50 Service Hours, 5 Group Members, 1 Goal: To Help the Kiddos

On this blog, you will find the experiences of five different college students as we volunteered at the Lexington Public Library's Homework Help program. The purpose of this blog is for each of us to share our experiences that each of us had while working with the children who utilized the library's homework help program. You will see that we also used this blog to share our opinions about the different experiences we had. Along with intending to inform the readers of this blog on the Homework Help program, you will see that the opportunity to volunteer at this organization served as a learning opportunity for each of us volunteers as well. Read on to have a second-hand experience of our many joys, few frustrations, learning moments, realizations, and some brief hilariously-adorable quotes, all brought to you because of the Lexington Public Library Homework Help room. I know you can hardly wait to read on, but first let's introduce our super-rad-kid-loving (if we don't say so ourselves) volunteers!

This is Paige Bjork. When she isn't being caught off guard eating an ice cream cone, she can be found on the 4th floor of the library on the University of Kentucky's campus studying for her chemistry or anatomy class. She is a freshman at UK, whom is majoring in Pre-Nursing. She aspires to either be a neonatal or pediatric nurse practitioner, so working with kids is always something positive in her mind. That being said, she was very excited to have the opportunity to work with the children at the Lexington Public Library. In her posts, you will see several examples of funny or cute conversations she had with the children that have almost nothing to do with homework-type matter (yes, all of the kids completed their homework when Paige was their designated tutor). 

That's Daniel Cox.  Yes, that instrument is probably way too big for him.  Yes, he spends way too much time on it.  No, it cannot be used as a planter.  Although he is majoring in both Music Education and Tuba Performance, he does have time to do other things like practice, sleep, and eat (some days) (just kidding! [kind of]). Volunteering was something he looked forward to every week and will miss doing next year.  Most of his blog posts are thoughts he had while in the library about some obscure thing that somewhat has to do with volunteering or education.  This experience was one he'll look back on when he's teaching later on, as something that changed him and taught him more than what he taught the kids.

Now that you've met Paige and Daniel, this is Emma Payne. She really likes shopping with her mom and finding super cute skirts on sale. Aside from her love for shopping though, she enjoys being active, being with her family and friends, spending summer days on the lake, finding good music on Spotify, and playing with her cute doggies. Something she does A LOT of that she doesn't necessarily enjoy quite as much is studying 24/7. She is pre-pharmacy, so her days are filled with lots of science and math. Volunteering at the Lex Public Library Village Branch provides her with a refreshing escape from these often complicated courses. She enjoyed sitting down and working, reading, and coloring with the kids at the library and was reminded of what it was like to be so carefree. In her posts, you will find some high and low points of the SLO and hopefully gain an insight to how this program functions so well. 

This is Brady Spradlin. He enjoys flannel shirts, video games, building model kits, and not doing Calculus homework. As a Computer Science major who uses his computer as his gaming console, he is rarely not at his desk, unless he goes to class, or to volunteer at the Village Branch. Though he claims not to like kids, he does enjoy helping them finish their homework, and seeing the look of recognition on their faces when they understand how to do the thing he had been trying to teach them for the last fifteen minutes. This is the second time that he has had to volunteer with kids for a class, and although initially against it both times, he has had a positive experience from teaching and in turn learning from them.

Here we have Kendall Myers. There is some debate as to whether she is old enough to be in college, as she relates suspiciously well to children. She loves all things Disney, ice skating, and partakes in kid humor. She is a Marketing and Management double major with an international business and spanish double minor--although we rate her spanish skills poor at best. Regardless, she can be found on this blog recounting her fabulous experience with the kids at the Homework Help Program at Village Branch and some of the bigger picture lessons she learned. 

Final reflection

Blog Post 6: Video Reflection

Kind of a bittersweet moment. Mostly sweet though.

Blog Post #6: Final Video Blog

Last but not least :-)

Hey bloggers! Here are my final thoughts about my service learning organization. Hope my blogs have given you some insight to this beneficial program!

Final Blog Post

Hey there! Here is a video of my final reflection on my service learning project. Let me know what you think!

