Final Blog

     I'm an idiot, and I forgot to do my last blag post, so here it is. I coincidentally did a reflection post as my last blog for some reason, so this one will be about the final week or so of school. So, I took my last final on Friday, the day this should've been posted. Oops. I didn't realize how I early I finished everything until I started asking other people. Here I am writing this as my other friends are scrambling for their finals. When I tell my friends from back home that I'm already done with school, they tell me how they still almost have a month left until they can say the same.

     So, being that I finished everything up on Friday, I could've gone home but I didn't. Friday was also the day I got my move-in information for the summer, which is the time slot in which I can move my stuff from White Hall to IV. My move-in day is April 29, which is super inconvenient, and since I finished on a Friday, bus tickets were expensive for that weekend, so I couldn't go home on a cheap ride. Since my parents work and there aren't any buses that go directly to the amazing Andover, New Jersey, I couldn't take a bus during the week. So, I'm stuck here until my move-in day. Fortunately, though, I get to go home after for a couple of days before coming back here. I'm seeing Avengers: Endgame which I'm super excited about, because I'm a huge Marvel fan. I'm seeing it with my boys Joey and Jaiden when I get home.

     I'm kind of excited for summer classes. I have a very strong plan for how I want the summer to go. I'll go to class, I'll start working out again, which will be nice, and I'll start eating healthier. I'm also going to try to be active and outside as much as possible to enjoy the nice weather. So, it's looking like it's going to be football and spike ball all summer for me. My sister is coming up at some point too, and I think that'll be fun. She hasn't had the chance to visit since I got to school, so this'll be the first time. After classes, I get to go home for three weeks, which is going to be exciting. It's not enough time to do anything big, but enough time to see everyone before I leave for Egypt.

My Final Blog for This Class

Well, here it is, my final blog post. I am kind of happy that this weekly blog posting is going to be over. Please do not get me wrong. I loved this class and it was a highlight of my spring semester. Weekly blog-posting, on the other hand, was really getting to me. In the beginning, it seemed like I would enjoy this assignment but only a month into the semester I have realized how troublesome it would actually be. It got even harder when I ran out of possible topics to write about. Oh well, I do not see a reason to ramble about it any longer, since this is my last blog post.

This class was indeed a great deal of interesting experience, despite all those hurdles with blog-posting and volunteering. Talking about volunteering, I have already written a reflection blog-post on my volunteering experience at OBrayn't. I do not think it is worth retyping the same thing all over again, but I would like to reiterate a short summary from that post. 

I was never fond of volunteering because of how frustrating and time-consuming it is. I have had some volunteering experience back in Uzbekistan and that only reinforced my position that it is not my cup of tea. When I realized that this class would involve volunteering as a part of the curriculum I was not really really happy about that. I had no choice but to comply and volunteer.  I would have never thought that one day I would be tutoring English to high school students. As a volunteering tutor, I have learned that tutoring at writers’ room was not only about English or writing in general, but about the communication between individuals and how collaborative work can help people achieve better results. 

After almost 20 hours of volunteering, I have to admit that it was worth it. I am glad that I was urged to do that. Because of this experience, I was able to expand my understanding of volunteering. However, I still think that volunteering is not my thing. 

Switching back to the in-class experience, once again, it was a blast. I would have never thought that a writing class in college could be so much fun. I was really surprised that our group bonded so quickly and turned out to be really supportive. I will miss those heated debates we had in class and of course everyone's favorite, attendance questions. I wish that all of my class could have this kind of attendance roll call. Alas, in some classes it would just cause pure chaos.  

I would like to end this last blog post by saying that this kind of experiences make our lives a bit brighter and keep us moving forward. 

Thank you very much for being so awesome and good luck everybody!

(A_G)

Final Blog Post

I did not expect to have the time that I did at 826 Boston. This has two meanings. The first meaning is literal. I did not know that the section of First Year Writing that I signed up for was going to be a service-learning section, so I did not expect to spend time at 826 Boston. The second meaning is that the experience that I thought I was going to have was completely different from the experience that I did have. After the long and thorough orientation, I expected the tutoring to be a blur of attempting to help kids at the John D. O’Bryant School but failing since I’m not the best at writing papers, and I was in the same position as the kids about a year ago. My class schedule conflicted with most of the tutoring times, so I ended up doing the evening tutoring on Mondays and Wednesdays. This meant that my tutoring would be at 826 Boston instead of at the O’Bryant School, and the students that I would be tutoring would be in elementary school instead of in high school.

On my first day of tutoring, I didn’t know how everything was run. Since there were already tutors for writing, but there weren’t any for math, I was asked to tutor math, which was surprising. My first day seemed incredibly fast, but I got to help a few kids. After that, it became easier every time I went. I got into the routine of helping kids and knowing how different subjects were taught at different tables, and I became better at pacing myself with the students. I was asked to tutor a different subject almost every time, and many times one student would stick with me to help him with all of his homework. I had a few kids who would routinely do this, so I got to know them pretty well.

