St. Charles Mentoring

Last Day in St. Charles for the Year!

2009-04-30T09:58:00.000-07:00

Maria and I had a great time in St. Charles. It was our last visit together until next fall, and we all had a lot of fun. Maria played the drama queen for the day, oh wait, she is always the drama queen! She pretended to cry pretty much the entire time I was there, but that didn't stop us from having fun!

Everyone got to eat pizza and treats, which is always fun! Maria and I enjoyed the pizza! YUM! Hopefully next year we can go out for pizza next year when I come to visit! I am very excited to become her "permanent big sister!" I am going to wait to fill out the paper work until next fall, because I won't be able to see her at all this summer, since I will be working like crazy!

We spent most of our time today outside. It was gorgeous outside and we had to take advantage. When it was almost time to head back to Winona, all of the littles got a goody bag with candy and treats in it! Maria loved it and she left with a smile on her face! I am going to miss that crazy girl this summer!

PROJECTS!

2009-04-23T16:17:00.000-07:00

It seems like Maria is a student who likes to cram just like I do!

As soon as I met up with Maria on Wednesday afternoon, she told me we had to go directly to the computer lab to work on a power point presentation she had to create for a project. I had no problem with this, because thats what I am there for. It turns out that she was creating a presentation about New Mexico. I guess that each student was assigned one state to study facts on to present in front of the class. Maria was very excited to have my help on the presentation. She kept saying, "Mrs. Mcready is going to be so proud of me!"

I hope that I was helping her create a power point that is what Mrs Mcready wanted. Maria really had no idea what she needed to do, so I decided to go with what I thought students her age would find interesting. Instead of putting a bunch of writing, Maria and I decided to pictures for each category that she had to study. That way, they are looking at pictures while she is talking about the different topics. We found a background that matched New Mexico very well, so I was pretty happy with what they got done. Towards the end of my time in St. Charles I asked Maria when she had to present. All she said was tomorrow. I was like you are crazy girl! You should have been working on this a long time ago. When really, I shouldn't say this because that would make me a hypocrite because I tend to cram myself.

Although we didn't get to spend time outside today, I felt that Maria was happy with getting some homework done today. I think she felt pretty happy with our time together. I figured out today that I will be able to be her community based big next year, so now I just need to look up the paperwork and everything! I am pretty excited about that! :)

It's a BEAUTIFUL day for St. Charles...

2009-04-16T07:17:00.000-07:00

I love spring so much! As soon as I picked up Maria from her classroom we went right outside! It was just so sunny and fabulous!

When we first got outside, Maria, Kelli, Elisa and I decided to play a little four-square. I laugh every time I play this game with Maria because I used to play this game when I was her age. I love to see that some things never change! There are some interesting new rules that I had never heard of before, but the main concept of the game is pretty much the same. We played for about 30 minutes, but then all of these kids on bikes started showing up.

It turns out there was a bike safety camp or something going on at St. Charles Elementary. I want to say there were about 30 kids on bikes in the small playground area. Of course, almost all of the littles were curious about what was going on. Turns out all the kids had the chance to ride through a bike safety course and get fitted for a bike helmet. Most of the littles didn't have a bike with them, but they borrowed them from friends. Maria was really excited about her new bike helmet, and we spent the rest of the day doing all the biking activities.

The people putting on the camp actually had a mock bike crash. It was pretty interesting, it actually reminded me of high school when we had a mock car crash. The ambulance came and everything, and I think it really helped the kids to understand that bike safety is very important. Maria and the rest of the littles seemed to have a great time with the bike safety, and it made the time fly by really fast today!

Let's put make-up on... ahhh

2009-04-09T21:48:00.000-07:00

Oh what a B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L day in St. Charles. I truly love spring time!

We arrived in St. Charles right on time today and I headed right up to Maria's classroom to meet up with her. She came out of the room and immeadiatly called me a "tardie head," (I think thats what she said) for not coming last week. When I told her my story about missing the bus, she accepted my apology. I was glad for that!

Like most of the recent weeks in St. Charles, Maria and I headed down to the basement with Elisa and Kelli to hang out. Elisa brought a make-up set to school today and the littles thought it would be a GREAT idea to give the bigs make-overs. More like lipstick all over the face. I wish I would have had a camera because we looked pretty crazy! It was a great time!

After we washed off all the ridiculous make-up, we headed outside. The weather was AMAZING! Sunny and Fabulous! We all just sat and played music on Kelli's computer. Just kind of made it a "girls" day and rocked out to some good music and enjoyed the weather. It was super laid back, and I was pretty worn out, so it worked out perfect for me!

Maria inquired today about me becoming her community based big and I would love to do that. I register for classes on Monday and as far as I know, I should be free on Wednesdays to keep seeing Maria. I don't want to make any promises in advance, because then the let down would be even worse!

Hopefully it all works out!

