| Date |
Place |
Reflections |
| 01/20/06 |
Madison Elementary School |
For this quarter, I decided to volunteer at Madison Elementary School. LeAnna and I met w/the Principal of the school to talk about how we could volunteer. To our surprise, we discovered that 70 percent of the kids who go to Madison fall in the poverty line. The Principal mentioned that some of the kids stays in shelters and are homeless. Some even live in cars and under bridges. Tears filled my eyes as she was telling us this. I can't even imagine that so many children live in this kind of environment. It breaks my heart to hear about this. I will totally dedicate my time to help out in any way that I could w/the children at this school. |
| 01/27/06 |
Madison Elementary |
First day observing Mrs. Ideker's 2nd grade class. I was so excited that I took the afternoon off work to be able to spend the rest of the day in the classroom. The first thing we observed was the kids taking a spelling quiz. Mrs. Ideker wanted LeAnna and I to grade the quiz after the kids had taken them. During the quiz, she read a word to the kids, and LeAnna and I looked at eachother with a puzzled look and asked eachother if we knew how to spell the word "gnat". We both laughed because we didn't know how to spell it and here we are suppose to correct the kids spelling quiz. During this, we observed one little boy who was not taking the quiz at all. We got Mrs. Ideker's attention to let her know the boy wasn't taking the quiz and she asked me to take him outside to give him a different spelling list because he was far more advanced. This boy is so smart. I gave him these tough words and he got them all correct! After the spelling quiz, I had to help make streamers for their dragon tails for the Chinese New Year. LeAnna assisted w/glueing eyes to the dragons. Later in the afternoon, the kids left with their "passport" to name different countries. Anyone who names the different countries correct gets a stamp in their "passport" and get to watch a movie (today was Mulan) and eat popcorn. At the end of the day, I assisted w/adding glitter to the dragons. When it was time for me to leave, I was exhausted. I don't know how Mrs. Ideker does it. 30 kids in one classroom is a lot of hard work, but also fun at the same time! |
| 02/02/06 |
Madison Elementary |
Today we went to work outside the classroom and assisted the kids w/weighing different objects to see what their weight in grams were on a set of scales. The girl I assisted with didn't seem too interested in what she had to do. She was busying telling me that she is going to go shopping with her mom afterschool. I tried several times to keep her focus on the objects. It took almost 30 minutes until we were done weighing 3 objects! What made me really happy was before she left, she told me she was very happy that I was there in the classroom. That totally made my day! |
| 02/03/06 |
Evergreen Longhouse |
All day Tai Ji workshop w/Chungliang Al Huang was truly amazing. All I can say Is "WOW". He truly is an inspiraton. I felt so fortunate to be able to attend his class. At the end of the day, I found myself wanting him to teach us more Tai Ji. I'm seriously thinking about signing up for a workshop he has coming up in Eugene, OR. I truly enjoyed watching and learning from Chungliang Al Huang. Now, I see why he is such an inspiration to so many people. |
| 02/04/06 |
Evergreen Longhouse |
Celebration of LNY @ Evergreen. What a fun day. I loved the performances. Hirsh's son and daughter were amazing performers. So was everyone else. The martial arts performance was kind of scary to watch....I think one of the guys cut himself because after the performance, I saw him walking out looking at his finger. He was amazing to watch and so was the Master who taught us the drumming and percussion playing. It was just an incredible day. I felt honored to be in the Lunar New Year Project. Last quarter was so stressful, but in the end, it was so worth it. Chinese culture is amazing and to see everyone come together for this celebration was truly incredible! |
| 02/08/06 |
Madison Elementary |
Today I assisted w/the planting of the Sunwood Tree. The kids in Ms. Ideker's class were so excited. One of the other teacher's there asked that I take the first group out w/her. The first thing we did was show the kids how to use the shovel. I was not dressed for this. I didn't realize I was actually going to dig up dirt. So we told the kids the nice way to use the shovel and not to throw dirt once we dugged it up. Some of the kids job were to break up the dirt and separated the rocks and other things in the dirt. To my surprise, a lot of the girls chose this job. They broke up the dirts w/their hands and got so excited when they discovered worms. The teacher told them to make sure the worms stay in the dirt so when we fill the dirt back, the worms can go back. The worms are very good for the trees. One of the girls brought the worm to me and wanted me to hold it. I tried really hard not to scream (I'm scared of worms) and nicely told her that I can see the worm in her hand (I didn't want her to think I was scared). She looked at me like I was very strange for not wanting to hold the worm. This was an all day event, but truly a fun one....I just wish I was able to stay the whole afternoon to observe the ending of it. |
| 02/17/06 |
My house |
It was a cold day, but I knew I had to get started on my garden. My 2 year old son helped me of course, because we were planting his two favorite fruits, strawberries and a blue-berry bush. I was cold, but he didn't seem to mind. He loved touching the dirt and watching me plant. He's my little helper w/everything so of course he wanted to plant them too. This is the first time I've been back to our garden since I saw a garden snake several mths ago. I'm terrified of snakes, yes, even if it's a garden snake. When I saw the snake, I screamed and ran into the house and never came near the garden until now. Since this is our class project, I had no other choice. Besides, I was planting this w/my son and thats whats so important. We had a lot of fun...he got a lot of dirt on him of course. He's only two years old, but it's so amazing to see how much and fast he picks up on things. Everyday is an adventure w/him. Everyday I'm amazed w/what he has learned. He's also teaching me so much too. I am truly blessed! |
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