The backdrops I’ve made for our photo booths at our school dances this year! May they rest in peace in the gym closet.
What a Good Week Looks Like
- finishing Harry Potter 3 (in French)
- listening to amazing stories from The MOTH’s community programming
- getting named as AdLo Director for CY Community Service Day
- lovely dinners with friends
- meeting my 1700 hours requirement for graduating from Americorps
- running another successful photobooth at our last student event
- getting an essay published by the Feminist Wire
- taking a half day
- the beginning of a long weekend
…Now all I need is a job.
This is one of our students, Neveah! She is one of the coolest and wisest kids I know. I’m so excited that Jezebel posted this video earlier today because everyone should get a chance to meet her if only a little bit. Big thanks to my teammate’s friend Ian Moubayed who filmed the video!
A City Education: How One Special Math Problem Each Week Boosts Achievement
New York’s state standardized tests are in April, and they’re pretty high stakes: if students don’t pass the math section, some of them, unfortunately, may not move on to the next grade. Since many students here at P.S. 154 struggle to keep their math scores up to par, I and my fellow City Year New York corps members often run multiplication drills during lunch, or play math games with them after school.
While there are also many websites and resources that we can refer students and parents to that provide entertaining and challenging math activities, we decided we wanted to take additional action ourselves. So, in the beginning of January, one of my teammates, Sam, started a school-wide math initiative called the Problem of the Week.
To read this article in its entirety, visit our friends at Good.is
My teammate Laura started the CY NYC trend of doing a Math Problem of the Week! She is awesome and has a great math bulletin board up with the problem of the week, a math comic, and a math quote from famous people. Our students loved it so she started spreading the word to all of the other Math Coordinators. It’s great to see it working in other schools as well! :) Lighthouse zone represent!
One in the air for the people ain’t here.
Two in the air for the father that’s there.
Three in the air for the kids in the ghetto.
Four for the kids that don’t wanna be there.
None for the n***as trying to hold em back.
Five in the air for the teacher not scared
to tell those kids that’s living in the ghetto
that the n***as holdin back that the world is theirs.
Yeah yeah, the world is yours.
I was once that little boy
terrified of the world,
now I’m on a world tour.
I would give up everything, even start a world war
for these ghettos girls and boys I’m rapping round the world for.”
— Lupe Fiasco, “Show Goes On”
Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me… Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.
- Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends
As you can see, I’ve memorized this utterly useless fact long enough to pass a test question. I now intend to forget it forever. You’ve taught me nothing except how to cynically manipulate the system. Congratulations.”
—
Calvin & Hobbes
I am eternally grateful for my knack of finding in great books, some of them very funny books, reason enough to feel honored to be alive, no matter what else might be going on.”
—
Kurt Vonnegut, Timequake
There is no greater agony than keeping an untold story inside you.”
—
Maya Angelou
So this quote and this one are quotes me and my co-literacy coordinator have put up in our City Year office at our school at one point or another. I’ll keep posting these quotes with #cyny to keep a collection going! :)
Emily's first tweets! »
I guest tweeted for NYU Wasserman documenting a day in the life of a City Year Corps Member. If you’ve ever wondered exactly what I do, you should check it out! There have been other CYNY people tweeting earlier this week, and there will be others tomorrow/Friday!
Any book is a children’s book if the kid can read.”
— Mitch Hedberg
