Community Service
How Teachers, Parents and Community Members Can Work Together to Enrich our Classrooms
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Monday, May 11th, 2009
In these tough times, parents and community can help … in fact, they must help. And this is a good thing, because the benefits they can bring to our kids are limited only by time, imagination and our willingness to work together.
School/family/community collaborations can take endless forms. Here are some suggestions (suited perfectly to Lesson 6) for ways that schools and community can combine talents and energy so that everybody benefits. This is the list for teachers. Tomorrow I will post a list of ways that parents and community can get involved.
Teachers can:
· Get to know parents and community members. Interview or survey them about their interests, activities, cultural background, languages, careers, skills and accomplishments.
· Enlist parents/community members to work with kids to develop volunteer, mentor and/or community resource files or databases. Make sure to include talents, skills, occupations, etc as categories.
· Schedule regular times for ‘mini-seminars,’ demonstrations or activities run by parents or community volunteers. These can be designed to offer kids a taste of new subjects, cultures or activities. Try to include many interest areas and learning styles. Ideas include: a poetry workshop, gardening, a day of math challenges related to real life, computer graphics demonstrations, a day devoted to a language and culture, an invention convention, a day of service.
· Look to your classroom for talents and skills. Brainstorm ways to provide in-depth and/or one-on-one study opportunities for kids who demonstrate special interests (we sometimes forget that kids with special needs and risks may have intense interests too.) Consider ways in which all the talents, knowledge, resources and abilities in your classroom and community can be used to enrich all its members.
· Organize a career day. Invite parents and community members to meet with students and discuss their work, their methods, their tools, and their challenges. Of course, the more diverse the jobs and the people who do them, the more interesting the day.
· Work with parents, colleagues, after-school programs, senior centers, community volunteers etc., to establish before or after-school clubs, Saturday enrichment opportunities, language programs, computer workshops, gardening clinics, sports clinics, art studios, bands, etc.
· Encourage parents and community members to help you organize internships, mentorships, and other opportunities for students to spend time working with businesses, artisans, craftspeople or professionals, in their special interest areas. Involve parents as liaisons, transporters, supporters and networkers.
Please post you ideas and success stories here … what works for you?
Topics: Community Service, Creating a Positive, How to Help | 1 Comment »
Lend a Hand: 2009 Comcast/Hands On Greater Portland Cares Day
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
Volunteering, especially participating in volunteer projects with kids is a perfect opportunity for teachers and mentors and parents to involve kids in community service. It’s a way to spend time with kids, provide opportunities for you and the kids you work with to learn about your community and at the same time, help to meet some of the critical needs within our city.
So, get ready for April 25th - “one of the biggest days of service in the Pacific Northwest” when Hands On Greater Portland teams up with Comcast to connect more than 1,600 volunteers to critical community needs. There is still time to sign up to volunteer your time and energy.
According to the Hands On Greater Portland website, more than 1,600 people across Portland are expected to volunteer with nonprofit agencies in their communities. They will “participate in projects that include beautifying schools, revitalizing natural areas, and supporting programs for low-income and homeless families.”
To find out how you can take part in this project, and to register, visit the website
Click here to see a list of project planned for this day.
As I always like to say, when we work together, everybody benefits. Tell us how. Please, share your experience: If you take part in this event, please tell us about your day, on this blog.
Topics: Community Service, How to Help, Quality Time, Things to do | No Comments »
On the White House Agenda: Service Learning
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Thursday, January 29th, 2009
It seems like everybody is talking about the White House website lately. In fact, it was mentioned in three different meetings I attended yesterday. So, I decided to check it out for myself – with an eye to finding information relevant to Making Connections.
Not surprisingly, I clicked on the Education tab on the Agenda first. This was the first thing I read:
Address the Dropout Crisis:
Obama and Biden will address the dropout crisis by passing legislation to provide funding to school districts to invest in intervention strategies in middle school — strategies such as personal academic plans, teaching teams, parent involvement, mentoring, intensive reading and math instruction, and extended learning time.
This is good news, but there is a lot more on the site, and the message is strong. Take the time to visit the site yourself, and focus on the topics that are meaningful to you. What grabs my attention, what I seem to hear the most talk about, and what has filled me with the most hope for this new time defined by this new administration, is the message of civic engagement, aka Service.
The website encourages us to:
Enable All Americans to Serve to Meet the Nation’s Challenges
Integrate Service into Learning
- Expand Service-Learning in Our Nation’s Schools: Set a goal that all middle and high school students do 50 hours of community service a year. Develop national guidelines for service learning and give schools better tools both to develop programs and to document student experience.
