Vocab Rap: Engaging Students On Their Own Terms

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Steph Thompson

Steph Thompson is a Tutoring Captain for Team 81 at P.S. 81 in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.

I love tutoring – we have the freedom to be more flexible, to tailor our lessons to the tutees’ individual needs and interests. We can make learning fun. We can all get inspired.

For Alexus and De’John, today’s session turned out to be an unorthodox vocabulary lesson. After reading a few books that didn’t particularly spark any great interest from either of them, I thought, “Oh, I got it!”

I reached into my bag and found Tuck Everlasting, a great book my own kids’ elementary school does for parent-led book club. It was hard but had great rhythm and great words. We decided to go on a vocabulary scavenger hunt. They were willing to suffer the small type. We came up against words like “infinite” and “collaborate,” and we defined them together as a group.

A pause – De’John flipped the book over and read the back cover. What’s flawless? Alexus asked for a drink. Was I losing them? “What do you want to do?” I asked.

“Dance,” said Alexus. “I want to rap”, said De’John. And so we did.

De’John put the definitions- amazingly rhythmic -to a rap. Infinity. Collaborative. Flawless. Hub. Alexus harmonized and danced. I laughed. And recorded. (Click here to take a listen)

Their homework is to practice their rap, their Perfect Together Forever rap. And, of course, I’ve asked them to recruit members to their rap group, The Luthers, the name De’John came up with for the kids interested in continuing the important message of Dr. Martin Luther King. (This month is Black History Month of course!)

They skipped off smiling, excited about their assignment. Another tutoring success!

P.S. 243 Family Fun Field Day

Posted on May 22, 2012 by AliciaJ

Mr. Justin from FAN4Kids, awesome CFK volunteers, & adorable P.S. 243 students!

Aside from the days the school cafeteria served chicken nuggets for lunch, there was nothing I looked forward to more in elementary school than Field Day. Each spring, the entire grade would gather together on the playground for some fun in the sun. The Egg Walk; Over, Under; Dizzy Bat; Water Balloon Toss (my favorite relay race); all culminating in the final showdown: Class Tug of War.

Last Saturday, May 19th, I took part in the excitement again; this time at Change for Kids‘ inaugural Family Fun Field Day at P.S. 243 in Brooklyn. Over 75 students, parents, and community members joined CFK and FAN4Kids, our healthy living partner, for a bit of friendly competition in kickball, bowling, basketball, and — of course — a water balloon toss!

My favorite little guy of the day!

In addition to fun games and races, we provided a nutritious lunch for the kids and their families. Gone were my beloved chicken nuggets, replaced with: cucumber salad, no-mayo tuna salad (yep…you read that right…NO MAYO!), and peanut butter & banana sandwiches.

All in all, it was an incredibly successful first-go at what CFK hopes will become a much-anticipated and highly-attended annual event at each of our partner schools. I’m already looking forward to next year’s Field Day, when I can lace up, line up, and set off down the relay race track!

Community Spotlight: Meet Joshua Holmes

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Kristin Black

Meet Joshua Holmes, the Detroit native with a master’s in public administration, a love for all things sports-related, and a special fondness for NYC food culture. When he’s not on his long-standing quest to find the best burgers and beer in the city, you can find him on the sports field. Any sports field will do. “I play softball, racquetball, football, tennis, and basketball. Also golf and snowboarding. I enjoy reading, though I always fear I don’t do it enough.” Prod him a little though, and he’ll admit that his favorite books are pretty diverse – Freakonomics, all seven Harry Potters, Cornel West’s Race Matters, and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. I’ve also heard from a very reliable source that he’s consistently voted the best dressed at the annual UVa alumni holiday party – perhaps not so hard to believe of a guy who manages to pull off a red plaid bow tie.

Josh Homes, Best Dressed and Tutor Extroadinaire

The best thing about Joshua, however, is that he spends every Tuesday reading with two very special second graders at P.S. 243 – Rubayet and Trinity (Weird factoid of the day: two of Joshua’s aunts actually attended P.S. 243). Given the recent standards push for nonfiction reading skills, they’ve been working all fall on a slew of animal books, says Joshua. “I’ve gotten a sense of their reading level at this point, so we always start by picking something out that looks really interesting…There’ve been lots of snakes, birds, and birds’ nests,” he adds.

Whether they’re sounding out words, identifying main ideas, or separating fact from opinion, the most exciting part of the process for Joshua has been watching Rubayet and Trinity grow more confident in their reading. “Rubayet was more shy and bashful when we first met, but now sometimes I have a difficult time keeping him on task because he wants to talk about all kinds of things. Trinity is very bubbly and warm. She’s really kind of adorable – like a little cousin.”
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Volunteer Magic: Fresh Spaces, New Computers

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Kristin Black

For the last ten years, P.S. 243′s computer lab has been “under construction” – a full decade of hoping they could get together the resources to provide their students the technology education they’d need to be successful throughout school.

