Alex Bednar

Weekly Project Journal- Week 13

1. Description. What happened in your project this week? What did you do? Experience?
This week the main thing I did involved teaching kids what to do in case of a fire and coordinating a coloring activity along with it which had a sheet of a man stop dropping and rolling. The other main event included a very rewarding activity which was started because of work that I did with the children prior. I have been working quite heavily with children on geography and teaching the children about other countries. My superiors and fellow co workers observed this and liked it and so they started formulating lesson plans that have the focus of teaching these children about other cultures which I think is great especially when this is done at the young age these kids are at which is from 3-6. Last Monday we taught the kids about Mexico, on Tuesday we taught the kids about Laos and more broadly Hmong culture, and on Wednesday the topic was South Africa. Every one of these sessions is started by teaching the kids where the country is on the globe (The globe was actually brought in when I mentioned that it would be a good idea) and then it is followed by a story which teaches the kids on the particular country that is on the globe. It makes me so happy that my co workers were able to help me incorporate this program into the curriculum. I think it will really benefit the children.

2. Interpretation. What did you learn from your project this week? About the project? About the issue? About yourself?

This week I learned the power of what an idea can do. I had an idea and it was implemented. The children love it and it benefits them and gives them great knowledge and it really gets at the heart of what Neighborhood House is trying to do which is to encourage cross cultural understanding which is not limited to dialogue between U.S. citizens and non U.S. citizens but is open to all cultural groups and though the program started by highlighting the culture of groups directly represented in the Neighborhood House community it is not constrained to that model. The goal of this form of lesson plan is to learn a wide variety of cultures and countries. To be sure the children learned about the Middle East this week and had a Camel project to complement it.
In short I learned about my ability to come up with an idea and implement it. I learned that one of the best ways to help children of disadvantaged economic situations is to help them with a simple educational model that children can valuably learn from and I learned that the issue of immigrant marginalization can be combated by simply caring about the intellectual future of children and having a small idea to back up that concern.

3. Evaluation. How would you evaluate your work on the project this week? What grade would you give yourself? Are you accomplishing the objectives of the project? Your personal objectives?

This week I give myself an A because I came up with a plan to help children become as knowledgeable as they can about world issues at their age and it worked. I have every reason to conclude that the lesson plan that I devised with the help of my co workers and superiors improved the knowledge of the children especially since the same children have come back the next week reciting everything they have learned. As I reach the last week of my service I am overjoyed that I have accomplished my personal objectives of helping, in some small way, to improve the lives of those immigrant children that I work with. I am also successfully accomplishing my goal of fighting immigrant marginalization by helping immigrant children learn about the cultures of each other and about the culture of others. Knowledge like this is crucial for children to work with people later in life especially in this increasingly globalized world.

Weekly Project Journal- Week 14

1. Description. What happened in your project this week? What did you do? Experience?

This week I worked with the kids on two art projects where the goal was to learn how to successfully work with several colors in a picture at a time and even to mix them. One of the particular projects we did involved putting paint globs in the middle of a paper lined up vertically and then folding the paper vertically through the middle and slowly smearing the paint. The result tended to be the creation of multi colored butterflies most often. The rest of the time I continued to work with the children on their geography and I read to them several books. I read some Dr. Seuss books which are good for kids to learn how to pronounce and spell words that look and sound similar to one another. I then read them a book about the culture of South Africa, the goal being to ultimately educate kids about the value to be gained in treating all people from different backgrounds with respect and understanding. I then read an additional book that went along the same lines only that book dealt with a Japanese girl who had just moved to a town in America and was afraid to come out of her house because of the sheer unfamiliarity of the place and because she did not have many material possessions to give to the children next door who she saw always trading presents with each other. The end of the story culminated in the friendship of the neighbors with the girl when they assured her that they did not care if she had nothing to give them. Again I think the ultimate message of the book which is to be kind, respectful, and compassionate towards others was good, though I did think the book which was recently written was seriously out of date with Japanese society given that most Japanese citizens live quite well, have high standards of living, and are far from poor in terms of sheer quality of life and I am always cautious about teaching books that seem to make the arrogant assumption that every other country is poor except for America because I know first hand that that is not true in the least bit. The last book I read to the kids involved a young bear who was afraid of taking the walk through the pond and the woods to get to his school without his mom. His mom encouraged him when he brought up his fears about the long walk and eventually he was ready for school. The book was quite good for the kids on many levels because it taught them memorization, directions, and ultimately is preparing the children with the point at which the kids will take the bus to school without their parents. A last book that I read this week pictured animals in their natural habitats and then had another page next to it which had windows which could be opened that pictured an animal in them and the task was for the children to identify where those animals were on the page next to it. This was ultimately a good exercise for the kids in identification.

