Point of Focus

I actually wanted to post a photo of some kindergarteners (prep/foundation kids) but respect for privacy prevents me...so an anonymous looking bus will have to do for this story...
I was in a kindergarten class and got quite a few smiles and laughs from the time I was there in just one session...
The twin girls who were soooo bossy- loved them and then the little boy who arrived from Dominican Republic mid year with little English who now speaks English and wanted help with his review of his year. We managed to get his name and the year and a whole lot of other bits written in his little review book. Then he needed help with what he had learned this year...he very confidently and seriously told me that he had learned that "lunch is food" so that was written into his little review book.

Morning Routine

 In this school in particular at this stage in the year...the count down to the summer vacation ... or the count down to the end of the school year :)

Pen and paper...

Nothing like working on a Saturday ... but it was truly rewarding today- working with a group of teachers prepared to think and work and challenge their ideas and find connections within their work so that they can plan. The humor, camaraderie and preparedness to work hard was great to be a part of.

This was the Un-Planner challenge to include a face- it wasn't my intention to reflect that movie however the whole thing sort of came together.

Through the window and on the walls

On a bright and what turned into a very chilly day the view out the windows was great.

The huff and puff walk up the hill in the Bronx and then the huff and puff walk up to the fifth floor classrooms provides a great vista as reward!

The decoration on one of the walls in the school.

A kinder child's writing

Just loved this piece of writing from a child in kindergarten (5years old).
I had shared some photos of Spencer (the gorgeous cocker spaniel in Footscray and a photo of the beach at Aireys Inlet.

On her own she wrote

Translation?
Spencer is black
spencer does silly things
Spencer plays with the sand in the beach
Spencer is in the beach



Spencer is in Osh-tray-lia (Australia)

Love it!

Monday and the week begins

All day in a school in Brooklyn.
I really liked this piece of art work- each square is one students representation of the icons of Brooklyn. Lovely colourful representation of the area.

It was a thwarted trip to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens- I thought I'd walk through them to the other station on the other side of the gardens- the idea that I could enjoy the beauty of spring in Brooklyn was thwarted- the gardens are closed on Mondays- darn!

 

It's not uncommon for such signs to be displayed in schools. Today I was in a room and a phone rang and there was little done by the teacher but a  member of staff appeared at the door having heard the phone and the teacher merely named the student who got out of their seat and headed to the door and handed over the phone.

Unlike a place where another consultant was and kids used their phones to plague the replacement teacher by setting their phone timers to ring at various times throughout the poor teachers class. The phones being only one of the things out of control in that lesson.

Thursday

Starting at a new school means times spent waiting in offices until one is known enough and allowed to wander into offices unannounced. 

Then there is the ritual of trying to find the bathroom or at least the way to access an adult's allowed bathroom. In this particular instance the area where the support staff work is what I have called the dungeon. The women's bathroom can be accessed via a readily available and easily accessible key. And if the key is not on the hook- or should I say magnet- then the room is occupied and you need to wait. All fabulous but I was warned by the other women don't go there between say 1:55 and 2:10 because that is when the kitchen staff are all getting changed and you will walk in on them "naked". The bathroom we get to use is in their locker room and around that time is the end of the day.

Feeling welcome?

It doesn't take much for me to feel as if I am welcome at a work place. I took this notice on the board in the school I was at. Nice to have myself linked with the word of the day "quality"!

Shadows

The light on the way to work was beautiful had me in search of higher writing to describe the day and so to .... Shakespearean sonnets edited to meet the mood.

Full many a glorious morning have I seen
Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye,
Kissing with golden face the meadows green,
Gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy;
.....
Even so my sun one early morn did shine
With all triumphant splendor on my brow;
But out, alack! he was but one hour mine;
The region cloud hath mask'd him from me now.

Tuesday tutors

It seems like a year ago but it was on January 18 that I decided I should volunteer for something within NYC and registered with NYCares. That was a tad fraught as my blog entry from them records. But I finally managed to be "trained" and now all this time later I have found a project that a) I could get in to and b) I wanted to do.

