4. Fort Hunt Elementary School- Spanish Immersion Program As graduates of the Fort Hunt immersion program, we wanted to go back and show our support for the program by volunteering. We feel that it is important to keep the program going because it opens up opportunities for bilingual study in the future, as well as opens up cultural interests in young children. Learning the language at such a young age has allowed us to personally benefit educationally, and culturally. In volunteering we hope to foster these same interests for future generations.
5. Alesha Lorca I volunteered in a 4th grade class room and helped them create life cycle diagrams. Each student had to research there animals and write a note card about them in Spanish, which is where I came in and helped them take their words and conjugate them correctly. I also helped teach them the beginning stages of algebra, and learned all the terms in Spanish.
6. Sasha Spriggs I volunteered in a Spanish Immersion First Grade Classroom. It is truly remarkable how much language the minds of young kids can absorb- their mastery of the Spanish Language surpasses that of many high school students. Much of my volunteering was centered around instructing/reinforcing basic mathematic skills such as adding and subtracting numbers. In addition, I was responsible for helping out with their health and sciences unit on the effects of Alcohol and Tobacco on the Human System. Filing warm-ups, copying tests, and filling “take home folders” were also some of the tasks I helped complete while volunteering at Fort Hunt.
8. For our SHOUT project, we went to the warehouses of Turtle Wings, Inc., an environmental services company. Turtle Wings picks up and recylces electronics. We spent our time around the warehouses in Capitol Heights, MD doing everything from cleaning up and organizing to shredding hard drives.
9. We helped shrink wrap groups of computers which would then be sent to a different facility to be recycled.
10. In this photo, we are degaussing a hard drive which removes the magnetism from the hard drive. We learned a lot about the procedures of recycling electronics and the regulations regarding data destruction.
11. This is the shredder that is used to destroy hard drives. It has been proven that no information can be retrieved off of the hard drive after it has been shredded.
12. These are the remnants of the hard drives after they had been shredded. We had scoop this from the bottom of the shredder and put it into a box which is then sent out to another facility.
14. At the hospital, we worked in many different departments to get a feel for the different sections of the hospital. We performed tasks that ranged from observing medical procedures to materials management.
15. Materials Management We stocked the store rooms We also pulled orders from the shelves to bring to the nursing units
16. Infection Control When we worked in infection control, we patrolled the floors to make sure all units were complying with hand washing and isolation room regulations.
17. Hematology and Chemistry Labs In these labs, we used samples of our own blood to analyze the content of the blood under microscopes. We determined the different types of cells present and also found our blood types.
21. SHOUT: Why Stratford? For my SHOUT Project, I chose to volunteer at Stratford Landing Elementary because I love helping kids and I also attended Stratford Landing from Kindergarten through Sixth Grade, so I thought it would be an enjoyable experience to go back to my old school and help! I asked my previous Second Grade Teacher Mrs. Falvey, if I could help out her current Third Grade Class. I decided to ask Mrs. Falvey since she is my neighbor, and I have known her for quite some time and I always remembered her class being a lot of fun! She said she would be happy for me to help, and I was excited to meet her class in June.
22. SHOUT: Helping the Kids My first day of SHOUT was like going back to my first day of Elementary School! It was a new day for me, and I felt like the “new kid” at school. The kids became quickly attached to me and I felt like I was back in Third Grade with them! I was introduced to all the kids, and I was so eager to help out in any way I could. I could not wait to get to know all of my new Third Graders in the next two weeks! During class I would help out with their Math lessons (which consisted of Long Division, while I was there), Reading, Art, P.E., Music, Junior Achievement, and Science (biomes/ecosystems). I also ate lunch with the kids everyday. I felt so happy when the kids asked for my assistance. And when I knew an answer to their solution, it felt great. It was rewarding to know I was really able to help the kids learn and encourage them to achieve their best.
23. SHOUT The photo on the left shows Gillian presenting her Biome. The students could choose to work on any biome ranging from the Desert to the Grassland to the Rainforest, and were required to present their projects in front of the class. I got to help the kids with their projects by helping them research on their biome. The photo on the right shows me playing with the kids during a short study break.
