Cesar and I have discussed transportation issues. We came up with having the students be from Highlands Elementary in order for them to be able to provide their own transportation. This way it would be less expensive for the program. I have been trying to get in contact with Highlands Elementary to see if they are willing to recommend some students for our program. We have put some thought into the insurance policy here in Chinquapin and what risks we are taking by establishing this program. We need to talk to Ray, to get a clear idea.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
It’s been…quite a while!
I haven’t posted anything since last semester and everything has gone fine since then. Since then, I have received an acceptance of the invitation, which I sent out during December, to most of my hopeful-panel members. Dana Lipinsky, Rob Christy, Betsy Phillips, Frank Duffy, and Molly Socha are now part of our team, in which we plan to receive assistance from each one in different ways.
Sometime last week, Cesar and I talk to Morris Nwogwuwu and Kathy Heinzerling about Breakthrough since they worked for that program. After our discussion with them, we received a 7th grader’s application and were told the requirements that they needed. This helps us out because now we are able to base our application and requirements needed on theirs. It won’t be exactly the same but similar because our two programs are very similar.
We have been thinking about our program and thought about if it will work. We thought of several things to ensure that it’ll work and figured the best thing to do is test it out. In order to do this, we would need time to set up a time and place so that applicants can come to “test” our program. We were thinking about making Chinuapin become our place to have our program. That means we would have to coordinate all of that with Ray.
We originally planned to meet Frank Duffy last Tuesday but that plan got destroyed. We were told that we couldn’t miss any class periods and couldn’t use school days to interview people. We now have to reschedule that meeting with Frank soon. Frank is part of Pennies for Peace that is an organization that was formed with the help of people from Three Cups of Tea.
Cesar and I wrote a proposal, planning to go to an elementary to observe, interview and analyze the students there. Susan wants our proposal to be a lot more specific so that is what has been on our plate.
Sometime last week, Cesar and I talk to Morris Nwogwuwu and Kathy Heinzerling about Breakthrough since they worked for that program. After our discussion with them, we received a 7th grader’s application and were told the requirements that they needed. This helps us out because now we are able to base our application and requirements needed on theirs. It won’t be exactly the same but similar because our two programs are very similar.
We have been thinking about our program and thought about if it will work. We thought of several things to ensure that it’ll work and figured the best thing to do is test it out. In order to do this, we would need time to set up a time and place so that applicants can come to “test” our program. We were thinking about making Chinuapin become our place to have our program. That means we would have to coordinate all of that with Ray.
We originally planned to meet Frank Duffy last Tuesday but that plan got destroyed. We were told that we couldn’t miss any class periods and couldn’t use school days to interview people. We now have to reschedule that meeting with Frank soon. Frank is part of Pennies for Peace that is an organization that was formed with the help of people from Three Cups of Tea.
Cesar and I wrote a proposal, planning to go to an elementary to observe, interview and analyze the students there. Susan wants our proposal to be a lot more specific so that is what has been on our plate.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
End of Semester
I feel the progress of my senior project has been pretty successful. I don't feel stressed about what will happen in the near future. I haven't come across an issue that will set me back a couple of paces. The people that we have come in contact with have given us great input of Cesar's and my status/ progress. The thing that I am really looking forward to is Creativity Week. During that week, Cesar and I plan to visit Whittier Elementary School to observe and interview students and teachers. The purpose of this is to get a face-to-face experience and knowledge on how "teaching" operates so that we can analyze this with Mr. Welcome Wilson who is a University of Houston board member. This summer program that Cesar and I plan to put together will be the "new" way learning/teaching. After listening to several teachers here at school, we have come to a consensus that the current "making children 'memorize' information" just doesn't quite cut it anymore. This is time for revolution in learning/teaching. The Panel Members that we plan to invite are:
Betsy Phillips- Betsy Phillips works for Chinquapin. We tend you use Betsy Phillips' occupation to our advantage. She works with advertising which we plan to ask her to help us advertise our summer program. I am hoping that she'll evaluate how creative our summer program's advertisement was.
Laura Acosta- Laura Acosta she works in HISD. She has recommended several students for us to internview. We want her to help us do research. I am hoping she'll evaluate how creative the summer program is.
Frank Duffy- Frank Duffy works for the Penny for Peace and will help us analyze the actions of students. He'll be our financial adviser. I am hoping he'll evaluate how effective our presentation is.
Dana Lipinsky- Dana Lipinsky is Cesar's mentor how is a board member. She'll help us by getting the word out to the board. She also works with communications and keeping relations with companies. She'll advise us on how to get our points across more effectively. I am hoping she'll evaluate how organized we are.
Rob Christy- Rob Christy is my mentor who is also a board member. Due to the fact that we need a board member to be a part of our panel, I wanted to ask him. I am hoping that he'll evaluate how effective our presentation was.
Molly Socha- Molly Socha is a teacher at Chinquapin who has background with programs that counsel and tutor younger children. I want her to help us with constructing our summer program and be our adviser. I want her to evaluate how well we constructed our program.
