We had a training last week about the Alabama Reading Initiative and they explained a little about why we are only working with the middle and upper kids. The first reason is that the teachers are supposed to be working one on one a few times a days with the bottom kids (I have not seen this happening), The other reason is that BirminghamREADS wants us to feel successful at the end of the year and see progress in the kids we are working with. Therefore we are working with the kids that we are most likely to see improvement from. In my opinion this totally labels the low kids as lost causes. If the kids are low and failing this badly I honestly believe it is the fault of the teachers, not of the kids. These teachers are failing to do their jobs in an effective manner. One of the teachers that I work with has all her smart kids on one side of the room and her "retards" (as she calls them) on the other side. She doesn't even try and help the kids that need the help. She just stands there and yells at them. It breaks my heart so much and I so want to work with those kids. I had 3 of the lower kids in a small group and I was leading them through the same thing the class was doing, but at their pace and one of them totally could figure out what he was supposed to do simply by having me there to explain it to him in a way that he understood and then sit with him and go at his pace. I'm really sad that I can't officially work with him.
At the training last week we heard about a study that was done that showed that by the age of 4, kids in higher socioeconomic families had heard/been exposed to 45 million words, whereas kids in lower socioeconomic families had only heard 13 million words. She also said that some places (I can't remember if it was specifically Alabama) choose how many prisons to build based on how many kids are still illiterate by second grade. Tracy, my Americorps co worker who is at the same school as I am, spoke with a woman who does tutoring in prisons here in Alabama and said that the prisons here have an 85 % illiteracy rate. It just goes to show just how important knowing how to read really is.
Bobby and I had a wonderful date day last Saturday. We watched an episode of House (his obsession) and then went to The Summit which is like this HUGE outdoor mall. We went to this awesome Tex-Mex place called Chuy's which has the most amazing food. It's definitely our new favorite place. :) Then we went to see The Town (look for my review soon) We also went to the Cheesecake Factory for dessert. YUM! It was definitely the perfect day <3
So for Americorps I have to do 50 non-Americorps hours of service by the end of the year. Tracy and I went searching for some opportunites this week and found one that we both just fell in love with. Its for an organization called Stand Up For Kids. The mission of this organization is to go out into the streets and meet homeless kids aged 21 and younger and let them know that they care about them and then prove it. I'm really excited to work with them!
I also found a church that I really like. Its called Church of the Highlands and it's a multi campus church that reminds me a TON of Eagle Brook. I really enjoyed it!
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