A Set of Skills

One of the primary skills I’ve learned from my experience at the Border Collie Rescue has been patience. Even though I do service and greatly respect the people I work with, there comes a time when you have to resist the primal urge to strangle someone.

This is a big No No.

Everyone has their own personalities and their own faults. For example, one certain person is a very good worker, but they tend to let negative things cling to them like velcro and they do not let you forget about the event all of the time. Another skill I developed has been snapping people out of it and getting them back to work. Someone times I just know a rant is about to unfold and I honestly I’m having a good day and do not want them to continue talking about the event or person for an hour so I stop it dead in its tracks.

I need to keep a positive mind and learn to let go of things in order to move forward.

Something that I also learned was putting full trust in others. I was that one kid that practically had a panic attack when the teacher forced group assignments on me and some other students and ever since then I’ve been wary about trusting others. After my last year and witnessing the great work that Abby and Josh have done I’ve just learned, from them, to trust. From what I've seen those two can run the place with their eyes closed.   

My three years at the rescue has made me learn skills that help me become a well rounded person and effective leader. This is my post signing off.  

Week 6 - And then there was 1

So on Sunday 3 of the kids went to spend some time with their dad in Palatka but Jasmin decided to stay with me. There are 5 kids but the younger brother stays with a neighbor during the day so it was just Jasmin and me this week. Having only 1 child to tutor is a lot easier especially since she requires a lot more attention. . Her dad bought her a tablet and I downloaded a few educational apps on it. In the morning, after breakfast, she has to do at least an hour of math. One app that I downloaded has all the first grade math standards mixed together so she tells time, counts money, determines patterns, learns about shapes, and adds and subtracts all in the one app. In the afternoon, she has to read. On Monday I took her to the library to check out 5 books. She has to read at least one book in the afternoon and also has to read it before she goes to sleep. I can definitely notice her speed increasing when she reads but she still guesses on a lot of words. I have one more week until I go home and that means 1 week to work with her until school starts.

Preparing for site visits!

After many, many emails and phone calls, quite a few site visits have been scheduled! I haven't managed to accidentally plan two at the same time yet, so it's been going well so far.

I'm also checking in with some sites on my own where I've volunteered recently, like the Light House Children's Museum, DeLeon Springs, and the Spring Hill Resource Center. I'm glad that I'll some site visits with Savannah and Heather first to really prepare me though! Site visit number one will be at the Early Learning Coalition. They aren't registered as a community partner through the office, so it will be exciting to go out and discuss what we can bring to the table.

In the meantime, I've been working on the Buddy Walk and other upcoming events for the fall semester. In fact, I was able to attend a webinar this week and learned more about how we can involve self-advocates into the walk. They had some great ideas from other Buddy Walks around the country, like having a talent show or a dance-off. I've also been helping out with what workshops we can begin to offer to community partners this year, and what those workshops will look like. We have it narrowed down to a specific set of skill areas, and now we just need to plan out how they'll take place and what community partners need most. 

Week Three

This week at Starke we learned a lot about some of our students and their backgrounds. The students at Starke have much different lives than I did when I was their age. Many of these students are concerned with where their next meal will come from, whether they will have the power or water turned off at their house tomorrow, and for some when they will see their parents next. All of these hardships that these children face influence their performance in school. I have seen so many cases of this throughout the years that I have volunteered at Starke and this summer is no exception.

           

One of our student’s mothers is only seventeen or eighteen years old. She struggles to get her child to school and when the child does show up he is often late. The child’s grandmother has been trying to help get him to school but she is trying to back off so the mother realizes it is her responsibility to get her child to school. Another student lived in a terrible environment for the first few years of his life, then he was placed in foster care, and now has been adopted by his foster family. He has many behavior problems due to his past. However, his parents are working closely with the teachers to try to help the student adjust his behavior to be classroom appropriate and recover from his past. These are just two examples of the many problems that our students are facing at home. We do everything that we can to help the students do well in school but until their parents support them academically there is only so much the teachers can do. The parents need to be communicating with the teachers, staying informed about their students’ performance in school, and making sure that their students are coming to school.

