Boys and Girls Club visit # 5

Assessment

Today when I went to The Boys and Girls Club, Tadeka was waiting for me. Tadeka’s homework for Monday night was to read a story and answer questions about the story. This reminded me of how with Mrs. F I used to work on some of the same types of assignments. When Tadeka showed me the packet that she had to do for homework, there was an awkward looking signature on the packet, so I asked her if it was her one of her parent’s signatures. Her response was not a clear yes or no   She explained to me that her friend Faith taught her how to write her parent’s signature. When I heard this, I immediately thought this is illegal and  I have to tell her not to do it. When I told her that she should not forge her parent’s signature, she told me that I should not worry about it. This was a side of Tadeka  that I had never seen before and it really  surprised me. Over the past few weeks , she had acted as if  she really cared about school and the quality of the work we were doing together.  Discovering that she was forging her parent’s signature , made me wonder why she would do this and it made me think about what other choices she was making in her life that perhaps were not good ones. After our conversation about the signature and doing the right thing, our time together was different than it had been before this.

Boys and Girls Club visit # 4

Assessment

Today when I went to visit the Boys and Girls Club of America the girl that I was helping on Monday, Tadeka, came up to me and asked if I could help her again with her homework. This immediately made me feel that I had made a difference by helping someone who is less fortunate then I am. This gave me the confidence to help her with her vocabulary homework.  One of the words that Tadeka was working on was ancient; we had to make up sentence with the word in it. She deiced to write about ancient mummies in a pyramid. When we were writing this sentence, I kept thinking about Mr. Brown, and how he taught us about ancient Egypt. When we were reading, Tadeka asked me how old I was, and I responded saying that I was 13. She told me that her sister was also 13, but did not care about helping her like I did. By Tadeka feeling comfortable to tell me something so very personal I knew that she cared about her schoolwork, and probably wanted to be a good student. I realized that what I have learned so far in school is something that I can also teach to others. 

Visit #3

Eliza Griffin

Monday, January 23,2012

Assessment 

Today on my visit to the Boys and Girls club we played a long, tiring, game of dodge ball. The team I was on sadly ended up losing, but I did not mind. When it came time for power hour, I helped, Samantha, the same girl I worked with two weeks ago. She worked on reading out loud to me again. When we were finished reading, I helped a 9-year-old girl named Tadeka. Tadeka was working on spelling, which is a section in school that I still struggle with. All the words were scrambled up, and Tadeka had to unscramble them. I taught her a trick. By counting how many letters were each word, she could then decode the word faster. After, finishing that part of her homework, we began another assignment which was only due on Wednesday. She was a little hesitant about doing this because all her friends were playing games, but she ended up deciding to get a jump-start. I find that working ahead helps me, so I was trying to teach her a good study strategy. When Tadeka was finished with her homework, she asked me if she could read to me. I was so excited and honored that she asked me because she is a shy and quiet girl. We ended up reading, the book Ramona and Her Mother by Beverly Cleary, for about a half an hour. Tadeka had some trouble with reading so I taught her the strategy that Mrs. F taught me, which was to take a piece of paper, line it up under the sentence you are trying to read, and then move it down so that you can only read one line at a time. All these techniques that I have been taught, and today shared with Tadeka,  have not only helped me with my reading, but also have helped another young reader. This made me feel like to quote Mr. Salsich, “ A serious English scholar.”

Boys and Girls Club

Eliza Griffin 

Monday, January 9, 2012

Second Visit 

Today, when I went to visit the Boys and Girls Club, I brought jump ropes to teach the boys and girls how to jump. When I first entered the room with the jump ropes in my hand, the boys in the club did not want to try it at all. Once I showed them what you could do, and how much fun you can have jumping, they really enjoyed it. Sometimes when we were jumping, there would be an argument about who was going to jump next. To solve this dispute, I asked, “Who is the oldest here?” and that was the order they jumped in. After the half an hour of exercise, it was time for Power Hour.  For this week’s study hall, I was helping a girl named Samantha with her math homework. She had a hard time understanding what the problem was asking for. To make it easier for her, I would ask her to try to find the key words. For example, if it was a subtraction problem, she would look for the word less to help her realize that it was a subtraction problem.  After helping her with math, Samantha read out loud to me. When I was her age I always struggled with reading and reading out loud was the hardest for me. By helping her today, I realized how much all my tutors have helped me with my reading fluency by having me read out loud to them. When I left the club today, I had a feeling that I had accomplished something that had a positive impact someone’s life. I hope Samantha felt a little more confident about her schoolwork today, and I am looking forward to helping her next week. 

