This week started out pretty well - Sunday was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Bishop on Southeastern Florida, so there was a huge ceremony at my church that a lot of special people attended, including the Presiding Bishop.
The rest of this week has been the Advanced Training Academy, which is like the Basic Traning Academy we had for City Year during the very first month of my time here. On Monday, we held our meeting at the University of Miami, and got some reflection time, as well as behavior management training. Charlie Rose was also there and did some really cool teambuilding activities with us. Charlie Rose is the Vice President and Dean of City Year. On Tuesday, we met again at the University of Miami for some more teambuilding activities. Wednesday was a team day, which meant that our team got to spend the morning together eating breakfast and playing games. In the afternoon, everyone met at Crandon Park for a Bar-be-que. Yesterday, Steven Spalos visited from City Year Headquarters. Steven has been with City Year from almost the very beginning, and was visiting yesterday to give us a talk about "The Anatomy of Peace". This workshop was meant to help us work better within our teams. We all had dinner together afterwards, and then we had another talent show like the one we had at BTR. Yesterday was a twelve-hour day!
Today, everyone was supposed to meet at Oleta River State Park at 8:30 a.m. I took the bus, but my directions were not correct, so I ended up getting lost and wandering around Miami for two hours! : ( I finally made it, though, and was able to help with part of the service project, which was getting rid of some of the invasive plant species that have started to take over the park. After that, we had lunch and then got to spend some free time kayaking, swimming, and sun bathing.
My plan for this weekend is to do absolutely nothing.
-Aly
Friday, January 30, 2009
Saturday, January 24, 2009
984.25 Hrs.
I feel more exhausted right now than I can ever remember feeling.
On top of a full and tiring week at R. R. Moton, today was another full and tiring day with the Young Heroes. The day started out with P. T. at Government Center. Until lunch at noon, the Young Heroes participated in workshops about the "Middle School Generation". This was all about how they are perceived as Middle School students, what life is like for those of their age group, difficult things that Middle School-aged students have to deal with, etc. After lunch, we traveled over to Allapattah Middle School to plan, paint, and pick up trash.
-Aly
On top of a full and tiring week at R. R. Moton, today was another full and tiring day with the Young Heroes. The day started out with P. T. at Government Center. Until lunch at noon, the Young Heroes participated in workshops about the "Middle School Generation". This was all about how they are perceived as Middle School students, what life is like for those of their age group, difficult things that Middle School-aged students have to deal with, etc. After lunch, we traveled over to Allapattah Middle School to plan, paint, and pick up trash.
-Aly
Friday, January 23, 2009
975.75 Hrs.
Yesterday was even colder than the day before. I am surprised that Miami would ever reach these temperatures. Everyone else is also surprised, because these are apparently the lowest temperatures Miami has reached in YEARS.
Today was an office-based day. The exciting part of the day was that I got another pair of pants! Timberland is supposed to provide each corps member with three pairs of pants, but up until today, I had only been given one pair of uniform pants that I am expected to wear for the six or seven days I work each week. As you can see, it is incredibly exciting for me to now have two pairs!
Most of the rest of today was filled by disability training, which is one of our graduation requirements.
-Aly
Today was an office-based day. The exciting part of the day was that I got another pair of pants! Timberland is supposed to provide each corps member with three pairs of pants, but up until today, I had only been given one pair of uniform pants that I am expected to wear for the six or seven days I work each week. As you can see, it is incredibly exciting for me to now have two pairs!
Most of the rest of today was filled by disability training, which is one of our graduation requirements.
-Aly
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
956.5 Hrs.
Today was really cold! As part of our City Year uniform that Timberland gives us, we were given an all-weather jacket that has a hood, a fleece lining, and is extra long - almost to my knees. I never thought I would have a need for it, but I put it on this morning, along with my City Year sweatshirt and an additional long-sleeved shirt under my City Year t-shirt. The temperature was only about 40 degrees, but the additional wind chill factor made it feel like 25. I know that I should be used to weather a lot colder than that since I AM from Michigan after all, but it was a shock to my system since I am now used to only warm weather. I suppose that I have now become a true Floridian.
