September 20, 2020

Pre-Service Training with City Year

By: Admin

By Zach

Since my last blog post, I have finished three weeks of Pre-Service Training at City Year. The way Pre-Service Training worked was that we were assigned to Learning Teams, which are groups of about ten people who would be working in the same school area. The area I was assigned to was East Brooklyn. The point of the Learning Teams was to meet people who are also serving and to have someone to ask questions throughout Pre-Service Training, known as the Team Leader. Learning Teams would be mixed up weekly to give an opportunity to meet more people.

During Pre-Service Training, the day consisted of first circle, a time I bond with our Learning Team, and then either time on Zoom calls or Microsoft Teams calls. On these calls, service members learned things about what makes a student considered at risk, what makes a good and supportive teacher, how having a mentor affects students, etc. To close off the day, we would have final circle, a place to reflect on the things we had learned today, and to get information about what to expect the following day.

At the end of the third week of Pre-Service Training, we got our school assignments and were given permanent Learning Teams. I was assigned to PS 108 in Brooklyn. Soon after I was assigned to PS 108, I learned that the school is not far from where my father grew up. So far, as a Learning Team, we completed a number of online courses, such as harassment reporting, partaken in bonding activities, such as playing scribble.io, learned about the nature of PS 108, and picked up our uniforms. While the form in which service will look like given the pandemic is still unknown and can be subject to change at many times this year, I am optimistic that I can make an impact in the lives of students at PS 108.