Third Quarter Training

This past weekend, we had our Third Quarter training, which was organized and executed by us, the members. Now that the boring, introductory stuff is taken care of, I simply wanted to say that it was a blast. I was groaning to myself about having to do another training, and that it was probably going to be sooooooo boring, except of course for the sessions that I was leading.

I couldn't have been more wrong. If anything, my sessions were the boring ones.

The training went awesomely! I had such a blast getting to teach again. I felt like I had my teaching spirit sucked out of my like Shang T'sung collecting a soul (you like the Mortal Kombat reference?). My experience in the professional classroom was not a good one, and there were times that I thought I would never get back into teaching; I honestly thought that the negative experience meant that I was simply not cut out for it. After this past weekend's training, my resolve is renewed! I had so much fun simply teaching, it didn't matter if it was Tai Chi, pointing out faults in tutoring programs, or encouraging the practice of public speaking techniques.

It also reminded me how hard teaching is, which renewed my respect for my former colleagues who are still teaching in the trenches of a school that did very little to support them. I am very glad to have had this experience, and though I'm sure many of my LiteracyCorps peers may have wanted me to simply stop talking at one point (or two), I am very grateful to have been given this opportunity.

Great job guys; you make this fun, not work.

-Ian

ps: Deb, where are those pictures you took? I think one that looks like we're all a bunch of zombies needs to make it's way onto the blog.

Dr. Seuss Day

On March 2, I planned a literacy event at E.K. Powe elementary school in honor of Dr. Seuss Day. We read the book "Oh, the Places You'll Go!" to a group of about 25 kids and then did reading comprehension questions with them and also two art projects.

One art project was a collage, using scraps and magazines donated to us by the Scrap Exchange here in Durham. The other project was a group mural, where all of the participants created small figures representing themselves that they added to a large path. This mural was given to the school and will be on display there for some time.

Our America Reads and Counts tutors helped out, and we also had other Duke tutor helpers as well as staff from both our organization and from E.K. Powe.

This was a fun event because I was able to bring my love for reading and teaching together with my love for art and imagination. I think it's really important to incorporate creativity into reading comprehension. In my experience, this helps students retain the information and also grow in their love for reading and for books. It was really important to me to have many books on site, even if they weren't reading through the entirety of them, to be physically handling the books. We got many Dr. Seuss books from local public libraries and also from personal libraries. It was a fun event that brought together many people.

National Literacy Awareness Week at the YWCA

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For National Literacy Awareness week I wanted to create an activity that would be educational and fun for parents and children. Typically on Monday afternoons I run a Toddler program where moms and their toddlers come for storytime and parenting information. In order to keep the storytime theme going I decided to invite an exceptional librarian to the YWCA to deliver the storytime in celebration of NLAW.

The librarian, Brandon, did an excellent job delivering an entertaining storytime! After storytime, we began the craft activity. Each person drew or painted the places that they go when they read into a giant sized book. She also informed the listeners about how they can obtain library cards and about the events that take place at the library.

Each mother and child got to unleash their artistic creativity in the name of reading. Everyone had a great time while learning more about the importance of literacy!

Education Award Guidebook | The Segal AmeriCorps Education Award

Education Award Guidebook | The Segal AmeriCorps Education Award

Make a Difference Day in Winston-Salem

For Make a Difference Day, we chose to take advantage of a large amount of children's books that the YMCA Literacy Inititative was given by another non-profit to donate to individuals as gifts. We worked with mothers in an ESL class through the Toyota Family Literacy Program. Our volunteers helped to organize the books, selecting books ideal for elementary school children. Once the books were selected, we helped the volunteers write Get Well letters in English (vocabulary, phrases) to sick children. They enjoyed using their creativity, decorating the letter with drawings and stickers. Together with the volunteers, we wrote over 30 letters, all of which were matched with a children's book and given to a reduced price/free clinic. These books and Get Well letters will be given as gifts to sick children visiting the clinic.
After writing the letters, we discussed the importance of reading to children, associating books with gifts, and the need for literacy in Winston-Salem. We taught about the ways in which children learn to read, how children's books teach morals/lessons, etc. At the end of the class period, the mothers were able to select books for their children and write them a note.
Grant led the group by helping with organizing and transporting the books, providing materials for the letters and help with writing the letters in English. Nora led the follow-up discussion on literacy and the importance of reading to children at an early age. However, we collaborated our time and efforts to do this project and gave the books to the clinic together.
The group of volunteers consisted of 8 mothers in the literacy program. We worked through the Toyota Family Literacy Program, Easton Elementary School, and used books donated by Johnathan's Legacy. The books were donated to the Community Care Clinic.

