Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Good Times in Week 4



At St. Gabriel’s last week, we were blessed with five volunteers from Little Rock, Arkansas. They were absolutely invaluable and helped us to provide a lot more individual attention to the kids. Also, after breaking up into groups, they often times came up with their own games and miniature activities to help the kids learn.

I continued teaching the middle and younger kids Spanish. They really enjoy it, and for many of them learning new Spanish words is as natural as learning new words in English. We often play a game where the kids are broken down into teams and compete with one another to remember new words, and with the help of the volunteers last week Nina and I were able to set up a game of Spanish Bingo.

I’ve been teaching the older kids about the Russian Revolution. It’s not a very mainstream topic, but Nina, Braveen, and I decided that it would be good to introduce the kids to something that they might not learn in school. Many of the concepts in the story of the revolution are fairly standard (such as nobility, government structures, varying ideologies, etc.), and I believe that the event and its context have helped the kids to realize that they can relate to history even when they are unfamiliar with the topic.

The past week was also the last week for GED classes. I found it extremely rewarding to work with the students there, and I know Braveen and Nina loved the experience as well. The determination of the young men and women is simply amazing. We gave our students our cell phone numbers so that they could contact us for extra help, and we also let them know that we’re still available to tutor in the mornings. Hopefully we will be able to continue to work with them in the future.

On Thursday of last week, I asked Sister Donald Mary about starting up a documentary project focusing on the oral histories of the women in the senior program at St. Gabriel’s. Our tour of the Delta two weeks ago with Dr. Luther Brown, along with my time here at the Mercy Center, helped me to recognize the rich history of Mound Bayou. Unfortunately, much of this history is drastically underappreciated, due in part to the drastic economic downturn that has hit the greater Delta region. Several of the historic buildings have fallen into disrepair because the town lacks the funds to renovate them, and many of the resources needed for promotion of the town’s history simply aren’t available. The senior program at St. Gabriel’s has provided a wonderful platform for getting to know the older individuals in the community, and I believe that a project chronicling their stories will contribute greatly to the effort to preserve the history of Mound Bayou and the history of the Delta. The conversations I’ve had so far with the senior women of St. Gabriel’s have been truly inspiring, and I am extremely excited to talk with and learn from them.

This past weekend was spectacular. On Saturday, Ms. Lee Aylward from the Delta Center took us on a tour of Clarksdale. We went to the Delta Blues Museum, had a wonderful lunch at Ground Zero blues club, walked through the Riverside Hotel (where the blues singer Bessie Smith died), and visited other prominent sites around Clarksdale. On Saturday evening, we had a cookout at the house and invited some friends over from a student Methodist group at Delta State. The food was wonderful, and afterwards we played Taboo. On Sunday, Hillary, Erin, Michael and I drove to Vicksburg where we had a great lunch, took photos, and saw the Mississippi River. We even crossed into Louisiana for a little bit on the highway. Vicksburg is a beautiful city with a lot of history, but unfortunately we arrived a little late in the day, so many of the museums were closed.

This week has started out extremely well. I’m teaching the younger kids Spanish, the middle kids their multiplication tables, and the older kids the Russian Revolution. The multiplication tables are extremely important, because many of the middle children are behind in learning them, and multiplication serves as the foundation for a large amount of the math the kids will learn in the future.

I’m loving my time here in Mississippi, and I’m shocked at how quickly the time has gone by. I’m soaking up the music, the history, and the culture of the Delta, and I look forward to the upcoming weeks!

Josh

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

More Wonders in Week Three!




The past week has been wonderful. Everything from working at St. Gabriel’s to having “family dinners” with the Robertson gang has been fun and exciting.

