Two for one – a blogging roundup

[Yeah, I changed the theme of the site. Whaddya think?]

Yesterday I got in too late to blog again, but this time I have a note from my boss – a few of us volunteered to watch some kids while their parents went to an out of town meeting for Weeds and Seeds, and anti-drug/gang group, with our program director. We got actual hours for it, so it’s legit. On the upside, the kids basically watched movies and ate pizza (as did we grown-ups). On the downside, we were there until 9:30. Gah.

So, no bloggy yesterday. And very little bloggy tonight, because I am one tired puppy. I didn’t get much sleep last night, after all of that (woke up with a busy brain at something like 2am and couldn’t get back to sleep until about an hour of light in-and-out dozing around 5:30). Been basically shuffling through the day with a headache, a slouch and an unnatural craving for…BRAINS!…er, sleep. That, and the fact that I’d been without meds for my heart for the past few days due to chronic brainlessness, added up to a seriously impaired day.

Luckily, the kids didn’t have much in the way of homework today (it is Halloween, after all), so it was basically a play day, which means pretty much the statistically maximal happy-happy for the group, all things considered, which made it a light day in terms of crap I had to deal with under the influence of what is essentially an alcohol-free hangover. We also had a brief meeting with our new supervisor before the kids got there, and hammered out some details for streamlining our food ordering, getting some sort of volunteer acquisition plan in place and generally hashing out the random raw edges and fine details that go into running a homework club for a big group of grade-schoolers.

The biggest obstacle at the moment is that during babysitting we signed up a girl who, it turns out, has some serious issues with some of the girls who already attend our club. That in and of itself may keep her from attending, in which case I’m unhappy about losing a sign-up but relieved at not being put on 24/7 fire-stomping duty. OTOH, if she does come, we have some options for professional education-dept mediation folks to come in and try to iron it out with us, so that’s cool. So, we’ll see what happens. Hopefully, getting some volunteers on board will ease the strain on us a bit and give us some breathing room to let out some stress. Whew….

Also, met some new dogs on the beat (got big sloppy dog snorgle kisses out of the deal) and got to chat with the lady who was growing the big-ass morning glories and other botanical beauties that enlighten my walk.

In any case, that’s basically it for now. I’m tired. I’m fed. And I’m done for the night. Adios, amigos! Mañana.

Technorati: americorps, babysitting, sleep deprivation, kids, mediation, dogs

Making a Difference

Today, our Americorps group participated in Make A Difference Day by doing a trash pickup at two of the three housing development sites where we have homework clubs. After a brief stop at the community center at Deaverview for Belgian waffles, pancakes and bacon, we headed out be-gloved and bundled up to wreak havoc on the development’s litter population. Although the biting wind was chilling when we started out, and tended to whip the trash around faster than we could run it down, it turned out quite nice later in the afternoon.

To brag just a bit, at PVA some of our kids actually came out to help (they were supposed to at the other place, too, but none did). I was so proud of them – they did a lot of work and seemed to have fun doing it.

In any event, we finished up in good time and left the world a cleaner place.

And now I’m off to a Halloween party, dressed as White and Nerdy. After all, ya gotta go with what ya know.

Technorati: americorps, Make A Difference Day, litter, pancake, waffle, Halloween

Fun Friday – Halloween party!

Yeah, I skipped yesterday’s post. That’s because I was out late watching the Old Crow Medicine Show kick some serious musical derrière last night and didn’t get in until after 11. I love ya’ll, really, but not enough to be blogging at near-nuff to midnight when I gotta get up for work the next day.

In any case, yesterday was pretty much a routine, boring, same-old-same-old day anyway, with except that I got to meet some of the neighborhood pit bulls up close and personal on the walk to the homework club, since they were out and about with their owner. It was a tad bit nervous-making at first, since I don’t know the dogs well. But I did my patented, dog-friendly turn-and-present-flank maneuver (facing a dog head-on is threatening, whereas turning slightly so they come up on your side is the dog equivalent to a handshake) combined with the non-aggressive not-making-eye-contact bit until they were at ease, and it turned into a happy, snuffly sniff-a-pa-looza. Besides, these guys know me anyway, since I always make it a habit to talk happy-friendly with all the dogs on my walk, just in case of times like this. They are sweet pups, really. And one house a few doors down got a new dog for me to make friends with – a gorgeous red-blonde husky. Pretty puppy. Other than that, nothing exceptional to report.

Oh, yeah. The concert totally. Frakking. Rocked. Abso-frakking-totally. Booyah! My throat is sore today from hootin’ an’ hollerin’.