2. Interpretation. What did you learn from your project this week? About the project? About the issue? About yourself?

This week I learned from my project how important it is in the education of these children to teach them moral lessons in tandem with purely intellectual lessons. In order to combat the issue immigrant marginalization, the children do not only have to be intelligent and studious they have to learn how to be good citizens and to act ethically with others. The readings this week taught them how to do this by teaching the kids how to respect others. It was this lesson that I learned through my project this week that ultimately improved my view of the issue itself.
This week I learned that I have the ability to affect the education and moral outcomes of many of these children and I am grateful to have that opportunity through this project because if just one of the children that I have worked with has a decent future ahead of them I can feel a sense of accomplishment in relation to the issue of immigrant marginalization.

3. Evaluation. How would you evaluate your work on the project this week? What grade would you give yourself? Are you accomplishing the objectives of the project? Your personal objectives?

This week I give myself an A- because I gained a heightened understanding of my role at neighborhood House and that understanding helped me place my accomplishments in perspective. I think if I can help these children form a moral compass and some root intellectual faculties then I have accomplished my personal objectives of helping these children lead a better life as well as my project objectives of combating immigrant marginalization.

Weekly Project Journal- Week 13

1. Description. What happened in your project this week? What did you do? Experience?

In my project this week we taught the children how to mix blue and yellow to get green, red and yellow to get orange, and red and blue to get purple. The other project we worked on was to teach the children about camels. They learned that camels have humps in which they store water, an attribute that they need, as we told the children, because they live in the desserts of Egypt, North Africa, and the Middle East. We then worked with them on a camel project where they glued a camel and baby camel cut out onto paper and painted the ground with a gold paint that we got by mixing brown, yellow, white and a bit of green. I then successfully taught two of the kids the locations of 7 countries: Canada, U.S., Russia, China, India, Mexico, and Japan; information that they successfully retained. The reason one of the children learned Japan so successfully is that she has a teacher from Japan so in addition to teaching her where Japan was I taught her how to say hello in Japanese so that she could impress her teacher.
Again I experienced astonishment at how easily kids are able to learn and retain information and of course the child mind doesn't discriminate between rich and poor. All the children I have worked with are perfectly capable of really succeeding in life if they just are allowed to have the right access to a decent learning environment.

2. Interpretation. What did you learn from your project this week? About the project? About the issue? About yourself?

I learned yet again how quickly children can pick up information as long as someone takes the time to teach them and as long as they have access to the right education.
I couldn't help but think how much more ameliorated the issue of immigrant marginalization would be if Minnesota had an educational voucher system. It seems terribly unjust that children are more or less conscripted into the school that is in whatever district they happen to be born in and it seems terrible that poor children are essentially forced into the public schools of those areas because they don't have the money to spend on a private education after taxes. It seems only natural that people should be given vouchers to spend at the school that educates them best, leaving the schools with a poor educational system to fall out. Only in this way can immigrant children be assured the same good access to education that wealthier children have.
In regards to what I learn about myself through these experiences, I think I learn a great deal of how to teach and communicate with children and learn that I am actually good at it. I also learn more about the issue of immigrant marginalization and what works to combat it. I also learn and am always amazed by the ability of children to pick up information so quickly.

3. Evaluation. How would you evaluate your work on the project this week? What grade would you give yourself? Are you accomplishing the objectives of the project? Your personal objectives?

I give myself a B+. I have done the best I possibly can in this project. I have spread myself out in the organization taking on a variety of additional tasks in addition to the main task I had, and I have learned a fair amount about the issue and how to combat it. I also am accomplishing my personal objectives by trying and I think succeeding to make a difference in the lives of these children who will be able to learn a great deal of information going their respective school grades.

