I wanted to mention our Good News to those of you particularly invested in Cliveden Park House. During Christmas, Clyde's brother told us that his company is keen to donate some computers to us. Most of them would be refurbished, but at least two of them will be brand new. Not only do the company want to donate them, they want to set up a network and internet connection, and bring someone in to teach the software on the computers. This would include AutoCAD, which is certainly not run of the mill. We are ecstatic. Understandably so.
However, this has meant that we have had to get a room ready for the products. The room we are working with might fit 9 computer stations at a stretch, which is great. The company originally offered 25 machines. 25! Twenty five! But we just don't have the space. We don't even have furniture at the moment, but I expect we'll be able to get some from somewhere.
Clyde has spent two evenings this week spackling holes in the walls so that can paint the room, which up until this week was a rosy shade of dark gray, with a poo-brown ceiling. I voted for a while ceiling with medium yellow walls. Clyde concurred and we found the right colour at Home Depot. So this afternoon I am driving down to put on a second coat of primer and pick up the yellow paint when we know how much we'll need.
Additionally to all that, Clyde's Dad has offered to come in and fix up some issues with the rest room, which isn't a very nice place to have to spend a penny. It's passable, but there are holes in the walls.
We are working quickly to get these changes made because we want to show the company that they are making a decent investment, and not throwing good money away. Also, if they are serious, which it sounds as though they are, they will probably want to move quickly as the year turns. So we plan to be prepared.
I have dreams of being able to work with six or more children at a time, using Reader Rabbit software and other phonics programs. I won't give up on books, of course, but it's easier to plan for more children if I have more equipment to work with.
Friday, December 30, 2005
Happy Holidays
I hate the phrase Happy Holidays. It's a generic American-PC remark made so as not to offend people who do not celebrate Christmas, but do celebrate something else. For instance Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice. Although Solstice doesn't seem to be a widely recognized celebration in the US, either.
Anyway, I use the greeting now because I haven't posted anything in a while and thus have missed most of the holidays except for the New Year celebration, which is tomorrow.
Two days ago we held a holiday party for the kids at Cliveden Park House. We invited the children from the four different programs that run at the park, and had about thirty kids show up. I was pretty surprised, because on a good day I see "my" two girls. I had no idea there were so many kids in the neighbourhood. Luckily it was a warm-ish day and for the most part the kids played in the park on the swings and climbing frame. Some of the boys threw a footballl around, some of the girls played hide-and-seek, duck-duck-goose. Inside, to amuse some of the littler ones, we played musical statues and pass-the-parcel.
The older volunteers - mostly Grandmas - cooked up the lunch, and what a lunch it was. Salad, followed by a fruit cup, followed by spaghetti and sauce or baked penne, followed by crazy running around outside while the grown-ups cleaned up the tables and I cut the cakes. The oldest kids came in and sat down to "test" the cakes for freshness while shooting the breeze. These were the boys and girl who were been the original kids in the park. The reason the Grandmas had cleaned the place up and kicked out the drug users. They were also the first children in the park to benefit from the city grants and funding for local youth. Their ages range between 15 and 19 now. The eldest is in college, the rest are following suit.
After everyone had some cake, we asked each person to stand up and identify themselves to the group. What is their name, age, school and which program do they participate in at Cliveden. Some of them were the littler brothers and sisters of those in a program. One of them had just shown up and joined in when he saw all the children outside. But mostly they were students of the piano; of Mr Clyde's math class (where he also teaches spanish, social studies, science); and of Mr Kelvin's class on Saturday mornings. My girls stood up shyly and said that they came to Mrs Clyde's and Mr Tabby's classes (awww).
It was a great opportunity for all of us, really. Clyde and I stood up and tried to pitch our program to everyone. Clyde did a better job than me. I was tired and uptight by this point and I now wish that I had said more about just giving the kids a place to come to if they wanted to read. Mostly I concentrated on offering help to those who were having difficulty, which is also a valid contribution. But I know there were kids in the building who probably do read of their own choosing and just don't have someone who cares enough to let them do it in their own time.
As people were speaking, I snuck around with a camera and took lots of photos. My BBBS Litttle Sister, Caitlin, was with us as well, and it was her camera. Just as well because the battery had gone on mine.
At the end of the afternoon, as the kids were leaving, I had two more children come to me and tell me that they have had some trouble with reading. The boy, in 5th grade, tells me that he is reading at 3rd grade level. The girl, who is 13, tells me she wants to read all the books we have on the shelves. I don't know yet where her trouble lies, if she has any. In two weeks both kids will hopefully come and sit with us on a Monday night.
In the meantime I plan to try and write some lesson plan material ahead of time so that I can best utilize the time when I suddenly have double the amount of students.