Blog Post 5

Well, it seems that the semester is pretty much over, and, not gonna lie, it went really quickly. Everything is paced so much faster here than it was in high school, and the constant stream of work from all of my classes hasn't really given me much time to think about the passage of time, but I guess that's for the best, because that sort of stuff usually makes me really depressed.
As far as my service learning organization is going, the Library is the same as ever. The more that I volunteer there, the more I can start to see patterns with the kids, especially with their reading abilities. Some of the Latin American kids who are probably learning English as a second language have difficulty reading books and assignments made for kids much younger than they are. I realize that by reading with these kids that I can help them, but it seems like they aren't looking to really learn to read so much as they just want to get it over with. This lack of motivation is one of the main causes that I believe that kids fail in school, but it's a daunting problem to solve.
I'm almost a little sad that I only have to go back a few more times.

On a side note, I never know how to give positive reinforcement to these kids. I read online somewhere that saying "good job" to a kid can make them take praise for granted or something. If I can't say "good job," then what an I supposed to say? I just don't know anymore.

Reflection Number 5

As I come closer and closer to the end of my time volunteering through my service learning organization, I appreciate it more and more. For my argument essay, I talked about how minority kids from immigrant families struggle in life because of the language barrier that they face in the United States. Like anything else in life, something becomes more meaningful to you if you know more about the situation and are more deeply involved. Researching the struggles that the language barrier causes for these children has really helped me connect with them on a deeper level because I understand a little more of what they go through, along with their parents, on a daily basis. Through my research, I found out that the number of kids in the United States who are part of immigrant families is extremely large, and this is something that really needs to be considered in school systems today. 

The kids I have helped are obviously intelligent and capable of learning like any other child, regardless of ethnicity. But, due to the fact that some of them hear one language at home and a different one at school, learning can often be very unnecessarily complicated for these kids, and that’s why it honestly is so awesome for me to be able to help them. The help I give them is not extremely significant, but it makes me feel like I’m really making a difference, especially now that I am more aware of their various language-based challenges in school. 

Sometimes the parents are there with the child for a period of time, and while they’re there, sometimes I see the kids go over to their parents and speak fluent, conversational Spanish, and then come back over to me where I’m helping them with homework or reading, and speak perfect English. I am constantly reminded of the huge capacity of learning that little kids have, and am continually amazed at how they can grasp concepts that aren’t even taught in their first language. When you’re little, learning how to tell time or how to do long division is hard enough, and now just imagine tacking on the challenge of being taught how to do these things in a language that isn’t your first language. The kids amaze me every day that I’m there!

Here is a link to a website to read a little more about how students are affected by this difference in language.

Blog Post 5

This past time I went to the Lexington Public Library, there was a lot going on. There were approximately seven volunteers with around 20 children in the room doing various things. Although the children almost three times over outnumbered us volunteers, only about four of us were working on homework with the children. The other volunteers were either coloring with the kids, or watching them run around the room while they played their make-believe games. The more I volunteer at the library, the more I understand that the library’s main goal for their homework help program is not just to help kids get their homework done. Their main goal is to create a safe environment for children that encourages and fosters a child’s ability to just be a kid, with some homework help on the side when needed.

            Large portions of the children who come to Lexington Public Library for their homework help program are from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. With that being said, some of children may not be have the privilege of playing in their backyard or neighborhood without safety being a concern. The library creates an environment where children can play without their parents having to worry about their safety. I have noticed that a portion of children will come to get help with their homework, but once they are done with the work, they will stay for a while afterwards to play with some of the other children. Or parents will bring siblings with the child that needs homework help, and allow them to play in the homework help room.

            There were two instances that occurred last Thursday at the library that made me realize that the library’s homework help is not all about homework. The first was when two little boys from different families came in a sat down at a table next to me. They had come in a grabbed their peanut butter and jelly sandwich and carton of chocolate milk, that is handed out to every child that walks through the doors, and came and sat down. The entire time they were there, all they did was run around the room and play. None of the other volunteers were annoyed, and no one ever questioned them being there even though they were not there to work on homework. The next instance was when I was helping one 10 year old boy read a book and another young girl came up to me and handed me a Jolly Rancher with a note that said, “you are the best!” on it. I had never helped her homework, but I did help to give her a safe environment where she could play, be creative, and assist her with homework if she had needed it. The Jolly Rancher and note showed that my contribution to that was not going unnoticed, and was appreciated. 

