EXP201.Davi.Fall05

Hey

My kids are really smart. They are always the first group to finish every activity. They are great critical thinkers. Some problems I wouldn’t be able to solve, now, as a freshman in college, they seem to solve in five minutes max. Mostly it is one girl in particular. She is always the leader of the group. She always asks questions and has ideas to solve the problem. For example when we played the game when they had to figure out which pieces of paper were the safe pieces, she figured it out in a jiffy. I my paper with the answers on it clockwise and asked them to figure out the new pattern. She was the only one in the group to realize it is always the same pattern, only difference is it starts at a new corner. She is a great problem solver. Sometimes I don’t know what to do because my group always finishes so early. I ask them the questions given to us with the project, but we usually finish that quickly also. If anyone has any ideas about my little problem could you please comment back. Thanks.

2+2=5 is really working i love it

            Today I went to Fitzgerald and the students played the best game ever. The game was Star Wars.  The same as dodge ball but with a twist, each side would have a Jedi-master. He was to tag them in if they got tagged by the other team. Those were the official rules along the way more rules were added because loop holes were found.

            Telling these students that they are going to play dodge ball is like telling them they have no more school they love it. They went crazy, I have not seen people play dodge ball in a long time and when I saw them play I thought they were going to kill each other. They just kept throwing the ball at like 20 MPH, or faster. There was this kid that was the best player on the opposite side and he was pretty good, he was the top player and the other team won the game twice. 

            Along the way I was making up strategies and when I told the students what to say they just did it.  The point was to get the Jedi-master out and when the opposing team did that the only thing after that was to get the other people on the team and the game would be over.  I was making up stuff like hold the balls on one side and then the Jedi-master could tag everyone on the team and the game would not be over. So my team did that and although they lost twice they did win the third time we played because of their coach.

            I was the coach for my team E. I was telling them what to do and then they executed the task I gave them.  My team was the best.  All throughout the game I was motivating them. I was saying “no, what are you doing” “YES, you got the person out” “YES you got the Jedi now just get the rest of the players out” I was so god and pumped for the game.  My team did an awesome try to win the other team.  I loved my team the were the best.  Especially because the coach that did not shut up the whole hour we were playing.  It was all about the motivation if they heard me go crazy and tell them what to do they would do it and they would ask me it was right in the moment one after the other. I bent the rules and stretched them and then it became a competition between the coaches me and the opposing coach. I said something he would say “you cannot do that” then I would say “yeah it is not a rule right so I can I am not cheating it is all about critical thinking you have to think beyond everything and everyone, to get victory and victory is mine.”

            We had two MVP players one was a girl that would go right to the red line and she would just bomb people and they would be out.  This girl was good.  The other MVP was this little boy from the back of the room he would just throw the ball, I do not know how but it was great.

            This activity brought the competitive side out and I just wanted to win. I was always thinking positive and when we lost I had to get the morale up and I told them “yeah we will definitely get them next time” It was just two loses and then we won.

Along the way there were a couple of innocent bystanders that got hit but it was all from the love of the game. We had the lunch lady get hit, the gym teacher, a janitor, a random girl just passing by, a girl got hit in the face her team was like “you took one for the team” I looked at them and I was I just thought to myself, I would not take a direct hit to the face for the team and I am a team player.  Even I got hit with the ball from one of my own players it was a WAR ZONE no safety, nothing was fair.

            This has been the most fun I have had in a long time while I was doing an activity at Fitzgerald. I think I am a great coach I am leading everybody to success.  Service learning has taught me much about how to make a little thing into an activity and a critical thinking activity. I definitely want to be in service learning on the next three years at Bentley because everybody benefits from the activities.  All of the activities have something to do with team work.  This activity Star War the people that got tagged were on the floor knocking the balls away and protecting their players or classmates.  That is when you know that service learning is working and making a different in

Waltham

and maybe someday in the world.  So one day these students grown up and are not acting or doing some of the crazy things that some for the youth or adults are doing.  I think we are setting up an example to these students and I know they are getting something out of this.  It is very exciting if you can say “I know that girl because we did activities together” That right there is giving back to the community.  Changing everything.  The revolution is coming check it out in 06’ BABY.

PEACE, I HAD A BUNCH OF IDEAS IN MY MIND.  The things you say without thinking! WOW!

