Week 26: Service Projecting

Painting Douglas Park Fieldhouse on Saturday!  My mom and sister joined us <3

Working hard on that fruit dream :-)

Team Service Day - making food at a woman's shelter!

This is the longest this student has gone without yelling or running around the room

This week was full of: filming the Camp City Year music video, two service days, breakfast with our IJ team, CCY, VDIE and EOC meetings, inviting a junior to eat lunch and motivate some of my freshmen, meeting with the Youth Officer at the local police department to discuss ways to partner, and leading classes with a sub (actually, 3 different subs came and swapped places within a two-hour period...?)

Quotes of the Week:
"...I probably won't go to college though.  If I have to go to Junior College first, I just won't go.... My nephew is 13... yeah I talk to him a lot.  I tell him not to mess up, like I did.  Now all my friends are going off to college except me...." - S, a junior.  He recently got a tattoo down his arm for his sister who died (his nephew's mom).

"I'm mean."  - N, a freshmen, responding to "tell me something about you I don't know."  

"Grades come first, man!" - M, a freshmen, when his friends were bugging him for staying after school to finish a paper.  He's been transforming so much this year - I'm so proud!

"I was at my friends house and I stepped outside and heard 'pop! pop!' from a gun shooting off, so I ran back inside for a while... finally I ran to the bus..." - N, a junior, in a light-hearted, casual conversation with friends about weekend activities.

"I've visited some colleges but I have to find one that lets babies in the dorms... I walk a mile to school every day, walk home, check on my grandpa, then go to work until 10 or 11... it's easier to motivate yourself than to wait for other people to motivate you." - Y, a junior, speaking to my freshmen.  She even motivates me!

Me:  What do you do in your free time?
S, a Junior:  Mmm, sometimes I write down words to practice, I need a lot of help in spelling, too...

"City Year and us!  Beautiful young people and so dedicated to what they do.  A very diverse group with great goals for their future..." - My Mom, on facebook <3

Excerpts from Letter From Your Future Self assignment: 
"A couple of friends have lost contact due to me becoming a famous rapper." 
"The crazy thing was that you had a choice to go into the MLB or NLF."  
"The thing you have to keep doing to be successful is think you are the stuff to be the stuff."
"I’m trying my best to remember what I have always stated, that education is the key and I’m gone always stay on top as I follow my dreams."  

Joys:  Starting to read with S, a junior, who needs a lot of help (our first spontaneous lesson was the sound that t-i-on makes); an absurd community meeting; introducing my mom and sister to everyone; finding out that I'll be a Team Leader next year for City Year!

Week 25: Listening

Playing "Guess the Leader" at the VIP lounge honoring students who made improvements.  This month's theme - Black History Month

Leaving Comcast after a day of resume and interview training

After School :-)

This week was full of: the latest VIP lounge, Monday off for President's Day, training at Comcast, and running the highly-anticipated Recruitment Liaison meeting! 

Quotes of the week:  "Excuse me, did I hear you say you work at a high school on the west side? .... I used to live on the west side, and do you know that my brother was found shot and killed in his apartment next door?  Do you know that I am now homeless, and living in a shelter? ... I used to work for Chicago Public Schools as a substitute, and let me tell you my advice - when you look for a job, don't work in those areas.  A lot of teachers who work in those high-violence areas burn out very quickly.  I knew teachers who did."  - A woman on the bus

"Ms. Lewis, I've never seen so many students working together and playing together like this!  It's amazing!!" - A sophomore during morning greeting in the gym :-)

"Alright, by June 16 we're going to be experts at Double Dutch... and then bust it out at a school assembly... and have our hair braided... and start free-styling..." - My team

Week 24: Dedicating

Robert Hughes, former Notre Dame football player, speaking to our kids :-)

My lunch kids at the Dedication Ceremony... cracking up at Ms. Serrano making faces behind the camera

My girls

This week has been full of:  Our students' Dedication Ceremonies, new rotations with the Juniors so working with Ms. B, interviewing with Jewan for a position next year.


Quotes of the week: 
"I dedicate my hard work this year to Ms. Lewis, because she's been helping me out a lot this year... because she pushes me to work hard...." - A few of my freshmen at our Dedication Ceremony <3

"Ms. Lewis, tell her what I made my dedication to!" - D, a freshmen, proudly in the background while I was chatting with her mom on the phone.


"It's not about the cars and the money, it's about what's on the inside... things were hard when my brother died, but I had a goal..." - Robert Hughes came to speak at our school, a former Notre Dame football player currently being drafted who grew up near my students (woohoo to Andrea for setting it up!)

"PITW #300: Take your lacy plan seriously." - Apparently a random guy flashed this handwritten sign to some other corps members at a bus stop.  So funny.

