Siena week 4

This week went fairly well at the ol' Underground Railroad History Project. I worked at Siena a few days doing work that requires computers. Not too much happened but I did discover Price Chopper, which is basically a combination store and restaurant type place. On Friday, two kids, probably elementary age named Javier and Jamon walked by the site and decided to check out our gardens. So my partner Emily showed them around and let them try mulberries from the tree and we let them see the house. We invited them to come back the next day cause we were having a work day to improve the grounds and gardens. They seemed like good kids and they appeared interested in more than just the berries so that was good. They also said they would come back the next day to help out.
On Saturday, we got to the site around 12-or on time. Emily brought her friend Devon who helped out so that was good. We got some good work done but the kids didn't show up. At least not at first. Eventually we went down the street to use the bathroom, because there isn't one at the site. We found Javier and Jamon on the street playing with a toy. We asked them why they didn't come and they didn't really give an answer but when we got back they showed up a few minutes later. We fed them bananas and donuts and they helped us water plants and do some weeding and other tasks. I liked working with them and they seemed to enjoy working at the site, so hopefully they will be back to hang out with us some more this summer. Not really a super interesting week in the middle but it had its highlights. Enjoy your weeks!

Week 2

This week was my second week working with the students in the VPK program at Starke Elementary. This has been an exciting week! We got a few more students in the class so now we have twenty students total. The students’ personalities have begun to show even more. This is great for some of the kids who now are more comfortable and willing to speak more and answer questions. However, for some this means that they are trying to push boundaries and test us to see how much they can get away with. Having volunteers helps the teachers out a lot with these students. I can handle the disruptive students while the teachers are teaching so that they do not have to stop the lesson and lose the rest of the class’ attention. I also have been able to help with testing the students so that we can see what they already know and what they need to learn before the fall. I have been able to connect with the teachers and students and form relationships with them, making this a great experience so far.

This week I also had the opportunity to teach a math lesson! I was very excited to get to do this since it has been a while since I have taught a lesson to a whole class of students. I taught them about sorting and grouping objects based on color and shape. The students grasped this concept with the different activities that we did, however it ended up being more difficult to teach them than I anticipated. The first problem was that I lost my voice that day. I was still able to teach, but I was not as loud as I needed to be and I was a little more worn out than usual. I also have never taught students this young before, this past year I taught third and fourth graders who are a lot different than the kids in Pre-K. I had to constantly stop what I was teaching to remind that their voices should be quiet, their bodies should be still, they should be sitting “crisscross applesauce,” and their ears should be listening.  During the lesson and afterwards I was a little discouraged that the lesson did not go quite as planned. But after really thinking about it I realized that even when the teachers teach they have the same problems as I did and they have been teaching for over 20 years. I learned a lot from this lesson and am excited to teach them again soon!

Summer of Service: Week 2

One of the many amazing people I have met at the Boys & Girls Club is Ms. Joy. She just recently joined the staff at the club and is already making huge impact with the kids. She excels with settling disputes between kids and making sure that all of the kids are simultaneously behaving and enjoying themselves. She enjoys playing games with the kids, especially basketball and brings many games and toys for the kids to play with from her home including a jump rope, which all of the girls would play with every moment of the day if they were allowed.

Ms. Joy never gets bored of coming up with new ideas to make the kids’ summers more fun and to improve the Springhill Boys & Girls Club as a whole. She has encouraged the kids at the Boys & Girls club to participate in group dance sessions. Just this past week Ms. Joy implemented a “Summer Olympics” competition for all of the kids to participate in at the beginning and end of the summer.

As her name suggests, the positive and upbeat attitude that Ms. Joy brings to the Spring Boys & Girls Club stems from her children and her own passion. Ms. Joy has three children, all of which attend the Boys & Girls Club. Part of the reason why she goes out of her way to make the kids’ summers for fun and exciting is so that her own kids have a great summer. Ms. Joy’s own passion for helping the kids succeed is another source of her positive attitude towards the club. She is always striving to help the kids improve in everything from their basketball  skills to the way they got along with each other while playing tag. She incorporates the activities that she loves with the Boys & Girls Club so that it is a more fun exciting places for both herself and the children.

Summer of Service: Week1

Hi Everyone! My Summer of Service is at the Brighthouse Spring Hill Boys & Girls Club of Volusia County. During the school year I volunteer with the Boys & Girls Club through Kilometer Kids. At Kilometer Kids I often work with the middle age group of children often ranging from third to fifth grade showing them the importance of living a healthy life through an active lifestyle. This summer I will be working with the children from every age group as a mentor and supervisor for the kids.

