Life Changing Experience at NYC Public School
So I had a pretty wild life experience last week. After reaching out to a bunch of NYC schools in hopes of performing a guest reading of The Nestomir — a few schools responded enthusiastically to me! And last Tuesday I had the opportunity to perform a guest reading for The Urban Assembly Gateway School for Technology, a public high school in Manhattan, NY.
When the day came, I had no idea what I was going to say or do…what on Earth do you say to a group of skeptical, hard-to-impress teenagers? I decided it was not something I couldn’t easily plan for (I did have a few notes scribbled on a post-it taped to the front of my copy of the story), but I knew I would have to adapt to the situation in real time. And I was right.
When I showed up to the school’s main entrance, the security guard walked me up to the English classroom where I was scheduled to present. The teacher immediately greeted me…and to sum up what she told me: Good luck! These kids are a fidgety bunch, you’re going to have work really hard to get them to pay attention!
Great. Then the bell rang. The kids began to pour inside the room. What was quite comical: the kids could tell something was different about their class today…leading them to believe they had a pop quiz. To their relief, it was only a guest speaker.
The teacher gave me a brief intro, then I made my walk up to the front of the classroom. My only objective: do not let them fall asleep, no matter the cost.
What I Did:
- I quickly intro’d myself, then I immediately asked the class if they wanted to perform a freestyle rap battle contest. This caught them off guard and perked their attention up…a few kids even selected classmates to compete…but I told them I would save this activity for next time I visit.
- Next, I decided to put the book down. My gut told me to speak about my adventures learning to code. I spoke about learning key software engineering lessons from my first business partner. I got some engagement…but not enough.
- The tide turned when I began to speak about my greatest life challenges, including when it came to performing in school. My greatest academic challenge came during my first semester of engineering school. I came into college with a high school work ethic, and that was a fail. I was used to doing everything last minute; I had no understanding of discipline or work ethic. That first college semester I had a big scare…but it ultimately led me to going from one of the world’s biggest procrastinators to someone who is obsessed with organization and being extremely disciplined when attacking new work and projects. The kids really took to this speaking segment…I got a lot of questions and heads perked up. And as a result, more kids paid attention to the short reading I performed.
I didn’t want to write too long of a post. But what I learned most: people, no matter if they are kids or adults, like to hear about struggle. It wasn’t until I spoke about the serious battles I faced in my life that I became credible and the kids paid me real attention. I hope to use these experiences talking to students to become a better mentor, educator, and author in the future.
ps: I will be presenting to a bunch of other NYC/Long Island public schools in January/February 2022! Stay tuned.
Have a great week!
Steven Reubenstone
Author, The Nestomir
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