CalSERVES Makes a Difference: RL Stevens

Over the next 4 days, we will be highlighting the amazing efforts of CalSERVES Programs in their Make a Difference Day projects. Each project involved a host of AmeriCorps members and volunteers and provided needed services to the communities in which are programs are hosted.

There is work to do at RL Stevens!

  When it came to the planning of Make a Difference Day 2013 at RL Stevens, there was a lot to be done! Old rotting raised garden beds needed replacing, a fading map of the world on the blacktop needed repainting, and garden beds throughout the school were in desperate need of mulch. With a few generous donations, we gathered the materials for the two projects we chose to focus on: the raised garden beds and the overall need for mulch. Our Make a Difference Day began a day early when first thing Friday morning 10 cubic yards of steaming mulch was dumped in our parking lot. We knew we had our work cut out for us Saturday morning. Carrying tools borrowed from the Santa Rosa Tool Library and fueled by coffee donated by Starbucks, we got to work.

 Craig Jacques led the battle against the old raised beds in the garden. He was joined by Christian Andersen – the 6th grade teacher at RL Stevens, Jesus Guerrero, and Sean Fitzgerald. They removed old beds, broke up the existing dirt with pick axes and build new raised beds!

Margo Addison, a teacher and Literacy Specialist at RL, gets to work with mulch!

Mulch, mulch, mulch everywhere! It was truly mulch madness. The RL mulch team included Emily Chambers, Gaspar Oregon, Rachel Dillin, Ana Hernandez, and Carmen Wandel. We were joined by our principal - Lori Pola Hoard, our literacy specialist - Margo Addison, and Melissa Moore. We had 10 yards of mulch to spread throughout the school. Luckily our numbers doubled with the addition of Meadow View tutors Zack Edwards, Brenda Diaz, Corie Emery, Jena Preston and their tireless leader NightSnow Vogt!

New garden beds.

After four hours of hard work we still weren't done, as our numbers began to dwindle those remaining really picked up the pace to finish what we had started. Sweaty and dirty, the last people standing Emily, Craig, Ana, and Jesus went home tired but feeling accomplished!

By Emily Chambers, RL Stevens Elementary AmeriCorps Team Leader

Literacy Tutoring Theme Week

Ms. Martin and students get in to the spirit of Spring!

In March we had a Theme Week at R.L. Stevens Elementary and we incorporated Spring! Everyone  really got into the spirit. Ms. Martin is taught lyrics and showing off her dance moves with her second grade group. Not only did these little ones learn about the joys of memorizing stanzas, but they also built their singing voice and learned about the splendid sensation of Springtime silliness!

It was a week of hidden literacy, masked by fun activities and cool games, with the kids practicing their reading skills without noticing it was work. It was just a lot of fun!

Cool Sports Challenge – Always a Success!

RL Stevens students had a BALL at the Cool Sports Basketball Challenge in March. Coaches Mr. Rockey and Ms. Kladar couldn’t stop smiling the entire time! They were so proud of their team who had worked so hard during practice. RL students cheered on not only their team, but the other schools as well, leading to RL receiving the Sportsmanship Trophy for the day.

The students had an amazing time and are truly looking forward to the next event!

RL Stevens team gets ready to play!

Science is Cool!

My students were hiding their noses behind any piece of cloth available and making dramatic fanning motions when I realized I probably should have refrigerated the cabbage juice. It must be STEM theme week at R.L Stevens!

Ms. Gold and her tutoring students

 Let me back up. I was demonstrating how red cabbage juice changes color according to whether the chemical it’s put in is an acid or a base. The table outside was set with various substances, and the students had learned where to place them on the pH scale according to the color they turned when we added the cabbage juice. A typical vinegar and baking soda reaction was suddenly a lot more interesting, though by day three, the cabbage juice had gone decidedly off. In spite of this, the students really got into the active experimentation part of the lesson, and unleashed their inner scientists.

The last lesson of the week involved Diet Coke and Mentos, (with a strong nutrition-related disclaimer) but before we got to the explosive fun, first we had to figure out why the reaction happened in the first place. My fourth grade group had used a K’nex set and rubber bands to learn about ways that potential energy can be stored (and released – quickly!), and my third graders had had endless fun learning about the phenomenon of lift and making and testing different types of paper airplanes. Each time I gave my kids a challenge or scientific problem to solve, they responded with boundless enthusiasm, ingenuity, and solutions that I hadn’t thought of.