The homework help system may slightly lack in organization, but it by no means is lacking in compassion towards each child that walks through their doors.

Diversity Project

Hey guys! I haven’t had the chance to go back to the library since my last post, but the time away has actually given me a lot of time to self-reflect on my service experience. As I may have mentioned before, I am taking three service learning courses this semester. So I do a LOT of community service. I also have two different projects to compare my experience at the library to. One of my projects is a group service for Business and Economics. This project was really inspired by my experience at the library. Most of the students at tutoring are of a minority ethnicity, and the research I did for my paper has really opened my eyes to how minority students are being neglected in the public school system. I found out that a local elementary school, Cardinal Elementary, is 80 percent Hispanic. Although the majority is Hispanic, the students are all so different. Some are from Mexico, or Guatemala, and many different Spanish speaking countries. The kindergarten class I worked with is part of the Spanish immersion program, which is a program I touched on in my research essay. My group’s goal was to teach these kids that diversity is something to be celebrated. We went to their class and we did an art project with that message being the center. The kids were so fun, and I got to practice my Spanish skills. I never would have thought of this if I hadn’t volunteered at the library. Although I may not continue to volunteer there next semester, this experience has changed the way I see minorities and the importance of diversity.

For your enjoyment, here is a picture of the wonderful students at Cardinal Elementary with their artwork.

The Importance of Fundamentals

As I'm nearing the end of my time at the library, I want to leave some final thoughts, specifically about the importance of education at the elementary level.

People learn an incredible amount of material in the first 6 years of schooling.  Granted, no legitimate application will ask you anything you learned specifically in those years, but those basics that you learn are incredibly valuable in high school, college, and beyond.  If you don't know how to add or subtract, how can you possibly hope to take the derivative of anything?  If you don't know that an adjective comes before the noun, how do you expect to get a job when people look at your resume?  The point is, so much of what you learn derives from the first things you ever learned -- not just academically, but for nearly any activity you do.

It's no wonder why so many professionals at any craft stress the basics. They allow you to "focus on mastering one aspect...in isolation." (Noa Kageyama, Ph.D "Why I'd spend a lot more time practicing scales if I could do it all over again") These fundamentals are so important to having complete mastery over anything later in your career.  To truly be a professional at any single thing, you have to master the basics and have complete control over every aspect that composes that thing.

Those fundamentals are covered in elementary school and I strongly believe that incomplete mastery is why people struggle in higher classes.  They had teachers in elementary school who didn't ensure that the students completely mastered the subject before moving on, then when a harder topic was introduced, some students didn't get the fundamentals that made up that topic and then didn't understand it, which led to a downward spiral until that student is so frustrated and failing in high school.  I've tutored quite a few students in chemistry, calculus, music theory, and I've even helped some friends on how to play tuba, and one thing I've always found myself explaining is the fundamental components of what makes that subject work.

The moral of the story is working out the kinks of anything early on will help you in the long run.  When you start working on something, make sure something is absolutely correct before moving on.  This is why tutoring elementary aged kids is so important: If they don't learn the fundamentals down to a T, they will struggle later on in high school and college.

(If you want to read that article I pulled the quote from, here is the link to it)
http://www.creativitypost.com/arts/why_id_spend_a_lot_more_time_practicing_scales_if_i_could_do_it_all_over_ag

TED Talk Analysis: Adam Savage: My obsession with objects and the stories they tell

Adam Savage: Mythbuster, model maker, geek icon, and one of my personal heroes, did his TED talk on the extent that he is willing to go to in order to finish a project that he has started on. The talk basically consisted of two related anecdotes that each showcase the obsession that he garners over certain objects of significance to him.

