As the project continues I’ve realized a number of things in response to my first post. The retention rate of participants in the workshop has been 100% and are gaining from the strategies I have planned for them throughout the course of the first four workshops. The structures I’ve set up for discussions around the readings have worked both to promote an inquiry based learning environment, and create opportunities for me to be able to impart with them some of the craft strategies I find in the works we are exploring. They don’t find them condescending at all, and in fact prefer being read to aloud, and reading to each other aloud as well. In terms of comprehension, participants are great at synthesizing material and looking for ways that craft and content come together.   

    The writing that participants have been submitting has been so full of courage in that they are choosing to write about sensitive material. While they do need support in terms of grammar and some structure, it is evident that they are making choices in scene selection, dialogue, and reflection based on discussions we’ve had during workshop, although these too need more development. My only regret is that we only meet for five weeks, and students have two opportunities to revise their final pieces, with not much time to do intensive whole class workshopping the second time around. In order to compensate for this with this group, I am offering editing support beyond the workshop, with the goal of getting their final pieces published. My goal with the next workshop is to offer more sessions to do more writing and revising in class. 

Rosa

Hey all! This is my first post.

Late, but it is here. I'll share with you some of the questions and insecurities I had before the first workshop started in terms of outreach, accommodation, and maintaining a student body. My first challenge after having developed the curriculum for the workshop was around outreach. The first method I tried in obtaining participants was to send out fliers and letters of introduction to relevant organizations and mental health providers. This got no results. The more interactive, ground up approach worked. I went into community college classrooms and talked directly to the people who would attend. Although I received about 100 individuals' contact information, the effort resulted in four applications returned to me. These four became the founding participants of the project!

My second concern was coming up with strategies to help adult students with their developing skills in reading and writing. My experience in teaching has been limited to high school students, and I had to think about how to use what I know in the context of an adult classroom. I thought that perhaps the use of graphic organizers, reading prompts, and reading aloud would feel like condescending strategies for adults. I knew that if I were to read that vibe, I'd have to adjust my plans to offer the support they need while still respecting their levels of expertise as individuals who have been learners for quite a while, and as experts of much of the content we would be discussing in class. I knew, that on day one, I'd have to do a quick reading of the class.

I had to assess whether I were challenging participants at the right level, offering rigorous and useful learning experiences while providing the scaffolding structures to allow them to gain from the experiences. If I couldn't manage this, I knew, I'd lose participants, and I had only started out with four. I planned to do plenty of checking in throughout the first day, while keeping the need to be flexible in my planning in mind. In the following post I will detail how I dealt with some of these concerns.

Rosa

Sex Ed at Lyric

So my original project hasn't quite taken off yet- it will take a lot more planning than I am ready for at this time, but fortunately, I was asked to facilitate a Sex Ed workshop at Lyric instead. The workshop is two four hour sessions with the trans youth grup at Lyric, and will focus on self advocacy in both the medical setting and in personal relationships, consent practices, and cultivating healthy relationships. I've been working with both the program coordinator for the youth group, as well as a medical assistant at planned parenthood, and I'm excited about conveying all the information I've gathered in a fun and engaging way.
To that extent, I'm going to have the youth practice some writing exercises geared around their own experiences around engaging the medical setting as a trans person. This is to tease out whether they feel supported and encouraged by medical staff, what their experiences have been so far, what they liked or didn't like, and what they would like to see change. We will be doing the same type of exercises for interpersonal relationships, and consent practices around safe sex. I have a wealth of instructional and educational pamphlets from planned parenthood, and we'll be looking at those as a group and deciding what works for us and what doesn't work for us. Then, we will design educational pamphlets made by the group for other trans youth, as an intervention in the information that is currently available.

This is a little strange to be writing a blog posting about something that hasn't happened and won't be happening--or, at least, it won't be happening in any of the ways I had imagined it to happen. Ivy and I haven't found any placements. All of our attempts to get in touch with organizations and people have failed. Mostly we never got a single response from people, but one time a person sent an email back saying they were interested but then after we sent another email saying "cool, we can do it whenever you want," they didn't respond. Maybe we shouldn't have just tried email. Maybe we should have knocked on doors, demanded them to listen to us in some way. I also think it would have worked better had we began talking to organizations back in the fall, before everyone's spring schedules were full. Anyway, it's all been kind of disappointing.

