Sorry I haven't updated my blog for a big chunk of September. Things have been crazy here.
Last Friday was my first day in a school. We went to a school in the South Bronx. It was about a half hour subway ride from my work. We arrived about an hour before the school let out, and we set up for a pep assembly. All the sixth grade students in the school were at the assembly. We wanted to pump up the energy so the kids would be excited to come back on Saturday morning with their parents. It was a really fun pep assembly. The kids were excited, and they kept the energy up. Each home room had their own cheer, and they were excited to chant. It was really fun to see. The best part though was seeing my colleague J.C. dress up as their Eagle mascot. The costume was ridiculous, and the only way he could see was through the eyes on the side of his head. We also managed to get a CFY t-shirt to fit around his giant Eagle head. The kids ate it up. However, we gave away a couple t-shirts via raffle, and when the assembly was done, some of the kids that didn't get a t-shirt accosted him and tried to rip his shirt off! I don't understand what they were so angry about...the next day they got a free computer. When given the choice between a free t-shirt and a free computer, I'd take the computer, thank you very much.
The next morning I had to be at the school at 8:15. It took me an hour to get there, because transportation is so sporadic on the weekends. We didn't have any volunteers that day, because it was training day for our new part-time staff. Since there were no volunteers, there weren't any volunteers for me to manage. I was a volunteer in the classrooms, and got to see what the Family Learning Workshop is like. It was so fun! We had four classrooms, two English rooms, one Spanish room, and one bilingual classroom. We had about 40 staff total, it felt like we overpowered the families!
I floated from room to room and felt silly having so many staff in each room. In the afternoon session, I ended up hanging out for a long time with a little four year old. Her mom had two girls in sixth grade, and she must have been the only available relative for the girls (CFY policy is in order to receive the computer, both student and parent must come for the full three hour workshop). The girls spoke English, but the mom spoke mostly Spanish, and the little one spoke only Spanish. I noticed she was being a pain...hanging on mom, demanding all of mom's attention; basically being a typical four-year-old. I went over to her, and asked if I could color with her. She said yes. Soon we were friends. She is so smart! I would point to a body part on the Sesame Street character, and ask "¿Cómo se dice en español?" "How do you say this in Spanish?" She knew all her body parts, including teeth! I would also ask her where I should color next, and which one I should use. At first, she was very particular, but soon, I must have proven myself to be a trustworthy contributor to her artwork, because when I asked what I should color next and where, she said, "Lo que quieras." (Whatever you want.) Needless to say, I was honored by this new responsibility. Towards the end of the workshop (three hours is a LONG TIME for a little one to entertain herself!) we were coloring a picture of Big Bird with the alphabet on a chalk board behind him. I asked her if she knew her alphabet. She got most of them. I tried to remember the Spanish pronunciation of the letters, and she laughed at me. Then we sang the English ABCs together. She loved that. Unfortunately for me, the room got really quiet in the middle of our song...it was a bit awkward. She then said, "¡Tu canta!" ("You sing!") I told her, "¡No canto sola! Cantamos juntos." ("I won't sing by myself, let's sing together.") She would have none of that, and we would go back and forth about whether I should sing a solo or not. Finally, I convinced her to sing with me, but she stopped after D, the terd. I loved hanging out with her; I guess I love preschoolers after all. Kudos to you Prairie View, for recognizing that in me before I knew it myself.
It was a great first Family Learning Workshop!
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