Category: Ivo Ilic

Ivo Final Reflection

Well, I think my class for the Teach-In went well.  It was good for what we had to work with and I am satisfied with the results.  Most of the students were entertained by the activity and seemed to learn a lot from out power point/movie in the beginning.  Some students seemed very enthusiastic, one group of four even managed to make 60 pencils!  Another element that seemed to go well was the quiz in the beginning.  The students were asked to fill out a simple quiz without pencils.  It was effective in showing them how children in schools with little supplies must feel and also really jump started the whole lesson.  It was interesting being a teacher for a while, much better than some lessons we taught in science.  One child was particularly difficult but with the help of our supervising teacher we solved the problem quickly and efficiently.  I think it would have been better if we had less people to teach though because some people did not speak much while others like me were forced to take the initiative.

If I were able to do it over I would have had less people in my group which had been a big problem during the creation of the lesson and the presentation.  Also I might have added the logo or website of Getting Tools to City Schools somewhere on the pencils because  the message and way to help might be clearer.  Not speaking strictly about not what I could have done differently but more about he structure of the project I think it would have made a huge difference if each student wrote a separate and different from the other members in the group and then the teacher would select one after edits were made to be used as the class.  Also if this all happened before the actual teach-in started it would be less stress full and actually be a proposal.  The last thing I think we could have improved was our presentation.  If we had time to run through the whole presentation a second time the day before the teach in we could have made some last minute changes and been better rehearsed.

What really stuck with me after the project is that to some of these kids school is there only hope.  It is all they have.

Well the best par of my set up group is we actually managed to finish.  I was assigned the PSA slide show and at one point it seemed like nothing was going to work.  But then out of no where one of my classmates finished the whole thing (Thank You Nora).  For next year smaller groups, better background checks on the organization (Some of the organization we volunteered for did not except volunteers from NYC), what I said before about the proposals, and lastly instead of just giving the people who work less bad grades I think they should be forced to help more because if they don’t work it brings down the groups performance.

Here is the link to the PSA sideshow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya076fVxWDM&feature=player_embedded

Ivo Ilic-4/14/10-Getting Tools to City Schools

It was my 5th and final visit for the LREI 8th grade Social Justice project.  As usual we met Dennis after school in the library.  We found out that Dennis had spoken to our principle, Mark, and that they had decided on a plan to raise money for the binders.  In a few weeks everyone in the middle school would receive a form or slip of some kind to use to track chores done for parents or neighbors.  The students would earn money by completing chores and then donate that money to the organization.  It seems like a good idea and I hope it works.  Next the whole group except for me was supposed to hang up a chart of our progress made last visit (I was not present).  I was supposed to find Carin in the mean time to ask her what needed to be done for the chocolate bars.  I was not able to find her so I helped the others hang the chart.  After we had finished we went back to the library.  Dennis told us how very soon we would have to make the final push to get all the supplies by the end of the school year.  He gave us a sort of pep talk and told us we would have to be leaders in the campaign.  He asked me to stay behind when the others left to post the PSAs (Public Services Announcements) we  had created in class on the organizations facebook page.  It took a while but I managed to post them. Click on the image below to see them.

Ivo's PSA

Ivo Ilic-3/10/10-Getting Tools to City Schools

Today’s visit was not a long one.  I waited in the school until 3:45 when we were supposed to meet Dennis in the library.  I was the first student there and I arrived just as Carin did.  Dennis was already there.  Before anyone else arrived Carin asked me to show Dennis the PSA I had been working on in class.  It is a gray-scale picture of two hands, one looking as if were holding a pencil over a quiz with no answers.  There is a yellow/orange strip along the bottom (The same color as the logo of Getting Tools to City Schools) with black lettering that reads “How can a child pass a test without a pencil?”.   Anyway Dennis seemed to like the PSA and we started to discuss if I used to little text when Jason showed up.  Dennis asked him to show us the paper he was writing for class about the project and then asked the same of me.  After we printed our papers one of us asked where everyone else was.  I went to look for our teacher to try and get the numbers of the rest of the group and Jason went to find Bryce who was at robotics to do the same.  I was unsuccessful but Jason got Bryce’s paper and told us how Bryce was unavailable.   We then spoke about ideas for both the poster Miral and I had to do for displaying at the school.  Dennis came up with the idea of attaching pictures to use as the bars of our graph to make it clearer.  We also talked about editing the footage Jason got from our last visit and its many uses.  I asked him to email me it and I expect it any moment now.  Next visit I hope to work on the chocolate wrappers for fund-raising as well as have the poster finished.  Please clink on the link in the post and become a fan of the organization on facebook.

