I Survived!

The classes at Any Baby Can are pretty unique. When you walk into the classroom, it may look more like tutoring than a traditional class. Each student is learning the same subject material, but is working at his or her own pace. Ruth and I, as teachers, shift between students answering questions, correcting mistakes and clarifying points of confusion. The system works pretty well with the two of us because one can sit down and really take the time to explain something while the other moves between the remaining students to answer quicker questions.

My job as a teacher, however, took on a whole different pace for the last two weeks because Ruth was out of town. Thus, I had my hands full while she was gone, to say nonetheless. Taking on a classroom of 6-7 students is tricky, but doable. Working with a tutoring session with 15+ people and their children, however, is exhausting! The help of a few co-workers and some local volunteers provided me with a much more controlled classroom and some peace of mind. There is a lot of preparation, execution, paperwork and oddball tasks that come with running a program like this and teaching, but busy days sure do make long days go by quickly. Needless to say I survived the two weeks without my better half, but I couldn't have done it without my wonderful co-workers, volunteers, and students, of course.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all those who came to volunteer and help our students continue to learn!

My Birthday Celebration!

My students threw me a surprise party for my birthday in early February. Of course, it wasn't exactly a surprise since we've been having potlucks for everyone's birthdays, but they really went all out for mine! They asked our early childhood teacher to call me over to her classroom to watch the kids. While I was gone, my students hung streamers and ballrooms and set up the food and presents. When I entered the classroom, I was certainly surprised to see how quickly they transformed it! The kindness, generosity, and appreciation of my students are what keep me going.

Vertical Child Study Group

So far my experiences at the emergency shelter have been very rewarding. When I first started my service at the shelter, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect as far as what my role would be and what my duties would include. Lately, I have been spending a significant amount of time in high schools that my clients are in attendance of. The enrollment process can sometimes be very intimidating because the youth that come into the shelter have typically been in numerous schools and are lucky to have been at a placement for longer than three months. It can be a difficult adjustment for the students who are not necessarily accustomed to the structure that a typical high school has in place.

To help overcome some of these difficulties and to better meet the needs of the students, I attended a vertical child study group at Travis High School this week. Currently at the shelter right now we have three kids in attendance at Travis High School all of which are having trouble with grades, behavioral issues as well as attendance. The vertical child study group was designed to help address these issues while helping to facilitate a plan that allows for a greater success rate from the students. In addition to myself, my site supervisor, the 9th grade counselor and the 9th grade assistant principle, the child of topic is also in attendance to advocate for their needs. This is particularly beneficial for the student because it gives them a sense of empowerment and an opportunity to have some control in their life.

Overall, I found this meeting to be informative and helpful when it comes to bridging the gap between foster youth and their attendance in the public school system. Not only were we creating a structure to provide success for the student, but we were also educating each other in the process. I am not sure of how the outcome for our students will be because it is too early in the process yet to see any improvement, but I hope that by at least having the meeting we are taking the correct steps to ensure them more success at school. I hope to take advantage of these meeting opportunities in the future to help other clients be successful in a public school setting.

Plazas Comunitarias

 

Manos de Cristo offers English as a Second Language, Computer Literacy, Citizenship, and Spanish Literacy classes. I’d like to share a bit more about the Spanish Literacy program, what it entails, and my experience with it.

First of all, I researched a bit to find out how others defined this program, called Plazas Comunitarias. This is compiled from various websites:

“…In order to address the educational deficit of Latino adults living in the United States, the Mexican Council of Education for Life and Work (CONEVyT for its acronym in Spanish) and the Mexican National Institute for Adult Education (INEA), have created La Plaza Comunitaria program, which offers the Latino community a set of technological means that allow access to knowledge through its educational portal.”

“…The Plaza Comunitaria (roughly translated: community learning center) is a physical location

that makes this technology accessible to everyone, regardless of economic status, and provides

technical assistance through tutors, facilitators, and mentoring of students.”

“…Plazas offer the opportunity for youth and adults to have literacy courses and to start or continue their elementary, middle and high school education in Spanish. Every student who completes his or her education under this program gets a certificate provided by the Mexican Ministry of Education and is prepared to present successfully a GED in Spanish and, if the student has a good level of English, to present it in this language. Furthermore, many studies show how students can learn English faster and more efficiently if they have a solid education in their own language.”

In my time being a tutor for Plazas, I have come to realize just how much it takes for these people to come to class. They have jobs, and families, and face so many hardships… I can do nothing more but admire their effort.

Adult education, no matter the level of literacy, has to be geared towards ADULTS. Although these students may have low literacy levels, they have valuable life experience that cannot be taken for granted.  These are people who for various reasons have been unable to complete their formal education, but haven’t forgotten the value of it and have decided to take on the challenge of completing it. Sometimes the challenge is too overwhelming. Sometimes we lose some students. But we encourage and support them as much as we can.

On a more personal level, I’m very familiar with this program because I was once on the other side of it as a student myself. I was homeschooled in Mexico as a kid, which is not very common. When I reached a certain age, I took equivalency exams through the National Institute for Adult Education and obtained my official certificates that way. I know the books that the students are studying, because I once studied them myself.

My case was very different, but I still like to share my story with them sometimes. They are working towards an achievable goal with an end result that just might give them the confidence and knowledge to take on a better job, to help their kids with schoolwork, to pick up a book and discover the pure joy of reading, to better themselves.

