Day in the life of a City Year Milwaukee AmeriCorps member

My name is Danyalle Rogers, and I proudly serve as a City Year Milwaukee AmeriCorps member at Roosevelt Middle School of the Arts, home of the Phantoms! Here is a snapshot of a day in my life.

Starting our day on a bright note

Each day, we start our service at 7:40 in the morning. We start the day with a brief standing meeting we call, “first circle.” During this time, we start off by sharing recent joys and appreciations in our lives. We do a “readiness check” to ensure that we are in uniform and in a service state of mind. The meeting concludes with announcements, and we end it with an inspirational word or saying!

First circle starts our day off on a bright note and gets us ready to prepare for our students to arrive. 

Power greeting

After our first circle, we do something called “power greeting.” This is the light of the day for me. We stand near the entrance and greet our students to help them be happy and excited for the day. The students then enjoy breakfast, and I engage with them during and after breakfast for some additional reading time all before the school day starts. The official start of the school day at Roosevelt Middle School of the Arts begins at 8:45 a.m.

Student check-ins and preparing for a powerful week of service

On a typical Monday, we have a team meeting, and Mondays also are our day for conducting social-emotional learning and attendance check ins. This looks different for each corps member and student. For my students, I spend time with them, and we set weekly goals in both behavior and attendance. The students share out ideas and support each other so they can achieve the goals we have set. Another important Monday task is looking over our session plan for the week to make sure we are set up for success.

Tutoring sessions

After this, I support students in the classroom and during my second hour class I pull out four students and bring them to the City Year room for intervention time. This time includes:

• a warmup to get students’ minds thinking
• stating the objective/goals
• a technique we call, “I do, we do, you do” as a way to model and practice a specific skill like multiplication
• an exit ticket to conclude the session

When I am not conducting interventions, I support my teacher in whole class support. I also have some prep time and a break for lunch. During my prep time, City Year AmeriCorps members handle responsibilities such as coordinator roles, weekly tasks and check-ins! y coordinator role is events and external relations, and my duties include sharing about our work in newsletters and blogs like this one.

Afterschool programming

At the end of the day, we have ELO time, which stands for extended learning opportunity. My partner teacher and I discuss ideas to help each individual in the classroom increase reading abilities and scores. This is an important time for us to help support our students in the ways that they need it.

At the end of the day, City Year AmeriCorps members help staff release students from class and onto their buses. We conclude our day of service with a final circle where we once again share joys and appreciations from the day along with any final announcements for the rest of the week.

Learn more about what you can expect from doing a year of service as a City Year Milwaukee AmeriCorps member.

About the author: Danyalle Rogers serves as a City Year Milwaukee AmeriCorps member at Roosevelt Middle School of the Arts.