Great work last week! We've narrowed down our list of ideas considerably (rounds, gardens, autism, book drive for homeless kids, and STEM for girls). I have decided to use the blog again this week to help us hone and finalize our ideas for the group project. For this week's blog, please post about one or more of the ideas. Please feel free to use the evolving criteria for the projects as a way to understand and critique whichever idea you choose to consider. The latest version of the criteria is:
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Meets community need? Identifies necessary community
contacts/partners?
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Is doable within constraints of the class? Has reasonable clear
objective(s)? Plan is Clear?
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Has some link to schools?
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Does not require students (you) to be “experts”?
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Is not exploitive or patronizing or potentially embarrassing for
community partners?
- Has potential for continuity (i.e., the project could live on beyond this class)? Note: this last one is preferable but not necessary.
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Amanda Kern
ReplyDeleteOur idea was to build a bookshelf in a homeless shelter and fill it with gently used and new books to encourage literacy in families.
This project...
Meets community needs (community contact is the Daily Planet or Caritas)
Definitely doable (Ive already bought about 25 books)
Has a link to schools (homeless students may not have access to schools)
Doesn't require us to be experts in anything
Isn't embarrassing to the community
Could be continued by asking libraries or stores such as Target to donate when they salvage books
Brittany Milteer
ReplyDeleteWe are still in the process of finalizing the final project for Autism. This project will meet community needs because not only will it make the community aware but it will educate the population about autism. Like I said we are still in the process of finalizing it, however, we will make it doable with the time we are given. The project will have a link to schools because autistic students are apart of almost every school community, and eventually will join the workforce. Even though we are hoping to make autism aware to the community, it does not require my group to be experts. It is not embarrassing to the community or the school community. This project could be continued especially during the month of April, which is Autism awareness month.
Hopefully on Tuesday we will be able to finalize the project. This past week we were able to get into contact with some people that can help define this project.
Rounds involves teachers, professors and education students. We haven't set a clear objective yet, but are going to choose one topic and have a discussion with everyone who is able to meet on that one topic. It links to schools because we will be discussing racism, children living in poverty, bullying, etc. There is no need for anyone to be an expert because we will all be discussing our own views and methods for dealing with these issues. I believe there could be blog on these issues in education for continuity for this project. Professors, educators and education students will be able to discuss current events, issues in the public schools, methods for dealing with these issues and how to prevent them, etc.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Amanda and the idea of a book donation. I also like how Kurt shared that placing boxes around the School of Education spreading the message could if anything be a simple reminder that there are causes worthy of thinking about and supporting even in the smallest ways. If anything this is something that we in the education profession can jibe with.
ReplyDeleteMy only concern is that there might be difficulty finding a shelter or organization that wants/has a need for this. Are there already aspects like this in place? Is there an area/space? The only way to see is to try, so reaching out would be the first step. If that idea falls through we can develop a list of plan Bs which might include individual schools in the area or related community organizations.
Jordan Lee
ReplyDeleteThe garden group discussed many different ideas last week and we tried to focus our ideas on projects that would produce meaningful results. I think the first thing that we as a group need to figure out is what garden we want to make contributions to. By doing this, we will be able to make decisions about what contributions will be the most meaningful. We discussed making garden cards and then posting them online in a blog or on a webpage so that they are available for other people to access. I like this idea because it takes the contributions we did for one particular garden and still has potential for continuity. I think that this project meets all of the criteria necessary, but I do believe once we find a garden to work with, we need to focus on explaining how exactly it is meeting the community’s needs.
Meets community need? Identifies necessary community contacts/partners?
ReplyDeleteAs far as meeting community needs, I’d say the STEM for girls approach is excellent. We will be working with the RVA STEM in Sports associate Lindsey McBride and VCU to help incorporate our idea of honing in on a girls related booth/station at the event.
Is doable within constraints of the class? Has reasonable clear objective(s)? Plan is Clear?
The event is absolutely doable! This is a huge, one-day event that was already pre-planned for focusing on STEM concepts through sports and sports technology that we stumbled upon. It is being held at the Seigel Center and is on a Friday in March.
