Today's guest blog is written by Nikotris Perkins, Communities In Schools of North Texas Site Coordinator for the 21st Century Community Learning Center at Denton High School in Denton Independent School District.

One step at a time is definitely the moral of this story.

Last year a group of three girls were very hard for staff to deal with on a daily basis. Both in our program and during the school day, their attitudes and aptitude to point fingers and tell lies made life difficult for someone every day.

Though bargained with, given choices, and even suspended from programing, they consistently attended the 21st Century Community Learning Center, an after school academic and enrichment program run by Communities In Schools of North Texas. They have come to every field trip and participated in the program in a pretty engaging manner. They are vocal about what they would like to see happen during program and are present for the programs they elected to start. Through it all, they have caused a one-on-one meeting with every staff program staff to brainstorm around love and logic as well as patience and perspective.

In the past they haven't responded well to any type of discipline, but I have always seen the need for them to be in the program. I have called home and conducted home visits to discuss issues with their parents. I kept pressing all the time, knowing that moments like this would come about.

These good moments are due in part to maturity but some of it is due to the fact that the girls feel like the 21st Century program is somewhere they can be themselves without all that extra defense (also known as immense attitude). It is somewhere that they can stop and ask questions that they always precede with "this might be a stupid question." It is also a place where they can share their dreams and the dreams are not only supported but given an avenue to come to fruition.

At the beginning of the semester these girls, now juniors, really latched on to college connection and the idea of making a plan for post graduation. Not only did they stay for those days, but I met with each one individually and we talked about cumulative grade point averages and class rank. Though full of attitude, these girls have done alright in school, very well in comparison to students who fit in the "at-risk" box with them, and they could easily compete with those that do not. All set goals and worked hard to attain them with extra tutoring and homework help. They often did their homework for the entire time they were in the program instead of participating in extra curricular enrichment activities.

As we enter 2011 the attitudes are so much better than those I encountered in 2009. They still have bad days and there are still days that we have to meet with staff, but parents do not have to get involved anymore and teachers do not experience the attitude they used to in the classroom. Most importantly, the cumulative grade point average of all three girls together for the Fall semester is 3.64!

We still have attitude to deal with and there is still a year and a half left before the plans can even be tested for plausibility, but they are doing well, one step at a time.

Today's guest blog is by Connie Kim, Communities In Schools of North Texas Program Manager at Rivera Elementary in Denton Independent School District. She brags on a holiday assistance volunteer who stuck it out with the CISNT program managers for the whole holiday assistance program.

Nathalie Nguyen volunteered for two fourteen-hour days for the Holiday Assistance program that benefitted the students at Borman Elementary, Rivera Elementary, Calhoun Middle School and Denton High School in Denton ISD. Her day started with the loading of boxes of clothes and food from The Village Church on Monday morning and ended with the sorting and distribution of the gifts to families at Singing Oaks Church in Denton on Tuesday night.

Nathalie worked hard with moving boxes and helping the CISNT Program Managers sort through the gifts of food and clothing. She had the best attitude and never complained about anything, and she helped the program managers with whatever they needed.

Nathalie livened up the working environment as the program managers worked, and she was a joy to have help the program managers.

Communities In Schools of North Texas expresses our sincerest thanks to all our holiday assistance elves for the work they do to provide our students with a safe and happy holiday season. Thank you!