Today was also the start of the new intervention schedule, which meant that I had not a single break today - not even a lunch break. All of my intervention sessions are back to back, and I'm not even allowed travel time between each one. The worst part of my new schedule, though, isn't the added work load; the worst part is that the kids now hate me for something they think that I am personally making them do, which is attend intervention for an hour each day instead of their magnets. The mental battle I have to do with the kids because of this a million times more exhausting than not getting any breaks.
Since the students are released from J. A. at 4:00 on Wednesdays (school ends at 2:00 instead of 3:00 on those days) and we are technically required to work until 5:00 p.m., the R. R. Moton team has a tradition of going out to eat together every other Wednesday as a sort of "team bonding time". Since, for the last two times, I was dragged to places I did not want to go to, it was my turn to pick the restaurant today. I chose Panera. I had been looking forward to Panera since last Monday, but when we got there, it turned out that they were all out of the soup that I had been specifically looking forward to. What a let-down. : ( It was still fun to go out to dinner, though, and much better than sitting in a classroom.
-Aly
Today was also the start of the new intervention schedule, which meant that I had not a single break today - not even a lunch break. All of my intervention sessions are back to back, and I'm not even allowed travel time between each one. The worst part of my new schedule, though, isn't the added work load; the worst part is that the kids now hate me for something they think that I am personally making them do, which is attend intervention for an hour each day instead of their magnets. The mental battle I have to do with the kids because of this a million times more exhausting than not getting any breaks.
Since the students are released from J. A. at 4:00 on Wednesdays (school ends at 2:00 instead of 3:00 on those days) and we are technically required to work until 5:00 p.m., the R. R. Moton team has a tradition of going out to eat together every other Wednesday as a sort of "team bonding time". Since, for the last two times, I was dragged to places I did not want to go to, it was my turn to pick the restaurant today. I chose Panera. I had been looking forward to Panera since last Monday, but when we got there, it turned out that they were all out of the soup that I had been specifically looking forward to. What a let-down. : ( It was still fun to go out to dinner, though, and much better than sitting in a classroom.
-Aly
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
947 Hrs.
Congratulations, President Barack Obama! Even though I wasn't able to vote for him (stupid Michigan laws...) I was still able to work on his campaign. I am so glad that he was elected!
Today was, as always, exhausting. Instead of leading my interventions today, I took all of my students into the library computer lab during their respective intervention times in order to have them introduced to a new computer program we will be using in addition to the Voyager intervention curriculum. The kids don't know it yet, but, starting on Thursday, the kids will no longer be able to attend their magnate programs because interventions will now be lasting for an hour instead of just thirty minutes. That means that until the FCATs are done at the end of March, none of the intervention students will get to do anything they enjoy during the school day. : ( This makes my job a whole lot harder. Not just because this means that I now don't even get a lunch break, but because it means that the students now have a lot more of a reason to hate me.
-Aly
Today was, as always, exhausting. Instead of leading my interventions today, I took all of my students into the library computer lab during their respective intervention times in order to have them introduced to a new computer program we will be using in addition to the Voyager intervention curriculum. The kids don't know it yet, but, starting on Thursday, the kids will no longer be able to attend their magnate programs because interventions will now be lasting for an hour instead of just thirty minutes. That means that until the FCATs are done at the end of March, none of the intervention students will get to do anything they enjoy during the school day. : ( This makes my job a whole lot harder. Not just because this means that I now don't even get a lunch break, but because it means that the students now have a lot more of a reason to hate me.
-Aly
Monday, January 19, 2009
938 Hrs.
Today was the MLK Day of Service, as well as the Opening Day for Miami's first ever Young Heroes Corps.
This morning, I woke up at the time I normally have to wake up, because I had to be at the City Year office by 7:00 a.m. in order to plan for the day and meet some of the Young Heroes. Some of the students met us at the office and followed us to the service site, while some of them met us directly at the site.
By 9:30, all of the students were finally in their places for the start of the Opening Ceremony. I was very proud to watch my students get sworn in for their six months of service. Fortunately, the ceremony was brief, and then we were able to start our service.
