And With a Wednesday Complete, My Instruction Is Packaged Away Until January (Phew)

I finished off Fall, 2018, with the last visit of 54 7th graders to work in a service-learning course. In the redesign, the young people are bused to campus so that my undergrads can participate in a writing/reading/thinking workshop with middle school kids in a lecture hall setting. It is the best of many worlds, because the adolescents teach my undergraduates much about being in schools and the undergraduates can help the learning of middle schoolers while turning their own philosophies.

Today, I was met with a challenge.

It's an odd thing to reflect on, because it took a team of 21 undergraduates, 4 teachers, and a cafeteria of Sodexo employees to mold, shape, and guide the energy and zest of 54 young people. I came home last night simply exhausted from the experience and feeling like I failed them, and my undergraduates, because keeping all of us on target didn't go as I planned (and have experienced in the past).

Some classes arrive with a reputation that precedes them and the warnings came in stereo that this would be a tricky crew to work with. Tricky is a good word and I definitely experiences the tricks Interestingly, though, when I looked at the photographs from the day and talked with the veteran teachers, the experience looks like a total success. There was learning, happiness, on-task behavior and joy. The undergraduate students were 100% behind all of this, as the ration of 6 students to 2 undergraduates helped us to divide and achieve.

At the same time, the energy: talking, laughter, cell-phones, sleeping and inability to focus too long on any one thing was something else.

I am told this is 7th grade - an in-between space of childhood to early adolescence. One second, I felt like the kids were eating out of the palm of my hands...the 2nd second, I felt they were trying to rip the fingers from my body and wanting to gauge out my eyes.

And the food. I can't imagine the stomach aches that followed from the plates and plates and plates of food they consumed in a shark frenzy in the Tully. They were hungry (and thankful) for the buffet.

We spent the previous 2.5 hours thinking about the Revolutionary War, its facts, the American vision, Hamilton, poetry, and MLK. I challenged them with two writing contests and, to be honest, when they had writing time, they were WRITING. In my reflection, the time it became trickiest is when they had time to interact with one another. That's when things went awry.

I do know I slept well last night. I also know I have much to learn from the teachers who work with such energy and focus 5 days a week.

I'm hopeful that from today, a series of essays and poems will come my way. Only time will tell.

Ah, but today until January 20th I can live life without preparation for classroom activities or having to teach/guide/sculpt around the work. I am looking forward to the downtime.