Here it is folks. This is the video that my 5th and 6th grade class made this summer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOK_nnZzBY4
Friday, August 24, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Summer 2007
I did not blog this entire summer. I'm now paying the consequences for it. How do you explain an entire summer without being reductionistic or interminable? Thats the dilemna I am facing at present, and my proposed solution is the following eclectic summary of the summer's events in Aliquippa. This is certainly not a holistic picture of my summer, but it is an attempt to cover those things most formitive, or at least of initial significance after this summer. In many ways processing the summer's events.
Now that I am done qualifying...
Responsibility
This summer I was the Assistant Program Coordinator for Aliquippa Impact's summer day camp program. I was the immediate staff supervisor to six full time staff members and six interns throughout the course of this summer. I was also, at times, responsible for the safety and order of day camp (45+ kids grades 1-6). Without going into detail, this was more responsibility than I have ever had in my life. I've never been in a real leadership position before. I liked it, but it was a huge challenge for me. Leadership is taxing. Just the mental burden of having so much responsibility can be a monstrous mental strain. I often found myself mentally asphixiated.
Teaching
Aliquippa Impact exists to help serve at risk youth and their families in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. One of the ways in which A.I. goes about this is by attempting to supplement the local school district with additional educational opportunities. Aliquippa Impact primarily focuses on acedemic areas in which the school district has been unable to pour money into, namely, arts and cultural literacy. This summer I tought the fifth and sixth grade class during the A.I.'s summer day camp program. Again, the thrust of this summer program was cultural literacy. Each week of camp focused on a specific region of the world. My job was to teach about these specific regions, as well as about some of the various countries and cultures located therein. It was a challenge to creativly educate students without turning summer camp into summer school. THere were times that I feel like I succeeded, and there were certainly times which I failed.
Perhaps the week that I will remember the most was the week that we focused on the continent of Africa. Even the most ethnocentric American is aware of some of the complex and tragic issues surrounding the continent of Africa including genocide, HIV/AIDS, malaria, starvation, etc. Even though many of our kids are from less than desirable economic situations, the students in my class really latched on to the idea of suffering in Africa. It was amazing to see our kids filled with compassion, frustration and anger at the world's problems. They wrote letters to Representative Jason Altmire expressing their concern. They talked about and interacted with complex issues. As a class project we made a video to raise awareness about genocide in Africa. I hope to have it up on YouTube soon, when I do a link will be posted.
Without going to much longer, I thoroughly enjoyed my time as a teacher. I loved researching these issues and teaching them in a way that 10 and 11 year old children could understand them. Making things fun was a huge challenge, but all in all, I think the kids really learned this summer. One thing is for certain. I love teaching and I want to continue when I can. Starting in fall 2008 I'll be co-directing an after school program with A.I. focusing on Global Education. I'm sure I'll be posting more on that as research continues.
Center for Leader Multiplication
The CLM is a new non-profit emerging in Aliquippa Pennsylvania. You can read more about it at the CLM website www.leadermultiplication.org. Starting June 1, 2008 I will be working as a CLM associate in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. Each CLM associate is responsible to plant an organic, self-replicating church in Aliquippa over the course of their tenure with the organization. I will be working in conjunction with Aliquippa Impact starting art-based community programs while working as a church planter with CLM. I'll be writing about this a lot more as time progresses as well. One of the first things I will be working on is art-based street presence. I'll be defining that in a subsequent blog.
The Holy Spirit
The most misunderstood, and mentally challenging aspect of Christianity might just be the work of the Holy Spirit. Over the course of my time with Aliquippa Impact I've had the great opportunity to dialogue with people about the work of the Holy Spirit. While this is certainly not something I have reached total understanding of, I have become certain of two thing: (1) The Holy Spirit empowers Christians to live everyday and (2) the Holy Spirit manifests in the believer in supernatural and sometimes miraculous ways for the sake of the gospel.
Now that I am done qualifying...
Responsibility
This summer I was the Assistant Program Coordinator for Aliquippa Impact's summer day camp program. I was the immediate staff supervisor to six full time staff members and six interns throughout the course of this summer. I was also, at times, responsible for the safety and order of day camp (45+ kids grades 1-6). Without going into detail, this was more responsibility than I have ever had in my life. I've never been in a real leadership position before. I liked it, but it was a huge challenge for me. Leadership is taxing. Just the mental burden of having so much responsibility can be a monstrous mental strain. I often found myself mentally asphixiated.
Teaching
Aliquippa Impact exists to help serve at risk youth and their families in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. One of the ways in which A.I. goes about this is by attempting to supplement the local school district with additional educational opportunities. Aliquippa Impact primarily focuses on acedemic areas in which the school district has been unable to pour money into, namely, arts and cultural literacy. This summer I tought the fifth and sixth grade class during the A.I.'s summer day camp program. Again, the thrust of this summer program was cultural literacy. Each week of camp focused on a specific region of the world. My job was to teach about these specific regions, as well as about some of the various countries and cultures located therein. It was a challenge to creativly educate students without turning summer camp into summer school. THere were times that I feel like I succeeded, and there were certainly times which I failed.
Perhaps the week that I will remember the most was the week that we focused on the continent of Africa. Even the most ethnocentric American is aware of some of the complex and tragic issues surrounding the continent of Africa including genocide, HIV/AIDS, malaria, starvation, etc. Even though many of our kids are from less than desirable economic situations, the students in my class really latched on to the idea of suffering in Africa. It was amazing to see our kids filled with compassion, frustration and anger at the world's problems. They wrote letters to Representative Jason Altmire expressing their concern. They talked about and interacted with complex issues. As a class project we made a video to raise awareness about genocide in Africa. I hope to have it up on YouTube soon, when I do a link will be posted.
Without going to much longer, I thoroughly enjoyed my time as a teacher. I loved researching these issues and teaching them in a way that 10 and 11 year old children could understand them. Making things fun was a huge challenge, but all in all, I think the kids really learned this summer. One thing is for certain. I love teaching and I want to continue when I can. Starting in fall 2008 I'll be co-directing an after school program with A.I. focusing on Global Education. I'm sure I'll be posting more on that as research continues.
Center for Leader Multiplication
The CLM is a new non-profit emerging in Aliquippa Pennsylvania. You can read more about it at the CLM website www.leadermultiplication.org. Starting June 1, 2008 I will be working as a CLM associate in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. Each CLM associate is responsible to plant an organic, self-replicating church in Aliquippa over the course of their tenure with the organization. I will be working in conjunction with Aliquippa Impact starting art-based community programs while working as a church planter with CLM. I'll be writing about this a lot more as time progresses as well. One of the first things I will be working on is art-based street presence. I'll be defining that in a subsequent blog.
The Holy Spirit
The most misunderstood, and mentally challenging aspect of Christianity might just be the work of the Holy Spirit. Over the course of my time with Aliquippa Impact I've had the great opportunity to dialogue with people about the work of the Holy Spirit. While this is certainly not something I have reached total understanding of, I have become certain of two thing: (1) The Holy Spirit empowers Christians to live everyday and (2) the Holy Spirit manifests in the believer in supernatural and sometimes miraculous ways for the sake of the gospel.
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