Tremendous Tuesday!

Hey all - happy Tuesday!

We are definitely hitting our stride at KIPP this week.  All of us are starting to feel very comfortable in the school.  We're making friends with the students, really connecting with the teachers, and today we even got to sit down with the Executive director and Principals of the primary, middle and high schools.   We got to see a perspective of people in charge and how things work on the inside.  Two of the women have even been with KIPP: GCP since the beginning (2001)! It was incredibly informative and enlightening - especially because they gave a lot of good personal and professional advice!

I (Meghan) don't have too much to report... I literally spent the entire day grading the 7th grade science morning work! Even though it was tedious, I really enjoyed taking the time to thoroughly read the assignments, answer questions the students wrote on the papers, respond to comments, and correct wrong answers.  I know this is the type and amount of feedback a KIPP teacher would give, and I really wanted to meet those high expectations.  I definitely have a deep appreciation and respect for what these teachers do on a daily basis - they must be superheros or something!  I'm looking forward to the rest of the week, but it also feels like time is running out!

Hey, it's Jackie.  I have had an incredible experience at KIPP every day, but today was probably my favorite so far.  For the past few days I've endlessly been grading papers for various teachers (which can be pretty entertaining when fifth graders don't know answers and decide to get creative) as well as some other miscellaneous tasks wherever needed.  Grading has given me such an appreciation for the work these teachers (and all teachers) put into their jobs.  About four of us were grading Mr. Zhao's (who's an incredibly awesome teacher) papers and quizzes for hours and still could not get them done in one day.  Anyways, today was especially fun because I got to spend almost the whole day over at the elementary school in Ms. V's kindergarten class, observing her teaching and helping the children.  Interacting with the kids was absolutely amazing.  They are the most loving bunch I have ever met and after a couple hours I was receiving endless hugs and already felt part of the KIPP family.  And as Mrs. Cook-Dwight told us today, by the time these kids reach the fifth grade, they will be two grade levels ahead, which shows how hard they are working, even at such a young age!

As the day goes on, we are awaiting a delicious grilled cheese meal which we will follow with our daily reflection.  Tonight we are also going to watch "Waiting for Superman," a documentary that highlights the problems that children face in areas where a quality public education is unavailable.  This will be a great way to learn more about how incredible the program we have been working with for the past week is for the students there.

Alsooooo... Meghan and I(Jackie), with the help of many others (shout-out to Olivia!) are on 500-piece puzzle #2 and Meghan is very proud that her puzzle skills have increased.  It's also really cool to see how so many of us (Nicole, Ann-Marie, Chris, etc.) are teaching full lessons in the class and taking time now, outside of our school time, to work on the planning.

This is such a hardworking group of people and I can't wait to see how much more we can accomplish in the few days we have left and we all hope to leave a lasting impact on the school, even in our short time here.

~Meghan and Jackie :)