 My students love STEM theme weeks. I can practically guarantee that every time I pick up my first group of third graders from class, I get the question “Are we doing science today?” During our first STEM theme week, they’d played a dry version of Marco Polo in order to learn about echolocation, and expanded that knowledge to learn about other special adaptations of plants and animals. I’ve discovered the trick to making Science, Technology, Engineering and Math irresistible subjects to students: make the scientific challenges so fun to solve that they don’t even realize they’re excelling at a subject so many people find complex. This play-to-learn approach is perfect for the After School environment, and by the time theme weeks are done, students who before had little to no confidence in their math and science skills are whooping, cheering, and saying that “Science is cool!”

by Sarah Gold, CalSERVES AmeriCorps Member at RL Stevens

Meet the Team Leaders: Allison Hunter

Allison Hunter, CalSERVES Team Leader at RL Stevens

My name is Allison Hunter and I’m 23 years old. I was raised in Petaluma by my mother and father and have always loved the country life. I speak four languages and have a deep passion for travel, culture, and of course, teaching! I attended UC Santa Cruz where I received my bachelors in American History with a focus on Latin America. While in Santa Cruz I was also the lead teacher at Little Legends Preschool. After finishing school I moved back up to Sonoma County and started looking for a new job. After some failed searching my sister told me that some people from a place called CalSERVES came to her school at Sonoma State to talk about what the program and she thought, “Hey, my sister would love that!” After a bit of my own research I had to agree with her and I applied right away! I signed up as a literacy tutor but in the interview I was asked if I’d be interested in being the team leader and, of course, I was. I’ve always had leadership qualities and the fact that I get to exercise that leader part of me while also helping the kids is something that I’m enjoying thoroughly.

I hope that during my time here at Robert L. Stevens Elementary I can learn to be someone who has the ability to help both the tutors and tutees become everything they want to be. That may seem like a vague statement, but what I mean is that I want to be able to help my tutors not only hone their teaching skills but gain a life enriching experience while helping the children at my school gain the tools they need to be academically successful as well. For myself, I know this experience will give me the building blocks I need to shape a purposeful life for myself both professionally and personally. I’ve been very fortunate to have been teamed up with a fantastic group of AmeriCorps members and classroom leaders.

Everyone I’ve been working with is so driven and just as motivated as I am about helping children succeed in their scholastic endeavors. A lot of the people I’m working with are returners who worked for this program before and they have helped me feel right at home. Their prior knowledge of the students and the way things work here has been helpful in more ways than I could say. My site supervisor is a gem; she has been on site for years and knows all the ins and outs of this place. I also have come to build very pleasant relationships with the teachers on campus here. All in all, I’ve come to love this school – the kids, the teachers, my coworkers – everyone has contributed to make this a great experience.

After my service in CalSERVES I plan to leave the country to teach English abroad. I’m not sure where yet, but I know that I will be applying the skills I’ve learned at CalSERVES when teaching abroad next year (and for the rest of my life). I cannot sign off without giving some advice to anyone who is interested in being a team leader: there is never a dull moment and sometimes there’s more to do than one person can handle, but this experience is something that I would never want to take back. I’ve already learned so much about myself and how to interact with other people, and children. Every day is different and new, and the kids make your day never devoid of excitement. I wouldn’t change a thing!

By: Allison Hunter, AmeriCorps Team Leader, Robert L. Stevens Elementary

Make a Difference Day Part 3: RL Stevens and Wright Schools

Make a Difference Day, October 27th, 2012, saw some amazing projects around the CalSERVES school sites as AmeriCorps members joined together to provide a day of service. What follows is the third post in series of 3 outlining the projects competed by CalSERVES AmeriCorps members. Each post is written by a Team Leader who worked on that specific project.

In my twenty-four years, I have been lucky enough to travel. I've seen the world. Indeed only a tiny fraction, but I've toured Europe, hitting the highlights: Italy, France, Switzerland, Ireland, etc... And let's not forget that for the past two years, I have been hiding from my frosty Minnesota home in Sunny California, which is where this story takes place.

