first day of course coaching

Today was our first day of full time service and of course coaching with the middle school.  From now on, we'll be in school everyday all day Monday through Thursday and at headquarters on Fridays for training. I'm so excited because I miss being at school when I'm at headquarters. Plus, no matter how hard they try, no one can be as cute and entertaining as first graders.
Since we're there all the time now, we started our after school program for the middle schoolers today.  It's called Course Coaching and is basically after school homework help.  I am given three seventh grade girls that I meet with every day from 3:25 to 4:30 where they can work together on their homework and ask me questions. I was nervous about this part because it's just the three girls and me and seventh grade is a lot different than first grade.  They aren't afraid to talk back or just not do what you ask of them.  When I met with my girls, they definitely seemed to be weary of me and were testing me out, but it definitely could have been worse.  I tried playing ice breaker games with them, but they didn't really want anything to do with me, so they just did their work. I mean, it'd be nice to form relationships right off the bat, but if they want to just do their work, that's fine too. I'm sure the relationship will come, it will just take time. I have to get my sarcasm in tune since that's apparently what works best with middle schoolers. I'm nervous for the day that I give  out demerits, but I'm sure it'll come soon enough.  As nervous as I am for course coaching, I'm excited because I think this will be the most challenging part of my day, which will hopefully also be the most rewarding.
On another note, Matt is driving me crazy tonight. He texted me on the way home to say he was making chicken, mashed potatoes and salad.  I was excited to be able to sit back and relax without having to cook dinner for once. WRONG. He didn't know how to cook the chicken or make mashed potatoes and I had to walk him through the whole meal. I basically ended up cooking the chicken and we  just forgot about the mashed potatoes because neither of us knew how to make them from scratch.  By the time we ended up eating dinner, it was 8:30 and I was ravenous.  We also had to fill out this evaluation form for CY and he asked me about EVERY single question.  I was going crazy.  I feel like when I get home from a day with middle schoolers and first graders, I come home to babysitting another one.  DRIVING ME CRAZYYYY!

On that wonderfully positive note (sense the sarcasm I'm trying to work on), it's bed time. Time for another day of craziness!

City Year statistic of the day:
In 2010, 90% of 3rd through 5th grade students tutored by@CityYear corps members improved raw literacy scores