Saturday, November 22, 2008

Crazy week in the life of a youth worker

Alright, so I really apologize for the scarcity of my blogs. I have time to do them, but after I got home from work I'm absolutely shattered and I just want to sleep for days. 

This week by far has been of the busiest so far since I've been employed by YFC. 

I had the day off on Monday, because Neil and I worked on Saturday so that was nice. But, that was my only real breather this week.

Tuesday wasn't too bad either, but I haven't really gotten used to getting up kind of early so that was a challenge. Neil and I just spent the day in the school, as usual. Neil brought along Jamie this sixteen-year-old guy that is a bit like his adoptive son but not really. Haha, if that makes any sense at all. Jamie is in his first year of college right now (11th grade) and he has Tuesday and Fridays off. He recently got a job at Stokesley School (where I work) as like i kind of intern in the PE department, but he can't start until his police check comes through so until then he's hanging out with Neil and I. Anyways, Jamie and I planned Rock Solid (my Friday lunch club) and that was good, we can work well together......at times. It was a pretty slow day, we did our 6th form (11th and 12th grade) lunch time club which is always fairly easy, and then we went home. 

Oh my cow, Wednesday.....the day of all days. Neil and I got to the school at about normal time, 9:45 or so. We worked with our tutorial group and then Mr. Laffan (the head of RE) asked if I could help him for a bit which a thing called Midweek Challenge. Oh the lovely Midweek Challenge, where do I even begin? It's for Year 7 and they basically get a day off from their lessons to sit in a classroom virtually all day and do the most boring things. This week their task was to create an "eco friendly" newspaper, what a treat. The kids don't seem to be a huge fan of the Midweek Challenge, but I wasn't too bothered about helping because I adore year 7's. It's the first year to the school and they are just so adorable and little, and I love them. I helped out here for a little while, and then I went back to find Neil so we could do our GSCE RE lesson. After the lesson, we had our weekly lesson club "Mettle" which is always good, and then it was back to helping with the Midweek Challenge. Can I just say that working with Year 7's all day can be pretty exhausting. We did this till the end of the school day when you would expect our day to end, but oh no. Neil and I are now helping out at this thing called Duke of Edinburgh. It kind of reminds me of Scouts in a way but I thought I'd include a website address in case any of you want to learn more: http://www.dofe.org/ It doesn't seem like it would be my thing at all, but oh well. That night the kids (about 60) were doing presentations on people they'd named their excursion groups after and Neil and I judged them on a scale of 1-5 so that was fun. After a long day of work, we went home.

Thursday was a bit like Tuesday in terms of work load. We had a library period with some Year 9's and a lunch club. Other than that we really didn't do all that much, and we went home after lunch time. I was quite glad about this because I was completely knackered, so I took a much needed nap. Good times.

Last but not least, Friday. Another long day much like that of Wednesday. Neil and I were again joined by Jamie, who pushed my buttons today as you will soon discover. Fridays are always a busy day, so I was prepared for a long day ahead. We got to the school at normal time and went to our tutorial group in the library and then followed that with a library lesson. Rock Solid required a few supplies, so we walked into town and purchased those and then came back to school. Rock Solid was a hit this week, and it was so much fun. This lunch time club is really the highlight of my week and I just love working with them. After the club we had a period to sit about before our last lesson of the day. I had time to read and just relax which was very nice. Our last library group was completely rowdy and they were fun, but a little too wound up. Neil was constantly having to shhhhh them and the librarian kept shooting us looks. When the school day was finished the 3 of us headed to Stokesley Methodist Church to run our weekly Friday after school club entitled Friday Night Cafe (FNC for short) and this was the most disorganized it had ever been. Neil had gotten a call right after school saying that his visa for India hadn't come through yet and he was less than pleased. His roommate had made a careless mistake, and they now have to drive up to Birmingham this week sometime to get it sorted seeing as they fly out a week on Sunday. I've never seen Neil get mad or upset at all, so this was a whole new experience for me. Jamie was very hyper at FNC and getting the kids wound up and you could tell Neil was getting annoyed, as was I. Jamie kept tickling me, which to be honest I'm really not a fan of, especially when I'm in a bad mood. But of course when boys see you're upset this only encourages them to mess with you more and I was about to go off on that child. I let it go and just shifted my focus to the kids. This was probably one of their last FNC's because it's going to be shut down for the rest of the year due to the very small attendance level. I was so relieved though when this finished as was Neil, because we were just ready to go home and relax.

And that's my week.

I would greatly appreciate anyone who reads this to keep me in their prayers. I have some medical issues going on and it's hard being away from home when this is happening. 

Thanks :)

Peace out,
Kelsey

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