'The main difference between service and volunteering is the amount of work and dedication each requires. Volunteering tends to be the easier of the two and only requires you to go through the motions. Passion for your volunteering is what creates service. Service demands active engagement and requires you to understand the problems that face your volunteer site and find ways to best alleviate these problems.

In high school I couldn’t tell the difference between service and volunteering. Through Kilometer Kids I was able to combine my passion for running and health making service through Kilometer Kids come naturally. One of my challenges for this summer will be for me to find renew my passion for the Boys & Girls Club. I hope to find new ways to combine my passions with the wonderful kids at the club and thus to service my community.

Bonner SOS- Week 3

Happy Friday everyone! Well it's hard to believe that another week of camp has gone by already! The third week was pretty successful and we had lots of new faces, especially when it came to the 6-7 year olds! Each morning, I helped my supervisor Jackie with parent sign in/sign outs for an hour, and then I assisted in the preschool camp, followed by the adventure camp designed for the older kids! This week, in the preschool camp we had lots of fun with storytime and of course the Play-Doh! We took the kids outside and even had a watermelon day at the end of the week! For adventure camp, we played various outside games, and did lots of crafts like making trophies, painting on a paper canvas, and using paint squirt guns! For our weekly field trip, we took the kids bowling at our local Countryside Lanes! For our fun themed Friday, we had the East Lake Fire Department come in to talk about fire safety, a funny clown, and the Chic-fil-a cow all while the kids had Chic-fil-a for lunch!  The theme today was Sports so we had the kids wear their favorite sports attire, and of course I represented the Hatters! All in all, this third week was a lot of fun, and makes me look forward to the 4th week!
Hope everyone has a great weekend and is enjoying their service sites! :)

Summer of Service - Week 4 (last week in VA:()

This sure did pass by fast. I am here in Brazil, writing about my week four in Virginia. I will write on my week 5 about my work here in Brazil, because I really believe that my work in Virginia deserves a post of itselfJ So, I am sorry if this post is longer than what I would like it to be, but I would like to share with you guys a bit of the letter I sent out to people, inviting them to host students. I know it might be long, but it truly means a lot to me, because it was only because of this program that I am here today.

I ended up placing three kids, and though I thought it was little, Becky said she couldn’t thank me enough. It is so hard to get people interested in hosting, and three kids was a great help! I felt extremely accomplished, because I understood by doing so how hard her job is, and she does it because she loves what she does – it’s a volunteer job anyways.

I understand that people may have some concerns to host someone, because it’s a stranger that will be living with you, and your family. So yes, it is a big step and it is understandable. Though, it is quite sad, because not everyone is open-minded, which means they won’t be able to experience such an amazing thing that is to have someone from another country living with you (my host family said so:P)

Now I see (I had seen before, but the older I get, the better I see) how fortunate I was to have a host family like mine. They are the best people in the world. They don’t see me as their Brazilian student, or just as a person that lived there for the year. They see me as their third daughter and that is what I am for the whole family (including the Australian side of the family). I am not called the Brazilian student, by I am called “sister”, “daughter”, “niece”. They are my “safe haven” here in the United States and I am forever thankful to my parents, because they are the ones who had the idea in the first place.

So, this was the end of my work here in Virginia! I am so appreciative of the opportunity Becky has given me. I really learned so much from all of this. I always knew Becky’s job wasn’t easy, but by being there and helping her, I really did see it is so hard to be able to place a child, as well as oversee the student while they are studying abroad. I am so so thankful to have Becky in my life. You know, to some, she is a just a coordinator, someone who is there to help you if you mess something up with school or your family. To me, Becky was (when I was there) and still is so much more. She is truly someone so special to me, and I hold her dearly in my heart. Becky is present in many of my happiest memories; she would take me and my friend Camila to her beach houses, she would always invite us to do something fun, she really didn’t treat us as exchange students, but kind of as daughters, even though I didn’t live with her, and Camila didn’t either (Camila lived with Becky’s mom, though)

