Service Forms and Renweb and Urban Compass and...hooboy.

My job in the Christian Service these last two weeks has been incredibly busy--and not necessarily the fun kind of busy...lots of data entry! Ahhhh, nothing like staring at an Excel spreadsheet all day. Each student that goes here is required to do 5 service hours a quarter, and the due date for the first quarter hours was last Friday. So, naturally, everyone waited for the last minute! I was constantly getting another pile of five-ten independent service forms to put into our spreadsheet that keeps track of student hours. At least I didn't have to make the spreadsheet! It's kind of overwhelming...I hate clutter; it stresses me out. So having those blue forms all over my desk, along with the Urban Compass hour sheets has been excruciating!

I never thought about the implications of procrastinating and the effect it has on teachers or the people that you turn things into last minute. So I'm apologizing for my part in adding to that stress!
I've also had to call and confirm a lot of the independent hours students have turned in to make sure these students did what they said they were doing. I'm not good at phones so this has been an anxious thing for me, but it's certainly getting easier. Life skills, I suppose.

Hmmm...just mentioned Urban Compass without explaining what that is: Urban Compass is an afterschool program for kids in the local community--Nickerson Gardens, the projects (they're called housing developments now I believe). It's a safe and fun place for these kids to have some play time and to do their homework. My casamate Meg works there and the program is located on Verb's campus so we commute together every day. It sounds like an awesome program and the kids sound like a riot (even if they are a handful). Students at Verb often get their service hours done there after school by helping out in the afternoons. I get forms from them every day to put into the Excel sheet.

I also have to track the hours on this program called RenWeb which is basically the central hub for the school's data. Grades, community service hours, parent and student information, schedules...I've had to familiarize myself with it as every Thursday and Friday I have to hand out reminder slips to students about their Saturday Service forms.

So I've been really bogged down in the mornings in the Christian Service office these last few weeks as the quarter came to a close but it'll be slowing down a bit soon...at least until December when second quarter ends!