25. SHOUT From the previous slide: The picture on the left shows a Third Grader in my class, Noelle, who dressed up as William Shakespeare for her Biography presentation. The students were able to choose a historic figure of their choice and were expected to dress up as their figure. The second photo shows Katherine, pointing to her Junior Achievement news article. During my time at Stratford I was able to observe the student’s presentations. I did get to help with the Junior Achievement Lessons, where students are educated on workforce readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy.
26. SHOUT During one of the Biography presentation days, there was a boy in my class, Louis, who dressed up as Christopher Columbus. Some of his fellow classmates wished to be in the picture as well. I was lucky enough to be doing SHOUT during all of the students Biography presentations. They were so much fun to watch! I learned a lot as well!
27. SHOUT I was able to read to the class as well after lunch time. The book I read is a book I gave to Mrs. Falvey in the year 2000! It was so neat to read the book aloud to the class since I gave the book to Mrs. Falvey eleven years ago! The book is called Officer Buckle and Gloria.
28. SHOUT I was able to attend art class with my Third Grade class, and helped a few of them with their artwork.
29. SHOUT: Library and Book Fair On my last day, I helped out in the Library with the annual Summer book sale. If kids needed help finding a book or finding the price of a book, I was there to help.
31. SHOUT: Conclusion SHOUT was such a rewarding experience. I think it is such a good program because I think everyone should give back to the community in some way, and this program encourages students to do that. I loved working with the kids, I became so attached to them after my two weeks, that I did not want to leave! They gave me cards on my last day, and it was so sweet because I made an impact on their year just by being there and helping them out. I really do wish SHOUT was longer so I could have spent more time with them. I definitely encourage all Seniors to do this project next year, I was always happy to come to Mrs. Falvey’s Third Grade class so I could be with all of the students!
33. PROJECTS I did two different projects for SHOUT: 1. I worked at my old elementary school, Belle View, for 20 of my hours. 2. I completed the last 30 during at an internship with GROW Career Coaching.
34. Belle View Elementary School At Belle View I helped organize the book room and read with the younger children. In the book room I helped catalog books that teachers use as resources in the classroom. I put all the books into their appropriate bins, did the necessary labeling and color coding, then took inventory of all of the books. Organizing the book room will allow the teachers easy access to all the books they need to help their students with their reading. When I read with the little kids, the child I was reading with primarily read to me though I helped them pronounce words when they needed assistance, and occasionally read a book to them.
39. Grow Career Coaching For my internship at GROW, a group of art students from West Potomac helped GROW Founder, Katie Rice, come up with creative marketing for her company. We had several meetings, both individually and as a group with Mrs. Rice discussing logo ideas, layouts for the GROW website, etc. I did several different logo designs, along with creating a pamphlet for parents. For the pamphlet I had to come up with a layout, create handwritten fonts for the front cover, along with taking pictures, editing, and manipulating them for the pamphlet. Additionally for the Grow project I was the photographer, taking several different shots of a grow poster the group made, taking pictures of group meetings, and taking photos that represented the company.
48. SHOUT Amanda Alves Brenna Powers Grow Career Coaching and West Potomac High School
49. The Wolverine Mural We added a mural depicting a wolverine coming out of the wall in the Gunston lobby. We are very pleased with how it came out, and we were glad that our fellow students also appreciated it. A lot of students didn’t really know what a wolverine looked like, so we produced a mural depicting one. We also noticed there was a lack of murals in Gunston and wanted to remedy that. Our goal was to make something to sort of ‘intimidate’ the other sports teams coming into West Potomac and to show off our school spirit.
50. The Mural’s Progression 1) Sketching and painting the base. 2) More base painting. 3) Shading, starting details. 4) Adding outlines, details, and text.
51. The Logo Mural We also added the school’s official logo to a wall near the Quander lobby. We thought that visitors to our school would see it and instantly recognize it as our logo. It depicts our school’s mascot as well as our school colors, and was designed by Brenna Powers in 2010. Our goal was to help beautify the school, and judging by how much our peers and faculty enjoyed this mural, we think we succeeded.
52. Mural Touch-Ups Many students and faculty enjoy the look of the old senior class murals, but they have faded with time and have been vandalized as well. We heard that they might be painted over, so we decided to touch up on the one that had been damaged the most in order to perhaps keep it around longer. We hope that students in the coming years will see our example and will want to touch up on the murals here at West Potomac. Our only regret is that we did not have enough time to touch up more of them.
