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!).
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!).
posted by Tim Weiss at 4:43 PM
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