Camille Smith, Post #2

Long story short, after a turn of events last week, my job at Agape has changed. Instead of working in the apartment sites, I’m now spending four days a week at Georgian Hills Elementary, a school in the Achievement School District in Frayser. I’m working alongside the Agape connectors whose job is connecting social services to the students and their families, emphasizing the family unit and linking them to resources. By intervening in instances of behavioral issues, anger, and lack of parental engagement, the connectors alleviate teacher’s concerns so they can focus on simply teaching the students.

Just from being in the school and observing, I’m learning so much. It’s clear that the faculty and staff at Georgian Hills really appreciate what the Agape connectors do for their students. And for good reason, too. The connectors I’ve met are service-minded, enthusiastic people who are intuitive to others’ needs and good at connecting (hence their job title) with the students. Last week, I helped one of the connectors chaperone a field trip to the Brooks Museum. While I spent most of my time talking one-on-one with the students in our group, I admired how the connector was able to bring the group together and interest them in pieces of art by turning it into a game (“how many paintings of farms can you find?”) and even using the art as a learning opportunity (“Look around guys. See where it says B.C.? That means before Jesus was born!”… The kids found this fascinating.) It takes real skill to bring together an entire group of kids, and by observing both teachers and connectors, I’m learning about cultivating relationships of mutual respect that’s necessary to gain interest and attention from students. In my new job, I’ve also enjoyed assisting teachers in their reading and typing classes. It’s allowed me to get to know some of the students as well as gain tutoring experience, which I’m quickly discovering is not as easy as it sounds. Students sometimes give up, don’t want to listen, and occasionally bury their head in their hands as a sign for you to leave. However, the occasions that a student understands the task at hand make all of that worthwhile. On Friday in an education-based typing class, after explaining odd and even numbers to one student, the amount of excitement he expressed when he understood it (even exclaiming to his teacher at another table: “I know odd and evens now!”) was really encouraging.

            Despite that I’m now working mostly at the schools, I’m continuing to assist with the reading program for the apartment sites, printing and ordering books and compiling a skills based curriculum. This has been somewhat challenging because my ability to design the program for Hickory Hill is limited by the fact that I am not at the apartment sites to implement it. I send out the behind the scenes materials and hope that I have communicated the curriculum well enough for it to be carried out. However, this situation has been teaching me a lot about flexibility and doing my best to work with what I have. It’s also helped me recognize that service comes in all shapes and sizes—it does not necessarily equate to the opportunity to use your talents. It rarely looks like another bullet point to add to the skills list on your resume while simultaneously feeling good about helping others. Sometimes, it looks like you standing by a printer that’s running out of toner while searching for more staples, hoping that you’ve printed enough books to send off to the kids. Maybe it’s a monotonous task, but it’s something that’s needed. And that’s what’s important.

            I would also like to comment on the connection between my experiences and our fellowship discussions on transportation and access to food. On Thursday, Breanna and I accompanied our supervisor to an open house event at Georgian Hills for the students’ parents. Before arriving, I imagined at least fifty parents crowded around a school-provided chicken dinner, excited to sign their kids up for more activities because that’s what open house events looked like at my elementary school; parents were eager to keep their kids educated and involved. At Georgian Hills, I was surprised to find that only one parent showed up in the first two hours of the event. Listening to my supervisor talk to some of the other staff members at the event, the issue of transportation came up. Because of lack of transportation, an interfering work schedule, or both, some parents cannot attend open house events. The school faculty members also discussed how to create incentives for parents to attend, and providing dinner was one of the solutions brought up. If parents cannot be very involved in their child’s education, maybe the chance to get a free meal as well will allow them to overcome some of the intervening obstacles. But of course, the issue is complex and multi-faceted, and therefore, will take more than a free meal to turn open house into a well-attended gathering. It’s been interesting to learn about these issues like food and transportation during our Tuesday fellows meetings and to witness their significance when it comes to parental engagement in education.

            So far, these past three weeks have been rewarding, challenging, educational, fun, and eye-opening. I look forward to all that’s in store for the remainder of the fellowship! Below are a few pictures of Georgian Hills Elementary, including the outside of the school on a rainy day and a bucket drumming class taught by one of the connectors.