City Year: What I Learned

I graduated from City Year two months ago, but I still haven't taken too much time to reflect on it. Approximately 99% of the people I talk to have no idea what City Year is.  Most people know what Americorps is, which gets us somewhere when I explain City Year, but confusion is still present in most of my conversations, which is understandable.

"City what?" (I feel like I always have to yell the name.)

"Why do you wear that jacket? Why do you wear a uniform?"

"oh, like Teach for America? My friend did TFA."

"I thought you do Americorps after you graduate college?"

"Do you teach?"

"WHAT IS THAT?"

Those are the kind of comments I hear all the time. I'm not going to specifically answer those in this post, but if you would like to know what City Year is, check out their website here or go to my sidebar and click the label City Year. You'll find lots of past posts from over the course of this year.

Coming into this year-

I'm a fan of challenges and hard work, but I also like to see fruit at the end, but there honestly wasn't a ton of that, or at least the kind of "fruit" I expected. Pretty much all the views I had at the beginning of the year about education were shifted because of this experience. I saw first-hand how poisonous public education can be and I realized how complicated it is to bring change and reform. For the record, it's very complicated to bring reform. I definitely didn't realize that coming into it.  

Teamwork is hard work

Going into this year, I thought the team aspect of City Year would be the easiest... nope. I mean I've played on sports teams, I've gone on many team mission trips, I felt like I knew what to expect being on a team. City Year BOASTS about the fact they create the most diverse teams possible, and that's what they did. Yes, for a good portion of the day I worked exclusively with my 6th grade class and I didn't have to directly work with my team, but we ran an after school program together and that required us to be a well-oiled machine. A tight-knit one, too. Communication needed to be excellent, energy-levels needed to be high, and flexibility wasn't an option. More times than not those components were missing, and after school was a struggle. We still pushed through, but there were many disagreements, misunderstandings, and minor problems that would arise during the after school space. There's no doubt that I enjoyed my team. We were friends and we hung out together outside of work. However, just because you're friends with people, doesn't mean you work well with someone. I think we all know this. This year I learned it. And yet, if we didn't have problems as a team I would probably be concerned that the work we were doing was too easy. Conflict, to a degree, is natural and should be worked through. 

Below is a picture of my City Year team at the beginning of they year and then at the end of the year. If it looks like there are fewer people in the second picture, there is. There was a lot of "refining" that happened. 

Students aren't predictable!

I wasn't quite sure how to phrase this. I was thinking about saying, students will mess with your emotions, or students can make you laugh, cry, and smack the table all at the same time. Students aren't predictable definitely sums up what I'm trying to get across.

1. Staying Occupied: When kids are in class they need you to be at your best and have a bunch of exciting things planned for them to enjoy class time. I thought the same would be true in the outside space, but it's NOT. Kids want you to leave them alone when they're outside. They stay busy and they stay happy. They might not be doing the most productive thing, but they know how to entertain themselves. When after school started, we had a bunch of games planned because I was worried riots would start, but I guess they didn't need that. This is just one surprising thing I realized about kids' work habits. 

2. Fighting, arguing, and swearing are normal: It felt like those behaviors ran in their blood. Oh, this was the worst for me. Whenever there was class work time, there was bickering. Lunch time was hell.  It just felt like no matter what happened, students would have problems with one another. When do kids grow out of this?!? What's so hard about communicating in a civil manner?! 

The day to day stuff is still good stuff:

Working in the classroom can get tiring because of the everyday tasks that you have to do everyday: tutor, collect papers, check homework, etc. Yet, those are necessary things and kids and teachers still need that stuff for a successful classroom. Thus it's still good and makes a difference, even though it might sometimes be boring. 

I heart this. 

A career in teaching might not be for me

In high school I wrote many times in my journal that I plan to be a teacher. I was set on it, and it seemed like a career I would enjoy. I wanted to do City Year as a way to gain some classroom experience, beef up my resume, and hopefully absorb a few teaching skills. While I did gain some of those things I realized that teaching is much harder than I thought it would be and working with older students doesn't totally jive with my personality type. At the end of the year my boss told me she envisions me being an excellent kindergarten teacher in the future. At the surface this is a nice compliment, but if you look at it on a deeper level, it also means that I struggled working with the middle school crowd. And I did, but we all did. I know I had successful moments and I know I had challenging moments. 

