My joys from the week:
One of my literacy focus list students, D, proudly showing off his fluency tracker (a thing I designed to track his Words per Minute, expression, and phrasing) to his best friend in class.
One of my math focus list students, E, being the only student in the class to remember the rule of rounding decimals, and then properly completing the math worksheet I gave him in our tutoring session for homework. This student used to be absent every other day, either from being suspended for fighting or just didn't feel like coming to school. Now he comes every day, and eagerly asks me when is it going to be time for our tutoring session.
Two of my students, J and F, who aren't on my focus lists asked to spend their recess time with me working through math problems that they were having difficulty with. J also told me she was going to bring in a present for all the City Years at her school on Monday because she said, in her own words, "City Year does such hard and good work here and hard and good work deserves to be rewarded with a present."
Yesterday we had our first LACY fair for the corps - it was held at the Manpower Group's headquarters downtown. I went to sessions about networking, how to build your personal brand, and finding jobs using online resources and social media. We had a late start too - 8:45 am - which was a nice break. Even though I woke up at 6:30, it was still an hour later then I usually get to sleep during the week. We also got to hear from the President and CEO of the YWCA of Greater Milwaukee, who was a totally kick-butt lady named Paula Penebaker. She is actually from small-town Ohio, went to Xavier, and worked at Procter & Gamble for a number of years before landing herself in Milwaukee so I felt kind of kindred to her, coming from small-town Ohio for college. She was so awesome to listen to, and I think I will take a lot of her advice to heart.
