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.

Wrapping Up Part 1

Well, we're in our last week before Christmas break so I figured I would write an update of what's been going on lately. Since I've been slacking, there's a lot...

In-class support: My teacher came back from maternity leave last week. Things were really crazy with the sub so I'm excited she's back. My role changed drastically when Mrs. Lopez left because of the chaos in the classroom. Technically, I'm only in the class for support in reading and math. It transformed into behavior management. Well, attempted behavior management. I did what I could but the class was out of control. We went on a field trip to see "Where the Wild Things Are" which ended in the bus driver reporting one of the students to the Board of Education. I'm very thankful to have their regular teacher back.

After school: Our starfish programs are going as well as my behavior management techniques in class. Ok... not quite that bad. But it's been rough. I thin I've written this out before but the groups are broken up as follows: 4&5th grade boys (Group 5), 6th graders (Group 6), and 4th&5th grade girls (Group 4). After school for 5th grade and younger is called Starfish and 6th grade and above is Heroes. Generally, teams run either Starfish or Heroes, not both; but because we are in an outside organization, we are running it with the 6th graders upon the requeset of the Riis Staff. We've figured out that splitting the boys into smaller groups during the main activity combined with bribing them with free time is the best way to get them to behave. Unfortunately, we're still looking for material they find interesting enough to really pay attention too. Group 6 is our biggest challenge. After being split up for 4 years, Group 6 is the first year it goes back to co-ed. I know it's a strange age and I don't think being together makes it much easier but it's so interesting how much the girls change from Group 4 to Group 6. Our Group 4 still loves Starfish and gets into everything we do. They even came up with a remix to one of the dance moves we do. Group 6... it's hard to get them to pay attention for more than 30 seconds at a time. Even when we're doing activities they seem to like, there are certain students who refuse to fully participate. It's a struggle, but I've talked to a lot of other City Year people and they came up with some good ideas that we'll be trying in the new year.

Events: I don't think I've said anything about this yet. Ana and I were assigned to the events team. There are different roles for teams including: events, outreach, learning coordinator, resource and communication, and service team. Outreach is just like it sounds. Jason and Kate will be visiting schools, making phone calls or doing other events to recruit future City Year members. Learning Coordinators go over our lesson plans, take attendance and complete other tasks to make sure our lessons are following guidelines set by City Year. Resource and communication is left up to Jay who has done an amazing job in-kinding (or getting donations). He makes a newsletter to send to our sponsors as well. The service team will be creating service projects for us in our school. Their first idea was to do something with the playground. As it stands, it is a large fenced in area of blacktop. There is literally nothing else to it. After talking wtih our assistant principal, it looks like we may be able to paint some games or provide something this year. They are planning on redoing the playground sometime in the near future. So... as for events. Ana and I are taking care of that part. So far, we planned a teacher appreciation lunch and a canned food drive. Both events went better than planned. We had almost all of our food donated by local businesses like Costco, Subway and a bakery. The kids brought in over 750 cans of food for the food drive which was GREAT! They were so generous. We recorded the number of cans per class to determine a winner and ended up making gingerbread houses with a 6th grade class. It went so well and the kids loved it. If it wasn't illegal to post pictures of kids, I would... but it's illegal. We're kicking off next year with a penny drive, that they do annually, as well as a huge cultural festival.

Lunch clubs: I don't think I've talked about this either. During lunch a different club meets everyday. Right now, some of us are running clubs like, poetry, step/dance, performance, and board games. It's just a brief period of time since they also have to eat during this period but the kids enjoy it nonetheless. Next year, we're going to start a sports club of some sort. I'm really excited for this because I think some of the students will be really excited. Right now, the clubs are fun but many of the students are dropping out so they can spend more time with their friends. The limited amount of time and proper planning (there's no time!) means that the clubs are dwindling a bit. But sports, especially basketball, are easy to improvise and I know the kids will really want to join this club.