OR ( a completely different thought on my future career)

A career in teaching might not be for me (yet)

I really want to experience diverse, challenging, exciting, etc. things in my lifetime. Going to college and then going straight into a teaching career seems so restricting to me.  I don't want to be forced to do the standard path that most people do, which is: go to college, get a job just because that's what you should do. With that said, I can tell people that I want to be a teacher when I "grow up," but I don't really want to be a teacher right away. I want to travel, work in the ministry field, try other ventures... there's so much out there to try. I'm not committed to really any long-term career plan at this point in my life. But hey, this could change as fast as my plan to do City Year came about. I'm just thankful that I don't feel the pressure to have life "figured" out. Life should be more of a journey. 

I am so thankful God allowed me to do City Year. It was the perfect thing for me.   

Monday & I'm Not White

Happy Monday. I started the day off right with a diet coke pepsi in hand (Ashamed, but I needed that caffeine). It was an interesting day at good ol' Hunts Point Middle School. We kicked off math class with introducing algebraic functions. Do you know what functions are? If so, good-- you were awake during Algebra II class. If you don't, that's unfortunate, but maybe normal??? I mean I remember learning about functions when I was in 10th grade, not 6th grade. Sometimes I think the curriculum we use is too ambitious for 6th graders. 

During lunch one of the students complained, 

"Miss- I want real food. I want Burger King or McDonalds or something."

I guess yellow sticks, shiny buns, and mystery meat is real food?? Maybe she just wasn't feeling the turkey sandwich.

During 8th period a dancer from the Bronx came and taught my class hip-hop. I learned some crazy moves. Some of the students loved it. Most of them found it too challenging. He was trying to get us to dance at like 100 steps per second. Ya'll should have seen me-- dance is not one of my strong suits.

During After School Art club we were playing Lady Antebellum in the background. One of the students complained and said she doesn't like "white people music." Then she went on to say she doesn't like white people. I talk with this girl a lot so I looked at her and asked, 

What about me? ...You like me.

"Yeah, but you're not white."

Yes I am, what do you mean?

"I thought you were Japanese or something."

I'm clearly white. 

Despite the Madness

This has been one of those weeks where there has been a million thoughts in my head, but nothing is organized, and I just don't have the desire to sit and try to write something out. There was a building explosion in my neighborhood, and the teacher I work with has been absent all week because of the stomach flu. Lots of chaos. I started reading this Journal prompt, and my apathy towards writing for the day changed.

I guess I'll call this...Thursday Thoughts? Maybe just a Thursday dump? The question she asked was, "If you had unlimited resources, what political or social issue, or area of scientific or medical exploration would you fund? Do you have a cause that is near and dear to your heart that you'd put your time, energy, and money into if you had the means? Tell us about it, along with a bit of background explaining where you're coming from."

Can you take a guess at what cause I'm going to talk about? I live it all the time... yeah, education. If I'm not thinking about the education of 25 other 12 year-olds, I'm thinking about my education, or my siblings' education, or my friends' education; education is on my mind a lot. There's no doubt there's a problem with the education system in the South Bronx...in New York City...in America, and so many people are trying to solve it. When I started my year of service, I had a lot more optimism about closing the achievement gap and helping students get an education than I do now, but there's still things that can be done even though it's such a challenge. I haven't lost all hope! One area of school service that has always been relatively successfully (and a highlight of my day) has been the art club I run with another co-worker and approximately 10 students at the middle school. 

Doing art with the students has been relaxed, but disciplined at the same time. The kids act like civil and creative human beings when they engage in an art project. I've loved seeing creativity come out in the students, and I love the conversations that come up during the time. Students do not have any art classes during the school day, so I'm glad we can offer it to them in the after school space.  

A midst all the test-prep, math, and ELA students have to do, having the chance to be creative and inventive is very important for their education and well-being. I would love to further art education in schools. Art education can certainly go beyond things like painting and sculpture-making. Art education can be poetry, theatre, music, and I would even add subjects like computer science, robotics, and other technical subjects to the list. If a kid can be creative, then it's art in my books. Yes, art-education is more expensive and harder to manage, but those are the classes that students can flourish in and grow. These are the classes where they can be proud of their work they made and have something to show off for years. 

Art was always a safe and exciting place for me as a student, and I want more students to feel that way about it too. Art allows students to break out of the mold and be different from their peers. I know that art alone is NOT the answer to the education crisis, but from my experience, giving students the opportunities to be creative produces great things. 

