What we do

So I just realized that despite having this blog now for about 2 weeks, I've never completely described what I actually do in this job. All four of us have cohorts of about 40 students. These students applied and interviewed and were accepted into the program because they had above a 2.0 gpa, are interested in attending a 4 year college or university, and meet certain income requirements (they either qualify for free or reduced price lunch or they don't but face other serious financial setbacks).

I lead two sessions a week six different times. In other words, I teach the same lesson monday afternoon, monday early evening, and tuesday afternoon then I teach a second lesson on wednesday afternoon, wednesday early evening, and thursday afternoon. Sessions are two hours each. My students only attend two sessions per week, one in the beginning of the week and one at the end. During the day Victoria and I lesson plan, do make up sessions with students, harass Mitch and Colin, and blog (today we also got into a lively discussion and research session about whether and for how long humans could survive on celery, oranges, or watermelon). On fridays we gather with all of the other members of our organization and do staff development type activities as well as even more lesson planning.

As far as the content of our lessons, in the Junior year the focus is mainly on ACT prep as well as a splattering of general college prep activities like going on college websites, creating a resumes, and learning about bank accounts (splattering was the appropriate term, no?). Senior year is very focused on preparing college and scholarship applications and involves a lot of workshop time where the coaches work individually with their students as they navigate the college application process. Right now Victoria and I work anywhere between 36-42 or so hours/week depending on weekend events and such. Mitch and Colin are putting in a lot more hours these days because of all of the letters of recommendation/support they have to write and the ridiculous amount of essays they read through and edit.

So, that's what we do! If you have any questions about anything at all, leave a comment! I'd love to hear that I'm not just writing into cyberspace... and that I'm making some sort of sense while I do so.

Meet the Office

Four of us work in the office:

There's me, Abigail , an East Coast transplant to the midwest who never spent a day in public school before starting this job. Dangerous combination? probably. I majored in religion in college but have no interest in becoming a professor... or a minister (well, Rabbi, actually) and I always thought I wanted to teach. Now I'm questioning whether or not I really want to do that- too much bureaucracy in the school system if you ask me, but that's for another post. I work with 40ish Juniors, and I'm worried that they think I'm too nice.

Disclaimer: I am writing these other introductions without the complete approval of my subjects. If they would like to introduce themselves they are free to do so.

Victoria- Victoria is my partner in crime, of sorts. She is the same position with me, and works with 40 other Juniors, though I don't worry that they think she's too nice (that's not to say that Victoria isn't a nice and wonderful person, which she is, just that she's much less of a pushover) . A little Type A, Victoria is always on top of things, usually with a lesson plan written before I even crack open the curriculum. Law school and lawyer-dom is Victoria's ultimate goal, but I think we've convinced her to put off that dream for another year and potentially come back to this job next year!

Colin, aka- Linguistics. In case this isn't painfully clear, Colin was a Linguistics major and, despite having graduated from college quite a few years ago, remains fascinated with the topic. Colin is our returner in the office- he knows the lingo at our school and the people to (and not to) talk to. Colin works with the 40ish students that he helped through their Junior year in their senior year as they begin to apply for college, financial aid, and tons of scholarships.

Mitch- Mitch has the same position as Colin, except that he didn't work with these students last year- which I think would make the job incredibly difficult. Three things to know about Mitch if you are going to continue reading this blog: 1. He's a twin, 2. He makes funny noises on occasion, and 3. HE'S GETTING MARRIED (more to come on all of these subjects, I'm sure). We also harass him the most... sad times for Mitch.

Introductions

Today I was facebook chatting with a friend from my alma mater. He’s interested in the work that I do and the organization that I work with and always asks me how its going. During this conversation, though, he had a brilliant idea: start a blog. Every day I come home from work full of stories- about my students, my lessons, and the inside jokes from the office. Usually I just bore my roommates with such stories, but hardly ever remember them day to day to tell the other important people in my life. That coupled with the fact that I’ve been listening to books on tape so much during my commute that I’ve started to narrate my own life as though my life is a book on tape, made the blog a perfect idea.

As I mentioned, I work for a college access program and I’m based in an urban high school. I think I’ll keep most everything and everyone anonymous for now, until I’m sure that I can’t get in huge amounts of trouble for naming anything. But, here are the basics: The school has a few thousand students- most of the students are minorities, specifically Hmong. All of my students are low income and most will be the first members of their family to go to college.

Our office is located in the library in a room about the size of my mom’s closet (which is actually a pretty nice size). One of our walls is a counter with a large open “hole” that faces into the library. There is a metal grate that rolls up and down, which is what makes me feel like I’m always behind the counter at a concession stand (any guesses how I got to the name of this blog?). Every once in a while I think it would be amusing to give away hot dogs to the students in the library, it would feel appropriate.