826 and Galileo’s AVID program just can’t get enough of each other, so a brand new group of tutors began work this morning with a brand new group of AVID freshmen. AVID helps students prepare for college and the pretty intimidating application process, so we tutors get to live through the whole thing all over again (it’s slightly less stressful this time around, thank heavens). This morning, the students started in on autobiographical essays. Teacher Nancy Lambert gave us all an overview of what to remember when writing autobiographically (sensory details! dialogue!), and discussed strategies for generating material. Then the kids got to work brainstorming, listing every event they could think of that might be notable or life-changing or point-making enough to write about. We five tutors floated around, talking to some students about what they had written, assuring others that we weren’t buying their “nothing’s ever happened to me” stories, and trying to help them come up with something, anything. The stories these kids had to tell ranged from losing the tip of a finger to escaping gang life, so once we got the students talking, they were fascinating to listen to. 826 tutors will be back in this AVID class every Wednesday for the rest of the year, so I’m looking forward to learning a lot more about these kids. Plus, I think everyone can benefit from going back to high school for an hour a week. Keeps me young.