The objectives are clear and the plan is simple. We plan to volunteer at one of the booths/stations at the event and work with VCU and Lindsey McBride to establish a booth/station that incorporates a STEM concept via sports and sports technology to hone in specifically on girls. Our idea is to have a booth/station that focuses around the idea of “hit like a girl” or “kick like a girl” (which will be more developed as we work in our groups and with VCU and Lindsey McBride).
Has some link to schools?
The RVA STEM in Sports event being hosted is including 400-600 seventh grade students from Henrico County and Richmond County Public Schools. So, there is a definite link to schools. Local teachers and educators will be working and volunteering at the event as well.
Does not require students (you) to be “experts”?
As far as we know, there is no need for us to be experts in the field. I’m sure we will be trained on how to run the station/booth that we are designated too, but we haven’t received specific instructions/details of the event yet (we are to hear from her at the beginning of March). When we work with Lindsey McBride and VCU to come up with the booth/station that focuses on girls (“hit like a girl” or “kick like a girl”), we will be designing the station and thus already be experts in it.
Is not exploitive or patronizing or potentially embarrassing for community partners?
The event is not exploitive or patronizing or potentially embarrassing for community partners because it is a volunteer, free-for-all type event. No one is forced to participate in anything they don’t want to and the event is already been pre-planned and run through VCU administration/essential professionals for approval.
Has potential for continuity (i.e., the project could live on beyond this class)?
This event has a wonderful potential for continuity, especially since it was an already established event presented through VCU Center for Sport Leadership. People in the education program can continue to volunteer for this event in the future and work with VCU to make their own booths/stations just like we are doing!
Savannah Crowder
ReplyDeleteI was also in Jordan's group about the interactive gardens. We would definitely benefit from some more time to discuss and finalize our idea. Like Jordan said, we are still trying to figure out if we want to do a community garden, a school garden, or some other grounds around the community. We haven't decided exactly what we want to do, but some of our ideas include: placing interactive cards in gardens that state what the plant is, a picture, fun facts, information, etc., creating a blog for teachers/students to use and have access to when learning about plants, and a few other ideas like these. This project would definitely meet the criteria above and this could be something that is continued! We still have a little bit of work to go in figuring out the details.
Savannah Crowder
ReplyDeleteI was also in Jordan's group about the interactive gardens. We would definitely benefit from some more time to discuss and finalize our idea. Like Jordan said, we are still trying to figure out if we want to do a community garden, a school garden, or some other grounds around the community. We haven't decided exactly what we want to do, but some of our ideas include: placing interactive cards in gardens that state what the plant is, a picture, fun facts, information, etc., creating a blog for teachers/students to use and have access to when learning about plants, and a few other ideas like these. This project would definitely meet the criteria above and this could be something that is continued! We still have a little bit of work to go in figuring out the details.
Stephanie Furnish
ReplyDeleteMy group is still doing the STEM for girls and we’ve gotten in contact with the RVA STEM in Sports event at the Siegel Center on March 25th. We will either come up with an idea for our own booth, incorporating women and STEM into our project, or we will help with another booth that is pertinent to our mission. This project does meet community needs, doesn’t require us to be experts, and also has the potential to have continuity. I’m not sure if this event is an annual thing, but VCU students in the education program could continue helping with this event to promote women in STEM.
All five ideas are great; it is easy to see in class that groups are very connected to their ideas. I believe that is important for the success of the groups. Starting a project is very challenging. Having the desire to help is great, making sure the help is wanted or not being duplicated will take some investigation. It is possible that hours of work will be invested in a single idea just to find out that a school or organization will not support it or will reject it.
ReplyDeleteAs the ideas move for forward and organizations are contacted it will be exciting to see the idea become real projects.
I think the biggest challenge will be continuity. I had plenty of free time as a under graduate but my time has become very limited. My project is the book drive. An idea I have for continuity is to reach out to students enrolled in the Children’s Literature classes. The reason I think those students can be helpful is because they have to go to the library numerous times during the semester to check out books. They can work directly with the Liberians in the children’s section. Also it may be possible to place a donation box in the Teacher Prep classroom during the annual children’s book sale for the Education students.
The autism group has recently been given some great ideas by a friend of one of our group members who is a teacher at a local high school. What was brought to our attention was that this high school's Special Education department makes products (soap, cookies, dog biscuits) and sells them in the community. In turn, the profit made from the sales is put back into the community however the school chooses to do so. We will talk more about this idea with our whole group tomorrow. Like Britney mentioned, it's not finalized and we are working out the details.
