Intro to Philosophy

I realized that I left that last post on an almost hopeless note. So, I just wanted to redeem myself here and mention something that Ms. V's assistant said: "We can only pray for them." It may seem like we do everything earthly possible to help these kids, but really only the Lord can truly help them.  And even the cases that seem really hopeless, God can take care of.  I wholeheartedly believe that, I just need to keep reminding myself of it, because it's so easy to forget and put too much pressure on myself.

But on Friday I was able to talk with Reverend C. about the philosophy behind the community and that's what I really wanted to write about tonight. I told Reverend C. that one of my goals this summer was to learn more about what social justice really is and how it works in the learning center neighborhood.  He started out by saying that he has stopped using the term "social justice" because he believes it is a good concept that is ill-applied.  Instead, he focuses on systemic justice. Social Justice's goal is to bring people past the barriers that keep them in poverty, but Systemic Justice is the idea that we must completely break down the barriers, so that advancement and success is open to everyone; at least that's the best way I can summarize my understanding so far.  The definitions are still a little hazy to me.  He said that systemic justice is about keeping community open.  Currently, community is closed, there are barriers.  Not everyone can live in any area he wants to because of the cost of living in that area.  This is a land barrier.  People who live in the neighborhood around the learning center rent with Section 8 vouchers, a government assisted housing voucher for that neighborhood.  Reverend C. talked about something called a portable voucher, one that would allow those eligible to get government funding to live anywhere.  I'm going to have to ask him the next time I talk to him whether these portable vouchers exist or not, but from what I understand, portable vouchers would be a way to break down the land barriers, and apply systemic justice.
Employment barriers are things like educational requirements for jobs.  Say someone has independently studied business (for example) and he even has experience in the business field but he does not have an Associates degree in business.  Even if he is the best man for the a given job, he won't get the position because there is a barrier saying that an employee in said position must possess an Associates degree.  This is an employment barrier.

But perhaps that person wasn't able to get into an Associates problem because of a poor high school GPA.  Here we have an educational barrier.  Maybe because he grew up in a lower class neighborhood (land barrier) he wasn't able to go to a good elementary or middle school, and therefore did not succeed in high school.  It's a failed system that allows for very little advancement.

So, Reverend C.'s philosophy is since we must start in a failed position with the Section 8 housing, we should use the income from that financial exchange to provide a good education (the learning center) to the residents so that they can break the educational barriers, employment barriers, and finally the land barriers.

He also gave me a book of essays and addresses by James Luther Adams, one of the most influential activates for justice and one of Reverend C.'s college mentors.  I'm looking forward to reading through some of the essays and getting a better understanding of systemic justice as well as my next meeting with Reverend C.  Our first discussion was a really great introduction to systemic justice.

As for the summer program, things have been going pretty well.  I've definitely been learning a lot.  Mr. T. decided to change the book from Yolanda's Genius to Julian, Dream Doctor, which I believe was written for a younger audience.  From the first couple chapters though, I can tell it's a very high quality read.  I think the kids are going to do great with it and learn a lot.  I was happy to see that Mr. T. was so willing to change his plan.  Not that I thought Yolanda's Genius was a bad pick (I actually was really excited to see how the kids would do with it), it's just nice to know that he's really reflecting on everyday and trying his best to find the right materials to truly boost everyone's reading level.  He also gave the kids the option to take home chapters of Yolanda's Genius and write journal responses if they wanted an extra challenge.  I really respect the way he runs that class and am glad to get to work with someone who cares so deeply about teaching these kids.

Today I sat in Mr. P's reading class with the older kids.  They are focusing on satire this summer and they started reading Fahrenheit 451 today.  I think it's going to be a big challenge for many of them but that gives them the chance to learn a ton.  I've never read the book either so I'm actually excited to read it along with them.  Talking to Mr. P. after the class I suggested doing a character map with the students and he said if I wanted to do that with them that would be great.  I would really LOVE to teach something, even just a little something this summer, so now I'm really excited about reading this book.