EDISON

What's up

Sup everybody, it's me Javier with my weekly posting. This week's Service learning session for me was cancelled. To make up for it, I helped out with the "Kids at Bentley" activity held by the men's forum. It was interesting to see that the group of students was very diverse. They were all Waltham city kids visiting the college to get an idea of what college life is like. All of the kids were in 8th grade, but they seemed really young to me. I was happy to answer questions about college life that they had. I thought that this activity was really good. It is good to know that Bentley helps the Waltham community in that way. I remember doing similar programs when I was younger at Harvard. I think that it's good to give kids an idea about college because it could motivate them to get to college. I know that when I was younger and participated in these types of activities I was intriuged by the college students and the college life.

-Javier

Kids at Bentley

            Today I had to volunteer for an activity in the culture fest in Bentley. I decided to help out with the students that came from different middle schools, they were eighth graders.  I was surprised to talk with them because most of the girls looked like they were older than they appeared to be.  Most of the girls were very interested in how life at Bentley was.  I told them that college was not difficult just that the person has to have their priorities straight.

            I was talking to a teacher to know that she said “like at how diverse these students are” I looked around and I saw that the place was really not diverse. I think she was not looking at the same place because I could see that there were many Hispanics, and blacks, that was it not many of another race. I think this teacher was comparing the students to the people from Bentley that are mostly white. I asked her how the students were chosen to come here she told me that the schools had sent the students they saw were the most qualified to actually come here. Looking at the students most of them were not even interested in the activity. I did not see the entire even but I do not think they got much information about Bentley.

            One question that I find hard to answer is why when it comes to minorities why are the leaders mostly always minorities, not nothing else? In other activities the leaders are different but not always.  Orientation was with many leaders and one group the gold team seemed to have all of the minorities from the

US

.   Why is this?

Try my survey: I think it works

The Quest for Aproval

"You mean we get to use REAL EGGS?" anxiously questioned the young Professor. This weeks activity was the Egg Drop, where each team was given one raw egg materials to build a kite (straw, string, paper, and 2 rubber bands). With these materials, they needed to created a device that could reduce windspeed and impact, thus keeping the egg safe from damage. Once the materials were divided amongst the groups, the construction began...with varied results. This activity by far has been the most successfull, and perhaps most engaging of all activites to date. Every child was eager to participate and offer their input, and all of the students in my group seemed to possess a functional understanding of basic scientific principles-especially the young Professor, whom everyone claims is my offspring.

On that note for a moment, the young professor for the last 5 weeks had offered plenty of resistance to 2+2=5 logic by asserting his own. "2+2 does not equal five" and the usual junk like that, and while he seemed to appreciate my being there, he seemed somewhat reserved to engage in conversation (of course, with my competitive nature, I would have talked him under the table) with me. This week was completely different, for the young Professor began to think of me as a wise-man- a Shaman- the leader of a leauge of extraordinary folks. He even stared trying to give me bear hugs. As before, I attribute this success and newfound friendship to the simple act of sitting with them in a circle and having conversations with them. The problem as I have stated before with towering over the students is that they literally see you as a giant- a boss that they work for-not a leader whom they work with. Just by standing up during group discussion automatically puts you on a plateua where they cannot follow, and sometimes are too afraid too. SIT DOWN WITH THE KIDS, KNEEL, AND LOOK THEM IN THE EYES. DON"T MAKE THEM LOOK TOO HIGH UP.

Throughout the excercise, whenever a child had an idea, they felt as though they needed to run their ideas by me before they spoke to the group. FOr example, if the young Professor thought he had an astronomically great solution, then he would try to explain it to me first. Every time a student would try to do this, I just pointed to the rest of the group and asked them to explain it to the team instead. While I kept returning the focus back to the team, the members of the team always felt the need to brief me on their ideas before presenting them to the others. Finally, I asked, "Why is it that you always tell me your ideas instead of eachother." While I expected puzzlement from them, I received exactly the opposite. The young Professor responded, "We want you to like us, and to think that we are intelligent, and we want you to think that our ideas are good one before implementing them into the overall strategy." That blew my hair back a little bit. I couldn't help but say duh to myself, and try to act like I should have already known that. But it is not often that a child comes out and directly says these things to you in such concise terms.

An Exciting Day

      Last Friday many of the students at Chesterbrook did not want to do the activity that Eddy mentioned and so we ended up doing something completely random.  Eddy mentioned the game "musical chairs" and all of the kids started jumping around in excitement.  They all started screaming in enjoyment.  After they heard this all of the students started to run around the room and gathered all the chairs to set up for the game.  I was watching them work together and was completely amazed that one simple phrase such as "musical chairs" can get them all pumped up.  This made our job much easier because the kids were willing to participate with out any incentive. 