I guess what I'm getting at is that education policy is an issue I would love to support and fund during my lifetime. I already moved thousands of miles away from home to work in the poorest congressional district in the country to serve in a failing middle school. That's one step in the right direction. I know I'm not an expert, but I'm passionate about it, and passion takes people places. 

What are your passions? Even if you share a word or two, I want to know what causes are on your mind.

**Random note** I wanted you to be aware of the definition of mad according to Urban Dictionary. I hear this word from the mouths of my students all the time. They say it, so I incorporated it into my title. "Mad: Most predominantly used in the greater New York area, "mad" translates into 'a lot' or 'extremely.' For the most part, it means angry. It's mad hot today. She has mad problems."

Life update: Service and Perspective

*I started writing this post a couple days ago and needed to stop because I started to feel depressed. I wasn't depressed because of the nature of the topic, but because of my outlook on the topic, which happens to be my job. When I started City Year I was so flippin' excited! I thought City Year was the coolest and I couldn't wait to work with students practically all the time. That spirit lasted a few months, but since January, my enthusiasm and motivation have really dwindled when it comes to working with City Year. Some of the reasons for why I feel burnt out and tired of serving in the school are valid, but a lot of my negative feelings have blossomed from a discontent heart. 

How did I develop my discontentment? Words. Not just my own words, but words exchanged with other people in the form of complaints. COMPLAINING is poison. I know this, and I knew this, but I needed to be reminded of it. I want to nip my negative spirit, because deep down inside I know I'm doing something amazing. I know that I will look back on this year, and say "whoa, you did all that! You put yourself out there in a place hardly anyone would go. You put off your own education and personal development to serve 12 year-olds in the Bronx. How many people can say they did that during their lifetime?" 

Moving forward, I'm going to do my best to look at City Year the way I did when I came into it. There's one guy on my team who never engages in negative talk about the school we serve in, and I'm going to do my best to imitate that. He still shares truth and struggles, but he does it with a growth-mindset and when it's appropriate. He's the happiest at the school, and he's definitely making the most of his work. I know that not complaining is a great start to rekindling my passion and hopefully becoming a better corps member for the remaining months. I so desperately want to enjoy the service I do, and the first step is a positive outlook, especially through all the challenges I'm facing there! God wants me here for a reason. 

This is how I originally started this post:

Work: City Year is kicking my butt. I'm at a point where I'm counting down the days 'til school is over, and I don't like that. I don't know how to make an impact anymore. I don't know how to help these kids. On Thursday we had parent conferences and only 6 parents showed up. These were the parents who really didn't need to show up, because their child is doing "fine." The next day I wasn't in the school, but I texted the teacher I work with to see how the day went, and she said it was the worst day ever. Things seem to only get worse at this middle school. State tests are coming up in April, which are a HUGE deal for the NYC public schools. The staff in the building are stressed, but of course the students could care less.  Our after-school program is so stressful and long. Our team feels disconnected, and the kids go wild. I'm behind when it comes to getting time with students, and I don't see a lot of improvement with grades and overall performance in the students I work with. 

And this is when I needed to stop. Too depressing.  

Aside from this, I still love NYC. Love it. And I'm forming great friendships. I will share a happy post about City Year. I will. Actually, come to think of it, one of the students I work closely with in my class is greatly improving in math, and that really does make me happy.
 Baby steps, Abby, baby steps.

What do you do when you feel stuck or discontent? Do you have verses or quotes to share? 

Anything Goes Art {CC 3/23}

At first I didn't think I would be able to do this post because I had City Year all day. I didn't get home 'til 9:15 pm! This week New York public schools have off, but we still have to put in hours with City year.  Instead of the usual service, we are doing mid-year summit which consists of professional development, workshops and sessions to better our service in the classroom. Today, one of our sessions was focused on self-care. Our service is stressful and sometimes we just need to do something for us. In other words, we had the opportunity to relax. Some of the options were meditation, yoga, "chat and chew," painting, basketball, and other random ones. 

I joined the water-painting crew and enjoyed an hour of just playing with watercolor and paper. I wouldn't consider what I made art, but it definitely gave me the chance to let out a little creativity in a stress-free and relaxing environment. 

What self-care looked like for me:

Find out more about my City Year Experience:
A Day in the Life
What Fires You Up?

How do you self-care? Do you enjoy water color?

