Journal #1- Communities in Schools 1

1/28/2019: 8:30AM – 2:30PM

1/29/219: 8AM-2PM
1/30/2019: 9AM-3PM and 7PM-9:30PM
1/31/2019: 9AM- 3PM and 12AM-1AM
2/01/2019: 9AM-3PM
Total Number of Hours Worked for the Week: 33.5
This past week was a pretty busy one but it was beyond productive! I started off my Monday

morning at the annual Spelling Bee at the high school as an advocate on behalf of a student.

Afterwards I decided to stop my Early College and pay Dr. Sallad and the CIS Site Coordinator,

BenJamin Lewis a visit. I spoke with Dr. Sallad about implementing Early College’s very own

Sequins and Smiles closet, as well as interest her in the Couch Conversation program I plan to

implement at Oak Hill Middle School. She was beyond delighted to hear of my ideas and also

gave me a few other smaller programs/ services she would to be made available to the students

such as etiquette classes and an all-girls book club. Since Early College is a program and not an

actual school they are not staffed with school counselors available at the student’s needs. Dr.

Sallad and I agreed that a program as such will not only suffice but also get the students in the

habit of expressing themselves and maintaining these diverse conversations. Tuesday I visited

CIS’s Bridget Ivey at Lakeview Primary Elementary School, to help with the Fire Safety

workshop. I thought that was really cool because I got to meet some really interesting kids, this

one in particular suffers from cerebral palsy. I first thought he was fully paralyzed from the waist

down since the teachers aid had to pick him up to get in on the trailer. Later in the day I saw him

walked down the hallway heading to lunch, he needed his walker but it was just really inspiring.

I got a second to speak with his teacher aid and I asked her about his experience with the Fire

Safety Work shop since there was one part of the workshop where the children had to get down

and crawl their way out of the “burning trailer” via stimulated smoke. She told me that he did
 Journal #1- Communities in Schools 2

just fine with the workshop and that they treat him any differently than any of the other students,

if there is a situation where is not comfortable because of his leg muscles being too tired to

support him, they accommodate to his needs accordingly.

Wednesday I had a meeting with CIS’s Site Coordinator Kemyada, at Oak Hill Middle School. I

sort of came baring bad news because she was not aware that Girls Grow was not going to be

active this semester. I presented her with the same idea of the Couch Conversations and she

absolutely loved it, Kemyada helped me even come up with a very informal curriculum to

present to the school counselors, since I would have to have their approval, the principles from

each grade levels approval and then the principle over the entire school’s approval. We were able

to come up with the overall aesthetic of the event and even set a date (planning for the very first

Couch Conversation to be the week of Valentine’s Day). In honor of the week, I thought the

topic of Healthy Relationships, the subcomponents of the topic include: Friends and Bullying,

Peer Pressure (both romantic relationships as well as friendships), Knowing when to say no in

certain situations and the last component to sum it all up with be Self – Respect/ Self – Worth.

Thursday I worked on stuff for Sequins and Smiles, including the flyer so that I could have the

design approved by my site coordinator before the week was out. I also stopped by Early College

to talk with Mrs. Brown, the secretary at Early College so that I could secure the space where the

dresses could actually be held at. The space I was told I could use is way bigger than I

anticipated and is more space than the dresses will need, but I am still thankful she was able to

give me a space at all. There are tables, chairs and old office supplies that will need to be thrown

out and some housekeeping before anything else can be done.