Becky shared some stories and I thought I should share a little bit with you guys. So, she is retired and she has been doing hosting and being a local coordinator for many, many years now. I didn’t believe, but the amount of responsibility she has is HUGE. Legit. She has many children she has to “oversee”, and boy, that’s so much! But she is such an incredible person, for example, when I went, my first host family “kicked me out” because they were tired of having someone in their house. I was “homeless” for 2 weeks. Becky went to pick me up – I didn’t even know her, except from exchanging emails – and she took me to her mother’s house – who is now my mema, hahaha. Two weeks later she found my AMAZING host family. But just for you guys to see how amazing this woman is, she later on took in my Brazilian friend (Camila, the one mentioned above), because her host family too didn’t want to have her – because her English wasn’t good and they didn’t have the patience to try with her. Becky took her into her own house for a couple of months and then my friend went on to live with Becky’s mother. They took us to the beach, they took us out, we had sleepover, we went trick or treating…. It was such an amazing, amazing year.

Mema and I:)

This service site really helped me see things that I couldn’t see before. I loved that I was able to work hands on with something that I had gone through and I feel so awesome about it! It is hard to explain, but it was a huge deal to me, because I know how it is to go through the whole experience, and being “behind the scenes” felt actually indescribable. It also helped me see that I might be interested in doing something like that in the future, or at least apply for an internship at CIEE.

So guys… maybe when you guys are older and married, HOST SOMEONE WAHOOO!!!! Who knows, maybe you guys will find someone that like me, will after an amazing experience, pursue their dreams abroad!

(my amazing family and I) - such an old picture, loll

Hope you’re having a great summer guys!

Ps.: like their facebook page!! Facebook.com/cieerva J

(very true statement)

SOS 2

One of things that supports Family Renew are donations,  and after clean and rearranging I saw my work fall to pieces, because donations replaced the spaces I cleaned. Although I wanted to be mad this time I was not, but I understood that donations are the life of Family Renew. This week started off much like last week, but the difference is that I seem to enjoy the work I was doing. This week I got the opportunity of doing real office things like answering the phone, doing paperwork, and filing out reports. One of the things the shocked me is the amount of paperwork and documentation that is require for each family. The highlight of my week is when one of the little boys tried to get me to eat his nose picking, wait that is not a highlight but it was funny.

Some of the problems that we face as a community is homelessness, and the reason why families become homeless are for many reasons. Two of the most common reasons I think that causes people to be homeless is a lack of knowledge or education. A lot of people have a hard time managing the resources they are given, which makes it hard for individual or families to thrive. Second, is a lack of opportunity for well- paying jobs; the income inequity in this country causes people to be homeless, and when a family can’t make enough money than that is when poverty and homeless becomes destiny.  

SOS 1

My first week at Family Renew went well, but I honestly did not know how much it takes to run and maintain an office.  The two ladies at FRC are sweet most of the time and can be a lot of fun. My first job was cleaning out and rearranging the office, and this task has not been the most enjoyable task. I do understand that someone has to keep the office looking clean, because if not it would be a mess.  By the end of the week, I was sore in unthinkable places. But my reward came when the office looked like office for once.
This week has been long, but I can say I learned something in moving all those boxes. Services does not always involve fun or enjoyment, but by doing the small things it takes the weight off  the ones in charge. With that thought, I do not mind moving boxes.  I think the difference between volunteering is that those people normal do things that they consider fun, and commit to solving short term problems. 
Selfless services often demand a person to go deeper, and take their voluntarism to a level that involves during tasks and jobs that few people want to do. To be a service to the community is to put their needs ahead of your own ideas and feelings, and try to help the community in the best way possible . 

Week 2: Problems in Paradise

Recently we’ve been having an issue about who our volunteers take advice from when it comes to the work at the rescue. Usually our On-Site Manager, EJ, holds the torch and tells us what needs to be done around the place and possible projects we can do. Since the rescue is half home and half shelter our manager lives there along with any other acquaintance that needs a place to stay for a while. The person who is staying for a while has been a great help in the beginning, but has turned into a thorn in our side.

Even though they volunteer and help at the rescue they begin to presume that they are more knowledgeable than us about our own service site even when we have been working there for a year now. This is the type of behavior that drives people who want to help away. It does not matter how old you are or anything before you came to the service site. It is bad practice to come onto a site and assume what they need and proceed to do that project without consulting anyone else.

For example when me and the other volunteers are on site we know that we need to let out dogs, feed them, clean their crates, provide them fresh water, and continue their training. After we finish these basic chores we continue to add improvements around the place and provide extra help. This of course all runs by EJ first.