ReplyDeletePaige Michanco
Maureen Boster
ReplyDeleteI was in the garden group and we were still brain storming on our final decision. It all kind of depends on who we can get in touch with and then go from there. Since we have so many ideas they can hit all the questions you have provided. Some of the ideas we had were interactive cards, QR codes, with fun pictures, information and the type of plant. We also even talked about making a blog so other teachers could go and use this curriculum based activity in their class. Once we finalize our project things will fall into place quickly.
Brittany Gifford
ReplyDelete"EDTalk" might not outright identify a community need but one could arise from the discussion. Though, depending on the topic that we choose, it could identify a community need. There are many connections for community contacts and partners because many of us know professors and educators in the surrounding community. It is definitely doable within the constraints of the class. We do need to focus our topic in more if we want to keep it open to many different levels within education. But I believe that is doable. It definitely has some links to schools since the discussion would focus on a specific area within education. There is no need for anyone involved in the discussion to be experts, though having experts involved would not be a problem. We do not need to be experts as students though. I do not think that this would be patronizing or critical for community partners. What is super exciting about this idea is that there is a great potential for continuity. There is a chance for there to be later talks on new topics and involving more educators.
I think my group is off to a great start! We have found that there are many needs in regards to autism awareness in Richmond. My group members, Mary and James, have some great community connections that we can use to get the ball rolling. We were thinking about doing something that will prepare those who have disabilities with some kind of job training/interview skills. Mary also has a friend who works in special education that helps run an awesome fundraiser for autism awareness in the community. I am excited to meet with my group next class and start finalizing these ideas!
ReplyDeleteEmily Meade
ReplyDeleteRounds is a great way to meet the needs of our community when it comes to education as it includes discussion among a group of teachers, professors and future educators about current educational ideals that are going on in schools today. We are still working on a clear objective as we are still jugging a focus topic, but once the topic is solidified the plan (along with the objective) will be clear. By no means does this project require students to be experts. We will be learning from a group of current and past educators who will be teaching us from their past experiences. I think rounds are extremely beneficial for students, teachers and professors to get everyone on the same (or close to same) page on current issues going on in schools around us. Not to be confused with a debate, rounds will be completely free from “right and wrong” arguments and instead based on educators sharing their experiences in the classroom.
Allie Bryan
ReplyDeleteMichelle did a wonderful job of summarizing everything we had discussed in last week's class. I think the only thing I can really add is in regards to the final question. While the RVA STEM in Sports is only a one-day event, it lends itself to become an annual tradition and the concept of continuity would hopefully be achieved by somehow influencing the seventh grade participants to take some of the new information with them out into the world. As we said, our goal is to encourage young women to become interested in the world of STEM and sports, which can often be more geared towards the male counterparts. If we can influence even just one girl to consider the possibilities, I think we will have met our objectives.
Michelle and Allie have done an excellent job discussing the RVA Stem in Sports. It meets all of the criteria. We have contacted the event coordinator, confirmed volunteering with her, will be able to design booth, is linked to Richmond and Henrico public schools and does not require expertise and is not embarrassing for community partners, in fact it promotes equality! I agree with Allie that the potential for continuity would be hard to measure. Volunteering at this one-day event could definitely make impressions on girls who are thinking about STEM but it would be difficult to measure effectiveness unless a survey of some sort was sent out after event. Planting seeds is of course very important and this is definitely an opportunity to do so!
ReplyDeleteJames Biedenharn 2/23/16 7:04
ReplyDeleteWe are still in the process of finalizing our plan, but Mary was able to speak with her friend from Manchester high school to get some ideas and Ashley was able to contact an administrator at VCU’s Autism Center for Excellence. I contacted two parents who are partnered with VCU’s LEND project. The two parents along with the head of Audiology at VCU, Christine Eubanks, are trying to create an intense vocation and transition program for teenagers and young adults with Asperger's (a high functioning form of autism). There are different vocation and training programs that help students while they are in high school, but to my understanding, the program that the three parents are trying to implement will be more hands on and more intensive. Virginia tech is the only 4 year university in the commonwealth that has a program remotely close to the one that the VCU LEND’s project is trying to create. After talking with numerous members of the special education community (teachers, special ed admins, advocates, etc.), transition to adulthood training and postsecondary opportunities were the main points of emphasis.
