The latest

So, I'll just continue this from where I left off in my last post...

Last Wednesday was 18 minute networking, which allowed me to pick the brains of City Year alum about, well, my own future. I think I've pretty much decided on doing a Senior Corps Year (the next step above Corps Member). This really means I get to have another year to delay making long term plans and basically fuck around. Hurray! In honesty, I hate making long term goals and plans, because something always changes and I end up disappointed and confused with what I had done to accomplish now moot goals (case in point, my half-filled out grad school applications). I still find it really funny that I can have this attitude and still be the control-freak that I am.

On Friday, we did service at The Greater Boston Food Bank. It was all sorting food and stuff like that. My specific job for the day had been "runner." Basically, I went and got things or put things back... I had made a sarcastic comment to my Senior Corps (who was also a runner) that "We should stretch before we start." To which his response was "Ya know, we're not actually running." I got shot down on one of my few attempts at sarcasm... I guess this is what happens when you make it known that you don't get sarcasm. But yeah, it was okay. I'd rather paint or landscape... especially because the weather has been AMAZING lately.

I also found out on Friday that I got Developement Team for CYFK. Basically, I'm gonna learn to in-kind... Which means that I'm going to be making phone calls to get donations for the February and April camps and then track everything. I kinda knew it before, but documentation is kinda my thing. I do it well and I enjoy it... I've been told that means that there will always be a place at City Year for me... That's really dangerous.

Saturday, more service. I got to meet the City Heroes (High School Students that I'll be mentoring). We put together literacy folders for younger kids. It was only 4 hours and only 3 of that was spent with the City Heroes, but it's cool. I actually think any more would have been a high pressure situation for me... One of these days, I'll master the art of small talk.

Obviously, because of Thanksgiving, I had a short week. Monday was exciting for two reasons. 1) Service was postponed at the Mason, which meant I had time to lesson plan and didn't miss Step. 2) I got to meet my mentor. She works up in HQ, something to do with developing CMs into staff and then integrating them with external people. This is cool since I would like to be developed into at least a Senior Corps - if not further. Tuesday was a usual day... I got observed in civics, which went fine and my 6th & 7th grade teacher offered me a job as a nanny to her 1.5 year-old... I turned her down, at least for now.

I always feel weird over long weekends and breaks... Something about having my routine messed around with. I don't want it was (the weather, change in rountine, something else), but I had a headache for almost 48 hours in a row. I think it's gone now, but I'm not gonna push it. I have some cleaning and an application for a leadership academy to fill out. I'm such a work-a-holic.

A long short week

So, last week, it was a 4 day week (woot Veteran's Day)... However, it ended up being a rather long week (at least it felt that way).

First of all, I caught the cold from hell. By the end of the week, I had basically completely lost my voice. It was rather ineffective in attempting to teach and make little kids be orderly. I rested up over the weekend and am back to normal :-D

Wednesday was ridiculous. First, my boss made the announcement that she's taking away our lesson planning time on Mondays and making us go to afterschool instead. Now, some of my teammates aren't using their Mondays for lesson planning and they certainly should go off and do service during that time. But I've already stayed late planning the past 3 weeks in a row. I don't mind staying late in the office, but I can't exactly be there until forever. Second, the licensing person came to my afterschool. So, while Gal & I ran PT with the youngest kids, Red made a mad dash around the school, making sure everything was in place so as not to get us shut down. Yeah, that was stressful enough. Towards the end of the day, a kid had a seizure in front of the licensing agent AND a group of kids. After all of this, we still had to go to a team dinner in JP which went until 10pm (i.e. I got home after 11pm and had to wake up at 5:45am the next morning). Wednesday night, needless to say, I got to suffer with the ill-effects of stress.

But, of course, not everything's bad. Even though there isn't much for me to do with my new 6th grade class (because they're the "Advanced" class), they're great kids. They sing to start every class and are generally polite and well-behaved. My civics kids are a bit rambunctious, but they are super-eager to learn, so I forgive them. Even my 7th graders aren't misbehaved. I somehow ended up with a bunch of middle-school kids who are actually well-behaved... And yet, maybe it's just that I've gotten along really well with middle-schoolers all along and this is no exception.

So, the beginning of this week is looking good so far. Monday, we performed PT at the EPA conference, which was fun. We also had to listen to a really boring econ lecture on the development of brownfields, which was fairly boring and resulted in even my bosses cracking jokes. Finally, we got to do service at my afterschool. We picked up glass and did some other landscaping. I absolutely love my afterschool and was so happy that we got to help out there... We'll even be back to some work in their library and paint some murals. Afterwards, of course, I stayed at the office until 7pm, lesson planning *sigh*

Today was pretty normal... I don't get to say that often and I'll take it. The one humourous story from today is that Red & Gal's 8th graders think that they're dating... yeah, I laughed forever about that.

