It's Been a While
I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have two "excuses." The first is that every time I'm about to sit down and give an update, something comes up or I'm too tired to post. Secondly, there hasn't been anything huge to report, but I do have some things that everyone might find interesting.
I continue enjoy going to school each day. Despite the neverending challenges, there's always something at the end of the day that keeps me excited for the next day. Since taking two of the girls I've been mentoring ice skating, we've finally started clicking a lot better. I wish I would of thought of doing something outside of school with them months ago, because it's been night and day in how they respond to me the past couple of weeks. On the other side of the coin, Ronald, one of my boys seems to regressing. He doesn't seem to care about doing any work at all. When we discuss these things he makes excuses. I worry that he's digging himself a hole too deep to get out of.
Even though I'm working with only 5 kids specifically, I've recently tried to get to know a lot of the other kids, in particular in the 6th grade as well. Since I'm in the classrooms a lot and just around the school in general, I've taken a couple of other students under my wing informally. One girl in particular, Lashay, I felt really needed someone on her side. She's hardly an angel and I wouldn't even say that she's misunderstood, but she's seemed to reach the point that there isn't anyone at the school, students, teacher or staff, that is very fond of her. I actually started talking to her after noticing that there was an esclating situation between her and 4 other girls in her class, one of those girls being a girl that I mentor. After sitting down and talking to Yolanda, the girl I mentor, I started finding more out about the situation, and from my observation it seemed that Lashay was more of a victim and was even standing up to some of the other girls bullying other students, including Yolanda. Because I don't want to see this reach a point where it turns ugly, I've talked to all of the girls involved about sitting down and trying to talk through everything. I'm hoping it will give them all a chance to listen to what the others have to say and maybe put some things into perspective. As for Lashay, she really has no friends at the school or anyone to back her up and I think because of that she's very defensive with students and teachers; I'm hoping with some of my wisdom along with just being someone she can talk to or advocate for her once in a while will help her straighten up. I guess it's the defense lawyer in me wanting to protect the "disliked."
Tomorrow night we'll be having a lock-in at our school with another one of the middle schools. I think it will be a lot of fun, but I'm a little nervous about having to be responsible for 30 middle schoolers. To help me take the edge off after the lock-in, I'll be using the rest of the weekend to enjoy some high quality college basketball. To gear up for the Final Four I'll be going to the Missouri Valley Conference tournament on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I'm pumped to see some of the teams that could pull off upsets later in the month in the Big Dance. I'll also be pulling for my two teams back home: NDA and St. Matt's. Good luck to both teams as they continue on the road to titles in their respective tournaments.
I hope everyone is doing well. Anyone can feel free to call or e-mail me.
I continue enjoy going to school each day. Despite the neverending challenges, there's always something at the end of the day that keeps me excited for the next day. Since taking two of the girls I've been mentoring ice skating, we've finally started clicking a lot better. I wish I would of thought of doing something outside of school with them months ago, because it's been night and day in how they respond to me the past couple of weeks. On the other side of the coin, Ronald, one of my boys seems to regressing. He doesn't seem to care about doing any work at all. When we discuss these things he makes excuses. I worry that he's digging himself a hole too deep to get out of.
Even though I'm working with only 5 kids specifically, I've recently tried to get to know a lot of the other kids, in particular in the 6th grade as well. Since I'm in the classrooms a lot and just around the school in general, I've taken a couple of other students under my wing informally. One girl in particular, Lashay, I felt really needed someone on her side. She's hardly an angel and I wouldn't even say that she's misunderstood, but she's seemed to reach the point that there isn't anyone at the school, students, teacher or staff, that is very fond of her. I actually started talking to her after noticing that there was an esclating situation between her and 4 other girls in her class, one of those girls being a girl that I mentor. After sitting down and talking to Yolanda, the girl I mentor, I started finding more out about the situation, and from my observation it seemed that Lashay was more of a victim and was even standing up to some of the other girls bullying other students, including Yolanda. Because I don't want to see this reach a point where it turns ugly, I've talked to all of the girls involved about sitting down and trying to talk through everything. I'm hoping it will give them all a chance to listen to what the others have to say and maybe put some things into perspective. As for Lashay, she really has no friends at the school or anyone to back her up and I think because of that she's very defensive with students and teachers; I'm hoping with some of my wisdom along with just being someone she can talk to or advocate for her once in a while will help her straighten up. I guess it's the defense lawyer in me wanting to protect the "disliked."
Tomorrow night we'll be having a lock-in at our school with another one of the middle schools. I think it will be a lot of fun, but I'm a little nervous about having to be responsible for 30 middle schoolers. To help me take the edge off after the lock-in, I'll be using the rest of the weekend to enjoy some high quality college basketball. To gear up for the Final Four I'll be going to the Missouri Valley Conference tournament on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I'm pumped to see some of the teams that could pull off upsets later in the month in the Big Dance. I'll also be pulling for my two teams back home: NDA and St. Matt's. Good luck to both teams as they continue on the road to titles in their respective tournaments.
I hope everyone is doing well. Anyone can feel free to call or e-mail me.
posted by Tim Weiss at 8:13 PM
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