Yesterday was sooooooooo fun. A local elementary school (in the "high-rent district") put signs in the yards of the incoming kindergartners. The signs had little packets of crayons attached, and a note saying how excited the PTA is to welcome them to school. One of the teachers from our school thought, "Why can't we?" and an idea was born.
We started cold-calling 9th graders! She divided all 250 of them into geographic groups, and gave us flyers to either hand the students or leave on their front doors.
We went in pairs, and had such a good time. All of the parents and grandparents were thrilled to see us. One mother invited us in, made her husband and other sons come meet us too. One student came downstairs when his mother called, but he was wearing pajama pants so he ran back upstairs to change when he saw us. :) None of the students seemed THRILLED about coming to school next week, but they were all polite and friendly and made eye contact appropriately. No one was sullen or rude.
We saw really nice houses on acreage in the country and tidy homes in housing projects, and knocked on the door of one family whose address on file was a motel. We have heard that one of the local homeless agencies houses families there, but we can only surmise that it was her situation. One family had moved, one address was a vacant house.
We didn't get to all of them before tonight's orientation. It was suggested that we take schedules to the ones who didn't show, and that we take a computer with a hot-spot and do what we need to issue their laptops. I think it's a fabulous idea. Here's the biggest reason why:
The first set of visitors went around on Friday, to maybe 25 homes. The first house we knocked at on Monday was answered by a girl who said, "My friend texted me, and asked me if you've been here yet!" She was EXPECTING US! and excited to see us! How cool is that?
We started cold-calling 9th graders! She divided all 250 of them into geographic groups, and gave us flyers to either hand the students or leave on their front doors.
We went in pairs, and had such a good time. All of the parents and grandparents were thrilled to see us. One mother invited us in, made her husband and other sons come meet us too. One student came downstairs when his mother called, but he was wearing pajama pants so he ran back upstairs to change when he saw us. :) None of the students seemed THRILLED about coming to school next week, but they were all polite and friendly and made eye contact appropriately. No one was sullen or rude.
We saw really nice houses on acreage in the country and tidy homes in housing projects, and knocked on the door of one family whose address on file was a motel. We have heard that one of the local homeless agencies houses families there, but we can only surmise that it was her situation. One family had moved, one address was a vacant house.
We didn't get to all of them before tonight's orientation. It was suggested that we take schedules to the ones who didn't show, and that we take a computer with a hot-spot and do what we need to issue their laptops. I think it's a fabulous idea. Here's the biggest reason why:
The first set of visitors went around on Friday, to maybe 25 homes. The first house we knocked at on Monday was answered by a girl who said, "My friend texted me, and asked me if you've been here yet!" She was EXPECTING US! and excited to see us! How cool is that?