marvelous monday

Today was a pretty awesome Monday.  The kids in my morning classes were really great.  The student I've started working with pretty regularly, Ray,  was on top of his game.  When he found out they had to answer questions out of the book, he looked at me and was like "Ms. Russo, you gunna help me?" which was secretly really nice to hear.  The kids don't really show that they like adults all that much, and that was a pretty big sign that Ray kind of, sort of likes me.  He didn't even need my help and did all of his work, which is the complete opposite of how he is in other classes.  Apparently, he's a complete nutcase in other classes, walking around the classroom, always talking, etc.  I really like him, though, and he's easily becoming one of my favorite students. 

After lunch, I was a little tired and the kids were wild (they always are in the afternoon).  After school was awesome, though.  One of the teachers teaches a college application class for the seniors who are college bound.  Since almost all of them will be the first in their families to go to college, they don't really know where to begin applying or how to do it all, and they definitely don't know all of the tricks of financial aid.  So, she has this class that basically helps them apply to college.  Their homework assignments are writing their essays and their tests are to have applications submitted by a certain date.  So cool! I wish that had been a class for me!  Anyways, she also hosts like "college prep study hall" after school and City Year has been helping out with it.  There were like ten students who stayed and I helped two of them with filling out their applications.  It was awesome. It's so much fun to work with students when they actually want to do the work. There wasn't any resistance or complaining because they wanted to do the work.  So nice.  

We had to go back to the office after work for our weekly meeting, which was fine. I don't really mind staying late because we have a ton of stuff to do. Plus, Jay, the Executive Director, bought us pizza and wings for dinner, so I can't really complain too much. :)  I'm at the office all day tomorrow, too, which is nice. As much as I love the students, I like working at the office. 

Oh, and my friend Pat, who was on my team last year, sent me a picture of a couple of my students from last year and I almost started crying.  He's working for the after school program at NHCS and gets to hang out with my kids a few days a week. I'm so freaking jealous. I miss them and love them tons. I can't wait to go and visit them.  

Oh and one last thing, I bought my ticket home for Thanksgiving last night! I'm so so so excited! Can't wait to be home!

"A smile is a curve that straightens everything out."