So tonight I toddled along to my first of a series of volunteering for tutoring. When I registered I hadn't realized it was for such a long period of time but this has worked out well for me (although I have to work next Tuesday at the time the tutoring is - a slight hiccup but easily overcome ie don't tutor and recommence the following week).
I found my way to the address and in to the building on 40th Street. It is actually a "homework" program and I ended up with a group of three children two boys in grade 2 and a girl in grade 1. We got to know each other a little and then got stuck in to getting their homework done and reading their take home books. Lovely kids- all with a bit of get up and go in them. The girl was a live wire minding everyone else's business but her own. A handful! The two boys were helping each other and interested in what they were doing. All were fascinated with my accent.
I had a better run than a couple of other tutors who asked in the meeting after the session

1. How do you get them to tell you their real name? Turns out this wondrous child when asked his name said all manner of things ranging through superheroes from Superman to Spiderman
2. How do you know what their homework is? One lovely child said they didn't have any and they didn't know what it was.
3. Will I always have 5 children in my group?
   

So my three ended up being pretty well the easiest to manage and get on with.

I left at 6:20ish feeling quite exhilarated by it all. Lovely to have conversations with and work with kids.

Saturday at work!

Our first professional development day for the new school year had Joel Klein as guest speaker. He looks so ordinary on TV and in the papers but is very engaging with vast experience and great attittude to what needs to happen in NYC and in education in the US. He described why he felt that the education system it needs fixing but also that it can be fixed. He had great praise for the work of our consultancy work. A principal also spoke, she was full of praise for the consultants who worked with her and helped her build her school's capacity to change. 
We then walked to a rooftop bar on 5th Avenue and had a great lunch and chat to catch up on all we had done over the summer/ winter. most people had been home to Australia so we caught up on news of families and the start of the new school year here. 

The views were sensational and even though it started to rain we were sheltered under giant umbrellas and it was warm and lovely to be outside. 

The rain affected the views but gave a great grey ponderous look to the photos complete with reflection of the lens on the glass!

It certainly was wacky!

It was a journey across or at least under the river to Jersey City for a professional development workshop.
The day began at "sparrow's" (as they say!). 6:15am meet in the foyer with another consultant. Train to 34th St- train to Journal Square in NJ- taxi to the school where we were working.The sign in the hallway was cute but worried me that perhaps I was entering a time warp... even though Welcome Back Cotter was set in Brooklyn.
Set up all my data projector and computer equipment in a room that wasn't conducive to a lot of comfort but it was far better than many others had...

and had a chance to look out the window
Then the first of the three back to back groups arrived and no break or even a chance to come up for air let alone go to the bathroom, until 12:30 and lunch. We then had lunch after which one more session and the chance to head home.
On my way out of the building I noticed the above sight. It is the school's "bookroom"
I have never seen one like it- certainly not in Australia nor here really. It looked like the entrance to an old fashioned bank.
I have never seen so many text books in one space.

After another function back in Manhattan I was totally exhausted... thank goodness it is only once a year that I do this workshop day!

Tuesday takes time!

It was great to have a night at the tennis. The trip out there, finding something to eat chatting with friends and then watching not only the tennis but trying to spot the stars that were there (other than the tennis players).
I finally worked out where Tony Bennett was sitting- he didn't even stand up to make it easier for us! Although "Our Nic" was but a face on the screen- The Age newspaper managed to get a photo of her but we didn't spot her other than on the screen. Perhaps next time!
We enjoyed the tennis but I needed to leave early as silly me planned to work today. I am glad I did work as it has given me a start with the work routine.
It is going to need to be an early night as the early start tomorrow after the late night last night is certainly catching up.

Two in one day!

My collection of photos of lost gloves has expanded as is my reputation for being weird I think. Having vowed to myself that if I see a lost glove or item of clothing then I will photograph it in situ- I now stop mid stride and try to scurry over to a spot so that I am not in anyone's way and then grope for my camera in my handbag. Once I manage to extricate it I then have to not lose one of my own gloves as I hold and shoot the photo using one hand only. One handed photo taking has it faults- the photos sometimes end up quite blurry and too far away but I am not going to zoom the shot- difficult one handed but also it means there is more likely to be blurred shots and they don't crop as well. Why one handed? I'm usually on my way to or from work schlepping my usual clobber or I'm trying to keep hold on my gloves. The black glove was outside CVS on the coner of Malcolm X Boulevard and 166TH St. The bluey coloured one was on W 26th St, I spotted in on my way home from a scrapbooking crop at Cheryl's office. It was so tempting to walk right past it at 11:30pm. There was a large group of people coming up behind me as they walked toward 6th Avenue. So I moved to the side of the footpath sort of pressed up against the scaffolding as I began the find the camera ritual. This was little more anxiety ridden as another young man was hanging around not on the same quest as me but looking for a friends apartment. How did we survive without cell phones? The young man was asking where are you? which buzzer do I press? In my anxiety to not draw attention to myself photographing a lost glove on the footpath I had to take three shots - the third one using the flash but it being New York I am the least weirdest thing they say that night I'd say/ hope!
My work for the day was again highlighted by Ronald who last week asked the wonderful question about the First Lady. Today I was working with a small group and we were talking about the difference between questions and clarification. Ronald said "Clarification questions are different from plain old questions because..." what a great turn of phrase Ronald has.
Throughout schools and this school in particular there are great displays of information about Barrack Obama and the historic presidential election. It is coming up to Presidents Day (and some holidays!!!) and it is also Black History month so there are bound to be many displays linking to the election.

