Round 4, Part 2: Oakland, CA

Our team is almost through with our second half of Round 4. We've been working with Reading Partners, an organization that takes the teacher's work out of planning for and tutoring students in reading. They've designed an amazing system to organize successful reading materials in a fashion that allows tutors to come in, grab their folders, and follow step by step instructions to tutor their student in reading. It's great! And it's working!

Our team has been actually putting together these materials ever since we've arrived in Oakland in early June. We've also been lucky enough to be paired with our own students for tutoring. It is great to actually see the materials we are putting together in action in the classroom.

It's been great being in the Bay Area for our final round. Reading Partners has set us up in an amazing townhouse located right on the Bay. Our front yard is the marina, so when we look out our bedroom windows, all we see are the boats at the docks. It's lovely.

The sun setting on the Bay has been a great motivator for me to go running! I love being able to run along the water and look out and see the Bay Bridge and San Francisco in the distance.

Our Team also got the chance to do an Independent Service Project (ISP) at Alcatraz last weekend. We washed hundreds of windows and got a private tour from park ranger, John Cantwell. He's been working at Alcatraz since he was 14 years old, and he is now 53!!! He gave us a detailed, VIP, 4 hour tour of the place. The same tour that is not offered to the public, but is offered to a small pool of people who win a lottery to pay $2,000 to volunteer and sleep over night in a cell. The same tour that John gave the Obama daughters last month.

It was interesting to actually get locked in cells that were much larger and more private than any rooms we've lived in since AmeriCorps! We laughed that maybe prison wouldn't be that bad! Like Jackie said while watching Double Jeopardy in Washington, "This doesn't look that bad! You get to wear jeans, and have your own job...."

John also let us climb to the top of the lighthouse, and then climb out the top and hang on the tip in the wind! It was extremely high up and pretty frightening because it was so windy!

We've also been going into San Francisco every weekend. It's a 40 minute walk to the Bart train station, and then about an hour ride into the city. It's exciting to have the city at our fingertips, and we have been taking full advantage! We even got to experience Pride Fest which was a blast!

Only about 2 weeks left in the program, and we are going out with a bang!