Anyway, I use the greeting now because I haven't posted anything in a while and thus have missed most of the holidays except for the New Year celebration, which is tomorrow.
Two days ago we held a holiday party for the kids at Cliveden Park House. We invited the children from the four different programs that run at the park, and had about thirty kids show up. I was pretty surprised, because on a good day I see "my" two girls. I had no idea there were so many kids in the neighbourhood. Luckily it was a warm-ish day and for the most part the kids played in the park on the swings and climbing frame. Some of the boys threw a footballl around, some of the girls played hide-and-seek, duck-duck-goose. Inside, to amuse some of the littler ones, we played musical statues and pass-the-parcel.
The older volunteers - mostly Grandmas - cooked up the lunch, and what a lunch it was. Salad, followed by a fruit cup, followed by spaghetti and sauce or baked penne, followed by crazy running around outside while the grown-ups cleaned up the tables and I cut the cakes. The oldest kids came in and sat down to "test" the cakes for freshness while shooting the breeze. These were the boys and girl who were been the original kids in the park. The reason the Grandmas had cleaned the place up and kicked out the drug users. They were also the first children in the park to benefit from the city grants and funding for local youth. Their ages range between 15 and 19 now. The eldest is in college, the rest are following suit.
After everyone had some cake, we asked each person to stand up and identify themselves to the group. What is their name, age, school and which program do they participate in at Cliveden. Some of them were the littler brothers and sisters of those in a program. One of them had just shown up and joined in when he saw all the children outside. But mostly they were students of the piano; of Mr Clyde's math class (where he also teaches spanish, social studies, science); and of Mr Kelvin's class on Saturday mornings. My girls stood up shyly and said that they came to Mrs Clyde's and Mr Tabby's classes (awww).
It was a great opportunity for all of us, really. Clyde and I stood up and tried to pitch our program to everyone. Clyde did a better job than me. I was tired and uptight by this point and I now wish that I had said more about just giving the kids a place to come to if they wanted to read. Mostly I concentrated on offering help to those who were having difficulty, which is also a valid contribution. But I know there were kids in the building who probably do read of their own choosing and just don't have someone who cares enough to let them do it in their own time.
As people were speaking, I snuck around with a camera and took lots of photos. My BBBS Litttle Sister, Caitlin, was with us as well, and it was her camera. Just as well because the battery had gone on mine.
At the end of the afternoon, as the kids were leaving, I had two more children come to me and tell me that they have had some trouble with reading. The boy, in 5th grade, tells me that he is reading at 3rd grade level. The girl, who is 13, tells me she wants to read all the books we have on the shelves. I don't know yet where her trouble lies, if she has any. In two weeks both kids will hopefully come and sit with us on a Monday night.
In the meantime I plan to try and write some lesson plan material ahead of time so that I can best utilize the time when I suddenly have double the amount of students.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Book Wishlist
If you want to send us something, but don't know where to start, I have updated our Amazon wishlist. Books sent from this site are tax free donations. Just let me know if you need the 501 number for your records.
Be sure to sort the list by priority (high to low) for the best ideas.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/200VFN7IERVN7
Thank you!
Be sure to sort the list by priority (high to low) for the best ideas.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/200VFN7IERVN7
Thank you!
Hop on Pop - Follow up
I have received two copies of Hop on Pop from two kind regulars at Readerville. This morning I also received a handful of I Can Read books (Danny and the Dinosaur; Mouse Tales; Frog and Toad, etc) from a great friend who has kept us in books this year.
The arrival of this package was just perfect because I think the girls are at the right stage to give them a stab. I had them each read Hop on Pop aloud on Monday evening this week. M was able to do it more fluently than T, and she didn't get frustrated when she got stuck on a word. She even had a very good try at Constantinople. I suggested to their Grandmother that T might get her eyes checked. Because I noticed that she rubbed and rubbed at her eyes while she was trying to read, and she struggled with several of the pages, especially at the end where there is a small yellow box with a smaller red text of several short words in a row. She almost cried when she got to that part, so I wondered if perhaps it had to do with being able to see well enough.
After they took turns reading it aloud, I read it aloud. Then I read them the first in the Catwings series by Ursula K Le Guin. What a lovely little book! They seemed to enjoy it and asked questions when they didn't understand things (who are the flying tabbies?? etc) part way through the story.
At the end of the story I asked them what they liked best about it, and they were able to tell me parts they thought were interesting/fun. Then they told me that their birthday in June but they didn't know when that is, so we sat down and talked about days of the week and months of the year. I gave them a sheet of paper with all those things written clearly down and asked them to practice sounding it out during the week.