One thing that bothers me a lot is how much this person causes strife from within the group. They act kind and thoughtful, but they have just been nasty behind our backs and criticizing us to the Manager and everyone else who has an ear. This kind of behavior is childish and reminds me why I’m happy that high school ended.

Even though I want to strangle this person with the unnecessary drama they create.

I need to remember that I’m not in charge of the rescue and that I'm an adult. My job is to make sure the job that is put in front of us is complete and that the other volunteers are safe and serving their community in a productive environment. So everytime I have to come in contact with this person I button my lip and try to be civil.

We have all told our manager about the problem this person is causing and he will have a talk to them about who is in charge and to give us volunteers a little more respect than they have shown. I do not want someone that causes so much negative energy in a place that is usually so positive and fun to work at. Hopefully after this talk everything can go back to normal because know one comes into my site and talks smack about my babies!

Aniarka out!

Week 1: Serving VS Volunteering

Service to me is making a focused impact to a community. Volunteering is how you impact the community. Coming out of highschool I volunteered. To make it clear I was not yet serving my community, I was focused on getting my hours and helping as many people as possible. It felt cold and almost mechanical when I think about it. The moment I realised the difference between these two words was when I joined the Bonner Program and I have to say getting the chance to serve my community has helped me mature and grow.

Well I grew more in experience, the maturity on the other hand….

Don’t get me wrong, I love when people come to lend a hand and volunteer on my service site. When I think about it I like to think that it is a two tiered system. To first get into the spectrum of service you would have to be passionate about it first. If someone asks you to go with them to volunteer at a school or a shelter you would probably say yes to help that fixed point, but are you passionate about it? When I go off to work at the Border Collie Rescue I get excited because I love working with the dogs and making a difference in their future owner’s life. Be it if the dog becomes service or not.   

Thanks to the experience I became a leader, a mentor, and most importantly an asset to my service site and community. The responsibility that was thrust upon me gave me a chance to rise to the occasion and I thank everyone who gave me an opportunity to work with them and show them what I’m made of.

This is me signing off but before I go.

Hey Community, I think you’ve been served!   

Jajajajajajaja….I’m not funny.

Week 6, Last Week at HUM

I can't believe that my time at HUM is already over! I’m going to miss my site so much; but I am really glad to have some time off. While my role as marketing intern did not play out as I had anticipated, I am so glad that I was able to work both with food pantry and marketing activities.

I truly have learned way more than I ever thought I would. I learned more about the prevalence of homelessness in Volusia County as well as the politics surrounding it; I learned the finer points of Excel, the proper manner in which to answer phones, and how to make a sales pitch to businesses. I also realized that I really love working with non-profits; as of right now, non-profit work is definitely in my future.

As for PAL, games have finally started and everything is going well. The season goes through the end of July, so I’ll still be busy with basketball for the rest of my summer of service.

Anyway, it’s been so awesome working at HUM and I will definitely be back there in the future. I look forward to bringing my newfound knowledge to the Neighborhood Center and Bonner in the fall. Enjoy your summers and your summers of services!

Siena week 3

So this third week of my summer of service was somewhat interesting. On Monday and Tuesday, my usual ride to work was still indisposed, but my site coordinator was on campus for training both days so that worked in my favor. On Wednesday, I was able to return to my original form of transportation and I turned 20. So I guess I'm old now. I also went to a Whole Foods for first time ever. On Thursday I went to North Albany Academy elementary school for a presentation that my site supervisor and her husband were doing on the Underground Railroad. That night I had the best burger I've had in quite some time and then I went to a board meeting for the Underground Railroad History Project. The board meeting made me realize  how legit the organization is instead of just being a group of random people trying to do something worthwhile. On Friday I went on a walking tour of the area of Albany around my site and attended a meeting of the African American History project.

Over the weekend, neither of my room mates was here so I didn't sleep and I had access to a car. On Sunday I went to my site and met some of the Young Abolitionists- a group of local teens who take an interest in the history of the Underground Railroad and the 19th century in general. 

