The day’s events were great. After loading the room with additional plastic chairs and a few 8-foot tables, the forty-six students arrived and came to our new writing lab. A few of them were here for our first workshop and the whole group of students were welcomed and watched the short DVD of the skate video workshop from March 5. Ms. Gonzales from Animo Inglewood took over and introduced the staff again, and then said “we’re getting down to business.” The students are quite business-savvy...

The young women loved the offices. I suppose the colors really spoke to them, and the flowers were a nice touch. Well, even Mr. Monroe exclaimed in a stunned breath,” wow, beautiful...” In small groups, the young learners took to the task of giving body to the teamwork tome.

Some had questions, some wanted a thesaurus. One wanted a bible. We deferred to a dictionary and Word on a laptop. Another wanted to know the name of the thing you walk in on your way to an airplane. “Skyway, no, Skywalk,” I thought, but couldn’t find a suitable definition in the dictionary. And what on earth does that have to do with teamwork? I wondered (but if weren’t a more appropriate place to be all in “it” together...)

After lunch, we broke up into groups again and I sat with one group as a tutor and found yet more depth to these students’ souls and experience. They wanted to talk mostly about college and getting into Harvard (and later about guessing how old I was) than about the assignment, but that came off with some substance as well. I was truly impressed with how they handled themselves not only as students, but also as compassionate and highly intelligent human beings. I wanted to keep working with them. Hopefully I will. This blog is dedicated to Jennifer, Daniel, Sandra, and Mindy.