Week 1 at Maxfield

Hi all,

Sorry it took me so long to finally put this up. It wasn't a normal first week at Maxfield Magnet, as you will soon read all about!

Initially, my placement process proved to be a bit difficult. I had an inclination to work with ACES because I had prior knowledge to this program. However, it was difficult to figure out how to get involved because their contacts did not respond to me initially. Once Tina gave me more specific information from an ACES rep that had worked with Macalester in the past, the ball got rolling quickly and I was placed in less than 2 weeks. I learned that although ACES, like many programs, is in dire need of volunteers, they will not sacrifice the quality experience for the students that ACES strives for. They did a thorough background check and I also needed references in order to get in the door, which says quite a bit about how they run their program.

When I arrived at Maxfield for my first day, an ACES representative was waiting for me to give me a short orientation and to introduce me to the other members of our group. The group is composed of mainly current undergrads from local universities. Each class has one paid instructor who actually works part time for ACES, but because I am just a volunteer, I will be serving as an aid for a group of fourth graders. Instead of having a “normal” day, February 15th was actually Family Night at Maxfield, so as soon as our program would normally commence, we ushered them down to the gymnasium to rehearse for their various performances that would take place later that night. Although my first day was spent more as someone who supervised the students I will be working with in the coming weeks, I gained some interesting insight into the way they interacted with each other. Initially, they were antsy and difficult to control, but that is to be expected for any kid who has just gotten dismissed from school not twenty minutes earlier. Once we got them settled in and engaged in their responsibilities for the next few hours, their focus heightened and they became quite attentive. This made me interested to see if this is also the case in the classroom in the coming weeks, where reading and finishing math homework will replace drumming and singing. Although Family Night was not an ACES event, I was pleased to see that all of the volunteers still showed up and spent time with their students, even if it was not following the structure of a normal day. I get the feeling that the ACES coordinators understand how important it is for these kids to experience constant nurturing, both from interaction with their parents at family night, and from the consistent support of the ACES reps. As we have seen in class, the more developmental assets one student has in their lives, the more likely they are to succeed, which coincides well with the bottom line for ACES: the eventual success of their students.