Word Of The Day: Tutor

I have been a little remiss in getting to this next installment, my apologies! I have been busier than expected but wanted to give this post my full attention and some background information.

Early in the year, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra put up a post on their Facebook page asking for substitute tutors for New Haven Reads. Anyone who signed up would receive a voucher for two free tickets to one performance in the NHSO season.* 

The substitutes were necessary because New Haven is a college town, (Yale, University of New Haven), and a large number of their regular tutors had gone home for the winter break. I called and asked a little about it and found it was easy to sign up and easy to do. And being an avid reader myself, I wanted to help pass that on in any small way I could.

A little about New Haven Reads: Founded by Christine Alexander in 1998 as a free book distribution program for local children, it grew into a free tutoring center for grades K-12. Over 400 volunteers tutor over 500 students a week, one hour at a time. There is a very long waiting list of students, too.

Sadly, Mrs. Alexander passed away in 2011 but she has left an incredible legacy of literacy and community service for others to continue. 

The program is run by certified educators and the tutors work within the guidelines set by them, which makes tutoring easy. The lessons are fun and made to motivate, reward and encourage literacy. In the hour the student spends with a tutor, the student has a set number of tasks including some pretty cool learning games on the computer, reading out loud, a workbook, and their own school homework if they choose. At the end of each session they choose a game to play from the game shelf - all familiar to me and sneakily educational like Battleship. Plus each student can take up to five children's books of their choice from the library shelves, not to borrow but to keep. Every week. And they also have books for adults in the community.

This brings me to another of their functions that needs volunteers - the book library. They accept donations of books for all ages and have volunteers sort them, distribute them and shelve them.

I went for my first tutoring session a few minutes early for training. I was nervous that I am not a natural teacher. 

The staff at New Haven Reads understands this.15 minutes of instruction in the few steps needed and our group of new volunteers was good to go! All I had to essentially do was guide the student through the required tasks for the required times, help them with any rough spots,  then make a quick note to summarize how it went. I could do that!

My first student was a second grader, a young man who thought it was really funny when I told him I was new and he'd have to take it easy on me! These kids know the ropes and were showing me where everything was kept and what was what. He started with the workbook, moved to the computer games and did some reading out loud. Then we played Go Fish as his game, and he won 2 out of 3, handily.

I was immediately struck by how serious he took the lessons. If he was unsure of a pronunciation or the meaning of a word, he asked. I found this to be true of all the students I sat with or saw there - they were not afraid to ask questions, and then follow up questions, until they understood context and usage. Words I take for granted may not be in a second grader's everyday vocabulary, such as "thrill". He had to choose an image in his workbook that would represent the word. The images included a roller coaster and he hovered over it with his pencil a moment then asked, "what does 'thrill' mean"? 

(Do you know how hard it is to describe thrill to a second grader in his terms??? I've never had to explain it to anyone before. I gave away the answer and went with the roller coaster explanation.)

Another student, a young girl also in second grade, at first stalled quite a bit. But when she sat down and focused I saw that she wasn't disinterested in the reading, she probably just didn't feel like being at a desk with me when there were friends to hang out with. In fact, she was very sharp. She whipped through several pages of the workbook in a short time. An example paragraph that described trout spawning and dying was outside of her realm of experience. She asked me why it swam the wrong way in the river and why it died there and didn't return to the ocean. She wasn't just learning pronunciation, she was learning about the natural world. It was sparking an interest to find out more. 

My experience was that all the students I encountered in my brief substituting stint were happy to challenge themselves with sounding out new, big words. They were fine with being corrected and repeating it until they got it right. They all took at least one book home with them. 

I attempted to add two more sessions to my original commitment, but life got in the way. I have asked to be added to the substitute roster and when college breaks and other happenings leave New Haven Reads short on tutors, I will be given the opportunity to fill in. I look forward to it.

In the meantime, I am stacking up books for donation to their shelves and checking their wish list against the book store sale racks. They are currently very low on children's books. (Picture books and the Diary Of A Wimpy Kid series are especially in demand!) If you would like to join me in donating books or supplies, see their website for details at http://newhavenreads.org. Or to learn more about tutoring, see their Volunteer page, and contact Keri to sign up (her email is there). She and everyone at New Haven Reads was fantastic to deal with. 

I know I have a lot of teachers, writers, librarians and readers on my blog and Facebook followers list. But you are not required to be a literary type to help. What I brought to the table was being able to patiently guide a student for an hour, and fall back on my natural tendency to be the grammar police my love of reading and words. This was an extremely rewarding experience made all the better by a great staff of organizers.

You will notice my countdown banner went from 43 to 39. (Ah, if only my birthdays went that way...) This month I have also made a donation of household goods to Helping Hands Thrift Store and Furniture Bank and gave time to my daughter's school in their bookstore on two afternoons.

I am updating my events calendar as more and more opportunities come my way!

*Of course, as I have made my rule, I am not keeping these Symphony vouchers. I will be donating them to a school auction fundraiser.

Write Your Mother, Soldier!

On Saturday, I hosted several crafters for a day of fun, food and support for Operation Write Home.This organization, started in 2008 by Sandy Allnock, collects handmade cards to send to our troops outside of the U.S. who do not have access to card stores. These soldiers can then choose from these handcrafted cards to send messages home to family and loved ones. 

I did not have an auspicious start. I am generally very good about setting up a day before - cleaning, setting up tables, preparing food and supplies. But I had had a busy week and took Friday to have a date out with my husband. I rose early Saturday, put all the food in my car, drove to the location close by.....and found the doorknob did not unlock. Someone had broken off a key or put an object inside the lock. Grrr!!

