Habitat For Humanity - Post 1

Haley Hodge 

3/7/15 and 4/11/15 and 4/25/15 @ 8:30-4:30

Habitat for Humanity 

Laura Ealy
lealy@habitatgsf.org

             For my PACT project I am volunteering for Habitat for Humanity. I am working on one site for the entire length of my project so that I can see the progress and hopefully see the final result when families move into the homes. The site I'm working at is a 4 acre plot of land in South San Fransisco which will ultimately have 28 homes on it (two stories, built to fit on average 5 people). 
             Each day you volunteer, you decide which job you're going to do for that day. The first day I decided to do framing - we essentially created the structures for three major walls for one of the houses. The second time I worked on dry wall - we would cut and fit dry wall and then secured it in the framing. The third visit, I worked on plumbing - we dug ditches to fit the piping and also worked on finished in the bathrooms and kitchens of two different homes. 
            The experience was very different from what I had anticipated. I knew that the work days would be long when I first signed up, but I thought that meant that we were not expected to work efficiently, that we would have to take a lot of time to learn what we were doing before really making any real progress. But I was pleasantly surprised on the first day when we had no longer than 20 minutes of instruction and then went straight to working. At the end of each day, I feel like I have really made a significant amount of progress and have really helped. Having 8 hours to work, you are able to visibly see the progress you're making, whether that is putting up three walls, finishing an entire house with drywall, or completing the plumbing for an entire floor, you feel like you have helped the construction team take the project one big step further, closer to the final result. Because of this, every day so far feels completely fulfilling. Going into it, I honestly thought that my weekends spent doing this would feel partially like time wasted being taught how to do things and driving there and back, but the complete opposite has been true. Everyone working and volunteering work hard and efficiently, creating a positive and effective work environment which pushes me to work that much harder, and ultimately leaving me feeling like not a single minute was wasted doing anything but pushing the project forward. While unfortunately I don't get to see the effects of this work first handedly (seeing the families move in and live there), stepping back and looking at all the 28 homes, I can easily tell how many people this is going to help and how it's going to positively affect the neighborhood and families in need. 

             

Taft tutoring - Second Post

Mia McConnell

March 17, March 24, March 31, April 14 @ 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Boys And Girls Club - Reading Is Freedom

Renee Infelise

Renee@bgcp.org

I have really enjoyed my experience tutoring Alexis through Reading Is Freedom. I think we have both become much more comfortable around each other, which definitely makes it a better experience for both of us. Every time I come to Taft he is ready to go and cheerfully welcomes me. I especially like that he always says "Hi Mia!" instead of just "Hi", because it lets me know that he remembers who I am among the many teachers and peers he encounters. But, working on his reading skills wasn't a complete breeze. Mastering the art of tutoring is much more difficult than one would think. It is no doubt important to tell the student when they make mistakes and more importantly inform them of how to improve upon their mistakes, but it is also hard to tell them how to improve without dampening their self-confidence or motivation to read. Especially because of Alexis's low self-esteem, I have struggled with how and how often to tell him how to improve his reading skills. I have learned that interrupting him every time he messes up a word to tell him how to say it is not the right approach. This would only lead to him getting frustrated with reading and messing up on the same word on the next page or in another book. Instead, I choose to focus on certain skills or certain words each tutoring session, like clearly informing him that we are working on how to say Mr. vs. Mrs. or how to enunciate the ends of words. I noticed that this approach led to much greater improvement and more importantly it often created lasting effects not just a nod and flip to the next page. I know that Alexis undoubtedly needs more help to raise his reading skills to where they should be and that the weeks we spent together might not make dramatic changes, but I do believe that I not only made some impact on his reading skills but also I think I helped establish a stable relationship in his life for half of the school year that he most likely doesn't have with many other people. Reading books to kids for an hour a week might not be life changing, but the little boost of skills and confidence it can give them is definitely worth something.

Taft Tutoring - First Post

Mia McConnell

February 24, March 3, March 10 @ 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Boys And Girls Club - Reading Is Freedom

Renee Infelise

Renee@bgcp.org

            For my PACT I tutored young students at Taft Elementary School through the Reading Is Freedom program by the Boys and Girls Club. I started tutoring kids at Taft my freshman year, going once a week throughout the spring. During my sophomore year, Laura Halprin started the Reading Is Freedom program through the Boys and Girls Club. Reading Is Freedom strives to help kids at lower reading levels gain the confidence and skills necessary to excel in the classroom and in the future. After working by Laura's side since freshman year, Laura assigned me as her assistant in leading Reading Is Freedom this year and will pass on the leadership role for my senior year.  This year, because I no longer play a winter sport, I started tutoring a Taft right after ski week. Traditionally, during the first visit to Taft we will receive our new student and read a fun book or play a game to try and get to know the student and allow them to become comfortable around you. I think this casual and fun visit is essential because it's hard to give a student advice before they feel comfortable around you. When we got to Taft I got assigned to a 3rd grade boy named Alexis. From the moment I met him I could tell Alexis was an extremely shy but sweet boy, and a diligent worker. Each Taft student's teacher will fill out a form before the tutors come that says what reading level the student is at, what the student struggles with, and what activities they enjoy. From Alexis's sheet I learned that he was a level 1 reader, a couple levels behind for his grade level, and that he had self esteem issues, especially because he doesn't receive enough support and assistance at home. One of the huge reasons why students at Taft often struggle with their reading and schoolwork is that at home many of their parents are struggling to work multiple jobs in order to feed their children and speak English as their second language and therefore can barely help with their child's homework. My goal from the start of my tutoring with Alexis was to boost his confidence as a reader and as a student in general. After three visits to Taft, Alexis has definitely started to improve his reading skills and has become more comfortable with me. Each time we meet I try to narrow his focus to a specific type of word or technique that he has repeatedly struggles with. For example, he often forgets to pronounce the 's on words like "my dad's car". For our next two lessons I told him we would focus on always remembering to pronounce the 's sound and by the end of the hour he was perfecting the skill. I'm excited to continue improving his reading skills while also getting to know him better.