I have been having a great time continuing reading activities with the kids in our summer youth program. I just finished reading Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger with the 10-13 year old group. It was a huge success. I’m really glad that they enjoyed this book as much as I did when I was their age. Now we are about to begin a writing project. I hope to have every 10-13 year old write a polished five-paragraph essay about the book. We are going to work on this project in very small steps, including learning about essay structure, brainstorming about the reading question, generating an outline, writing a rough draft, editing and revising, writing a final draft, and typing up the essays in the computer lab. I think this will have to be a long-term, comprehensive project. My goals are to have every child have a firm foundation about essay structure and also to create a polished final work that they can take pride in. They were all very excited to read Wayside, and I hope some of that excitement will be translated into essay writing. Today I taught the “hamburger model” for essay writing. This was something I learned in elementary school, and it has stuck with me. The general notion is to think of the essay like a burger: the top bun is the introduction, the meat patties are the main ideas of each body paragraph, the condiments/cheese/lettuce/tomato are the examples and details in each body paragraph, and the bottom bun is the conclusion. Just like a burger is not complete without all the parts, and a burger would not be acceptable if the meat were on the outside and the bun were on the inside, etc., an essay must have all the right parts in the right order. I think they did well with the concept. We’ll see how the project develops!

The kids have also been doing other great work. I’ve continued to read picture books and do short art projects or worksheets with the 5-7 year olds and the 8-9 year olds. For example, we recently read a favorite book from my childhood, Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel, and learned about syllables, and we also read Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst and learned about synonyms and antonyms. Braveen has been teaching math, including area and perimeter for the older two age groups, which has been going very well. He also continues to teach karate once a week. Josh has been teaching Spanish to the younger age groups, which they love, and has been teaching history to the older kids. Every day is busy, and we are usually very tired by the end of the day (at least I know I am!), but I think that now our tiredness stems from a lot of teaching and learning, and it is a satisfying feeling.

The rest of my summer experience has been going well too. This weekend we had ten Robertson Scholars who are spending their summer in New Orleans come visit us in the Delta, and it was great! We showed them around a bit and had lunch together in Indianola on Saturday and we went to Morgan Freeman’s blues club, Ground Zero, in Clarksdale that night. It was a lot of fun. It felt great to have so many good friends together, and it was great to share summer experiences.

Sunday was also a fantastic day. We went on a tour of the Delta with Dr. Luther Brown, the director of the Delta Center for Culture and Learning at Delta State. He is really an invaluable resource for the Robertson Scholars. We went on a great tour to many historic places, such as Dockery Farms, a large plantation labeled as the birthplace of the blues. It was also just wonderful to spend a day together, learning about our location and having quality conversations. All of my experiences in the past week – working at St. Gabriel’s, touring the Delta, having fun times and great conversations with friends – have made me really appreciate my community summer. I can’t believe 3 ½ weeks are already past! Of course, I am very much looking forward to the 4 ½ still to come!

- Nina

Saturday, June 13, 2009

OH, THE WONDERS OF WEEK 2!

This week as a whole was a huge success. We got a lot of things right. I feel we've been learning a lot from trial and error during our time at St. Gabriel's (especially during Week 1). As Josh explained in his last post, the innovative card discipline system has been a huge improvement in the way we run things. Also as Josh mentioned, the presence of volunteers this week helped a lot. A youth group from the Mississippi Coast came up and worked at St. Gabriel's the whole week. Three to Six volunteers helped staff our program during the week, so their added presence helped keep decorum during some ordinarily hectic times.

Another huge highlight of this week was the work with the GED program. At St. Gabriel's, the three of us are constantly looking for new ways to help out besides the summer youth program we are conducting. The past two weeks have been filled with orientations for all the different programs (Parent's as Teachers, Library, Computer Lab, etc.). On Tuesday, Mrs. Beverly Johnson spent some time explaining to us all about the Emergency Needs Assistance Program and all the social work/programs that she oversees. I'm sure we'll have plenty to do for Mrs. Johnson when she asks for our help. Sister Rita runs the GED program that meets in the mornings on Tues.-Thurs.; the classes are small but cover essential material needed for those preparing to take the examination to get their GED. Josh, Nina, and I will now be working with program for about an hour every morning from now on. Josh and Nina both agree that this is a very good way to utilize our skills at St. Gabriel's since we can give individualized attention to the students preparing for the test. We all picked one person to work with throughout the week. Math seems to be the most difficult subject. Nina, Josh, and I find it refreshing to work on teaching our GED students high school level math as opposed to our simple elementary/middle school level curriculum we carry out for the Summer Youth Program. We are super excited to keep this up through out the summer.

