The kids are back at TRUCE, and it has been an exciting, crazy, stressful yet rewarding experience thus far. I have now spent 4 days working closely with the incoming 8th grade Health Ambassadors, getting to know them and working with them to establish relationships built on respect and trust. My first experience with the group was when they first arrived early Monday morning. We asked them to come to the 8th grade room and sit down to wait for the whole group to arrive. Surprisingly, they were very quiet and subdued as they sat in their chairs and waited for the action to begin. The kids sat (boys on one side, girls on the other) with their arms folded across their chests, slumped down in their seats, mostly scowls or bored looks on their faces. The other staff members and I tried to engage them in conversation, but they were hesitent and suspicious of us and our energy. However, when everyone arrived and we began the first ice-breaker activity, that all quickly changed.
After the first awkward 20 minutes or so, the kids loosened up and began to socialize with each other and with the staff members, and it has been non-stop noise ever since! The sheer size of our group (we have 35 kids with 3 staff people and 2 high school staff to assist us) makes it difficult for us to manage the noise level inside the classroom and to get all their attention and keep them quiet for any sustainable period of time, and I have found that my voice is just not powerful enough to accomplish these goals. However, I have found that my more quiet, unassuming, calm approach has worked to establish a more friendly, peer-to-peer relationship with some of the girls in the group. Although there are some kids who do not respond to my less confrontational style because they are not used to it, the more quiet and reserved students quickly realized that I am an ally and a friend, not just a disciplinarian who is there to punish them. I have learned that despite the fact that my background and my attitudes and my cultural upbringing are so different than most of the kids and staff at HCZ, I must learn to capitalize on these differences. I am trying to take my differences and use them to touch those who have not yet been reached by an adult mentor in their lives.
The highlight of the week for me was a fieldtrip to the Liberty Science Center in Liberty, NJ. Although it was hot and a somewhat stressful experience to get the kids on the bus and count them and make sure everyone was accounted for, the HCZ staff handled the process like experts. Once we arrived at the museum, we split the kids up into groups of 4 or 5, and I took my group of 4 girls around the exhibits for the remainder of the trip. Having such a small group with myself as the only staff person gave me a great opportunity to interact on a more personal level and just relax and have fun with the girls. Instead of having to make them be quiet and do an organized activity with a large group like we usually do, we were able to just walk around the museum at our leisure, play together with the exhibits and just hang out. I didn't feel like an adult or a teacher or a disciplinarian to them, I felt like their friend. I hope I will have more opportunities to interact with the kids like this in the future, and continue to talk, relate and bond with the kids one on one.
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