1,505.75 Hrs.

There's nothing much to say about today - interventions, small groups, poetry workshops, testing, and SFC took up my whole day, as usual. Unfortunately, one of my intervention groups was so bad today, that I had to give detention to all seven of them. : ( The good news of today, however, is that the writing FCAT scores for the fourth graders came back today - and the scores from R. R. Moton were significantly better than they were last year! Yay for the students' and teachers' hard work!

-Aly

DUG: 48

1,496.25 Hrs.

Being a Wednesday, today was especially busy, since Wednesdays mean that I have an hour less during the day during which I have to complete the same amount of work as on a normal day. The poetry workshops continued today as well.

After school during Starfish Corps, I introduced the fundraiser to the Wednesday/Thursday group, and we spent the time working on flyers to post around the school that will advertise the fundraiser. And I was the first person who got to contribute to the fundraiser - 64 cents!

After J.A., Bernard, Nick and I stayed to score science projects, and then the science teacher at the school took us out and treated us to dinner. What a yummy reward!

-Aly

DUG: 49

1,486.5 Hrs.

Today was a great day, because my fundraiser idea for Starfish Corps was approved by the Principal. I have been putting a LOT of work toward planning and preparing for the fundraiser, and it has finally been granted the approval to begin. For SFC, we will be running a penny fundraiser, where the kids bring in pennies and other change for an entire month, and the class with the most change at the end will win a pizza party. The proceeds from the fundraiser will go to St. Jude Children's Hospital, which is the charity the students themselves picked. The SFC students will be responsible for running the fundraiser for the whole school, and today we worked on producing flyers and advertisements to run on the school's morning announcements.

As far as the rest of the day, I was pretty busy. All of my free time was devoted to either Starfish, the picture testing, or the poetry workshops we have going on this week. I am already beginning to feel exhausted.

-Aly

DUG: 50

1,477 Hrs.

Today was another really productive day for me because I got a lot done as far as Starfish Corps lesson planning. Unfortunately, a lot of the time I had wanted to use for planning was instead taken up with testing. The school has to have every K-3 student take a particular test, and since it takes about 20 minutes to test each child, they have asked City Year to help with the testing.

After work today, I went to Patty's house to watch the season finale episode of "Chuck". Yeah, I know I'm a dork.

-Aly

DUG: 51

DUG: 52

Today was my first day off work in over a month, and I spent most of it sleeping. And I feel great! Who knew what sleep could do for you?

-Aly

1,467.5 Hrs.

Today was Comcast Cares Day, which is the day that Comcast tries to get its employees to go and and do massive community service projects. This year, City Year Miami helped to put together CCD, as it is done in every City Year site that is sponsored by Comcast, which is one of our biggest coorporate sponsors. A little while ago, I applied to be a Project Coordinator for the day, and I certainly had no idea what I was signing up for.

The day began with prep work starting at 6:30 a.m. At some time around 8:00, the opening ceremony began, and I was fortunate to be chosen as a member of the P.T. crew that led P.T. this morning for 500 volunteers. We put about six hours of practice into the five minute routine, but it was all worth it.

After the opening ceremony, the service work began. My project was painting one of the bathrooms at Oleta State Park, which is where the event was held, and I led a team of about thirty volunteers with the help of one assistant Project Coordinator from Comcast. The volunteers (including my Young Heroes team!) did a really great job. Unfortunately, though, we ran out of paint before we could finish.

In addition to my bathroom, the other projects that were completed today were three other bathrooms that had to be painted, the removal of invasive plant species, the building of ADA-approved benches and picnic tables, the building of a fitness center and bicycle racks, the re-vamping of a butterfly garden, ropes and poles keeping up the sand dunes were replaced and strengthened, and three acres were covered with dirt and then sod and then plants were planted. And these projects, all together, totally transformed the park! After all of that and when the volunteers left was clean-up, and then we got to go home around 5:30. What a powerful day of service!

-Aly

DUG: 53

1,456.75 Hrs.

More prep work today for the service day tomorrow. I practiced P.T. with the other members of the P.T. crew for three hours this morning, and then I spent the rest of the day measuring and cutting the lumber that will be used to make benches, picnic tables, and fitness equipment tomorrow. Unfortunately, we are far from ready, and we will have very little prep time tomorrow morning before the volunteers start arriving. : (

-Aly

DUG: 54

1,446.5 Hrs.

Instead of reporting to work at the school today, I had to meet at Oleta River State Park this morning. Since I am a project coordinator for Comcast Cares Day this Saturday, today for me was full of prep work at the service site. Most of my day was spent taking inventory of the tools and materials we have for Saturday, but I also spent a good part of the day planning for my project and meeting with the Comcast employee that is my co-project coordinator, in order to ensure that things run smoothly on Saturday. I was not really looking forward to the hard work that I knew had to be done today, but spending a day outside in the sun was not at all as bad as I had expected it to be.

