This past Thursday was one of the best sessions I’ve ever had with a student. We accomplished very little homework, but that was not the point of this session. The student came in with watery eyes and a lot of stress. It was clear she had something on her mind and needed to talk. I became a mentor, but I was surprised at the depth of her struggles. All at once, she was worrying about not being able to financially contribute to her family, getting into a prestigious college, paying for that university, and finding work. It was a lot to unpack, but as we talked about life and future, she regained her composure. In the end, we may not have completed too many PowerPoint slides, but she walked out of our session, no longer overwhelmed, with avenues to explore many of the more important areas in life.

Contributed by Dustin Jones

Last week I worked with a student after he took a test for his English class. He had two prompts to choose from to write an essay about Julius Caesar. He quickly chose the prompt that required him to write an essay describing why the characters of Julius Caesar were easy to relate to or not. I asked him his opinion and he replied, “They’re easy to relate to because Caesar was conceited…like Kanye.” I was so impressed with this response, his ability to connect the text to the world, that I immediately knew where we were going with the essay. Throughout the class period, we created an outline for his essay, in which he related the three major characters to examples in popular culture and examples in his own life. It was remarkable to see a high school student so readily relate to Shakespeare. We ran with the essay and by the end of the class period, he had written half of his essay already!

Contributed by Kristina Albarello

A quick feel-good anecdote. When we went to Mr. Adams’ AVID class this week, I got a chance to work one-on-one with a student who regularly comes to our Thursday writing group. We spent the class talking about all the good things she does and her plans for the future (a fringe benefit of the résumé assignment from our end, no doubt). It was a productive session that I really enjoyed. But what’s most interesting and uplifting happened at the end of our time when the bell rang and Mr. Adams passed out flyers to all of his student for an upcoming Shortridge Bingo Night event. At first, she talked about how she wanted to go, until she noticed the fine print stating that the activity is designed to promote literacy. “It’s supposed to be educational – I don’t want to go,” she said. To which I replied, “Does that mean you feel the same way about our group?” Without hesitation, she responded, “No, your group’s not like that at all. Your group is freedom.”