Tuesday- Chicago TFA

My day started much as yesterday had, waking up at six a.m. to put on dress clothes and commute. The church we are staying in goes from warm to freezing overnight it seems and it was really hard to leave the cozy confines of my sleeping bag. Once I did I put on a purple sweater dress and black flats with stockings so I would be warm in the rainy drizzle outside. I put on a jacket and a raincoat and headed out to McDonalds to have internet to post Monday’s blog. Lauren and Paige met me and we headed to our morning ride on the Red line. The trip was much easier today knowing what to expect and I recognized a few (rather cute) faces on the metro. While waiting for our bus transfer all I could focus on was how Chicago would be much more enjoyable if the piercing wind would die down.
When I arrived at Ariel Community Academy this morning I was assigned to Mrs. Hoover’s room. She teaches English to the fourth and fifth graders. She asked me to go over the fifth grade students reading journals with them in the morning. Reading through their work I noticed an immense amount of slang and tense misusage. Basic grammar fell victim to mistakes like insert the word “like” instead of “said” or the confusion between their, there, and they’re. I tried to correct their work by asking them what they thought it should say and most of the time they realized their mistakes and we would talk about why it was confusing. The book they had written the journals for was called Color Me Darker and was an interesting book about a traumatized young lady who refused to speak for a long time. They were about to start another book about jazz musicians and the Harlem renaissance.
I went across the hall for the next period to Mr. Nanavati’s science room. They were studying the basics of chemistry and the atom. Once they had reviewed they took a quiz and I graded four classes quizzes. It seemed either the students knew what was going on and were on top of it or they hadn’t done the homework or paid attention and failed it. Sadly, most of them had failed. When class was over I had a chance to talk with the teacher about the students and he said you just had to do the best you can and try to reach as many as possible because it was impossible to get them all. This made me really sad to think that it was allowed for some students to just fall behind because they couldn’t be reached. We talked about the Alternative Break program and why we were volunteering here. Most people seem really interested in our program and what we do. When talking about the university and my major though I was offended by the stereotype that blondes can’t be smart. Apparently blondes can’t do neurobiology, who knew? I suppose just like many stereotypes, especially those that face these students, I will have to work hard to overcome the stereotype set against me.
I had lunch with the secretaries in the teacher’s lounge. They are really funny and told me stories about their high school lunch rooms and having huge unhealthy recipes for cookies and cakes. It certainly made me crave some delicious cookies. After lunch I went back to Mrs. Hoover’s room for the final two periods. I worked with a girl the first period on some makeup work and a group of eight on a dictionary worksheet and quiz. We finished as the bell was about to ring and headed back to class. Our group met up and headed back to the church. We are having some yummy soft tacos for dinner that we are making together here in the church kitchen.
-Kaitlynn Nelson