This week, we were both filled with anticipation as we anxiously await Dec. 17 when we will be flying home. It was also a wonderful week of celebrating the Christmas season.
This week at school, the other tutors and I were asked to help chaperone a field trip with the whole 7th grade. They seemed pretty desperate, so we agreed to go to Finance Park that Wednesday. On Tuesday, I called out to a girl that I knew as I was leaving school, "What grade are you in?" She replied, "6th grade, why?" So I said, "Oh, I thought you might be going on the 7th grade field trip tomorrow." Amazed, the boy next to her exclaimed, "You're in 7th grade!?!?" Kayle seemed to think I should share that story, though I have no shortage of incidents that reveal how I look younger than I actually am. Most of my students are incredulous when I tell them I'm married.
Anyway, the actual field trip was both insane and educational. It was insane because the buses were at capacity with 59 people and we fit 65 (counting kids and adults) in each of two buses for a 40 minute bus-ride each way! Not only that, but I was the ONLY chaperone on the way there to sit farther back than the first two seats (I sat in the middle), so I was mostly on my own in enforcing rules and general order. Thankfully, Allison (another Americorps) sat with me on the way back to school. Finance Park was an awesome concept! The kids were given little "debit cards" with a gross income, family size, age, and tax amounts on it. From that, they had to calculate their take home pay (given taxes) and make financial choices in 25 different areas, paying the bills on time for each one and making sure to save and have a positive balance at the end of the month. I had a lot of good conversations with kids about deciding how quickly to pay off a credit card balance, figuring out the insurance rates for the cars and houses they chose, and what to cut back if they went over budget. The kids were even assigned 5 stocks to follow as the prices changed 3 times throughout the day. The people who ran the program did a good job making the kids think hard about how the choices they make now might affect them financially in the future. They pointed out the lifetime difference in income between a college and high school graduate and even mentioned how their grades now (and in high school) might affect how much money they'll have to pay for college. Most of the kids stayed busy with the assignments the whole day, and it kind of made me wish we had had something similar in middle school, high school, or, even, college. I think it definitely helped kids put into perspective how to budget in needs and wants as well as live according to your means to stay out of debt. Some of the kids said it was "boring," but, regardless, it would have been hard for them to leave without having learned something valuable. (I talked all day to kids about how valuable that information would be later and how much of the math and decision-making I personally use in my finances.)
This week was pretty good for tutoring as well. I'm really proud of one of my ESL students who is making noticeable progress in reading and sounding out words. His mom is anxious to help out at home, so I sent her an extensive letter describing my work with him and giving practical suggestions for helping him progress in reading, writing, and math. I've already seen him come back with "homework" he's done, and he tells me he's already learned the next two lists of sight words beyond what we've practiced at school.
I slso have a trio of 8th graders that are really tough, but we made a new agreement this week. They each signed a behavior contract with me and will be able to come to a pizza party at lunch if they do well for 20 out of 26 school days (until the end of January). So far, the day I didn't have them for tutoring, all three got kicked out of class for disrupting, so we'll see if any progress is made. I think all three passed their test on Lewis and Clark though, so that's a start!
My 6th graders that I have for 2 hours each day alternate between rambunctious and super productive. On Thursday, the class had a sub, so I helped out in the classroom instead of pulling out students to work in a smaller group. The class that day was out of control with talking and moving around and not working. I helped as many kids as I could with the assignments, but a good portion of the kids saw the day as a free-for-all and the sub had little respect. I wrote the teacher a long note with all the students who did well, and it sounds like the rest will be copying a good size paragraph about respecting substitute teachers on Monday.
Finally, it sounds like our next literacy event will be piggy-backing off an 8th grade parent night. We went to a meeting after school with the 8th grade teachers to ask to help out with their parent night and do activities with the students while the parents are discussing the possible school closure and how to prepare their kids for high school. We have to do 4 literacy events according to our Americorps grant for our school, so we'll be pretty busy planning most of those next semester.
