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Service Learning: Nextdoor Foundation

When: Tuesday June 29, 2017 *8:20 – 1:00

Activities: Today not only did I clean the books again, But also I got to sort the bins with the tools for the other cleaners.

What I learned: how to organize

Observations/feelings: I had fun, especially with the bin part

Challenges/questions: Nothing.

Connection:

1.     How did preconceptions change about the agency or it’s missions? Before I went to volunteer at Nextdoor books for kids, I thought it would be a library but it wasn’t what I expected. And I thought I would simply be putting books back into order.  I do this but I also clean and repair books. Also, it is not just a library, after I looked at the web site I learned it was a school, helps adults and offers health and dental care too. The Books for Kids is a part of Nextdoor that gets old or new book which are cleaned and repaired and then they give them to kids who have no books and teach them the wonders of reading.

2.     What surprised you most about your placement or about service learning?  When I went there it was in a very old neighborhood. The Building was big and clean, it was cool, but it was surround by gates. Which made me a bit nervous. However, once I walked in, I was greeted with hellos, I then got to start my job by cleaning book. At first, I was unsure if I could do it. But now I love to clean the books. What I love about doing this is being able to restore books so new readers can read them. So, what I expected was not that bad, I love volunteering here so I have decided to continue to volunteer there.

3.     Give your opinion about how well the agency fulfills its mission-and what may stand in the way of the agency solving the particular problems that you have noticed.  The agency by restoring books, and giving them to children that have no books helps to get them to read.  Everyday they get donations for new books, which they use to teach children and adults how to read. The only issues I see that would keep them from their goal of helping people to read would be to not have enough books or a way to distribute them or to not have enough good teachers to teach people to read.  

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Service Learning: Nextdoor Foundation

When: Tuesday June 27, 2017 *8:20 – 1:00

Activities: Today I first I started put some stickers on, then I want back to cleaning the books. Which makes me happy cleaning again.

What I learned: Nothing new.

Observations/feelings: It felt slow today, but Lurky I was not alone today.

Challenges/questions:  Nothing.

Connection: Check my last blog.

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My Connection for next Blog

Connection: So I thought to myself, Why do some people (childs) not like books? I believe to some childs they think books are boring, just sitll pictuers and words. To them it’s like homework, you have to work for it with your imagetions. Now that dont’ens mean they hate the storys, it’s just you have to work for it and unlike watch movies which is uselly two hours or litter more. But a book take a long time to read (depends on how long the book is). That’s my thoughts, I look at the web site and I found some other reason why some child don’t read. On the site https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/10-reasons-nonreaders-dont-read---and-how-change-their-minds/ it give 10 reason why some don’t like reading, here are the 10 reason

Reason 1: Reading Gives Them a Headache or Makes Their Eyes Hurt

Reason 2: They Can’t Read as Fast as Their Peers (and Get Left Behind)

Reason 3: They Fear They’ll Have to Read Out Loud and Others Will Laugh

Reason 4: They Expect to Be Tested on What They Read — and to Fail the Test

Reason 5: They Believe They Have to Finish Every Reading Selection, No Matter How Long or Difficult

Reason 6: They Fear Their Opinions Will Be Wrong

Reason 7: They Always Get Put Into the “Slow” Group, Which Makes Them Feel Stupid

Reason 8: They Believe They Are Too Far Behind to Ever Catch Up

Reason 9: They Have No Interest in the Material They Are Required to Read

Reason 10: They Get Lost and Can’t Remember What They Have Just Read

They go in more details on each of them, but this site is cool to all the different reason why childs would not like reading.  Also child would’en hate reading forever, I believe they will get into reading when they get older and they would have fun reading, I know I did. 

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http://entertainment.blurtit.com/1985223/what-are-the-differences-and-similarities-between-reading-a-book-and-watching-film This is where I got it from.

Service Learning: Nextdoor Foundation

When: Tuesday June 22, 2017 *8:15 – 2:00

Activities: Today not only did I do some cleaning, but I also helped with the new volunteers that came in today. We had to stock the books into different groups.

What I learned: I learned that I need to work on my team work skills

Observations/feelings: A bit overwhelming today, not just with the new volunteers, but in the end I had to look for very tiny book in these BIG box, lots, and LOTs of boxes of books. There were so many books that the boxes take up half of the room, a lot of them hadn’t been cleaned yet

Challenge: The challenge was dealing with all the volunteers –because it created a little bit of chaos when it is usually just me and looking for the tiny book in all the boxes.