The rest of our week for the Summer Youth Program went smoothly. On Wednesday the group from the Mississippi Coast helped to conduct an Easter Egg Hunt with prizes. Their activity lasted an hour, so Nina, Josh, and I had to adjust our usual schedule for the day. We kept the kids together rather than divide them up. After journal time, we had the kids do a word search of all the US states West of the Mississippi River. The activity worked very well to our pleasant surprise! It was a good follow up to Nina's geography lesson from last week too. After that we did a resurrection of our Math Bingo activity from Day 1. Once again, we made it work quite well. Last time, Nina ran Math Bingo by herself since Josh and I were doing diagnostic tests. This time, Josh and I were present so it ran more smoothly. The Mississippi Coast group took over afterwards and did their Easter Egg hunt. The kids loved it. They all got prizes (stuffed animals, toys, etc.) too. Later on we all went back to the Wesley House like we did last week. Eddie Willis was nice enough to invite us back for dinner. They are so nice and hospitable. It is wonderful to have made such friends here.

Thursday was solid execution of our now typical routine. I taught Martial Arts again, and it was a hit! Nina continued with her reading activities, and Josh also did his math/social studies lesson plan. That night was great for dinner. Nina taught me how to make Macaroni & Cheese (yes, embarassing...I never really tried to do that...Ha ha). With 9 boxes we fed our whole Robertson gang. Hilary, Alison, and Michael made us a SCRUMPTIOUS Apple Crisp dessert as well. It was great!

Friday was a very relaxing work day at St. Gabriel's. We were supposed to meet with Cheryl Baldwin, one of the coordinators for an organization known as Camp Hope, but it did not work out. Instead we learned about St. Gabriel's Sewing Program from Sister Cleo. Embroidery for the African-style dresses is the next big step in line for the program. They've come a long way with baby steps, but there is still some progress to be made before the actual business dream can be realized. The hope is that the women from Mound Bayou will one day be able to collectively organize their talents and have a cottage industry with the sewing. Later on as we were planning, two boys from our program showed up not knowing there was no class on Friday! Nina and Josh were quick to seize the opportunity to have some good one-on-one time with these kids since the mother could not be reached. Nina and Josh worked on math flash cards with the kids for a while before we all played outside. I feel they learned a lot from working with Nina and Josh for the short time (even though they should have never technically showed up in the first place). Everything worked out. Later that night, most of our Robertson group went to a Mexican restaurant in Cleveland called Guadalajara for dinner. The whole group then rented a movie and watched it at the house courtesy of Matt's XBOX 360. I love Movie Nights with my Robertson friends! During the school year there is nothing I enjoy more. My Robertson buddies in Louisiana/Kentucky right now, Brent and Cameron, know this very well :).

Later today we are thinking about going to Ground Zero Blues Club in Clarksdale. It is a famous club started by Mississippi native Morgan Freeman! It should be exciting.

Everything I've experienced so far already feels SO REWARDING!!! I feel so blessed to have had this opportunity and to experience such a wonderful summer with my best friends.

-Braveen

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Keep on Growing

Today and yesterday have been great successes. Nina, Braveen, and I set up a new discipline system in the classroom. Under the system, each of the kids has four note cards of different colors in a pouch on a poster board, and whenever one of the kids does something wrong they pull a note card and place it behind the others. Everyone starts out at yellow, and the colors that follow are green, orange, and pink—pink is the end of the line and results in being sent to the office. If a kid doesn’t have his or her card pulled over the course of the entire day, then they get a star placed next to their name. The kids with the most stars get prizes at the end of the week. The system has been extremely effective. After we explained it to the kids, the atmosphere of the class completely changed. We could tell that the kids were much more aware of their behavior and were eager to follow the rules and not get their cards pulled. It’s definitely difficult to discipline the kids, but often times it’s necessary and I’ve realized that we owe it to them to maintain an ordered environment that is conducive to their learning.