Overall, I taught math, science, history, and english, often multiple subjects each day. As it got closer to the end of the semester, not as many students came to the evening tutoring sessions. On a few of these days, I was asked to help kids who were in the NOVA program. This program has students write a scientific research paper. I got to help with the research collection and the beginning of a first draft with one of the students. She was writing her paper on the effects of stress on students in elementary school, high school, and college.

Throughout my time at 826 Boston, I met new students, taught various subjects, and grew in my ability to help and communicate with kids. I also found the time that I spent there to be helpful to me because I learned more about my writing by reflecting on it and giving the good parts as advice. At first, I thought that tutoring would take up a lot of time and I would dread it, but it became a place for me to forget about my academics for a while and help the community, one student at a time.

Signing off, this is Adrian,

over and out.

last post

            Sadly, this is my last post. After a long semester of working with 826 volunteering, I could say that I’ve actually learned a lot. Coming into this experience, I had no idea what I was getting into. This is mostly because I no one ever told me this would be a service learning course, but, in the end, I am very glad it was. Before working at O’Bryant school, I did not have very much experience volunteering or even tutoring. I’ve always seen myself as a bad writer and hearing that we were about to have to teach these kids, who were barely any younger than I am, how to write seemed like a difficult task.

            When the first day came along, it did not seem any easier. I did not know how to approach the kids, or even what to do once I had. The training session that 826 provided us barely prepared me for what I was actually going to do. All they taught us about was what to say when talking with the kids, or what not to say, or how to help their writing. In the end the only thing they really need to prepare us for is that awkwardness when approaching a kid, teaching them to write was simple because they are high school kids, they are completely clueless, and you only need to teach them the basics. My first day I felt so weird just walking up to the students, kneeling next to them and saying hello, so awkward, it made it hard to teach.

            By the second session, I started getting into my groove. There are things you are supposed to do once you kneel that the training session never taught me, such as kneeling to their eye level, introducing yourself, having a conversation, creating a sense of comfort so the student will be more talkative, and better yet that helping them is just rewording their sentences. The students are really smart already, all I really have had to do was make them understand that their writing is their own, not the teachers’, and to write their theses for something they believe in and are interested in. My main method for trying that was to make sure the student always explained to me their thesis out loud, without looking at the computer, and then dig into it further by questioning some of their points making them elaborate and discover perspectives they have not seen. These were my intentions; I hope I was successful in them. I came with this strategy simply because it is something somewhat do in my own writing, and that’s minly how I learned from them. Being understanding of what it is I do in my writing, allows me to do it better. Now when I write I try to always see each point from as many perspectives as possible as my make my arguments more thorough.

Damn dude, hitting me in the feels

Okay so starting this off by saying that I have had an amazing Freshman year of college, a statement I NEVER expected myself to say. This year was truly something special for me and I found myself blossoming into a whole new person. I allowed myself to be true to me for once instead of being true to what people think I am. And this writing course, oddly enough, was one of the factors that helped that come to fruition. The discussions that were spawned allowed me to really speak my mind and listen to other's opinions and form new ones for myself. So, being completely honest, I will miss this class. Now, I could go on about my love for Sebastian Stockman and his Wednesday/Friday 11:45 to 1:25 First Year Writing class, but that's not the purpose of this blog post.

I'm here to talk about my experience at the O'Bryant. I don't think I could have been more forlorn about beginning my tutoring session on the first day, and I definitely think that my attitude towards the day impacted my actual experience. I thought the first day was awful frankly. I did no meaningful work and found it impossible to connect with a single person in the room. Heather scared me, Claudia was following Heather's tailcoats, and Annie and Bryce were both incredibly quiet, and the students were either intimidated by me or had no interest in asking for help. I felt really alone for two hours and kind of wanted to cry (and that's not being dramatic). I felt more relieved than ever leaving the O'Bryant that day. The next 3 weeks or so went along a similar vein, mostly due to the work that the students were tasked to complete. It was all very preliminary work on an essay that I had no idea how to help with, so I didn't know how to help out, yet I was constantly being pressured to help. Once the first half was over, we went on Spring Break, and then upon coming back I noticed an immediate change in the dynamic at the Writer's Room. Heather suddenly eased off (just a little though), Claudia was a brand new person and she seemed more genuinely herself, Annie was energetic and passionate about the work she was doing, and Bryce was really kind and welcoming. The students were still intimidated and/or didn't want help with their work, but since these kids were older than the other class (also AP students) the dynamic was a fair amount less severe. I overall began enjoying my time more. The next two weeks of volunteering went better than the first four, but the real change came in the seventh week. When I walked into the room that Tuesday morning, I noticed one more face than normal, Kefi was there. Now I'm not saying that Kefi was a grace from God or anything, but there was a distinct difference in the room with her there. As a white kid in a school environment with primarily people of color, I felt like there was a difference of experience that I didn't have that the students I was working with did have. However, the kid's all acted very differently when Kefi was there. Obviously not trying to put her on the spot or point her out, but I do credit her as being one of the main reasons why I started enjoying my time more. Everyone got along swimmingly the last two weeks and when the final day came, I noticed that everything about that day was leagues better than the first. I was able to help more and do more significant work with the students thanks to my more positive mindset, and I ended the day with one major thought: I was way sadder about being done with tutoring than I expected. Not that I was SAD that it was over, but it was less of a "thank the lord I'm out". So that is my main takeaway from the O'Bryant. Attitude and environment has a significant effect on everything you do. I am going away from everything happy with what I have learned and overall knowing that I will continue on actively trying to make my attitude as positive as it can be.