Next week I'll see about having them each read a short-ish I Can Read book aloud. I really think that most of what they need is practice reading.
The arrival of this package was just perfect because I think the girls are at the right stage to give them a stab. I had them each read Hop on Pop aloud on Monday evening this week. M was able to do it more fluently than T, and she didn't get frustrated when she got stuck on a word. She even had a very good try at Constantinople. I suggested to their Grandmother that T might get her eyes checked. Because I noticed that she rubbed and rubbed at her eyes while she was trying to read, and she struggled with several of the pages, especially at the end where there is a small yellow box with a smaller red text of several short words in a row. She almost cried when she got to that part, so I wondered if perhaps it had to do with being able to see well enough.
After they took turns reading it aloud, I read it aloud. Then I read them the first in the Catwings series by Ursula K Le Guin. What a lovely little book! They seemed to enjoy it and asked questions when they didn't understand things (who are the flying tabbies?? etc) part way through the story.
At the end of the story I asked them what they liked best about it, and they were able to tell me parts they thought were interesting/fun. Then they told me that their birthday in June but they didn't know when that is, so we sat down and talked about days of the week and months of the year. I gave them a sheet of paper with all those things written clearly down and asked them to practice sounding it out during the week.
Next week I'll see about having them each read a short-ish I Can Read book aloud. I really think that most of what they need is practice reading.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Wintery weather
Yep. It's cold. Monday night class was cancelled because all the weather channels predicted 3 - 7 inches of snow, but in fact only about an inch fell and landed in our neighbourhood. All the same, I'm happy not to have gone because Clyde had to drive to Virginia on business, taking my car with him. And I didn't want to have to drive home in the dark, in bad weather, in a car I'm less comfortable in. The car he uses is a 1991 Jeep Cherokee. It works, pretty much, fine. It has a new-ish engine, which we installed over the summer. But since then it's gears are wonky. You have to really slam them into place! It's disconcerting. Anyway, it's a perfectly usable vehicle. I just didn't want to have to deal with all the factors at once.
Though the snow has stopped, it's bitterly cold here. I spent much of the day sitting on the couch writing christmas cards and thinking about clambering back into the flannel sheets in the company of cats. But no. Instead I watched/listened to almost six hours of music television while I wrote. Occasionally I checked and sent email, and read some posts at the IIN web forum. I noticed that a lot of forum posts, both at IIN and elseweb, have dropped off this week. I wonder if it's because everyone's fingers are too cold to type? More likely they are bundled up in flannel bedsheets with a good book. I wanted to do that, too, but really felt it would be lazy. I don't think of bed as the place to write letters, although I know one novelist who writes her books in bed. Literally.
Though the snow has stopped, it's bitterly cold here. I spent much of the day sitting on the couch writing christmas cards and thinking about clambering back into the flannel sheets in the company of cats. But no. Instead I watched/listened to almost six hours of music television while I wrote. Occasionally I checked and sent email, and read some posts at the IIN web forum. I noticed that a lot of forum posts, both at IIN and elseweb, have dropped off this week. I wonder if it's because everyone's fingers are too cold to type? More likely they are bundled up in flannel bedsheets with a good book. I wanted to do that, too, but really felt it would be lazy. I don't think of bed as the place to write letters, although I know one novelist who writes her books in bed. Literally.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
Health Histories for Homework
Here's another that's been keeping me busy:
Part of my homework assignment from my first weekend at IIN was to complete four health history (HH) consultations before the next class (Dec 10-11). I had been concerned about how to go about taking these histories because I don't come into a lot of contact with "real" people throughout my day. I clean my house and play with my cats and do grocery shopping and all of that, but I don't interact with many people outside of the various online communities I'm involved with and the people I might play catch up with over the phone.
So it was suggested to me that I might exchange HHs with other students. This seems easy until you realise how difficult it is to pin down appointments with people. Especially people who don't seem as into it as you are. A few people have complained on the IIN online community about how no one will exchange with them. I don't know about that. I have emailed most of the people who showed interest, detailing my availability and asking for theirs. If they don't pick up the ball and follow up, it's their loss I'm afraid to say.
Inspired by all of that, I emailed a selection of friends and asked if they were willing to get involved. If they answered yes, I sent them the form and asked them to fill it in and return it to me. Then I asked for their availability for talking about it. It's a really great thing to do because it gives the "client" time for themself. Time to sit and breathe and discuss the things that concern them. And it's all about them. The consultation can take up to an hour, and will always be free. We have been advised not to take anyone on as actual clients until a few more weeks into the program, but after that the consultation process is free and the follow up sessions cost a certain amount a month, assuming the client feels that they want to further their work.