That's it for now. We have two days of work this week and then Christmas break begins! I'll be back in Michigan from Christmas Day until January 2nd so hopefully I'll see everyone! If not, Happy Holidays!

New York CARES!

So a while ago I was walking and saw a poster for an organization called New York Cares. It's a volunteer organization that links events or other organizations with people who want to volunteer. Overall, there are over 48,000 people who volunteer through this program. It's such an easy concept but so ingenious at the same time. I've volunteered for a couple of events through them. The first was with a group that played with developmentally delayed children for 2 hours so their parents could take a break or get other errands done. I played with an 8 year-old boy who ran around the gym for the last hour. We would run a lap around, weaving in and out of other kids playing basketball or bowling. We would rest against the wall and he would say, "Only 62 more."
"Oh man, I don't know if I can do it." "You can do it, Nicole. I believe in you." He was great.

A couple weeks ago, my roommate Ami and I did a larger event where kids from a homeless shelter made t-shirts for kids in the Congo. Besides the t-shirts, there were general arts and crafts, a writing station, a necklace/bracelet station and a photo booth. They had a dj and pizza and drinks and we took random dance breaks in which everyone was supposed to get up and dance. It was a really cool event that took place right in Manhattan in this beautiful ballroom. A few celebrities came, including Tate Donovan (who was on the O.C. and now on Damages on Abc(?)), Kyle Massey and his brother (they are on Disney Channel and Nickelodeon) and Corbin Bleu (the curly headed kid from High School Musical). The kids went crazy for the Disney Channel stars and it was really cool to see them enjoy the event.

I'm sure I'll do other projects in the future because it's such an awesome way to get involved.

The Halls in the Big Apple

My family visited... 3 week ago now. (Sorry it took so long!) It was quite the good time. We rode the subway in circles for fun. It was really great to see them though and fun to show them around the city a little bit. I also got two large bins of clothes and the carpet remnant from our living room. The carpet may seem like a small thing but since our living room has been (VERY) slowly coming together since we moved in, it's nice to have.

Run Like You Mean It

Today was the New York City Marathon! My roommate, Ami and I had the opportunity to volunteer by passing out Gatorade at the 15th mile. We got there around 10:30 when they were still waiting for the runners so we got to see the front runners. The women came around first and then the men. Overall, they said that there were 41,000 people running the race and they were from all over the world. It was really cool because people wrote their country or their name on their shirt so we could cheer them on a little more personally. It definitely inspired me and I'm considering training for the marathon next year. I will definitely run the NYC marathon before I die. It was a pretty cool experience!



Runners from up above.
This is where we were standing to hand out water.

We had to run to the other side so we could get our t-shirts so I ran we ran in the marathon for about 8 seconds!

Starfish!

Well, almost as promised, it's time for an update!

As I said before, last week was our first week of our after school program. We have a group of 4th & 5th grade boys on Tuesdays so today was our second lesson. Luckily, I can report that today went better than our first day! We quickly discovered on the first day that all but one of the boys had been through the program multiple times before. Therefore, all the call and responses, the starfish "pledge" and the rest of the starfish culture that we were trying to introduce was irrelevant.

This time around, we made both of the games competitive. To give you an idea of the challenge, the City Year team from last year advised us to make the boys run before trying to start the lesson. Last week, I had the boys stand on the line and told them to run to the end, run back and stop. They ran to the end, ran back and then went crazy. A few boys stayed at the line. Others ran back to the line, others ran to the other side of the gym. Considering it was our first activity, it didn't seem like a good sign. They still have a hard time listening to or following directions but we're working on it and trying to find ways around it. For instance, today I decided to change the game to a relay race. I cut out a bunch of starfish and put them on one side of the line. They got into teams and had to get the starfish from one end, run back to their team and place the starfish on a plate at the end of the line. This way, they had to take turns and it was a COMPETITION! This is probably the biggest thing with boys. Luckily, there were no sore losers today, even when some of the boys were bragging about their wins.

