Well, it's been a month since the last time I posted.. and it has been a good month indeed. =] I still love my students and am so grateful for this opportunity to live life with them. It's amazing how confirming City Year has been that this is what I want to do.. work so closely with youth and build relationships with them.
Here is a picture of my team (minus Cedric) after we led our "community meeting".. something that each of the 6 teams has to do to share with the rest of the corps what is going on at their school. It is done in a skit style, and our theme was the NWSS Gangsta's. We each had gangsta' names.. mine was "ginger snap" or "g-snap" for short. =] It was a great bonding time for my team because we had to come together quickly and plan it in only 3 days.. and it turned out awesome! Lots of laughs went into it, and lots of laughs came out of it. =]
I'll tell a funny story that happened yesterday.. but we'll see how funny it is to you reading it because I was cracking up and still crack up picturing it in my head. This week City Year has been putting on this "Gettin' Live in the Library" with various activities for teachers to sign up their classes to come to in the school library. My class went to it yesterday and did a science experiment that one of my teammates led. They had to explore this "oobleck" substance (made of cornstarch and water) and use the scientific method to determine if it was a solid, liquid, or gas. They were in groups and each group had a container of "oobleck" that they could play with. It was a little messy, and we had newspapers on the tables so that the tables wouldn't get dirty.. (but that never works like it's supposed to, of course). One of my students, was playing with some oobleck when he suddenly sprung up from his chair and exclaimed, "man, this stuff is dangerous!" He had dropped a chunk of it onto the table!.. and had this guilty, embarrassed look on his face like "oh man, they're gonna be mad cuz I spilled it everywhere.. I thought I could handle it!" It really wasn't a big deal.. it's pretty easy to clean up.. but his reaction to his mistake was priceless! He just didn't want to get in trouble.. it was the oobleck's fault because it was dangerous. I said to him, "what did it do, jump out of your hand?!" hahaha. The things my students say..
Anyway, I've also been setting some goals with a few of my students relating to their grades and behavior, and I've been so impressed with what they have come up with on their own.. such as not giving up when they get frustrated, or not talking in class, or gaining their grandma's trust back by being responsible and getting good grades. 7th graders can be so squirrely, but they also know what is expected of them and can be real when they need to be. I've seen a huge difference already in one of my students who I did goals with. He wasn't motivated really at all to do his work and do it well and would give up easily when he got frustrated. Since we came up with goals last week, I haven't seen him give up, and he has been so focused and motivated to do his work. He even told me that he was going to get a 4.0 this marking period. We'll see what happens.. but it's like he just needed somebody to set out clear expectations for him and believe that he could achieve them. He's a very smart kid, but he doesn't see that in himself yet.
I can't say enough how much I love my students, and I hope to continue to build a relationship with them where they see me as somebody who believes in them and somebody they can trust. I can't believe it's already December. I really need to take advantage of every day I have with them.. because they will all be gone so quickly. =[ But I'm sure there are many more fun and rewarding times ahead. =]
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