got my boots laced up tight...
hello all
once again, back from the abyss. I survived what might have been a suck-tacular summer and managed to make some ill cash money, spend some qt with the wonderful louisa and see hilarious celebrities such as lady miss kier in the wild. thrilling.
earlier this month I moved to philadelphia and started a new job as a corps member in city year. we've been doing basic training academy* since the beginning of the month and yesterday our team went to the school we'll be working at for the first time. it's rad. it's a catholic school for K-8th graders in north philadelphia. we'll be working in classrooms helping the kids and teachers in the morning and then running an ESOL afterschool program in the afternoon. each day we'll be trying out a different classroom. today I worked with the kindergartners. they are adorable and quite a handful. most of the kids in the school are hispanic**, such as puerto rican, dominican, or everyone's favorite combination of puerto rican and dominican***.
here is the play by play of my day:
1. stretches with the class.
we did this spanish version of head and shoulders knees and toes* and then this awesome one that makes everyone look like a retard that I will gladly perform for you if you buy me a drink. it goes a little something like this "thumbs up-elbows in-feet apart-knees together-bottoms up-tongue out-eyes closed-turn around".
2. religion class
that's right y'all, it be a catholic school. we learned that everyone is special and that god loves us all just how we are. then we discussed ways we can show other people and god that we love them and how to say "I love you" in sign language. then we colored with crayons!
3. recess!
we line up for recess and then I killed them all in tag. those kids were no match for me, even though they cheat and play dirty.
then this cute guatemalan girl comes up to me, holds my hand and says "I have to go to the bathroom". so I'm like "okay, let's go tell you teacher and I'll go inside with you." then the little girl says "uh-oh" and a huge puddle begins to form on the pavement. oh shit. little girl peed all over her plaid jumper, knee socks, and all in her mary janes. so we go inside, hose her off, get her some pull ups and shorts and clean out those shoes. she's a champ, doesn't cry or anything, and we talk about tv until recess is over.
4. lunch
mmm, lunch. all the kids get free lunch and so I have lots of free time. the poor lunch lady has to reckon with them at lunch.
5. naptime
hells yes we have naptime! this is kindegarten! I LOVE kindegarten!
6. coloring exercise to learn our left hand from our right hand.
I am soooo good at this. I have so much damn experience handing out stickers from my time at art smart adventures.
7. storytime
no one wants to sit still at story time. but the story is lame and they are like 5 years old.
8. snacktime!
juice and pretzels! snacktime rules.
9. backpacks and scary clown video
I forgot that I was afraid of clowns, but when these motherfuckers came on the TV to teach us about shapes and colors I almost had to leave the room.
some things that I learned today:
kids make you tired.
it takes little kids forever to do anything. you have to line them up to go out in the hall and even in between activities there is a designated snack hander outer and folder collector and everything. they all have their little jobs and forget that they have to do them and when they do remember that they are assigned those jobs they forget what they are actually supposed to do.
these kids were super friendly and affectionate. and hilarious.
kids just want to talk. as an open ended question ("what was the first thing that happened in the story?") and you get answers like "my mom has green and gold shoes." amazing.
kids are sensitive as all shit. four of them started crying in class today. it was really weird.
last thought for today: daddy yankee is awesome!
* or "BTA", as those in the know like to call it
** boo I kind of hate that word
*** some notable puertoricandominicans: manuel and spanish from old school/timo cruz from richmond (I swear I'm not the only person who saw that movie)
* knees and toes
once again, back from the abyss. I survived what might have been a suck-tacular summer and managed to make some ill cash money, spend some qt with the wonderful louisa and see hilarious celebrities such as lady miss kier in the wild. thrilling.
earlier this month I moved to philadelphia and started a new job as a corps member in city year. we've been doing basic training academy* since the beginning of the month and yesterday our team went to the school we'll be working at for the first time. it's rad. it's a catholic school for K-8th graders in north philadelphia. we'll be working in classrooms helping the kids and teachers in the morning and then running an ESOL afterschool program in the afternoon. each day we'll be trying out a different classroom. today I worked with the kindergartners. they are adorable and quite a handful. most of the kids in the school are hispanic**, such as puerto rican, dominican, or everyone's favorite combination of puerto rican and dominican***.
here is the play by play of my day:
1. stretches with the class.
we did this spanish version of head and shoulders knees and toes* and then this awesome one that makes everyone look like a retard that I will gladly perform for you if you buy me a drink. it goes a little something like this "thumbs up-elbows in-feet apart-knees together-bottoms up-tongue out-eyes closed-turn around".
2. religion class
that's right y'all, it be a catholic school. we learned that everyone is special and that god loves us all just how we are. then we discussed ways we can show other people and god that we love them and how to say "I love you" in sign language. then we colored with crayons!
3. recess!
we line up for recess and then I killed them all in tag. those kids were no match for me, even though they cheat and play dirty.
then this cute guatemalan girl comes up to me, holds my hand and says "I have to go to the bathroom". so I'm like "okay, let's go tell you teacher and I'll go inside with you." then the little girl says "uh-oh" and a huge puddle begins to form on the pavement. oh shit. little girl peed all over her plaid jumper, knee socks, and all in her mary janes. so we go inside, hose her off, get her some pull ups and shorts and clean out those shoes. she's a champ, doesn't cry or anything, and we talk about tv until recess is over.
4. lunch
mmm, lunch. all the kids get free lunch and so I have lots of free time. the poor lunch lady has to reckon with them at lunch.
5. naptime
hells yes we have naptime! this is kindegarten! I LOVE kindegarten!
6. coloring exercise to learn our left hand from our right hand.
I am soooo good at this. I have so much damn experience handing out stickers from my time at art smart adventures.
7. storytime
no one wants to sit still at story time. but the story is lame and they are like 5 years old.
8. snacktime!
juice and pretzels! snacktime rules.
9. backpacks and scary clown video
I forgot that I was afraid of clowns, but when these motherfuckers came on the TV to teach us about shapes and colors I almost had to leave the room.
some things that I learned today:
kids make you tired.
it takes little kids forever to do anything. you have to line them up to go out in the hall and even in between activities there is a designated snack hander outer and folder collector and everything. they all have their little jobs and forget that they have to do them and when they do remember that they are assigned those jobs they forget what they are actually supposed to do.
these kids were super friendly and affectionate. and hilarious.
kids just want to talk. as an open ended question ("what was the first thing that happened in the story?") and you get answers like "my mom has green and gold shoes." amazing.
kids are sensitive as all shit. four of them started crying in class today. it was really weird.
last thought for today: daddy yankee is awesome!
* or "BTA", as those in the know like to call it
** boo I kind of hate that word
*** some notable puertoricandominicans: manuel and spanish from old school/timo cruz from richmond (I swear I'm not the only person who saw that movie)
* knees and toes