I'm teaching(?)

In June I was hired to teach photography at a non profit org that services at risk youth in Chicago's south side. I spent two weeks preparing my curriculum and lesson plans. I had to write everything from scratch. Yesterday was the first day the kids came.

Yesterday was chaotic. So far the entire program has been unorganized. I'm still not certain our exact schedule because it changes daily, sometimes several times per day. The kids who came yesterday were all from a restorative justice program. They are taking this class or going to jail. They are all boys aged 16-18. There was only one boy who I was hoping wouldn't be in my class. The group was going to be split into my class, photography, and my partners class, graphic design.

Today we split the class based on what the boys wanted to do. I ended up with 7 boys and the other teacher only got 4. Not sure how that happened exactly but I guess I will make it work. The boy I didn't want in my class is, but he's not the worst.

They all want to be rappers, pro football players, pro basketball players, and club owners. There are two boys in my class who have potential. One wants to own his own construction business. The other just graduated from high school and is starting at community college in the fall and plans to transfer to a four year university. He is the most committed to the program and the most respectful.

I had prepared a simple syllabus but none of them could read it. So I started my lectures and they were bored. I don't blame them because history is not always fun, but it's important. After the second hour one boy asked me when I was going to start teaching them something. Ugh! I felt like I wasted hours of planning but I'm not taking it personally.

The only thing that perks these boys up is if you talk about money. I have to keep steering my class back to "well if you do this, you can make money!" I showed them  my portfolio. They weren't too impressed, and when I showed them an example of family photography they said "Oh! They UGLY! Where they from?" Haha I had to laugh at that.

I decided that we will learn photography basics and hope to have a portfolio of at least 10 images by the end of the course. I'm also adding a business planning section. We will make a mock business and figure out how much to charge, who our clients are, and how many clients we need to make a profit. I hope they enjoy that part since they can use the business plan when they are done.

The goal of the program is two-fold. One is to teach them a skill they can use to help them make money. The second is to keep them off the streets and safe. If they don't learn anything at all from me, at least I know there were 7 boys off the streets for 6 hours each day. 

Tomorrow we are going to attempt to walk to the library. One boy (that one) doesn't want to go because it's in gang territory he doesn't belong in. I'm a little nervous to say the least.