I don't like a lot of the physical service I do with City Year, since almost all of it has to do with mulch and picking up trash. I enjoy volunteer work and have been volunteering for most of my life, by sometimes it seems as if all City Year is good for is picking up trash and spreading wood chips. I realize that this is all work that needs to be done, but it is hard for me to imagine that the people we work for can't find ANYTHING else for us to do, EVER. Since I was with the Young Heroes today, the service work we got to do was scrapbooking. The scrapbook we made was for some kind of global peace project, and will be sent to a group of people in Honduras, who have already sent us a scrapbook of their own. We got to spend some time learning about Honduras from some of our own corps members who have lived there, and then we were set off on our own to work on scrapbook pages. How fun!
I could have left for home at 3:00 p.m., but I decided to help the Young Heroes Program Leader get twenty kids back to the City Year office via bus and then rail, so I got home around 5:30, which is a lot earlier than most Monday nights!
-Aly
This morning, I woke up at the time I normally have to wake up, because I had to be at the City Year office by 7:00 a.m. in order to plan for the day and meet some of the Young Heroes. Some of the students met us at the office and followed us to the service site, while some of them met us directly at the site.
By 9:30, all of the students were finally in their places for the start of the Opening Ceremony. I was very proud to watch my students get sworn in for their six months of service. Fortunately, the ceremony was brief, and then we were able to start our service.
I don't like a lot of the physical service I do with City Year, since almost all of it has to do with mulch and picking up trash. I enjoy volunteer work and have been volunteering for most of my life, by sometimes it seems as if all City Year is good for is picking up trash and spreading wood chips. I realize that this is all work that needs to be done, but it is hard for me to imagine that the people we work for can't find ANYTHING else for us to do, EVER. Since I was with the Young Heroes today, the service work we got to do was scrapbooking. The scrapbook we made was for some kind of global peace project, and will be sent to a group of people in Honduras, who have already sent us a scrapbook of their own. We got to spend some time learning about Honduras from some of our own corps members who have lived there, and then we were set off on our own to work on scrapbook pages. How fun!
I could have left for home at 3:00 p.m., but I decided to help the Young Heroes Program Leader get twenty kids back to the City Year office via bus and then rail, so I got home around 5:30, which is a lot earlier than most Monday nights!
-Aly
Sunday, January 18, 2009
928 Hrs.
Nothing special has occurred this week. I had to work yesterday since all of City Year completes service on Saturday and Monday because of MLK weekend, but it was nice since we only had to work for half of a day.
Tomorrow is Opening Day for Young Heroes. I can't wait!
Tomorrow is Opening Day for Young Heroes. I can't wait!
Monday, January 12, 2009
887 Hrs.
Unfortunately, a lot of people that I have to work with in City Year annoy me. While I am learning a lot of patience from being forced to work with these people who frustrate me so much, at the same time, I go home almost every day feeling worn down from this frustration. I have realized that one thing I most definitely need to learn from City Year this year is how to just ignore people instead of letting myself get worked up over the things they do. I have not been successful yet...
-Aly
-Aly
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
862 Hrs.
Lately I have felt like I forget most of what happens to me during the day by the time I get around to updating my blog at the end of each day, so today I am going to try to update at the day goes on from the computer in my classroom. We'll see how this goes...
8:25 a.m.
This morning, I let myself sleep in until 5:30. I usually wake up quite a bit earlier than that, but I was feeling exhausted this morning. Cory is leaving in a few hours to go back to Washington D. C., so it was sad to say goodbye to him. At 6:16 I left my house, and my bus arrived twelve minutes later. After a twenty minute bus ride, I had a thirty minute ride on the rail, and than another forty minute ride on a bus. At around 8:05, I arrived at R. R. Moton. Patty and I are the only corps members here today, even though we are supposed to arrive by 8:15, so now she and I are calling around to try to find out where everyone else is. We skipped P. T. this morning since it would have looked really lame to have one leader and only one corps member doing P. T.
9:26 a.m.
