ESL Class Story Circle #1

Sigrid and I had a story circle of sorts with an adult ESL class at Pacoima Skills Center. The teacher, Arlene Simmons, met us at the community center "fair" last month. She contacted me again and we arranged to spend two class periods with her advanced ESL class. The school, at the Skills Center, is part of LAUSD's Adult Education program.

We joined the class at 6:30 and stayed until 9p. There were 33 people in the class! And the room was full of lots of tables and chairs and not really made for any on-our-feet activities. But the students and Arlene were all very warm and receptive to us. As is usual, we threw out a bunch of our plan over the course of our time there, but that was fine.

We introduced our company and our project and ourselves and our goals for the evening. The goals were for us to learn from them about their lives and viewpoints in this community and to open up some creative ideas for them to explore with us next Monday in a second visit and with Arlene in future classes.

We spent about 15-20 minutes on a series of I-Statements. I had planned it then axed it from the curriculum but brought it along just in case. The list was a little unfocused but it was a great exercise for getting us started. We didn't get to the conversation questions.

We did a check-in around the room-- basic introductions. This was great for us -- and the students were all very patient with each other-- to at least hear names and get a tiny sense of people. People referred to how long they'd been here and sometimes it meant taking ESL classes at the Skills Center and sometimes it meant in this country. A lot of the students have jobs. Everyone is working to improve their English to advance the quality and experience of their life with better work opportunities and for some, to teach their kids English, too.

We did 3 rounds of Cultural Mapping. We worked on writing 5 Senses. I was very glad to have realized that this was a great occasion to use a fill in the blank worksheet for this. Everyone began writing and it took them longer than it does with many groups. But they were really working on it and not only struggling with vocabulary and such. It was also fascinating how different people interpreted the 5 senses and how they translated ideas into English. There are many poets in the class.

Everyone in the class was very generous in how they listened and responded to each other, often helping each other out with translating certain words or ideas. A lot of people shared what they wrote. Sigrid has their written work.

We did a one-word (not) check-out. I gave them the homework assignment of thinking about the 5 senses experience of Pacoima over the next week: look around and notice what stories are happening all around them. And to think of a Pacoima song or music style.

Next Monday we'll spend one more class period with them and it will include some performative exercise, even in the cramped room.

The students all seem very willing to jump into things. I think some of them are interested in the play and maybe auditioning. Also, we are visiting them while they are in a period of working Financial language, ideas and vocabulary. Which might add to their extra creative energy.

In any case, they were very appreciative of the class and what we did together. My favorite check out was one guy who said, "I am happy," (a common check-out choice for this group along with "comfortable") "but I am also thinking about Pacoima a lot. There is a lot to think about."

The very enthusiastic 17 yr old boy-- miguel lopez, 11 months in United States-- is part of the Unusual Suspects project I am going to see tomorrow night at SFHS.

--pd

Seniors try #1...

Hey Ladies,

So seniors attempt # 1 was a bit of a bust.

Treva and I had agreed that I'd call her the day before to confirm us coming to talk during lunch and I called her yesterday and left a message.

She never called me back (and has never actually called me at all...) so I figured we had a 70/30 chance of stopping by and having it be totally cool.

Sigrid and I arrived at 11 and Treva was there, and told us that it wasn't a good day for us to talk to the seniors- her daughters are sick and she was leaving early, and that Monday would be a much better day.

So we booked Monday April 26th at 11:00am. It's official, it is on the front desk's calendar, and will actually happen.

So the bad of this was that we didn't get to talk to any seniors today (and that Juliette drove out to the center at noon and no one was there! )

But, the good was that we got face time with Treva and have an official booking for the 26th.

Whew!

love, X

--

Xanthia Angel Walker

Institute Associate

Discovery, pt 4

I met with Discovery Charter Prep today! While there are a lot of complicated elements to this partnership, I feel positive about our prospects for living at this campus this summer.

I will not recap all the various steps over many months except to say that in person communication is valuable and there hasn’t been enough. It was so fantastic to meet principal Dr. K Smith today. And the two assistant principals were there too-- Kristi M and Arie N—along with Sheryl S, the financial person for the school.