Oh oh oh!! P.S
I talked to Lisa today and mentioned that I will be working at a Girl Scout camp, and she said that BBBS has camp scholarships and she may be able to keep Maria in mind for one of those scholarships. She might be able to come and spend a week with me at camp! That would be such a blast! I didn't tell Maria about it, because I need details first, but that would be amazing for sure!

Bus didn't wait for me :(

2009-04-02T06:29:00.000-07:00

I feel absolutely terrible because as I was running towards Gildemiester yesterday, I watched the bus pull on to Huff street and leave for St. Charles without me. I was on a field trip for my field experience class and I did my best to get back to campus by 2pm. I think it was about 2:05 when I saw the bus pull away. It was supposed to wait for me but it didn't.

I mostly feel bad for Maria. I talked to Cassie, however, and it seems she was just her normal self. I guess the weather was really bad in St. Charles and the time was mostly spent in the gym anyways. I hope Maria isn't too upset with me next week. Maybe I will bring her some Flaming Hott Cheetos as an "I'm Sorry," present. haha

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARIA!

2009-03-26T10:21:00.000-07:00

Maria and I had a wonderful time in St. Charles today! Well, first off, we had a birthday to celebrate. Maria's birthday was last week, but since St. Charles was on spring break, we had to celebrate her birthday this week. I started off the day by heading up to her classroom to meet up with her. I was kind of afraid that she might forget, considering we hadn't seen each other in 2 weeks.

When we got to the gym, I picked up the present. Maria and I decided to walk downstairs to open her present and eat her snack. I decided to get her a Hannah Montana puzzle and some flaming hott cheetos. I couldn't go wrong with either present because they are both so MARIA! Then Maria decided to eat one of the three cupcakes that I bought for her and save the rest for later. Fair enough. When we headed back upstairs we decided to put the puzzle together to see what it really looked like. It was actually pretty fun and it didn't take us long at all. Now Maria can do that puzzle any time. Its a good thing for her, because it involves some extra thinking and processing.

After the puzzle was put together we decided to head outside. We played the helicopter game with Kelli and Elisa. It was pretty fun, until we got cold. When we couldn't be outside any longer, we headed inside. Maria and I both realized as soon as we got inside that it was about time for me to head back to Winona. We said our goodbyes and Maria headed home. What a good week in St. Charles!!

Study Study Study!!!

2009-03-11T13:52:00.000-07:00

Today Maria and I got down to business!! It was a good business though!! As soon as I got to St. Charles Elementary School I headed up to Maria's classroom to meet with her, and her teacher told me she needs to work on her Geomerty terms for a test tomorrow. Maria had some flashcards and so we headed straight to the library to study study study!!

Although Maria didn't enjoy studying at first, the more times we went through the flash cards the more she knew, and the more excited she got about knowing the terms. There are still a few that she has trouble with, but I think she will be fine on the test tomorrow!! Helping Maria to understand the meanings of the different terms made me excited to help out a student. I am so anxious to become a teacher and have the opportunity to do that everyday! I still have another year and a half before I graduate though. At least I have something to look forward to! When Maria and I sat down to study, we made an agreement. The agreement was to study until 3:30 and then we could find something fun to do. As the time approached 3:30 Maria kept telling me just one more time through the cards. We actually studied until around 3:45! She was pretty excited to keep memorizing.

After we left the library, we headed up to the computer lab to play some "educational" games. This is becoming a routine every time I come to St. Charles. I don't think she really has an opportunity to use the computers outside school and BBBS, so I let her use them whenever she wants. Next week is St. Charles' spring break, so Maria and I will not be meeting next week. Its kind of a bummer because Maria's birthday is next Tuesday and I was going to bring snacks on Wednesday. Looks like Maria gets a belated birthday surprise next time I come to St. Charles!

It's a Beautiful Day in St. Charles!

2009-02-25T13:41:00.000-08:00

I absolutely love this weather! It is about 50 degrees and sunny! Warm enough for me not to wear a coat outside! I was very excited to get outside and play with Maria without freezing my butt off!
We didn't go outside as soon as I arrived in St. Charles though. First, Maria wanted to show me her new song on the recorder! We headed to the basement with Elisa and Juan, and they once again put on a concert for the bigs. It's actually getting a lot easier to listen to. As a group, it actually sounds like they are playing a song rather than just making noise. Maria decided to give me a lesson in recorder playing as well. I made her kind of upset because I did everything exactly how she told me to do it, and because she was missing parts of her explanation it sounded really bad. Eventually she figured out what she was missing, and I was pretty good, if I do say so myself. After our lesson was done, I presented the idea to go outside. I did this mainly because I was dying to get outside myself.
When we got outside, a bunch of the bigs and littles had a game of kickball going so we joined in. At first, we were on opposite teams, but I eventually just made my way onto the other team. Although it was very nice out, our hands got pretty cold pretty fast. We only lasted about 15 minutes before we decided to just head inside.
As soon as we got into the school, we decided to head to the computer lab. Maria isn't very good with computers, but she is slowly figuring it out. I don't think she has the opportunity to use the computer at home, so the things she learns in school is all she knows. I see her improvement with working on computers as the weeks go by. Its actually fun to notice. She doesn't really have a lot of school work to complete on the computer, so she tends to just play games. No harm in that, right?
Overall, Maria and I had a pretty great time together. Next week is my spring break, so no St. Charles. I am going to miss Ms. Maria and all of her craziness for sure!

