools and into the Corps reminds me a lot of my study abroad experience. I'm really grateful I have that to look to when handling my emotions or when I get too microscopic about how I imagine the year (or the month, or hell, even the week) turning out.
I don't want to overwhelm anyone with too much more information, so I'll finish with this. I'm going to the beach soon with a large group of new friends (who I feel surprisingly, wonderfully close to already) and tomorrow we get down to business, our first day at school. More
on my day at Alexander Mitchell Integrated Arts Elementary School soon. :-)
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