The Week of Snowmageddon

Five days..... It is February 4th and Boston Public Schools have already been closed five days now due to the crazy amount of snowfall that we have received. We got to spend time at YMCA on Monday and Tuesday but had to miss Wednesday as the kids were told to stay home as Boston got murdered with close to two feet of snow. Even though this week was somewhat abbreviated, we still managed to get a lot done in the little time we had at the Y.

One of the best moments of the week, for me personally, was when a group of 50+ sixth graders came running into the gym at 8:30am on Monday and a number of them recognized me. One of my main goals for last week was to become more comfortable with my new surroundings at the Y and as soon as the work week started I was greeted with a number of smiles and 'hellos.' I was already two minutes into my Monday morning when I reached my first goal of the week which was to simply be remembered and feel welcomed.

My colleague Lucy and I spent most of Monday and Tuesday at the YMCA, we spent the mornings assisting with the P.E. classes and the afternoons in meetings with the staff. Being able to split our days like this gives us an opportunity for equal face time with both the students and the staff which is crucial to our success over the next six months. During both P.E. classes the students were given the option of Free Gym again, same as last week. While scanning the gym I noticed a large number of kids just casually shooting around or just standing there so I became a bit proactive. On one court I organized a 5v5 half court basketball game, on another court I organized a game of 'knock-out' and Lucy spent time interacting with the girls who were huddled in their groups on the sidelines. I immediately noticed that these kids have a much better experience and become more active when there is structure behind their activities.

The word 'structure' is going to be a very popular term within my entries as it is not just something these kids want but NEED. Over the next couple weeks we hope to develop and facilitate curriculums in addition to physical activity to help give these kids a healthy mind and body. We hope to start doing this as early as Wednesday when we will be with the "Stay & Play" program which operates with a more smaller audience of about thirteen kids. The result of this may foreshadow our time at the Y as a whole and I cannot be more anxious.

Til next time....