As Nina and Braveen have described, we’ve transitioned to a new system where we split the kids into different age groups (5-7, 8-9, and 10-13) and rotate the groups between each of us. I’ve been teaching math, reading, and Spanish to the 5-7 and the 8-9 year olds and teaching history and current events to the kids who are 10-13. Nina and I have had three volunteers working with us for the 5-7 and the 8-9 year olds, and they have worked wonders for keeping everyone settled and helping the kids to learn. The volunteers and I have been able to give the kids much more individual attention than would be possible if I was working at my station alone. The kids are extremely bright—especially in Spanish. They soak up the words, often saying them correctly and remembering them on the first try. I’ve always wished that I had been introduced to Spanish earlier as a child (it’s so much easier for kids to learn languages when they’re little), and I’m really grateful for the opportunity to give the kids an introduction to the language while we’re at St. Gabriel’s. Sister Donald Mary and Sister Donella have graciously arranged for us to have volunteers every other week, but for the weeks in between we’ll be on our own. I fear I’ve grown spoiled with the extra help, and Nina and I have yet to decide what we’re going to do when the volunteers are not around. As I said, they play a crucial part in the effort to give the kids individual attention, which subsequently keeps them focused and helps them to push through difficult concepts that they might not be able to learn without the extra help. I’m confident though that together Nina, Braveen, and I can find a way to maximize the attention and teaching we provide to the kids when the volunteers are not available.

The current event and history lessons with the 10-13 year olds have been going extremely well. I start out with a news headline that I explain to the kids, and then I give a brief overview of the historical background of the event. I find that the combination works well, because the historical background helps the kids gain a deeper understanding of the context and causes of a particular event, while the current event shows the modern day implications of different parts of history. The kids will often ask extremely complex and in-depth questions that I sometimes can’t answer. For instance, in one discussion of the historical background of the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, one kid asked about the origins of the Bible. I gave the best answer that I could based on the little that I could remember from my AP World History class in 10th grade, but as with many of the complex history questions that the kids ask, I told everyone that I really couldn’t be 100% sure, and I encouraged them to research the question for themselves. So far, I’ve tried to research certain questions after class for the kids, but during a single lesson they will often times ask multiple questions that would each require a full lesson (if not more) to answer. In the future, I hope to find ways to help the kids research particular topics that they find interesting. Overall, I am very excited about the prospect of helping the older kids to develop a love of history, current events, and other subjects that will serve them throughout their lives.

Nina, Braveen, and I have truly been growing and adapting every single day at St. Gabriel’s. Although our work there has been extremely challenging, the significant progress that we have made over the course of this week and a half, coupled with our drive to continue to improve our program, fills me with great confidence for the future.

-Josh

Monday, June 8, 2009

Fun with Reading

Today at St. Gabriel was largely a success. Once again, we divided the children (44 today) into three groups by age. I started out with the oldest age group, the 10-13 year olds. My activity for the day was reading. I began to read Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger by Louis Sachar to the oldest group of kids. This book is a very silly book that Josh, Braveen and I had all read and loved as kids. Going into it, I was a little nervous that the kids might get bored, but they really enjoyed it! I read aloud to them for 30 minutes, reading almost 30 pages, without losing anyone’s attention. Then we played a reading comprehension game, during which I quizzed the kids about what happened in the book. They were also very engaged and attentive during this activity, and most of them knew all the answers to my questions!

For the younger age groups, I read Ten Little Rubber Ducks by Eric Carle aloud and then we made tissue paper pictures based off of the book. Most kids made duck pictures, but we also had a few seals, an octopus, and even an elephant. Both age groups (the 8-9 year olds and the 5-7 year olds) really got into this activity. I think hands-on art projects are the way to go. I was also impressed that both age groups were calm and attentive while I was reading.

While I did reading activities, Josh and Braveen did other activities. Josh taught history, continuing what he started teaching last Thursday. Braveen led stretches outside, taught the kid the names of body parts (including the names of many muscles and bones for the older kids), and played games like “Simon Says.”