53. GROW Career Coaching We worked with a local career coach, Mrs. Katie Rice, to help design a website for her business. As a part of her creative team, we helped her produce ideas as well as bring the perspective of her business’ desired demographic. We met very often and as a group produced a logo, website design layout, a banner, and informational brochures. It was very enlightening to work with Mrs. Rice and we even gained some internship experience in the process.
54. Our Experience SHOUT was definitely a positive experience for us. We enjoyed giving back to our school and our community, and it was a very nice way to spend our time instead of being in classes in which we had already taken our finals for. Also, we were lucky enough to have received some job experience in the process, which will looks great on resumes. We would highly recommend SHOUT to all rising seniors because it is a great way to wrap up the last year of high school.
56. Shout Group Members Jack Edgar Jonathan Lazenby Margaret Corum Victoria Parces John McDonald Matthew Rhoads Carlo Zuffi Kyle Skudlarek Mary Langan Emily Dell
57. Shout project: paul spring retirement community Our project took place at Paul Spring Retirement Community. For two weeks, we performed a wide variety of community service for the residents under the supervision of Ms. Darnall Graham. Our servicedranged from assisting the residents, to interacting with them, to planning a large community yard sale for them. Note: Due to privacy rules at PSRC, pictures with the residents could not be shown
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59. We set up and helped with afternoon movies, Bingo, art lessons, musical performances, an annual Spelling Bee, the annual Spring Fling, June Family Night, and a Men’s Breakfast
60. We provided the musical entertainment for the June Family Night by forming small ensembles to play for two hours
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62. Community yard sale As our biggest project, we undertook the planning of the community yard sale. Our group picked up boxes of donations from the apartments of the residents, priced the items, helped spread the word about the sale on June 11th, and then arrived at 6:30 am Saturday in order to set up for the sale. The sale ended at noon and all profits ($280) went to the Resident’s Association. After the sale, we took anything that was not sold and donated it to United Community Ministries.
64. Reflections on shout Our group found SHOUT to be extremely rewarding. Instead of wasting our time watching movies in school, we were able to do something of substance in our community. The time we spent with the elderly residents taught us a lot about taking care of people and how to interact with people with all different levels of hearing, sight, and movement. I think that our presence, help, and stories were truly appreciated by the residents, who had begun to get very used to us being at Paul Spring. We worked to be friendly and engaging with the residents so as to provide the residents with something new each day. SHOUT surprised us because by the end, we had made friends with some of these residents who at the beginning we were intimidated by. SHOUT is such a unique and rewarding opportunity, and working at Paul Spring Retirement Community provided us with constantly fun and interesting work that both benefitted the community and our lives.
74. United Community Ministry We also helped out by organizing a food drive on several streets in the neighborhood We placed flyers and collected and delivered the food to the church.
76. Introduction For my SHOUT project, I decided to continue volunteering at Belle View Elementary, which I have been doing since September 2010. I already knew the students and felt comfortable assisting, acting as one of the teachers. For the last week of SHOUT I did a project with the students to help them learn their colors.
77. Daily Class Routine I arrived around 9:30 every day, shortly after the children got to school. I helped with circle (the daily recitation of the date, weather, etc.), lunch, recess, centers, one-on-one math education, occasionally buddy readers, and speech therapy. Reading and playing with the kids helped me understand each one’s learning style. My presence was somewhat of a novelty to the students and I felt like my experience was very different from that of a full-time teacher. I can barely imagine the energy it takes to be a teacher in a special education classroom, but from my experience, the children are each so lovable that it’s hard not to form a bond with them.
78. The Rainbow Project Since learning disabled children do not all learn similarly, in the same style, or at the same speed, it was necessary to teach the colors in many ways. First, we introduced the children to a video on Youtube called “The Rainbow Colors Song.” It was slow and short enough that many of the children could absorb with with repeated exposure throughout the week. Using sign language as well as singing, some of the nonverbal students were able to participate, as well. Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRNy2i75tCc
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80. The Rainbow Project (cont’d) The project’s final product was performed on Tuesday, June 14, as a sing-a-long to the video, with the students’ buddy readers acting as an audience. To reinforce the color concept in another way, each student was asked to wear a different color of the rainbow, and they were given a corresponding balloon to identify with, as well.