-Aly

DUG: 55

1,437.5 Hrs.

I felt really good today, because I got a lot of work done on the lesson plans I have been putting together for the rest of the year. I can't believe I only have 24 days left in the school! I am more than ready to go home, but I'm really going to miss my kids.

Today was the last Starfish Corps lesson in the "Peace in our Community" unit. My students marched around the school with the peace campaign posters we made last week, and yelled "P - E - A - C - E, that is what we want to see!" It was incredibly adorable, everyone around the school loved it, and my kids had an absolutely fabulous time! It really feels wonderful to see something I planned turn out so well.

I am so tired today that I fell asleep on the bus ride home and almost missed my stop. Hopefully I will not have to work this Sunday, and I will get my first day off in over a month.

-Aly

DUG: 56

1,428.5 Hrs.

I am now so exhausted from this nonstop work that I fell asleep for a few seconds during Jaguar Academy. I need to get some rest. : (

-Aly

DUG: 57

1.409.5 Hrs.

Even though I feel that I can't possibly become any more exhausted, I keep proving myself wrong.

The one bright spot this week was when we celebrated my Program Leader, Nick's, birthday. We went out to dinner on Wednesday night, and then had bagels for breakfast and cake for lunch on Thursday, which was Nick's actual birthday.

On Friday we completed back-breaking service at a local park. Really - I feel like I broke my back! For the entire day, we got to hoe, weed, mulch, plant flowers, and break up concrete for people who, unfortunately, seemed very ungrateful for the work we did.

Yesterday was a YH Saturday, and we took the Heroes to Virginia Key Beach so they could help clean up the bay.

Today for me consisted of church, and then working this evening at the Miami Science Museum. The Parent Academy, an organization we do a lot of work for, was hosting a family day there today, and I was put in charge of the arts and crafts room.

-Aly

DUG: 59

1,356.5 Hrs.

Today at R. R. Moton was just like any other day.

During our Starfish Corps after-school program, we learned about Ghandi's quote "Be the change you wish to see in the World", and made campaign art for our peace campaign.

-Aly

DUG: 65

1,526.5 Hrs.

Happy Easter!

This morning, I went to the Easter service at church. The service was beautiful, of course, but was not anywhere near as spectacular as the service I went to last night.

After church, I went to Jungle Island again, and spent another four hours volunteering for the Easter festivities going on there. My job today was to stand in front of the gift shop and try to sell Easter merchandise.

This evening, Erin, M & M, Bernard, Beth and I had an Easter dinner together of pizza and soda. What fun!

-Aly

DUG: 66

1,522.5 Hrs.

I had to work again today, and I wasn't very happy about it. However, none of the work was very hard or awful. I worked for nine hours at Jungle Island, which is an island right off the mainland that is just a zoo/theme park kind of thing. Apparently, they have a huge Easter "Eggstravaganza" each year, and today, I got to help out at the arts and crafts table.

At 6:00 in the evening, I left work and went to the Easter Vigil service at church, which was another beautiful service. I don't know what I'll do when I have to leave Trinity Cathedral in two months! I think that the cathedral is the only thing I like about Miami.

Happy Easter!

-Aly

DUG: 67

1,513.5 Hrs.

Today was the last day of Camp City Year. In the morning, the campers participated in a bunch of reflection activities, and also in "service" (cleaning up a little around the park we have been using). In the afternoon, we had a carnival! In the morning, I facilitated the arts and crafts reflection activity, and in the afternoon, I ran the shoe scramble relay game. I can't believe I'm typing this, but I'm really going to miss those kids!

Again today, I left work a few minutes early so I could get to church on time. The Good Friday service today was really moving, and had me crying the whole time. : (

I wish I didn't have to work tomorrow.

-Aly

DUG: 68

1,503 Hrs.

Today's theme was the Caribbean. I almost didn't get to camp today, because I missed my bus. Luckily, the person giving Beth a ride also had a seat in her car for me.

At camp today, we finally finished our mural! The mural is something that the campers have been working on with myself and the rest of the arts and crafts programmers all week. It is about seven feet by seven feet, and is covered with zillions of pieces of magazines that we have spent the last month finding and cutting out. On it, there is one person who represents Hawaii, one who represents Africa, one who represents Ancient Greece, and one who represents the Caribbean. Tomorrow, everyone at camp City Year will sign it, and then it will be hung in the CY Miami office. We have worked REALLY hard on it, and I can't believe it is finally finished! I have included a picture of it above.

After work today, I also went to the Maundy Thursday service at church.

-Aly

DUG: 69

1,502.5 Hrs.