A volunteer teacher for Plazas came up to me recently and said that after being a college professor for 25 years, her eyes had been opened when it came to low literacy students. I hope that this program can continue to do just that – open our collective eyes and help these students achieve their goals.

Nerd Alert!! Why I love public libraries….

Austin Powers - nerd alert!

I love libraries….because I heart free entertainment!   I love to geek out and unleash my nerdy sensibilities (quietly and respectfully) at the public library in San Marcos, TX a few times per week.   The downside of public libraries can be encountering members of the general public which includes out-of-control children, weirdos, and the occasional person that needs police restraint.  However, I think it is worth the risk…. 

For the last several years I have been a heavy user of public libraries.  I have always been a reader of books, but during college I could only read for pleasure during winter break and sometimes in the summer. This drove me crazy!!! I kept lists of books that I was waiting to read until break time came around and I was able to relax and read for fun.  I remember being really excited to read the first three Harry Potter books during a winter break from college.

Little Britain television series

When I first began working full time after college I devoted a lot of time to reading and visiting the public library to fund entertainment.   I didn’t make much money, so I borrowed movies from the public library.  The check-out length was one week so I was able to keep track of the due dates and not rack up late fees.  I borrowed entire seasons of TV shows like Lost and Little Britain for free!  There was a great selection of foreign films, documentaries, and yoga DVDs too.  I became slightly obsessed with borrowing films that were new releases too – I could add them to my library account queue while they were still being processed for checkout.  A lot of people also knew about this trick, but the wait time usually wasn’t very long.

I also pursue the library magazine holdings, craft books, and young adult fiction.  Did you know there is a book devoted to Star Wars themed crafts you can make?  There is, and you can make a Jabba the Hut shaped body pillow if you want!  Additionally, I have started taking a free Spanish class every week at my local library.  The San Marcos Public Library even has a free introduction to bee-keeping!  I think I’ll skip this one for now, but I am a sucker for sponging up information that I won’t use...J

Anyway, now you can imagine my future as the crazy cat lady that comes into the library to get her weekly conversation fill with the circulation desk workers and telling people to be quiet when they are typing on their laptops too loudly….

Building Bonds

I really enjoy completing my service through Literacy*AmeriCorps because of the opportunities I have to give back to the community. In my work through Interfaith Action of Central Texas (iACT), I am building bonds with my students and their families as I teach them English and show them around Austin to teach them about American culture. I am also building bonds with my fellow teachers as we work, laugh, and motor through the difficult teaching situations together.

I love our monthly volunteer service activities because it’s our way of building bonds with the community. I think that the work that we do behind doors sometimes goes unseen, but our service activities allow us to connect with multiple parts of the community in different ways: Thanksgiving service, Extreme Home Makeover, Coats for Kids, Inside Books Project, and Casa Marianella. We are constantly giving back and building bonds through our service, love, and care for those around us. I think that our service helps to show how much people can care for one another, how many opportunities there are to give, and – most importantly – that there are many people in need.

Most of all, I love my time in Literacy*AmeriCorps because I am building bonds – friendships – with other LACers. One of the hardest things about being in a group of 18 people completing their service at different sites is finding the opportunity to spend time with one another. Because of this, I really value our unity events. The unity events are the times when we can build bonds with one another, care for one another, and have fun with one another. When talking with an ACE AmeriCorps alumna, she told me that some of her best friends are other ACE members. Seeing the light in her eyes, I could tell that these friendships mean something to her. I can only hope that all of the LACers see this as a chance to find their new best friends, friends who they continue to build bonds with even after our service year is over.

The student vs the System

After a couple recent conversations with a new friend last weekend and a dyslexic student I just started tutoring, the idea of education and assessment of knowledge as a systemized institution has been on my mind. I tend to have an inherent aversion to the idea of standardized tests, at least partly because of the negative consequences that have resulted from of them (teaching to the test, funding tied to test scores, etc). However, as a person who loves organization and efficiency and useful information, I completely get the appeal and utility of getting normalized data and being able to structure things based on quantitative knowledge.

This topic is especially interesting to me in working with ABE students, many of whom were shuffled through the public education system without actually acquiring any significant knowledge or learning. So many of our students have so much to offer that is often dismissed in school because it doesn't fit into the current widespread education model where students passively receive knowledge and then regurgitate it back to the teacher or standardized test they are taking (upon which so much about their and their school's future unfairly depends). Students with disabilities (learning, cognitive, etc) don't fit into the established idea of a "good" student so most of the time they receive a second (or third or fourth) class education, which just breaks my heart and frustrates me. They have wonderful ideas and thoughts but have trouble expressing them in the way the educational system says they should, so they go unheard and are essentially taught that they have nothing to say.

While we have made a lot of progress in recognizing that there are lots of different kinds of intelligences and in serving individual students the way they need to be served, there is so much to be done. A lot of the time it feels like the problem is just too big, our nation is just too big, the system is too entrenched, so it's futile to try to change it. Not that change isn't possible or that we as individuals and as a group can't effect change - literacy volunteers in a variety of contexts are doing just that every day with individual students. It's just frustrating that the system is set up in a way that only certain students get to excel and succeed in some ways. Maybe that's inevitable, maybe not.

This was more of a contemplative post than anything else, and I would love to hear others' points of view on this subject - ready, go!