Jamie Whittaker
ReplyDeleteIn the autism group, we are still working to finalize out project. I know we had been discussing getting in touch with VCU’s autism excellence center and the autism society of central VA. Mary and James have some community connections and I believe Morgan does as well. Last class we were discussing doing mock interviews, working on interview skills with people with autism.
Corinne Tilley
ReplyDeleteI'm in the autism group but last week I worked with the book drive group to help finalize a plan. If i recall correctly, the goal right now is to identify a homeless shelter or possibly a school that serves homeless children and to give that shelter a large collection of books for kids. I'm not sure if we decided on it being more like a library or if they can keep the books, but getting them into the hands of children who may not have other access to books they can take home with them to read.
Okay, “Autism” group, I talked to my friend who works at Manchester High School. Every April, the students in the exceptional education department at MHS make a variety of items, such as homemade hand soaps, chocolates, etc. for Autism Awareness month. Our group at VCU could be a part of these activities or create our own activity/craft/project to create with the students during April. After the products are made, the students and our group will sell the products for cash to then donate back to Manchester. Manchester takes the earned money and uses it for charity outside of the school. MHS recently used their earned money to support Chesterfield student Virginia Rose, who had a long battle with cancer. Does anyone have any suggestions? Also, I think this activity meets all requirements for the project… agree/disagree?
ReplyDeleteMary,
DeleteAs we have talked about, I love this idea! I think it is definitely an area in which we can meet all requirements. It is also something a bit more simple, yet still meaningful! An idea I had would be to make bookmarks with the students. These could be decorative, contain quotes or words related to Autism Awareness. I think we could make the project simple enough for the students, and then we could finish the details. Again, just an idea! We could even make refrigerator magnents along the same lines.Let me know what you guys think and throw out some more ideas!
Amanda Matthews
ReplyDeleteRounds is a really good way to meet the needs of our community because we can learn from each other as educators in order to make the situations for our individual students better. Sometimes gaining more perspectives can make a world of difference. I also think this would be able to happen within the constraints of our classroom because we can "host" it during our classroom time frame and even see if we can use the class itself, or reserve another classroom.
I still worry about the autism group. Their overall idea is great and I would love to see what they could do for the community. I once saw a video that had students with ADHD and each student talked about how they felt in a classroom. One student would say, "You may think that I am out of my sit for no reason, but I am really out of my seat, because I can not concentrate in a confined space". Maybe generating a video similar to that could raise awareness in the community without you having to be an expert??!
ReplyDeleteSeat*
DeleteI wasn't there for class, but I'm really liking the groups so far. I'd have to say that the rounds seems easily accessible to linking schools together and that depending on connections, has the potential to be extended through various members, even after the course ends. We also don't need to be experts, at least not sole experts. Having staff get involved creates a variety of experts. As for the book drive, I think it's a wonderful idea! I recently found out that there are books (chapter and picture books) for a dollar at Michael's, it's possible to see if they would even donate as well. I will consider looking into A.C. Moore, too, since they have been donating money to public schools for funding and arts. They I haven't looked in their book section yet, but they could be potential advocates.
ReplyDeleteChelsea
I believe the rounds idea with educators from all areas is pretty down pact. I think this project will allow others to see how each person plays a special role to project the bigger picture, which is serving the needs of students and helping them succeed in all domains (academic, social/emotional, career, etc.) There are plenty of people within the School of Education department that will be more than willing to help out with this endeavor. Could this possibly serve as a professional development opportunity or other students?
ReplyDelete-Christeena Claiborne
I am in the garden group as well! We discussed many ideas about what types of gardens we could do. We talked about creating a community garden, where we could set up interactive cards so the community is encouraged to become
ReplyDeleteInvolved and learn more about the
Community garden. We also talked about setting up a garden at an elementary school, where we could also use interactive thoughts. I also thought it would be neat to include plants that need water and that don't need water because this can be a common misconception. I also thought that it would be neat to grow common food like peppers, squash, etc. it's important for people to know where our food comes from and to learn about the background knowledge.