Que cambia todo pero no el amor. Es la mision mas grande que tenemos tu y yo
Well here we are. One awesome Texas vacation with Richard, Charlotte, Mom, and many other fabulous folks down.
Bouta start the end of senior year and my life as an undergrad.
:(
I'm back in chilly New England. It's our chilliest winter that I've come to know here..yesterday afternoon it was 11 degrees outside!
Of course, when you're inside looking out, it's beautiful. Snow with a dash of sunshine, mixed with a town fulla scrappy awkward folks who cling to their civil rights like nobody's business. As much as I've made fun of it before, I'm really going to miss this damn town. God bless Amherst.
Last night I went to tutoring. I've missed my students so much while I was in Texas!! One of my students, who I call my Kite (inside of him is a Kite that wants to float away and we gotta pull him back down to Earth sometimes...maybe that's why we click so well haha), was just an absolute champion. I've been thinking about him all day. He is super ADD and 24 years-old. I mean that dude can't focus on ANYTHING unless you teach him one-on-one. If he's a student in a classroom, he's everywhere but in that classroom. If he's a student with me, he's picking up the concepts like a pro. Extremely intelligent and kindhearted person, but cannot learn in 2-D. Anyway, the assignment for the class was to pretend like they are looking through a key hole and to describe on paper what they see on the other side of the door. They could write about anything: buying a new car, a better world, dinosaurs, Bush leaving the White House, whatever. Zizi, the most amazing ABE teacher in the whole world, instructed me to take him to an office downstairs, where we sat at a small "conference" (kitchen) table. I explained the assignment to him again, and he seemed really nervous. Something was holding him back. It was almost like he was afraid of what would come out on paper. I thought maybe my being there and the feeling of me monitoring him made was causing his uneasiness. Considering he doesn't do anything unless you are there to hold his hand, I took a HUGE chance with my super ADD student and told him I was leaving him to do his work and that I'd be back in 15 minutes. When I come back, I said, he had better have a full page written. His eyes were not allowed to leave that spiral. (I didn't actualy expect him to have a full page written because, like most of the students in my class, writing 3 lines usually takes 30 minutes. They worry about spelling and that they'll sound stupid so they freeze up and can't write. Getting them to write a full page is a long-term goal in our class that we are currently far from achieving). I assured him that no one was going to read it unless he wants us to and that he doesn't have to share with the class at all. As long as he writes what he's feeling then I'd be happy.
Well.
I came back in 10 minutes, expecting him to have daydreamed the whole time (there were brightly colored posters all over the walls, toys, and a fish in that office), but he had A FULL FUCKING PAGE WRITTEN. IN 10 MINUTES. I was floored. I was like, "(His name)!!! You did it! You wrote a whole page! I'm so proud of you!!!" But he wasn't quite as happy. He was crying, actually. He confessed that when he moved here from Guyana earlier this year, he came to live with his father's family, who he's never met prior to moving here. The transition has been really hard on him. When he looked through the keyhole, he saw his mother's family back in Guayana, and the door was keeping him from being with them. "Everything I missed was on the other side of the door..the warmness and my sisters and brothers and carnival.." Isn't that beautiful? He could be a great writer one day! I told him that tonight I wanted him to write one more page because he still has more to say. (This kid never does homework. ever). No one was going to see it, just him. He thought that was a good idea, believe it or not. He wanted to do it . I gave him a big hug and told him I loved him because I do and that I'm so proud of him because I am. He said that he is going to write when he feels sad and that I'm the only person who teaches him in a way he can understand, which made me feel like I'm doing something right.
I have been thinking about him all day. I sent an email to my preacher, asking to put him on the prayer list at church.
Tuesday the ABE classes are going to a showing of the inauguration at a big theater in Northampton. Johnny and I are responsible for roping off 35 seats near the front....hmm..
I think they're really going to enjoy it :) Our students voted for him, after all!
OK so life outside of ABE:
1) applying for Peace Corps. Woot!!
2) applying for Teach for America (kind of)
3) getting ready to start school. it's going to be a semester full of puerto rico!
4) going wedding dress browsing with rachel and phoebe next weekend! that'll be delightfully estrogeny hehe
5) finished pursuit of happyness on the plane to MA and watched the movie when i got here. both were great :)
6) currently reading the brief and wondrous life of oscar wao. I LOVE IT. READITREADITREADIT. love.
stay warm, everybody!