First Intro Session at Parker

I did two intro sessions for the Lion's Den, which includes the Girls Inc. program.  My first session was with about 20 or so fifth grade boys and girls.  My second was with a group of 13 girls in the second and third grade. What I liked most is hearing them recite poems and I set it up as if it was an audition so I could see where they were. Some of them already had memorized pieces, some made things up on the spot and others were so shy they didn't even want to introduce themselves. If they passed on intros I put them all in the middle and some came up with some movements associated with their names that were worth the wait.  I was genuinely impressed with the talent, energy and potential of the group. It was so hype I had to calm them down with the help of the staff on site. 

I really like the staff on site as well. They made me feel supported and welcomed. They also made me feel safe especially given there was a lock down while I was there around 5:30 or 6 pm. I was asked if I heard anything, supposedly some shots were fired near the school and the kids thought they were fireworks. I didn't hear anything but it was a reminder for me to be watchful and on alert when working at Parker and to remember that kids in what some would consider war zones need love and hope too. My warm up game with the all girls group was yes and no, they also did a name game. Only one of the girls was writing poetry and prepared to recite it. Her poem was about her favorite black female heroes. Given I'm the author of She Rose I was pleased with the synchronicity.  I also felt more compelled to share a tribute I wrote about Ella Fitzgerald after she finished entitled "Swing Jazz Cats." This was good choice and allowed me to allow for a little improv myself given I hadn't shared a poem yet. One girl laughed almost all the way through it in pure delight. Others listened intently as I transformed into her character. I asked them to become one of their favorite singers or performers on paper. I could have had them write in that moment but I didn't have that much time. 

I will likely spend most of my time with the older group but I will follow up with that group just in case someone produced something on their own. I do think I will enjoy working with the boys and girls together though. Our boys need to learn self-control and compassion through these improv and writing exercises too. I will use a time keeper in the future and try to follow a strict schedule so I can get the writing prompts in. Next time I want to debrief after every game and find out what they felt, learned and observed. The goal is to stay on the high impact topics, give them some interview questions for tribute poems and produce or attempt two writings each week per visit. I will write a prompt on the board and have them start writing first thing to ensure I get it in, as we move forward and then give them inspiration to write some more through a video, a skit, or another poem. I'm really excited about this teaching project. The kids are looking for a chance to grow and so am I.

Pre-Parker Intro Session

As I prepare to meet with the students at Parker Elementary I'm a little nervous, this is normal for me though. The best way I battle anxiety is to get organized. I have more than one outline or lesson plan/syllabus and I'm excited to share improv exercises and writing prompts but most of all I simply want to connect with the students. The goal is to make sure that I make an impact and get them interested.

I want the students to improve in the following areas:

Reading, Writing and Presenting

The power of positive thinking, breath and visualization

S/heroes or Honoring Legacy 

Effective/ Clear Communication/ Aggressive vs Assertive styles

Managing their confidence level and emotions

I will be working with different age groups and for me this will be a study on who I prefer to work with. I love to improvise my lesson plans too but the goal is to resist that.  So I can perfect a great line up or get them use to a familiar structure. I want them to get some work written, memorized and/or read. I also want to consider any advice I was given at their appropriate age during each visit.

My focus will always be the importance of self-control if the participants get unruly and I will remind them that life is about having fun and being serious. So we may have them sign up accordingly. I will ask them to bring in monologues they are working on or their favorite poems next week, the poem needs to be 14 lines or less.

I want to introduce myself through poem with a piece called "Copasetic" and I'll end by performing "Poetree" at the end and focus on the word connection.  My biggest concern is not having enough time to prepare for a real presentation or create a decent publication. I also know that I'm working with kids who live in a high crime area. So I don't want to make to many promises I can't keep. If I leave and at least one child sees art as a way to heal and hopefully prevent violence. We all win.