ACES
What are your expectations going into your ACES project?
Your hopes & fears? What are some of your assumptions?
(Hopefully, you did this already. If so, post whatever you wrote previously. If not, think back to what was on your mind before you started your ACES project.)
Also: What suggestions would you give to improve the ACES program?
I really don’t know what to expect – I have done community projects locally since coming to Berkeley and at every one I go in without expectations. That may be a good thing or a bad thing. One expectation I didn’t know I had was that I could save the whole world, or the people I was helping, just by doing a community project. That’s a lot of unnecessary pressure, especially given that people don’t want to be saved. I’m learning that slowly. My time spent off campus has not all been community oriented. I worked for a few weeks at a violence prevention organization in Oakland, but not to a large extent. I selected the Berkeley Tech project firstly because I am interested in youth views on poetry and history and LIFE. I also chose that project because I know nothing about continuation schools or alternative skills, and I know I have a lot of misconceptions about these students. I’m hoping to learn a lot more from them then they are from me. I hope I can accomplish that, but I am afraid I won’t be able to for some unknown reason.
ReplyDeleteWell, my expectations for the ACES project was high. I took the ACES project as something that could heighten the degree of community in P4P as well as the entire Cal Community in fact. I had high hopes of accomplishing this goal as well as expanding on late June Jordan's original visions. I was on the website team of the technology team. I felt like we had the obligation to open the window for others outside the P4P community to see and have a sense of what amazing things we do in P4P through the website we were to create. My only fear was that it was not going to be accomplished successfully. I simply wanted to leave a certain legacy in this wonderful project. I assumed that things would go smoothly if we had stuck to our plans and nothing wrong happened. But as plans are always meant to go astray or met up with challenges. However, like always, when challenges pop up, we will have to face them with courage, and that is what we did in the website team. I feel like we have done a good job and are going to finish what we set off to do pretty soon. The website will go live!!! If there is any suggestion I want to give to improve the program, I would like to say that it would be a wise thing to bring some experts around the campus to help out structure the backbone of all the aspects of the program so that there will not be major challenges that can truly be a problem to people working for the project through P4P.
ReplyDeleteMy expectations going into ACES were a large classroom full of kids around my age, most of them who somehow got stuck in the Shakespeare class because the other classes were full, or for other similar reasons. I was afraid the students would be uninterested in the material in the beginning and would dread having us teaching whenever we did.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I was still really hopeful and would try to push the negative thoughts aside. I felt that with our hard work, dedication and effort that we put into planning (fun, interesting and relatable) lessons every week, the students would eventually be happy. I hoped they would grow to love poetry (or at least find it interesting) and would look forward to seeing us every week. I also hoped that we would make even a small difference and inspire them creatively.
A suggestion I have for ACES (specifically the BCC team) is that the students should be able to write poems from their own perspectives without having to implement reclaiming Shakespeare. I feel that a huge component of P4P is the ability to express ones feelings, emotions and personal history, and it's a shame that the BCC students aren't entirely allowed to do that. Also, I think it should be stressed to Robin that in order for her students to get the most out of P4P, she should try to stick to the lesson plan that she gives us to work with. When we get there to find that they read a completely different book than the one we were told they would, we have to improvise a lesson plan and realize that we wasted a lot of time planning things that we aren't able to use.
I expected the ACES project to be a wonderful opportunity to work with and for the local community. I hoped this would serve as a chance to listen to poetry outside the classroom, and it did! I didn't really have any fears, per se, but I was curious as to how welcomed Cal would be at the open mic events. During the events, I was glad that it seemed Cal and BCC were actually in partnership with each other. I was fearful that Cal's presence might seem intrusive or self-righteous, but this wasn't the case.
ReplyDeleteI thought of the ACES program as a way to attend open mics and listen to poetry. I originally thought that living in the bay area would allow me to attend poetry nights on the regular. However, I realized I had trouble tapping into the poetry community. I struggled finding a constant source of live poetry (which is one of my favorite things!). The ACES program seemed like the perfect resources to motivate and “force” me to attend community open-mics. I thought it was really important and cool that the open mics were held off the Berkeley campus, for fear of creating “scholar intimidation.” I was only fearful of Berkeley students, including myself, “forcing” themselves into a community space (BCC). I assumed the ACES project would actually involve more open mics and events. To improve the ACES program, I would encourage more open mics. More open mics would allow more people in the promotion team doing ‘actual’ work. Also, more open mics (like weekly) would allow a lasing reputation build for P4P…meaning more CAL students and community members would become interested in these events.
ReplyDeleteANDREW