Rachel: Week 3

Our last IEP event was going to see XPLICIT. He is a poet/math teacher that travels all over the country performing and talking to students. It was a really great time and a lot of people showed up to see him perform. It was a really different experience for me because I had never been to a poetry slam before but it was absolutely so much fun! It was such an experience being surrounded by people I normally wouldn't be. I loved hearing his story and outlook on life and it was surprising how many things I did agree with him on. His outlook on life was a very optimistic and he expressed his thoughts in a way that really connected with his audience and the people around him. The feedback he got from the audience was amazing and even I was snapping and calling out the things I agreed with when he spoke. It was an overall amazing experience.
We also had a chance this week to go and visit a few of the IEP classrooms! It was so much fun being able to visit them and meet the students that we are reaching out to! A challenge that we faced was actually getting ahold of the teachers to let them know that we would be visiting. Since we had issues with hearing back from them and already being three weeks into the internship we decided to just stop by and see what happened. Some of the teachers were really excited to meet us and half us talk to the classrooms but some were taking tests and we ended up bothering the classrooms instead of just letting them know what was going on. We are currently back in the process of making sure we email all of the teachers to let them know that we would like to come visit and try to solidify a date to go and visit that would be okay with them. The biggest challenge is actually finding time because between me and Ariel we already have crazy schedules and hopefully we will be able to squeeze in time to stop by the classrooms and let the students see our faces and know we are serious about getting everyone together We are still looking around for ideas for events and I am excited for the coming weeks!