So to end it off, if any of you actually read this, I hope you do the same as I learned to do. I have so much respect for each of you and I hope to maintain contact with you for the remainder of our college experience. I'll miss our time spent together this semester but I leave it knowing I am a better person because of you all, this time being completely dramatic.

For the last time this semester,
Peace and love from Ya Boi Calvin

End of Course Reflection

It’s so weird that this semester is over. Scratch that, that this school year is over. It literally feels like I moved in just a month or two ago and that I’ve barely started taking college classes. But that’s not the case at all. Just feels so weird and surreal I guess.

I’m sad this class is over. I remember hearing at orientation (I think) that First-Year Writing was a required course, and I wasn’t happy, but I was hopeful that I would not have to take it because I took a dual-credit world literature course in high school with Loyola University Chicago. I thought that this was similar enough to AP Lit that they would give me credit, but alas, I was only given elective credit. So, when I was signing up for this course last semester, I wasn’t thrilled about choosing a writing class, but I was adamant about finding a professor for FYW that had positive reviews. I’ve had my fill of subpar English teachers.

This class has been a different kind of challenge than the rest of my courses at college so far. Most of my courses have been business/economics courses, so they’ve all had a similar feel to them. This class has a much different vibe and I liked that change of pace. While many of my business class have been discussion based, I felt like most of the discussions had a predetermined outcome; there was always a reason we were having a certain discussion at a certain time. I didn’t feel that was the case when we had discussions in this class -- we would always have something that kicks off a discussion (very often an attendance question), and then the conversation would just kind of naturally flow for the rest of class.

Also, as I previously mentioned in past blog posts, I honestly was unaware that this class had a service learning component, so I was very surprised when it was mentioned like the first day of class. I was kind of excited when I knew this, and then after going a few times to the YMCA (where 826 held after-school sessions for a few weeks), I definitely wasn’t very into it and wasn’t looking forward to going each week. But, as time went on and I became more comfortable with 826 and all the students, I learned to like it a little more. When Cam and I went to our last service time last Thursday, so many of the students seemed so upset that we were leaving and it really touched me to know that I made a difference to the students (some of whom I didn’t even remember working with). Working at 826 made me realize how much I miss interacting with kids since I started going to school away from home. I’m glad 826 provided this opportunity for me.

I hope that my future English classes are like this one, even though I don’t expect to take many more (outside of Advanced Writing which is required). I really did like this English class a lot more than I’ve liked English classes in high school. Who knows… maybe I actually like English now?!

I’ll miss you Sebastian!

Lucas

826 Service Reflection

It was my first volunteering service to work for months with high school kids whom I feel the most relatable too since I was in the same position a year ago. Honestly, I thought that this was not going to turn out great. I thought that I would always be nervous with the new students and afraid to teach anything because I know that I do not have enough knowledge to teach. I remember the first time I went to the writing room with my classmates, and I said that I would want to gain the confidence to teach something to people. Well, the first day of volunteering was awkward as expected. I visited a lot of students in different classes that reminded me of myself back in high school. For 30 minutes, I had a chat with the students about questions that they were interested in college life. Well, that was simple to answer. Gaining slight confidence, I came back to meet new students, but I struggled a lot more than the last service day. One refused to let me sit beside him since he’s not too comfortable with new people. Others were in their world chatting about things besides their essays. I struggled really hard thinking when and where to fit and actually start talking; I expressed this in my previous post blogs. Fortunately, things got a little day by day. I realized that nobody is going to scream for help unless I step up to the students first and open a discussion about their life besides studying first. Then, when I ask about what they were doing, they start answering my questions actively and focus back on their essays or research papers. The anxiety of my lack of knowledge in writing disappeared as students kindly explained to me what was going on and asking specific areas they want to write about but can’t express. My previous blog posts were mostly positive: students were active, faculties gave structured schedules, and everything was fine. However, now going back to the comments, I think I was a bit flattering. There were several difficulties with communication that I wish to fix. I hope in the future, the staffs and faculties establish a simple activity so that the students and volunteers can create friendship and move forward easily with the writings. My advice for future volunteers in 826 Boston or any place is to recommend the activity and be always confident with yourself. Then, the students might also share their stories and opinions of their point of view in writing.