I have 4 more days left of service (woot 6-day week), but we have a lot of service days, which are ALWAYS fun. And then, next week, we only have 2 days of work... hooray!

More changes...

Monday was my first day of actually prepping for a full course-load. It wasn't that bad and I felt like I could manage prepping 2 or 3 chapters every Monday...

That was until Tuesday rolled along. I arrive to my meeting with my civics/ESL teacher only to find out that the schedule has been changed... YET AGAIN! So, I've had my schedule changed now 3 times in a month. I remember a time when that would have severely frustrated and caused me a lot of anxiety. Now, however, I found myself laughing... the situation with Dearborn is the funniest thing ever. And yet, I'm not a student there. My success in future education doesn't depend on having a stable school now... my students, however, may be adversely affected by it and that does worry me.

Alright, so, at least a solution was arrived at reasonably quickly this time. I will be with 7th grade geography, then 8th grade civics/ESL, and then 6th grade ancient civilizations. Yeah, I now work with every grade from Pre-K through 8th. This is actually pretty awesome. If I get the City Heroes team leader, I'll then work with every single grade... *crosses fingers*

In afterschool, we started the PEPSI program this week. Parts of it worked really well and parts worked less well. I just hope that the kids got it and start using good sportsmanship. In addition to our sportsmanship stuff, we also have to prepare for a Nutrition and Wellness event to take place the last week in November... Yeah.

In final news, my classroom partner left City Year... that's all I'm gonna say here.

And so things have started actually happening and I've gotten into the swing of things, despite being moved around a lot. I'm really happy to be with City Year and I think I'll probably end up doing a second year.

Insanely busy week!

Break down of the week:
Monday: We spent the morning assembling laterns for a festival in Jamaica Plain. I also did some lesson planning for my civics kids.
Tuesday: Meeting with the Dearborn administration about the classroom situation. I finally got my classroom assignment: two 7th grade geography classes added to my 8th grade ESL/civics class. I'm so happy I finally have a stable classroom. I've also been assured that I'm staying here permenantly. YAY!
We also had a meeting with the head of our afterschool where we proposed the PEPSI program (Physical Enrichment Program Sportsmanship Initiative) and it was excepted with open arms. Another YAY!
Wednesday: I had to plan two lessons in the morning and help run the PE program at afterschool. Probably the least stressful day of the week.
Thursday: I started teaching in my 7th grade classroom. I'll be pulling small groups aside and working with them on that day's lesson. It was also parents, friends, and family night at City Year (kinda like a parents' night at school). My mom, apparently, is more confused about City Year now than she used to be. I don't know how to make anyone understand it... There are just so many components to it and I never feel like I do it justice when I do attempt to explain it all.
Friday: AmeriCorps Opening Day. It was a lot of fanfare and I got to go on a tour of the State House (something I had never done, despite living in Boston all my life). I actually I had a lot of fun. And then, there was paperwork. I went back to the office and did about 3 hours worth of paperwork... wow.
Saturday: Make A Difference Day! We did service at the Middle School Academy (a school for troubled youth) in Dorchester. We painted in almost every room in the entire building. I got to paint a mural of the Boston skyline. I had never painted a mural before and was, well, rather nervous about my artistic ability. It turned out awesome! And now, I'm overly proud of myself.

And yet, not only did I survive this week, but I also came out relatively okay. Even though, there was a lot of stress and a lot to do, I managed it. I feel like I'm finally at the point where stress doesn't paralyze me anymore. It still got to me, but I handled it much better than I would have in the past.

Still waiting for service to start

I took a week off from posting, because, well, last weekend was unduly stressful. Ironically, taking time off from City Year to spend 3 days at Hamilton for Alumni Weekend made my life worse... Let's just say, ex-boyfriends suck... a lot. While at least Alan left me alone, Wex decided to be an immature jerk and start a screaming match that all of Babbitt heard. It truly showed me just how much I've outgrown college and am so much better off with City Year/any group of more mature, idealistic individuals.

At the end of the week before my Hamilton visit, we had a meeting with the middle school principal, the civics teacher, and a ESL teacher who taught one civics class. There was also some talk about connecting with the 7th grade social studies curriculum. Things were looking promising. It looked like I was finally going to get a chance to get into the classroom and teach.

This past week, I somewhat got to. I arrived on Tuesday to find that I was not permanently assigned to a full-time civics teacher. I had my definite assignment in the ESL class (thanks to my SHINE experience/certification), but that was only one class period a day. I'm loving my ESL kids (I'm assigned to about 5 8th grade boys... which is surprisingly working out). But yeah, I spent Tuesday observing a class that was not mine.

Thursday, I arrived at the school still not knowing where I would be ending up. Last minute, I was told that I would be in a 6th grade social studies class... Excuse me? When was this decided? Well, apparently, not even the 6th grade teacher was informed that I was assigned to his classroom. I didn't even find out what the 6th grade curriculum was until about 10 minutes into the first class. I also later find out that the teacher, a rather reticent individual, will not be in school for all of January and February. Obviously, this is an unacceptable assignment, which means I still don't have a classroom assignment.

