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! :)
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