SoS Week 5 - Pinterest is Awesome

Pinterest has helped me with my tutoring. It has provided me with so many neat activities as well as worksheets to do with the kids. It has proven to be difficult working with the girl and her brother because although they will both be in first grade next year, he is ahead of her when it comes to processing information. She gets really frustrated when he is able to think of an answer before she does and she starts to cry or she just shuts down. I am currently thinking of way that I can work with both of them at the same time but not have her feel as if he is smarter than her. I also came up with a reading log idea. Each sibling has a folder and the front has a bar graph that says "Look At How Many Books I Can Read." Each time they read a book, they have to write the title, the author, and whether it is nonfiction or fiction in a reading log. Then, I write questions for them to answer about the book. This requires them to look in the text for evidence. Once they read the book to me without making any mistakes and answer the questions in complete sentences, they then are able to color in one square on their bar graph. Once they color in 10 squares, they get to go to the Dollar Tree and get whatever they want. The kids love the idea and it does not take a toll on my pockets. Luckily, the teachers gave me bags and bags of books so they have a lot to read. Just 30 minutes a day improves their reading and with the Dollar Tree incentive, they read a lot more.

SoS Week 4 - Last Week of School

So this week was the last week of school and boy was it hectic. I found out that two of the teachers who I volunteer for are moving to two different schools and the third teacher is moving down to work with the VPK program. It was very sad knowing that it would be my last week in their classrooms. Since they are all moving, they each had to empty out their classrooms (here's where I come in). On top of helping the kids, I also helped the teachers empty out closets, clean off shelves, and take things down from the wall. There wasn't much teaching going on this week. It was mainly educational board games. Also, Starke was determined to be an F school which created a lot of buzz in the news. School board members and clergymen (I'm not sure what this means) say that they are "here to help" but the thing is they are not actually "here." Being "here to help" means being in the classrooms, helping the children, and seeing exactly what the issues are. Hopefully this new principal can get Starke on the right track.

It was really fun volunteering at Starke this year and I wish that I could have been there more but education comes first. Next year I'm going to be in two new classrooms. I know the teachers but I have never worked in their classrooms before so this should be interesting. My next SoS site involves working with some siblings that I have gotten close to. There is this student who I started working with last year when she was in kindergarten. This year, I asked her mom if I could tutor the girl, the 5 year old brother, and the 10 year old brother after school. She agreed and ever since then I have gotten to really know the family. Unfortunately, the girl is being held back in first grade next year and so my mission this summer is to make sure that they do not forget what they learned this year and are ready for next school year.

Hello again my fellow Bonners! This second week of summer camp at the Y was so much fun! It was a little crazy, but still a blast! This week, we definitely had more campers than the last week, and I'm sure we had well over 100 kids! On Monday, I switched from adventure camp to the Learning and Growing Camp which is designed for children 3-5 years old. They were very cute kids, but a lot of them had seperation anxiety once their parents left! I was fortunate to have been able to work with the preschoolers because that is the age group I plan on working with once I become a teacher! The  Learning and Growing camp is  3 days a week, and me and the other volunteers along with our main supervisor always have fun activities planned! We always create a theme for each day, and a fun activity to go along with it! We have done great things like make crazy glue creations, make mud out of chocolate pudding, and have an ice cream day! We also get the kids active by taking them outside by the pool to play, and of course story time as well! On Monday, my supervisor needed me to create new files for all the new camp sign ups, and boy was there a lot of new people! For adventure camp, we did a lot of outside activities as well as create fun art activities such as making slime! I'm excited about camp next week, because I can't wait to see what new themes my supervisor has planned, and the what field trip the Y will be going on this coming Wednesday!

Till next time, my Bonners! :)

Siena week 2

The second week of my Siena experience was a bit more arduous than the first but it wasn't too bad. The first half was pretty normal- went to my site to work on either the gardens or doing office type work. Though the internet hook up at the site is a little weird so working on computers can be difficult. On Thursday, disaster struck...kinda. My partner had been giving me rides to work and her car died. So that put a dent in our work schedule. Luckily it was at the end of the week so it  was at the very least well timed. We just worked from our perspective homes doing office type work and it turned out to be a a productive couple of days and weekend. Spoiler alert for next week:  The car got fixed. Over the weekend I believe my friends and I went out and explored Albany. We saw Washington Park which was beautiful. The capital of the state of New York was impressive and an art festival on Lark street called Art on Lark turned out to be quite the cool little shindig. There was art made of tension set forks and  everyone was super excited about those. I also some throwback toys like little green army men and beanie babies. It was cool to go out and explore the city we are serving Anyways, I hope that all other summers of service are going well or summers in general.

