The Latest

I finally feel like I'm doing what I came to do. Don't get me wrong the past month and a half has hardly been boring, but since I've now been at my middle school for two weeks, I'm starting to feel the excitement all over again. Last week I pulled all of my kids out and began our mentoring sessions. Granted it was very informal and more a way to introduce them to myself an dfor me to get to know them better, but from the reaction I get each time I come into one of their classes I think most of the kids are as excited as me.

I'm going to be working with six different 6th graders, 3 boys, 3 girls. I originally had 1 other boy, but he transferred schools last week. It isn't all that unusual at the school I'm at for kids to transfer at the end of the month. I was a little disappointed, but I realize this is one of the many challenges I'll face all year and I hope it doesn't become a trend. Anyways my kids names are Herbert, Ronald, Dominique, Yolanda, Sharrel and Kendra. I think I have a decent group of kids with some very unique personalities. Some will be more difficult to reach than others, in particular Herbert and Sharrel. Herbert seems like a really nice kid, unfortunately he lacks a lot of motivation and I'm not sure how excited he is for this program or anything related to school for that matter. I think he has some great qualities, the biggest being that the other kids gravitate to him, but I think he's uncomfortable having that leadership role. Sharrel, on the other hand, is very quiet and reserved. I don't feel she's quite as comfortable around me yet, but I hope over time she'll open up a little more. I think she lacks a lot of confidence, which is some of the reason she stays relative quiet. While Herbert and Sharrel may be my biggest projects, I think each of the other kids I have will present challenges. With Ronald, it will be making sure he doesn't let his temper get the best of him and that he pays attention in class. Dominique is an absolute riot, but doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut, a lot like a little brother I know. Yolanda is probably the best student of all the kids I have, but she's not a perfect student by any means and could still use a little extra attention. Kendra is very sweet, but really struggles in school. Any extra attention any of these kids gets will be very helpful. For some of them just having a chance to work on school work in a less chaotic setting will be beneficial, others just need someone who will listen or can even be present for them consistently. It sounds simple when I put it that way, but I'm sure I'll continue to run into potholes. So that's a quick introduction to the kids that I hope I'll be working with the rest of the year.

This past weekend I had my first out-of-town visitors, when my mom, my grandma and my sister Ann came to visit. It was a lot of fun and I was proud ot be able to show off my apartment as well as my city. Hopefully they'll let the rest of you know how great St. Louis is and convince others to come visit. Believe me there's plenty of space in my apartment, although, it got even more homey now that I have some plants. I'm still lacking in filling my walls, but I plan on having that solved after Christmas. So my first weekend with visitors went very well and I can't wait for others to come and check things out here, or as people like to sat down in the Lou, "hur."

Finally at School

So after a month of training, this was the first week that my team started in our school. Again we're at L'Ouverture Middle School. After a short weekend at home and a chance to see and talk to a lot of my friends from college I felt really ready to start what I came here to do. Granted I was very tired the first couple of days and my sleep schedule hasn't completely adjusted to getting up at 5a.m. every morning, but it's coming along. It hasn't helped that the baseball playoffs have been addicting and the games are going late, but I'm finding myself less and less tired during the school day.

This week has been a little hectic because we are trying to pick which kids we want to work with, but before we can do that we've had to observe classes and talk with the teachers. I'm going to be working specifically with 6th graders from two homerooms. The two homeroom teachers I'm working with have been very supportive and helpful. I think this will make things a lot easier for me when things are getting a difficult. The first part of the week I was trying to get to know as many kids in the classes just through observation. As of today, Thursday, I have selected 7 kids who I want to work with. I don't know if I'll end up working with all 7 the whole year for several reasons, but I think the group I have should be fun and filled with different personalities. At this point I have 3 girls and 4 boys. I have to say I'm very excited about the kids I have and after talking to some of them, they also seem excited for the upcoming year, despite not really understanding how everything will work.

My hope is that next week I'll get a chance to get to know each one of them better and they'll get to know me a little better, and if all goes well by Thanksgiving I hope to have built a strong sense of trust and respect with all of them. Until then, I think I'll face many challenges in trying to figure out how each one of them ticks and what I can best do to gain their trust. So if the next month you notice that my posts are becoming a little whiny, it's just me venting some frustration if I'm not experiencing as much success as I expect from myself. Hopefully this won't happen, but in the event that it does, someone let me know immediately so I can change my attitude and tone.