81. The presentation went well! A few kids sang along, and others were at least given greater exposure to the colors of the rainbow.
82. Reflection I loved the time I spent with the kindergarteners, and I hope to have positively influenced their learning in these past two weeks. I also now realize the difficulties the special education teachers face. Not only do children learn in very special ways, but they must be taught how to behave around other children (sometimes the greater of the two challenges).
84. National Geographic Society motto: “Inspiring people to care about the planet.” It’s historical mission is "to increase and diffuse geographic knowledge while promoting the conservation of the world's cultural, historical, and natural resources."[ NGS is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world It was formed on January 27, 1888 by Gardiner Hubbard It’s headquarters are located at 1145 17th Street NW, Washington National Geographic maintains a museum free for the public in its Washington, D.C. headquarters and has helped to sponsor popular traveling exhibits The Society publishes five other periodicals in addition to its main magazine (National Geographic)
85. My Project I was an intern in the Image Collection division at National Geographic I rode the Metro everyday into D.C. – getting on at Huntington and getting off at Farragut West I mainly worked as a cataloguer but my tasks often varied on a daily basis
86. Cataloging As a cataloger, I looked at images that were uploaded into SPI (the organization’s image database). I entered in any information the photographer wrote down about the image, i.e. date, time, location, information, facts, etc. and then wrote a caption for each picture.
87. The Image Collection is responsible for over 11.5 million photographs and works of art Here are a few pictures of the Archives at National Geographic. All of the original prints, 35mm color transparencies, and negatives are stored in this refrigerated vault.
88. ←Two other interns, Marielle and Sierra, who worked with me in the Image Collection. Me hard at work in my cubicle. ->
89. ← Me and my boss, Julia Me with my official National Geographic badge ->
91. SHOUT Project Sarajin (Nora) Ali, Caitlin Moniz and Alex Marinello Frog Pond Early Learning Center West Potomac High School
92. We weren’t allowed to photograph the things we did at the institution due to the nature of our work which was mostly playing around with the children and watching over them. The pictures featured on this slideshow were obtained from the Frog Pond website.
93. OUR VOLUNTEER WORK At Frog Pond Learning Center the kids are divided based on their ages. There are two classes, the Tadpoles and the Frogs. The tadpoles range from 18 months to 3.5 years while the frogs range from 3.5 to 5.5 years. We spent the majority of our time with the frogs. We had the responsibility of making sure all the children were fed, cleaned and most importantly entertained. Daily trips to the “toad mountain” involved playing various games of monster or just pushing the children on the swings. There is also a small farm with goats and chickens which we helped the children feed. The children also accompanied us various times to the gardens to pick out vegetables for lunch. We usually ended the day by putting the children down for a nap. Some days the three of us switched around and spent a day with the tadpoles. Sometimes our supervisor gave us the task of filing and laminating various things.
94. The SHOUT experience Our SHOUT project truly gave us an idea of what it was like to be responsible but most importantly patient. Taking care of 10 – 20 children at a time is not an easy task, even with the help of two or three other people. We learned that frustration achieved nothing. The fact that the children looked up to us as teachers made us realize how mature we truly were. It was an enjoyable SHOUT project. The children were lovable and the atmosphere was friendly. We definitely learned a lot about science and nature which we previously hadn’t known. It was a learning experience.
96. General Proposal My general proposal was to assist the teachers of Waynewood. Another possibility included staying on as an administrative assistant. I had had some previous experiences working at Waynewood. I was assured that my endeavors would succeed through hard work and commitment. I proposed to help administratively to the best of my ability, work in the library and/or provide assistance at the discretion of the teacher in question.
97. Waynewood Elementary I attended Waynewood Elementary. I helped out my former second grade teacher as well as the reading teacher.
98. Goals accomplished It was interesting to witness elementary education from the teacher's perspective. I was able to get the feel of a teacher's everyday life which in turn educated me on an important aspect of the community: the educational venue.
99. Tasks My work involved either office type tasks or direct aid to the students themselves. This system enabled me to glimpse both sides of a teacher's job: the secretarial and the instructive.
100. Conclusion After having been exposed to the educational process, I am able to better grasp this vital aspect of our society.
