Friday, Monday, and Tuesday

The last three days have been pretty uneventful, just trying to keep the girls motivated to keep working. One interesting thing happened yesterday while I was observing a different math teacher, Ms. Wooster who teaches 9th graders. This class wasn't as bad as the other math classes taught by women i've observed, but it still was wonderfully managed. Students still talked out of turn and were obnoxious and rude to eachother. Ms. Wooster chose to talk over them instead of waiting until it was silent. To get them to be quiet, she would simply say their name to remind them to stop talking out of turn. At the end of the class, she asked me if I had any questions when I was thanking her for letting me observe and so I asked her about any discipline policy to deter students from talking out of turn. I tried to be non-threatening and curious explaining that all of the other classes I'd observed had the same issue. I just said, "What stops them from talking out whenever they want?" and she couldn't really answer me. She said it was something she needed to work on. I didn't mean to put her on the spot or make her feel like I was criticizing her teaching, but I was curious. Today was a good day because I was able to help Porsha with math and with a paper she was struggling with. I enjoy working with Porsha because she responds to my questions and accepts my help. I attempt helping some of the other girls, but after my suggestions they still seem lost. I can only do so much aside from doing their assignment for them. In the morning I attended a 9th grade advisory meeting on racism. Michelle, the assistant director, led a discussion and activity to begin discussing racism. The 9th graders have been having issues with students calling eachother racist, so the teachers organized a meeting to learn about what it means to be racist and to give the girls a forum to voice their opinions. It didn't take long for the students to be engaged and actively participating in the conversations. Michelle controlled the discussion which was a physical activity where the girls moved to different sides of the room based on how felt about a statement Michelle posed. One of the statements was "I know exactly what racism is" or "I have no idea what racism is." The students decided where they stood on the continuum and stood in that designated part of the room. The activity was extremely interesting, but unfortunately the bell rang and they had to go. Michelle did a tiny debrief, asking the girls if they would be interested in doing something like this again. The rest of the day I continued helping Porsha and I also helped another senior Mari with some math.

A life lesson

Let me give you a little background before explaining my delightful morning......For those of you who don't know, parking in Chicago is...lets just say a stressful, near impossible task. I had debated leaving my car in Nebraska for this very reason, but when the time came I felt uncomfortable taking public transportation by myself and I couldn't leave my car behind. For the first week and a half, parking has been delightful. I was able to park in my host's spot while she was in the suburbs, in her friend's parking garage while she was on vacation, and on a nearby street with a 24 hour permit. Yesterday I found a spot right outside my apartment complex about 10 feet from a fire hydrant and I saw no red or yellow paint to prohibit me from parking there so I thought This is too good to be true but maybe today is my day. Well guess what, it wasn't. I walked out of my apartment complex this morning to find a white car parked where I left my car. Either someone had stolen my car or it had been towed. I immediately called Betsy, my host, told her about the situation, and asked for her advice. She advised me to call 311 to determine where my car had been towed, but warned be of the ridiculous price I would have to pay to get my car back. I called 311 to figured out where my car would be located if it had been towed. I then called the towing place to confirm my car was in their lot. It was and they told me there was a $160 fee to get my car out and I could either pay with cash or credit but the credit had to be under the same name as the vehicle. At this point, I decided to call my mom to let her in on the situation, but unfortunately she was training for work in Omaha for the day so I would have to figure this out on my own. I called Betsy back to ask her if I should take a cab to towing place and I asked her where the nearest ATM was located. After obtaining all of the necessary information to successfully regain possession of my car, I left my apartment to begin the process. I walked to a Walgreen’s to get cash, flagged down a taxi, and filled out the paperwork at the pound. The gentlemen was extremely nice and explained that my car had been parked too close to a the fire hydrant because there needed to be 30 ft, 15 ft on each side, for the fire truck to pull in next to it. By 9:45, I was in my car driving to school after a very eventful morning. After talking to Betsy a final time, it sounded like I was pretty lucky with how fast and inexpensive the whole process had been. Moral of the story, don't park anywhere near a fire hydrant. Once I arrived at YWLCS, I observed Mr. Woodard's class as they did more work and review on elimination. On the first day of every month, the students vote for one student who deserves the Math Pride award. This goes to a student who has participated in class, completed homework, and helped peers. I think this is a great way to motivate students to be involved. I returned to the senior work room after Mr. Woodard's class and helped Kim with finding midpoints. After lunch, I attempted to help and motivate three seniors who are really struggling. I also had a talk with Mr. McCain about the support we have provided and how there is only so much we can do. The student must we willing to accept the help. One solution we came up with was having more checks and balances throughout the year to ensure this situation doesn't happen at the end of the year. YWLCS's assessment system benefits the majority of students at the school because they have the opportunity to make up or redo work, but for those that take advantage of the system, it bites them in the butt come the last three weeks of senior year. The rest of the afternoon I helped Kim get organized. We created a list of the things she felt she could accomplish tonight. While she was in Spanish, I edited her research paper about Guatemala. She returned at 3:30 and we went over her paper. Before I left, I made sure she felt comfortable with what she needed to accomplish.