"Stand tall." - Ran into Paula, my former professor/current mentor, on the train back from Michigan

Joys: Watching Hannah ribbon dance.  Running into a student at the bus stop on his way from a doctor's appointment, holding his little baby boy wrapped up in a blanket... he seemed so mature and responsible, a proud daddy, 15 years wise.  <3

Week 23: Reading

Relaxing at Phil's on Team Day :-)

Good morning, Chicago!

Waiting at the bus stop in an almost-blizzard to go to the office and keep working.

The first official Art Club meeting was this week!

This week has been full of:  Starting to meet informally with three junior boys during lunch, eating lunch with a freshmen who asked voluntarily (who will sometimes not even say hi to me), a really long day at CTA entering data, spending another sick day reading, and a team day to relax at Phil's apartment!

L: I'm excited by a new way I'm trying to sneak in vocabulary: I pick a word that will appear in the Do Now sentences all week, so they naturally ask what it means (rather than having an unrelated lesson).  After discussing it a bit all week, Friday's assignment asks them to write a sentence using the word. 

Quotes of the week: 
"They shouldn't split us up like this.  We know we're in the dumb class.  Don't they know how that makes us feel?" - T, a junior

"....I mean, it's kind of hard right now... I just moved in with my mom, and she's been locked up almost my whole life, so we don't really know each other...." -  A junior, during informal lunch.  I'm rooting for him so much, he wants to be a DEA officer :-)

"Ms. Lewis, you forgot to get us for lunch!" - A junior, confused about which day it was... I was getting to know a group of three easily-distracted, mischief-making boys pretty well, then schedules changed so they are no longer my students.  I offered to start meeting with them once a week at lunch so we could continue to talk about goals and grades and life, but I wasn't sure how they would react (and they were really excited!)

Joys: I round up 5 freshmen after school to do the reading homework together (and a couple visitors); we ran into T, a junior, on the bus home and had a nice chat; J stayed after school for two hours and actually wrote a paper!

Week 22: Snowing

Trekking our way to school.

"Boom.  Everyone's getting As now."

They amaze me every morning with this.

This week was full of:  The first snow days that CPS has had since 1999 - not just one, but two!  Also, inviting a junior to sit and share advice with two freshmen boys during lunch, starting to read Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos with my freshmen, worrying about a student who confided information about his home life to me (and dealing with the social worker), our teamlette retreat at our school with another City Year team, and bronchitis.

Quote of the week: "I remember everything he said... don't sit in the back, don't sit by your friends, make sure you pass your classes because summer school isn't good..." - A freshmen after chatting with "Pookie"

Joys:  Getting some sleep!  Seeing Pookie empowered by being a in a role model position and warning freshmen not to make the same mistakes he did, feeling special when a freshmen invited me (repeatedly) to watch him race at his track practice, helping M and D sign up for after school programs, and seeing students and staff freak out when we wore regular clothes to school one day.

Week 21: Wandering

Our first Camp City Year Committee meeting - treats and nameplates!

After helping O practice for the ACT, and trying to convince J that he should actually do some homework in his life.

Serving royalty at the VIP lounge.

We made it in the local newspaper!

This week has been full of: chaos.  Due to ACT testing in our classroom, we've been nomads wandering the school for available workspace; we also had a couple "logistical crisis" right before our VIP lounge lunch for the kids.  We also had our first two meetings with the Camp City Year committee (we run a day camp during spring break), and Maggie Evans, our wonderful literacy trainer, came to our school for our training session.

Quotes of the Week: 
"There is no such thing as impossible." - Y, a junior, during a conversation about life.  She is so inspiring - she has a two-year-old boy and works a job every day, and is still one of the most positive, determined students I've met.

"The most effective way to teach kids is to immerse them in the same skill, day after day." - Maggie, our literacy trainer

"Why should I work hard on this?  It's not like I'm going to send it to the president or anything... sometimes I just don't get how they educate us." - M, a challenging junior, during one-on-one time.  Well said. 

"He's quiet in class??  A few years ago, he was outgoing and participated a lot... but then one of his three brothers was shot and killed... another one of the brothers was shot and killed a couple years prior to that, too... "  A shocking reminder that we never really know the whole story. 

"Abuelita got ran over by a REINdeeeeeeer!" - A, a freshmen, walking to the bus :-)

"I'm going to make a Q2Q for my mental breakdown." - Phil, after seeing how busy we'll be with meetings until April.  

Joys:  Hearing "I missed you!" from students and staff when we returned on Monday after a week of training; showing D how to type by narrating it like a sports game; so many small improvements in J - he's a freshmen who usually comes to school one or two or three hours late and puts in minimal effort.  We've had a few really good conversations this week and I gave him an alarm clock, and he actually stayed after school to work on a paper TWICE, and came to school only 20 or 30 minutes late most days!