Kayle's team at work is working hard at debugging before leaving for the holidays. He's been really busy lately and the general stress level of his co-workers is up right now. I asked Kayle if he was stressed, and he said, "Nope. I don't have enough responsibility yet." A typical, laid-back, Kayle response... In other news, Kayle loves programming so much that he's creating a pinochle game in Visual Basic. This is to "practice" the programming language and, hopefully, create something we can use to play pinochle online.
On Friday night, we had a wonderful evening. We were invited to a formal dinner for leaders of the church youth group and their spouses. It was organized by 6-8 mothers of kids in the youth group, and they did a phenomenol job of "appreciating" us. We got all dressed up (Kayle in a suit, Angie in a long black velvet dress) and ate a 5-course Italian meal. The table was decorated even fancier than a wedding banquet with candles and fresh flowers in the centerpieces. We ate appetizers in the living room before sitting at our placecard at the table and enjoying homemade soup, fresh french bread (with dipping oil), caesar salad, asparagus, chicken parmesan, and pasta. The meal ended in the living room again with a chocolate-raspberry dessert with ice cream and drinks from an espresso machine. The ladies were so sweet in serving all the food and drinks. It was very special. Then, to top it all off, they sent us home with some extra soup, some jars holiday cookie mix, and 2 $20 Starbucks gift cards (one for each of us). We were so touched by their generosity, especially since I haven't been helping there that long yet. It was a fun time, and Kayle got to meet some of the other leaders. One, Abby, is flying out to Chicago on the flight just before ours on the same airline.
On Saturday, we picked up about 40 books that were being donated by someone in Kirkland and ran a few errands in the morning. At night, we went to the biggest white elephant gift exchange I've ever seen since the days of Peace Youth Group. Brenda and her roommates had about 40-50 people over to their house for some Christmas cheer. We knew about half the room from church or through other friends, so it was a good time of hanging out and laughing at the many goofy presents. Among the best were a calendar of "extreme ironing" photos, a pregnancy test (opened by a very embarrassed girl), a single Magi statue, a TV (dragged across the room by a very small boy who, despite mom's protests, was determined to open the biggest present), and a large box of wedding bubbles (that still had the tags with the couples' names). We laughed a lot and ended up taking home a cribbage board (Kayle is so lucky...) and a Japanese-style lamp. Then, as we left, we were excited to see it snowing!! It snows here only a few times each year because of the proximity to the ocean. There were a lot of radio rumors about it possibly snowing this weekend, and it made it officially feel like the Christmas season to have about an inch of snow on the trees and grass. Until now, it really didn't seem like the middle of December to us yet, because, though most of the leaves have fallen, it usually stays about 40-50 degrees outside with snow only visible on the distant mountains. At this point, I'm all in favor of trading rain for snow!
Today, Sunday, is our official 6 month anniversary or, as Kayle puts it, our "half-anniversary." We enjoyed going to church and hearing about 2 Corinthians 8 regarding generosity in these troubled economic times. I guess the Today Show taped the sermon and is interviewing our pastor this afternoon. I'm not sure when that show will be aired, but the sermon was good and is online at www.marshillchurch.org. The rest of the day was spent relaxing, playing some cribbage, doing laundry, and planning for our trip back home. We wanted to come home to a clean house after break, so we are working on eating all our perishable food (essential for cleaning) and scrubbing/vacuuming/dusting. For dinner, we made our first frozen pizza at our new home...and it was a disaster! Kayle didn't read the instructions on the box and thus did not bake the pizza in the little browning tray it came with. I guess the crust can't support itself well when placed directly on the oven rack, because, about half-way through cooking, Kayle ran upstairs and dragged me back downstairs to see the pizza. There was a ring of crust on the second rack and a big pile of all the toppings blackening on the floor of the oven. I guess they don't make frozen pizzas like they used to!
Well, only 3 days left before we arrive in good ol' Grand Rapids. We can't wait to see family (especially meet Kayle's new sisters), high school friends, and significant snow! You are all in our thoughts and prayers...
With loving anticipation,
Angie and Kayle
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