I spent a day with several students and teachers from the Learning Essentials 1 class, or LE1, to learn about what they do. Unlike the other students in the school, LE1 does not follow a strict bell schedule. Every day they have some sort of routine they follow. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday’s first and second periods they do math and reading. During fifth period Mrs. Nagel reads a chapter book to the class and then the last two periods are their elective periods. You might have been lucky enough to meet some of them in your classes.
The morning on Tuesday starts off with working on personal information. This includes memorizing addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, and ID numbers. Following that comes a calendar sheet, a daily question in their journals, and watching CNN10, watching and listening to a storm in Cuba. The daily question on Tuesday was, “What decision did you make that was a good one?” During second period the students worked on an art project, scarecrow puppets. After they finished, it was time to get ready to go out into the community.
All of the students went to the restroom, grabbed their jackets, and got their wallets out and ready to use. After, we started walking outside to the bus. As we were walking, out Talon Wiggins asked me, “Are you coming with us today?” As I answered yes he started jumping around with excitement. Once everyone settled in on the bus, we started our journey. Our first stop was Mt. Hood Community College, where we split off into two groups. Nevaeha Barnett, Trinity Coon, Talon Wiggins, and Mekai Williams got off here with Mrs. Nagel to go prep food boxes for students in the college. Once they were off, everyone else moved on to the next stop, East Hill Church. As we arrived, we got everyone together and walked in as Mrs. Ferguson had assigned jobs. I helped Karen Ruiz-Reyes change the garbage bags, and Devin Vang clean a few tables. Then Devin and Micah Giusto moved a table into a room after they had finished their jobs. After a couple minutes Miles Moffat and Jacob Silberman joined in to help as Anjal Washington moved a new to the side wall. After all the jobs were complete, we headed to the next stop, Gresham Burrito.
As we walked over to the burrito shop, all the friends were thinking about how excited they were for a can of Sprite or bean and cheese nachos. We took some time to eat and enjoy our drinks and then made our way over to the Gresham library. Everyone got to choose a book they wanted to read and check out. All of the students got their library cards and checked out their books. Once we were done at the library, we headed back to the bus as our trip into the community had ended. The bus took us to Mt. Hood Community College to pick up the rest of our group and then we headed back to the school. To end everyone’s day, they went to second lunch and ate their food. Then the students had elective time. Some go to PE then Theatre, and some go to Film Studies then Child Development. I’m glad I got to experience a Tuesday with LE1 and learn about their school day.