Tomorrow, we plan to operate in the same way, though our activities will be slightly different. My activities will still be centered on reading. I will continue reading Sachar’s book our oldest students, since they seemed to like it a lot and I want to continue to work on reading comprehension with them. For the 8-9 year olds, I think I will read them Terrible Teresa and Other Very Short Stories by Mittie Cuetara, which is a book that contains VERY short stories – each is 4 sentences long and has 4 pictures. They are cute and silly. After we read the book I will have each student make up a story in the same manner. First I will have them write 4 simple sentences, and then I will have them illustrate it in a comic-book fashion, following the example from the book. For the youngest kids, I will read Clifford the Big Red Dog by Norman Bridwell and then lead another craft relating to the book. I am still working out the details of our craft, but I think it will involve having each kid draw a picture of their made-up ideal pet. The kids are creative, and they seem to like the to use their imaginations and make drawings. Hopefully these activities will be age appropriate and fun for the kids. We’ll see how it goes tomorrow, but I think today was another step in the right direction!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Three Days that Improved in Progression

The last three days at St. Gabriel Mercy Center have been filled with lessons - not just for the kids but for us!

Wednesday was perhaps our least successful day thus far because we were overwhelmed by the sheer size of our program. An unexpected 51 children showed up, and our activities involved keeping them all together. This did not go over so well. To begin with, Nina orchestrated a Spelling Bee. 5 older kids were assigned to be team captains, and they helped pick the younger children to be on their respective teams. The spelling bee was competitive and probably the most successful event of the day. Afterwards when we went out for kickball, the chaos ensued. We had 4 teams but with so many kids it was hard to maintain order. A lot of the little kids didn't want to play and ran to the large spinning play wheel on the side of the field. Luckily Josh went over to supervise those kids so they weren't by themselves. It started to drizzle so we had to get everyone back in side. Next up was my meditation activity. I was able to use a CD with quiet music that Sister Cleo gave me. The meditation set up and activity itself lasted a total of 15 minutes. Overall it was a moderate success. Some kids really got a lot out of it. Yet a few kids who were disruptive and made noises during the meditation exercise ruined it for the others. Josh and Nina did more diagnostic activities during this time too. Snack time did not go over so well. There was a lot of restlessness and the kids were talking over me. They simply did not listen to my loud "SHHHHHHH!!!!!!" or my declaration to cease making any sound. It was the sheer number of kids that made things so difficult I feel. 51 kids was the most we had yet. Wednesday was my day to be in charge of the group as Nina and Josh did diagnostic tests. My activity was Mad Libs with a grammar lesson. I felt the whole time I was shouting. Interspersed between everything I said was also a command or two telling everyone to quiet down. Failure on my part to control the group indeed. Still, I managed to muscle through this painful activity with some of the kids actually enjoying it. However with so many kids there were definitely those that zoned out, fought with one another, or simply got nothing out of the activity. Journal time ended the day, and we all decided to make some changes to how we operate based on all that happened. Debriefing with Sister Donella, we decided it would be best to separate the kids into three groups by age level and have them go to different rotating activity stations. Later that evening most of the Robertson Scholars went to a cookout hosted by Eddie Willis of a local Methodist church. They were EXTREMELY friendly and inviting. The food was amazing too.