I got my team role assignment this week: Documentation Coordinator. In sum, I'm responsible for keeping track of everything: timesheets, photographs, service projects, etc, etc, etc. I basically get to be anal and put my sociological documentation skills to work. Yay!

I'm still in love with my afterschool program. My 1st and 2nd graders are absolutely adorable. They've started drawing me pictures and seem all excited when I show up. We've successful run the PE program for the past 3 weeks and are looking to start a related program called: "Physical Enrichment Program Sportmanship Initiative (PEPSI)," which will develop good sportmanship while teaching general respect.

So, yeah, it's been a rough week. My hope is that next week will be better.

First Week of Service - maybe

So, this past week was supposed to be my first week of full-time service... Only my middle school has apparently peaced out of the process. We've had such problems contacting them that I may end up at a different middle school (which already has a literacy team) So, I've spent my mornings doing random office work (including the giant calendar on the 3rd floor - yes, a ladder was necessary). I've just been so anxious to do service for so long that this past week has felt like agony.

My one saving grace has been my afterschool program. They've started to have regular programming this week, so each day has a theme:

1. Tues: literacy
2. Wed: physical education
3. Thurs: science/art

Obviously, there are themes for Monday & Friday, but I'm not there, so clearly it doesn't matter ;-) But yeah, my teamlet has basically been put in charge of organizing the PE programs. Honestly, I would've felt more comfortable putting together any of the other programs, but I've got my other teamlet mates to rely on for support.

We did do PE this past Wednesday, which was absolutely adorable. We got to lead a bunch of kindergarteners in PT... The best was when they did boom-shakalas. I really think it's good that I'm with little kids in afterschool. After dealing with 8th grade drama (and there will be drama) on Tues & Thurs mornings, my feeling is that it will be relaxing to hang out with little kids.

On a side note, Jordan came to visit on Thursday, which was f***ing amazing. I missed him so much and we had so much fun. And yet, it was weird because we were no longer sharing stories of common reference. No stories about dumb freshmen boys or crazy professors. I have my CY stories and he has his abroad fair stories. And while they're both entertaining, it's a little weird. We'll manage.

Well, it's a 3-day weekend, followed by a 3-day week (for me), and then a 3-day weekend at Hamilton.

And the real work starts...

Friday was Opening Day... I was officially sworn in and now have my full uniform. It still doesn't seem real. All of City Year has just been so abstract. I spent 9 months waiting to get my uniform (the same amount of time I'll spend wearing it) and experiencing all that anticipation has made the transition into reality hard - almost like I'm not really here. Obviously, I am here. I've been with City Year for a month. I guess with the BTA uniforms it just didn't have a true City Year feel. And now, I hardly believe I have my uniform. On Thursday, after the Red Jacket ceremony, I kept touching the CY logo on my jacket, like I was making sure it was real.

Honestly, the beginning of the week is kind of a blur. We did some training. I got to go to my afterschool program on Tuesday and Thursday. I'm in a 1st and 2nd grade classroom and they are absolutely adorable. CY has been at this school before, so they recognize the Red Jackets... they even know boom-shakalakas (a PT exercise I have yet to learn). I think I may end up working with kids of all ages. Elementary kids during afterschool; middle schoolers during the day; and high schoolers on Saturdays (as part of the special program, City Heroes). This has the potential to be incredibly rewarding or overwhelming (most likely both).

So, as I mentioned above, Thursday was the Red Jacket ceremony. Basically, we got our bomber jackets and had the opportunity to dedicate them. It was a really intense ceremony. A lot of people broke down in tears (myself included). I dedicated my jacket in memory of my father, who made sure to teach me the lessons of social justice, and to my mother, who has demonstrated amazing strength in the face of overwhelming hardships. All of this made it extremely hard to be "on" at my afterschool.

Friday was a significantly more uplifting day. I have a bunch of pictures of everyone in their red jackets (coming soon to my Facebook account)... It's amazing. We also got to do an afternoon service project at the Chestnut Hill Reservoir. I've spent countless hours there and will probably spend countless more. I feel so proud and inspired that I could do service in my own neighborhood AND see the results of it for weeks/months/years to come. Friday night, I went out for dinner and drinks with a friend from home and some other CMs, continuing my constant feel like this is a 5th year of college.

Of course, there has been some drama over the past week... We lost some people this week, including one girl who was fired for discipline reasons. Some people in the Corps have started dating each other, including two members of my team. I'm worried about how that's going to affect team dynamics, especially if they have a messy break-up. But it's out of my hands. Of course, I have to have my own drama... but that's not appropriate to discuss in this forum.

Tomorrow (Monday) is my first official day as a full CM. I'll be hanging around the office all day, hopefully getting some much needed training for Civics in Action.