Grant & Nora

Making a Difference One Flier At A Time

Brainstorming is fun

About to begin the project :)

Finished product

Another job well done!

During the past few months it has been so amazing getting to know the students that I am working with. One of the programs that I work with through LiteracyCorp is called Learning Together through Guilford Child Development. Learning Together is a family literacy program that offers free GED and ESL instruction to adult participants and an academically rich curriculum for their children.

One of the goals that I have while working with this program is to create a group of motivated, well-trained, intelligent, on call tutors that work with the GED and ESL students enrolled with the Learning Together program. After doing a needs assessment within the program, learning the ins and outs of the protocol and HR process, I am ready for recruitment.

The Make a Difference Project that I decided to do was to have to students to brainstorm ideas for fliers that would recruit tutors for the program. As a class, we discussed why they would like to have tutors and what they would want in a tutor. We also talked how they could create flier and what they could draw on their flier to make it more attractive.

These fliers will be put up in visible places within the community in hopes to gain more volunteer interest for our program. This project will not only make a difference for our program in the amount of volunteers that we will have but also made a difference for our participants. They each had a chance to think about how they would recruit volunteers and learned how to make fliers. Also, we all had fun in the process!

"Spray paint, everybody. No rules!"

I'm sure that anyone who has read Pilar's post knows that I was volunteering with the Read-Seed event. I was there to support whatever needed to be done, which led me to flex both real and creative muscle (what little there is in both departments).

When I arrived, Jenni Davidson and her two Sophomore-Experience volunteers had just started setting up, so I helped them carry out tents and tables. Once that was done, we started assembling our Pagoda of Philanthropy. I didn't tell anyone that was the name I had given our tent-and-tables set up...mostly because I knew I was the only one who thought it was cool.

As we were finishing up with the tent (or pagoda, whichever floats your boat), Pilar arrived with an arm-load of supplies from Adelaide's car. She asked me to help her unload the car, but when I turned around, Adelaide was driving her car up the sidewalk. Suffice it to say, that made unloading a bit easier, though we were all keeping our eyes out for campus police.

Adelaide's effervescent personality helped all of us hit the ground running. As Pilar already posted, we were drawing cartoon figures and creating yellow, cardboard bricks. Once I finished helping getting everything set up, I started working on my rendition of Thing 1 from The Cat in the Hat. I spent the majority of the time working on this ersatz-Thing 1, and even had to get some last minute help from Pilar to get the hair colored in time.

Pilar, on the other hand, was all over the place. Everytime I looked up, she was doing something different, from taking pictures, to signing in volunteers, to offering encouragement to the those of us who qualified as less artistic, and even working on Adelaide's Yellow Brick Road, which she had to cover herself in a transparent, yellow poncho to start painting. I think Adelaide has a thing for the color yellow.

Evidently, things are much wilder in the Smith Warehouse where Pilar works, along with Neil Hoefs, the Vista* that organized this event, as well as the event taking place at the Duke Community Gardens. I learned this when Pilar, who was getting ready to begin painting the bricks, picked up two cans of spray paint and shouts out, "Spray paint, everybody. No rules," and then begins to laugh to herself. Evidently, the "No rules!" thing is something Neil often does. The "Wildness" theory was corroborated when Neil came over to our site after the events wrapped up; he and Pilar greeted each other with a secret handshake. It was awesome. No really, you should have seen it; it was perfectly timed and everything.

The event went very well, we even recruited some volunteers right off the sidewalk. On top of that, several of the volunteers committed themselves to volunteering at Reed-Seed's Read-A-Thon in early November. In addition, we were able to create several new cartoon figures for Adelaide and her event. It was a really fun experience, and now I find myself saying "No rules" as well.