I just had a tutor session with my first graders. Once again, they were well-behaved until a particular student showed up. I told them I would reward them with some recess time tomorrow.
10:06 a.m.
For the past half hour, I have been in a fourth grade class helping out with a small group of students having trouble with reading. This group is different from the groups that I normally work with. Most of my other groups are called "intervention" groups, and they are chosen by the state of Florida. If a student scores a 0, 1, 0r 2 on the state test called the FCAT, they are required by law to be given help for thirty minutes each day for the next year with reading. The program we use to teach those students is called "Voyager", and is a program that has been developed by the state. The fourth grade group I just taught is just a group that the teacher has given to me because she thinks they need extra help. Some of those students are in an intervention group, but not all of them. During that time, I help with whatever the teacher needs me to help with. Today, I was timing students on a reading passage.
10:51 a.m.
Lunchtime! I am typing this as I am waiting for my Easy Mac to warm up in the microwave...
For the last thirty minutes, I was working with another small group; this time, a group of first graders. For that class, I take out the students individually to quiz them with flashcards and help them read the books that go along with the flashcards.
I makes me sad when kids get mad at me for making them do something that I have no control over. The kids hate tutoring and hate me for what I make them do, but I don't have the power to take them out of it.
12:40 p.m.
At 11:30, I taught another intervention, but this time with a group of fourth graders. This particular group really like to challange my authority, but I've taken to carrying around a stack of detention slips, which seems to work as far as a visible reminder for them to behave themselves. At noon, I was supposed to have a third grade intervention, but none of my students ever showed up. I was told that they all went to recess and forgot.
1:38 p.m.
At 1:00, I held a fifth grade intervention. After having to kick one kid out, the session was very productive, and I will be bringing the three remaining students candy tomorrow. : )
8:58 p.m.
When school ended at 2:00, Jaguar Academy began. Only about eight students were there, so it was an unusually easy day. For the first hour we helped them complete homework, and for the second hour we spent the time helping them practice reading in preparation for the FCAT, which is in two months. After work, the R. R. Moton team went out to a Chinese buffet. I am finally home now, and ready to go to sleep.
-Aly
8:25 a.m.
This morning, I let myself sleep in until 5:30. I usually wake up quite a bit earlier than that, but I was feeling exhausted this morning. Cory is leaving in a few hours to go back to Washington D. C., so it was sad to say goodbye to him. At 6:16 I left my house, and my bus arrived twelve minutes later. After a twenty minute bus ride, I had a thirty minute ride on the rail, and than another forty minute ride on a bus. At around 8:05, I arrived at R. R. Moton. Patty and I are the only corps members here today, even though we are supposed to arrive by 8:15, so now she and I are calling around to try to find out where everyone else is. We skipped P. T. this morning since it would have looked really lame to have one leader and only one corps member doing P. T.
9:26 a.m.
I just had a tutor session with my first graders. Once again, they were well-behaved until a particular student showed up. I told them I would reward them with some recess time tomorrow.
10:06 a.m.
For the past half hour, I have been in a fourth grade class helping out with a small group of students having trouble with reading. This group is different from the groups that I normally work with. Most of my other groups are called "intervention" groups, and they are chosen by the state of Florida. If a student scores a 0, 1, 0r 2 on the state test called the FCAT, they are required by law to be given help for thirty minutes each day for the next year with reading. The program we use to teach those students is called "Voyager", and is a program that has been developed by the state. The fourth grade group I just taught is just a group that the teacher has given to me because she thinks they need extra help. Some of those students are in an intervention group, but not all of them. During that time, I help with whatever the teacher needs me to help with. Today, I was timing students on a reading passage.
10:51 a.m.
Lunchtime! I am typing this as I am waiting for my Easy Mac to warm up in the microwave...
For the last thirty minutes, I was working with another small group; this time, a group of first graders. For that class, I take out the students individually to quiz them with flashcards and help them read the books that go along with the flashcards.
I makes me sad when kids get mad at me for making them do something that I have no control over. The kids hate tutoring and hate me for what I make them do, but I don't have the power to take them out of it.
12:40 p.m.
