Tag Archives: poverty

Sharpening pencils

Posted on 12 April 2013 by pattiblaine

There are days I feel that my role as coordinator for the volunteer tutoring program at a city school can be summed up in one task: pencil maintenance. A large part of the job is making sure that tutoring stations … Continue reading →

Posted in On the fly (aka from a mobile device), School Tales | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Summertime, and the living is easy

Posted on 6 July 2012 by pattiblaine

Maybe you already know that I coordinate a volunteer tutoring program at an inner-city school that sports a poverty rate of nigh unto 100%. If so, and I am about to bore you, I apologize. Our program’s primary goal is … Continue reading →

Posted in On the fly (aka from a mobile device), Worky work | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Tying up loose ends

Posted on 15 June 2012 by pattiblaine

Last Friday morning I felt as if a tight set of strings inside me went suddenly slack. I woke with not-too-much-pressing to do, an unusual state of being for me. Later, at about 9 in the morning, a luxuriously late … Continue reading →

Posted in Connections, Extracurricular, Finished things, Worky work | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Start your engines!

Posted on 6 September 2011 by pattiblaine

Sputter. For the inner-city-school children I serve through a literacy intervention program, school began last Friday. For Kate it begins today. And for me, the part of work where I interact heavily with others (rather than putter around cleaning, sorting … Continue reading →

Posted in Higher ed, Worky work | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Tales out of school, the third

Posted on 15 February 2011 by pattiblaine

One of the volunteer tutors in our literacy program recently told me about a student who has a special place in his heart and memory, and I realized that experience is probably common among the tutors. It certainly rang true … Continue reading →

Posted in On the fly (aka from a mobile device), School Tales, Worky work | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Tales out of school, the second

Posted on 28 January 2011 by pattiblaine

At the school for which I coordinate volunteer tutoring there is a support group for the fathers and other adults, particularly men, in the families of the school’s students. The purpose of the group is to encourage these adults to … Continue reading →

Posted in On the fly (aka from a mobile device), School Tales, Worky work | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Tales out of school, the first

Posted on 18 January 2011 by pattiblaine

One morning in late October I was sharpening pencils at tutoring stations in the first grade hallway of the inner-city school for which I coordinate a volunteer tutoring program. It was a little after 10 a.m. and school had been … Continue reading →

Posted in On the fly (aka from a mobile device), School Tales, Worky work | Tagged , , | 3 Comments