Lafayette Academy, day 2

Friday, I spent some more time in the Reading Room at at Lafayette Academy. When I pulled Kevin from class he immediately said, "I thought you were coming Thursday!" It made me realize that the time I spend in that Reading Room is more than just a fulfillment of Tulane's public service requirement.

I didn't get much time in this week; class, work, and other appointments kept me away until Friday. On Friday, I had 2 hours available but could only stay for one hour because the kids had to go to lunch. I'm sorry that I didn't get to spend time with Johnny this week. I did ask Ms. Loewy if I could go to the Reading Room more than just once a week because I'm concerned about earning all 20 hours. Spring is a strange time in public schools with standardized testing and multiple breaks. She said that was fine. So, Tuesday I plan to read with Johnny first. I hate to imagine him being disappointed that I failed to hang out with him this week.

Friday was sort of a "fun day" in the Reading Room. First, Johnny and I read a Magic School Bus book. He told me he likes these books because he has seen many of the movies. His favorite part is when the bus spins around really fast. Kevin very much enjoys reading. He doesn't look upon it as a chore. He even likes to look through a book before we start and say, "you read this page and this one and this one, and I'll read these two and this page..." It's really pretty adorable. After we finished the book, Kevin was eager to play Sorry. Most days the kids may only play educational board games after reading. Occasionally, though, the shelf of other board games (like Sorry, Guess Who, Monopoly..) is open. We played with another student and his Reading Buddy. The two boys were competitive, and once there were tears in Kevin's eyes because the other little boy had sent Kevin's piece back to Start. However, neither of the two raised their voices or said mean things to the other. A big part of my job at Banneker is peace-keeping. I was relieved that Kevin and his friend could play this game civilly.

This is the reading room. You don't see any students because they had all gone to lunch at this point. I asked for permission to take photos of the room and of the kids. Ms. Loewy told me that most students' parents had granted permission for them to be filmed and photographed and that as long as I was not planning on selling the photographs it would be alright to snap pictures.

Walking through the halls of Lafayette Academy, I notice that the students are much more talented at walking in lines without making much noise than students at Banneker. The teachers at Laffayette do not raise their voices as often as teachers at Banneker. I have not spent nearly as much time in Laffayette Academy as I have Banneker, so I cannot make a true comparison. On the surface, though, Laffayette's students seem much more well behaved. During a short conversation with Ms. Loewy, she told me that Laffayette strives to instill in their students a strong sense of discipline. This enhances the learning environment and the school truly seems a peaceful place to learn and play.

apparently, Robert Meachem paid a visit to Banneker

And I missed him by an hour or two :(

When I got to the school, the entire cafeteria was dancing to the Ying Yang Twins and singing the Who Dat chant. Saints fever will never dissipate (and it shouldn't).

Back at Banneker

Today I returned to my old position with the after school program at Benjamin Banneker Elementary. I was delighted that nearly all of the students I worked with last Spring and Summer remembered me after so many months. I wasn't able to work last semester because I had to take some classes that met during the after school program. I have missed those kids!

These girls, Rodrika and Kayla, were in my class this past Summer. I am working with them again, along with two other sweet 3rd grade girls. My job is pretty fun. After a short snack, we pull out the week's syllabus. Their teachers have broken down their assignments for the week by days and subjects. Today we studied for a spelling test, practiced vocabulary words, talked about adjectives and circled them in sentences, and completed a page of a math packet that focused on fractions. The homework seems easy for these girls; they breeze through the tedious tasks of writing spelling words five times each and matching words with definitions. The only fraction we worked with today was "1/2" and the girls had to draw lines through various shapes to divide the shape into halves. I help them stay on task more than anything, and I wonder why they aren't challenged more.

I will be at Banneker every evening from 4:30-6:30. This is important because I can really build relationships with the children. At Lafayette Academy, I am only given one hour a week with one student at a time. Working at Banneker has a different flavor because I'm interacting with 4-5 students during homework time, and then during the hour of recreation time I hang out with all ages, from 1st through 5th or 6th grade.

But more importantly than the help I can offer with homework, I feel that I am called to be a friend. I have no idea what these children are going home to. Today the teacher I am replacing, Rhonda, (she will be heading up a new after school program at another location next week) mentioned that she strives every day to give the students at least 45 minutes of outside playtime because most of them do not have much supervised playtime. It is important to get a game of dodgeball or basketball going, or play hop-scotch. It is important to let little girls be little girls and let little boys be little boys. Sometimes I'm astounded at the level of understanding these kids have of mature subject matter, and I'm glad that at least in this environment they can run and braid my hair and talk about how cute the Jonas Brothers are.

Lafayette Academy, day 1

I went to Lafayette Academy's Reading Room once a few weeks ago, but because my folder was missing I could not meet the students I have been assigned to. Last week, everything was in order and I was able to meet Kevin and Johnny.

Kevin was a tiny ball of energy. He was very eager to tell me all about his sister, his Momma, the Mardi Gras parades we went to, and the pancakes he ate for breakfast. His enthusiasm for reading really put me at ease. He probably helped me more on my first day than I helped him. His folder had been poorly logged and I didn't have a clear idea of what his reading level was, so I pulled three books from three different levels. Before we read, we played with a set of Bananagrams. The rules of the game are a little too complex for third graders, so I had him spell words about Mardi Gras. I wanted to get an idea of the kinds of words that are in his vocabulary and how well he could spell them. This was a successful activity for him, and I think I will begin most sessions with a "themed spelling time." We read two books after that. Just as Ms. Loewy suggested, we took turns reading to each other. He was very attentive when I read and he seemed to comprehend the story very well. Periodically I would stop and ask him if he know what a long word meant or ask him questions about the plot to make sure he was comprehending what he read. In my experience with third grade students at Benjamin Banneker Elementary, kids will often be able to read through a story but fail to understand what they are reading.

Johnny was much quieter. I tried the Bananagram exercise with him as well, but he needed a lot more guidance as to which words to spell. Perhaps he is just a shy boy and it will take a little time for him to open up to me. I was concerned at one point while we were spelling. I asked him if there were any words he would like to know how to spell, to which he replied 'prostitute.' This was the first time I've heard inappropriate language at Lafayette. The students at Banneker have very dirty mouths and I'm used to guiding conversations away from inappropriate topics. I didn't want to embarrass him, but I did tell him that was not a cool word so we spelled some animals and then read a book about animals. The book I had pulled for him was sort of plot-less, but it touched on a concept that I don't think he understood: predator-prey relationships among animals in the forest. We had a small discussion about how some animals are hunters and some animals are hunted, and sometimes hunters turn into prey and prey turns into predators. Johnny told me at the end of our hour that he thought the book was too easy and he wants to read a chapter book. This may be a good idea, to have a book that we keep coming back to week after week. This week, I plan to get to the Reading Room a little early so that I can pull two or three chapter books and have him decide which one he would like to read.

I am very excited to be working in Lafayette Academy and I look forward to building relationships with these two little boys. Also, I was called this week to return to my job as a tutor for Kedila Family Learning Center. They run an after-school program at Benjamin Banneker Elementary School. This school is a Recovery School District school and the dynamic is much different compared to Lafayette, which is a Charter School. It will be interesting to compare my observations between the two schools. I start back with the after-school program today!