Making Sure Our Students Voices are Heard!

Coming in as a second year Team Leader at Wright Charter, I had thought a lot about how to make the 2011-2012 school year even better than the previous academic year. I knew that my best brainstorming came through collaboration. If I could find out students needs, wants and grand ideas, then I could help make things happen! I wanted students to be more involved and be a community in our after school and for them to know that their voices are crucial to our program. I realized that a great way for this to occur was through the creation of student council.

After School Student Council consists of 2-3 student representatives from our 5th, 6th, 7th and 7th/8th classrooms! We meet once a week for 30 minutes and discuss the items on our agenda. Opinions are always requested on every topic. Representatives have the responsibility of taking information back to their classroom. They are in charge of announcing upcoming events, collecting feedback about past activities and taking class votes in order to represent a larger class opinion on a particular topic. Every meeting, we go over the class responses and discuss how smoothly the transfer of information went. Providing information and conducting a voting session are not the easiest things to do with a classroom full of your peers!

The representatives have gained a lot of experience through their new position. They have done a spectacular job and have helped create and run successful events and activities. We have come up with class mascots, activities and awards to include in our upper grade assemblies, how to improve our fitness centers, and more. Our first big event was an after school dance for grades 5th through 8th. Representatives helped brainstorm themes, decorations, and music recommendations, as well as help things run smoothly during the dance and help clean up afterwards. Students and mentors alike had a wonderful time and many requested to have more dances!

Student Council Members at the dance they helped to create.

I am thrilled to be a part of After School Student Council at Wright Charter. I cannot wait to see what else we will improve and create during this second half of the year! I believe that the council’s success comes from our students’ drive to help make after school the best it can be and from the support that our fantastic mentors give to their students and staff on a daily basis.

By Jenna Rafalow, AmeriCorps Team Leader at Wright Charter School

Tales of Wright Charter Tutoring

Ms. Peek and her tutoring student.

When pairing a student with a mentor for tutoring, you try your best to find a perfect match. However, not knowing every student makes matching more arbitrary and thus, the result can at times be more problematic. This was the case with one particular duo, Ms. Peek and a student I'll call *Trey. I knew that Ms. Peek was a very experienced tutor, but neither of us quite understood how challenging Trey would prove to be. Every day for the first month, Trey would loudly complain and hide when Ms. Peek would pick him up, he wouldn’t respond to her attempts at conversation, or if he did respond it was in a tone that one would think only an angry teenager could have mastered. In short, he hated tutoring and made sure everyone and anyone around him was aware of it.

After some of the usual suggestions for challenging students had failed, I decided to team up with his teacher, his tutor, our supervising teacher, his Cool School mentors and anyone else who had some sort of close relationship with him. We all started brainstorming ideas together and ended up with a fantastic solution. We incorporated physical activities, gave him control by allowing him to pick and choose his own agenda, set up a unique reward system. We also sat down and had an honest one-on-one conversation letting him know that we cared about him and wanted to all work together to make tutoring a success.

Fast forward a few weeks, and Trey has not only done a full 180 on his behavior but his reading is now at his grade level and he enjoys both tutoring and his tutor. Now when Ms. Peek and Trey walk to our tutoring classroom, instead of an angry silence he tells her about his weekend, even including his heartbreaking defeat at his basketball game. Reflecting back on the situation, I am so proud of Ms. Peek who never gave up regardless of so many initial failed attempts; so grateful for the community people who came together to help; and proud of Trey who also never gave up and was able to become a positive, productive student.

By Melissa Boni, AmeriCorps Team Leader at Wright Charter School

*Name was changed to protect the student.

Super Snack Love

Before I became an After School Team Leader, I knew that one of my main responsibilities would be providing snack for the students. This year we started something brand new, the supper program. When I initially heard about the change I grew extremely nervous. Not only did the amount of food we had to provide change but it also changed the amount of time it would take for me to get everything ready. My fears were soon dismissed and over the past 4 months I have grown to absolutely love the supper program. It really allows for us to provide our students with many healthy options, and to ensure that they will go home feeling full.

When we began the supper program, my co-partner Ms. Rafalow and I realized how hard it was for just the two of us to hand out all of this food to 150 students. We brainstormed on how we could make the process as easy as possible, but the answer didn’t come from us - it cam from our students. We realized that our students wanted to be part of the process with us, so I developed a schedule in which different students from each grade are able to help us pass the food out each day.

Passing out Supper at Wright.

At first I wasn’t sure how many students would actually want to help us, but it has become very popular in the after school program. I have students who ask me during regular school if they can be my helper for snack. One day I even had a student cling to my leg and refused to let go until I told him he could help me. Many of our students also help us clean up snack and we have developed a very successful recycling system that students enjoy helping with as well.

Seeing my students want to help us is what has allowed for me to enjoy the supper program as much as I do. Seeing them enthusiastic to pass out food to their peers has given me the momentum I need everyday to ensure that the supper program is successful.

By Stacey Krywaruczenko, AmeriCorps Team Leader at Wright Charter School

Day On, Not a Day Off at VOICES!

Getting things done! 

Wright Charter spent their Martin Luther King Day working with the organization, VOICES. VOICES provides support for youth coming out the foster care system. They are involved with other organizations in the Sonoma area and are a stellar example of how much we can accomplish when we come together as a community to help our fellow community members. VOICES helps teens and young adults get on their feet through their in and out of house resources as well as having a warm, loving environment to which they can come.

