A Day of Victory!

Today was an EXCELLENT DAY! Let me splain; there were 3 main victories.

Victory #1

One of my students has a significantly lower reading level than my others (like kindergarten level low) and as a result, has basically resigned to answering "I dunno" to any question asked of him. Like ever. Like if you ask "Why don't you like to read?" he will answer with a shrug. When I prompt him with "Is it because it's hard?" shrug. "It's okay that you don't like it, I just want to know what makes you not like it." shrug. SHRUG!

Today, we did a fluency lesson. Fluency is a student's ability to read aloud with accuracy and speed. So we began by reading a passage that I had already picked out (it was the plane crash scene in Hatchet, which totally roped in most of my students because I purposely picked a super suspenseful place to stop---"Miss! Does he make it out of the water alive!?" "Oh, I don't remember, but you can borrow the book and read for yourself!" heh heh). He read as far in the passage as he could get in 1 minute by himself and I marked how far he got. I also wrote down words that he mispronounced and went over them with him.

The next step is to practice reading together in unison. That didn't work well with this student because he didn't know how to pronounce the words well enough to do it in sync; he was always waiting for me to say it and then he repeated them. So we did echo reading instead--exactly what it sounds like; I read 4-5 words and then the student does, then I say the next 4-5 words, etc. He did that really well, pronouncing the words perfectly after listening to me and looking in his book.


After that, he got to read the same passage one more time on his own to see if he could get farther on his own this time. He read 2 sentences farther! Not only that, but he pronounced 5 words correctly out of the 7 he had missed the first time! I was SO EXCITED, and it was so obvious that he couldn't help but be happy too. I asked why he thought he did better that time and he said without prompting, "because I practiced it." NO SHRUG! He is normally way too cool for school, but he totally cracked a real smile when he saw how excited I was for him. It's going to be a long road, but him seeing that practicing can give him actual results is invaluable at this point.

Victory #2

In after school, behavior has been going a lot better. We've implemented a "Swag Tag" system where students are given a raffle ticket when they are caught doing something good (being on task, answering a question, helping their neighbor, sitting quietly, etc). They write their names on the tickets and put them into a box. Every week, 3 names are drawn out of the box and the winner gets a prize. It's simple: the more good things you do, the better chances you have in the raffle!

Also an exciting thing is that next week, we are going on  field trip! We're going to the San Antonio Museum of Art and the kids are really excited to go!

So today I was working with a couple of girls on ELA before we started the enrichment lesson, which was on  Music today. The girls are best friends and CAN NOT sit together without talking and giggling. It inevitably resulted in the corps member leading the lesson to get frustrated with their talking and ask one girl to move across the room. She refused, he insisted. She finally got up, cursed AT the corps member in front of the whole room, got her things and walked out.

I caught up with her right before she reached the door. Small victory that she didn't keep going out the door; it was a distinct possibility. We talked through what had happened, talked about why the corps member might have acted in a way she perceived as really mean and what she could have done better. I asked if she thought she would be allowed on the field trip if she left today's lesson like she did, and she shook her head. I asked what she thought she should have to do to regain her ability to go on the field trip. Together, we decided that she should have to go back into the library and finish out the lesson. After everyone was leaving, she would apologize to the corps member for her behavior.

SHE DID IT. SHE DID ALL OF IT.

I know it's hard to understand how big of a deal this is, but I know I always had a hard time asking for forgiveness in that way, and it was a huge piece of humble pie she had to swallow. She took it like an amazing young woman and I was so proud of her that when she said sorry that I almost cried. It was
amazing and I could tell she was happy with herself for making the right choice. It was wonderful.

Victory #3

Today our team hosted a family literacy night at our school. We invited students to bring their families for a night of ELA games and Math games. Our two ELA coordinators basically organized the whole thing on their own with a lot of pressure from our partners in the school, and they bore it so gracefully and everything went fantastically!

About 150 people came in total, and there was hot chocolate (which you could earn by playing 2 ELA games and 2 Math games and getting stickers in your "passport") we also had dinner provided by our wonderful parent liaisons. I was so proud to be a part of our team tonight because we all prepared for our respective games thoroughly and it was obvious to the parents that we cared about the students and that we're an asset to our school. I never doubt that fact, but it's nice to parade it around in front of interested parents.

I got to meet one of my students' families, with her little brothers and sisters who were incredibly adorable. I joked around with students who I normally have to redirect in class, which was extremely refreshing and I'm sure they liked that version of Ms. C. a little better. We also had visitors from another CY team to assist in our program, so it was fun to show them around and show our school and our team off to them. We had a lot of fun and I know the kids had a blast.

As you can read, I had a fantastic day! I love my job!

The Burritos

So we have 3 lists of students that we focus on in the school:

Students that are struggling with course content (in my case, English).

Students who struggle with behavior in class.

Students who struggle with attendance.

My ELA focus list contains the students that I tutor in English and spend most of my time with. 

However, behavior students also get to spend time with me in the form of Leadership Lunches. Once a week, I meet with two groups of five students for behavior coaching during their lunch period. We talk about things that we can do to be good leaders, what it means to be a good leader, our goals for behavior, etc. 

