It's 10:00 Sunday night. I've been packing the last 5 or 6 hours, and I'm finally done. I leave for school tomorrow at 6:05, and stay until 6:00. Then I ride home, finish the tiny last minute things, and move out at 7:30.
I love you. I miss you.
I'm sorry I forgot to post last week. I wasn't going to post this week either, but then I decided I couldn't call myself a blogger if I don't post when I say I would.
Here is the post I started last week.
City Year is...
learning to not stomp when you walk.
learning to show expression with your clunky boots. For example: My 'you just made me so happy I'm going to do a delighted little dance in a circle while stomping' move.
learning to respond to 'Hey City Year' instead of an actual name
learning to teach kids math.
learning the math you're supposed to be teaching to kids.
learning to pay close attention to everything, all the time.
keeping a class quiet during a test.
being ok with not being able to keep a class quiet during an independent work time.
recognizing when a student needs help but won't ask for it.
recognizing when a student doesn't need help with homework, but just needs someone to talk to.
not always remembering not to work on your lunch break.
carrying pencils with you. Everywhere. At least 10.
knowing how to respond to 'hey ms. Amy, what would you do if I asked you to pop my zit?' and 'Ms. Amy, tell me about your past boyfriends.' and 'who are you going to vote for? What religion are you? Do you like my song? *starts singing in the middle of class* Can I be your assistant? Am I your favorite? Have you had sex? When did you first get drunk? What type of drugs do you do?
The questions get me. These kids know when we're full of bologna. They hate being condescended to. I'm glad that I made the choices in middle, high, and post high school life that enable me to answer the sex/alcohol/drugs questions with 'never! and don't you dare!'
But it's not all about how much of a 'good girl' these students think I've been. I need to be careful when I'm talking to them, because when I approve of something, it will be taken as permission to do that thing. I'm a near peer, but still an adult. They're watching me. Not only when I'm at school. I was riding my bike home and a student saw me follow traffic through an intersection. (this is legal.) He told my teammate he had seen me break a law, the teammate told me (several times. Thanks teammate. :P) and I was reminded that these kids watch us. And draw their own conclusions.
Best Moments:
Letting a student borrow my super nice awesome expensive impressive great mechanical pencil for a period. Seriously guys, mechanical pencils are gold here. Middle schoolers don't want anything to do with normal pencils. Don't insult them by offering them a normal pencil when they complain about not being prepared. They have 3 or 4 normal pencils in their backpack.
Realizing that students will listen to me.
Doing power greeting with the superintendent. Um...super cool.
Doing power greeting in the first place. My hardest days are Monday and Thursday because Monday is the first day of the week and Thursday is Friday eve. These are the days we do power greeting, so I get that extra energy and it's enough to get me through the day being all peppy and whatnot.
Starting a list of best moments so that I would be able to remember them.
Not a best moment: losing that list.
Goodnight.
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