Today was our Fun Friday Halloween Party. We had pumpkins to gut and carve (playing endlessly with the “gook” turned out to be a wildly popular, and unforeseen, attraction), fresh sugar cookies to decorate with orange and black icing, The Goonies movie to watch, popcorn and snack mix to scatter wildly about the premises (and, in small portions, actually eat) along with freshly baked pumpkin seeds and a fare-well candy treat.

To say it went well would be accurate, but somewhat less than descriptive of the true nature of the success of the event.

Yeah, we rocked.

(Not as much as OCMS rocked, but hey – we don’t have thousands of bucks a show to budget for these things. And no banjos, either, which does put a crimp in our overall rockable potential.)

And that’s all she wrote, folks. Literally. Dinner is waiting, I am hungry and that is a non-sustainable equilibrium if ever there was one. So, buh’ bye.

And Happy Halloween!

Technorati: americorps, Old Crow Medicine Show, dogs, Halloween, pumpkins, The Goonies

A breather from discord – smothered in geek love, with an incentive program cherry on top

Today, nothing earthshattering occured. Which is, in and of itself, noteworthy. And relaxing. The fact is, I had a busy but good day today. The morning went by at a sparky little clip – rarely a moment of non-busy-ness, but no emergencies or serious problems. Just lots of tasks all falling into place like dominoes, one after another. I got it all wrapped up with a bow at noon on the button, and headed out the door for the homework club with a jaunty lift in my step.

Once there, after doing the obligatory battle with the front door lock (my key sticks and apparently there’s a secret handshake/god-of-locks placating ritual involved in removing it that I’m not capable of managing, except by dint of long minutes spent turning, tugging, pushing, twisting, praying and cursing until I hit the magic combo that allows my key to be grudgingly released back into my temporary custody), the afternoon was refreshinginly crisis free. Of course, the kids weren’t perfect little angels or anything silly like that. But every once in a while they just manage to behave well enough to give my nervous system a bit of calming downtime and today was one of those blissfully functional days.

On top of that, I finally got the brand spanking new printer hooked up to the new-to-us computer and did a little geeky dance of joy at having a good excuse to play around with techie toys for a while. It’s not only a printer, but a copier/scanner/fax thingy, too (although we don’t have a fax line). I got to fondle USB cables, install software and play clicky-clicky with the buttons trying out the various options. Shhhwweeeet!

Oh, and we decorated for the Halloween party, too. Fake spider web stuff draped cheaply but heavily over the main window? Check. Large crepe paper spider leering drunkenly over the main room? Check. Pumpkin printed bags for the dispersement of cavities-on-a-stick standing by? Check. Looks like we’re good to go for party launch. 2 days and counting!

This Saturday, we’re having a Make A Difference Day community clean up, kicking off with a pancake breakfast and clean up at Deaverview in the AM, and finishing up at Pisgah View from noon until two. The kids are supposed to participate, but it’ll be interesting to see how many we actually get.

On the volunteer recruitment side of things, I’m making up a quarter page “we verify community service hours” shill-slip for the development office to slip in with utility bills. Residents who aren’t working have to do X numbers of community service hours to keep their apts. Hopefully, that’ll get some response.

And speaking of kids and good behavior, that incentive program we rolled out is working! They’re actually competing with each other to read extra chapters, clean up the homework club or do math worksheets to earn extra credit points (one per day limit, unless you’re really behind) above and beyond their daily points (three if you were up to par in respectulness, doing homework without whining or stalling, and behaving safely) to out-do each other.

Holy. Freaking. Cow. We so rock! (And they do, too, of course. But hey – a little Snoopy Dance never hurt anyone.)

Technorati: americorps, sticky lock, good behavior, Halloween decorations, Make A Difference Day, printer, geek, volunteer, incentive program, Snoopy Dance

Never a dull moment

Spent the morning at a volunteer conference with my supervisor and the assistant principal in lovely Lake Junaluska, learning about what all that educational alphabet soup (education-based acronyms) means and learning some strategies to help teach reading. There was also a nice breakfast and lunch served, and some singing and other music by local students. It was fun and educational, although for some reason I couldn’t quite engage with the event fully (too early, maybe). But sometimes it’s just great to get out of the office and stretch your brain a bit.

This afternoon, though, some longstanding and ongoing issues with a homework club member came to a head today. One student has some attention issues and other concerns which resulted in either myself or the other staff member having to be “on” them 24/7 in order for them to get anything done and prevent disruptive behavior, which has kept us from helping other students and created a lot of frustration for everyone – us, the kid, the other kids and the parents. But although it was very trying at the time, after talking to the parents we think we’ve come to a solution that will work for everyone – the parent is getting the student a 1-on-1 worker who, hopefully, will be able to do afterschool hours. The agreement is that the child can return as long as the 1-on-1 is with them.