The other fun thing we did today was go on a field trip to Growing Power on Silver Spring.  http://www.growingpower.org/index.htm 

OK, I might have  enjoyed myself even more than the kids.  It is so cool.  There are a bunch of greenhouses and they have different systems to create healthy soil and fresh produce.  There's a store and different volunteer and work opportunities for kids and young adults and they even have fish, chickens, ducks, turkeys, and goats! They're the last farm in Milwaukee because they were grandfathered in when zoning laws changed.  I'm definitely going there to buy fresh eggs and produce in the future.  It was a really nice day.

First Two Days

Yesterday was my first day working the summer program! When I got there Ms. V was serving breakfast to the kids. I got to sit with them and meet the few new faces who weren't a part of the after school homework club.  There were about 15 kids there yesterday and about 20 today.  Ms. V told me that usually the summer starts out with a ton (apparently up to 60) of kids and then dwindles down to about 20 so I was surprised that there were only that many kids there these past two days.  I know there are a few kids who are planning on coming but are still in school so they'll be joining the program later in the summer.  And possibly some kids forgot that the program started so soon after school let out.  There's this one little girl who was positive she was coming to the program who I haven't seen yet.  I need to talk more about attendance before this post is through.

Anyway though, the kids are split into two groups: younger (3rd -5th graders) and older (6th - 10th graders). Yesterday and today I stuck with the younger kids because that's where I seemed to be needed. There is another helper who stayed with the older group.  At some point I would like to switch with her and get a chance to see how the older kids work as well, especially because I want to teach high school.  After breakfast the first class is reading.  The reading teacher is a pretty cool dude who used to be a teacher but has focused on other community service the past however many years.  He started class by telling the kids his goal is to boost up everyone's reading level this summer, including his own.  I thought that was a nice way to start as well as a worthy goal.  When you have a class of varied abilities, boosting up everyone's reading level is a noble task.  

I haven't used names yet because I know I'm working with a vulnerable community and I don't know what kind of privacy rules I should follow; but I want to start talking about some of the individual students, so I think I'm just going to change the kids names for now.  I'll probs stick with initials for staff. 

In the younger group, we have 5th grade Danielle is a very high achieving student in general, but a particularly strong reader.  She's used to doing really well too, so whenever we do things that she struggles with a little bit, she gets pretty upset about it.  Not that she doesn't do it, but she whines and continuously says she can't do it and needs a lot of encouragement.  So for reading, Mr.  T. started out by having the kids draw things to represent their families.  Maybe Danielle is a perfectionist, because the whole time she kept saying, "I'm not good at drawing," when really it wasn't about being good but just trying.  Then we moved on to skimming through the first chapter of a trade book called Yolanda's Genius. The kids were supposed to find words that they thought were hard to read or understand either for themselves, or for some of the other students.  Danielle breezed through the chapter before anyone else and told me she couldn't find any hard words.  I kept trying to tell her to find words that she thought might be hard for other kids but she was reluctant. When we read as a class she was able to infer that the character Yolanda didn't want to move from Chicago like her mother was planning even though the text did not say that explicitly. 

Then there's Mikey, the wiggly talkative 3rd grader.  He seems to be a very good reader but he has a lot of trouble following directions and paying attention.  I talked with Mr. T. about him after the class and he thought that Mikey needs to make eye contact with the teacher in order to really understand what the teacher is saying.  He thinks that maybe his mom makes him look at her while she's talking or that he just has a very active mind that easily wanders.  Surprisingly though, reading class is the one Mikey does the best in.  He sits quietly, and relatively still and he asks very good questions.  Today as we were reading in a circle Mr. T. said we would each read a paragraph.  Mikey asked, "How do you know when the paragraph ends?" I was really happy to see him ask that because yesterday when he read, he kept on reading past the end of his paragraph and Mr. T. had to ask him to stop.  

