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!?