Whoa!! She's Fast!

2009-02-18T19:44:00.000-08:00

Today was an interesting day in St. Charles. Maria and I participated in a variety of activities, and our time flew by! First, Maria and I sat outside the computer lab for about 10 minutes, waiting for it to open. When it didn't open after 10 minutes, we decided to just try something else. When we got to the gym, Maria pulled out her new recorder for music class. Not that music isn't beautiful, but recorders may be the most annoying instrument when played well. And Maria, Elisa, and Juan cannot yet play it well. They put on a concert for the bigs, and lets just say we were all cringing at certain points.
When they were all done with their concert, we came upstairs from the basement and Maria saw that the computer lab was open. We spent pretty much the rest of our time there. About ten minutes into our computer lab time, Maria asked me to try the typing program that the school uses. I agreed to try the hardest level, and by the time I got to the second level, I had 4 kids crowded around me saying "WHOAA SHE'S FAST!!" It was pretty hilarious. I obviously have some typing skills, but the kids in the computer lab were completely amazed. Maria and I continued to use the typing program until their was about 10 minutes left of my time in St. Charles.
When we made it back to the gym, we put on our coats to head outside and wait for Maria's mom to arrive. It wasn't too cold outside, but we decided to wait inside the doors. Maria and I said our goodbyes and she headed home. Pretty fun day in St. Charles!

Maria and me time!!

2009-02-11T16:37:00.000-08:00

Today was a better day in St. Charles. I actually convinced Maria to spend some one on one time with me instead of hanging out with Elisa the whole time. Not that it’s a bad thing when we all hang out, but Lisa pretty much told me last week that we should try and to get some more quality one on one time each week.
I came in today thinking just that. I tried to get Maria to do a puzzle, and she really didn’t want to. I wouldn’t give up on it, and finally she sat down and we started to piece together a panda bear puzzle. We were making great progress when we got all of the possible edge pieces assembled and we were missing a good 10 pieces. So we decided it wasn’t really worth it to try and assemble it. So I got her to open the monkey-puzzle up. This was a brand new puzzle so we knew that all the pieces would be there. As we got going Maria said how much she loved puzzles. All those days that she refused to do puzzles because they were boring were because she had never even tried one! I am glad I introduced something fun to her. She does have a birthday coming up, maybe that’s what I will get for her.
After we got the entire puzzle done, we decided to get outside. Maria was getting pretty anxious, so it was time for some running around time. We ended up playing a version of foursquare that I have never heard of, but it ended up being pretty fun. It got to a point where our hands were freezing so we decided to go inside. By the time we got warmed up it was about time to leave. I was very happy with the one on one time that I got to spend time with Maria. Hopefully she will want to do that every week from now on!!

Running around St. Charles...

2009-02-05T08:44:00.000-08:00

My time spent in St. Charles today was really nothing out of the ordinary. Maria and I started out by eating flaming hot cheetos and watching the beginning of a movie, which she quickly lost interest in. She did enjoy the cheeots though!! The reason Maria pretty much lost interest in the movie had a lot to do with Elisa and Kelli coming into the library. It wasn’t a bad thing, but I was trying to spend some alone time with Maria. I decided that instead of asking Maria to spend some time with me, that I would just let her play with Elisa today and have her spend more quality time with me next week.
One exciting thing did happen today in St. Charles. While I was waiting for Maria to get her hat and coat on, Lisa and I had our monthly review. The idea of becoming a community based big for next year was brought up, which is very exciting to me. I said that I would have to check into my schedule to see what I can do, but most likely that is what I will be doing next year.
Meanwhile, Maria and Elisa had run off outside to play a game. We all ended up playing tag for about 20 minutes, until we all decided it was too cold to be outside running around. The game was a good way to get Maria to burn off some energy, because she was very full of it today. When we came inside, however, she continued to run around with Elisa. Kelli and I ended up following them around for quite some time, which seems to be a recurring pattern. By the time we were getting packed up Maria and Elisa found their way back to the cafeteria to say our goodbyes for the week. While we were saying goodbye Maria asked about me becoming a community based big. I don’t want to make any promises, so I just told her that I have to look into my schedule and let her know later. Hopefully it works out!

Have You Seen Maria??