Bouta start the end of senior year and my life as an undergrad.
:(
I'm back in chilly New England. It's our chilliest winter that I've come to know here..yesterday afternoon it was 11 degrees outside!
Of course, when you're inside looking out, it's beautiful. Snow with a dash of sunshine, mixed with a town fulla scrappy awkward folks who cling to their civil rights like nobody's business. As much as I've made fun of it before, I'm really going to miss this damn town. God bless Amherst.
Last night I went to tutoring. I've missed my students so much while I was in Texas!! One of my students, who I call my Kite (inside of him is a Kite that wants to float away and we gotta pull him back down to Earth sometimes...maybe that's why we click so well haha), was just an absolute champion. I've been thinking about him all day. He is super ADD and 24 years-old. I mean that dude can't focus on ANYTHING unless you teach him one-on-one. If he's a student in a classroom, he's everywhere but in that classroom. If he's a student with me, he's picking up the concepts like a pro. Extremely intelligent and kindhearted person, but cannot learn in 2-D. Anyway, the assignment for the class was to pretend like they are looking through a key hole and to describe on paper what they see on the other side of the door. They could write about anything: buying a new car, a better world, dinosaurs, Bush leaving the White House, whatever. Zizi, the most amazing ABE teacher in the whole world, instructed me to take him to an office downstairs, where we sat at a small "conference" (kitchen) table. I explained the assignment to him again, and he seemed really nervous. Something was holding him back. It was almost like he was afraid of what would come out on paper. I thought maybe my being there and the feeling of me monitoring him made was causing his uneasiness. Considering he doesn't do anything unless you are there to hold his hand, I took a HUGE chance with my super ADD student and told him I was leaving him to do his work and that I'd be back in 15 minutes. When I come back, I said, he had better have a full page written. His eyes were not allowed to leave that spiral. (I didn't actualy expect him to have a full page written because, like most of the students in my class, writing 3 lines usually takes 30 minutes. They worry about spelling and that they'll sound stupid so they freeze up and can't write. Getting them to write a full page is a long-term goal in our class that we are currently far from achieving). I assured him that no one was going to read it unless he wants us to and that he doesn't have to share with the class at all. As long as he writes what he's feeling then I'd be happy.
Well.
I came back in 10 minutes, expecting him to have daydreamed the whole time (there were brightly colored posters all over the walls, toys, and a fish in that office), but he had A FULL FUCKING PAGE WRITTEN. IN 10 MINUTES. I was floored. I was like, "(His name)!!! You did it! You wrote a whole page! I'm so proud of you!!!" But he wasn't quite as happy. He was crying, actually. He confessed that when he moved here from Guyana earlier this year, he came to live with his father's family, who he's never met prior to moving here. The transition has been really hard on him. When he looked through the keyhole, he saw his mother's family back in Guayana, and the door was keeping him from being with them. "Everything I missed was on the other side of the door..the warmness and my sisters and brothers and carnival.." Isn't that beautiful? He could be a great writer one day! I told him that tonight I wanted him to write one more page because he still has more to say. (This kid never does homework. ever). No one was going to see it, just him. He thought that was a good idea, believe it or not. He wanted to do it . I gave him a big hug and told him I loved him because I do and that I'm so proud of him because I am. He said that he is going to write when he feels sad and that I'm the only person who teaches him in a way he can understand, which made me feel like I'm doing something right.
I have been thinking about him all day. I sent an email to my preacher, asking to put him on the prayer list at church.
Tuesday the ABE classes are going to a showing of the inauguration at a big theater in Northampton. Johnny and I are responsible for roping off 35 seats near the front....hmm..
I think they're really going to enjoy it :) Our students voted for him, after all!
OK so life outside of ABE:
1) applying for Peace Corps. Woot!!
2) applying for Teach for America (kind of)
3) getting ready to start school. it's going to be a semester full of puerto rico!
4) going wedding dress browsing with rachel and phoebe next weekend! that'll be delightfully estrogeny hehe
5) finished pursuit of happyness on the plane to MA and watched the movie when i got here. both were great :)
6) currently reading the brief and wondrous life of oscar wao. I LOVE IT. READITREADITREADIT. love.
stay warm, everybody!