- Expand Youth Programs: Create an energy-focused youth jobs program to provide disadvantaged youth with service opportunities weatherizing buildings and getting practical experience in fast-growing career fields. Expand the YouthBuild program to give 50,000 disadvantaged young people the chance to complete their high school education, learn valuable skills and build affordable housing in their communities.
- Require 100 Hours of Service in College: Establish a new American Opportunity Tax Credit worth $4,000 a year in exchange for 100 hours of public service a year.
- Promote College Serve-Study: Ensure that at least 25 percent of College Work-Study funds are used to support public service opportunities instead of jobs in dining halls and libraries.
I have written often on this blog about the positive impact that happens when kids at risk have the chance to help others. President Obama’s call to service therefore, is an opportunity, not only to encourage more mentors and volunteers to work with kids, but a chance for mentoring pairs, after-schools programs, buddy programs, etc., to go out together and find ways to do something for someone else.
As we have seen over and over in the research in this course and in stories on this blog, volunteering and learning through service to others offers often unexpected benefits. These include (but are definitely not limited to) self-discovery, increased confidence, a sense of purpose, satisfaction, new perspectives, and many chances to see the world beyond our own neighborhoods (and our own place within it.) Service opens the door to new experiences, new friendships, and even, new careers. When people learn and serve together, they create new ways to connect to each other as well.
And, as I always like to say, when we work together to help others, everybody benefits.
Topics: Community Service, Quality Time | No Comments »
Oregon Campus Compact: Capture the Impact: Alternative Break and Service Day Photo/Video Contest!
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Wednesday, January 14th, 2009
I recently posted information about the upcoming Weekend of Service in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. (Be the Change: Sign up to Volunteer Soon)
Now, Capture the Impact: Alternative Break and Service Day Photo/Video Contest! offers another way that teachers and mentors (anyone taking the Making Connections class) can make the most of the weekend. Oregon Campus Compact, “a statewide membership organization connecting community engaged colleges and universities with resources, convening the state for collaborative work and advocating for the civic mission of higher education,” is sponsoring a photo/video contest. The contest is a perfect opportunity to creatively answer the question: What does Community Service and Engagement look like?
By recording what they see and experience in their community, mentors and teachers can spend quality time with kids, get involved in and more familiar with their community, provide some service, encourage creative thinking, and share what they learn. What a great way to add even more to a day of service
For more information and a contest application, click here
To increase your chances of winning 
here are Ten Tips for Better Photographs (courtesy of John Waller and the Photo of the Year Contest)
1. Be in the right place at the right time. Get out there, look around, and take your camera. It’s tough to take great photographs if even one of those actions is missing.
2. Take lots of pictures. Digital photography has opened up a world of possibility to the amateur photographer because now you can instantly review your pictures. Adjust your settings, try different angles, or capture the action at different moments. The more photographs you take, the more likely you are to get a great shot. But remember what worked and what didn’t and apply this new understanding when you take the next picture.
3. Watch the sun. The best times to take pictures are usually early in the morning and early evening; the worst time is generally midday, when light it most harsh.
4. Flash away. Just because you are outdoors doesn’t mean you should put away your flash. Subjects in shadow can appear much too dark when compared to a bright sunny backdrop. When using your flash outdoors, the camera exposes the background first, and then adds in the flash to illuminate your subject.
5. Get close up. Investigate the world around you in finer detail and you will discover a wealth of photo opportunities right at your feet. Most cameras have a macro mode that make getting those close up shots of insects and flowers a snap. Or when you are shooting action, zoom in so we can see the beads of sweat on an athlete’s or worker’s forehead.
6. Anticipate what is going to happen. To take a great outdoor action shot, you need to prepare for it in advance. What might happen, what would be the best angle, and are your settings appropriate? Then when your buddy cuts a sweet turn on their skies down the mountain, or a laughing kid comes zooming by on a swing, you’ll be there to take the picture.
7. Use a tripod for low light. Those sweet sunsets, or moonrises, or starry night shots can be really sweet pictures if they are sharp and crisp. But a tripod is necessary because even the slightest shiver or tremble from a hand-held camera can cause the scene to blur.
8. The rule of thirds. This time tested rule tells us that we should not put the horizon line in the middle of the shot, but rather drop it to the bottom third or the top third depending on what meaning you want to convey. A low horizon conveys a sense of open, vast airiness, and a high horizon instills a sense that the land is the dominant force. The same is true for framing people.
9. Get a sense of perspective. Sometimes having a person in your scenic and street pictures really impresses how big those trucks or buildings, mountains, cliff, waterfall, or landscape really is.
10. Get creative. There are a lot of predictable photographs out there. The unconventional photographs really grab people’s attention.
Play around with angles and settings and HAVE FUN!