2009-01-28T17:59:00.000-08:00

Today in St. Charles was very entertaining to say the least. Actually, half of the time I wasn’t even with Maria. She was too busy running away from me with Elisa, leaving Kelli and me in the dust. First, it started out as just a game of hide and seek with them running down to the basement of the school. It was no big deal because they really didn’t have any place to hide. We found them pretty much as soon as we went to look. Soon after we made our way back to the cafeteria and sat down and started to do something, and the next thing I knew Maria and Elisa were running off somewhere again.
This pretty much continued the entire time today in St. Charles. It wasn’t necessarily frustrating, but it got kind of annoying because I didn’t spend much “quality” time with Maria. Today was one of those days that I got to experience being a kid again. And on top of that a kid that never runs out of energy. I probably spent more time asking if people had seen Maria then actually spending time with Maria. Elisa and Maria also thought it would be funny to tell everyone that they passed that their bigs didn't care about them. It was pretty funny. Kelli and I finally caught up with Maria and Elisa right as we were about to head out so we did have a chance to say goodbye. Maria did ask for one thing for next week, and that was flaming hot cheetos. I will try to remember to buy a bag; after all I do enjoy them too!

Maria's New Cousin

2009-01-21T17:15:00.001-08:00

Today in St. Charles I was surprised to find that Maria had a new cousin who came with her. From what I understood her name was Jayna, but she did not speak any English, and Maria and her talked back in forth in Spanish and didn’t talk very much today. We did, however, have a lot of fun. Since Jayna just moved from Mexico, we decided to have some fun outside in the snow. I know a little bit of Spanish, for instance hace frio means I’m cold, so I kept saying that. I can understand a few words of Spanish, even though I should understand a lot more because I took 3 years of it in high school! When we were outside, we played on the ice and threw a couple of snow balls and Jayna thought that it was a lot of fun. When we found a patch of ice on the blacktop area we decided to slip and slide on it. We were very entertained by this, and in fact we were playing on the ice for about half an hour. When the girls said they wanted to go inside, that is what we did. When we got inside, we found a game that was suited for everyone; no matter what language you speak. The game we chose was Candyland. It was really fun to play a game that doesn’t involve any talking, and yet it was very fun to see Maria and her cousin have fun. I also brushed up on my colors in Spanish! That’s about all I know, my numbers, colors, and a few verbs! Watching Maria interact with her cousin in Spanish almost makes me want to pick up a minor in Spanish at Winona, but I am very nervous that it will be too much for me to handle. Today was definitely a great day in St. Charles.

I'm BAAACK!! :)

2009-01-14T20:15:00.000-08:00

Today was my first day back in St. Charles since early December. After the initial shock Maria had when she saw me, she was really excited. She told me that she almost forgot that I was coming today. I am glad that I had the chance to head up to her classroom before the bell rang to meet her.
I decided that it would be a good plan to watch a movie today because it was very very cold outside. At first, Maria wanted to go outside, but then she opened the door and realized how cold it really was! I was pretty happy she decided to stay inside and watch a movie. The movie of choice today was “A Cinderella Story.” I thought that it was a pretty good movie to bring for her, and I was right, she really liked it. We didn’t watch the entire movie, but I plan to bring my computer back next week to finish the movie.
After the movie, Maria and I decided to go into the computer lab to work on a power point that she had been working on about puppies. We managed to find a couple good pictures of some pretty cute dogs, but right when we were about to put the pictures into the slide show, we had to leave the computer lab. Something to do next week!
Maria and I had a great day today in St. Charles. Very busy, as usual, and the time flew by. I am glad to be back mentoring Maria!

Almost Christmas! :)

2008-12-04T08:14:00.001-08:00

Today in St. Charles we had a great time. The entire group got to make ginger bread houses. Well more like gram cracker houses, but close enough. Maria and I decided to separate from the rest of the group with our supplies and make our ginger bread house a surprise. We had a lot of fun decorating our house, and eating all of the extra sweets. I must admit that we weren’t very successful at first in constructing our house, but Maria was in a good mood today so she didn’t freak out about the house falling a couple of times. When our masterpiece was complete, we put it to the side to dry and decided to go and explore the school a bit.
Maria and I ended up exploring the basement of the school. It was actually really creepy down there. There were all sorts of stairwells and creepy doorways and I really didn’t like it. I kept trying to trick Maria into going upstairs but she kept on finding creepy little hallways and stairwells to explore. It was actually a lot of fun, but I was happy to get back into familiar territory when we headed back upstairs. After we got back to the gym area, Maria and I decided to go outside and play a game with Kelli and Annalisia. Kelli and I really didn’t understand the game so we got the girls to go inside instead since it was so cold out. By the time we got inside it was about time to clean up. Maria had a great time this week!
Also, Maria received a great award in her school this week. She received the honor of being student of the week. I was really proud of her because she seems to struggle sometimes in school, and this seems to be a step in the right direction. Hopefully she can keep progressing to be an even better student then she already is.