A day down the.....

Actually it wasn't completely bad as I managed to get this photo and an idea for a page that I will do on Friday night but the start of the day was distressing to say the least.
It was a day when "mass transit" was not my major problem, rather it was my inner compass and memory. Having headed to one of the school's I'd visited last week I was on my way to my first day (one of three) at a middle school in Brooklyn. Now I think about it the train journey was a problem last time I went to this school- the feuding pastry vendors however I managed to make an absolute muddle of getting to this place.
It started by my catching the R train as no N train was arriving. I thought that Hopstop was just sending me on the N because it is express but in fact just because the two trains travel to the same location, Canal St, they do not enter the same platform and so my easy quick walk up the stairs to the J train turned into a frantic rereading of signs a 10 minute run around in circles changing from one place to another and finally amidst much mental self criticism.
I arrived at the appropriate station and "exited the building"- I'll blame, initially, the sun reflecting off the snow and dazzling me as the reason I headed in the wrong direction fully confident I was going the right way. After some careful walking along very icy and snow laden paths I began to realize that perhaps I should have doubled checked or even brought a map let alone made sure I had the exact address written down! I stopped an asked a person clearing the pat outside a school , working on the assumption that most people who work in schools know where the other schools are, but not this one! I started back the way I came and met a crossing guard who thankfully knew where I meant and gave me great directions in spite of her shock at how far away I was from the school in question. I eventually arrived at the school 40 minutes after leaving the train station!
The day proceeded pretty well although I am a touch ambiguous about how much I am assisting them in the work they want me to do.
The day was not a complete waste as I managed to get a photo of the principal's bathroom and it had me thinking about the traumas of finding "the facilities" in schools. A story for another day I think....

Chance events

In working with kids in schools there is always the possibility that something will happen that you think "Wow... I'm glad I pursued that!". Such was the case at school today.
I loathe the way some people have kids gather in the carpeted meeting area in classrooms. I know it is an attempt at orderly behavior but it is so impersonal and just not fun. "Table one- come to the carpet/rug" almost military as far as I am concerned. What I tend to do is say "Anyone wearing red come to the carpet." It has kids thinking about something about themselves petty but a little more human.
Anyway on this particular occasion in a grade 4 I asked them to tell me something they had in common with the new president. This was in a school in Harlem where they had heaps in common. The first hand that shot up was a girl in a plaid sweater. I asked her what she had in common with the new president and she pointed to one of the white squares on her sleeve. Both the teacher and I looked a tad startled... did she not know who the president was? .... did she not know her very obvious links to the president? But I asked her what it was she had in common and her reply..... "This square is white and our new president lives in the White House!" Smart kid! We worked our way through all kids some very proudly announcing that they were African American, or from Africa, or had short hair like the 44th president. Once all were settled on the carpet I said I had something in common with the president. The children and teacher's turn to look startled, apart from my being Australian they could see how very white I am. I then proceeded to tell them "I am left handed and Barack Obama is left handed". Great cheers went up from three other left handed kids in the class- yet another connection they had to the new president.
Just as I was going to move on to the purpose of the lesson one boy shot his hand up and said he had a question. It was one of those moments in teaching when you have to decide whether to go with what is happening or move on- I chose to ask Ronald what his question was and he asked "Why is Michelle Obama called the first lady?" Another great five minutes of discussion while we "tried to work it out together" and a lovely segue in to the comprehension strategy we were going to work on "clarification". Thanks to Ronald we had used a whole heap of strategies to clarify the concpet of First Lady. Talk about lucky and fun!
After work we gathered at Mare a bar in Chelsea and then on to Spice for dinner. We caught the subway back home and on the platform someone had dropped their "gummy letters" candy/lollies and look what letters were there- just had to form my name and photogrpah it. A woman near us on the platform was very curious about what we were doing and was shaking her head in disbelief- I think at my egotism rather than my luck.