What's in my bag?

Day 12

I'm not much of a bag lady. I only carry my wallet, keys, and iPhone when I go places. So I figured I should share what I carry around in my backpack during the work week so this post is somewhat interesting. 

1. My Student Portfolio Binder holds papers and data for my focus list students. 2) I have a super janky notebook that was ruined while walking through a New York rain storm, but it has important notes and information so I can't part with it yet. 3) Pencil pouch! 4) My stripey to-do and task notebook. 5) My laptop that is a little too big for my liking. 

1) iPhone charger. I'm at work all day and my phone needs to stay charged. 2) A book for the subway 3) my cute wallet with my MPLS button 4) A hairbrush. Because preteens make me pull my hair out sometimes. 5) Laptop charger... keeps it alive, plus if I charge it at school that means I don't have to charge it at home which means I save a few cents on electricity. :)

#BlogeverydayinFebruary

A Day in the Life

Let's go to School!

6:00 am -- Wake up and get ready for the day. 

6:40 am -- Leave for school and walk to the uptown 6 train.

7:30 am -- First Circle and Power Greet the students as they come into school. Check in with students on my attendance focus list. Make sure students grab breakfast! 

8:10 am -- Homeroom starts and students work on the quote of the day. Students shuffle into the classroom throughout the 20 minutes. 

8:30 am -- Math time! I love working on math with my 6th grade students. It's definitely my favorite subject to work on. We are currently working on fractions, percents, decimals, proportions, and a whole lot of converting. During the class period I check homework, write on the board, and tutor.

10:00 am -- Gym class for students / Prep for the teacher and  I

10:47 am -- Social Studies or Science Class (these classes alternate each day). Students only have 45 minutes of social studies or science each day. We are learning about matter and the World Wonders.

11:30 am -- Lunch Duty. I try to stay positive during this time, but it's definitely the hardest part of the day because we function as lunch room monitors and the students get really rowdy. 

12:17 pm -- ELA (English Language Arts) class. I pull students out to read or I help them write papers. 

1:47 pm  -- Music class for students / Lesson planning and prep for after school

***End of School Day***

2:30 pm -- Homework help begins. We help our after school students complete homework. Students are divided by grade. 

3:30 pm -- Students have snack and transition/free time. 

4:00 pm -- Club time begins! I run an art club. We have a fitness, health, dance, and acting club for our students to participate in. This is usually my favorite part of the day.

5:00 pm -- End of After School. Clean up and dismiss students for the day.

5:30ish pm -- Final Circle / Break for the day / Enter data and clean up. 

6:30 pm -- I usually make it home at this time. 

More about the City Year life:

A Corps Member's morning routine published in 5 o'clock magazine.

The Corps Experience according to City Year.

There you have it! Be sure to click on the City Year Square in my sidebar to read more about my City Year experience so far. Feel free to ask me questions too. I gave a good overview, but there is a lot more I could say about the day-to-day experiences.

Required fine-print: 
These views are my own and do not reflect City Year or Americorps.
Because of FERPA, I cannot disclose the identity of students at my school; so no close-up pictures or names. 

The Other Wes Moore

I love reading nonfiction and memoirs. I picked up this book from my classroom library in the Bronx. I started reading a few pages and I was drawn in right away.

What is the Other Wes Moore about?

The other Wes Moore is an account of two men with the exact same name who grew up in the same city and faced difficult childhoods. They grew up in Baltimore in single-parent households and lacked resources. Each Wes made key choices in their life that impacted who they became in extreme ways. Wes, the author, became a Rhodes scholar, a war veteran, a white house fellow, and a business leader in New York City (I enjoyed his references to NYC and the Bronx). He is married and is raising a family. The other Wes took a small step forward when he joined job corps, but life was still hard for him. He had four kids with different baby mamas and money was tight. He had a habit of selling drugs, which was very dangerous. His story quickly takes a turn for the worst when he commits a terrible murder with his brother. I was on the edge of my seat while reading how the murder panned out. I won't give the details of the murder away here (you should read it), but it was intense and really foolish. The other Wes is now serving life in prison without parole. 

Connections
I resonated with this book because I see young people like Wes all the time in the Bronx, and I wonder who these students will become when they grew up. How can students living in the Bronx or other cities of extreme poverty overcome their circumstances and flourish? What is needed to prevent students from falling into a cycle of violence and drugs?