     Once the music was turned on the kids were completely absorbed in the activity.  Many of the students started to dance around the chairs as they moved along.  As we started to take away chairs the game became more aggressive and competitive.  One thing that I noticed as the game became harder was that the students were becoming more violent to each other.  They were pushing each other off chairs and hurting each other.  It seemed that no one realized that and figured that the kids were just having fun.  In my opinion the game didn't seem too fair because the students who were winning were cheating their way through.  An example of this was when one student kicked the other student and pushed him off his chair.  The injured student walked away in pain and ended up standing in one corner.  It seemed that he didn't get what he deserved.  He seemed as if he was about to cry.  Later, one of the supervisors walked in with snacks and all of a sudden the injured student ran up in excitement to get his treat.  It was as if nothing had happened at all.  I found this event to be quite amazing because it seemed strange to me that one can go from being very sad to very happy in the matter of a couple of minutes.  I guess that's the great thing about kids and how their emotions can change in an instant.  They can pull you through many different emotions in a small period of time which is truly amazing.

 

2+2=5 Crash Course

On Friday November 4th I woke up with a start, in less than two hours I was to be at Northeast Elementary teaching 2+2=5 "crash course" style. It was a crisp Friday morning, the sun was shining and colored leaves were dropping out of the eggshell blue sky. It was one of the first Friday mornings I have experienced since this school year began. For a second I felt disappointed in myself for sleeping though so many mornings, but I had no time for that. I had to find my blue 2+2=5 shirt somewhere in the heap of clean clothes in my laundry basket and be in Morrison ASAP.

Finally we all embarked from Morrison on our 3+ minute journey to the Northeast Elementary school hidden away on the hill off of forest street. As we pulled up, it looked more like an "Elementary Palace," a little one building Bentley. Just entering the building was an experience, we had to push a few buttons, talk to some lady, tell her why we were standing in front of the "palace" and then finally the door opened slowly like a drawbridge of a medieval palace.

Upon entering my mouth dropped even more, the ceilings were high; the stairs were switch backed to the second floor, and a single hallway, completely empty without a trace of use stretched before me for what seemed a mile. I quickly snapped out of my mouth dropping, it was back to the normal sign ins, stickers, and meaningless talk to the ladies behind the desk. While signing in someone else pushed the button asking for admittance to the "palace." The lady behind the desk turned around to look at the black and white surveillance screen before letting the individual in which struck me as odd considering that she was facing the window which gave a clear colored picture of who was at the door. Why would she look at a black and white TV screen to see if she should let the person in when she could just gaze out the window and see the individual?

After the sign-in procedures we quickly ascended the backtracking steps en route to the second floor. We were running behind, and we needed to set up the five activities. I was in charge of setting up radioactivity. We had to move the desks, which was easy because of the nice sliders on the bottom of the desk. Next I had to use masking tape to make four circles on the ground, place the 2 bowls (one with tootsie roles), 2 rubber bands and four pieces of rope.

By the time I had finished that the children were already in the room hopping around from circle asking every question possible until their teacher, who seemed rather bitter, yelled at them all for not being in the corner she told them to be in. They all moped over to the corner and sat their slumped over looking disappointed, yet their eyes showed curiosity and wonder and excitement.

After putting the leftover supplies in a plastic CVS bag I hurried down the hall sweating profusely due to my over evolved sweat glands. I arrived to a dark room which was completely empty, where were my kinds!? Sitting there waiting I began to feel a little nervous I had to help them learn about teamwork in a few hours, not over 10 weeks!

As I was sitting there another veteran of the 2+2=5 "crash course" came in and said that he would also be with the class which wiped away any nervousness I initially had. Soon the children came in all energetic from recess. Right away I noticed two children, one was a girl with down syndrome and another was a boy who appeared to be slightly autistic.

The autistic boy ended up not participating in a group; instead he sat with the teacher and talked to her. The girl with down syndrome on the other hand was fully engaged with each and every activity. She and the four other people she was with were all team and no group. They helped her with every activity, she helped them as much as she could and in the end they won even with her "disability or gift," depending on how one looked at it. Team four hands down had the best teamwork of the class.