In science class, a much more question/answer driven class, Mikey has as really hard time sitting still and waiting to talk until he is called on . All of the kids have actually been pretty rowdy in that class. Today, we were working on the six food groups and one of the assignments was to draw food from each group.  Mikey just could not do it; I don't know why.  With all the explanation and encouragement Ms. M. and I could give him, he just wrote the names of the food groups.  He chooses to write in cursive too, which is really interesting for a third grader.  But he doesn't make his letters flow together nor does he do the correct strokes.  I felt really bad today because everyone keeps telling him to sit still and do this or don't do that and he said to me, "I thought this was supposed to be fun." He's not a bad kid, he's just that one.  The one who's filled with energy and needs attention and needs help paying attention.  I really hope he'll start to catch on to the rules because let me tell you, they are pretty strict at the learning center.  No horsing around, disrespect, or unwillingness to participate or you're getting sent home.  And most of the kids live in the neighborhood so they really can just get sent home.  I think that's part of the reason the numbers have dropped so dramatically in past years.  

Ms. K. gave a cumulative math test today just so she could get an idea of where the kids were math-wise. 

She probably told them five or six times that it was ok if they didn't know everything on the test, just to try their best so she could see what they know.  O-M-G these kids were so upset.  When Mikey first got the test he let out a wail of anxiety.  "I don't know any of this!" He pretty much shut down after seeing those multiplication problems on the first page.  He could hardly even write his name on the paper.  Ms. K. had to sit with him and calm him down for a really long time.  She ended up changing a lot of the problems to addition and subtraction.  I think math class is probably going to be the one that will be hardest to accommodate all different levels of students.  

Mikey wasn't the only one who was overwhelmed by the test.  Almost all of the other kids hit spots where they just freaked out.  "I don't know how to do this!" I just kept telling them that it was ok if they didn't know but they couldn't seem to wrap their heads around that.  Danielle, who I know does really well in math, was raising her hand like every other minute.  I finally had to tell her that she didn't need help, I knew she could do most of the things on the test she just had to try her best.  There was only one girl who never raised her hand or seemed to freak out, Ally. I've only met her once before and she just has the sweetest disposition.  I checked on her midway through the test and she wasn't getting everything right but I could tell she was trying and she was thinking about different ways to do things.  

After lunch both yesterday and today there were no more structured classes.  This was pretty tough because we have the kids til 4.  That's 3 hours of babysitting 20 kids.  Of course not all of the kids get along either. Next week we have teachers coming in to teach computer, arts and crafts, music, drama, and African dance, so hopefully things will be better. 

Before I'm done though, I've just been wanting to talk about some of the things Ms. V. and I talked about after the staff meeting, as well as some of my observations over the school year.  

I guess more than a few of the kids who were in the homework club didn't pass their grades this year.  It just really weighs heavy on my heart.  What could I have done that I didn't do? Why couldn't these kids pass? There are two sisters in particular that I really feel for.  Denise, the older sister is going to turn 12 and she's only in 4th grade.  She's about 2 grades behind already.  She definitely has problems paying attention and she is slow to catch on to things but she has a good attitude, she's a diligent worker, and she's a very talented singer and dancer.  When she sets her mind to something she can do it.  Her sister, Talia, is 11 and in 3rd grade.  I don't think she should be so far behind because she doesn't seem to have the same attention problem that her sister has.  When ever I try to teach her something I have to tell her multiple times, but she gets it.  Her problem is she just wants to play and have fun all the time.  She's wild and a can be a little sassy.  I think the reason she's two grades behind though is mostly because her older sister is.  The problem that trumps any of the difficulties they have with learning though is their poor school attendance.  You can't learn if you're not in school.  We get the report cards with the attendance records on them.  When girls are missing more days of school than their going to, how do you expect them to learn?  And that's really not their faults.  It's their mothers.  Ms. V. told me that their mother did not graduate from high school and that she says Denise's teachers don't like her.  I feel like their mother's bad experience in school makes her afraid to really give her daughters a chance to succeed.  It's really hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that a parent wouldn't want to give their kids every chance to do well in life, but she's not the only parent I've heard of that doesn't put a positive emphasis on education.  These two girls could have really benefitted from the summer program but their mother did not enroll them.  She's leaving the neighborhood this summer so that may have something to do with it.  Still, I really wish that she would be more concerned with her daughters' education.  When parents don't show a love and respect for learning, the kids won't love learning either.  It just becomes a chore, something they don't want to do.  And when there isn't a love for learning, real learning is not going to take place. We can try as hard as we can to instill a love for learning at the center, but for most kids, it boils down to the home. 