Where does success come from?
Wes, the author, admits that his life could have easily been the same as the other Wes'. At the same time, the other Wes could have led a successful life. Their circumstances were similar and they came from similar backgrounds. Wes' explanation for his success (and what he believes will bring others success) is summed up in one word: people. 
He says, "What changed was that I found myself surrounded by people-- starting with my mom, grandparents, uncles, and aunts, and leading to a string of wonderful role models and mentors- who kept pushing me to see more than what was directly in front of me, to see the boundless possibilities of the wider world and the unexplored possibilities within myself." 

I too credit all my successes to people that God has put in my life. Parents, mentors, friends, teachers, pastors, and family are the reason I am standing strong today. Those are the people who inspire me and help me push on. The students of Hunts Point (in the Bronx) need people to stand by them and encourage them. I hope to stand by some of my students so they will remember that someone is there to be an advocate and support them in life, especially in school.

What fires you up?

I used the question in the title because this question makes me laugh. Not because I think it's a weird way to ask what inspires you, but because fired up is one of City Year's coined terms that I hear every day.
In other words:
Fire and City Year always go together in my mind. When I saw that question I immediately thought I had to write about wearing a red jacket or spending time with students.

Further FYI-
When City Year gathers together, the person standing in front yells,
"City Year, How ya'll feeling?"
We yell: "Fired up!"

Now that my mind is on City Year, I'll just talk more about it, because City Year really does fire me up!
The energy, chanting, dancing, clapping, and code-words keep me peppy and happy during the long days of service. Attitude matters a lot in life, and when you serve with City Year, attitude is everything. Smile, have fun, and be a good example.

What is City Year? City Year is the organization that I am taking my year of service through. They are under Americorps and they put young people in low performing schools all over America to improve the achievement gap and put students on the path towards graduation.

Read more about City Year on their site
Read more about my experience with City Year here

Things Said {Classroom Edition}

I work with an interesting bunch of students. I want to give you a taste of what it's like to tutor in a class of 6th graders. The following outbursts, conversations, and sayings were all recorded over the course of ONE class period. Yes, one class period. There's never a dull moment in a middle school! They keep me laughing.....

One final quote for good measure: 

After I wrote down the first quote, I couldn't stop. I just paid attention and wrote away. These kids are full of material! :P

This is WHERE I Serve

First point, I am home in Minneapolis! I had a full weekend of fun and family. I have also received a lot of questions. People here want to know about New York. All they know is what they see in the movies or in the media. Hunts Point in the South Bronx is a place you won't see in the media. The South Bronx happens to be the poorest congressional district in the country and poverty abounds. Another corps member from City Year shared this article and I really appreciated it: "People Most New Yorkers Never See."  Some of the stories are heartbreaking to read, but this is the reality people face.

Here are two people that stuck out to me from the article:


 "Sonya lives on the top floor of an abandoned building with her husband of ten years Eric. They left Rhode Island in pursuit of drugs, settling in Hunts Point five years ago. 'This is the only reason me and Sonya are in Hunts Point, because this is literally right now the best heroin in all of New York City.' 


"Chris Bishop was drinking in front of a liquor store when we met. A resident in the local homeless shelter, he told me the following: At the age of 13, Chris killed his father, stabbing him with a knife after a childhood of abuse.

The article captures the lives of 8 individuals. I definitely encourage you to read more about the two people I posted. I walk past the mural in the top picture every day, and I see a handful of liquor stores throughout Hunts Point. 

Photo credit: Chris Arnade

I was asked out today

.....by a 6th grade boy (also one of my students). Ha! I got you excited for nothing. I told him no. Then he asked if we could go out for a minute. I still said no. Poor kid.

Today I felt a lot of love. My class gave me a beautiful card/poster and the teacher gave me a tricked out watch. We threw a party for our after school kids and they loved it. Then I finished out the evening at a friend's apartment and we had a little Christmas party complete with fancy cheese, presents, a gingerbread house, a devotional, and more yummy food. 

bling.

That's my class. Snowmen version! (I'm the snowman in the red)
It says, "Merry Christmas from your 603 Family!"

City Year Life: December '13

City year is all about spirit and unity.  After any event, class, or gathering we spirit break. This is a spirit break with a group of my students.

Students at my middles school don't have any art classes during the school day. In art club we focus on the basics, but we still have fun!

