SERVES Recap

by staff writer Jo Jungerman

Oh the memories.

When I think back on our week in Yakima, the first thing that comes to mind is an image of eight or nine people sitting around a table throwing little plastic cups back and forth. The “cup game” usually played after lunch on a full stomach, is a deceptively addicting game that can be played for hours on end. The object of the cup game is simple: Just throw your cup so it lands on top of the stack of cups set in the middle of the table. It’s harder than it sounds, but once you make it, you’re hooked. I think it took me about half an hour before I got my first successful landing, but, man, what a feeling.

The second image that comes to mind is Zara wearing my fuzzy polar bear hat. And my gloves. This prompted a trip to Target to buy more hats. Speaking of shopping malls, it seems that the only thing there is to do in Yakima (besides going to conferences) is go shopping. On our trip, we hit up not only Target, but Best Buy and Walmart as well. Come to think of it, one of my favorite things to do in Yakima is now go to Walmart and play the “play till you win” game that they have in the foyer, the one where you put in a dollar and you have to move the claw and drop it on the prize you want, grab it and move it back to the chute before it falls out. Jon and I won two big bouncy balls, one of them for free because the previous player had given up; we played on his dollar.

Another thing I remember about Yakima is raking all those leaves. Julie, Suzie, Stephanie, Rachel, Sonja, Kelsi and I participated in a service project with a chore services group on Wednesday afternoon. We drove to guy’s house and raked up his yard and dumped the leaves into his truck and were finished in about 15 minutes. Our driver from the chore services had expected us to take longer so she had to call her boss and ask for another job. We ended up driving to a mobile home park and raking up pretty much every single leaf in the park. We certainly felt accomplished after this. The only downside to the afternoon was having to deal with one very confused old man yelling at us from inside his mobile home: “What the !@#% are those girls doing in our yard??!” Luckily his wife was able to explain to him who we were and that we were raking his yard. He came outside and thanked us and tried to explain that brain doesn’t work properly because he has some sort of pulmonary disease. The he let us go in his house and look at his parrots.

SERVES Provides Mega Insight with Mini Workshops

by staff writer Annie Tobin

As an attendee at SERVES Institute – the conference that provided training for the Washington Service Corps, I found current information valuable to my AmeriCorps mission. The workshops at SERVES were dramatic in their idea introductions, comparative to their length and potential depth of subject. Disclaimer aside, let me provide some pieces of study presented in workshops I attended Tuesday and Wednesday, November 9 and 10, 2010.

Mandy Egle presented Tutoring the Mainstreamed Beginner to Intermediate ELL Student. Here I learned that contrary to what many may guess, 8-12 year-old students English Language Learners gain normative percentile scores more quickly than children 5-7 years in age. They can reach grade level in English faster than younger or older students who are learning language that is secondary to their primary language. Educators also need to realize that “playground English” and loss of accent can mask a continuing need for assistance in learning English. It can often take 10 years after beginning to learn English for a student to reach grade level averages. Egle also supported findings that parents who spoke their native language to their child at home helped and did not hinder the child’s ability to learn English. It helps the child because it provides psychological support and knowledge of linguistic structure that can be transferred to his or her study of English in the school.

In Working with Individuals with Non-apparent Disabilities, Nancie Payne thoroughly presented many named differences in learning or ability that can make typical learning environments challenging for a portion of student populations. In one activity, members of small groups decided upon a song to sing. Payne then had all groups in the classroom turn and they sung their songs at the same time. The aim was to know as many of the other songs as were sung. It was only possible to hear one’s own song plus possibly the one next to you or perhaps that another group or more was singing the same song as your own. The popular, albeit incredibly loud, activity simulated having Attention Deficit Disorder and dealing with constant distraction or having a hearing disability in a classroom.

In Boys and Literacy – Supporting Struggling Boys in Reading and Writing, led by Jerry Miller, I made thought connections to Miller’s presentation. While it is reported that girls have now caught up in math averages to boys, there are current large differences in the language scores of boys in this country. I realized that while girls often read non-curricular materials of their choosing outside of school, boys could benefit from reading in the same vein. So if they were to begin to read more – even less literary material – they would have the skills to handle more academically traditional material in school. Miller spoke about choice being important to boys in reading as well as the benefits of types of subjects they like to read and teaching the skills of successful readers.

Natalie Ellington’s Dealing with Conflict Constructively workshop was one of the last I attended. An essential take-home message here was that while using cognition to solve incompatibilities between parties is necessary, the use of emotional or personal attacks needs to be kept at a minimum in resolving conflict.

Overall, my experience with workshops at SERVES was in finding them informative and timely. Asked about this training, at my site, I told the teacher that I attended about four a day and that we were served cake at most meals. Sounded good – he’d take it – is about what he responded.