Your responses to the first prompt have been enlightening and sometimes amusing. Feel free to comment on each other's posts. Also, when responding to my prompts, make a new post rather than a comment: that makes for easier blog reading.
The great thing about service learning is its unpredictability: sometimes you will find yourself as Julia did judging a contest. Two years ago we arrived one evening at SEED school prepared to do homework with our students. No one told us that a school-wide awards banquet had preempted all other activities. However, we were invited to the dinner and ending up sitting with a father, mother, and their SEED 8th-Grader. In a relaxed setting, we heard from two parents about their aspirations for their child, their own educational background, and a whole lot more. When we see people instead of statistics, our thinking only can deepen. And, at least that night, we didn't even know what pleasant surprise--dinner and enlightening conversation--awaited us at SEED school.
So now that nearly everyone has visited their site, here is the second prompt: what have you witnessed that you might use as primary evidence for the essay you're currently revising? What point would that evidence support? Certainly, Ariel's purse-mouse and the drinking fountain would be a great anecdotes about DCPS facilities problems. Also, be sure to tell us what school you're visiting because not all of us are in the same class.
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I attended my Charter School for the second time last week. This time was a lot better and I left feeling knowledgeable and well informed about the organization. Micha, our contact at the site was there and able to give me a tour of the facility. Along the tour I met many staff members and got to meet a few of the kids that Micha knew as well. There was something that I noticed that struck me in the facility’s colors and lay out. The building in built around a central hall way and was divided many colors. I think this helps kids to feel sectioned into different areas of learning and the colors also help to calm the students and give it a very relaxed feel.
The class in which I was supposed to help out was on a field trip so therefore I was not of much use this last week. However, tomorrow I will be there to help during their math period.
At Community of Hope where I lead a group in the after school program with DCPS, we went to a park and the kids basically went wild. There were two small fights that happened, in which traffic stopped while we were walking back to the Homeless Shelter. The children are from 1st-6th grade and most are still working on listen and their motivation to even look at their homework. I’m making connections with several of the kids and they are starting to open up about deeper problems and why they are so angry. I had a drunk cracked out mother yell at me for letting her daughter talk back to me also last week at the center. At times I think the kids are learning so much from having me around, but at the same time I realize I’m learning twice as much from being there for them.
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