Which is really great, since it’s a really great, smart, funny kid who just has a few behavioral issues that need to be dealt with and the need for someone to work with them solely, but that’s just something which neither I nor my colleague have the time, training or freedom to do. So *crossing fingers* maybe this arrangement will work out better for everyone in the end.

On a lighter note, the new kids we had sign up the other day are remarkably well-mannered and behaved. Almost as a soothing balm after the meltdown, I spent a half-hour or so reading together with one of the younger ones (putting some of my new-found knowlege to the test) and enjoying the heck out of it . Who knew? I just hope their behavior rubs off on the rowdier kids, rather than the other way around!

Friday is our Halloween party! Pumpkin carving, cookie decorating and (hopefully, but not assuredly) pizza. Let’s just hope no one goes all Saw 2 with the kid-safe pumpkin carving set! :-O

Technorati: americorps, volunteer, education, reading, behavioral issues, halloween, pumpkin

Yep – it’s Monday. Cold, long, tiresome and (thankfully) over.

Late night, too tired, getting up early. So you get the Reader’s Digest Condensed Version:

Cold, windy, nasty weather. Started the day with blatant proof of my inability to think more than the next step ahead, only to find others helpfully doing my thinking for me so I don’t lose it all together (not sarcasm, btw). We have several more sign-ups at the homework center (yay!). We have several more kids to keep an eye on between just the two of us (gah!). Enlightening, but basically non-helpful, conversation with the workmans’ comp company – yes, it would be nice if a doctor actually looked at the injury to see if I was slowly destroying my arm by using it, but gee, it would mess up our nice, neat lineup of paperwork. So don’t, for now. We’ll be in touch. Probably within a week. Or so. But if it hurts bad enough that you want to go to the ER or something, call us. (Not a doc, mind you, but the paperworker at workmans’ comp.) *sigh* Site meeting at the homework center with the Director, the new Supervisor, an outside observer and an admin – while our friends (who were off today because the county schools were out) take care of all of the kids upstairs. Yeesh. Then, after a quick dip into the house to try to catch up on some paying work, most of which had to be put off until tonight, it was back out for a two-hour lecture on Eating Disorders, which has ironically resulted in me not having time for dinner before bed.

I am seriously tired, since I just finished the paying work at almost 10pm. Plus I have to get up early to attend a Volunteer Conference tomorrow. So, adios. I’m going pillow-diving. See ya!

Oh, hey, yeah. It snowed. All of two or three flakes. The kids reacted as if Brad Pitt had gone streaking through the homework club in slow motion throwing hundred-dollar bills behind him. Me, not so much.

Technorati: americorps, workmans comp, homework, eating disorder, volunteer, snow, Brad Pitt

Tornado wrangling

Busy day. The morning was basically like being in one of those money booths where you try to grab dollar bills being swept around by a fan, but instead of cash (which would have been way more fun) it was 4 straight hours of low-flying tasks, requests, correspondences, activities and updates, all of which needed to be snagged out of the air as they flew past my head at a high rate of speed and wrestled into whatever niche of doneness was required. Rather like a task-based version of “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” as played in a tornado.

And this afternoon I spent my time trying out some new “positive discipline” tactics – for example, offering defined choices under a defined deadline, without lectures, nagging or other power struggles, and then letting the kid make the choice. No allowances for “alternative” choices. You pick A or B, and you’ve got 5 minutes to do so or the result is C. And no, D is not one of the choices. But it’s your choice.

And I’ll be damned if it didn’t work, on our own little version of a high-speed tornado! Not easily or smoothly by any means, but it worked. The kid I was working with did their reading assignment with only minimal sulking and dragging, especially when it became clear that I wasn’t going to be dragged into an entertaining negotiation of compromises in order to get him to do it (the alternative was to go home and face the Wrath of Mom, my position being that since the point of homework club is to do your homework, if you’re not going to do homework, well, buh’bye. Not a fun choice but a choice none the less.) A or B. Period. No watching Soni’s head spin while you run circles around her trying to wheel and deal, no pleading, no warning, no punishing no nothing. Just A or B and what’s it gonna be?

Turns out it was A. Read for the allotted time. The book was read in a series of funny voices, accompanied by random physical synchopation and percussion combinations of floor, furniture, feet and hands. But it was read. All the way through.

