Best Tuesday Yet!

Always be aware of the wealth of resources you have around you -- and use them when you can!

I was stuck, and HATING Tuesdays. Those are the days I stay after school with 14 girls in grades 3-5 for an hour and make sure they get their homework finished. At the end of the hour some high school girls come and spend an hour with them, as part of the Big Sisters program. (It's from Big Brothers Big Sisters, but we only utilize the Sister part.)

This ritual started in October, after I had been at the school only 1 month, with no formal training on how to handle a group of 9-11 year olds. (Keep in mind, I work with only K and 1st grade all day, everyday.) The hour would consist of super-chatty girls that talked back to me, didn't get their homework done, and found lots of ways to waste time. There was no respect or real discipline to be had, since there was a lack of structure.

I was frustrated and I knew it didn't have to be that way. Luckily, I was able to vent my frustrations over dinner with a gentleman named Mike, another Notre Dame-AmeriCorps member from Dayton, Ohio. His specialty was working with kids in the same age range as those in my Big Sisters program and he gave me a lot of insight and a new perspective on a couple of things that had happened to me over the past few months.

When I got back to Cincinnati, I stayed a little later in the teacher's lounge to talk to the higher grade teachers and ask their advice. They gave me a couple ideas I could try and this Tuesday I went in armed and ready. I had my list of rules for the hour, new seating chart and all. Before we even went to the cafeteria I told them 'this is how it's going to be'. If the rules were broken, they would lose 5 minutes with their Big Sister because, after all, participating in the program is a privilege, not a right, and they should not be rewarded for disrespecting an adult for one full hour.

It must have gotten through to them because that was the quietest (and easiest) Tuesday for me yet this year. They sat in their assigned seats, did their homework, were respectful to me and each other, and hey, it even seemed to change their demeanor for the second hour with their Big Sisters. They were quieter, calmer, and seemed to have valuable conversations with their Big Sisters instead of being loud and somewhat out of control.

It was a great challenge for me to put down my foot like that and demand results from the students, but it really felt good to not have to argue and have a power struggle for an hour. It's really a win-win: They can be more focused on their homework so they have less (or none) to do at home later, and I can go home feeling more relaxed and less on-edge.