A day in the life of an Educational Coordinator

So here it is -- the long-overdue post, explaining exactly what I've been doing at work. Hey, what can I say, I've been buuuuuusy.

Some general background of the center first -- as I think a good explanation of it is past due as well. Wesley-Rankin Community Center (aka WR, WRCC, or to quote Tre' -- "the Rank") has been around in some form or another for the past century, running all sorts of amazing programs in the West Dallas ... which isn't what you might call the nicest area of town. The community of West Dallas is almost completely Hispanic, and a lot of the families are also newly immegrated from Mexico. WRCC is very devoted to their community, and multi-generations of many families have gone to, worked at, volunteered at, (or all of the above) these programs all their lives. The center, and really much of the community, is very family oriented. There are programs for all members of the families, from a headstart program for the youngest kiddies, up to an extremely active senior citizens group. Other benefits the center offers include the afterschool programs (where I've been spending so much time at lately) for the kids (grades 1-5) and youth (grades 6-12), a teen parenting program, GED and ESL classes, this awesome computer lab open to the public, and computer classes ... and more.

As the new Educational Coordinator at WRCC, I have been working hard along side the center's program director, Kysheenna (Sheenna), and the two Project Transformation interns, Mike and Tre', to plan for and implement different educational programs and curriculums for the kids/youth. I better explain Project Transformation (PT) here, as well. PT is another Americorp/church related program that employs college students and (somewhat) recent college grads to work with different kinds of at-risk kids and youth. PT's biggest program is run during the summer, when apparently there's about 80+ of these interns that run a huge day camp at a number of sites around the Dallas area (and word has it there are other PT programs across the country, although PT was started here in Dallas -- at Wesley Rankin, nonetheless). But during the schoolyear, PT operates on a much smaller scale. There are only about 6 or 7 interns (most of whom live in the apartments here in the building where I'm living) who run the afterschool programs at only about 5 sites. WR is the only site that has the youth program -- the rest of the PT sites just have the younger kids. So Mike and Tre', as the PT interns, are the ones ultimately responsible for the smooth running of the Project Transformation afterschool program -- but these programs clearly take many more people to make them successful. It's my responsibility (among other things) to make sure the kids are learning to WR's standards as well. There's this neat little dynamic between WR, as the host site, and PT as the manpower source -- the two programs have the same goals, but are held to different standards dictated by different grant sources and such. So I am, in a lot of way -- as a kind of nuetral third party -- sort of a bridge between the two programs. A liason, if you will. Not that there's any real strife or even a bad relationship between the two programs whatsover. But there is a certain dynamic that I, being aware of, at least like to think, help balance.

I have been spending the most time so far with the younger kids' afterschool program. This is mostly because this program is a little short on staff, and the youth program now has about 4 regular helpers and only about 10 regular attendees. There are more than 20 kids running around at the elementary afterschool program site, and without me, there are only 2 other regular staff people most days. I've gotten to know these kids pretty well in the last couple of weeks, and they are great kids. Yes, they're a little crazy at time. Yes, many have their issues. But I love them. I will use two or three kids as an example of what goes on in a typical day.

One boy, the first day I met him, showed up for the program only to be asked by a returning work study from the year before what he was still doing here in the kids program. The boy had already been in 5th grade for the second time last year. This is year number three for him. He doesn't go to the same school as his little sister; she goes to a charter school that he basically got expelled from for acting up too much (nothing crazy or dangerous, he's just a handful). But he's not a bad kid. I wouldn't exactly call him a good kid -- or at least not an angel. But I would not call him a bad kid. Unfortunately, apparently I'm an exception. I can't tell you how many times out of how many different mouths I have heard called just that, "a bad kid," or "He is such a problem." I get angry when I hear it, too ... especially from some of the older women working at the center. If they treat this kid in that way, tell him he's a bad kid, of course he's going to act to fit their expectations, why shouldn't he? Or at least that's what I think. So from the first day he got there, I've let him know what I expect from him -- despite what other may expect of him -- and it's for him to act like the responsible, decent young man I know he is. And he's responded to that, too. He showed me his grade card and we talked about what he needs to do and what we can work with him to help bring up his math grades. Granted, he's not a pefect angel every time, every day -- but he's not a bad kid, nor has he acted like one. And I make a point to say so, and speak on his behalf, when I hear otherwise from other people.

There's another little girl who barely speaks any English at all. She brings a book to the program every day that she is expected to be able to read as part of her homework ... when in actuality, she struggles even to understand what someone else reads to her. But she's a smart little kid -- which is pretty obvious if you watch her work. She works hard. She has these worksheets she works on every day where she has to copy sentences in English about these pictures. She's very precise, diligent, and intent with her work, and her older brother and cousin look out for her and help translate her questions to us and our answers in Spanish. Actually, as she is getting more comfortable with us (the staff members) and I'm getting more comfortable with my Spanish (my Wed. night classes are helping a little, already!) I've been able to talk and work with her more and more even when her brother and cousin aren't around to help. But it just seems crazy to me that she's obviously so behind her class/grade level in many ways -- she struggles to reconize letter names and sounds, mixes up vowel names, not to mention words in stories have yet to have a lot of meaning for her -- but in many other ways, here's a six year old whose well on her way to being billingual. Because, let's be honest, she's in an english speaking school and she's a smart kid, so she's going to learn english. So as long as she's not written-off for being slow or is allowed to slip between the cracks now, while she is a little behind, she is sooner of later going to fly far in front of many kids her age, and is going to be that much better-off.

Other things I've learned working with these kids: it's hard to do homework assignments about idioms and english expressions with ESL kids. It's hard to do homework that involved them proofreading paragraphs for mistakes they've yet to learn to recognize in english. It's hard for a kid who is good at math to do homework with word problems when reading english words is a struggle for that kid. These are all problems I've watched kids at a variety of age levels struggle with, and I'm sure they are thought be some to be slow or stupid because they are having these problems ... when really it's just a language issue, and really these kids have more going for them than the average, monolingual (is that really a word?) student.

As for the youth ... I haven't worked with them as extensively yet. But I am looking forward to next Friday, because Sheenna and I have been planning a college visit trip for a group of students -- some juniors and seniors -- as part of the college readiness course we're going to be doing over the next couple of months. We're taking about 6-15 kids to San Antonio (a good 5 hour roadtrip) to visit a couple of colleges in that area (Trinity and St. Mary's) ... and to see the Alamo and the River Walk. I don't know what the River Walk is exactly, yet ... but I keep hearing about it! And I finally get to see the Alamo!!! I don't know exactly why, but I've always wanted to see it... ever since I was little. And I'm even more excited about making sure these kids see they have options, can set high goals, and there are ways to achieve those goals, and people willing to help them.

I think my typing is starting to lose coherency. This is quite a long post -- I commend anyone who actually reads to the end of it. And here it is. And hopefully the next update will be a bit more timely, but I make no more promises!!