Time to Move.

VOICES decided to move from their original location on College Avenue to a building just two blocks down on Mendocino Avenue! The new building has significantly more space to better accommodate all who come through their doors. In order to make this transition smoother, CalSERVES AmeriCorps members from Wright Charter and CalSERVES staff members were there to help on moving day! Everywhere you looked there were people packing, cleaning, fixing up rooms, moving furniture and overall just getting things done! Both VOICES locations were well staffed and made big moves!

Home Depot Volunteers

 Everyone did a fantastic job and helped VOICES transfer their workplace in one go! A special thank you to the volunteers from Home Depot that came and made beautiful planter boxes for the new VOICES building. There is nothing more satisfying than coming together as a community to support local organizations and our specialty – helping youth!

By Jenna Rafalow, AmeriCorps Team Leader at Wright Charter

A Successful Day of Service

Julie McClure, CalSERVES Program Director, writes a blog where she shares her insights and perspective on the CalSERVES program. Visit her blog to read about how the Martin Luther King Jr. Day ON not a Day OFF was celebrated around the county.

CalSERVES Direct Blog

CalSERVES was also featured in the the Press Democrat with an article about the fantastic service that was given to the community.

Press Democrat Article

Thanks to everyone who participated - with donations of supplies, or of time and hard work! CalSERVES really made a difference.

A Day On, Not a Day Off

Art by Kathleen Chosa

How are you celebrating Martin Luther King Day? Sleeping in? Hitting great sales? Or are you giving back to the community?

If you are like the CalSERVES AmeriCorps folks, you will be giving a day of service! Yes, they give service pretty much around the clock, providing over 1700 hours each during the 10 months they work in our programs. But this AmeriCorps Service Day is an opportunity to do things that are a little different.

This year marks the 25th Anniversary of the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday, and organizers see the milestone as a perfect opportunity for Americans to remember Dr. King’s life and legacy and to honor him by taking action to solve problems in their communities.

For 2012, the folks putting on the Service Day decided to focus on helping kids facing homelessness and in foster care. Different community organizations were selected to provide with help, and over 100 AmeriCorps members are going at it! Here's what they will be doing:

• Preparing brunch for families and lead fun activities with children at a homeless center;
• Moving supplies of a non-profit that helps women in crisis to new site, building planter boxes, painting, and hanging curtains;
• At a Homeless Resource Center, painting and cleaning children’s play area, installing basketball hoop, organizing adult and children’s areas;
• At a school for children that have been abandoned or neglected, painting the MPR and kitchen, organizing/cleaning the emergency storage area, garden clean up, and campus revitalization.
• Making quilts to give to children in crisis.

I'm impressed.

So, how will you Make a Difference?   

by Emily Mann, CalSERVES Project Coordinator 

COOL Sports Cheer and Dance

Students from Taylor Mountain gear up for Cheer

“Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (Do it!)
Friday, Saturday to Sunday (Do it!)
Get, get, get, get, get with us, you know what we say, say
Party every day, p-p-p-party every day

And I’m feelin’, woohoo, that tonight’s gonna be a good night
That tonight’s gonna be a good night, That tonight’s gonna be a good night
Woohoo!”

And what a good night (or day) it was! The six CalSERVES after school sites gathered for our first COOL Sports Challenge of the year at RL Stevens to perform their awesome Cheer and Dance routines on stage! 

RL Stevens students cheer on other teams

The room was filled with two mentors from each site, proud parents, teachers,  and RL’s principal. The students were excited with their nervous smiles as they waited for their turn on stage. It was nice seeing their mentors giving them pep talk to high fives to help excite and calm their nerves at the same time. Seeing our extraordinary Supervising Teachers Taylor Ford and Yesenia Salas-Chavira MC the event is always a bonus! This year, I had the privilege in being one of the judges along with
Katie McCormick, Lauren Serpa and Megan Randles. We got to choose each team to “Walked it out” with an award and two walked away with our first ever Sportsmanship trophies! 

Kickin' off the event

“I think sportsmanship is knowing that it is a game, that we are only as good as our opponents, and whether you win or lose, to always give 100%.” This was how our fifth grade student kicked off our event by reading this awesome quote by Sue Wick. … which led to the wild cheers and applause for each other throughout the entire event!

I love, love, love watching people dance (especially kids!) and I couldn’t sit still in my own seat. Who knew that lyrics like “Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle yeah! Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle yeah! Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle yeah” would make one want to move!

Our COOL Sports kids definitely rocked the house. Everybody had a good time and we almost
lost our minds…  they definitely “got the mooooooves... like jagger!”

Meadow View students wait for their turn

Congratulations to all! Here are the awards:
Hardest Cheer – Meadow View
Most Unique – Kawana
Most Encouraging – Bellevue
Loudest Cheer – Wright
Most Spirited – Taylor Mountain
Funniest – RL Stevens

Sportsmanship trophies awarded to:
Wright
Meadow View

All the COOL Sports Cheer participants

Want to see what you missed? Check out the talent of our kids at www.youtube.com/calserves. Don’t miss our next COOL Sports Challenge in February. See you there! “We just wanna see yaa!
Shake That!” …

by Sandra Lemus, CalSERVES Program Coordinator