Chicho Boys

It's getting harder and harder to motivate myself to write a blog post. But I pretty much live off of affirmation from my friends and family, and I know the only way to get that is to tell you all how it's going.

Right now it's going. Our afterschool program is well-attended, but behavior is proving to be a huge stumbling block. Today I planned a fun outing, taking the students outside to play some frisbee (the theme was college culture), and they were roughhousing a lot and pushing each other even though I reminded them seconds before we went outside that we had to respect each other. So I lectured them. Which I hated. I told them that I their behavior was unacceptable and that they were being extremely disrespectful to people who were there to plan fun activities for them. It was extremely disappointing.

Not that I don't believe that high expectations are the fuel of learning, but I think mine were too high for the maturity level of my students. I have worked with mature-for-their-age highschoolers for 4 years, so I suppose I am assuming too many similarities between that group and my current group of 6th graders. I don't really know how to handle that disparity.

I have been pulling my focus list students out of class the past couple days to work on concepts, and that's been going well for the most part. Most of the students I take are happy to go, some are complacent. I took an extra kid who is normally a behavior problem in class in my group today to ease some of the burden off my teacher. It was a great set-up until he had to leave for a doctor's appt. 

I know this post is poorly organized, but I don't really know what else to say. There are things that have happened that I'm happy about.

Yesterday I went produce shopping at Chicho Boys Fruit Market, which sells Grade B produce from the packing district for ridiculous prices. See receipt below; I'm telling you, the prices are ridiculous. So that was thrilling. Haha

Also, I got a group together to play ultimate frisbee tonight, and it was a success! We played a whole game after work before it got dark, which is 7:30. Blah.

And tomorrow most of my school team is going to the Spurs home opener against the Memphis Grizzlies! It'll be fun to watch and be in a full NBA stadium. 

I would love to hear from anyone who reads this. I'm feeling kind of desperate for any ideas on how to be more effective and I'm just getting frustrated when things don't go as planned. And I miss the people I love.