Connection:   Questions? What is Best (as a story) the book or a movie? Well that’s a hard question to answer. To some or most people they would say the book is better. But to me it depends on the story, like the story Flashpoint. Flashpoint, the movie and the book are very similar.  Except in the movie they show what happens before Barry Allen aka The Flash went back in time to save his mother from her death. But in the book he already saved his mother and they did not explain how he went back in time and how he went back in time.  The other thing they did in the movie is they included parts from the mini series that were not in the main story. However, I saw the movie first and after reading the book, I believe the movie was better because the movie explained  a lot more of what happened then the book. I think books are better depending on the story, I liked the books of To Kill a Mockingbird and Spiderwick better than the movies.  In Spiderwick, the movie, they jammed all the books together which was confusing and missed lots of details.  In To Kill a Mockingbird, the  movie, there were details missing that I enjoyed in the book. When I read the book I had imagined how everything looked and I liked that version.  Don’t get me wrong the movie was really good,  but I liked the book a little more.      

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Service Learning: Nextdoor Foundation

When: Tuesday June 22, 2017 *8:15 – 2:00

Activities: Today not only did I do some cleaning, but I also helped with the new volunteers that came in today. We had to stock the books into different groups.

What I learned: I learned that I need to work on my team work skills

Observations/feelings: A bit overwhelming today, not just with the new volunteers, but in the end I had to look for very tiny book in these BIG box, lots, and LOTs of boxes of books. There were so many books that the boxes take up half of the room, a lot of them hadn’t been cleaned yet

Challenge: The challenge was dealing with all the volunteers –because it created a little bit of chaos when it is usually just me and looking for the tiny book in all the boxes.

Connection:   Questions? What is Best (as a story) the book or a movie? Well that’s a hard question to answer. To some or most people they would say the book is better. But to me it depends on the story, like the story Flashpoint. Flashpoint, the movie and the book are very similar.  Except in the movie they show what happens before Barry Allen aka The Flash went back in time to save his mother from her death. But in the book he already saved his mother and they did not explain how he went back in time and how he went back in time.  The other thing they did in the movie is they included parts from the mini series that were not in the main story. However, I saw the movie first and after reading the book, I believe the movie was better because the movie explained  a lot more of what happened then the book. I think books are better depending on the story, I liked the books of To Kill a Mockingbird and Spiderwick better than the movies.  In Spiderwick, the movie, they jammed all the books together which was confusing and missed lots of details.  In To Kill a Mockingbird, the  movie, there were details missing that I enjoyed in the book. When I read the book I had imagined how everything looked and I liked that version.  Don’t get me wrong the movie was really good,  but I liked the book a little more.      

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Service Learning: Nextdoor Foundation

When: Tuesday June 20, 2017 *8:30 – 2:00

Activities: Today I got to go back to cleaning the books again. Which makes me happy cleaning them so new people can read them.

What I learned: Nothing new

Observations/feelings: It felt slow today, I couldn’t even finish one box of books, I only got half way thru it.

Challenges/questions:  Today the challenge was lots of sticky tape and torn pages.

Connection:  A question: What’s the difference for a child, between reading a book and watching a film?  Depends on the child, if the child grew up on movies, they would rather watch movies then read books. If the child grew up with books they would read books then watch movies. Also it depends on the story. Take the Harry Potter story for example, the movies are mostly two hours long, but it takes more than two hours to read the books.  Also with reading a book you use your own imagination, so if you think of Harry Potter as a red head, then your Harry is a red head.  You get to create the characters and places based on how you see the story. With movies the characters and world already set for you, you would not need to use a lot of your imaginations. Movies are kind of a short version of a book so there are many more details in a book.  So a child who can’t sit still for a long period of time may prefer movies since they get the whole story in a shorter time.    

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Service Learning: Nextdoor Foundation

When: Tuesday June 15, 2017 *8:22 – 2:00

Activities: Today Like last time I just put stickers on and took some off. Then I put them back into the boxes and write down done.

What I learned: Nothing new

Observations/feelings: It’s still fun. The best part about my day was fixing this old book, that they were going to get rid of. It  was made in 1958 and I was able to restore it.  This made me feel like an archivist—this is what Jackie called me. I felt like a saved a story for others to read.  

Challenges/questions: No challenges today

Connection: What’s the difference between owning a book as opposed to getting it from the library or from a teacher (That has to be returned)?  A:  If the book is yours –you get to keep it and read it over and over.  You can tell things about the books people own, for example if all the books were based on fantasy fiction it may be the person likes to spend their free time in another world away from the everyday world.  Some books, for example, a book from a teacher about a subject that you are not interested in you don’t want to own. People take books out of the library because they want to read or learn something new and if they find something they like they may purchase that book for their own library.  Books from the library or from a teacher could also be for research and they are free.  Also books from libraries and teachers can help people who don’t have the money to buy books for their own, so they can still have the ability to read and enjoy books.

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Service Learning: Nextdoor Foundation

When: Tuesday June 13, 2017 *8:20 – 1:45

Activities: Today I just put stickers on and took some off. Then I put them back into the boxes and wrote down done.