The Boys and Girls Club

Eliza Griffin
Monday, December 12, 2011
First Visit

 Today was my first visit to the Boys and Girls Club of America in New London. From the initial meeting about our assessment projects where I selected this organization, I envisioned The Boys and Girls Club to be a large building, similar to a community center, filled with boys and girls of all ages from the areas surrounding New London. What I entered instead, this afternoon, was a public school cafeteria which also served as a gym with only 12 boys and girls inside . During our first half hour, we set up an obstacle course and divided the girls and the boys into 2 teams. Each team raced one another through the course and in the end the boys team won twice while the girls team only won once. Then second half hour was called “ Power Hour”. During this time, the children are expected to do their homework and then read for half an hour. One of the girls was reading the book No Talking, by Andrew Clements, which was a book that I had read and enjoyed when I was her age. Once this is achieved, they are permitted to have free time to play silent games such as Uno. I had expected the kids to be all ages and today the youngest was in Kindergarten and the oldest was a fourth grader. This age range made it very easy and comfortable for me to play with the children because I have a younger sister who is in fourth grade. All the kids, had a lot of energy for participating in the obstacle course, but also listened and obeyed well when it was time for the Power Hour. Their discipline impressed me and they also seemed to appreciate that I was there which I had not expected. They all thanked me when I left which surprised me very much.   

Essay #6

Inspiring  Words Spanning The Globe: From South Africa to Alabama

Connecting the Lyrics in Wavin Flag to Miss Maudie’s Words

December 11, 2011

Pine Point School

8th Grade

Eliza Griffin

When a modern day song is played and a classic book is read, you might not think that they connect to one another. An example of this is how the song Wavin Flag correlates to a powerful quote in To Kill a Mockingbird.   

(T.S.) The lyrics in the song Wavin Flag by K’naan say “And then it goes back and then it goes back”.These lyrics remind me of how in every generation one life can end, while a new one is just beginning. (S.D.) This continuous cycle is almost like a wheel rotating a full circle of life. (C.M.) When the cycle has completed one full rotation, it comes back to the place where it began, “And then it goes back”. (C.M.) Like a wheel that continuously turns, and always replenishes it’s dying lives with new ones, these lyrics are not telling us to go back in life, but are telling us to go back to a beginning of a new life which will carry us forward. (S.D) The new generations hopefully build on progress that the old generations made during their lives. (C.M.) This new generation will hopefully  learn from the  previous generations’ mistakes.(C.S.) The wheel will keep on turning for the future generations.

(T.S.) In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Miss Maudie says  “ Don’t you worry about me, Jean Louise Finch. There are ways of doing things that you don’t know about.” (S.D.) These words  explain  that there are other ways to do things; this means that in life you don’t need to follow the same path as everyone else, don’t follow the crowd. (C.M.) I think she means be original, trust your own thoughts, and don’t be like everyone else. (C.M.) This quote relates to the lyrics in the song Wavin Flag because the quote and the song tell the listener to  be unique. (S.D) K’naan’s lyrics and Miss Maudie’s words give hope to people to become successful. (C.M.) The song tells us that you can rise to be a champion this  inspires tremendous hope in the listener’s lives.(C.S) Miss Maudie’s words encourage you to. Think for yourself and be extraordinary .Choose your own winding road.

This quote and these lyrics may not seem to be related, but at the end of the day everything comes together “ and then it goes back”. At first I did not think that the popular, catchy song and the classic book connected. After taking some time to reflect on these lyrics, and listening to the song repeatedly, while thinking about Miss Maudie’s words , I realized that all people, places and experiences  somehow join up with one another always completing a new wheel of life.  

Self Assessment:
1. One part in my essay that I continue to work on is trying not to use the word things in my writing.
2. One strong point I see in my writing ,is in my first body paragraph because I feel that you can clearly understand what I am trying to say.
3. One possible  weak spot I see in my writing is in the second body paragraph where I think some of my sentences could be better.