1. How did today differ from how I expected it to be?
2. What are the high points of the day?
3. What are the low points of the day?
4. What is one experience that caused me to grow today?
5. What am I excited about for tomorrow?
1. I expected today to be hard because it was coming off of a long weekend for everyone: students, teachers, us. It pretty much met my expectations. Coming back to a full day of work after a long weekend of taking naps, going shopping, and meeting Pat's family was pretty hard. All the days in City Year have been long, but something about juxtaposing that longness against the happy-place-esque-ness of my weekend was just doubly hard.
2. First high point that pops into my head takes some explanation. One of the parts of City Year culture involves "bringing it in for a break" after every meeting or session. So what happens is that everyone puts their hands in the middle and the person whose hand is on top has to pick an inspirational word for everyone to say (read: first word that pops into head that isn't a curse word). So the break goes something like this: "C-Y-S-A [Word] Woo!" So for the past two weeks, I've had an idea for this, but I didn't want to force my hand to be on top to say it because that's just lame. Well today was the day! So I picked the word "Woo!" So the cheer went "C-Y-S-A Woo! Woo!" It was awesome. It was a little sad how entertained I was by it, but it definitely makes it to the high points.
Also high point was that Alex and I finally succeeded in ordering puffy tacos! We stormed into Ray's and demanded their puffy tacos, which we received with veneration and instantly consumed. We came, we saw, we ate puffy tacos.
It was also really cool to get to know some of my staff members a little more personally. Some of these people are seriously cool. I guess it's no accident that CY is such an awesome thing.
3. Low point was my post-school leadership development session attitude again. I definitely need to pack an extra tea bag tomorrow. The information was on Texas curricula, which is super pertinent and actually interesting for me, but I was just not feeling it. I'll regroup and try again tomorrow. It is really nice to come to the conference space and see all the faces I hadn't seen all weekend. They were a sight for sore eyes. Or a sight for happy eyes that made them even happier. I don't know what I'm writing, just deal with it.
4. I grew today when we talked about Leadership After City Year. City Year wants to make sure that we at least have a plan for our life after we leave this program, so we talked about different networks and connections that City Year has to help alumni succeed in whatever they wanna do. So while we were hearing about all the resources that we can tap into, I started thinking about what I really want to do. And I really want to teach. One of the reasons I applied to City Year was to decide whether or not I wanted to teach in a rural or suburban middle-class district or apply for a position in a high-need, impoverished inner-city district. Before I came here, I only had experience in middle-class, relatively high-achieving schools. I student taught in one; I attended one. So I thought that maybe I would get down here and realize that I have nothing in common with these students, that I can't help them because I can't relate to them well enough or have enough credibility with them to earn their respect. Well, I am beginning to see that that is a load of bull hockey. We're not that different; at least 7th-grade-me and them are not that different. This thought is to be continued, but don't be surprised if you see me working in an inner-city school next year.
It was also really fun to make this realization and start looking up where I want to go. Pat and I spent an hour batting around different cities in the mid-south/east coast and even though we didn't land on any yet, it's really exciting to think about where we're headed after our Americorps commitments are fulfilled. And we might be headed right into more Americorps commitments. But who knows!
5. I am excited to observe one teacher for several periods tomorrow. This week we've been focusing more on students and their interactions and observing how they act in different environments, so I'm looking forward to observing certain students and start to think about ways to engage them in the content. It won't be easy, but it might be fun. It's like a puzzle!
2. What are the high points of the day?
3. What are the low points of the day?
4. What is one experience that caused me to grow today?
5. What am I excited about for tomorrow?
1. I expected today to be hard because it was coming off of a long weekend for everyone: students, teachers, us. It pretty much met my expectations. Coming back to a full day of work after a long weekend of taking naps, going shopping, and meeting Pat's family was pretty hard. All the days in City Year have been long, but something about juxtaposing that longness against the happy-place-esque-ness of my weekend was just doubly hard.
2. First high point that pops into my head takes some explanation. One of the parts of City Year culture involves "bringing it in for a break" after every meeting or session. So what happens is that everyone puts their hands in the middle and the person whose hand is on top has to pick an inspirational word for everyone to say (read: first word that pops into head that isn't a curse word). So the break goes something like this: "C-Y-S-A [Word] Woo!" So for the past two weeks, I've had an idea for this, but I didn't want to force my hand to be on top to say it because that's just lame. Well today was the day! So I picked the word "Woo!" So the cheer went "C-Y-S-A Woo! Woo!" It was awesome. It was a little sad how entertained I was by it, but it definitely makes it to the high points.
Also high point was that Alex and I finally succeeded in ordering puffy tacos! We stormed into Ray's and demanded their puffy tacos, which we received with veneration and instantly consumed. We came, we saw, we ate puffy tacos.
It was also really cool to get to know some of my staff members a little more personally. Some of these people are seriously cool. I guess it's no accident that CY is such an awesome thing.
3. Low point was my post-school leadership development session attitude again. I definitely need to pack an extra tea bag tomorrow. The information was on Texas curricula, which is super pertinent and actually interesting for me, but I was just not feeling it. I'll regroup and try again tomorrow. It is really nice to come to the conference space and see all the faces I hadn't seen all weekend. They were a sight for sore eyes. Or a sight for happy eyes that made them even happier. I don't know what I'm writing, just deal with it.
4. I grew today when we talked about Leadership After City Year. City Year wants to make sure that we at least have a plan for our life after we leave this program, so we talked about different networks and connections that City Year has to help alumni succeed in whatever they wanna do. So while we were hearing about all the resources that we can tap into, I started thinking about what I really want to do. And I really want to teach. One of the reasons I applied to City Year was to decide whether or not I wanted to teach in a rural or suburban middle-class district or apply for a position in a high-need, impoverished inner-city district. Before I came here, I only had experience in middle-class, relatively high-achieving schools. I student taught in one; I attended one. So I thought that maybe I would get down here and realize that I have nothing in common with these students, that I can't help them because I can't relate to them well enough or have enough credibility with them to earn their respect. Well, I am beginning to see that that is a load of bull hockey. We're not that different; at least 7th-grade-me and them are not that different. This thought is to be continued, but don't be surprised if you see me working in an inner-city school next year.
It was also really fun to make this realization and start looking up where I want to go. Pat and I spent an hour batting around different cities in the mid-south/east coast and even though we didn't land on any yet, it's really exciting to think about where we're headed after our Americorps commitments are fulfilled. And we might be headed right into more Americorps commitments. But who knows!
5. I am excited to observe one teacher for several periods tomorrow. This week we've been focusing more on students and their interactions and observing how they act in different environments, so I'm looking forward to observing certain students and start to think about ways to engage them in the content. It won't be easy, but it might be fun. It's like a puzzle!
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