Weekly Project Journal- Week 12

1. Description. What happened in your project this week? What did you do? Experience?

These past two weeks I worked with the kids of Neighborhood House on a variety of different things. First we worked on a project of making elephants with the intent of teaching the children what the color gray is and how to make it. We taught them the story of the Little Red Hen and had them make a project on a sheet of paper detailing the story with the intent of teaching the children that benefits come only after one has worked hard. We also worked with the children on learning how to read a calendar and tell dates as well as how to write the letters of the alphabet. In addition we practiced a game with them where my co workers and I wrote the children's name on a paper card and asked them to find it thus working with them on their reading skills. This week I also read books from the tolerance series as a part of the lesson plan. As a result of all my work this week I gained a valuable experience of what kind of education can benefit the children of low income immigrants in the future and also what kind of educations is most likely not has helpful in that regard.

2. Interpretation. What did you learn from your project this week? About the project? About the issue? About yourself?

In the project this week I gained an understanding of just how intelligent the kids I work with are. Almost all the children caught on quickly in regards to all of the projects and activities we put before them. This tells me that the issue of immigrant marginalization can really be dealt with through giving children the right access to education because as long as they have that, they certainly will have the ability to make the best of that education.
In regards to myself I learned what educational techniques work best with kids and which educational techniques I would abstain from using.

3. Evaluation. How would you evaluate your work on the project this week? What grade would you give yourself? Are you accomplishing the objectives of the project? Your personal objectives?

I would evaluate my work on the project as a B. I am achieving my objectives in regards to what causes immigrant marginalization which I have already worked out through my interviews and I am accomplishing my personal objectives of making a positive difference in the lives of the kids I work with by giving them the best education I am able to give.

Weekly Project Journal

1. Description. What happened in your project this week? What did you do? Experience?

In my project this week I worked on Tuesday in the morning at the childcare center and Wednesday evening at the childcare center as usual. This week I taught children weather, shapes, and ABCs using flash cards. The latter two flashcards made associations with figures that start with a certain letter or figures that have the same shape as one of the shapes present in the flash cards. Through this association the children were able to learn fairly quickly. My colleagues and I also taught the children about different emotions through the use of pictures and to make sure they understood the concepts we had them do a project with plates drawing a happy face on one side and a sad face on the other. The children and I also worked on a puzzle of U.S. states which I thought would be a fun and encouraging way for children to learn geography. This week we also looked at the globe and the children learned were some important countries were and in the process worked on their reading skills. The easiest countries for them to learn were Russia, China, and India because of the sheer area that those countries covered.
I experienced what it was like to teach children the basic skills they need for a successful education and every time I work at neighborhood house I learn the importance of education in the lives of immigrant children and how vital it is that they get this kind of education to become successful members of U.S. society.

2. Interpretation. What did you learn from your project this week? About the project? About the issue? About yourself?

From this project I learned just how big of a role my work might play in the future lives of the children I work with. I left my work this week with a real sense of accomplishment that the children I work with might just have success in their future education because of the help I have given them in learning the fundamentals of a good education. I gained an enhanced appreciation for the role of educational childcare in combating immigrant marginalization and I gained an increased respect for the educational role I can play in the context of the issue of immigrant marginalization.

3. Evaluation. How would you evaluate your work on the project this week? What grade would you give yourself? Are you accomplishing the objectives of the project? Your personal objectives?

I would give myself an A because I am completely on track with my goals regarding understanding the issue, ameliorating the problem, and doing so in a timely manner. I have discovered an arrangement which will easily give me over 6 hrs of on time service a week which in tandem with my project essays should put me in a timely position for finishing the project on time while gaining a large understanding of the issue.

Weekly Project Journal

1. Description. What happened in your project this week? What did you do? Experience?

I started this week on Monday where I worked at childcare as usual and got my first experience at the food shelf.
This week at the child care services we got a new student, a girl from Mexico. I met her and I worked with her using flash cards that had Spanish words that correlated with pictures and I had her repeat and remember the English words that I said to these flash cards. She did well and I figure she learned probably 50 English words by the end of the session. After that I went to the food shelf where I worked with a man bagging Jasmine rice and putting it on the shelf and stocking the shelves with corn, beans, boo berry cereal, and various nutritious drinks. As I stocked the shelves I also watched people come in and take some of the foods we had stocked for their families.
This week marked my first experience at the food shelf and I finally got to experience and learn about how hunger affects immigrants in St. Paul.

2. Interpretation. What did you learn from your project this week? About the project? About the issue? About yourself?

This week I became more directly aware of hunger in the Twin Cities and thus saw immigrant marginalization from a new angle. In addition I learned that while there is a definite need for food in the Twin Cities, neighborhood house does a very good job of supplying it. They work with second harvest to make these food supplies possible and often the food is really first rate. It was so specified to individual culture's tastes that they even carried tamarind paste for Thai and Indian groups. I was overjoyed to get a wider view of the issue. I realized that I am capable of doing a fairly good job of running things at the food shelf and that I can also teach English fairly well.