My first group met for the second time today. Last meeting, we came up with a group name; the Burritos. It was a contentious vote on the team name, but Burritos it was. Now, one of my students in class always mentions that he is a Burrito. I use it in class to redirect those students by saying "Is that how Burritos act in class? Didn't think so." 

So today in our meeting we tried to list things that we've done over the last week that are good things, things that good leaders do. Everyone could think of at least one thing, so that was a positive! However, two burritos got in a fight during class and had to be sent to the office. Baby steps!

One thing that always makes me smile is how happy the students are to get their invitations to lunch. They hold onto those papers more tightly than they do any of their actually important home work assignments. Students who are cooler than cool can't help but excitedly ask where they should meet me after they get their food. We also have a lot of students that ask us to be able to come to the lunches. I think we're doing an effective job at hiding the fact that students HAVE to eat with us because their teachers referred them to the behavior intervention program. :)

Tomorrow I meet for the first time with my other group of students. I have high hopes for them, but I'm a little nervous. This is the big leagues as far as behavior problems goes; we take the worst-behaved kids and stick them in a room together and handle it like champs. I gotta get pumped! 

My student that I made the reading deal with switched his choice to Hunger Games, which I had also suggested. Yesterday, I asked how it was going and he said, "boring." I was incredulous. Today, however, he said it was going well and he asked if he could borrow the second book after he finished this one! I said of course!! Now I have to get my hands on Catching Fire... 

My cursive-loving student finished the alphabet! He had me write it out on a piece of paper so he could practice at home. As long as he has that love of learning, he is going to be just fine. 

Tonight I joined the choir at my church! The old choir director left, and so did most of the choir, so it was the perfect opportunity for a mediocre singer to jump in! I've secretly always wanted to sing in a choir, and I am taking full advantage of this chance! 

Things are going really well down here, I feel like I'm making at least a small difference for every student I come in contact with, and that makes it all worthwhile. :)

By the way, it got up to 85 today. 

"I want to learn all of it!"

Wow, I have really let myself down when it comes to reflecting on my service. I've let writing this blog morph into an obligation to others in my mind, when it really is a service to myself. I know I'm going to want to look back and flip through these virtual pages to relive this year, and if I keep this up, there won't be many pages to flip!

In my defense, last week I had the whole week off for Thanksgiving. Or rather, we had Wednesday-Friday off and I took two personal days to show Patty around San Antone. It was an amazing break and was the perfect combination of binge-watching Breaking Bad (we finished the series) and actually doing things (we walked 5 miles along the riverwalk on Thanksgiving). It was exactly what I needed. 

School is continuing on. Today I met the teacher I will be paired with for the rest of the year. I am really excited for our class; I think the teacher will be what the students need. She is a permanent substitute who has a lot of elementary experience and has her teaching license. My students had a positive reaction to her, and that's half the battle! 

One of my students is an excellent worker and behaves magnificently, but won't stop talking about how he "hates" reading. He only read stories about sports, and even then he only likes books written about the NBA (I couldn't help laughing when he said this matter-of-factly as if he wasn't limiting himself to under 0.001% of the books in the world). So I made him a deal. I told him that I wanted him to read a whole chapter book cover-to-cover (he tends to read two pages and decide he doesn't like it) before Christmas break. The catch--it couldn't be about sports. I asked what he felt like he should earn for such a feat and he said a bag of Skittles. I think that can be swung. :) I have been incessantly recommending books that I know any sixth-grade boy would enjoy, and today when I asked him which book he was going to choose, he said Hatchet, which was one that I was most vocally pushing. And he remembered the title from over a week ago! He is soooo going to at least like reading when this year is up.

One of my other students asked today in afterschool if I could teach him to write in cursive. He didn't have any homework or classwork to do, so I obliged. He was so eager, it was adorable!! He loved the loopy letters, but he especially liked the capital "D". We didn't get to practice the whole alphabet because I kept having to conference with students who were misbehaving, but I told him that tomorrow we could at least teach him how to write his name in cursive. He objected instantly. "I want to learn all of it, Miss! All the letters." So you know exactly where I'll be tomorrow after school. :)

Also, I decorated our apartment (sort of) for Christmas! I put up some lights in the windows for our neighbors to enjoy and today I creepily overheard a compliment. Our windows are open because it's mid-70's here right now (jelly?) and a man was walking his dog and said to our neighbor who was out smoking on the porch, "Hey man, I like your lights upstairs!" to which our neighbor replied, "Oh, that's not our apartment." It's a little sad how warm and fuzzy this made me feel as I sat in our living room. But warm and fuzzy I felt indeed. 

Goodnight!

P.S. I am super excited to see my parents and my little brother this weekend for Dave's graduation! Hooray!!!

P.P.S. Last week we did an afterschool lesson on appreciating each other and saying nice things to one another where we all wrote things about each other that we liked. The result was wonderfully, awkwardly adolescent. Here is my paper after all the students wrote on it. It makes me happy.