Camp City Year

Two weeks ago, during the school's spring break, we ran a camp at P.S. 112, a school right down the street from mine. The kids came from 8-5 and we played games and made up team chants and all sorts of camp type things. The term "camp" did cause some confusion, though, when one of the students had packed her things the week before, thinking that we were going to be sleeping in tents. We also got the occasional question about roasting marshmellows or campfires. Overall, the camp was a huge success. I led a group of 3rd graders all week and they were amazing. It was one of the best weeks I've had in City Year so far. It was nice to hang out with the kids in a different environment, one where the focus was to play and have fun instead of teaching them things like healthy choices or math or science.

The camp was for students from both P.s. 111 and 112 but they recruited heavily from 112 since that was where the camp was being held. The theme was Lights, Camera, Action and everything was adjusted to have a movie theme behind it. The kids even directed their own mini-movie on Thursday and played for the whole camp on Friday.

Because all the kids had to sign a waiver saying they could be video taped for the movie, I'm allowed to post some pictures. :)

Melissa on Spring Break!

(In the fountain from the tv show Friends)

Melissa came for her spring break which was about a month ago. She was here for 10 days so I took some time off work and we ran this city. She came to school with me a couple times, once to see what it was like and a second time to help with a big carnival that we put on for the kids. It was a great week and a half and so nice to have her here for a while.

The highlight was probably Crumbs, the best cupcake store ever. Other than that, we explored Central Park (where I found things I hadn't even seen before), ate at a specialty mac 'n' cheese place, went through the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Natural History Museum, a PB&J restaurant, and a lot of other NYC landmarks.

Great trip... Miss her...


(Batman made of legos in FAO Schwartz)

I Never Thought I Would Get To Take Field Trips Again...

I've been on two field trips with my 4th grade class so far. The first, a total disaster, was when we went to see the movie "Where the Wild Things Are". My teacher was on maternity leave and the sub we had at the time didn't have much control over the class and they went a little berserk on the ride back to school. The sub vowed to never take another field trip with them.

My teacher came back a couple weeks before break and gained some control back. She has a really good handle on their behavior and is a great teacher. I'm really lucky to be in her classroom. I saw first hand some things to do and some things not to do when dealing with children.

Anyway, last week on Thursday we took a trip to the aircraft carrier The Intrepid. It served during WWII and other missions since then. It's been anchored in the Hudson River on Manhattan's west side where it serves as a museum. The ship was huge. I think everyone in Dimondale could comfortably fit on one floor of the ship. We also walked through a submarine and a Concorde jet. The best part was that both buses we had taken to get there broke down when we were getting ready to leave so we spent extra time walking around. That was when we got to walk through the Concorde jet and on the flight deck of the carrier. The control tower and the planes on the top deck were really amazing.

I had to sympathize with the kids. I remember not appreciating history at that age. While we were walking through the submarine all they could talk about was how it smelled. "Ms. Nicole, I have asthma. I have to get out of here!" Unfortunately, the space is so small that you have to walk in single file and there was an older gentle man in front of us that was trying to truly appreciate the unique opportunity.

It was a great chance to hang out with the kids without having to try to get them back on task.

For safety reasons, I can't post pictures of the kids but here are a couple of some of the things we got to see.




the control tower of The Intrepid


the flight deck


a "scorecard" of accomplishments by The Intrepid during WWII



control room in the submarine, The Growler

MLK Day!

Wow. It's hard to believe it was only a week ago. On MLK Day, January 18th, City Year hosted an extravagant volunteer project at MS 424 and 3 other sites in the Bronx. We had over 1,000 volunteers show up to help paint classrooms & murals, build bookcases & benches. Now that it's over, it's amazing. Behind the scenes, the prep work was extensive. Many Corps members, myself included, were asked to come throughout the week and sketch murals, cut wood, tape off areas, and get the various locations ready for transformation. On the Thursday before MLK day I worked at my school from 7:45 until 3 and then traveled out to the Bronx to prep until 9pm. Then, on Friday the entire Corps was prepping

Instead of doing the actual service, City Year offers Corps members the chance to take on a leadership role. There was an application and interview process before Christmas break and they chose people to take on a different type of role for the day. Some people headed up their own group of volunteers and managed their projects. I was in charge of a paint station which entailed passing out paints to volunteers. Because of the high volumes of people and the accidents that have probably taken place in the past, City Year plays it safe and assigns paint captains to be the ONLY person to handle paint.

The projects turned out great and although I didn't take any pictures, the Director of City Year New York was walking around to all the different sites that day and taking pictures. It's a really cool documentation of the day and shows off some of the City Year culture. Here's the link in case you want to check it out...

Pictures

Christmas in the Mitten

It's been a couple weeks now but my most recent fun adventure was back in Michigan for the holidays! I flew back on Christmas Day and stayed through New Years. My family and Grandma Kubesh were there to greet me at the airport with a big sign. It was a great welcome home. I got to see everyone on my dad's side of the family between Christmas and New Years eve. I went snowboarding with Ben and Melissa. Mostly, I relaxed. It was such a great break and even managed to make me miss Michigan a little bit. But it's great to be back in New York City! It took a little while to get back in the swing of things but it's starting to feel normal again.