To conclude everything is going very well here in St. Louis. I'm sure the next few weeks will be filled with new challenges, excitement and some fun (especially if the Cards manage to win the World Series!).

Same Old, Same Old

All right so I haven't been keeping my blog as up-to-date as I originally anticipated, but there's one big reason for that and it's not really due to lack of time. Don't get me wrong it has been a busy month so far, but I've had plenty of spare time. The problem is that we still haven't really gotten started on the fun stuff. After getting teased for three days last week with observation in the school, we are now back to the sometimes boring, but very necessary training. The killer is the 2 hour lunches each day. To most people this would seem like I pretty nice thing, but trying to fill a 2-hour gap isn't as easy as it sounds especially when you basically stick around the same spot with the same people. I'm not completely down on the training as I've learned some new things already that will help me be somewhat prepared for the challenges that I'll be facing.

I think I'm also in a bit withdrawl from having so few guys around that I can talk to and they get me. Let me explain that last statement a little more thoroughly. First of all, my core group of friends so far are women. (I think my brothers and father know how it is to have this problem.) There are a couple of guys that I hang out regularly within this group, but one has a serious girlfriend who has been out of town and the other is married to one of the girls I hang out with and he isn't in the Corps. The second thing is most of the guys that are around right now, not in Florida doing disaster relief, are gay. It's not that I'm not comfortable around them and I can't find common ground on which to talk to them, but it's not the same as what I've been used to for most of my high school and college years in which I was with a pretty big group of guys who all got along and could talk and be like guys around each other. That's not to say all is already lost. In fact I'm as anxious as anyone right now for the group in Florida and Alabama to get back, because I'll have some relief from this estrogen overload that I've been experiencing the past week or so.

All right that wasn't something everyone wanted to know or hear, but I had to vent and one of the reasons I'm doing this blog is to get some of these types of things off my chest. I'm also looking forward to coming home this weekend even if I won't get a chance to see everyone. I'm excited to see my family and my friends from college and I hope this quick weekend home will keep me energized for the stretch between now and Thanksgiving as it will be very busy and maybe even a little stressful at times. So for those of you who are in Green Bay, I'll hopefully see you this weekend.

First Day of School

Today was my first day in the schools, but not really. The past two weeks we've been focusing on training and evaluation and last week we were finally assigned to our specific schools and teams. I've been assigned to L'Ouverture Middle School. I also think we have one of the better teams. It doesn't hurt that I've gotten to know all three of my teammates fairly well over the last couple of weeks, so the transition for us as a team has been very simple, which isn't necessarily the case for all of the teams.

This week we'll be getting to know our school and observing classes. Then we have a conference at the end of the week in Columbia, MO before 1 more week of training. So in reality, my first real day in the schools will be October 18. Today I got a chance to sit in a few classes to observe the teachers and students to get a feel for the kinds of students I'll be dealing with and seeing how the teachers manage the class. The classroom behavior is far from perfect, but I didn't find it intimidating or stressful. I have to say it was nice to finally get a glimpse into the classrooms and see some of the kids I could potentially be working with. I know for sure I'll be working with either all 6th graders or all 7th graders and I think I can draw from some of my experience working at St. Matt's with kids the same age; however, I'll be dealing with kids that are facing some difficult circumstances in their lives. I'm really looking forward to getting started.

After 2 weeks with the same large group of people, I think it will be nice to have this little break from the big group. When you work with the same people that you hang out with socially, and get to know a lot of very different people in such a short period of time, things can get a little too comfortable. Granted, it's been great getting to know so many wonderful people, but it's exhausting work at times and I think everyone was ready to start working in smaller groups. I'm sure as the year goes on, it will be a welcome sight to see the larger group.

My life hasn't been entirely consumed by AmeriCorps that I haven't had a chance to hang out some. This past week I got to a Cardinals' game again (they lost to the Brew Crew) and had some people over to my place for the first time on Friday night. It wasn't a party, but I kind of enjoyed having my apartment as a place to hang out. Saturday night, a large group of us went to a bar with salsa dancing. I wasn't really feeling the salsa music and was a designated driver, but it was fun nonetheless and the group as a whole seemed to be having a good time together. My guess is, that will be the last time for a while that a large group of us go out like that for a couple of reasons: it's tough to organize for that large of a group and we don't have a ton of money to go out like that on a regular basis.

So overall, things here having been going very well. I still have some time before I start really doing what I came here to do, but the training is very necessary and critical to our success. I'll be home in a couple of weeks for a wedding so if I see anyone, I'll give a little more detailed update of what's going on.