It's A Different World....than where you come from!

Hello Gang -

Well; the first day of school finally happened at last.

Austin goes to a school called East St. School...everyone was very nice to us and I even got a chance to meet the principle. He rides the bus to school now ( a huge change for him) but he seems perfectly content with it. In fact; he has been running around all weekend saying that he cannot wait until Monday to go to school because they are going to computer class on Monday and he likes to work on the computer. The school assigned him a partner who shows him around and they hang together all day...showed him to the bathroom, the lunch room and outside at recess. The teacher has a very cool reward system that helps the children to stay on their best behavior. They earn tickets every time they are "caught" being good and after 40 tickets; they earn a day of no homework. I love this reward system that focuses more on positive reinforcement versus noticing a child only when they are bad. I think that this will work well for Austin.

Raven goes to a middle school that has 1200 students. The 7th grade class has close to 470+ students. Her class schedule includes: French, English, Piano, Computers, Math, Science, Art and Social Studies. It's very much like a high school where the children move from class to class and have only like 10 minutes in between. She complained that all of the "black" people talked with accents(i.e Jamaican or Caribbean) and that she was the only African American that she met. This just proves to me that this is going to be a good overall experience for her. She is so used to everyone looking and sounding just like her...if she really wants to go to college in Europe; she has to learn to be comfortable in all types of environments. They have something in New York called Regents exams; where kids must pass Regents tests in order to receive a high school diploma. It starts at the middle school level and the standards are tough. Judging from Raven's syllabus; she will be working extremely hard this semester. She also rides the bus; but she did not like it so much. She said that it was too many to a row (3) and that it was HOT!!!

I am still setting up my computer so look for pictures next week of our house here in New York and pictures of our town.