Siena Summer of Service

Hello there

My first week was a bit different than the rest of the Sienaians. Due to a mix up with the Albany public transportation system, I did not make it to my site on the first day. But when I did make it, things were fine and now I'm doing well there. I am working with the Underground Railroad History Project of the Capital Region. On my first day I explored my site and finally met my site coordinator. I am doing a lot of work at the Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence which is a 3 story building with a full basement that's being held up with a lot of scaffolding. There is debris everywhere and there is no lighting so exploring that place was just oodles of fun! But also completely safe. I am going to be a leader type person working with a group of teens in July and until then my partner and I are creating curriculum for those teens. On Tuesday we did some marketing work. Specifically we made fliers for an event and put them up around town.   We had our first class on Wednesday. It was very interactive and didn't have much lecturing so that wasn't too bad. Thursday and Friday were days to work on our curriculum and the presentation we have to do. First week- not bad.

Week 2 Siena Service Scholars

Week two at AUMS began with more orientation and introductions to the operational side of the program. My supervisor, Elaina, and her director, Peter, explained the traditional methods they have employed in the past when developing the camp and the other ways they serve the community, including their food pantry and GED (now called High School Equivalency) services.

I am working with our dear own Larry and a Siena student named Maura to revamp the camp programming and add some new exciting elements for the kids. We have decided that as fun as their previous methods were, they lack truly engaging and enriching content. To shore up these areas of focus, we will be creating themed camp weeks, centered around activities and lessons that relate to various topics, ranging from multiculturalism to what makes up a hero. We will also be incorporating a greater concentration on reading, something mostly neglected in the past.

These changes have been met with open arms, and we are all looking forward to implementing them in July. We also had our first session of the "class" that the Siena program's head, Dr. Ruth Kassel, will be teaching us over the summer. It appears that we will be learning about prominent sociological theories in the realm of community organizing as well as skills in professional development.

Week 1 Siena Service Scholar

Our first week began with a night of social interaction over some delicious pizza in the ACE Office, the Siena equivalent of the CCE. It was interesting to meet all of the different members of the program and discover that those of us from Stetson were some of the few who did not come from the immediate area outside of the college.

The next two days were focused on orienteering us to the nature of the program and introducing us to the community partners we would be working with over the next two months. We played a rather interesting game wherein two groups behaved as though members of two entirely different cultures which sent diplomats over the borders to experience culture shock. The result was some hilarious interactions that underlined the type of culture shock we may experience in the coming days. After our explorations, we were given our assignments and let loose.

My first day at the Albany United Methodist Society (AUMS) was focused on touring the West Hill community it is located in and discussing the various assets found in the area. Afterwards, we talked about the impact these things could have on the residents of West Hill and what they could teach us. The following day was spent going over my tasks for the summer, which mainly focus on developing the programming for the annual youth camp AUMS holds. This, alongside supervising the high school age youth leaders of the camp, will be the bulk of my work here in Albany.

The first week seemed to move by in a blur, but I am excited to really get into our work efforts here and build up to the camp starting in July!

Week 1

            This week was my first week volunteering at Starke Elementary for the summer. I am working with the Voluntary Pre-K program (VPK). The students are four and five years old and are entering kindergarten in the Deland elementary schools in the fall. It was great to be back in the classroom after about a month off. The students are wonderful and full of energy, which can be a little exhausting at times.  There are about 18 students in the class (we are hoping that a few more show up next week) who have a wide range of social and academic abilities. Some of the students do not know any English, some students have never been away from their parents before, and some already know the letter sounds and can do simple addition.  The majority of the students are still getting used to the classroom setting- having to listen to the teachers and not being able to do whatever they want whenever they want.

Right now our main goal is to get the students used to being in a school setting. The students have had a lot of time to play and interact with each other and the teachers. Staring next week more academic skills will be focused on, such as learning the sounds of the letters, how to write letters and their names, and basic math skills (counting, patterns, shapes, etc.). During this first week we were focused on allowing the students to adjust. A few of the students cried on the first day (one cried all day for the first two or three days- I felt so bad for her!) because they missed their parents, but by the end of the week only one child got upset during the day.  The students are also starting to become comfortable with each other and becoming friends. One of our little boys LOVES to play in the housekeeping area; yesterday he brought a Snow White costume to wear while playing. It was amazing to see his interactions with the other students during that time. One little boy declared that he was “Snow White’s” prince charming and was very protective and sweet. This was a change in character from that child who had been misbehaving and acting very angry and aggressive earlier in the day. The other students also joined in becoming other princesses and acting out many different scenes from Disney movies. It was great to see the students interacting like this without any adults influencing them. I’m excited to see how the children develop and change throughout the summer both academically and socially!