As I mentioned, I've seen the world. Most importantly for this blog, I have become cultured in those countries: Donatello, Rafael, and Leonardo are more than just Ninja Turtles. They are brilliant artists. And I have seen work from each of them. After Make a Difference Day though, the Renaissance has nothing on Wright Charter or RL Stevens.

The Wright District Dream Team was together at Wright Charter School to work on a beautification project. We had the lofty goal of repainting benches, weeding out the garden, adding a map of the USA onto the blacktop, and oh yeah, painting a mural of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in our main hall.

AmeriCorps member David Ortiz puts on the finishing touches of the newly painted benches in front of the school.

When the ideas were conceived I knew how necessary it was to spruce up our old school, but I didn't know how realistic the goal was. Were a handful of AmeriCorps members going to have the capacity or, not to mention the resources to pull this off?

What we didn't consider is that we work with some of the most thoughtful, caring, engaged, and responsible kids, teachers, parents, and staff in the world. That is, several students, a handful of teachers, and representatives from Wright's PTC all showed up to shine up our old classrooms. Last, with a generous donation from Kelly Moore Paint, we made our goals a reality.

Students at Wright came out to help with projects at their school.

 No cartographer could have stenciled the United States like the RL Stevens team did. Our newly weeded garden is practically Zen-like now that our middle schoolers tore into it. 15 hours later, a cadre of CalSERVians, 2 Wright Mentor Teachers, and of course a dozen of our finest 7th and 8th grade artists immortalized Ellen Nanni's rendering of MLK.

AmeriCorps members were working hard on tracing out the 50 states and painting them in.

Like I said, in my short twenty-four years, I've seen a few things. I've been around. But it wasn't until this Saturday that I've witnessed a community come together more seamlessly than this one did. The school, especially the mural, is, thanks to hard work, and most importantly, extra hands a masterpiece. I'll even go out on a limb and say that Wright is on its way to becoming the new Sistine Chapel. Eat your heart out, Michelangelo!

Classroom Leader at Wright, Ellen Nanni, puts the finishing touches on the MLK Jr. mural.

-By: Lauren Loeffler, Team Leader at Wright Charter

Poetry Café at R.L. Stevens

On Friday, April 13^th the Jaguars, the second grade after school class lead by Diana Sharkawy and Eddie Castañeda, hosted a poetry café at R.L. Stevens School. The recital came after a class study of Jamaican Dub Poetry, and a poetry writing workshop experience.

The event began with an invocation from Sharkawy, followed by the majority of students reading their own works aloud to a rapt audience of family, friends, and the fourth grade cool school class. A few shyer students opted to have Sharkawy read their poems to the audience on their behalf. Once the Jaguars finished sharing their poems, families were invited to stay for refreshments and an opportunity to read with their children from a collection of poetry books the mentors had assembled from the school and public libraries.

It was exciting for all involved to watch the second graders take pride in their work. In the coming weeks the Jaguars will star in a play that the students, with mentor guidance, will have written, staged, and directed themselves. If the success of their poetry presentation is any indicator, this capstone production will be another runaway success for the Jaguars. Here at R.L., we can hardly wait to see our beloved Jags perform once more!

~Rachel Socia

Literacy Tutoring Team Leader

R.L. Stevens School 

RL’s Irreplaceable Volunteers

This year, I have been consistently impressed with the volunteers at our RL Stevens CalSERVES program. They consistently have a great attitude, and are friendly with all of our kids. We regularly have volunteers stay after 6PM (when our program ends) in order to make sure the mentors have everything they need, and that all the loose ends from that day are tied up. One of our third grade class volunteers, Kristyn (who has volunteered over 100 hours), often volunteers for entire Wednesdays (12:30PM-6:00PM), as has led her own club. Giovanni (who has volunteered over 150 hours) has worked with several different grades, and knows every student in each class he works with.

Both Ericka (left) and Zully (right) have volunteered with CalSERVES for multiple years, and are looked up to and adored by the students they work with.

