Day 10 – Long Term
Roosevelt Day 4
The fact is, I have a stronger bond with the Banneker kids and Mrs. Brinkman than the Roosevelt class and Mr. Spikes. I was sick one week and went to the White House another, so this is only my fourth day there. I also know that Nicole is there on Monday and Wednesday every week, so I’m sure they have more of a connection with her. I really like the kids and Mr. Spikes, but not being there has a cost.
The other day I was showing my friends the Banneker newspaper that I was so proud of and they were thoroughly impressed. My friend Mary asked which school it was from and I said Banneker. She said she’d looked into volunteering there, but the general feeling was that those kids were too privilged to deserve help. I knew from the outset that Banneker was the least rough school Prime Movers went to, but this still stung a little. I was so proud of what we’d done and I’ve felt so much a part of their newspaper community, that hearing that what I was doing wasn’t that big of a deal hurt. Of course, that’s not what Mary was saying at all, but that’s how I take things.
Banneker’s not free of problems – I don’t think any school is, DC or not. But I need to accept that the kids at Banneker are in different situations than the kids I work with at Roosevelt, and that goes for the kids from Ballou who were on the White House trip. I think they all deserve attention, but different kinds.
Mr. Spikes asked me how the White House trip was and I said how much I loved it and how we got to go back and speak to Ms. Smith, the deputy press secretary. (I wrote her an e-mail a few days ago thanking her for talking to us and for her remarkable work and she wrote back saying it made her day. That always feels good. I also need to write to her about interning pronto.) He said he was hoping he could get two of his kids on a trip, and that he’d love to go. I really want to talk to Saudia about this because I definitely see a few of these kids being interested and deserving. I’d really like them to have the experienec I was lucky enough to stumble into.
After we watched the morning news broadcast we listened to the audio projects the kids worked on yesterday, each commenting on what we liked and what could be improved upon. They all did a pretty good job putting their voice over a music selection and it is great to see how much these guys can do.
They filled out an Adobe Audition worksheet to increase their familiarity with the program and Mr. Spikes and I went back to speak with the head of the PTA and a journalist who was interested in helping out with class projects. Mr. Spikes seems tired a lot of the time. He puts so much into his class and has so much faith in them, but they can be lackluster. (Today, for example, most comments on each other’s work were, “it was good. I liked it.” He had to really push for more detailed critiques.) But when he was talking with them, it felt like he got all of his fire back. He seemed really excited, and kept saying how he was trying to put all the resources he could in this class (the two interns, his journalist friend, perhaps this new journalist). He also seemed thrilled at the idea that he could get the kids back for the second semester. Having a whole year to work on things is such an advantage. They can do so much more.
Next week we’re going to start working on projects for a contest where the kids could win $1000 for their classroom as a whole, or iPads for individual work. They’ll be shooting ads to promote college, so it’s a win/win/win.
Oh and I didn’t get lost once today.
