30 Days of Pinspiration: Day 5

Day 5: Starfish

Check out my explanation here: 30 Days of Pinspiration: Day 5

Source: 123rf.com via Michelle on Pinterest

I love y'all for free,

nNb ♥

30 Day Blog Post Challenge: Day 4

Question 4: Bullet your whole day?

• Woke up at 6:30 am
• Took a shower and got dressed to go to work
• Left for work
• 7:20 am circle in parking
• Departed for school
• Saw the kids in the morning 
• Deliver goodbyes to students with hugs
• Leave school for Deloitte speaking engagement in Ann Arbor, MI.
• Delivered a testimonial about my experience as a corps member in City Year Detroit
• Had a party with my students during my last 5th class I would have with them.
• Said final goodbyes and took pictures with students
• City Year graduation roll-out
• Step team practice
• Returned home
• Watched "The Great Debaters"

A little contet: Today was our last day to be with our students while in City Year. It was a very emotional day...tears were flowing from both myself as well as my students. Any questions or concerns, feel free to comment below.

Have a great evening,

nNb :)

30 Day Blog Post Challenge: Day 2

Question #2: Something you feel strongly about?

Hmmm...this one is a very easy one. I feel that every child in the United States should have equal access to good education. There is a big difference between the quality of education in a suburban district compared to that of an inner-city district. Students in urban areas are way more likely to dropout of school because they do not value education. Most of these "would-be dropouts" see local drug dealers making more money than everyone else in the community. What's worse is that several educated people grew up in these neighborhoods but they don't often return. This causes kids to label them as "fake", "bougie", etc. Since they see the drug dealers "servicing" the community that they were raised in, kids are more apt to emulate them.

 I encounter students everyday that would rather listen to the newest rap song than listen to the history of their own race. Students value rappers over educators. Example: You hear a student rapping some lyrics to a popular song. You decide to print out these lyrics and give them to the student to read (Student doesn't know the origin of the foreign poetry on the page). You then ask them to read the "poetry" aloud.  I did this once with one of my students. Not only did they have difficulty reading the "poetry", they also called the whole thing stupid. Once I told him that I found a rap version of the song, he instantly wanted me to play it. He was embarrassed when he found out that it was his favorite song. Why is it that our students can memorize rap lyrics on a dime, but have difficulty reading simple sentences?! If they could only learn to harness that energy and apply it more towards their education, there is no telling what they can accomplish!

In order to increase the total number of high school graduates from the inner-city, we first have to get the community involved. There are too many times where I see parents smoking and drinking with their children. The community needs to step up and nurture their children. We need to give these kids something positive to look up too, instead of rappers, drug dealers and video vixens.

Yes, I know that this was a lot to write for this post, but I feel very strongly about education and its reform. :)

Peace,
nNb :)

The Climate of DPS Schools...

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.” --Charles R. Swindell

DISCLAIMER: THIS BLOG POST IS NOT AFFLIATED IN ANY WAY WITH CITY YEAR DETROIT. THIS IS SIMPLY ME STATING MY OWN OPINIONS/OBSERVATIONS.

Hey everyone!

Today I was talking to some of my 9th graders about a college night event that my City Year team is in the process of planning. As I was asking about registration forms, one student said "No one in here is going to go to college anyway...". That comment bugged me...not only did the student make the assumption that no one in the class wanted to go to college, he also said (indirectly) that no one in the class will be able to make it into college. People, I ask this simple question:

When did we get here as a community?

Why is it that students are more willing to fight/kill one another over practically nothing?Students spend more time writing their "hood" on the walls of the school than they do writing a ONE paragraph response to an instructor posed question. If you ask a student to recite their favorite rapper's lyrics, they can drop a rhyme on a dime. However, if you ask those same students to READ those same lyrics aloud, the have so much difficulty. Girls are willingly allowing boys to use and abuse them, while at the same time, calling these little boys "boo" or "baby". Even worse, is that these same guys, who were scum to begin with, impregnate these girls and then don't want to help raise the children. We've got babies on the block selling rocks to support their ENTIRE family!

