Our last day of ASB took place at Enterprise Charter School on Oak St. in the City of Buffalo. We spent the day in 3rd through 6th grade classrooms teaching lessons through Junior Achievement. I was with Alfonzo in a 4th grade classroom. Thank you to everyone at Enterprise Charter for being so welcoming! I especially would like to thank Ms. Cheeks for allowing Alfonzo and me to spend the day in her classroom with her students.
Our day went very well. I really enjoyed teaching the 4th graders. I was amazed at how comfortable I was with them and how much I enjoyed the day. Junior Achievement focuses on building business and financial literacy skills. So in alignment with the NY State 4th grade curriculum, our lesson focused on understanding resources and how they are used by businesses and individuals on a state level.
The students at Enterprise Charter come from all over the city and some have come there because they had difficulties in the other public schools. The kids were all so great that I couldn't believe some of them had struggled.
The school is very diverse with manyBlack and Hispanic students. The children sometimes speak to each other in Spanish and two of the little girls who are cousins told me how they speak Spanish at home. Those two little girls really stand out to me. They seem very bright and joyful. Diamonte and Karolina are their names. I was actually sad to leave at the end of the day, but I was exhausted! As someone in Higher Education, I appreciate all the work that K-12 teachers do, but now I think I appreciate it even more!
We were with the students for their entire day. We even ate lunch with them, which was fun and a chance for me to talk with Diamonte and Karolina some more. Diamonte spent some time telling me about her neighborhood and I could tell from her excitement that she felt connected to the people and places in her neighborhood. She lives on the Westside. I asked her a question we often ask college students: "What's a community?" She told me it was a place where people knew their neighbors and helped each other and that you have fun there. I think that is a wonderful definition.
When the students went to a computer class, I talked with their teacher Ms. Cheeks a little more. She is a wonderful teacher and clearly cares deeply for her students. She has moved up with the students so for many of them she has been their teacher since kindergarden or 1st grade. She and I talked about education, her students, and some ideas about the relationships between K-12 and Higher Education. We talked a little about how early college awareness would be something vital for her students and many of the students at Enterprise. I am passionate about the need for Higher Education to reach out to K-12 much more than it currently does; something that I hope to work for as I continue working in Higher Ed. I would be honored to work with someone like Ms. Cheeks and students like those in her 4th grade class at Enterprise Charter.
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