The first story he told was about a dodo. The bird, that is. After seeing a photo of a dodo skeleton online, he developed an obsession with the bird, and searched endlessly for some kind of kit or model of a life-size dodo skeleton. In his search, he ended up saving over 17000 photographs and scans to use as reference material, but couldn't actually find a kit to build. One day, while in a store buying materials for a craft day with his kids, he decided to make his own dodo skull. After making the skull, Adam decided not to stop there, and eventually fabricated a whole dodo skeleton, using the thousands of source photos he had taken. He even went so far as to make a plaque to mount on its base, as if it were a piece in a museum.

His second story was about his obsession with the Maltese Falcon. Not the movie, but the object from the movie. After ordering a replica of the titular object online, Adam was not satisfied with the quality of the prop replica, so, he decided to make his own. After hours of sculpting while looking at screenshots of the film, he made a near-perfect copy of the falcon out of sculpey. He then made a mold of the model and cast it in resin, in order to attain a more durable version, which, after painting, is indistinguishable from the original. Even after he put in this much work, he wanted his copy to have the weight of the original, so he sent it off to be cast in bronze instead of resin, but due to shrinkage caused by rubber molds, the final bronze piece ended up around 3/4 of an inch smaller than his first sculpture. Adam is ultimately unsatisfied with this final product so he expressed a desire to do a 3-D scan of one of the original props form the film, in order to make a 100% accurate version of the Maltese Falcon. Almost

Even after going into painstaking detail about his processes, his true "message" was delivered in his last line: "But really, if we're all going to be honest with ourselves, I have to admit that achieving the end of the exercise was never the point of the exercise to begin with, was it.". Almost saying that it's not the destination, it's the journey. Adam has a way of fascinating everyone listening with his topic, despite their ties with the topic. Despite this, his delivery was a bit rushed, and he seemed like he was trying to shove as much information as possible into his time frame. He used slides and props fairly effectively, showing photos of his build processes, as well as showing the finished bronze casting of the Maltese Falcon.

https://www.ted.com/talks/adam_savage_s_obsessions

Colin Stokes on How Movies Teach Manhood

    

 One of my favorite Ted talks is by a man named Colin Stokes. This particular Ted talk makes me hold Mr. Stokes in very high esteem, not because he says anything new, but because--finally-- a man is standing up for women's rights. There are many feminists in the world, but how many of them are men? Stokes mentions a study that states 1 in 5 women say that they have been sexually assaulted sometime in their life. Too often today we read the words "women" and "assaulted" and we think, this is a women's problem. When Stokes hears the statistic "1 in 5 women are sexually assaulted," he first thinks "that is a lot of sexual assailants." The solution to this issue is not to further shelter women; it is to create a world where they don't need to be sheltered. 

          Stokes is a brilliant spokesperson for this issue. Not only because he is a man, but also because he is a parent. His technique in appealing to the audience through talking about his children is very effective. His talk is superficially about children’s movies but his message is much deeper. He addresses what society is teaching our sons and daughters and how it impacts our world. The audience is presumably adult, and therefore likely to have children, so they would be extra sensitive to discussing how their children should be raised.

     I also enjoy this speech because none of the concepts are difficult to grasp. Stokes has a very simple and calm manner of speaking. He uses movies, particularly the Wizard of Oz, to represent the kind of world he wants to create for his children. He also uses Star Wars as an example of a world he would not want his daughter to live in. A world that is predominantly male and female characters are not impressive or significant. These movies are perfect to demonstrate this because they are movies the majority of the population has seen. And both are widely popular. Most people who watch Star Wars don’t think of the message it delivers to women and why that is relevant and worth discussing.
     This speech addresses the illogical reasoning of teaching women to avoid abuse instead of teaching men not to abuse. I will further be addressing this topic in my own speech on human trafficking. The two topics are very closely related, when I am writing my speech I will consider the techniques chosen by Mr. Stokes and how they would or wouldn’t be effective in my own delivery. 