So, on top of yesterday’s math win, I got in a reading win today! Special. I’m just tingly all over. Of course, that could be the Autumn chill, but I’ll take it.

On the downside, another student had fraction homework. Let’s just not go there. The best I could do was wish him luck and hope someone at home knows how to do it, because I never could manage anything beyond the simplest fraction math. Which sucks, because I’m supposed to be helping them. *sigh*

After homework club, I dropped in on the Women’s Expo event going on downtown. A few plastic tasting cups of wine and champagne later, I’ve got my shmooze groove working and I’m making friends and building contacts. Got the okay from a local free paper to send in an article on the homework clubs (we’re getting some more sign-up – we desperately need volunteers). Got a bag full of kid-friendly goodies from a local imprint novelty goods store to show around to my colleagues as examples of what this guy can get us cheaply. Practiced my “cold call” technique of walking up to perfect strangers and starting up conversations that actually go somewhere. I just love doing that. Each person is like a little fun-filled grab bag from the fair – you never know what’s inside, but it’s always guaranteed to be worth looking.

So, afterward the hubster and I walked around in the light rain for a bit to work off the lingering remains of the tastings before heading home, enjoying the window shopping, having one of our “deep” conversations and smelling the good smells of a vibrant downtown full of esoteric shops, fragrant visitors and gourmet eateries. *happysigh*

Technorati: americorps, positive discipline, homework, fractions, womens expo, shmoozing

A hit and a miss

Well, today was better than yesterday (for me anyway – my colleague seemed to be having a harder time of it than I was, but then again she is working with one of our more difficult students).

I actually heard the following statement, in reference to a set of math problems, “Cool! Let me try another one!”

The context: Two of them are in the same class and have the same homework, and today they had a math puzzle that consisted of three columns of numbers. They had to pick one number from each column that added up to 60. The idea was to find as many of these as possible. Rather than have them whacking away at it randomly and getting frustrated, I showed them the trick of how to start from 60, pick one number at random from the first column and subtract it, then pick a second number from the second column and subtract it to see if what remains matches a number from the third column. If not, you only have to start over from the second number and not from scratch.

Apparently, this time-saving hint was a big hit – the sheet had room for 12 possible answers at best (it noted that it would be exceptional if you got all 12) and last time I looked they were both at or over 8 (a guaranteed A). So, booyah!

On the flip side, S took the kids who were done with their homework out around the development to see if they could help us recruit their friends to join up.

Total. Frakking. Disaster.

They were uncontrollable and unhelpful, to the point of thundering through the younger kids’ afterschool program with they went there to see which on our list were already attending there (to which the person running that simply stated “Get them out of here, now.”) and then standing outside one girl’s house and stating loudly that she couldn’t come because she smelled funny.

At this point, I’m about to give up on the concept of the kids being much help on this recruiting process in any structured way. Our best bet is to simply make it so much fun that they evangelize it out of sheer exuberance. Wheee…

And to drop the spoiled cherry on top of this fast-melting sundae of doom, we suspended one kid from the roster permanently for hitting another kid without provocation. Granted, it was a kid who wasn’t exactly making being at the homework club a priority (I think we’ve seen them maybe three times), but still.

*buries head in hands*

At the end of the day, we rolled out an incentive program that we’ll be trying out as a way to promote good behavior. The kids will be able to earn points for stuff like not whining and stalling on homework, being safe – which mostly just means not running up and down the stairs or leaving the building without permission – and keeping their behavior and actions respectful and nonaggressive. They’ll be able to earn one point for each of these per day, making 3 total, and if they have 10 points at the end of the week they can pick out a toy prize. Plus, they have to have 10 in order to come to Fun Fridays (which we hope to beef up enough to make missing out a bad enough thing to make them want to try). For those who fall behind or miss days, we have three possible bonus or make-up points for helping clean up the club, helping others with homework and doing an extra credit assignment (math sheets, reading, etc). The kid with the most points at the end of the quarter will get a bigger (as yet undetermined) prize and the kid with the most points at the end of the year will get an evey bigger (also as yet undetermined) prize.

Not sure how this is going to work – I’ll update here to let y’all know if it flies or falls on it’s face.

And one of our serious Kidzilla issues is still unresolved, as the kid in question wasn’t there today. I don’t know if they’ll be back or not, or if they’ve permanently switched to another program. I am disturbed that the prospect of the kid going elsewhere is such a relief, because the kid’s not a bad kid. On the contrary, the student is smart, talented and even taking positive steps to create a better future through some advanced school programs. But there are serious behavioral issues and power struggles going on – quite frankly, I don’t think they want to be there and but are being made to come, which is never a good combination – and I’m struggling enough with what’s going on to simply hope they find a place they actually want to attend and trade out.