What is going on here people?!?! Have we lost so much love for our commuity that we have let it turn to shambles?! Looking at pictures of my old Detroit neighborhood in the 70s, the area was thriving! The high school (where I am currently placed for my service term) looked beautiful. The neighborhood looked beautiful. what has happened between then and now? Our streets are covered in trash and litter. There are more abandoned buildings on some blocks than there are actual filled homes! Our children walk through the neighborhood and see nothing but struggle and strife. Most of them think that the only way to make money is to sell drugs. The sad part about it is that most of the affluent people in the neighborhood ARE the drug dealers. Those who get out of the neighborhood tend not to come back because they want to escape.

The only way that Detroit can become the thriving city that it once was, is if all the neighborhoods come together as one. We need to stop all of these rivalries and EDUCATE our children!!!! The community is a major influence on the path that students end up. The community sometimes lends itself to be a success deterrant. Our students can do anything that they set their mind to, and we need to instill that idea into them. We need to stop worrying about the superficial and worry more about their FUTURE! It is truly the only way to save our kids...

Stay blessed,

nNb :)

Why is Violence the "Norm" in Our Society???

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this blog post are not those of City Year or any of its affiliates. These views are simply mine and I am just using my blog to express MY opinion...

Hey everyone,

Today I feel compelled to comment (vent) about the current epidemic of violence in our society. As you all know, I am a corps member in City Year Detroit for the 2011 FY. I work in one of the roughest public high schools in the city. This week has been a rather challenging week for myself as well as my team. Just this week alone, I witnessed fights as well as heard about fights in the vicinity of the school. I witnessed one of my students get escorted out of the school in handcuffs and lastly, there was a shooting outside of my school today. While talking to some of the students, most of them seemed unfazed by the escalating violence in their school. Even after the shooting, I didn't get a sense of panic and fear from the students, I got a vibe of indifference and apathy. This brings me to my main question: Why is it that our society is so apathetic to the growing violence in our neighborhoods?

The shooting that occurred outside of my school was the result of a fight that escalated to someting more serious. From my observations, students tend to "play-fight" with their friends and slam one another on the floor and horse around until someone actually gets hurt. Once this injury happens, all joking ceases and the students actually begin fighting... Students in the surrounding areas rush towards the location of the fight, often harming one another to get a good view of the fight. The worst part of the entire ordeal is that the "beef" never ends! Once someone is beaten in a one-on-one fight, they call their friends to go back and attack the other person again, sometimes even wielding a weapon! These rivalries are long-lasting and often end up in multiple injuries.

Why we allowing this to happen in our community?! Why can't we as a society, come together and prevent this nonsense from occurring? We tend to care more about the negative influences in the media rather than the positive ones...we have students that can quote entire rap stanzas but struggle to spell words with a difficulty wayy below their grade level. When will this madness end?!

Feel free to respond to my post below, on my twitter (make sure to mention @natNaijabeauty) or on my Facebook (Michelle Nkechi Udeli)

Video Blog Update!!

Hey lovelies,

Here's a quick update vid that I made yesterday.



Enjoy y'all!
Peace,
nNb Y

New Segment: Video Blog Series!/Blog #1

Hey lovelies!

I've decided to start up a video blog series!! YAY! I don't always have access to a working video camera, but when I do get access, I will post something. I actually made this video last night...couldn't really sleep well, so excuse me if I look kinda sleepy/groggy. Alright, check it out below!

Peace,

nNb Y

WEEKLY CHALLENGES :)

There is no Challenge more challenging than the challenge to improve yourself.

-- Michael F. Staley

Hey y'all!

I was on one of my favorite natural hair sites (curlynikki.com) and I was looking at the health and fitness forum and saw a topic that mentioned something about weekly challenges. This seems like a GREAT idea, so I've decided to do the same type of thing. However, instead of focusing on just health and fitness, I want to incorporate other things like education, music, hair challenges and sooo much more! This will force me to post more on here (hehe) and it will also give me a way to connect with other people who are in similar situations as myself. These challenges will not be easy...they will be designed to take you out of your comfort zone :)

Here's the setup:

• Each challenge will begin on Monday of the week and will end at 11:59 the following Saturday.
• I will try to alternate the topics from week to week to get some variety. If you have any suggestions for challenge ideas, shoot me a message or just comment below.
• Update everyone on your progress below in the comments section.
• If this gets really big, (I'm hoping it does!) I'll create a separate blog for it :)

The first challenge will be posted on Sunday, Jan 24th. I'm really excited!!!

Peace,

nNb Y