Movie Day!

2008-11-21T19:38:00.001-08:00

Today in St. Charles Maria, Annalisia, Kelli and I watched a movie. The movie of choice was Premonition, not sure if I was all that thrilled about the choice of movie, but it ended up being ok. At first, we all started off watching the movie in the library. I knew this was a bad idea from the start because Maria is crazy and loud and giggly, but I decided to give it a chance. Well, I was right about the library being a bad idea, so we ended up watching the movie in Annalisia’s classroom.
When we were in the classroom, Kelli and I decided it would be best to separate the two little’s in order to be able to watch the movie without going crazy. Maria has a hard time knowing what she wants. I could tell that she wanted to watch the movie, but at the same time, I notice that it seems like she feels obligated to goof off. Our movie was pretty confusing and she was asking questions about what was going on, but ended up making a joke about not understanding it, making everyone laugh. Sometimes, I think that Maria really wants to understand different situations but she feels stupid about asking questions so she makes jokes. I try to encourage to do other wise but it doesn’t always work when we are around other groups. We decided that for next week we are going to try the movie thing again, but this time, we plan to do it alone and have some bonding time just the two of us. We will have quite a large gap between next week and the next time that I come to St. Charles, so I want to make it a good one!

New LIttle in St. Charles

2008-11-13T19:00:00.000-08:00

Today in St. Charles was quite a surprise. It turns out that one of Maria’s really good friends was becoming a part of BBBS. She is Kelli’s new little and they seemed to want to play together the entire time. When we first arrived in St. Charles, I went straight to Maria’s classroom to find Annalisia waiting by her locker. Annalisia is the new little. She walked up to me right away and asked me if I was Maria’s big. As soon as the bell rang Maria came out of her classroom and was so excited to see Annalisia waiting for her.
Maria, Annalisia, Kelli, and I were having a lot of fun playing games and interacting. Kelli and I even got a new tour of the school from the girls. When we were walking back to the gym, Lisa stopped us and kind of got on our backs about not spending one on one time with our little’s. I understand where she is coming from, however, when we got back to the gym I noticed that their was a big game of dodge ball going on with almost all of the other people involved in the program. Its not that I don’t understand what Lisa meant when she said how important it is for one-on-one time to occur between the “bigs” and “littles,” but I don’t really understand why Lisa approached Kelli and me over anyone else in the program. It really bothered me.
Other than our little incident with Lisa, Maria and I had a great time today. Maria seems to be doing a lot better than she has been doing in past weeks. Hopefully it stays this way for the rest of the semester and the rest of the year!

Getting Better!

2008-11-05T17:44:00.000-08:00

Today in was a considerably better day in St. Charles compared to last week. Maria was in a much better mood compared to the last time we saw each other. Maria and I had fun just spending time together today. She never said that she didn’t want to play any games with other people, but I sensed that it might be a good idea. She had a pretty rough time with not getting picked for kickball last week, and I didn’t want to put her through that again.
Today we started out by coloring. We both picked out really cool coloring sheets with awesome coloring patterns on them to fill in. I am catching on to the fact that Maria enjoys doing things individually rather than playing games. We spent about ten minutes coloring and then we moved onto another game. The next game that we decided to play was hangman. The first time we played hangman together was a disaster because she was having trouble spelling out words correctly, making it impossible for me to guess what word she was using. This time, however, Maria had a little help from Ann spelling out her words, so it was a lot more of an actual game. Although her words were easier to identify, she still beat me. Maria is really good at hangman that’s for sure.
When we became bored playing hangman, we decided to go outside and run around for a bit. It was raining and everyone else was running inside, but we both kind of just stood in the rain. It was pretty fun, despite the fact that I had to sit in wet clothes the whole way home! All in good fun! Maria is truly an individual and I am thinking that appreciating this, rather than trying to force games and other things on her, is a better idea. I had a great time in St. Charles today, and I am pretty sure Maria did as well. I hope the rest of the time we spend together goes as well as today did.

Oh what a day in St. Charles

2008-10-31T11:41:00.001-07:00

Today was a very interesting day in St. Charles. It started out with a very fun activity of decorating cookies. Maria and I had a great time frosting and sprinkling the cookies. I think Maria actually ended up taking about 8 cookies home because she loves them so much! After the cookie decorating extravaganza, Maria and I joined in on a game of Apples to Apples.
The game did not last long because Maria tends to drive people crazy during this game because she takes a very long time to choose cards for the game. People get a little aggravated and tend to leave the game after about three rounds because they get bored. The game ended up lasting only 15 minutes. After everyone left our game, we decided to go outside. That is when the trouble began.
Maria noticed that a game of kickball was getting started and she was very excited. When it came to picking teams, Maria decided that it would be funny to hide behind some of the other bigs. The captains did not seem to even notice that she was there. She was picked last, so she ran away and started to pout. I went over to see what was wrong but she kept running away from me. I eventually found her locked in the stall of the girl's bathroom. She was pretty close to crying and she was saying that she thought that nobody liked her. This went on for about ten more minutes, and then she finally came out and we went back outside. She refused to rejoin the game because she thought that people would make fun of her.
I am having a hard time with Maria lately because I find her saying that nobody likes her, but she seems to bring her problems onto herself. I really don't even know what to do anymore. She is craving attention, but then she runs away from it at the same time. I am not sure what to do to help her out. Hopefully I can figure something out.