Topics: Community Service, How To's, Quality Time | No Comments »
Many Hands Make Light Work
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Tuesday, January 6th, 2009
When I was in the fourth grade (in the Bronx), our class got a ‘special’ assignment. We were to make stuffed felt toys to give to ‘sick kids.’ I remember choosing the royal blue pony shape that had been pre-cut by adult hands, the colored yarn to work with, and needles for stitching. I remember being taught to create an edge stitch, and how to stuff and turn and finish. I embroidered eyes, added a mane and tail from yarn, and for the first time, allowed my creativity to take over. What I remember most of all, is that my pony turned out beautiful, to my nine year old eyes, a work of art.
The pony was a gift I was proud to give. I imagined the delight of the anonymous sick child, I imagined a girl, when she received this little stuffed toy. I have no idea if anyone else saw what I saw in my pony, but that project turned out to be a great gift to me. My previously unknown ability to turn felt and yarn into something beautiful opened the door to a sense of confidence in myself, and became the gateway to a lifetime passion for crafts, and the arts. For many years, I earned my living with the skills I discovered at that time.
Now, members of the Portland community have lots of opportunities to turn their skills and talents into gifts for others too, and of course, in the process, learn new things about themselves and their abilities. Every week now, on page two of the main section of the Oregonian, a feature called Your Source| 5 ways to plug into your community, has been added. Each week, this column presents 5 things that you (and the kids you work with as teachers, mentors and parents) can do to benefit the community.
This week the suggestions include something for everyone. Here are a few examples:
Knit for Newborns (for details go to www.handsonportland.org or www.virginiagarcia.org
Find out about college financial aid www.collegedgoaloregon.org and
Adopt the Community Warehouse for a week – www.communitywarehouse.org for more information.
Do you have an organization that can use help? Please feel free to post a request on this blog.
Topics: Community Service, How to Help | 1 Comment »
After-school success began with Mrs. B. (and Everybody Benefits)
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
There was a great column by Andy Parker in today’s Metro Section. Parker writes about a mentoring program that has been making a profound difference in the lives of Clackamas County kids and families by offering after-school, summer and language programs to hundreds of families. Part of what makes this program work is the high school students that drop in one or twice a week to work with kids.
I am always on the lookout for stories that show how, when schools, families and the community work together, everybody benefits, and this story came with its own statistics. “The result, (of the afterschool mentoring program) measured by Portland State University, shows higher attendance, fewer behavior problems and rising academic performance for a majority of the 100 or so kids in the Lot Whitcomb program every year.”
The program, begun years ago, at a school “long considered Clackamas County’s poorest elementary school,” has been so successful, that the program is now expanding to four more schools in the North Clackamas School District. In fact, “on Tuesday, Susan Castillo, Oregon schools superintendent, came … to tell the educators and nonprofit leaders (who fund and run this program) they’d been chosen as one of seven outstanding school/community partnerships in the state.”“It proves,” said school counselor Ellen Baltus, who “has been running this program for years now”, “what can happen when we all just do our part. Everybody does a little bit, and it works.” Or, said another way, everybody benefits.
Topics: Community Service, Creating a Positive, In The News | No Comments »
Community Service Puts At-Risk Kids in a Good Light
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
I visited my friend at the beach last week. She is now, as she always been, active in lots of community activities. We attended a meeting together, where I was a basic fly on the wall, eating pizza and listening to the group of volunteers who plan and execute Depoe Bay’s Salmon Bake debrief the details of their annual fundraiser. This is always a very popular event that raises money for the local Chamber of Commerce, town events and other projects.
The talk was about what went well, what could be done better next year. Everyone had a chance to talk. Over and over, after the details were shared, I kept hearing the same theme; “… and the kids were fantastic. The kids were so much help; the kids did such a great job, the kids made all the difference.”
Who were the kids, what did they do? I was surprised to learn the answer. I must admit that my first thought was that the kids referred to little kids – maybe kids singing and entertaining. Then I thought about kids from the high school – maybe getting extra credit. The kids, the helpful, friendly, efficient and hardworking kids, were, in fact, a group from the Lincoln County Juvenile Department. Their presence at this event was an opportunity for them to do community service. But, the event turns out to be an opportunity for far more than that. For some kids, I am told, this was a rare chance to actually talk to older people (many of the Salmon Bake participants are senior citizens.) It was a chance to be part of the community in a positive way. It was a chance to do hard and meaningful (and maybe even smelly) work, to follow through, to work with others, to cooperate. Most of all though, it was a chance for the community members to see these kids – who are often thought of as trouble and problems, in a new and positive light.
I often write in this blog about the importance of inviting community members INTO your school or program. This meeting reminded me of the importance of creating opportunities for kids to get out and become a valuable part of their own community. As I constantly realize when writing about the many ways we can make connections, helping kids find opportunities to offer service to the community means that everybody benefits.
Topics: Community Service, How to Help | No Comments »