Total cop out, I know. But real. And that’s the way it goes. We win some and we lose some, and we have to pick our battles (and this is a big one I can’t let slide and don’t want to fight). Which is about par for the course, I’m guessing. Still, I’ll take my enthusiasm for math problems and run with that. Gotta get your uplift where you can.

Technorati: americorps, math, success, homework, incentive, behavioral problems

Can somebody just shoot me? I promise I’ll hold still.

Gah. Talk about your precipitous rides in a Hades-directed woven container. I don’t know if it’s something in the water or what, but for the past few days, the behavior of a few of the afterschool kids has been seriously deteriorating to the point of unmanagability. No doubt it has something to do with the fact that my sum total of experience dealing with kids is something like…uh…a month and a half. But there seems to be something else going on, as well. There are a few kids who just set each other off like yappy dogs fighting over their square foot of turf, and a few which feed off each other’s bad behavior like Japanese atomic bomb fallout and lizards with growth hormone issues.

Yes, folks, Kidzilla has entered the building, and the stompage has begun. Of course, Kidzilla isn’t one particular kid. Apparently the Kidzilla mantle falls to someone different every day. But today, they were passing it around like the salsa plate at a Mexican wrestling championship. And by the time we got it at least somewhat in hand, there was nothing left but a plateful of soggy crumbs. And a few smears of fiery sauce. But mostly crumbs.

So here I am, left with little of my mind but the remains of a postful of crappy similes and an intense craving for medicinal levels of dark chocolate. Which I do not happen to have on hand.

And if that weren’t bad enough, the hubster has to get to work early tomorrow which means I have to get to work early tomorrow. As if 6:30 weren’t early enough to be rising and shining glinting rustily in the glow of the dark-thirty street lamps, now I’m looking at maybe 6. AM. 6AM. Crud.

One may be the loneliest number, but 6AM vies heavily for the suckiest.

So now I’m mentally embattled from the ongoing siege of Kidzilla, painfully crippled with shoulder pain that may or may not be covered under our insurance and unreasonable desirous of an early death. Now I gotta deal with all that at 6-freaking-o’clock A-freaking-M?

*unprintable content deleted*

Really, just stand me up against a wall and I will draw the target onto my forehead myself. Just promise me you’ll aim steady?

Technorati: americorps, hell in a handbasket, kids, 6AM

Goals and metrics and deadlines…oh my!

I have to find 15 kids and 25 volunteers by the end of December, or I’m not holding up my end of the grant. Gah. So far, I’ve got 9 kids (10, but one never comes – I need to call on that one tomorrow). And I’ve had exactly one volunteer. For one day. Crud.

My issue is that I’ve got no idea how to do this. I mean, I’ve got some ideas but in fact I spend a lot of my time doing homework club stuff (cooking snack, cleaning up and helping supervise the kids) that I’m not sure if I even have time to do what is essentially my job. It’s a catch 22, really – if I had more volunteers, I’d have more free time to find volunteers (and kids). Now, I’m not saying that I’m the only one in this pickle – the other two homework clubs have 20+ kids, and let’s be real here – no amount of volunteers is ever going to make that work out smoothly enough to let the volunteer coordinator focus solely on their work. But still. At least they don’t have to worry about making up their student numbers at the same time. I don’t think we got 20 people at our Free Fantabulous Hotdog Cookout and we were handing out free food! If free food won’t bring them how can I convince 20 kids to do homework and 20 adults to volunteer.

Bitch bitch whine whine ppphhhhuuuttttt!

There, got that out of my system. I’m just going to have to find a way to make this work. First up is putting my top-notch marketing and copywriting skills to the test by putting up flyers in the community center to attract volunteers. Then there’s the prospect of getting the existing kids to help us attract more kids. Tammy suggests offering a prize incentive for every kid who brings in two other kids that stay a minimum of two weeks. Sounds good – now I just gotta figure out what sort of prizes will work.

I also think I’m going to set up some Sunday sermons at local churches to see if I can’t get a few members to kick it old school like J. C. and hang with the poor children for a while. Also need to write an ad for the Mountain Xpress. Dunno if it’ll do any good, but it can’t hurt and it’s free.

So that’s my challenge for this next few months – get our numbers a poppin’ and our club a rockin’. And to somehow fit that between slopping mac’n'cheese and convincing the kids that “I’m In Love With A Stripper” is really not appropriate homework club fare.

*tiny sigh*

Technorati: americorps, homework, volunteer, incentive, kids, whining