National Poetry Month - Teaching Place Values by an English Teacher

Teaching Place Values by an English Teacher

The Ones place: The number of teachers in this room.

The Tens place: The number of students.

The Hundreds place: The number of times I’ve heard, “I can’t do this.” No, wait, maybe thats

the Thousands.

Ten Thousands: The number of seconds in aftercare.

Hundred Thousands: The number of times I’ve taken a breath, counted to ten, and talked myself out of ripping out all my hair, or yours.

Tenths: the percentage of students working on homework.

Hundredths: The number of seconds that pass between questions.

Thousandths: My own grasp on the subject at hand.

Ten Thousandths: The number of seconds that pass between complaints, a never-ending tirade.

Hundred Thousandths: “But is it right?” “I don’t know! Count the zeros!” And we’re both reduced to tears.

Infinity: The number of times I will return to sit next to you, pushing you to try again.

Zero: The number of times either one of us is allowed to give up.

by Maggie Myers

National Poetry Month - Week Two

This week we are sharing some more poems with you from Claire about her experiences this year:

“Window Panes”

From my kitchen table

I find myself not too yards from my stoop

Junkies getting high

Turnin tricks

I’m just watchin

Who’s trickin now?

We should have the IRS on our tail

For how much buying and selling

Happens on Huntington.

Don’t pay no taxes

But taxed spirits listless in the sun and cold

Waiting for their luck to change

Always waiting

The beuatufly mercy of each other

Trivialized through my eyes… and two inches of glass

“Subtraction”

Christmas Abundance-

Jesus was born in a manger

It was humble

A stable

3 strangers

Visit him

Gifts for a king-

So what does that teach us

Boys and Girls hands reach up

As if spitting back verses,

Biblical

Theatrical it’s all a performance

This act of “it doesn’t matter”

How much money

Or stuff

Or …

The savior was poor

It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor…

Unless your poor…Then it matters a whole fucking lot.

For kids who have been taught that the only math they need to know

Is the distance and difference between...

For students whose lives, whose innocent, immigrant lives,

Are peppered with the irony of 160 gifts donated by Fraternal Order of Police’s

-Border Control

Certainly what we are doing

- keep your minds in prison

Fear to unlock the potential

Lest teachers regret the color of our privilege

That says “We’re all the same”

We tell ourselves that lie so we can hear

Sound bites of lives infiltrated by Brian Williams

Rolling Stones,

And still be able to sleep at night

With the fright that “it’s not my back yard”
It’s drugs, and gangs and bad “luck”

Black luck

Not my fucking luck

“It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor”

Jesus was poor…

…and he died for it.

Visitation Community Center Community Dinner!

Last Friday, Claire and Maggie prepared enough tacos to feed a small army. After preparing the food, they brought it to Visitation Community Center and shared a meal with over 40 Kensington residents. The evening was wonderful and full of delicious food and fun games, facilitated by Maggie's fabulous family and several of her sister's friends! We are so grateful to continue to build community here in Kensington. Here are some photos from the evening!

National Poetry Month

During April we will be sharing some of the Poetry of our two SSJ Mission Corps volunteers, Claire and Maggie. We invite you to share you thoughts and questions with us as well as any of your own poetry that you might be willing to share.

Poetry and writing are a wonderful and important medium in self and spiritual expression and we are excited to share it with you in this way!

“Under God”

It chokes me up every time I see all these faces

Dutifully pledged loud and proud hands over heart

Right or left- doesn’t really matter

The same words I pledge

Allegiance to the USA

When it doesn’t always pledge back…

When not all can say you actually belong here

According to some…

And some scraps of paper…

Because your face is too brown

And your accent too round

And your R’s roll off the tongue.

by Claire Geruson

Ponderings of Grace - The Feast of St. Joseph

Below is a reflection that the SSJ Mission Corps director, Becca Little, wrote for the St. Mary-by-the-Sea Retreat House's Ponderings of Grace. We are delighted to share it here with you as well!

Openness. Love without hesitation or question. Humble loyalty. Each of these things could be used to describe Saint Joseph. As we celebrate him and I begin to reflect on these characteristics, it is not lost on me the similarity between the qualities of Saint Joseph and the qualities of the Sisters of Saint Joseph and SSJ Mission Corps communities.

Devoted service without second thought is the path that Saint Joseph modeled for us in his devotion to Mary and to the will of God. Daily I see this humility and loyalty in the faces and lives of the Sisters of Saint Joseph and the SSJ Mission Corps volunteers. Last year, during his Papal Inauguration, which fell on Saint Joseph's Day, Pope Francis describes Saint Joseph as a protector with a heart full of tenderness and compassion:

"In the Gospels, Saint Joseph appears as a strong and courageous man, a working man, yet in his heart we see great tenderness, which is not the virtue of the weak but rather a sign of strength of spirit and a capacity for concern, for compassion, for genuine openness to others, for love. We must not be afraid of goodness, of tenderness!"

  It is a privilege and honor to be a witness to this tenderness within the hearts and lives of the SSJ community. Daily I walk with the SSJ Mission Corps members, two young women who live lives full of this compassion, teaching me how to live out this call. As we celebrate the feast of Saint Joseph and continue to move together through Lent, I encourage you to look for the places in your own life where others are teaching you the humble, unfailing loyalty and compassion of Saint Joseph. These living examples are the key to finding these traits within our own hearts.

When words just don't cut it...

We are practicing writing down our “gratitudes” for Lent… 5 things we are grateful for every day x 40 days x 3 people (it’s beginning to sound like one of my student’s math problems…).

With so many amazing people in our lives, our wall is filling up effortlessly.

We sit here, surrounded by love: gorgeous letters from our retreat hung on our walls, maxims decorating our doors, dinners filling our bellies, and spirit moving among us.

As spring begins to bloom and we feel reenergized for the next three months, as St. Joseph’s Day approaches, we want to say thank you.

We have had some difficult and trying experiences in our time so far, and moments of joy and awe. Through it all we have been acutely aware of Your presence in our lives.

We have compiled a list of moments/experiences/people/things that have directly influenced our Mission Corps experience thus far, that have made our lives exponentially better, and that we can’t imagine living without. Know that each and every one of You have helped us make it through this year and stay (somewhat) sane. Over and over again we had the privilege to answer the question, “What is the SSJ Mission Corps?” We’ve found the answer to be long, but simple. Here are just a few examples that popped into our heads after a long day and even longer week:

·     Becca Little-Bex-the Bexster

·     Unforgettable retreat experiences with unforgettable women

·     The 11 convents and counting that have welcomed us (multiple times!)

·     Meeting the associates at Our Lady of Hope

·     The Welcome Center Trivia night

·     Having a “usual” at the Kensington Mini Mart

·     Our Students…even that one

·     Our incredible co-workers who inspire, encourage, assist, and put up with us

·     Sharing the state of the heart

·     Receiving three containers of Christmas decorations

·     Receiving donations for classrooms and classroom prizes

·     Re-discovering our home city, and exploring the gems that Kensington has to offer

·     The immigration reform rally

·     Visits from UNC

·     Going back to our Mother Ship at Chestnut Hill for multiple events: Commissioning Mass (and dinner!) Founder’s Day, Peace Vigil for Syria, Greg Boyle’s talk, Band of Sisters film, Visitation BVM fundraising auction…

·     Spirituality and Community nights

These events and people have become an integral part of our Mission Corps program, and our lives—not just a year, but a lifetime.