This visit was in Momi’s room with Jason and Dennis.  It was a very short visit.  We made a poster to show our progress for the already collected supplies.  We used strips of paper that I cut out to make bar graphs to show how many supplied we had collected and how many binders we could make.  We had an abundance of pencils but what we need is paper and binders.  We have enough pencils to make 200 binders but we need the other supplies — paper, dividers and the binder itself.  We decided that raising money would be the best way to get the binders because Dennis can get them from a special place at half price.  We talked about raising money through different drives including a drive where kids do chores around the house and their parents pay them which goes to the project.  The class the raises the most money will get a pizza party.

On this visit, Ben, Brice, Miral, Ivo, Jason and I met with Dennis, also in the library.  We talked about what we had learned at the Bronx School and what we would do for our Teach In.  We decided to show the video interviews that we had made and decided which ones to use and which ones to cut.  The ones we kept were the ones we felt would be the most informative.  Jason was the cameraman and we all asked the questions.  These were the interviews with the principal, art teacher, fifth grader and parent coordinator.

I was nervous about the teach-in because I didn’t think I was prepared but I was also nervous afterwords, so maybe it was just about getting up in front of people.    The two things that went well were the video interviews of the parent coordinator, art teacher and the principal  because it helped the audience understand what we were doing and how much  it helped the students to have supplies.   I also thought the actual pencil designing, where the kids colored pencils with markers and facts about our project,  went well but I think it could have been a little shorter.  We thought the pencil project would help get the word out about how much kids needed supplies.

I didn’t really enjoy being a teacher for 2 hours because I don’t really like talking in front of people, even though we had the whole team there so the pressure wasn’t just on me.  But I did like it that I was actually teaching people something that I had experienced personally.  As a team, we asked for questions and the kids asked a few and we answered as best we could.   What I would have done differently was to try and stimulate the kids to ask more questions so we could have a conversation back and forth.

This was a good topic for me because I didn’t really know anything about kids not having tools in the public schools or that teachers sometime have to use their own money to buy supplies.  (Which isn’t very fair because teachers don’t get paid enough as it is.)  I learned a lot from having the opportunity to meet Dennis, who started the Tools for Schools Program.  Dennis seems like a kind person, who is thinking more about others than himself.  This is a non-profit program that he started so he doesn’t make any money from it.

The set-up groups went pretty well.  I was in the Decoration Group and we made posters to put around the school.  The posters advertised our teach-in for April 28th.  I also printed out the PSAs we made and posted them in the hallways and near the 8th grade rooms.  I think our group was successful because we worked together and got the posters made and put around the school.  I like the idea of the assemblies because after the teach-in, we all came together sort of in a celebration and it helped us learn about what the other groups did.

I liked being able to visit the places that we are helping rather than just reading about them.  I liked that we could meet someone like Dennis who is making a difference.  I liked doing things on my own time outside of school and working as a team.   If I had one suggestion for next year, I would make it clearer that a “visit” didn’t necessarily mean going outside the school, that it could also just be a meeting in the library.  I was confused that these first few meetings were actually visits.  I would also suggest to people next year to take their cameras with them so they could post pictures on their blogs.

Getting Tools To City Schools is an organization devoted to delivering donated school supplies to unprivileged  city schools. People can volunteer to collect school supplies and/or help unload and deliver the supplies to needy schools. Each student the recives supplies will get a brand new three-ring binder, lined paper, pencil, pens, pocket divider folders and a pencil pouch.

Here is a link to the site: http://www.gettingtoolstocityschools.org/home