Invasion of the Littles

2008-10-22T16:03:00.000-07:00

Today was an absolute blast! The kids traveled all the way from St. Charles to WSU! When the kids arrived on campus at about 3:45 we went straight to the smaug and got free ice cream. Well, the youngsters got the free ice cream, but of course I bought an ice cream cone because I couldn't resist!
While the kids were eating their ice cream, I got ready to perform a puppet show of the book THE RAINBOW FISH. For children’s literature, we have to complete an hour of community service. I thought that performing a puppet show for the little’s was a perfect idea. We also had all the kids make a rainbow fish puppet afterwards. The kids seemed to really enjoy this, and I was very excited because Maria was very interested in this. Maria is such a drama queen that I think anything to do with the theater she gets excited about! She even faked her death after we had cleaned up. It was pretty hilarious.
After the puppet show, the kids got to perform science experiments with some of the science education majors. Maria had a great time doing this, and I realized she really likes hands on activities that help her learn. I think this is true with many kids, but it was very interesting to watch Maria be excited to learn. Normally she dreads the homework portion of our time spent together, but she seemed to have a blast today. Hopefully seeing the campus today got her excited about learning in the future. Maybe she will even come to WSU for college!
I was very excited to see Maria get off the bus today because last week she had told me she wasn’t coming to BBBS anymore. I was very sad to hear this, and I hoped that it wasn't true. I really enjoy spending time with her. Hopefully she comes back next week!

Community Based Project Interview

2008-10-21T20:56:00.000-07:00

For my Latino and Latin America Perspectives class I will be completing a project entitled the community based project. For my topic, I decided to study the dropout rates of Latino students in The USA across the 1st, 2nd and 3rd generations. The dropout rate seems to be growing within 3rd generation Latino students rather than slowing down. This is a very alarming topic to me, and I am very interested with the information that I have found and I am looking forward finding a reason as to why the dropout rate is growing so much.
For this project, I will be interviewing a professional to get another perspective on this topic. I have decided to interview the ESL teacher at my high school. I am from South. St. Paul and the Latino population there is always growing. Likewise, so is the dropout rate. Mr. Yanez has been at my school for a very long time, and I think that he will have a good idea as to what is happening that is making Latinos decided to dropout. I am very excited to learn what he has to say, because so far I am finding a variety of reasons as to why the dropout rate is so high and I want to see which ideas he agrees and disagrees with. I think that this will help me to focus in on a few reasons why the dropout rate is so high, rather than having such broad research.

Potentially Bad News

2008-10-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

Today was a pretty interesting day in St. Charles. There was not a lot of fun involved because Maria was in a very awkward mood. She was having a lot of trouble having fun with games or whatever it was that we decided to do. She was sort of in a complaining mood, and that is something that troubles me a little bit. I really don’t like complainers and Maria was full of complaining today!
We started the day like any other one by playing a game to get the day going. The game of the day was Apples to Apples. Maria struggles with reading, so it is always a good game to play with her because she gets to sound out the different words on her cards and learn a lot of new words. Although she takes FOREVER to choose a card in the different rounds of the game, she does pretty well with it. When her card doesn’t get chosen as the winner, she is a bit over-dramatic, but its not the end of the world. It is just typical Maria. Or what I perceive as being typical.
After our Apples to Apples extravaganza we playing outside for a bit, but it was pretty chilly, so we decided to go back inside. She had mentioned doing homework, but then she pretty much threw a fit when I brought it up again. We actually did work on her spelling work, which is something that she seems to struggle with. She did very well after I restated the words a few times and I was very proud of her. After we were done with spelling, we were just hanging out talking when she said that she wasn’t coming anymore because she is a part of a different group on Wednesdays. Now, Maria is quite the fibber, so I really don’t know if I should believe this or not, but I would be very said if Maria wasn’t coming around anymore. Despite her craziness, she has definitely grown on me!

"But Laura... I am supposed to be first!"

