Welcome to AmeriCorps- My Week One of Service

Week 1: Welcome to AmeriCorps

Week 1: Welcome to AmeriCorps

From the very beginning of the day on Monday the 27th of August, I felt like I was professionally coming home.  And that feeling has lasted through the week. I want to soak up this feeling and this energy and carry it forward with me for the rest of the year and beyond.

This first week has been powerful.  I’ve already learned some lessons about myself that I had not known I needed to learn.  That’s the wonderful thing about being in a room of intelligent, driven, caring people with a common goal.  Some times it inspires, sometimes it pushes us to do better, and occasionally it challenges us to face truths about ourselves in order to become a better person.

I find myself learning from the perspectives and experiences of my fellow members; and hopefully able to teach or inspire them with my own experiences. I have a feeling this is going to be a very good year, if only for that reason.  And yet, there’s more.  

The list of planned excursions and professional development sessions through AmerciCorps has me excited for the weekly training days on Fridays.  

I also received a book on Cultrually Resposive teaching the very first day of training.  I am referring to Zarretta Hammond’s Cuturally Responsive Teaching & the Brain which I am mining for all its shared wisdom.  And jives very well with both the concept of Narrative Change and the MyScore tool for Social-Emotional Learing that Project Change has developed to help students identify and track their own Social Emotional-Learning with our support.

I truly feel inspired by all of this and the support I will be receiving.  I can’t wait to dive in and get to work with Students again.