Monday, August 17, 2009

"Miss Eugenia"- First 2 weeks of work!







As I prepare my class room (yupp I have my OWN classroom!!) and try to organize books by reading level, divide games into education and non-educational, and decide which tubes of paint I can pour water into and ‘uncrust ‘ and which ones I just have to let go of…it has been a great first two weeks.


The first week I was here Aug. 3-7 the teacher whose position I am taking, was still around so we jointly took the kids on several fun trips! One of these adventures was to the beach where we spent the entire afternoon chasing the waves back and forth trying to catch sand crabs. My favorite part of the trip was how the kids were terribly concerned about feeding their crabs and keeping them alive.To top it off, as we were packing up to leave, they made a joint decision to all release their crabs so that they wouldn’t take them from their home and separate families…tell me that doesn’t make you smile a little :-) Another cool excursion we took them on was to Griffith Park. We hiked most of the way to the big Hollywood sign then turned around and made it just in time for the daily opening of the observatory. The kids were fascinated with the changing of ocean tides and how the moon affects the ocean- how you weigh different on different planets- how earthquakes are made- the changing of seasons and how that affects sunlight hours. Their favorite attraction was the earthquake maker where we all jumped up and down on a platform to create our own ‘earth vibrations.’ I was so inspired by their inquisitiveness and how eager they were in their question asking. I even had one kid ask me “what is humidity,” a question that literally made me laugh…oh the beauty of never having experienced humidity…another awesome component of California.


Week two I was on my own and because of the number of kids we have in the area and the absence of volunteers I wasn’t able to do too much except for a pool and movie day at my apartment one afternoon. Last week and this week are “get your curriculum and classrooms organized” weeks. For those of you who might be unclear as to my position out here—I am a 3rd-5th grade youth coordinator/ after school teacher/ social worker, for Central City Community Outreach. I am hired by Tech Mission (which is a sub program of AmeriCorps). Tech Mission focuses on inner city, Christian based work that promoted the importance of education as a tool for youth advancement. Aside from homework time every day, the kids have volunteer mentors that come in and do programs, they eat snack and dinner with us every school day and we do a daily activity (ex. Monday-Library/ Tuesday- Inner City Arts Council/ Wednesday- Lisa Peacock who does animal therapy and counseling with the kids, etc.)


Something I really appreciate about the program design is that the kids must earn everything they receive in terms of toys or trips- this is not a free handouts program. They must earn trips to the park or a new book bag , even an outing to the movies through good grades, good behavior, and attendance of our program. The children may not attend our after school program if they did not go to school that day…a fact we quickly find out from the other kids. They are very protective of their program and everyone getting treated fairly!


The Lord has been doing amazing things down here in the city, there is a mission on every corner, free clinics and dozens of case works and social workers trying to rectify the situations many Skid Row residents have found themselves in. While there is still an immeasurable amount of pain, there are a lot of people trying to bring about change too. Please keep Skid Row, and the work being done here in your prayers.


God Bless you all!!


PS. I got to watch The Soloist play yesterday. For those of you who have seen the Motion Picture “The Soloist,” it is the story of a Julliard student Nathanial whose late onset schizophrenia lead him to dropping out of school and eventually ending up homeless in downtown LA. LA Times write Steve Lopez took an interest in Nathanial’s story and has made it public to the world. I highly recommend reading The Soloist or watching the movie. He’s for real!