At 11:30, I taught another intervention, but this time with a group of fourth graders. This particular group really like to challange my authority, but I've taken to carrying around a stack of detention slips, which seems to work as far as a visible reminder for them to behave themselves. At noon, I was supposed to have a third grade intervention, but none of my students ever showed up. I was told that they all went to recess and forgot.
1:38 p.m.
At 1:00, I held a fifth grade intervention. After having to kick one kid out, the session was very productive, and I will be bringing the three remaining students candy tomorrow. : )
8:58 p.m.
When school ended at 2:00, Jaguar Academy began. Only about eight students were there, so it was an unusually easy day. For the first hour we helped them complete homework, and for the second hour we spent the time helping them practice reading in preparation for the FCAT, which is in two months. After work, the R. R. Moton team went out to a Chinese buffet. I am finally home now, and ready to go to sleep.
-Aly
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
853 Hrs.
Work went well today, other than the fact that I am become increasingly frustrated with my team at R. R. Moton.
The first tutor group that I teach during the day which takes place at 8:45 a.m. consists of a large group of first grades. That thirty minutes really wears me out, because it is difficult to get anything done during that session, including getting the students to sit down and open their books with hurting each other. Today, however, my first graders were little angels! One of my students was absent for most of the lesson, and when she arrived for the last five minutes and all of my students became completely out of control, I quickly realized that she provokes each and every one of them into bad behavior. I don't yet know what I will do about that for the future.
I also had a little bit of an issue during my third grade tutor session when one of my students refused to participate. I told her that if she did not read along with the group that she would have to stay after class and miss her magnate class until she read the passage to me, and that is what I ended up having to do. After thirty minutes of several calls to her parents and stern words from myself and her teacher, she finally decided to read the passage, but only in a voice that was almost unintelligible. What a not-so-good end to my day.
-Aly
The first tutor group that I teach during the day which takes place at 8:45 a.m. consists of a large group of first grades. That thirty minutes really wears me out, because it is difficult to get anything done during that session, including getting the students to sit down and open their books with hurting each other. Today, however, my first graders were little angels! One of my students was absent for most of the lesson, and when she arrived for the last five minutes and all of my students became completely out of control, I quickly realized that she provokes each and every one of them into bad behavior. I don't yet know what I will do about that for the future.
I also had a little bit of an issue during my third grade tutor session when one of my students refused to participate. I told her that if she did not read along with the group that she would have to stay after class and miss her magnate class until she read the passage to me, and that is what I ended up having to do. After thirty minutes of several calls to her parents and stern words from myself and her teacher, she finally decided to read the passage, but only in a voice that was almost unintelligible. What a not-so-good end to my day.
-Aly
Monday, January 5, 2009
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Back to Work
I don't want to go back to work tomorrow. : (
Today, I went to church, bought some groceries, and did my laundry. Thankfully, I got to relax for the rest of the day.
-Aly
Today, I went to church, bought some groceries, and did my laundry. Thankfully, I got to relax for the rest of the day.
-Aly
Saturday, January 3, 2009
835 Hrs.
I could not update yesterday because my internet was down. Thankfully, someone from AT&T came out today to resolve that for me.
Yesterday, Cory and his parents and myself set out at 5:30 a.m. so we could catch a couple of buses to the Miami Airport to pick up a rental car. The morning was almost a disaster because we had to wait FOREVER for a shuttle to the car rental place, and the only number we had to call was not being picked up. We finally got our car, though, and set out for the Florida Keys. Key West is about a four hour trip from my apartment, and the way there is a series of bridges connecting a lot of the Keys and other tiny islands. Driving through the various Keys, the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and Everglades National park was beautiful, and we stopped once on the Bahia Honda Key in order to eat the lunch we had taken with us. Shortly after making it to Key West, a bicyclist hit and scratched our rental car with his bike, so we had to take some time to deal with that. For the rest of the day until sunset, we visited Hemmingway's house, the Little White House, Mallory Square, the southernmost point of the United States, and we traveled down mile-long Duval Street, which allowed us to see the Atlantic Ocean at one end and the Gulf of Mexico at the other. I finally got into bed around midnight.
