Weeks 1 and 2 In School...also, I need to figure out what I write about in this blog.

My idea of keeping a blog was that people would be able to read it as their post church activity. You know, not have to wait until midnight to read it. Hmm.

Well, I'm doing great. Also, I'm convinced that I'm the favorite kid because I am the most exciting to talk about. Lol, mostly I'm just homesick.

But that's ok. It's not the debilitating homesickness that I thought I'd go through, it's the 'I haven't been touched in 4 days and I miss the mandatory after family prayer hugs'. It's the 'I discovered amazing friends just before I moved, how fair is that?' and also the 'I miss my dogs!!!' (That's for you, Emily and Wendy).

Truly, I'm happier than I ever have been in my life. The service I'm providing in is amazing. The people I serve with are equally amazing. The students. I care about them so much. It's crazy, I just met them two weeks ago, when school started. But I know already how much potential they have. How much worth.

I posted on Facebook a few days ago this statement : “A student was shocked today when I told him that I moved away from my family right out of high school all the way to California just to volunteer with City Year. He said "It wasn't worth it. You made a dumb choice."

My goodness, how he's wrong.
I think this is worth every bit.”

It got 16 likes. That's 15 more than my average. :)

I have been getting to know these students only two weeks, but I know a lot about them. They are desperate for someone to listen. To know about their lives. To care about them, and not only about their test scores.

Now, I know that the teachers here are amazing. I'll talk about them in a bit. I know the staff here are great, and they care about the whole child, not just the test scores.

But I am in a great position to get to know these kids in a way these teachers don't get to. To the students, teachers live at school. They're not really people, just teachers. That sounded kind of harsh, but really, think about when you were in school. How much did you know about your teacher's not school life?

These kids are fascinated with the fact that I am the youngest person on my team. Probably mostly because I look 5 or 6 years older than I really am. I am not offended. :P

They love that I ride my bike everywhere. They love that I don't know where to go to college next year, which kind of surprised me. Now it kind of makes sense. No, I don't have my whole life figured out, but I'm working on it. I'm excited to share my college application process with these students. I hope it will make their future more real and possible to them.

(I forgot to write about how really truly awesome the teachers are, but it's almost 10:30 and I wanted to be in bed sleeping 1.5 hours ago. So this is where I would put that paragraph, but it's going to have to wait.)

Here's an example of my day:

5:30 Turn off the alarm.

5:39 Turn off the alarm again. Fall out of bed. Get ready to go.

6:00 Remember you're supposed to eat breakfast. Not to be healthy, but because when you try to convince your students to eat breakfast because it's healthy, you can't be a hypocrite.

6:03 Finish whatever pathetic breakfast you scavenged.

6:05, :06, :08 and :09, run back into the house to grab things you forgot.

6:10 actually leave your house, ride bike 1 hour.

7:20 Arrive at school 10 minutes early. YES! (I despise being late)

7:30 First circle begins. Our team meets in circles so we can see everyone, and have a natural order for things. We do first circles in front of the school. It's great because it keeps us accountable for being on time (it's hard to sneak into a circle), the kids see us, we get our announcements, and get to say goodmorning to everyone.

7:45 Leave first circle (after an epic spirit break) and drop our stuff off in the City Year Room. Yes, we're cool enough to get a room. We're spoiled, I know. Go socialize with kids. Try to learn names. Fail miserably. Keep trying.

7:55 Get schedule from PM or TL (have I mentioned that CY likes acronyms just as much as LDS people do? PM=Project Manager, TL=Team Leader, CY=City Year, LDS=Latter-Day Saint (Yes, Mormons)). Go to first class. We're observing for now, but I'm fairly certain we get our permanent teachers soonish.

9:00 go to second class.

10:00 Prep the Pride Store. I am one half of a two person committee getting the store ready. It opens Monday the 17^th. Oh goodness, that's tomorrow. The Pride Store is an integral part of the school wide incentive program. Students earn pride bucks for completing work, being on best behavior, participating in the lesson, etc. They then get to spend their pride bucks at the store on trinkets and school supplies.

