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