Once again, I am way too exhausted to write about my day at all. I am sorry about it, but when I put in a 12.5 hour day and then add four hours of commute time to that, I should be expected to be super tired. I will tell you, however, that yesterday's theme was Africa, today's theme was Ancient Greece, and tomorrow will be the Caribbean Islands. The rest of the days have been pretty much the same.

-Aly

DUG: 70

1,490 Hrs.

Today was another exhausting day. So exhausting, in fact, that I can barely keep my eyes open to type this sentence. I guess I'll have to fill you all in later...

-Aly

DUG: 71

1,480.5 Hrs.

I am so tired right now that I am afraid I will not be able to give a very good account of what happened today.

Today was the first day of Camp City Year, which is a camp we will be running while the students are on spring break. A ton of time in the last month or so has gone into planning this camp, which is for approximately 300 students and is run solely by City Year Miami. I was assigned to the programming team, which means that I am responsible for one aspect of the day's programming, which is arts and crafts in my case. The theme of the year is "globetrotters", so each of my lesson plans had to go along with the country we are visiting for the day. The place we visited today was Hawaii, so I had the students make their own leis. Then, I took pictures of them with their leis on and against a beach background, and those pictures will be printed out and put inside the picture frames they decorated today. Because I am trying to get in as many extra hours as possible, I had to wake up at 3:30 this morning in order to get to the camp by 7:00, so I could help with setup. The day was exhausting, and I almost fell asleep standing up several times. On my way home this evening, I also had to stop at the office so I could print out all the students' pictures on City Year's color printer. What a day.

-Aly

DUG: 72

DUG: 73

I am glad that I will be going back to Michigan soon, because Florida is getting to be too hot for me! Today, it got up to about 90 degrees! Since I don't have a central AC unit in my apartment, there is absolutely no way for me to get away from the heat, and I feel like I'm dying! I know I'm being just a tad dramatic, but it's hot, all the same.

Today, because of a bike race, my bus was 3o minutes late, so I got to church super late, and I was very unhappy about that. I have spent the rest of the day lying on the floor, trying to stay cool. Because of all the time I had to take off work while I was sick, today is probably the last day I will get to relax until graduation - I need to spend every other day until then working to make up the hours I have missed in order to graduate on time.

-Aly

1,470 Hrs.

I know I have said this before, but I am now more exhausted than I have EVER been before.

Today was another Young Heroes Saturday, and the topic was "the roots of violence". In the morning, we learned about bullying and other types of violence, and then we had some time to work on our presentations for the Heroes Showcase. Then we had lunch, and after that, we walked to Little Havana for the Miami River Day Festival. For the first part of our time there, we walked around and asked people to sign our non-violence petition. For the second part, the Heroes were allowed to walk around to the booths, and got to learn about things such as water conservation and other service opportunities around their communities. After our walk back to the office, we had our reflection and debrief, and then everyone was dismissed. For the rest of this evening and tomorrow, all I am going to do is relax. Tomorrow is the last day I will have off all year, because I am going to have to work for nine hours a day for seven hours a week for the rest of the year in order to make up for the hours I missed while I was sick so I can graduate on time.

This morning, I finally got to use the Spanish I have been learning all year. I helped someone figure out what time her bus was supposed to come, and I was really proud of myself!

-Aly

DUG: 74

1,461 Hrs.

I am more exhausted than I have ever been in my entire life. And, I think I picked up some germ at the health center yesterday, because I definitely have a cold now. All of this is bad news, because I think that next week will be the craziest week ever. Am I ready for next week? No. Does that matter? No.

-Aly

DUG: 75

1,450.75 Hrs.

I only had one tutoring session today because of field trips. Everyone in the school except for the fourth and fifth graders went to the Miami Youth Fair, and the fourth graders went on a field trip to a community health center, which is the trip I chaperoned. The trip to the health center was apparently a part of a series of trip the fourth graders go on in order to explore different careers and work environments. We went on a tour of the facility, and were able to see things such as the pharmacy, x-ray and ultrasound images, the cardio unit, and how blood is drawn. Afterwards, we went to a nearby park for a couple of hours so we could relax and eat our lunches. At first, I really didn't want to go on the field trip, since I was looking forward to a quiet day of lesson planning. I must say, though, that spending two hours napping on a park bench in the shade was a MILLION times better than spending the day in our classroom.

-Aly

DUG: 76

1,441.25 Hrs.

Today was a Wednesday, so I was super busy and didn't have many breaks throughout the day, and now I am completely exhausted. My fourth graders were better than they were yesterday, so that was a relief. At 7:30 this evening, I had an hour-long conference call with a few other CY members to talk about Camp City Year, which is coming up next week. I feel like I can never get away from City Year, even in my own home!

-Aly

DUG: 77