Today, I had to wake up at 4:00 a.m. so Cory and I could drop off his parents at the Fort Lauderdale Airport and return the rental car to the Miami airport before 7:00 a.m. The bus we were waiting for at first at the Miami airport never showed up, so I was really worried about making it back to my apartment before the AT&T guy got there; he was scheduled to be there sometime between 8:00 a.m. and noon. Thankfully, we made it back only a little bit after 8:00 a.m., and I was able to take a short nap before the technician arrived at 10:00 a.m. For dinner, I was able to cook pizza in my new oven! After living in my apartment for four months, I feel that it is about time I had a working oven!
Since I have to go back to work on Monday, I plan to spend the res of my weekend doing nothing but relaxing. I can't believe this is the last break I get until the end of June. : (
-Aly
Yesterday, Cory and his parents and myself set out at 5:30 a.m. so we could catch a couple of buses to the Miami Airport to pick up a rental car. The morning was almost a disaster because we had to wait FOREVER for a shuttle to the car rental place, and the only number we had to call was not being picked up. We finally got our car, though, and set out for the Florida Keys. Key West is about a four hour trip from my apartment, and the way there is a series of bridges connecting a lot of the Keys and other tiny islands. Driving through the various Keys, the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and Everglades National park was beautiful, and we stopped once on the Bahia Honda Key in order to eat the lunch we had taken with us. Shortly after making it to Key West, a bicyclist hit and scratched our rental car with his bike, so we had to take some time to deal with that. For the rest of the day until sunset, we visited Hemmingway's house, the Little White House, Mallory Square, the southernmost point of the United States, and we traveled down mile-long Duval Street, which allowed us to see the Atlantic Ocean at one end and the Gulf of Mexico at the other. I finally got into bed around midnight.
Today, I had to wake up at 4:00 a.m. so Cory and I could drop off his parents at the Fort Lauderdale Airport and return the rental car to the Miami airport before 7:00 a.m. The bus we were waiting for at first at the Miami airport never showed up, so I was really worried about making it back to my apartment before the AT&T guy got there; he was scheduled to be there sometime between 8:00 a.m. and noon. Thankfully, we made it back only a little bit after 8:00 a.m., and I was able to take a short nap before the technician arrived at 10:00 a.m. For dinner, I was able to cook pizza in my new oven! After living in my apartment for four months, I feel that it is about time I had a working oven!
Since I have to go back to work on Monday, I plan to spend the res of my weekend doing nothing but relaxing. I can't believe this is the last break I get until the end of June. : (
-Aly
Thursday, January 1, 2009
A New Year and New Beginnings
I always love the celebration of the new year, because it provides a time for reflection and a time for new beginnings.
As far as reflection upon this past year - as of this time last year, I had no idea that I would be spending this time in Miami! Cory, his parents, and myself spent the day at the beach today, and I would not have believed anyone who told me January 1st last year that this is where I would be now. I also could not have told you that I would be an economics major, that I would be the proud owner of a crazy kitten named Pip, or that I would learn so much more patience.
As far as new beginnings - my resolution for this new year is to make the most of every moment, and to not waste a single second. I have always been told to make the most of every day, but I don't really believe that that is enough. It is true that you never know if you will be alive tomorrow, but that can also be true of the next second. I want to get the most I can out of every moment in time, because no one knows what will happen one second from now...
As far as reflection upon this past year - as of this time last year, I had no idea that I would be spending this time in Miami! Cory, his parents, and myself spent the day at the beach today, and I would not have believed anyone who told me January 1st last year that this is where I would be now. I also could not have told you that I would be an economics major, that I would be the proud owner of a crazy kitten named Pip, or that I would learn so much more patience.
As far as new beginnings - my resolution for this new year is to make the most of every moment, and to not waste a single second. I have always been told to make the most of every day, but I don't really believe that that is enough. It is true that you never know if you will be alive tomorrow, but that can also be true of the next second. I want to get the most I can out of every moment in time, because no one knows what will happen one second from now...
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