Summer of Service: Week 5

There is a great need to promote and foster a love of learning in areas of economic plight such as the Spring Hill area of DeLand which is home to the Brighthouse Boys & Girls Club. Since some of the best ways to develop a thirst for knowledge is through hand on experiences making this type of learning extremely valuable for the kids at the Boys & Girls Club.

Starting this week I began conducting experiments with the kids. We covered states of matter. First I gave a mini-lecture to the kids about the solids, liquids and gases and we discusses examples of things that changed phases such as water and popsicles (they go from its solid for to a sticky liquid mess).

The experiment is best described as semi-organized chaos. The kids had a great time. They added colored water to corn starch to make oobleck, a Dr. Seuss description of edible slime. Since I know of at least 7 kids that decided it was a good idea to eat the slime, I’m glad it was edible. Somehow the oobleck ended up on each and every crevice on the picnic tables we were using and great deal of it ended up on the ground. I’m so glad we were outside because we only had to grab a hose and the clean up only took a few minutes.

I would definitely consider Experiment #1 to be a success. All the kids that participated in the experiment were eager to bring the oobleck home. They were all bringing their friends over so that I could explain to them how to make the experiment at home. As soon as we finished the experiment the kids were already begging me to start another with them. I can’t wait for the next one!!!!

Summer of Service: Week 4

It’s so easy to get bored with your service site. I was definitely reaching the point where I was just going with the flow, everyday was beginning to feel like the last and I was just getting tired with service. This week definitely changed that.

This week something crazy happened. A boy band came to the Boys & Girls Club. It was like I had stepped into a time machine and gone straight to a concert for a 90s boys band during the era of NYSNC and the Backstreet Boys.

The boys from the band were all in 5th grade and younger. They were all wearing identical lilac dress shirts and vests and had names like “Ice” and “Little G”. At first all of the kids were more than a little hesitant about the boy band coming, but everything changed when the band started handing out roses to the girls in the crowd. The next thing the rest of the staff and I know we have over 50 screaming girls obsessively trying to swarm the five boys from the band. The girls spent the next two hours chasing “Ice” and the rest of the boys from the band around the auditorium and bragging about how they were going to date the boys in the band. I don’t really know who was more shocked: the staff who had to act as bodyguards for the boy band, the boys from the band or the poor boys at the club who didn’t know what they were in for and practically ran out of the room to get away from the screaming girls.
This week I also started volunteering at the Border Collies Rescue. It was a nice change of pace. Before this week I had never interacted with dogs very much. My family didn’t get a dog until I was already in college and it’s only a small terrier so it’s not much work. At BCR I let out dogs, cleaned dogs, and cleaned up after so many dogs. Ani’s dog CJ also dragged me around on an agility course.
My experiences this week have definitely reminded me of something important about service: that it’s so easy to just go with the flow. This past week was a huge reality check for me. It’s helped me to realize how important it is to go out of my way and be truly engaged in the community that I’m serving.

SOS 6

    This week is the halfway point of SOS, and I really happy about all the things I done and experienced thus far. Our administrative assistant didn't get a renewed contract and last week was her last week at FRC; she has done great work the 3 ½ years she has been at FRC. The program manager told me at the end of the week that I would do her job for the rest of the summer.  This made me happy because I will be more involved in some of the decision-making processes. My role as a volunteer will involve doing things like maintaining case files, answering the phone, starting housing inquiries, and in the future managing Stetson volunteers.  So far the life skills I learned have all been useful and life changing. I asked to change on of the resident’s car tire. I have seen a car tire changed before, but I never changed one myself. So the handyman that has been doing maintenance at FRC walked me through step by step. Another skill is keeping my word and not telling people I am going to do something, when I can’t do it or the task is a little much for my liking. I am trying to share my gifts with as many people as, but I don't want to give all my energy to one thing or to everything. Learning and living life the best I can, Bonner Love Y’all!