P.S 111

Today was our first day in P.S. 111! It was great! We walked around the school and then saw our office, which is an old locker room. It's a great space and we have our own bathroom. It may seem small but we have a secure place to keep our things and work on lesson plans for the programs we'll be running. Other teams have a closet sized space for their office. After getting the tour we observed a couple classrooms. I watched kindergarten, second grade and a fifth grade room. We didn't interact with them much until 5th grade when Ana and I helped with an experiment. A lot of students said hi to us in the hallways and every time we walked by a classroom we'd hear: "There's City Year!" It was really great to hear the excitement in their voices.
We sat in on their lunch period and I hung out with a group of 3rd graders. One girl talked for 5 minutes straight but they were all really excited and had a lot of questions. She latched onto my arm and told me she didn't want me to leave when they were going out for recess. The group was really diverse, as is the school. The one boy at the table was from Ecuador, one girl from somewhere in Indonesia, and another girl from Bangladesh. They were quite entertaining and it's great to see such diversity. I'm sure they'll have great stories. In the 2nd grade classroom a boy read a composition in front of the class and the teacher congratulated him. She said he had come from Mexico last year and couldn't speak any English when he first arrived. It's already inspiring.
It was something of a realty check being in the school, though. I know I've been sheltered but it really surprised me that a recurring fascination was my blond hair. A 5th grader even felt it and asked why it felt so soft. I knew that I would stick out a little bit because I'm white but I didn't realize how my blond hair would be such an attraction as well.
I can tell that I'm going to have a lot of stories throughout the year just after being there one day. The kids were hilarious. Sadly, two of the teachers we observed were... rough. They were quite short with the kids, even a little sarcastic. But the 5th grade classroom was observed was great. The kids were really into the science experiment and the teacher had strict, but fair, expectations of them. I realize that everything is different when there is an observer in the classroom so we'll see how the year lays out. It was a great first day though!
We are going back to the school tomorrow morning for more observation and then we'll be at the Basic Training Retreat in New Jersey Wednesday through Friday. It should be fun, an experience that will take me back to Camp Concordia, I'm sure. Then, the following week we'll continue observations and have our Opening Day Ceremony. Full-blown school is coming soon!