"We are a good team." ~Will

I realized I never did my timecard this week. Then I realized I can't even remember what I did this week. Maybe writing about it will jog my memory.

We started Destination Imagination (DI) this week. Our first meeting was Monday and we only had three girls. All in fifth grade. It was a little weird, but good. They loved it, which is what matters. They loved it so much, in fact, that the next day two other fifth grade girls came RUNNING at me asking if they could join DI too. I'm nervous to have a team of all girls. I'm nervous to have a team of students who may not be the right fit for DI. But it will work out, one way or the other. Wednesday's meeting we had the five of them. I think it will get better and better.

I really love in-class support. It wears me out, but it makes me feel really useful. I'm starting to develop a core group of kids who know me and know to ask for my help. Band is going well. At the bookfair one of my kids introduced me to her mom as "the one that teaches me flute!" I laid down tracks on the computer for choir so that the kids can listen to my MIDI files on the internet and practice their parts at home. I had great meetings with Brittney and Cayla this week too. School is really good.

Thursday night I went to a community meeting about the New Hampshire Civic Index. Basically there was a big study done that revealed that teenagers are interested in making a difference in their community, but don't know that much about politics or how to be civicly engaged. It made for an incredibly long day, but it was worth it. I also discovered that even after living here for only 11 weeks, I can already play the six degrees of separation game with random people that I meet in Portsmouth.

Friday was our Thanksgiving service day. I sorted cans from various food drives ALL DAY. In the morning we were at Timberland, and got to add in the cans from the Seabrook food drive too. In the afternoon we were at Salvation Army, which was WAY more fun than serving with the Timberland employees. I want to remember: the possum that Sara rescued from her trash can, the can that expired in 1995, throwing cans at each other across the church at the Salvation Army, and power greeting the rest of the corps with Old MacDonald Had a Farm (they went to an organic farm to harvest the leftovers from the fields while we were sorting cans).

Friday night my team went to the middle school dance at Seabrook Youth Services. It was amazing and totally awkward in the way that only middle school dances can be. The kids seemed genuinely excited to see us. We were goofy and danced and amused ourselves. I stayed the night with a couple of my teammates so that we could bake for the SMS band fundraiser. We baked SO much!! I slept on a couch, and definitely not enough. Got up at 6:30 so that I could go to DI team manager training with Will and Aaron yesterday morning. We were all totally exhausted but the training was good. Will and I developed a newfound love for communicating via Post-It note, and we won the competition for building the tallest structure with the random materials they gave us. The DI folks LOVE City Year. We might be in the paper, and will definitely be part of the next New Hampshire DI podcast. I'll post a link when I get it. I really need to finish the Clinton Innovation proposal with Sara so we can try to get money to do DI stuff with other City Year sites.

I came home last night and totally crashed. I think I'm still in the process of crashing. I can't believe I have to work tomorrow. Thank god we only have two and a half days this weekend. I have some amazing Thanksgiving/weekend plans with some amazing people. I can't wait...

Quickly.

I want to remember today.

I had big/little time with Cayla and then with Brittney. They are amazing girls. I already have a good bond with Cayla, but I have a lot of work to do with Brittney. She's had a rough time, but she is a great kid. In-class was good. It was a lecture day, but I'm starting to learn what I can do to be effective when kids are taking notes. I actually got Neroy to take notes today. We talked for a few minutes at the end of class, and if nothing else, tomorrow he will know that the capital of Luxembourg is Luxembourg. The more I can get him to talk, the better. We took the After the Bell kids to the library and they were good. Today was exactly what we should be doing--nothing out of the ordinary, everything going as planned.

Mostly today I bonded with my teammates. I had important conversations with four of my seven teammates. Sara was out, and I feel like I was able to be a leader without being pushy or trying too hard. I think maybe I had some kind of impact on a couple teammates, maybe more than I did for any kid today, but I'm ok with that.

When I wonder later why I want to come back as a service leader next year, just remind me of today.

There will be feasting and dancing...

So much to catch up on, so I thought I'd post a quick blog before bed. Last week was an interesting one, as I'm beginning to learn that ALL weeks are interesting in City Year. My house hosted the corps-wide Halloween party last Sunday. Tons of people showed up! We had so much food, played donut on a string and twister, and watched Silver Bullet. A roaring success, if I do say so myself.

Tuesday was the day of Halloween. My team led unity rally, so we made the corps do the Time Warp in PT. Some people thought it was silly, but I was amused, and really, what else matters?? My team was kind of in a funk, so we decided to scrap our original plans for after school and took a trip to Market Basket instead. 27 dollars later we had oodles of sugary substances for the kids to build haunted gingerbread houses using graham crackers, frosting, and loads of candy. The kids had a blast, we had a blast, and it was probably our least productive but most successful day of after school to date. The following day, in-class was a mess and after school was disastrous. One of the kids who does all the City Year stuff had to be sent to the principal for disciplinary action after his behavior in after school. However, my classroom teacher is amazing and assured me that this happens every year. You pump the kids and corps members full of sugar for a day, and there are bound to be behavior problems coupled with low tolerance. But we survived the day and things could only look up after that. Thursday was much better.

Pictures of my team, and pictures from Halloween haunted house building :)







Over the weekend, Sara and I worked on a proposal for the Clinton Innovation Awards. My team role for the year is to co-facilitate the Destination Imagination program after school. (For more about DI, go here: http://www.idodi.org/ I'm too tired to write about it now). Sara started a DI team at Somersworth where she served last year. This year we don't have a City Year team in Somersworth, but the DI program is continuing. We're also starting up a team in Seabrook and one in Hampton. The award proposal is to try to make DI a network-wide program. We're asking for the funds to go to other City Year sites to make presentations about DI and provide some materials so that they could start their own DI programs. The award is fairly competitive, but I think we have a good outline. We submitted the outline today and we'll get feedback from staff so that we can create the actual proposal to send in. It would be AMAZING to get the funding for this--we'd get to travel all over to talk about DI. I can't think of anything better than that right now :) Keep your fingers crossed for me. Even if we don't get funding, I want to go to Boston and Rhode Island to present the program to them.

Off to bed, I'm exhausted.