2008-10-08T16:37:00.000-07:00

Today was another fun filled day in St. Charles, MN. Maria and I had some fun today, but we also had a few struggles. Maria was a bit on the crazy side, well more that usual that is. Our day started with playing the Apples to Apples card game with a bunch of the other big’s and little’s. This is always a fun game, but with Maria, the game could go on forever! She had a hard time sounding out words, and choosing which card she wanted to pick for each round. Maria actually got to work on reading with this game as well as having fun! I always like the idea of having fun while learning! It makes for a good time.
Maria has always been very dramatic, but today it truly came out a few different times. She lost in the last round of Apples to Apples, and she pretended to fall off the bench and hurt herself to turn the attention to her. Then she said “But I was supposed to be first!!” All I could say was that you win some and you lose some. She got over her loss pretty quick and we moved on to the next activity. After our dramatic ending to Apples to Apples we decided to go outside and play a big game of kickball. We actually got about 15 kids to play, so it was a great time! Maria was the pitcher on our team for the first two innings, but when it was her turn to just play the field she stormed off. I followed her into the school where she was pouting, and I was kind of upset with her. I tried talking with her about not quitting because you don’t get your way, but she had no interest in talking about it. The fact that she didn’t want to talk about it made me sad, but I just moved away from it and we ended the day by coloring some pictures.
Today was a day of exploration of Maria’s feelings. I think a little of the true Maria is coming out. She gets frustrated when she doesn’t get her way, and is quick to blame others when she makes mistakes. I am noticing that this is pretty normal with kids her age, and in the coming weeks I hope to help her to stop getting so frustrated and to just have fun!

"Kool" with a K

2008-10-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

Maria and I had an interesting time this week. Once again, we participated in many different activities, but this time it was a little too cold to be outside the whole time. We had a fun time playing tag and basketball outside for a while, but then we both got pretty cold. That is when we both decided to come inside. Today, Lisa was giving the little’s their monthly survey, and I just happened to overhear Maria tell Lisa that I was cool. But, I am Kool with a K. She had some crazy explanation behind it, but she kept saying it throughout our entire time together. It was pretty funny. I remember saying stuff like that when I was her age. I always find myself reminiscing my childhood when I spend time with Maria. Its pretty great!
This week Maria was very excited to take pictures with my computer. I think I have about 15 different shots of Maria on my computer with some crazy faces! It’s a lot of fun taking pictures, that’s for sure! After we were done on the computer we decided to make door signs for each other. I came up with the idea, but in the end, I had 4 different door signs to choose from. I couldn’t possibly pick one because they were all so awesome, so I brought them all home with me. Maria is actually very artistic, but she is very hard on herself. I really hope to work on that in the coming weeks. She is very dramatic, but at the same time, she thinks that everything she does is terrible. I try to change her mind, but she insists that she is terrible at everything. In the future, I hope to boost her self-esteem!
Time always flies when we are in St. Charles, and today was no exception. Even though the weather wasn’t as nice as I would have wanted, we at least had a chance to play outside. Jumping from activity to activity seems to be a recurring theme when I am spending time with Maria, and I am finding that doing this is the best way to make the most of the short amount of time we get to spend with each other each week!

Another Fun Filled Day in St. Charles

2008-09-24T17:41:00.000-07:00

What a crazy day in St. Charles. I found myself having to tell Maria to stop a lot today. She was in a pretty crazy mood. She was just running around playing, falling, and spilling. I think she spilled 4 times today. It was actually pretty funny to me. She totally reminded me of myself when I was her age. I was so non-stop and never paying attention to what was going on when I was her age. Maria and I have so much in common and we always find a way to have a good time.
Like always, Maria and I jumped from activity to activity today. We had a lot of fun playing outside today. We went from ball tag, to regular tag, and we even played on the tire swings for a little while. Maria loves to run around, which is awesome, because so do I. I really love spending time with Maria because she really knows how to be a kid, and it helps me to stay excited about becoming a teacher. After being outside for quite a while, we decided to go back inside.
While we were inside, Maria helped me complete an assignment for my Children’s Literature class. We read a book and then I had her do an activity about the story that we read. I am glad that Maria enjoys reading and doing activities because she helped me do my homework after I had helped her do her homework. Then the fun began. It was time to paint! She painted an entire paper for me and it she wanted me to take it home, but there is no way that I could have brought it back to the dorms and not make a mess out of it. Speaking of messes, when we were cleaning up Maria tipped over her glass of water that she had been using to wash out her brush with. What was a disaster! But it was no big deal because she found paper towels to clean it up with. She sure does know how to make a mess, but she is pretty good at cleaning up after herself at the same time.
This week was very crazy in St. Charles. Despite the craziness, Maria and I had a lot of fun. She can sure be a handful! Today, Maria got a permission slip for the day that the littles get to come to WSU. I am looking forward to that day! It should be a lot of fun! I am excited because she will get the chance to see where I go to school. I am having such a positive experience being a mentor, and I cannot wait until I get to see Maria again.

Time Flies When Your Having Fun!