And so, my weeks and weekends have been busy, full of calls and consultations. I have averaged about five of these a week. It's surprising to me how tired I have been at the end of them, however. I suppose I haven't engaged my mind as much in a long time!
Part of my homework assignment from my first weekend at IIN was to complete four health history (HH) consultations before the next class (Dec 10-11). I had been concerned about how to go about taking these histories because I don't come into a lot of contact with "real" people throughout my day. I clean my house and play with my cats and do grocery shopping and all of that, but I don't interact with many people outside of the various online communities I'm involved with and the people I might play catch up with over the phone.
So it was suggested to me that I might exchange HHs with other students. This seems easy until you realise how difficult it is to pin down appointments with people. Especially people who don't seem as into it as you are. A few people have complained on the IIN online community about how no one will exchange with them. I don't know about that. I have emailed most of the people who showed interest, detailing my availability and asking for theirs. If they don't pick up the ball and follow up, it's their loss I'm afraid to say.
Inspired by all of that, I emailed a selection of friends and asked if they were willing to get involved. If they answered yes, I sent them the form and asked them to fill it in and return it to me. Then I asked for their availability for talking about it. It's a really great thing to do because it gives the "client" time for themself. Time to sit and breathe and discuss the things that concern them. And it's all about them. The consultation can take up to an hour, and will always be free. We have been advised not to take anyone on as actual clients until a few more weeks into the program, but after that the consultation process is free and the follow up sessions cost a certain amount a month, assuming the client feels that they want to further their work.
And so, my weeks and weekends have been busy, full of calls and consultations. I have averaged about five of these a week. It's surprising to me how tired I have been at the end of them, however. I suppose I haven't engaged my mind as much in a long time!
Playing catch up
I've been so tired lately I haven't made time to write updates on my teaching antics. I have stories to tell (although they may not be terribly interesting), believe me.
My twin girls are repeat pupils now (three visits in as many weeks), and apparently spent the first week asking their Nana if they could come to my "class" after school every day. The second week I copied pages out of the Scholastic book to see what basic level they are at. The pages included simple mazes, following easy words: "the" "a", to reach something at the other side (the way mazes do). Then they each read part of a Hello Reader story to me. T was soon tired, but M wanted to go on. She read almost a whole story and then answered some of the questions at the end (that included rebus words and opposites). At the end of the evening Nana asked me to work with them on word families, which I am happy to try. She told me that they have been put in some sort of special class in first grade, which seems ridiculous to me. They are six years old!
So I spent much of last Monday writing simple sentences around the word family "an", and copying a few more pages about "the" and "an" from my reference book. The girls told me that the part where they had to match the right word to the right sentence was too hard. But I helped them to complete the whole page (six sentences) and they did okay.
T was tired and coughing the whole time on Monday, and I sent her home with Nana to get some medicine. I feel for them because I know that it's not my business to interfere in their lives outside of learning to read and being at the House with us. But they come wearing dirty clothes and I understand that they are on fairly strict vegetarian diets, which seems a little rough for children so young. And frankly I imagine it will backfire on them in the future. How can chocolate and sweet things not be attractive to them? Anyway, I digress.
So I started reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with them, but now I'm thinking that might be cruel. Perhaps I should go with something shorter and less about sweeties.
My twin girls are repeat pupils now (three visits in as many weeks), and apparently spent the first week asking their Nana if they could come to my "class" after school every day. The second week I copied pages out of the Scholastic book to see what basic level they are at. The pages included simple mazes, following easy words: "the" "a", to reach something at the other side (the way mazes do). Then they each read part of a Hello Reader story to me. T was soon tired, but M wanted to go on. She read almost a whole story and then answered some of the questions at the end (that included rebus words and opposites). At the end of the evening Nana asked me to work with them on word families, which I am happy to try. She told me that they have been put in some sort of special class in first grade, which seems ridiculous to me. They are six years old!
So I spent much of last Monday writing simple sentences around the word family "an", and copying a few more pages about "the" and "an" from my reference book. The girls told me that the part where they had to match the right word to the right sentence was too hard. But I helped them to complete the whole page (six sentences) and they did okay.
T was tired and coughing the whole time on Monday, and I sent her home with Nana to get some medicine. I feel for them because I know that it's not my business to interfere in their lives outside of learning to read and being at the House with us. But they come wearing dirty clothes and I understand that they are on fairly strict vegetarian diets, which seems a little rough for children so young. And frankly I imagine it will backfire on them in the future. How can chocolate and sweet things not be attractive to them? Anyway, I digress.
So I started reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with them, but now I'm thinking that might be cruel. Perhaps I should go with something shorter and less about sweeties.
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