What's going on at Community Stepping Stones?

First off, I'd like to state that my blog is going to have many various posts concerning different topics (and of course on the same theme: teaching). They may come in rather quickly, depending on whether I am in the mood to type/write or not. Today, I am. For a little bit.

I want to talk about Community Stepping Stones, one of the places I currently work at as an after-school art instructor. "Community Stepping Stones (CSS) is a 501 (c) 3 not for profit organization whose mission is connected to the quality of life in the Sulphur Springs neighborhood of Tampa. CSS is dedicated to providing education, mentoring children and adolescents, enhancing the community’s economics, and enriching the residents’ quality of life. We work through the arts to teach youth the creative and critical thinking skills needed to solve problems, make important life decisions, graduate from high school, and continue on to college." - From the website.

Right now, CSS is in a very developmental stage, probably in its earliest of stages. The current staff are stipend paid AmeriCorps members, such as myself. AmeriCorps pretty much provides much of the funding to the staff and staff needs. We feel a bit understaffed, and because of the lack of enough helping and hard-working hands taking charge, we seem to lag behind in development of our center. Many things go left undone and many kids are left with nothing to do besides monopoly and hang-man, and no one person can be blamed for that. It's a team effort and when things are going wrong, it's everyone's fault for letting things lag and not taking charge of situations. I'm not going to say I am perfect and I have no flaws, but I admit I put a lot of hard hours into working there, and I would never regret a single hour I put there. When I only need to put 4, I put 6-7 hours a day. And sometimes, with the kids and the way they are, it's just not easy. I admit I do enjoy the experiences that CSS gives me, though.

Anyway, right now, we are preparing a bit for the summer. It begins in about 2ish weeks. One staff member is leaving and another will be working 2 days a week. Regardless, I think we will be okay, considering that we will actually have quite a bit of good helping hands there. We have my boss's college class and a slew of other volunteers. Some include film-makers, cake decorators, and a music teacher. I myself plan to teach a photoshop class in our utterly undeveloped computer lab :D

About that. The computer lab now sits in a building that is probably hazardous due to the amount of construction going on, but the computer room itself is in okay condition. It's decent for now. We were donated a good number of computers by USF, but they are rather old. Either way, I asked my boyfriend, who is skilled in computer repair, to help me out with setting up those computers so that they can be ready for my photoshop class in the summer. So far, he is doing some great work in there, and it's actually rather generous of him to volunteer his time to us :)

Well, I thought I'd share that bit of info about CSS. More things are bound to come as we continue to develop our little center into something bigger. I foresee a great future for CSS! :)

My experiences with teaching, kids, and teens so far...

I have actually been meaning to do this... to write out my current experience and thoughts on teaching so far. I THINK about it a lot, but I never write it down, and I feel like I need to get it out of my brain. Writing is good for you anyway! It's been a while since I have written anything, so please excuse me if the quality of my words are poor ):

So, to begin. I want to first talk about the differences between teaching Elementary, Middle and High School, because the differences are incredible. Well DUH, right? Of course kids and teens will be different, right?! Well, anyone can say that, but once you experience it first hand, you finally GET IT. Kinda like "OHHHHH....". Each have their pros and cons and I think each take a different kind of person to teach, even if that means having to create a persona or character while teaching for each group. With the younger ones, they seem interested by ANYTHING. They are curious and they sincerely want to know and show that they do know. They love to be the one to give an answer. There is no stage fright, but rather, there is a fight for center stage. This ends around 5th grade. From experience so far, 5th and 6th grade seem to be the rebel and attitude stage. You think it starts in high school, but ooooo how terribly mistaken you are. 5th and 6th graders give so much trouble where I work, that we are contemplating in permanently removing some from our program. We're just getting tired of dealing with them and their attitudes, their lack of respect, the back-talking, and the refusal to try anything. We have given them weeks and months, but it has to end somewhere. At this point, it's about the kids who care now. Rebels can be rebels somewhere else. 7th and 8th grade, they get a little better. They lack knowledge of basic things and they tend to think they know EVERYTHING, but all in all, you can tell they are starting to mature and starting to get ready for hard learning that high school asks for. One trouble I have with them is telling them that they are wrong about one thing, but they just can NOT believe you. High schoolers are cool. They really are. Probably my favorite group so far, but unfortunately, the group I have the least experience with, considering high schoolers are not kids anymore and they always feel like there is something better to do with their time. Most of all, high schoolers want to socialize. They want to be in a group (not too big, like 3-5 people at a time) and they have this special ability to FOCUS, unlike elementary kids. Elementary kids can NOT focus on one thing at one time and basically they become difficult to handle because of this. The can literally be bouncing off walls at times!! High schoolers want to sit. They want to sit and talk. Actually, they don't care if they are sitting, walking, or standing... they just want to talk! I don't mean mindless banter and girl talk. I mean, they want to socialize. They want to know about YOU. It's not so much about learning the material as much as it is about being around good hearted people (considering they are good hearted to begin with!). My only gripe with them though, is what I mentioned earlier. Sometimes, they just feel like their is something more important and serious to do with their time... like sleeping, watching TV, playing games, reading a book, etc etc. None of those are BAD or HORRIBLE things, but because of this, it can be hard to get them to devote a long period of time (such as months) on one project before they procrastinate and move on being lazy and forgetting about it :P Sound familiar? Yeah, does to me too.

All in all, I have LOVED teaching all these grade levels EXCEPT 5th - 6th grade... haha xD Not gonna say there aren't good 5th and 6th graders out there, I am sure there are! But I lack the patience to deal with this stage of life :/ They'll get over it, but I don't want to wait for it to happen >_< Because of my experience teaching all these grade levels, I have been stuck between wondering if I want to teach Elementary or High School. I think I am leaning towards High School still though, like I always have been. Honestly, I would love to be certified to teach k-12. Who knows where I will land, ya know?

First Post!

My first post to this blog! This is only the beginning, but hopefully this little plain blog can expand into something more.... if I can manage it well enough and not just abandon it like I do to every other blog I start >_>Probably not the right thing to say on the first post, but HEY! I'm optimistic! :)

I'd like to first start off with the purpose of this blog. I have decided to start this blog to chronicle my experiences with teaching, from beginning to... end?! This idea has many positives. For one thing, it is great to get my thoughts out into writing rather then letting it circle in my head as I drive home every night from work, or rather than yelling out my frustrations to my best friend and boyfriend (although I'm sure they don't mind :) ). For another thing, it is a great way for others to see what I am thinking. I find it easier to express myself through text than spoken word (and I am sure most people are that way these days too), so one can get a better understanding of me and my ideas through reading what I write rather than listening to what I say. On top of that, I hope to inspire young people who read my blog to want to become teachers, or to inspire new teachers to be all that they can be. Teaching is a tough tough thing. It's not easy, not even in the LEAST bit, so don't ever let anyone trick you into thinking it is... the countless hours that go into making lesson plans and curriculums, the constant tweaking it requires after having taught a lesson only to see the flaws it has... ugh. Endless. I hope I'm not rambling at this point, because it sure does sound like it! I can say SO much about teaching, but I think it is better to seperate each topic into small posts, so they don't become jumbled essay long messes! I tend to do that :/

Well, let this be the end of my first post. May not be the best post, but it's merely beginning of a long long journey (a wonderful one at that).