Ivo Ilic-2/24/10-Getting Tools to City Schools

On this visit we met Dennis in the school a little time before the end of the school day.  Me and Jason came down a little late from art class.  We knew today that we would be visiting P.S. 335 in the South Bronx.  I don’t think any of us besides Dennis had a complete idea of what to expect.  I don’t go to the Bronx very often and I have never knowingly seen the inside of a Public School where most of the the children are below the poverty line.  Miral and I both brought notebooks and pencil, Jason had also brought his flip camera which was extremely useful.  Thank you Jason.  Some members of our group were chosen during one of our shorter meeting to record our questions for the people we would be interviewing at the school.  Unfortunately since those questions were lost we needed to rethink them again on the train there.  Here are some of the questions: What kinds of families are these children coming from (Who raises them?)?  What are the demographics of your school?  Are the supplies lasting?  How did the children (or you) feel when they (or you) got the supplies?  Do the teachers ever purchase supplies using money from their own pockets?  Were the parents thankful for the supplies?  How did you hear about Getting Tools to City Schools?  Final we arrived at out stop.  After walking down the many stairs of the raised subway platform we headed toward the school.  When we arrived at the school to me it looked like an other public school and when we got inside it was the same.  It looked exactly like any other public school.  The interior decorating done by the city may have not been amazing but the entire school was cover wall to wall in the artwork and projects of students.  It looked like a very happy welcoming place.  While we were there we conducted four interviews, one with a art teacher who could not answer some questions about the materials but was helpful, a student who received materials last year who seemed happy, the parent coordinator who gave us an inside look at these childrens’ lives, and the assistant principle who gave us a lot of information about the school.  Here is a brief summery of the information we got: The students in the school are manly of Latin American dissent. The children in the school come from all different families raised by different relatives and some by foster parents or in shelters. Happily the supplies are lasting and the children are very thankful for them.  The teachers do spend money out of their pockets as apparently according to the art teacher all teacher do.  The school hear of the organization when the vice principle got a weekly letter sent to all public schools about programs and events.  The parents of the student were very grateful many calling in disbelief. Unfortunately some parents are afraid to come into the school or call for such reasons as illegal immigration. Click on the following link for a little video of the school.  PS 335 Video

Ivo Ilic-2/11/10-Getting Tools to City Schools

After the literary festival we all met in the library (Dennis, Chase, Jason, Miral, Ben, and I).  This time Carin was there also.  We spent all of the visit formulating plans to raise money and supplies to send to the school.  Carin offered to make the chocolate bars she has made in the past for other fundraisers.  We tried to come up with other ideas to help raise money for binders (our most needed supply) which Dennis can get from a supplier for about half the price you would pay at Staples.  Dennis wanted to try something called stuff the bus were we would rent a bus and then kids could throw binders and school supplies in the bus to try and fill it.  I pointed out it would probably cost more to rent the bus than just buy the materials.  We came up with one idea to have a competition between the classes to see to see who could raise the most money.  We also came up with ideas for prizes like a study group pass or a weekend without homework.  Dennis said it should be called bucks for binders. Our biggest concerns were that someone would bring in a check and the competition would become to cutthroat or become unfair.  To counter this we came up with the idea of one set goal; although it was argued that there would then be a complete lack of competition. We also talked about having a bake sale to raise money.  Miral offered to knit scarfs.  We also assigned each other tasks.  I was assigned  to make posters and chocolate bar wrappers.  Ben and Bryce said they would bring in cameras to record our meetings and our trip to a school who recently received binders for its 5th grade.  Dennis had chosen the school because it gives breakfast free to over 90% of its students because they cannot afford it.  Dennis said he would contact the vice principle of the school to ask about our visit.  He also said he would contact Mark about the competition.  Please go to the website or to the new facebook page and join.  Also donate binders and supplies to the box in the lobby, last time we checked it was almost empty.

Thank You

Ivo Ilic-2/3/10-Getting Tools to City Schools

Today Jason, Ben, Miral, Bryce, and me met Dennis Kitchen (Our Contact) at LREI at 4:00.  We spoke awhile about what his organization did and about what we could do.  He showed us this video  Getting Tools to City Schools Video of a teacher talking about her school.  We discussed different ideas for raising money and helping out.  Ben asked if he could place a box like the one in the lobby in one of the NYU dorms because a lot of the students there probably have extra materials.  I suggested we make a poster with a chart to place next to the box in the lobby in order to show what we are missing and what we have collected.  Dennis then told us we needed a place to put all the materials we had gathered so far.  We found a spot in Sarah’s room on top of a closet to store the materials.  We then had to bring the box of supplies from the lobby to the room.  The box was falling apart so for the first part of the move we slid it.  Later we lifted it with the help of the Admissions Office who insisted we were going to hurt ourselves.  We then sorted all the items in the box and counted them up.  I don’t have all the numbers but I know there were around 48 binders, 36 pencil pouches, and enough pencils for over 400 students.   Dennis told us that we needed around 300 binders with 5 pencils, 5 pens, pencil pouches, 50 sheets of paper, and 5 three holed binder dividers.  We have already collected enough pencils but in all the other categories we are lacking.  We are still brain storming ideas for getting more donations.  Please donate supplies by placing them in the box in the lobby.  Thank You.