On Thursday we put forth our new plan into action. We divided the three groups by ages 5-7 years old, 8-9 years old, and 10-13 years old. These three groups were roughly the same in size (approx. 20). At this point our enrollment was up to 58 kids! It was finally time to decide to stop allowing new kids to participate in our summer program. Thursday's plan consisted of having the initial 30 minutes for kids to come in and write in their journals. We had them try and use the words "ameliorate" and "obscure" in sentences since these were the "words of the day" thus far that week. Next we commenced with our rotating activity schedule. Nina would be teaching geography in our normal classroom. She had a map activity for kids in groups to come up and see if they could correctly identify certain states. Nina also tried to teach the kids the "50 States Song." She said the youngest group was the hardest to work with. In the future, we will be planning to keep our subjects consistent per day but change the activity depending on the age level. Nina will be planning to approach the younger kids through an arts/crafts perspective in the future for whatever subject she teaches. Josh taught the kids a history lesson on Thursday. He took his groups to the St. Gabriel's Cafeteria. We're implementing locations that are far apart for our stations so that kids cannot distract one another. Using a great online resource he found, Josh developed a lesson plan thta allowed the children to select a historical figure that they wanted to learn more about. Josh said most of the children all wanted to learn about Dr. Martin Luther King. For Josh the younger children were again a challenge. Josh will likely continue to be our history teacher expert until we switch it up, but he is learning a lot about how to approach teaching the kids the material. He is coming up with new ideas and will possibly bring up current events for the kids as well. My activity session was an introduction to the Martial Arts. Personally, I had tremendous success with all three of my groups. I have taught younger children Martial Arts back home at my dojo before, so this prior experience helped me out enormously. I was very impressed how fast the kids picked up my lesson. Not only that, the degree of focus and self-disciple exhibited (even by some of the most active kids) was simply incredible. Snack time went quite smoothly on Thursday, and we followed it up with a spontaneous game of Freeze Dance. The kids loved it. After one last rotating session, the day ended. Later that night, Nina and I cooked dinner for our all our friends. We combined the different recipes of our moms to make a stuffed pepper masterpiece. If Mrs. Woolley or my mom is reading this - THANKS A BUNCH! Dinner was a hit, and I am glad I was able to have some success on one of my first cooking endeavors (...sad... I have almost zero experience)!

WOW! Friday was an oasis from all our high energy interactions that had taken place with the kids the past week. The Summer Youth Program only runs Mon.-Thurs., so we spent the day learning about Saint Gabriel's Senior Program. After talking to the Senior Program coordinator, Mrs. Lyles, we went out with some of the shuttle drivers to pick up the senior citizens enrolled in the program. Once we arrived back at St. Gabriel's, Nina, Josh, and I began to have some FASCINATING exchanges with these older folk. I was stunned to learn how many of these women often had anywhere from 12-15 children during their lifetime!! Perhaps what was even more shocking to me was the fact that this enormous family size WAS NOT surprising to any of the women! I loved asking them about their take on Barack Obama. None of them thought they'd live to see the day when America would elect its first black president. Hearing the stories of these ladies also made me think about life and death. We often don't realize the scope of our lives. Many of these ladies have seen the death of children and loved ones. They've lived such long lives and have experienced all the stages of life (hard to imagine they were once energetic youth just like the kids we deal with in the summer program).
The senior devotional was truly moving. In their prayers, I felt genuine love. They were so sincere. It touched me to listen to them. The ladies did a wonderful job incorporating Josh, Nina, and myself along with everything. They asked us if we wanted to share anything, and we all did. For me this whole experience was food for my soul. I felt such a nourishment that I my description does not give this justice. After lunch, Nina, Josh, and I participated in the activity of the day (line dancing) with the seniors. None of them really wanted to get up - so they just watched the instruction video. Ha ha, Josh and I provided some comedic relief/entertainment since we struggled so much with the dancing. But the seniors LOVED watching Nina dance since she was able to gracefully pick up the moves so fast. Overall it was a blast.

Finally we started planning our week and debriefed with Sister Donella. Later that night, all the Robertson Scholars in Mississippi drove to Indianola to see B.B. King's Homecoming. It was so much FUN!! I've never really had an appreciation for B.B. King, but I enjoyed his music so much last night. It was so great to see him live.

Today we just met with the famous Luther Brown of the Delta State Center for Culture and Learning. We have planned the dates for some the cultural trips he'll be taking us this summer (not to mention pay the rent for our housing!). It has been one week since we've arrived, but what an amazing week it has been!!!