2008-09-18T12:14:00.001-07:00

Time sure does fly when your having fun. Today in St. Charles was no exception. This week I decided that it would be a fun idea to go to Maria’s classroom to pick her up. I was so excited to see the way her eye’s lit up when she saw me as the bell rang. Although we have only had one other session together, she seems to really enjoy spending time with me. As soon as she saw me standing outside her classroom, she ran out the door and gave me a hug. I wasn’t really expecting that warm of a welcome, but I defiantly couldn’t stop it. She must have been really excited to see me. I didn’t even get a chance to ask her how school was before she was pulling me over to the other side of the hallway to meet her friends. I was really excited to hear that her friends already knew about me. Maria must have told her friends that she is a part of BBBS, because all of her friends knew why I was there.
Our time spent together defiantly flew by this week. Just like last week, we jumped around to the different activities throughout our time together. We went from board games, to coloring, to playing outside, back to coloring, and then playing ball tag until it was time for me to leave. Throughout our time together we had a lot of fun. Maria and I have already found a lot of things in common. Today was another day filled with finding out how much we have in common. Today, we both realized how much we both like to jump from activity to activity rather than sitting and doing one thing. She seems to get bored with some activities very quickly, but it hasn’t really proven to be a problem. She really enjoys playing with the other kids in the program, which helps me out a lot because we can move around and join in on activities that other kids are participating in.
I am really happy with the way we have connected already. Even though we have only known each other for a short amount of time, our time spent together has been really fun, and it has flown by. I am really hoping that Maria is enjoying the time that we get to spend together, because I know I am!

Meeting Maria!

2008-09-12T16:46:00.000-07:00

Today was a very exciting day because we got to travel to St. Charles and finally meet our “LITTLES.” I was very pleased to learn that my little is a young girl named Mona. I was told very quickly, however, that she wanted to be called Maria. She told me that she really doesn’t like to be called Mona. She was very excited to meet me and everyone else in the group.
I think we tried just about every type of activity that was available to us throughout the time we spent together. I realized that Maria and I have a lot in common in that we are very active and love to run around. We both also really enjoy talking, which is always a good thing. As soon as I met Maria we had to change her nametag from Mona to Maria because she doesn’t like to be called Mona. We found something in common almost right away because her favorite color is purple and so is mine. Finding something in common that quick helped to break the ice a little bit, and after we realized we had the same favorite color she knew she could find other things that we had in common besides that.
When we had to sit and talk to Dawn about the rules and regulations of the program I found out that Maria was a part of this program last year, which I was very happy about because she already knows what goes on throughout the year making life easier for me. Maria is a very outgoing girl, just like myself, and that is already helping us to get to know each other. I was very pleased with her when she gave me a tour and explained all the different classrooms and other rooms throughout the school. She really seems to like school, but she defiantly does not like the homework!! We did finish it though. She was so excited that I got to sign her homework sheet for her. She was also very excited that she gets to go home and play instead of sitting inside and doing homework. Hopefully I can help her to get some homework done every week, that way she can have more fun when she goes home.
I really felt comfortable around Maria right away because she was so outgoing. I was very nervous about meeting my little, but I am extremely satisfied with my match. I think that we are going to have a lot of fun over the course of the school year!

First Day in St. Charles!!

2008-09-03T19:07:00.000-07:00

Today was a pretty exciting day because we made our first trip to St. Charles as a class. Although the bus ride was down a long curvy road, it wasn't too bad. I usually hate to be in a car or bus for longer then ten minutes, but this wasn't so bad. After hearing Lisa Lundquist talk about all the exciting things that we can take part in as mentors in this program, I was excited to see where exactly our mentoring would take place.
When we finally arrived, I wasn't shocked to see that it was a pretty small school. At first we were taken into the activity room and set up everything that we would be using for mentoring. I was shocked to see how much stuff was packed away in those rubber totes!! I was also happy to see that we have many different activities that we will be able to take part in with our littles. Although the school is very small, the tour that we received from the principal showed that it is a very modern building and has a pretty cool set up. The thing that I enjoyed the most about the building was the upper-level of it. I really liked the idea of the circular set up in the classroom area. I think that the set up probably makes it pretty easy to get around. Also, for younger students, if they keep walking they will end up where they started eventually.
When we got back to the activity room, we got to have some down time with all the many different types of things that we supply for the enjoyment of our littles. We played apples to apples and got a chance to hang out on the playground and get a feel for the place. I found this very exciting and now I am really excited to start mentoring my little next week. I think that I have a pretty good feel on all of the different activities that my little and I can take part in starting next week and for the rest of the semester.
The time flew by pretty fast in St. Charles today, and I hoping that the time doesn't go by as fast when we are spending time with our littles. I think that I am really going to enjoy this experience and I am feeling really lucky about this opportunity. I am still a bit nervous about what kind of child that I will be matched up with, but Lisa reassured me that the matches usually work out very well in this program, so I am feeling ok about it. I cannot wait for next week!