Here is a link to Colin Stokes' Ted talk;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueOqYebVhtc

Ted Talk Analysis: Cameron Russel

     In October of 2012, Cameron Russel delivered a speech titled, "Looks Aren't Everything. Believe Me, I'm A Model.". She presented this speech to a local audience at an independent TED event called TedxMidAtlantic. The purpose of Cameron's speech was to inform the audience of how superficial the world of modeling is. As well as to educate people on how deceiving a person's looks can be when determining a person's character. The vast majority of the audience Cameron is presenting to presumably are not models, or do no work in the modeling industry. Because of this, the audience expects Cameron to deliver a speech shedding some light on the darker side of modeling. Along with this they expect Cameron to speak on the negative effects modeling has caused with body image based on the title of her speech.
     To begin her speech, Cameron stands on stage wearing a very tight a short dark colored dress with extremely high heels (shown below).

She uses herself as an effective visual aid to demonstrate her point of how image is powerful, but also superficial. To do this, she changes on stage into a long skirt, cardigan sweater, and flat shoes. Before changing she acknowledges that she is aware that the audience is judging her based on her tight fitting dress and high heeled shoes. Then, after she changes into "appropriate" clothing, she addresses how the content of her speech would not have been skewed by her choice of clothes. But by changing her clothes, she changed the audiences' preconceived notion of the quality of her speech. 

     Throughout her speech, Cameron seemed a bit nervous speaking to a crowd of people, although it did not detract the effectiveness of her speech. She nervously laughed at points where the audience chuckled, and she said "um" quite a bit. Practicing her speech more often before hand could have eliminated some of the "um's" and taken some of her nervousness away. One other criticism I have for Cameron was that some parts of her speech did not flow well. At one point she went directly from talking about the percentages of young minority males in New York that were stopped by police to how much her photos were photoshopped. A better way to this would be to more thoroughly explain how police stopping  a young men in New York based on their outward appearance does not represent their character relates to the amount of photoshop photographers use on photos are not an accurate depiction of what the model really looks like. 

     Cameron's strongest aspects of her speech were her visual aids. Along with using herself as a visual aid in the beginning of her speech, she used them throughout to demonstrate how pictures of models are not accurate depictions of who they are. She used multiple side-by-sides to show how the pictures in the magazines are more "constructions" rather than real photographs. By doing this, she effectively communicates to the audience not to envy girls in the magazines because the pictures are of "construction" made by a boat load of editing. The images she chose to use to support her claims are shown below. The first one is of her at the same age, except on the right she is heavily edited. The second on she uses is the bottom picture. This side-by-side is of her varying in age only by two months. This image was very effective in communicating to audience how "fake" modeling really is. 

Overall, Cameron's speech effectively communicated the superficiality of modeling and how deceiving the looks of something or someone can be. She did demonstrate some nervous tendencies that could be easily fixed by more practice. There was a slight disrupt in the general organization of her speech, but it not detract from the content. By the end of her speech, Cameron's message was effectively communicated to the audience.

Ted Talk Analysis: Lead Like the Great Conductors

Link to Video: Itay Talgam: Lead Like the Great Conductors

Von Karajan

In July of 2009, Mr. Itay Talgam gave a speech at TEDGlobal, a conference where speakers from around the world gather to give speeches on their area of expertise.  Talgam analyzed how 6 of the greatest conductors led their orchestras -- Carlos Kleiber, Riccardo Muti, Richard Strauss, Herbert Von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, and Peter (no last name given).  The audience seemed to have some background in music; at least enough to understand what Talgam was talking about.

Talgam had plenty of visual aids.  About a quarter of his time on stage was videos of different conductors leading their orchestras through different pieces so that the audience could see what those conductors did themselves, instead of relying on the speaker to tell them and describe it.  He got the audience to participate in following his imitations of some of the conductors, keeping them engaged throughout most of the lecture.  He showed them the conductor’s style, and then talked about it instead of the other way around.   By doing so, he kept the audience’s attention by forcing them to see and judge for themselves, instead of giving them the answers right away.  He made eye contact with different sections of the audience consistently while talking, he provided plenty of diverse evidence, and he kept his speech very organized: Talk, video, talk about the conductor, repeat.  It was very easy to follow and he was engaging enough that I was able to keep with the program.