Dr. Smith repeatedly wondered at the church’s interest and support in our project when they seem not to care at all about the school except for their financial relationship. (“They don’t even let us use the kitchen!”)

I said that I think the church was interested in being heard and included in the project as representative of their community. Arie pointed out that this is a direct benefit to the church that they don’t get from the school relationship. (There is some potential to positively impact the relationship between the school and church.)

Discovery Prep is a major partner with Youth Speak Collective. I knew they were partners but was unaware of how integral that relationship is—Youth Speak is a key part of funding the school. YSC has a summer program- 9th Grade Academy-- at Discovery Prep campus. About 50 students for no more than 4 weeks and they are not on campus a lot of that time—they go on field trips a lot.

The school would like to do summer tutoring for 30 to 60 of their own students. It’s not a structured “summer school.”

They believe that we can share the campus—we would use 9 classrooms, the dining room and kitchen and set up our showers in the back left grassy yard. This is one classroom less than the ideal number. I estimated we would have 25-27 people living on the campus.

They are confident we would not need to go through the (costly and annoying) fingerprinting process.

I offered the alternative schedule for the residency-- July 1 through August 1, rather than July 8 through August 8. It's possible that ending on August 1 will be better for their facilities maintenance.

They are really interested in involving their students in the play. They used to have arts programs but they’ve been cut like crazy. They even have musical instruments they purchased awhile back that are collecting dust somewhere. Dr. Smith offered a space at a sister school in Burbank as a possible venue.

I mentioned more than once our desire for the students’ parents families to be involved as well.

Two people—Kristi and a facilities guy—expressed concerns about safety and security. The school has a number of connections with the Foothill Police Station and Dr. Smith thinks we should notify them and they will keep an eye on us.

The school’s biggest concern is cost. They are in a financial pinch as it is.

It’s possible that some non-money exchange can include

1- Us doing some stuff with students at the school this June, and

2- Doing a project or workshop(s) with the students in the following school year.

Dr. Smith says that we have good karma and that she things good things will come of our project and she wants her school and students to be a part of it. They all got caught up in thinking about possible venues, the most interesting suggestion being the unfinished and empty Children’s Museum at Hansen Dam park.

At any rate, Dr. Smith says she needs to get approval from the Discovery Prep board. Kenn Phillips their board chair is the person who enthusiastically started this relationship so I feel optimistic about that, though the timing is dependent upon the financial discussion with the church.

Next steps:

See the campus to confirm that we can make do with 9 rooms plus kitchen and dining room. (Also check in about restrooms & sharing!)

Sheryl/Reggie conversation about cost/payments between them and between CTC and one or the other of them.

Determine which residency dates are best for the overlap with the school.

Come up with an idea for community engagement element to do with Discovery students in June.

Wait for news of for approval from Discovery Prep board.

YSC Youth Council Story Circle – 2/8/10

Learn about YSC & youth council

Round table thoughts about YSC

5 Senses of your Pacoima
Conversation:

What is positive in community?

What’s one thing that should always stay the same?

What should change?

What is your connection &/or attachment to Pacoima? Stay or go?

Is there any place you don’t feel welcome here?

Where do you always feel welcome?

What is it in like here in the summertime?

What needs to be included in a play about Pacoima?

Pass the Page: It Could Only Have Happened in Pacoima

B&GC workshop #2

About 15 participants today, but this workshop was a bit of a mess. Very challenging because the kids were a lot less focused and interested than last time. We were not able to do all the things we’d hoped and those we did were not as complete and grounded as we’d hoped. I think Xanthia’s determination is accurate: the repeat kids were ready to go, much more focused. The new kids didn’t all want to be there and we think were told by Jessica that they had to be there. The new kids were unfocused and their energy messed up that of the others too.

We plan to do 2 more workshops. Because we are likely to have new people in the circle each time we cannot really do the cumulative arc we’d been thinking of for these workshops.