The tutoring program at CalSERVES requires such consistency and structure that volunteers are usually not formal tutors. At RL, however, we have two volunteers, Rebecca and Lan, who have shown not only a willingness to consistently arrive early in the morning, but also the understanding necessary to fully implement the tutoring curriculum. We are grateful for their time, as are the students and their teachers. 

I am unable to convey how important and meaningful volunteer support is to our program here at RL, though I have tried. Our volunteers are talented, kind, dedicated and intelligent individuals, and there are an infinite number ways they could spend their time. We are grateful they choose to spend so much of it helping our students.        

Former Americorps member Nick works on homework with a sixth grader. Nick has volunteered over 100 hours with Cool School, and has attended several service days.

RL Stevens Super Class

While I, without a doubt or a blink, love each and every student in RL Stevens Cool School, I have as of late been greatly impressed by the tenacious and spirited 4^th grade class. Under the nurturing and yet diligent care of Ms. Jimenez and Ms. Latta, 4^th grade has taken on several projects including: the Photovoice project with Network for a Healthy California, pen pal program with CSU Chico teaching students and a service learning project where they will be working with Heifer International to provide animals for others in need. Each student has invested time and care in taking a field trip to take photos of healthy foods and practices for Photovoice, writing letters about what they read and why, and discussing which animals they think would best help another family or community.

            A personal highlight has been working with 4^th grade on their letters. Working with them on how the genre of a letter is designed and then sending them to actual pen pals has been highly rewarding in that students see how writing can be applicable in the real world. In the letters, students focus on what they like to read and why, and their reflections on what makes a book interesting to them has been helpful in thinking through how to help students engage in learning. All in all, I am very proud of all of the extra work our 4^th grade students (through the hard and often extra work of their mentors) have done to think through ways they can enjoy their own education and how to make healthier choices. 

Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.

While the motto “Passion. Potential. Power” may be emblazoned on our t-shirts, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go,” is the dictum to which I truly subscribe. Reading is the foundation of building knowledge, and the acquisition of knowledge is what enables us to achieve success in its many forms. By signing on to be a mentor, each CalSERVES member demonstrates their belief that every child deserves the opportunity to become a successful reader, and a successful citizen of the community and the world.

            

Most days, mentors work one on one with their assigned reading buddy, modeling prosodic reading, and monitoring students own reading journeys. However, on Friday, March 2^nd, mentors and students took a break from their tutoring routines to celebrate a certain literary hero. This great writer and thinker, who also espoused the belief that the ability to read will carry an individual far in all endeavors, was none other than Theodore Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss. In honor of Seuss’s birthday, literacy specialist Mallori Thompson selected Seuss’s best work, which she had the full time R.L. mentors read aloud to small groups of students through out the day. Thompson also planned an activity to correspond to each book, which all mentors helped to facilitate.     

Highlights of the themed activities included a rhyme sort, with spell patterns found in the story The Sneetches printed on green stars. The green star cards were modeled after the ones on the Star-Bellied Sneetches, of course! Another game played, this one to accompany One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish, was a version of Go Fish, where students fished for digraph matches. A third activity had students writing and illustrating an alternate scene to And to Think that I Saw It On Mulberry Street featuring themselves as characters.

            

Overall Dr. Seuss’s birthday party was a merry celebration. The theme day was enjoyed by all who participated in the day’s events. We know Dr. Seuss would be proud!

~ Rachel Socia

Literacy Tutoring Team Leader at R.L. Stevens Elementary 

Loving Science at RL Stevens

3rd graders testing their parachutes.

The mentors and kids at RL Stevens LOVE our new KidzScience kits. It is easy for me because I just hand the kit to a mentor and I know they are well supplied. The mentors appreciate having the lesson plans to use as guides for leading and setting up activities.

We have had several classes use the Falling and Flying kit to make parachutes and build rockets. The students had a lot of fun testing their parachutes and racing them against paper clips without parachutes to see how parachutes help to slow objects as they fall. They also built rockets, working in teams to see which constructions worked best and helped their rockets fly the farthest.

With the help of the KidzScience kits, we have had a lot of success introducing our students to different scientific principles by using just one or two of the lessons.

by Lauren Alpert, Team Leader at RL Stevens Elementary

Making a BIG Difference - the AmeriCorps way!