This is my team! We started out with 13 people on the team and now we have 10. Love these people! In January we will get 1 or 2 new corps members!

What a fun building! 

Add captionI found this in my notebook. One of my students wrote this. How sweet! 

On teaching

I read a book titled, "Why do only white people get abducted by aliens?" By Ilana Garon. It's an expository nonfiction about a young high school teacher teaching in none other than the Bronx! She's a middle-class, white girl...like me. It has been fun relating to her experiences and stories. She started out with the New York teaching fellows program and has now taught for 10 years.

After my experience so far I am impressed that she has made it for that many years. Here is an excerpt from the conclusion that discusses why Ilana teaches:

"It was the sense of doing work that was concrete, interactive, of knowing that it would matter to someone if I didn't show up one morning... To say I felt guilty isn't quite accurate; it was more that I had become sort of single-mindedly focused on trying to make up to them the things I felt they had unjustly missed. 

That, and I liked teaching. "It's addictive," one of my mentors told me, "because it's so f--ing hard. And when you do it successively, it's a high...it feels amazing."

I couldn't agree more. Teaching is so hard, and this year has definitely made me more grateful for the great teachers I had. People know teaching is hard, but they don't know how hard it is until they do it. This is probably one of the reasons why so many people have quit City year so far and it's only been 3 months. My team alone has lost 3 people, which is 25% of the team. Many other teams all over New York are losing corps members at the same rate. The amount of skill needed to be a good teacher still overwhelms me. You need to be engaging, have tough skin, have lots of knowledge, have great organization and planning skills, be a good communicator with not only the students but parents and faculty. You need to be alert and have energy ALL the time. You need to know when to be funny and humorous with the students, and then know how to "bring it back," as a teacher would say.  I could elaborate more on these qualities, but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Pretty much all of us have seen teachers in action at some point in our life. 

The one class I teach is an art club during our after school program. The rest of the day I tutor and support my teacher in the classroom. When I teach those classes I either walk away feeling a little defeated or I walk away with that "high" that Ilana talked about. It's so satisfying when I'm teaching and things are going well. I hope to keep getting better as the months go on.

*Pulse check on my future* this year is a little bit of a trial run to discover if I want to pursue a career in education. Working with students is harder than I thought it would be and I'm struggling with seeing results in the students. I would love to work in the education field, but I'm second guessing whether classroom teaching is for me. I can see the traditional classroom teaching model evolving because classroom learning doesn't work for lots of students and technology is rapidly becoming more prevalent in schools. 

24

My students like to break out in little discussions trying to figure out how old I am. I just listen, but don't answer. I made a promise to myself to not tell any of them my age. I don't want to risk losing respect, which is so hard to hold onto with these students. They probably think 24 because 24 is the oldest you can be to do City year. Who knows what they would say if there wasn't an age limit? :) They ask if I have kids at home. They ask about my relationationship status. It just doesn't stop. 

Maybe they guess 24 simply because I look weathered come 4 pm on a Tuesday. I might have to agree....

This is me on the subway after the school  day and 2.5 hours of our after school program:

If you want to be a psychologist

City year can prepare you for that too. Today in after school I had to manage the step-up room. This is a space where students go when they bully, fight, get 3 warnings, or do something that needs correction. They have to sit out of the fun and reflect on their actions. Reflection isn't easy for middle schoolers and it requires proper coaching and prompting. Twelve year olds aren't very logical and they act out on impulses. The 6th grader I was dealing with was in the step up room for calling a white boy (the ONLY white kid in the school who was adopted by African-American parents) an f-- highlighter. He responded back by saying, "go to the back of the bus." From there hell broke loose and they yelled offensive terms back and forth.

I found it strange that they were so defensive when I had to take them away for their bad behavior. They were upset, but it seemed to me that they didn't understand that what they did was wrong. When they were confronted they automatically started yelling and blaming the other person for their actions. These kids have so much to learn....

The 3 students stayed with me for an hour. There were manipulative tears, threats, and not a lot of sitting still. Yet the 3 of them were able to apologize and I was able to mediate for them so they could work out their differences. Happy day! 

To conclude, all 3 students were suspended from after school for a few days and the dean was informed of their behavior. He was not happy. 

Note: this post was written on the subway on 10/30/13. 