I think that's all for today. I'll be back soon with more thoughts and comments. Peace. 

An Introduction by Reflection

So... Do I introduce myself here, or is there a separate area for that? Maybe I can just start with who I am and what the purpose of this blog is.  My name is Katie

Hi! And I'm studying secondary education and English at Cardinal Stritch University. I just finished my third year (3 outta 5 baby!) in school and I can't wait to be a teacher. Seriously, I can hardly handle the thought of watching other teachers teach for two more years before I can have my own classroom.  At the same time though, I love the education I'm getting and I really don't want to rush through it. I have some of the greatest professors and have been given really great opportunities while in college.  One of which is this Summer Social Justice Study Internship that I'm about to tell you about. 

This summer I'm interning at a community learning center in Milwaukee, WI. I've volunteered/worked at the center this past school year and I love it there.  The center is situated in the middle of an urban apartment community and provides residents with all kinds of educational opportunities including an after-school homework club, which is where I worked.  The kids who came over the school year were mostly between 2nd and 7th graders, with a couple of older and younger stragglers here and there.  This program was free but parents did have to sign their kids up and sign a behavior contract.  Reverend C (the big boss of the neighborhood and the learning center) really stresses the importance of regularly attending the club.  And Ms. V (the boss of the homework club) stresses the importance of maintaining good behavior.  I'll talk more about these things as I go along, but my point is, I think the parents get a better idea of how important attendance and good behavior is when they sign that contract.  My job was to help whoever I could with his or her homework, do extra reading and journaling with the kids, and then just show the kids I cared about them by getting to know them and playing games with them et cetera.  It doesn't sound like a lot, but really, it has been one of the greatest experiences I've had.  My goal is to teach in an urban school someday so I feel very lucky to get a little preparation at the learning center.  Even though I haven't taught formal lessons, I've learned so many things from the kids and the staff and I'm looking forward to learning more.  

Now that summer is here, kids don't have homework.  So instead of a homework club (that usually ran from about 3-6 Monday through Friday), the learning center is hosting a summer program Monday through Friday from 8:30am to 4pm.  The summer program officially starts this coming Tuesday.  Just like with the homework club, parents from the neighborhood had to sign their kids up for the program.  It's free, all the center has asked for is that they sign the behavior contract.  

Ms V has hired certified teachers from around Milwaukee to teach reading, math, science, music, dance, computer, and art classes this summer.  This is awesome because these kids really need to keep focusing on learning even when their out of school.  Also on Fridays they have field trips. 

I'll be working there Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays this summer and maybe some Fridays.  My first job is to be there to help the other teachers.  I'm very excited for this because I'll get to pick up some of their tricks for working in an urban setting.  The other part of my internship is a study.  I will be talking with Reverend C, Ms. V, and the other teachers about the mission of the learning center and about urban education in general throughout the summer.  My final goal is to create a reading and writing program that the center can start to use when school starts back up in the fall.  

So, I guess that's why I'm starting this blog.  I want to remember everything I learn as I go along.  And one of the best ways for me to remember is to write and reflect about it.  The other Social Justice Study interns and I have a 200 character length reflection box where we record how often we work, but that's just not enough for me.  

Yesterday was the summer staff meeting and we mostly talked logistics.  The more interesting part of the morning was my conversation with Ms. V after the meeting.  I was planning on writing about that now, but I got sort of carried away just introducing things so I'll save that for another time in the near future.  You can just be on the edge of your seat waiting for it.  Peace out.