-Braveen

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Goals, Freeze Dance, and Lessons Learned

Today was a huge learning experience for us. We started out the day by asking the kids to write down their goals in their journals. We asked them to write down their goals for the summer program, their goals for school, their goals for sports/hobbies, and their goals for “life” (such as what they want to be when they grow up). The older kids started the activity right away, but as we expected the younger kids needed help. Some of the little ones did not know what goals were, and explaining the concept was an extremely interesting experience, because it made me realize that a lot of the words and concepts that we use frequently are actually pretty abstract. Nina, Braveen, and I had written down our goals on separate sheets of paper as an example for the kids. We found it hilarious that most of the kids knew their goals better than we knew our own (for me at least, the college experience has given those questions a new level of complexity rather than making them easier). After goal writing, we transitioned to a game of elbow-tag outside. The kids really seemed to enjoy the game, and it was a great way for them to expend some excess energy.

Right before Braveen brought the kids inside, I gave them a small talk about germs and the importance of washing their hands. I felt bad that the older kids had to listen to the talk (they obviously already knew about germs). In the future, we hope to separate the kids out by age and skill level in certain activities and academic subjects, but we’re still in the process of administering diagnostic tests to the children and gaining the information we need in order to establish those groups. But overall, the older kids have been extremely patient, and I have been deeply, deeply impressed by their ability to interact and maintain their composure with the younger ones.

After a bathroom break, I led an activity where the children worked to write their own stories, while Nina and Braveen administered the diagnostic tests. I quickly learned a valuable lesson. The size of our group increased to 39 today, which meant that many of the kids often needed (or wanted) my attention at the same time. It was terribly painful for me not to be able to give each child individual attention when they asked for it, but I realized that the only way any kids would benefit from the activity was for the class to stay on task with my attention directed towards one person at a time. After the reading, I led the kids in a game of Freeze Dance while Nina and Braveen continued the diagnostic tests. The kids loved the game, and it was absolutely wonderful to see their faces light up when the music came on. I had to be quick to start the music back up after freezing, because many of the children froze in strange poses with only one foot on the ground (Many of them even froze their mouths, so I sometimes heard tiny, mumbled calls of “Josh, unfreeze!” as the kids tried to talk through their teeth. It was pretty adorable). Nina and Braveen made significant progress with the diagnostics today, and I’m really excited to transition into more academically oriented activities in the upcoming days. I am confident that we will be much more effective after we get the kids divided up appropriately.

Today was challenging, but Nina, Braveen and I learned a great deal and we’re sure to learn more as the days progress. I’m excited to continue to build a relationship with the students and to develop with Nina and Braveen as a team.

-Josh

Monday, June 1, 2009

First Day of Work





We had our first day of work today! We had 32 kids present, ranging from 5 years old to 13 years old. Our activities for the day included playing some active getting-to-know-you games outside, playing math bingo, singing camp songs, and writing in journals. While I supervised math bingo and journal writing with the whole group, Braveen and Josh administered short math and reading diagnostic tests to children one at a time (a process we will continue tomorrow). By assessing their math and reading skill levels, we hope we can break off into appropriate groups next week to help them develop their math and reading skills throughout the summer.

Overall, I think today was pretty successful! The best way to judge, of course, is by the children’s attitudes. Most of the kids were enthusiastic and attentive, so at least we’re off to a good start! I think we have great campers, and I think Josh, Braveen and I make a good team. Now we will concentrate on coming up with our weekly plans and we will think carefully about how to best manage a group with such a large age range. As suggested by Robertson Scholars who worked at St. Gabriel’s in previous years, we’ve already started to enlist the help of the older campers to manage the younger ones. For example, we played math bingo in teams, with the 10 through 13 year olds paired with the younger campers. We will definitely continue to use the older kids as a resource for helping with the others.

As soon as the kids left, we started planning for tomorrow’s activities. We are going to have each camper write down goals for themselves in their journals. We want them think about what goals they have regarding the summer program, their sports/hobbies, their academics, and their future. We will also play a sentence-writing/story-telling game. In addition, we will play “elbow tag” (a variation of traditional tag) and “freeze dance” during our day, to help tire out the kids a bit. Tomorrow we think we will have at least 41 kids present! The size of the program may continue to increase as more parents come to the center to register their kids throughout the week. I’m excited for getting to know the kids better and I think this will be a great summer!

-Nina