Meadow View Team Report - Christa Fox, AmeriCorps Team Leader

This year for Make a Difference Day, the CalSERVES Meadow View team  partnered with the Volunteer Center of Sonoma County and produced over 50 volunteers to beautify the campus of Helen Lehman Elementary. The projects at hand included organizing the school’s library, repainting lines, numbers and hopscotch squares on the black top, and, the most daunting of tasks, a complete overhaul of the garden!

Amongst the free bagels and coffee, we were greeted in the morning by Helen Lehman’s principal, Beverly Jones. After the initial introduction, our large group dispersed into three smaller groups and started on our projects. It was a beautiful day to be outside painting and gardening!

The amount of student and parent volunteers was very impressive! Entire families arrived with their own tools and went straight to work. Many hands were engrossed in the garden, as it required the most attention. The Meadow View team helped to pull weeds, organize the tool shed, and lay cardboard, compost and mulch. Needless to say, there was a lot of shoveling involved!

The painting committee revamped the entire blacktop to appear brand new! Paint was reapplied on benches, hopscotch squares, basketball hoop backboards, perimeter lines, etc. Once again, the blacktop has been restored to a wonderful place for students to play.

The overall atmosphere at Helen Lehman was incredibly positive! Thank you so much to all who came out to lend a hand!

RL Stevens Team Report - Richelle Andre, AmeriCorps VIP Fellow

On Saturday, October 22nd, the R.L. Stevens CalSERVES staff and a handful of fantastic volunteers teamed up for Make a Difference Day. During the course of the morning, we were able to put bark mulch over many of the bare-dirt areas around the school, as well as on the margins of the playground. This bark mulch helps keep weeds down and make the school look great!

We were also able to clean out the school’s garden, which was full of truckloads of old weeds as well as garbage. Everyone worked really hard and had a great attitude the whole time. Thank you to everyone who came out!

Wright Charter Team Report - Stacey  Krywaruczenko, AmeriCorps Team Leader

This past Saturday, I joined the fabulous team at Wright Charter as we picked up trash and pulled weeds at Cook Middle School. These are both things that I have done numerous times at different locations, but there is just something very special about completing these tasks with people that I see everyday, with whom I know that I am already making a difference.

I mostly picked up trash around the school and conversed with my team members, one in particular that I didn’t even know very well, but through this experience I was able to get to know her at a different level. We had some good laughs, not just from our conversations, but also by some of the strange things that we found all throughout Cook. While doing all of these things, there were also members of the community who were practicing their favorite sport, or watching a soccer game.

Seeing the community interact in that manner allowed me to feel a sense of accomplishment. Through our actions of beautifying Cook Middle School, it is now a place where not only just the students can enjoy themselves, but the community can as well.

And... We're Off!

Melissa Moore, Supervising Teacher at R.L. Stevens Elementary

Mentors line up in fine style at RL Stevens

It’s the start of a brand new school year at R.L. Stevens Elementary, and after weeks of anticipation, the mentors are excited to meet their students. Armed with a storehouse of recently acquired knowledge in academic curricula and healthy behaviors, the “Cool School” Team is prepared for an excellent year. The first few weeks will be spent building an inclusive class community and structured, positive learning environments. With that foundation in place, and the enthusiasm and dedication of the CalSERVES team, there can be no doubt that all are in store for a year of learning, excitement and personal growth.

Students are Learning to Love Reading

Mia Petersen, AmeriCorps Team Leader at RL Stevens

The time of year when the leaves are changing is just like our students attitudes toward reading. “I don’t want to read! It’s too hard,” was a complaint heard far too often in September. However, after months of practice and with the support and motivation of their mentor, students now ask, “How many books can I read today?”

Although in Sonoma County, the leaves are golden and the sun is shining, newfound enthusiasm for reading is most exciting and beautiful change I have witnessed this autumn for the students at R.L. Stevens.

Volunteers Get Involved!

Melissa Moore, CalSERVES Supervising Teacher at RL Stevens

The success of most nonprofit organizations depend in large part on volunteer support from the community. The level of volunteer involvement is a great indicator of how much the community buys into the goals of the organization. Here are some of the voices of volunteers at R.L. Stevens Elementary.