I had no idea how much cleaning it would need, the tables were not set up, I had food to put out, I hadn't brought my craft tools yet! I panicked a lot a little. I had crafters coming in an hour at 10:00 am! I got out my phone and woke up two people with other keys to the locale, the property manager, and the maintenance contractor (luckily all good friends of mine). The contractor came and let me in AT 5 MINUTES TO 10:00! Thank goodness that was the day everyone was fashionably late.

My crafter friends, always ready to give and share their supplies, time and efforts, brought their paper and stamps and inks and punches and - well, I could go on. We have a lot of supplies! They made paid a nominal admission fee to cover meals, purchased raffle tickets for a donation to Operation Write Home, and used their supplies to make cards for people they will never meet. 

While I did not require that they make cards all day, I did require a 3 card minimum either brought to or made at the event. Everyone did that and many made more. My good friend, Amy, brought and made 45! 

I did not provide kits so it was a slower creative process than it could have been. Next time I will make it more of an assembly line process with personal touches added by those who want to. This time, I wanted the cards to reflect what they wanted to make. I printed out the guidelines, provided the normal prerequisite of lots of chocolate, and let them go for it!

While the event was 12 hours, some crafters came later or left earlier. By the end of the day I had collected 109 cards! The little raffle raised $41.00 to donate towards OWH postage costs.

Maggie's Place, a local crafting spot, is also collecting cards throughout the year. I will send them out as each holiday deadline approaches. And Maggie generously donated a gift certificate, which was by far the most popular raffle item!

Towards the end of the day, I realized that these cards would go from Operation Write Home to troops all over the world, who would then choose their favorites of what we made and send them to their loved ones here in the U.S., or elsewhere. Our cards would make people happy many miles away and more than once. They might even save them as a keepsake! (A crafter's ultimate compliment.)

Was it a huge monetary donation or a case of cards? No. But it was  a lot of fun and the point was accomplished. I could have made 20 cards by myself and sent them out, but instead I had 8 people join me and as many more that want to add to the boxes as I send them out. This was so much fun to do! It was the perfect dovetail of using the tools I have, my time and talent.

Funny, they didn't sparkle...*

On Monday I gave blood for the first time in 2013 and since I began my 45 in my 45th challenge. 

Years ago, I had given blood through corporate-hosted drives in the building where I worked so it was easy and accessible. (And I got a long lunch and free cookies.) But when I left that position about 10 years ago I did not make any effort to continue donating. Going back to my original challenge concept, I am going above and beyond "convenience" and seeking out opportunities. And just before I decided to do this challenge, I started giving blood again.

The first time I donated in 2012 the Red Cross had an RV outside Petco, who was sponsoring the event. My husband, who had never donated blood but wanted to, agreed to join me. We found it funny that Petco was a sponsor - lots of silly jokes were made on our drive there about human-puppy transfusions. (OK, my sense of humor is not what you would call "high brow".) 

We did not prepare, I thought I knew all about it, I was a veteran. We planned to have dinner on the way back, so had empty stomachs. We did not drink plenty of water that day. Yeah, not a good plan.

So after we gave blood, we did not feel great. And as soon as you say that, (which you should if you are at all shaky), all the phlebotomists go into crisis mode - putting your feet up, wet towels on your forehead, etc. We felt really dumb but couldn't stand up to do anything about it! Of course, we recovered. The volunteers told us what was needed to do next time. Since then, we make sure we are well hydrated and fed, and I always have a nice hamburger or roast beef sandwich for lunch because my iron count is often borderline. It is so simple to be prepared and avoid that feeling!

Now I sign up around every 56 days (the minimum eligibility time) at a local community club. This week I had no issues, and I have had none since the Petco drive. I recognized some of the volunteers and phlebotomists from previous drives and they recognized me. I keep telling I just don't know if I make the 110 lb minimum weight and they keep playing along like it's funny. :)

Donation takes about an hour from sign in to cookies. There is a quick written survey, a verbal survey with the phlebotomist who also does a finger stick and a blood pressure check, then a short wait for the next table. (Daytime appointments are a slightly shorter wait than after 5, if you have the choice.)

The actual blood draw takes about 10 minutes and is painless other than the needle being inserted, which is no biggie. (These guys are experienced pros, after all.) And it's nothing compared to the good feeling at the end, a great sense of helping someone.

The better I hydrate, the faster I fill the bag. They suggest 16 ounces of water during the day before donating, which is one sports water bottle. My husband is a better water drinker than me so he "wins" the race more often. (Yeah, we're even competitive about bleeding.) When you donate, you are giving one pint of blood. You have about 10 pints in your body. Then they ask you to relax for about 10-15 minutes and have free cookies and juice. (Keebler is their cookie supplier so I always look for the Fudge Stripe!)

If you are considering giving blood but have fears or questions, the American Red Cross website is a great resource. It gives eligibility requirements, has a first time donor info page, tells you what they do with the blood and more fun facts. It even addresses a fear of needles. You can also make an appointment and track what you have given.

One last tip - if you run cold, like me, wear long sleeves that can be pulled up or bring a jacket you can keep over your shoulder on your draw arm while you lay still on the table. The locations are kept cool because there's a huge supply of donated blood there that has to be kept at a low temperature. 

If you haven't given blood before, or it's been a while, consider making an appointment. There's lots of drives in most locales every week. According the the American Red Cross, 44,000 blood donations are needed daily and 

someone in the U.S. needs blood every two seconds.

Be there for them!

*If you have no interest in the Twilight saga, you will not get this. Sorry. :)