In another group there was a boy who seemed disengaged in every activity, during the "skyscraper activity" he was the tape boy, literally ripping off little pieces of tape and giving it to the team to use. It took until the last 2 minutes of the last activity for him to break out of his shell, and that he did. He was the first one to finish mind sweeper, his eyes lit up he was going to be important, he was the deciding factor for his team’s success. The group succeeded and he could not have been happier, he started talking to me about his dog and his brother he finally felt comfortable. He participated in the last group discussion and talked with pride about what he had done as if he had just conquered goliath. I can truly say for the first time that 2+2=5 changed that little boy more than any textbook or lecture on teamwork could even do. He felt and experience teamwork it was inside him and that’s there to say!

After my class finished their activities they were asked the meaning 2+2=5. Surprisingly many of the children had figured out the theory behind 2+2=5. Next was the written response to the day’s activities. I was surprised yet again by many things. First there were three students in the class that had very limited English and could not write in English at all. I was very surprised at this because of the way there had been involved in the activities. Two of the girls asked for help and the teacher tried to explain it in Spanish but failed. Luckily the other 2+2=5 member I was with could speak Spanish and explained the questions to the girls. The third girl I felt really bad for because she sat their, with her eyes welling up and when she handed in the paper it was blank and she had her head down. She seemed ashamed that she could not do what was asked of her even though it in no way was her fault. I was also happily amazed by a few helpful classmates which let the girl with down syndrome copy the words from their paper.

Over all I think there were some pluses from a "crash course" and also some negatives. One major positive thing was that the children got to experience many aspects of teamwork in a short period of time. I think this contributed to them understanding what teamwork was really about. I think in a ten week course it may be harder for children to connect different aspects of teamwork which they have learned and then later be able to apply the teamwork skills as a whole.

As for remembering their teamwork experiences I think the ten week course is more beneficial. I say this because of the repetition which will result in them more likely to remember a specific activity or aspect of teamwork from one of the ten weeks. I think that the "crash course" students will more likely forget about the teamwork skills because they only experienced it once for a few hours. If their teachers keep doing activities that require teamwork I think those few hours will end up being very beneficial for the students in years to come. I think every student should experience 2+2=5 or another program along the same lines.

I feel that the "crash course" was great and I would suggest if possible to expand its use to a weekly occurrence. There are many public schools around with many children that could greatly benefit from a program like 2+2=5. I think this "crash course" is perfect for the many schools and teachers who are not willing to give up 10 periods for 2+2=5, but still see the importance of their students learning about and experiencing what teamwork is about.

Chris LoDolce

I know you the readers are probably getting tired annoyed by instances of racism at Bentley but, another case of overt racism has captured my attention.  On Saturday afternoon I was returning from work and headed down to Seasons dinning hall for lunch.  Upon my arrival I sat with my fellow CAP classmates two of which are in my Expository writing class.  Once I was seated, they brought to my attention a vandalized card which advertised a relief effort which Bentley would be holding Monday night.  The fundraiser called “Up till dawn” is a relief effort which Bentley has put together to help end world hunger.  The card had originally stated, “Come support us in the Back Bay.”  However the card had been desecrated and read, “Come support the black boy.”  Some one had also tarnished the image of the little black boy who was on the front of the card.

            My classmates were shocked because I did not seem to be incredibly angered by the card.  Don’t get me wrong, I was angry and upset, but for some reason they thought that I would over react on go into a tirade.  This wasn’t the case.  For some reason I feel that I and the majority of my minority class mates have become immune to racism on this campus.  We see it on a daily basis and consistently discuss it in class, where we go on to hear more racist comments.  To some extent I think that we as minorities have given up on the civil rights movement and are allowing these actions to continue.  I know I don’t have the answers, but hopefully this will trigger someone into finding one.  If one does find the answer, please let others and myself know because we desperately need one.

Hello World, Chesterbrook amazing as usual

This week at Chesterbrook, the children were anxious and rowdy as usual, anticipating our arrival so they could unleash all the stress they acquired throughout the week from teachers, parents, classmates, and all the other pressures of being a kid.  Once again we did our best to alleviate the children of this stress.  This week we played musical chairs with the children.  Although this activity may seem childish and unoriginal but, it worked wonders with the children.  Every child no matter how “cool” or “popular” they were participated in this activity.  The children gave us their full attention while still managing to enjoy themselves.  We played several rounds of the game with the children, and even the volunteer’s who were not part of the 2+2=5 program participated in the activity as well.  Even the lady who runs the Chesterbrook after school program joined in on the action.  This was truly a remarkable session which I did not see coming. Hopefully, fun filled activities such as this one will continue into further sessions.