3. Evaluation. How would you evaluate your work on the project this week? What grade would you give yourself? Are you accomplishing the objectives of the project? Your personal objectives?

I would evaluate my work as an A. I expanded my knowledge of the problem and added several hours of valuable experience doing so. I am accomplishing the objectives of the project and even expanding them by getting a very wide view of immigrant marginalization. My personal objectives are also being met as I am able to make peoples' lives better by giving a helping hand.

Weekly Project Journal

1. Description. What happened in your project this week? What did you do? Experience?

This week was the most writing intensive of all the weeks. I read books to the children as usual which included a rather bizarre African horror tale about a monster that eats farmer's livestock and people in general, but the main focus was writing. I taught one of the students how to write the western numeral system from about 1-10 she had the hardest time with the number 8. I also proceeded to interview several of the children's parents about what they felt was the most challenging part of integrating into American society. One man kept repeating Is cold, Is cold, Is so cold and when I asked him what bothered him most besides the weather he still repeated IS COLD. Others who had a bit more exposure to English said that the hardest thing was coming up with the proper papers to receive benefits like Social Security and Pensions.
I guess as a result I experienced valuable lessons in interviewing skills like not using large words when dealing with people who are learning English as a second language and I learned the easiest ways to teach children how to write numbers. I also learned that the primary problematic experiences that immigrants have trying to integrate into American society are often a result of government bureaucracy.

2. Interpretation. What did you learn from your project this week? About the project? About the issue? About yourself?

This week I learned the limits of my teaching abilities as even I got worn out trying to teach kinds number writing. I learned about the various struggles immigrants face in integrating into modern society through the use of survey and I felt for the first time how lucky I was to be in a city that places a high importance on helping immigrants and their children through private community based agencies.

3. Evaluation. How would you evaluate your work on the project this week? What grade would you give yourself? Are you accomplishing the objectives of the project? Your personal objectives?

I would evaluate my work as an A- because this week I managed to get in some great surveys and set up work opportunity on Mondays at the food shelf and as a result I will broaden my perspective on this agency and on immigrant marginalization as a whole. In working with the food shelf I will come closer to my professional and personal objectives of learning more broadly about immigrant marginalization by finding out about not only those who use the child care services but those who use the food shelf as well.

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Weekly Project Journal

1. Description. What happened in your project this week? What did you do? Experience?

In my project these past two weeks we were fortunate enough to get a globe for our classroom after I had hinted in a previous session that it would be nice to have a globe and so I got to teach the kids some geography. The class consists mostly of kids from Central and South America and so we started with countries like Mexico and Honduras, but to my surprise one of the kids wanted to know where Thailand was because he liked Thai food, so I taught him that and then we looked at Russia, China, and India (big countries that the kids could remember) and of course St. Paul Minnesota. I then proceeded to help one of the girls with her math homework. She had just been introduced to money and I was helping her with her addition and subtraction so that she could count it. I then read some books to the kids. One was about a snowball fight and the other was titled something like Chittie Chittie boom boom and was a way of teaching kids the alphabet by showing all the alphabets climing a coconut tree in order. It was a really interesting experience to teach kids all the things I worked on as a kid. I remember my first introduction to counting money and how tough it was for me initially and as a result it was quite nice to be able to teach other kids to count money. I experienced a real sense of accomplishment helping these kids with such important and rudimentary activities like geography and money.

2. Interpretation. What did you learn from your project this week? About the project? About the issue? About yourself?
From my project this week I learned how to best communicate with and teach kids the fundamental building blocks of an education and that I am capable of teaching children well, but more importantly I realized how smart these kids really are, they catch on quite quick and therefore the key to ameliorating many the hardships faced by poverty and immigrant marginalization has to be an approach that gives the children of poorer families the same decent education that the children of wealthy parents get because if this can happen then both can excel in school on equal terms and really benefit their lives in the process because a child with a good educational start can often end up with a good finish in a successful career. I also realized the power of being assertive. I suggested that it would be nice if the kids had a globe so that we could teach them geography and sure enough we got one.