My Monday

Students tend to lose it when a sub is around. The substitute teacher today was a nightmare. This man was old, raspy, and he teaches music (nothing against music here, but the ability to teach music doesn't do much good in a heavily saturated math and English public school). The class was out of control and there wasn't much I could do. I pulled out the wild ones and had them read with me. I pulled out groups to work through the PEMDAS math packet. The students like being pulled out and I liked working with them. During one of my preps a few of the students begged the sub to write a pass so they could come to Miss Abby. I did not turn them away even though we weren't technically allowed with me, and we read the Lightning Theif. These girls had a lot of choice words to say about this sub. If they stayed in the classroom without me I'm pretty sure a riot would start. At the same time I felt guilty for leaving this man alone. Normally when the usual teacher I work with is in, I stay in the classroom and function as a teacher's assistant and I go around to students who need help. I occasionally pull out, but it's typically more useful for me to stay in the classroom and tutor in there. Ms. F, the normal teacher is fully capable of managing the classroom.

Back to the chaos. 

Actual music class rolls around and the music teacher who is a 7th grade English teacher gives the students a music lesson. A music teacher has not been hired (the irony here kills me). The students find music class "mad boring." I do too. The students endure another class and then lunch. To make things worse, during 6th period the students go to the library for a lesson with the librarian. Guess who was also also absent today? The librarian. I checked in with the main office  and they said she should be in, but I knew better. The librarian never showed up and I was left with wild 6th graders for 45 minutes directly after lunch. I was starting to lose it. Now, I don't mind teaching and I like my class, but I had nothing planned and no resources. The teacher didn't leave materials or curriculum and my class didn't have much homework. Silent reading was our only option. I needed silence. They needed silence. Not all of the students made it through. If they started talking I sent them back to class. 

7th period: fire drill. We have had a fire drill every week since the start of the school. It's RIDICULOUS. I'm pretty sure they have them simply to give everyone a break from the madness. Fire drills last a whole period because after all 3 schools in the building exit the building, all the students need to get scanned back in the building (just like the airport). 8th period is the last class of the day and of course it was a mess. The sub was totally defeated and the kids seemed exhausted too. I worked with one student  who still wanted to learn while the other students played truth or dare. Sigh. 

I'm praying that Ms. F returns to school tomorrow. I sent her an email asking that very question. I have not received a response, but we will have a nice little chat tomorrow morning, assuming that she is present.

Hunts Point in Pictures

The Middle School I am doing City Year is in Hunts Point, a neighborhood in the South Bronx. Today we served at a Back to School Fair for the families of Hunts Point. I have never been to a "fair" like it before. It was unique... to say the least. I ran the binder building station for most of the time. It was a joy to see some of the students at the fair. It was also meaningful to meet the parents and other leaders in the Hunts Point. The fair was definitely a success. Families received school supplies, a meal, and had lots of fun!

Children played with recycling-- this was an organized activity

A huddle

Zumba

The River

Children built and decorated their own binders

Building a fort with the recycling

Children's Museum

Street Art

FIRING up the grill for Veggie Burgers and Chili

The First Day

The school year started today. I'm so blessed to work with City Year. I have only good things to say about City Year as an organization, and today I saw why organizations like City Year are important: Bronx middle schools are tough places. Today felt like I was working in a prison. Police officers included. The first day by nature typically can be chaotic and boring, regardless of the school. You just need to make it through all the kinks and get acquainted with everything again. Before the students could even walk through the doors they had to go through a metal detector and have their backpack scanned. The line to do so was very long. Students are required to wear camouflage pants and polo shirts, but only half the students wore the uniforms. The students move from classroom to classroom with a 2 minute passing period. Lunch is a zoo. The students are called up table-by-table while a teacher yells through a mega-phone. If the students don't respond to the megaphone, he uses a whistle. A police officer patrols the lunch-room as well. The students get about a 9 minute recess period, and then they're back to class.

Today, our main role was to function as "extra bodies" to help patrol things and help things move smoothly. We did super fun power-greetings and chants this morning to welcome the students to school. Some kids really got into it. I got into it! When the principal makes an announcement over the loud speaker, she plays a clip of a Jay-Z song before she talks-- it's super funny. There are definitely some unique and cool things about MS.424x. I'm excited to learn and grow from being in this community. I know there are going to be challenges, and it's already a culture shock for me. But it will be worth it. While I was talking to a 7th grade girl at lunch about the coming school year, she said she was most excited to spend time with City Year. How sweet!

Disclaimer: This post does not reflect the views of City Year or Americorps.