“The CalSERVES program is a great way to get involved and do something for the community. Volunteers get to help out in the after school program that gives hands on experience working with elementary school level students. From helping with math and reading to drawing flowers and making cards, the day always brings something different that the both student and volunteer can benefit from.” ~ Corinne

“Volunteers got me where I am today. It’s my responsibility to help the next generation.” ~Danielle

“I’m excited to get to work with energetic individuals!” ~ Travis

“This is a great opportunity to get the experience I need to change a child’s life.” ~Mallory

Fun with the Librarian!

Amy Holter, AmeriCorps VIP Fellow at RL Stevens Elementary

Librarian.

For children, the word often conjures an image of someone who hushes you and forces you to read boring books. On November 3rd, however, the first and second graders of R.L. Stevens’ Cool School program had a vastly different experience. As part of our mission to make reading the exciting thing we know it can be, we invited a librarian from Sonoma County Library to come to our after school program. She arrived with giant books, an impressive repertoire of children’s songs and a strong subliminal message – reading is a REALLY good time.

As she read stories to an entranced crowd sitting in a half-moon on the floor around her, the librarian took the students from a farm with talking animals to books written in Spanish to books written entirely in song.

The interactive presentation produced some hilarious moments. While reading about safari animals, she asked what noises all the animals made. When asked what a zebra said, literacy specialists will be happy to know that both classes let out an enthusiastic, “Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!”

The children received book marks, applications for a library card, contact information for the libraries in the area, suggested reading lists for their grade and “Read” tattoos. Clearly, reading does not have to be silent and boring. Reading can mean exciting and sometimes noisy participation as a community. Most importantly, reading can mean a really good time.

Cheering for RL Stevens

Melissa Moore, Supervising Teacher at RL Stevens

Kylie, getting ready to perform

RL Stevens cheerleading girls had a truly wonderful time at the Cool Sports Challenge at Sheppard last month! They practiced for weeks before the big day and arrived to each practice with enthusiasm to learn new moves and perfect the one's they already knew. The girls performed a crowd favorite dance to Michael Jackson's song "Thriller", complete with white painted faces. They returned to RL Stevens that night with huge smiles and the "Most Spirited Dance" award!

Crocodile Dentist!

Melissa Whitehead, Supervising Teacher at RL Stevens Elementary

  Gerry, a 2nd Grader, takes a turn brushing Snappy's teeth

On Wednesday, December 2nd, RL Stevens After School students got a visit from Snappy, the Crocodile Dentist. This toothy reptile reminded us how important it is to brush and floss each day! Snappy and his partner talked about good dental hygiene and even read a tooth book story. Students were excited to see Snappy and loved the presentation. They even took home healthy teeth kits complete with brushes, floss, timers and toothpaste.

Off to Africa!

Kean Witzeman, AmeriCorps Promise Fellow at RL Stevens Elementary


R.L. Stevens After School was transported to the African plains by visiting local wildlife preserve Safari West this month. Thanks to the Discover Africa Scholarship Program, our students were given a free two-part tour of the preserve and were afforded the opportunity to see a multitude of exotic animals, many of which are endangered or at risk of becoming endangered. A few animals, such as the Scimitar Horned Oryx are actually extinct in nature, and are only still alive thanks to wildlife preserves like Safari West.


The first part of the tour was a walk through exhibits where students got up close and personal with cheetahs, lemurs, a 40-year-old tortoise, two fennec foxes, many exotic birds and cranes, and much more. Students learned about the physiology of cheetahs and what makes them able to run so fast. Students also learned interesting facts about the different animal species and important issues and problems that they face in the wild.

The second part of the tour was a ride through the fenced preserve on a large safari truck. During the drive, students were greeted by curious giraffes who walked up to the trucks and introduced themselves to the great students of RL Stevens. Another popular animal was the Watusi cattle, a horned breed of cow that is highly regarded in many African cultures and used as a form of currency for certain tribes. The preserve was also filled with different species of antelope, guinea fowl, cranes, and even ostriches!

The trips to Safari West were a great experience for our students, who have been raised predominantly in a city/urban environment. It was a natural experience unlike any Zoo visit. The variety of diverse wildlife with which the students came face to face and the valuable information they learned was a fun and enriching experience for all!