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
Saturday, January 24, 2009
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