11:00 Go to class. I don't remember when lunch is.

Noon: go to student lunch. More socializing, more pathetic attempts to learn names. I'm getting better, but slowly, because now my grace period is over, and the students are telling my their names are wrong just to confuse me. It works.

1:00 My lunch. Eat lunch, sleep discreetly, make calls to my ornery bank...usual stuff. I'm not supposed to work. Sometimes I do anyway.

2:00 school's out. But I missed a period in there somewhere. I know the bell schedule isn't on the hour, but I didn't think it was that off. Whatever. There should be 6 periods and a lunch.

2:05 After school program starts. Students get a snack in the cafeteria, I get a break.

2:30 Students make their way to their classrooms for homework hour. For the next hour, I tutor some kids, get to know others, and the rest, I peel off the ceiling. JK, no one has found their way onto the ceiling. Some got onto the roof though.

3:30 to 6ish I get to play with kids outside, get to know them, keep them off the roof, no big deal.

6:00 Final circle. Announcements, then personal joys, appreciations, and announcements around the circle, every person signaling the end of their speaking by saying Good night to the group.

6:15 End on a Spirit Break.

6:20 Leave school on bike, pedaling much slower on account of being exhausted.

7:20 Get home. Drink three gallons of water, eat a ridiculous amount of not very healthy food, and then sleep for ever/until 5:30 the next morning.

Errrrday.

Love it.

Some of my best moments:

• Real, actual tutoring. We worked on states and their capitals. I'm remembering the game my parents played with me, and wish I had it here, to play with the students.
• Getting a letter from a student. While it's great that these kids trust City Year already, my heart still hurts a little. I will keep the letter forever. I also look forward to receiving a response to the letter I wrote back.
• Going jogging with a group of kids. This is great because one of the kids had not wanted to participate in the mandatory physical activity, but then was super excited to jog with me. Also great because I had enough stamina to keep jogging. This is an accomplishment, probably as a result of riding a bike at least two hours every day.
• Admitting to myself that I will need help. I am not a math student, and it was awkward for me to tutor someone in math. This doesn't seem like a thing that would warrant a mention on a list of good things, but I think the fact that I can admit this, and ask for help (my friend, Heidi, has been an awesome help. She taught me to do long division over a powerpoint via email) makes me confident in my ability to get squishy.
• I said to my group of students in after school one day that if they would tell me, with a straight face, that they were going to graduate high school and college, then I would let them mess about for the rest of homework hour. No one could. Not because they didn't feel confident in their ability to have a glorious future, but because everytime they got close, I would make a funny face, and they would break down into giggles.
• This one is interesting. It is not a best moment for a teammate, but it is for me. I feel somewhat odd including it. There was a particularly rowdy group of boys in homework hour one day, and my teammate was having a hard time dealing with them. They had insulted him, and were being all sorts of disrespectful. My teammate took some time, and while he was gone, I sat a little closer to the boys. They all turned their attentions on me, and started to wear me down with whatever preteen boy shenanigans. Somehow I got them to explain football to me (yah  right) and all of a sudden they were invested in an information sharing conversation? Woah. Surprise, Amy, you actually can deal with things.
• I got a hug and information: humans need 8-10 meaningful touches a day to be mentally and physically healthy. New goal? Probably not. But interesting nonetheless.

Signing off (and mentally preparing myself for another awesome and exhausting week), 

Amy Barton

Corps Member

City Year Sacramento

PS I told Heidi that I was going to be in bed by 9, but more likely 10 because I still had to write this blog. Look who's still writing at 10:09? Me. pooh.

PSS My Relief Society lesson went really well. BTW, kid from my past who said I would go crazy when I moved out of my parents' and never go to church again, I totally just taught Relief Society. Take that.

PSSS To my readers, I love you. But leave a comment to prove you where here. :)

Kay thanks goodnight.

PSSSS I will post pictures sometime this week. Goal.

Someone should explain to me how a postscript works.