Leonard Bernstein

Although he was very good at keeping the audience engaged, there were some moments where he lost my interest.  I feel like he went off script closer to the end because he seemed to be rambling, since he knew the last two conductors personally and wanted to talk about them as his friends instead of as professionals.  His delivery and content was very strong, but to even further improve them, he could have used higher quality videos (the poor quality was distracting at times), videos that only showed the conductor (there were shots that covered the entire orchestra and missed the conductor), had one of the videos silenced so that the only thing we were observing was the conductor and not the music, and he could have compared two conductors leading the same piece.  The first two things he could do very little about – the videos are the fault of the people who filmed and the equipment they used, but using the same piece and analyzing how two different conductors conducted it would have been telling. Doing that would have highlighted the differences between each conductor.  Using different pieces added another element because how conductors lead a piece is very dependant on the mood and story of that particular piece.  Nobody would conduct Nimrod for Enigma Variations and the finale from Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony the same way.  Nimrod is an extremely slow, loving piece, whereas the finale is fiery, loud, and ‘in your face.’  Yet, Talgam decided to display many different moods of music, which would affect how the conductors conducted.  Using similar or the same piece would really show off the difference and give the audience a deeper understanding of how conductors lead their orchestras.

Richard Strauss

Model Cameron Russell, "Looks Aren't Everything"

This TED Talk, titled Looks Aren’t Everything. Believe Me, I’m a Model. was given by a model named Cameron Russell in October of 2012. The goal of her speech was to enlighten her audience on the truths of being a model and to let them know that it does have perks, but overall, it’s not at all what meets the eye. Outside of the realm of modeling, she additionally explored how humanity is effected by appearance in today’s society. Before Cameron gave this TED Talk, the audience’s general knowledge of modeling was presumably just the stereotype: women who fit our society’s ideal of “beauty”, which is being tall and skinny and having a pretty face. The audience probably thought that all models are out-of-this-world confident (because why wouldn’t they be?) and possibly even that they’re conceited. It’s fair to say models are also often viewed only for their bodies, and their intelligence is frequently downplayed or even unthought-of at times.

Despite the audience’s probable expectations when Cameron came out in a classic, tight, “LBD” (little black dress) and stiletto heels, she came with a message, and she effectively began to get that message across when she threw on a baggy skirt, shirt, and flat shoes over her dress. She went straight into how “image is effective, but image is superficial.” Her use of evidence was effective. She used modeling and everyday photographs of herself to show that in reality, models are actually very coached, professionally styled, and the pictures are extremely retouched before they are ever seen by the public. She also explained that she just got lucky and hit the “gene pool lottery” (which some of the audience could have taken as arrogance), but she was actually just trying to prove that she is no better than anyone else just because her physical characteristics line up with society’s idea of beauty and what a model should look like. She also uses statistics such as the one about the number of black vs. white models on the runway to prove that society has a narrow view of what looks a model should possess.

Here are a few of the comparative photographs she uses to show the difference in retouched photos and photos of her in a real life, everyday setting: 

In regards to delivery, the beginning was slightly awkward. She came out and said a few things and awkwardly laughed and none of the audience laughed with her. At first, it was almost as if she had a slightly hard time connecting with the audience, which is probably because she is so beautiful and physically “perfect” and seems unrelatable because of that. Her visual aid (the photos that she showed of herself to prove her points) were good and effective. She was organized for the most part because she arranged her discussion by the questions that she is frequently asked about modeling and her raw, genuine answers to those questions. For the most part, she makes good eye contact and speaks at a reasonable speed.

Some constructive criticism might be: not being so awkward and laughing when no one else laughs at the beginning, maybe leave out the part about black and Latino men in New York (because it didn’t exactly seem to fit with the rest of the speech), transitioning better from one question or statistic to another, and fixing her ending. At the end, she stopped talking, and then awkwardly looked down and said “ok. Thank you.” And waved and walked off. After delivering a message, especially one about body image, she should have been more sure of her message and ended more confidently.