3. Evaluation. How would you evaluate your work on the project this week? What grade would you give yourself? Are you accomplishing the objectives of the project? Your personal objectives?

I would give myself a B+ this week. I am really happy with the fact that I was able to diversify the learing experience to the benefit of the kids this week. The fact that I was able to help them with counting money and with geography two things I have not worked on with the kids before was great. I am accomplishing the objectives of the project which are to discover more about immigrant marginalization and how to ameliorate this problem by working with children, food drives, and toy drives. I am also trying to maybe pick up work on Mondays so that I can work with the food shelf or the Monday children center. My personal obectives are also being fulfilled. I am really greatful to have the experience of working with poor children in an academic setting. To have the ability to help these kids be on par with the rest of their class members who maybe have better opportunities and better economic situations is truly wonderful and who knows, maybe one of the kids will wind up quite successful in part because of the early education and study habits they learn at Neighborhood House.

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Weekly Project Journal

1. Description. What happened in your project this week? What did you do? Experience?

Over the break I engaged in quite a few activities with neighborhood house and I am also posting my first activity from when I started. Three of the four activities I engaged in over break were on site childcare, the forth was toy distribution in a joint collaboration between Neighborhood House and the St. Paul Optimist's Club. In the three on site activities I worked with the kids on homework which consisted of reading and having to fill in the blank with slips of paper that had printed words on them. We also worked on arts and crafts that reflected the time of season it was. I helped the kids make reindeer hats, snowy winter scenes on pieces on paper, paper Snowmen, and more recently random abstract water coloring. At the Optimist's event I got to work with good Samaritans from the Optimist's Club, Neighborhood House, and Best Buy to bring low income parents through a toy distribution center where they were able to pick out gifts, donated from Best Buy and Toys for Tots, for their children depending, of course, on how many children they had. The parents were allowed one major toy per child, 3 stocking stuffers per child, 1 book per child, and 1 stuffed animal per child. The toys were sectioned off by gender and age on different tables. My job was to wear a Santa Claus hat and take the parents through to pick out toys for their kids while holding a bag that they could put their toys in.
I have to say that all my experiences were quite fulfilling. I have never taken part in a toy distribution program and it felt good to be able to provide families with a happy holiday season. It felt even better to know that there were so many business groups, individuals, and private charitable establishments, like toys for tots, take such an active role in helping families enhance their Christmas and all by their own free will. The toys were actually quite good as well until we ran out. The girls got Dora dolls which are quite the hot items among young girls, the boys got soccer balls which are great gifts for Mexican boys (Soccer is really popular in Europe, Mexico, and South America) and from what I could tell these soccer balls were of good quality. There were also Barbie dolls for the girls and stuffed animals and teddy bears for all the kids that I think they would enjoy. The hardest age group to provide for was the 15-18 crowd, because at that point the tastes of individual teens are very divergent from one another. I think in general though there were game consoles for the boys and clothing and accessories for the girls. With this experience I realized for the first time the positive impact that one simple kind hearted deed can have, not just towards those in need, but towards the individuals providing the help. I can think of few experiences more rewarding for pride and self esteem than those that end in the realization that I can make a sizable difference in a few people's lives through one act. This was also true of my first experience at neighborhood house. There I helped kids with their homework, read stories to them, and shared information with them and realized the positive impact that I could have on a child's life and education.

2. Interpretation. What did you learn from your project this week? About the project? About the issue? About yourself?

I am slowly learning how to speak to children in a way that best helps them understand their homework and information in general and I am learning the real satisfaction that comes with helping to create a positive impact on the lives of others.
By seeing all the positive change that was made by the collaboration of a few organizations like Toys for Tots, Best Buy, The Optimist's Club, and Neighborhood house, I am learning that immigrant marginalization can be curbed in a real way by the positive initiative of concerned Samaritans despite its being an issue with a long history and a very widespread problem.
I learned that I myself have an ability to make an impact on children who are eager to learn and families who are impoverished and have few presents to give.

3. Evaluation. How would you evaluate your work on the project this week? What grade would you give yourself? Are you accomplishing the objectives of the project? Your personal objectives?

I would evaluate my work to be a B+ because I diversified the scope of the project and gained valuable knowledge about what it takes to curb immigrant marginalization as well as about my own ability to effect change. As a result I am accomplishing both my personal objectives of helping curb immigrant marginalization and helping people succeed while helping myself in the process and I am accomplishing my regular objectives of understanding immigrant marginalization.