Overall, today felt like a breakthrough. After such a rough time last week, it was great to see the outcome of the day. We also played a game with carpet squares where they had to get across to the other side of the gym without touching the floor. They really had to work as a team to figure out how to get across. The best part for me was when a boy who didn't want to participate at all ended up winning the game. He was so excited and all the boys were really getting into the competition.

City Year is proving to be just as challenging as they promised. I can tell it's going to be a great year, I've already learned SO much and it's just the beginning. But we are doing so much work, especially because of the way our teams are set up. I am working on a teamlet with one other girl, Jen. Normally, when writing starfish lessons, the team would only need to write (or revise for the first unit) one set of lessons for all of their groups. Jen and I are working with 4/5 grade boys, 4/5 grade girls and also 6th graders. This goes back a ways but the first day I worked at the Riis (our after school facility; we work with their staff and into their program) was a... challenge. I sat in on the 6th grade classes art lesson. To say they were disruptive is an incredible understatement. They were lectured the whole time and hardly got through any of their lesson. It was clear that the respect for the teachers was lacking.

So when I heard that we were doing starfish with the 6th graders, I knew it would not work. Jen and I decided to change the program from the beginning. We didn't really know what we were changing it to but the introduction was pretty easy to wing. We tried to put the emphasis on community service and things they would like to talk about. We cut out a lot of the things they had done before, such as the pledge and PT (physical training). Anyway, because we are working with this group as well, we are writing extra lesson plans every week. It means we have to be extra creative and think of things that entertain a group that we have very little experience with. Because of the things the kids in this program are exposed to, it is unlike any situation I have been in or any kids I have worked with. It is going to take a while to gain their trust and figure out what they are really interested in but I have faith that we're going to find a way around our obstacles. Tomorrow will be our second day so we'll see how things go.

While the Riis is the most challenging part of my day, I'm also working for 4 periods with a 4th grade class at P.S. 111. They are amazing. The kids are really fun to be around. I walk around during their reading or writing sessions and have them read their work to me. There are quite a few who always want me to work with them which is great. I know I need to build the relationships so that I can help the substitute teacher when my current teacher goes on maternity leave in November. Overall, they're a great class. I feel very lucky because I sat through some pretty difficult classes during our observations.

While the students can be challenging, the teachers are probably everyone's biggest complaint. The disrespect, sarcasm and straight up rudeness is so sad to see. Burnout is so apparant in some of the teachers at the school. One of the girls in the program, Ana, is trying to get moved from her 2nd grade classroom because the teacher is extremely difficult to work with. The worst part for me is seeing how they are disrespected and how privileged I was as a student. It's so sad.

Remind me to tell you the story of how they take disruptive kids to the hospital...

Getting into P.S. 111

Sorry for the long delay in posts! So much has happened which is really exciting but it also means that we've been incredibly busy. Last week was our first official week in the school. We spent a lot of time in our "office". It's actually an old locker room. It's great though, nice and spacious and we have our own bathroom. Our mini-fridge and coffee maker are probably the highlights. We spent a lot of time planning last week. We were getting ready for the programs we are starting this week.

On Thursday, we had an assembly to introduce ourselves to the school (well, k-5). We were all a little nervous because most of the students already know City Year pretty well and the assembly was 50 minutes long. Fortunately, it went really well! The kids were as well behaved as could be expected for sitting in seats the whole time. We played Peel the Bananas with them which must be their favorite City Year activity. They all knew it and went crazy, even the 5th graders.
It goes: peel bananas, peel, peel bananas (repeat), smash bananas, smash, smash bananas (repeat) eat bananas, eat, eat bananas (repeat), Go bananas! Go, go bananas!
That is just so you all know the words when I come home and need someone to do the banana dance with. It's hilarious and the kids love it.

I'll post more soon (hopefully tomorrow!). I miss you all and love you!


(the crazy P.S 111 team)