What I learned: Nothing new

Observations/feelings: It’s still fun, But some of the stickers were very hard to take off.

Challenges/questions: No challenges today

Connection: Why do you like reading and what your fav books of all time, from kids books, comic books, and novels?

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Service Learning: Nextdoor Foundation

When: Thusday June 8, 2017 *8:30 - 2:01

Activities: Today for half of the day I cleaned books, I took stickers off, taped the torn pages, and then cleaned them so they are ready to be read, samething.  The rest of the day I helped to  make some bags of crackers for the kids for next week.

What I learned: Nothing new

Observations/feelings: It’s still fun, I didn't have to fix the same books again.  It feels good to make the books so kids can read them. . When I was cleaning these books I found some books that I can’t believe I forget, like Clifford the Big Red Dog, Berenstein Bears, & Arthur stories, it brought me back to memory lane. Also my boss went to my old school, Washington Elementary, to get some books. I can’t wait to see more books I have read.      

Challenges/questions: No challenges today

Connection: My answer for my last question, how many books are received per day, is that they ususlly get 800 to 1000 books per week

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Service Learning: Nextdoor Foundation

When: Tuesday June 6, 2017 *8:26 - 2:00

Activities: Same thing, clean books, I took stickers off, taped the torn pages, and then cleaned them so they are ready to be read. I do get to have ywo books for free. I got one called Godzilla The Half-Century War.

What I learned: I learned more information about the agency, which you will see in today’s other biog post.

Observations/feelings: It’s still fun, beside fixing the same Ulysses books again and again. 

Challenges/questions: No challenges today

Connection: How many books does Nextdoor get each day?

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Service Learning: Nextdoor Foundation

Nextdoor Foundation

What does the agency do?   The agency supports the intellectual, physical, spiritual and emotional development of children so they become self-sufficient, contributing members of the community.  

What services are offered?  

·      Prenatal Services, they help child even before they are born, by helping pregnant women with labor and delivery

·      Early Head Start (6 weeks to 3) help child in their first years of they life, with the most basic of education.

·      Head Start (Age 3 to 5)

·      K4 and K5 Charter School is a Kindergarten school that will help kids under four or five-year-old

·       Health & Wellness -Health Screenings, Dental Care, Positive Behavior Support, Onsite pediatricians and dental center, assistance for families with children with special needs

·       Community Resource

·      The Reading Programs –Books for Kids-not just teaches child’s how to read, but also give new and old book to people who don’t have any books to read.

·      Fatherhood-helps parents to become great role models

·      Adult Basic Education / High School Equivalency

The agency has been in business since 1969 which is 48 years. It started as a resource for youth and young adults to support the intellectual, physical, spiritual and emotional development. It has added many new programs over the years. The agency gets its funding from federal, state and fundraising efforts. Based on federal reviews the agency is a financially-sound organization, so reductions in support would mean reductions in programs like other places.  The  agency has approximately 330 employees.  It has 184 volunteers for the” Books for Kids” program alone.  The NextDoor Foundation is part of the Head Start and Early Head Start Federal program.  They are one of ten Educare sites in the United States.  They partner with many community organizations throughout Milwaukee and Wisconsin, such as Children’s Hospital of Wiscosin has a pediatric and dental clinic at their location. My resource is not aware of ties to professional organizations.

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Service Learning: Nextdoor Foundation

When: Thursday May, 2017 9:00 -11:05

Activities: all I had to do was to clean books, I took stickers off, taped the torn pages, and then cleaned them so they are ready to be read.

What I learned: How to take stickers off

Observations/feelings: I believed it was fun

Challenges/questions: nothing hard

Connection: So I thought to myself, Why do some people not like books?

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Service Learning: Nextdoor Foundation

The organization that I am volunteering for is called Nextdoor Foundation.

 Their mission statement is to support the intellectual, physical, spiritual and emotional development of children so they become self-sufficient, contributing members of the community.  The place was huge, they were three different parts of the building.  It looked so clean and this is in an old neighborhood. I was greeted by nice people and who during my orientation showed me what I needed to do step by step

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Service Learning: Survive and Thrive!

I want to volunteer because I like to help people in any way.  Seeing people happy is the best reward that money can’t ever buy.  So, I decided to help people with books, because I believe books are important for kids, because reading can help us in many ways, it’s important for our lives.   How to spell, how to read, and the most important one, how to use our imaginations.  My thoughts on the Service Learning is that it is interesting. Mostly because we take on world problems from the past so we can help the future become a better place and I to help by learning more about the past.        

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Service Learning: Survive and Thrive!

Hello, my name, is Nathan Balcerowski, I am a college student at MIAD. I am taking a summer school class called “Service Learning: Survive and Thrive!”, our teacher named Julia Kirchner.  I and many other students in the class were tasked to volunteer at an organization to find what values are important to me and to give me ties to the community.