Welcome Wilson- Welcome Wilson is a board member of the University of Houston and will help us analyze the teaching/learning method of the teachers and students. He'll help us put together a outline of our observations. I am hoping he'll evaluate our overall project.
Knowing this, I feel like we are on the right track. The main thing we need to do is to stay committed and determine to make our summer program the best we can make it. Wish us luck!
Betsy Phillips- Betsy Phillips works for Chinquapin. We tend you use Betsy Phillips' occupation to our advantage. She works with advertising which we plan to ask her to help us advertise our summer program. I am hoping that she'll evaluate how creative our summer program's advertisement was.
Laura Acosta- Laura Acosta she works in HISD. She has recommended several students for us to internview. We want her to help us do research. I am hoping she'll evaluate how creative the summer program is.
Frank Duffy- Frank Duffy works for the Penny for Peace and will help us analyze the actions of students. He'll be our financial adviser. I am hoping he'll evaluate how effective our presentation is.
Dana Lipinsky- Dana Lipinsky is Cesar's mentor how is a board member. She'll help us by getting the word out to the board. She also works with communications and keeping relations with companies. She'll advise us on how to get our points across more effectively. I am hoping she'll evaluate how organized we are.
Rob Christy- Rob Christy is my mentor who is also a board member. Due to the fact that we need a board member to be a part of our panel, I wanted to ask him. I am hoping that he'll evaluate how effective our presentation was.
Molly Socha- Molly Socha is a teacher at Chinquapin who has background with programs that counsel and tutor younger children. I want her to help us with constructing our summer program and be our adviser. I want her to evaluate how well we constructed our program.
Welcome Wilson- Welcome Wilson is a board member of the University of Houston and will help us analyze the teaching/learning method of the teachers and students. He'll help us put together a outline of our observations. I am hoping he'll evaluate our overall project.
Knowing this, I feel like we are on the right track. The main thing we need to do is to stay committed and determine to make our summer program the best we can make it. Wish us luck!
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Update
Last Wednesday we had our very first TED Talks. I was very nervous and intimidated by the small crowd known as the audience. The night before I was starting to stress about it and I had the worse headache but before the night was over I convinced myself that everything was going to turn out okay. I just had to believe in myself. So the next morning, the moment I woke up, nervousness slapped me across the face real hard. I told myself, "What happened to everything turning out okay?" I tried to calm my nerves but couldn't. I decided to just go out and do my best, no matter if I was nervous or not. When I first got in front of the audience I was like woah! Then, I started talking and for some odd reason I just couldn't stop. I talked for ten minutes without stopping, except to cough one time, which is something I've never been able to do. I'm not much of a person to talk constantly but when I talked about something that really mattered to me, I didn't know how to stop. In the end, I was really proud of myself and my TED Talk.
On that same day, during Susan's AP English class, she started talking about creativity week. While talking about that week, she mentioned to us that we could work on our Senior project that entire week. Once she said that, I wanted to do that because I would have a lot of freedom and time to interview with similar organizations like my summer program and talk about issues and obstacles of creating an organization such as my summer program.
Susan told me today that I needed to give her a proposal of the details of that week if I still wanted to do it. Well, I'll say right now that I really want to work on my project that week but the only problem is working out the details of the week. So, I have until Friday to write this proposal of mine. Wish me luck!!
On that same day, during Susan's AP English class, she started talking about creativity week. While talking about that week, she mentioned to us that we could work on our Senior project that entire week. Once she said that, I wanted to do that because I would have a lot of freedom and time to interview with similar organizations like my summer program and talk about issues and obstacles of creating an organization such as my summer program.
Susan told me today that I needed to give her a proposal of the details of that week if I still wanted to do it. Well, I'll say right now that I really want to work on my project that week but the only problem is working out the details of the week. So, I have until Friday to write this proposal of mine. Wish me luck!!
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
A conversation with Molly Socha= Success
I just want to start off by saying it was an interesting and insightful discussion. Cesar and I talked to Molly because we knew that she had some background in mentoring people. We asked her about what she had done and she told us that she was a part of the Big Brother, Big Sister program, and other mentoring in college. She took part in an "adoption" of a child during a Christmas for some program where she took and talked with them, trying to better understand them. She helped give us more ideas for our project. One thing that stood out to us was that she said we should create some sort of summer camp where Chinquapin students will mentor the students while they had class. The classes would range from arts to English.
Cesar's Website
Since Cesar and I are working together, we thought it would be best if we added each others website onto our own. So on the top left corner there is Cesar's url. I think you will get a better understanding if you look at both of our sites.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Contacts
Well I only have about one minute to blog so here goes nothing. Cesar and I have several people we are going to contact. We will contact Kathy Heinzerling, possibly Molly Sosha, Tracye Anderson, Lorian Welsh, and a tutor that Susan will hopefully connect us with. This will be interesting.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)