Sharing My Joys - By Charlotte

Last year I was a proud City Year corps member serving on the Marshall Elementary School Team in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood. City Year's strong and positive culture encourages the daily sharing of "joys" with teammates. This was one of my favorite aspects of City Year's culture, sharing joys kept me inspired and positive during difficult days, and reminded me why I chose to devote myself to an incredibly challenging year of service. I had a particularly joyful week at school, filled with countless moments that reaffirmed my faith in my decision to come to Beijing and stay for the full year. In City Year fashion, I thought I'd share some my joys with all of you! Below are two videos of my 3-year-old students reading a simple book I introduced last week during our transportation unit. I found Yoyo, the boy in the first video, reading the story to himself after breakfast and was shocked by how much he remembered from the few times I had read the story. So during my "Morning Meeting" I invited a few more of my advanced students to the front of the class to be "teacher" and try reading the story. It was true joy to see them read the story successfully to their classmates!