1. DECEMBERMonthly Service Briefing
City Year Boston
*Name changed to protect student privacy
Time to Make an Impact
by Molly Haig, AmeriCorps member
As AmeriCorps members, our days are jam-packed. In the rush, it’s easy to forget to self-reflect
on our service and to evaluate our personal progress in how well we’re supporting the students.
In order to help AmeriCorps members grow in this area, City Year Boston (CYB) revamped its
observation and coaching model this year.
CYB decided on “impact coaching” as a key strategy and hired its first two coaches this year:
Carrie Baldwin and Anthony Britt. Their role is to ensure that City Year Boston AmeriCorps
members have the tools to perform to their full potential. They support staff and senior corps,
and hold observation and coaching sessions with AmeriCorps members.
What does an AmeriCorps-member observation and impact coaching session look like? A
typical observation is just 15 to 20 minutes. During the coaching session afterward, the impact
coach and AmeriCorps member focus on one area for improvement, and devise one or two
action steps. The goal is to establish small, realistic goals that will create a big change over time.
While the structure of the impact sessions mirrors the coaching that Program Managers and
Team Leaders offer the corps, Impact Coaches add something essential—a unique perspective.
Anthony and Carrie both bring years of classroom teaching experience to their observations
and coaching sessions.
While Impact Coaches work with first and second year AmeriCorps members and staff, Carrie
emphasizes that, ultimately, impact coaching is about supporting students. “Every one of us
can improve our skills. The most efficient way to continuously improve is to receive honest,
balanced, frequent, and timely feedback. […] The real reason that this is so important is that
the more effective AmeriCorps members are in their roles, the greater the impact they'll have
on their students' academic outcomes.”
Impact coaching is a way to make the most of our time with students. By reflecting and
implementing feedback, we can improve the excellence of our service during our time in
schools.
December 17: Family Pancake
Breakfast Extended Day
December 20-Jan 3: Corps Winter
Break
January 9: Comcast Career Day
January 19-23: City Year Boston
Midyear Summit
January 22: 18-Minute Networking
Event
• 62.5% of Mattahunt AmeriCorps
members have met more than 50%
of the goals that they have set with
students so far this year.
• The team has completed an
average of 5 attendance check-ins
per student (31 students total) over 6
weeks attendance check-ins.
• 156 families attended Data Night
for their student.
• 19 holiday cards students created
during Starfish extended day
program were sent to Boston
hospitals.
• Over 200 students participated
during Social-Emotional Learning
event by dressing in uniform on
December 5.
team serving at
Mattahunt Elementary
School
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Fun Facts
Events
City Year is an education focused nonprofit organization that unites young leaders of all backgrounds
for a year of full-time service to keep students in school and on track to graduation. These AmeriCorps
members serve in schools for 10 months as tutors, mentors, and role models. By focusing on attendance,
behavior, and course performance, corps members are uniquely able to help students and schools
succeed.
WHAT IS CITY YEAR?
“This is me. This is who I am!”
by Melissa Suckow, AmeriCorps member
Who am I? Why am I here? What is my purpose in life? These are prompts we encouraged our
students to answer during our enrichment program. Annie Vasishta, one of my teammates,
designed and facilitated an outstanding social-emotional Starfish Extended Day session plan.
The lesson allowed our students in the our elementary extended day program to recognize
and celebrate qualities that shape their identity. Exploring students identify is pivotal to a
student's development. If students develop an awareness about who they are as a person, City
Year AmeriCorps members become aware of each student’s strengths, needs, and interests.
This knowledge allows us to develop meaningful relationships with our students, which in
turn enables us to make connections relevant to their learning. These connections engage the
student, which opens their mind to more complex concepts and content.
To hook the students into the planned activities we, the students and AmeriCorps members,
shared our personal values. Directly following our personal statements we watched a short
video of a spoken word poem written and performed by a nine-year old girl. In the video, the
girls shares her perspective on how she views her parents love towards her. This video really
set the tone for the students to begin writing their own poems. It inspired them to write about
their perceptions.
We were amazed by what our students were capable of writing. The students shared their
perspectives about their own lives and identities, which shed light on my own life experiences.
The activity promoted a deep sense of community in our Starfish program. It is a privilege
to work with these students and it t is an honor to serve with City Year Boston. I may be
supporting the growth of the students’ identities, but they are also shaping mine. I am so
thankful that these students are in my life.
Below are two examples of spoken word pieces that students created:
It doesn’t matter if I don’t have all the toys that kids have.
It doesn’t matter if I can’t get an iPad or anything.
The only thing that matters to me is love, family, community, and hope.
Hope for everyone to love all they have, and think what a wonderful life I have!
I am a woman full of family.
I am a good friend to everyone black, white, Spanish, and more.
Times are tough, but that is how life is.
Through thick and thin I will have my sister.
I will be a good friend to everyone.
I have inner strength.
I love City Year because I can trust them.
I love music because it calms me down.
This is me. This is who I am!