February

This is the first month that my site supervisor Jolene and I sat down and made a plan for the month and then I got everything done! Felt pretty good about that.
At Skyline, James and I:

• assessed the policies of the lab, re-worked them and posted them- on the wall, on the wallpaper of each computer, and at the front of the room.
• took our list of "approved" (i.e. educational or at least non-violent) internet games and added them to the "favorites" on each computer.
• made Plato the homepage so that when the kids open Internet Explorer, they immediately come to Plato. (Abdulmalik when he saw this exclaimed, "Wha?! It's a miracle! Plato!" and pointed wildly at the screen of the computer. Yeah I felt cool!)
• created a how-to log in poster, featuring Tony Danza at Cathedral Hill and Harry Potter at Skyline, showing the kids how to log in themselves step by step.
• went through all the software that was installed on the computers and removed the junk no one uses anymore, and then updated the software inventory.
• installed the software for the new scanner!!!
• discussed the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) and talked about how to make sure kids have permission to use the Internet
  
• installed the critical updates and latest flash plug-ins
• finally, we re-saved the ghosts to include all of this wonderful progress and scanned for spyware. GO ROX AND JAMES!
• Oh, and we recruited and trained two new volunteers- Lesley and Derek! They started on Feb. 24, and we had a dance party with Family Life in America.
  

I also spent some time in the office at Skyline, going through old files and organizing things so that I could find them. The quarterly report was due March 1, so I worked on that too. And I wrote a CTC Scan update (it includes the updated software inventory). I went to a meeting with Junior Achievement, which CommonBond is now a partner with, and I'm working with Alicia to do some teen JA stuff in the lab- there are CD ROMS with some of the JA curriculum and also a business and marketing online game called Titan (they have a national competition in Florida!).

At Cathedral, I started using the Plato program with the kids at Homework Center. They seem to like it okay, but the example assignments I gave them were way to easy and they mastered them in no time. I also began working with Faith on the City Teen Legends- the teen computer club. We brainstormed ideas that the club would want to work on, and how we can incorporate computers. I got Dave to install some music editing software so the teens could play with songs from CDs that they've brought down. I also talked with Jessie about how other programs that were developed or run at Skyline could be beneficial to Cathedral or some of the other smaller sites.

Events
Feb. 22 The Youth Program led a family event for parents to go to a workshop about St. Paul schools, and the kids all came downstairs for some fun! I collaborated with Wendy and Mikaela to have fun with kids. It was crazy excitement!

CTEP Training
Feb. 11 We had training at Skyline! The media cluster did a Dreamweaver (ooh dreamweaver, I believe you can get me through the ni-ight!) workshop and us CTC cluster-ers did more volunteer mobilization. I got to show off James and Wendy's VISTA work, and brag about how I've already recruited a volunteer. Really Catherine got her from the volunteer board-thing. I just e-mailed her.
We did some good team-building, like hot-seat (so far everyone has friends or family in the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender community) and we sat down for three hours and hashed out a team charter-er I mean team expectations. I have to admit it wasn't my favorite part of CTEP thus far- brought me back to some not-so-favorite moments in NCCC... But I'm glad we did it and we came up with some really great stuff that we will be able to use all year.
It was really distracting to have the training at Skyline, because all the kids saw me and wanted to get into the lab. Still, I felt pretty cool because I got to show off my favorite kids! I love them.

Feb. 25 This training was pretty neat- we got a chance to talk about ourselves! I bet everyone's noticed that I don't mind talking about myself. My mom always says that if my head gets too big I won't fit through the door. Anyway, we drew our lives on a paper and then we presented to the group where we've come from. It was really neat to listen to everyone's, and Kim- our newest member- fit in immediately! I felt like it was really the first I got to know the rest of the members as people, well except Ubah because we hang out. Everyone's presentations were so good and interesting to listen to, everyone is so different! I was impressed with people's honesty, sincerity, and courage. Also with their lives and experiences! Yeah CTEP! I often wonder why I have the privilege of knowing the coolest people in the world...

InterCorps Council
Feb. 3 Pa Chua, Rochelle and I went to CTEP's first ICC meeting. It was held at Project for Pride in Living (PPL) over on Franklin, which was their exciting new headquarters and it's very posh. The meeting was rad- speakers came from the Coalition for the Homeless and The Bridge to talk about homelessness in Minnesota. Then we had a tour of PPL, and had our meeting. Topic we covered included beginning plans for spring fun day and preperation for the next ICC meeting. There were a good 20 people there from assorted AmeriCorps positions all through the state- I think ICC is great! I love connecting with Ameri-people... They are all so AWESOME!

Personal Notes
I think some CTEPers are starting to get a little upset that we keep losing people. In NCCC one of my teammates left. It was really hard for all of us, but I guess for me it's important to remember that AmeriCorps is hard and it isn't for everyone. Yeah it's rotten that people leave, but really we should be enjoying our service- it should be challenging! That's what makes it rewarding. That's also what makes it hard for everyone to do it. Well, that and the goverment policies around it! But I think those are pretty reasonable. Anyay, this is just me throwing in my two cents about team members leaving.