Baruch College volunteers in the new J.P. Morgan computer lab

Finally this summer we met the folks at nPower, a national nonprofit that brings information technology services and training to other nonprofits. When they heard about the situation at our Bedford-Stuyvesant school, they brought in long-time sponsor J.P. Morgan for a little financial muscle. JPM generously donated enough machines to stock up the entire lab, thus ending the agony of yet another year minus computer education. Last but not least, muralist Caitlin Everett and a team of Baruch College volunteers joined nPower to get things set up and pretty in the brand-spanking new lab. You heard right: nonprofit + business + education + individual volunteers = solutions. That’s just how CFK rolls. Meanwhile…

Our favorite South Bronx school was facing a dilemma. CFK’s violin instructor, Mr. Majid, could probably work miracles wherever you put his classes. But this year, the increased student population at P.S. 73 (otherwise great news) pushed Mr. Majid’s violin class into an old locker/shower room (bad news).
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Sarah Stevens Goes Medieval on Back to School Projects

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Sarah Stevens

On any given day this fall, CFK teachers, partner organizations, and volunteers are hard at work providing engaging educational programs to our students, and we couldn’t be more thrilled! Mr. Justin is teaching kindergarten through 3rd graders fun games to keep them active and healthy. Mr. Majid is quizzing his returning violin students on their scales. Ms. Kathleen is introducing the work of Emilio Sanchez to students at the Bronx Museum. And volunteers are exploring the adventures of Curious George, Arthur, and Babar with new second graders during tutoring. Every day new doors are being opened and opportunities are provided to eager kids ready to learn.

Sarah Stevens gets it done.

One of the most exciting program developments this fall has been the exponential growth of our volunteer tutoring efforts. In its third year, the one-on-one literacy tutoring program at PS 243 has tripled and we are continuing to train new volunteers. The school has come to rely on CFK tutors for their dedication to the students and invaluable classroom support. Once a week tutors meet with 2nd and 3rd grade students to work on critical writing and reading comprehension skills. With characters like the Bernstein Bears and Madeline to keep them busy, though, it doesn’t seem fair to call their studying “work.”

We have also seen our partnership with Fordham University at PS 73 more than triple since last spring. Fordham students drive their “Ram Vans” a few blocks south every Wednesday to pair up with 4th and 5th grade kids to write the PS 73 school newspaper. If last year’s paper is any indicator, those budding journalists will be prime to steal our jobs writing for the CFK newsletter and blog!

After only a few weeks, we can already tell this year us going to be even more exciting than last, and we can’t wait to share it with you!

Community Spotlight: Meet Alicia Jayo

Posted on August 11, 2011 by Kristin Black

As some of you may know (because you took a look at our spiffy 2010-2011 stats, of course), this is the year we more than tripled our volunteer numbers and very nearly doubled the number of individual donors—fabulous news that nearly rolled us over as we were crunching the numbers here at the end of the summer.

Alicia, our new Director of Community Engagement (on the right!)

Luckily we also had a great year in terms of board additions, which meant we were able to bring on Alicia Jayo, our new Director of Community Engagement, veteran e-warrior, and unabashed sushi addict (“I order sushi probably 4 nights out of the week,” she says). When she’s not chowing down on spicy crunchy tuna or eel avocado rolls, she’ll be cracking the whip on our contacts database, rounding up volunteers, and making our digital media go. You’ll be seeing a lot of her over the next several months, and that means we’ll be seeing a more of you!

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CFK: 2010-2011 by the Numbers

Posted on August 10, 2011 by Kristin Black

2010-2011 was such a fantastic year for CFK, it seemed only fitting to give our stats a little swagger. Below, a roundup of our favorite numbers from the previous school year. CFK: 2010 by the Numbers

The P.S. 73 Poetry and Newspaper Project: A Chat with Education Director Sarah Stevens

Posted on June 25, 2011 by Kristin Black

Every week five fabulous tutors from Fordham’s Center for American Catholic Studies arrive at P.S. 73 to mentor a select group of 5^th graders in the joys of writing. Together they create projects that encourage community service and academic excellence, including this year’s school newspaper and a book of original poetry. In a feat of educational alchemy, our hip and enthusiastic tutors have managed to make persuasive writing and poetic form the preferred topics of conversation on Friday afternoons. Even better, our tutors’ general awesomeness and the group’s annual field trip to the Fordham campus have inspired our 11-year-olds to set their sights on college.

Read the original poetry book!

Read the P.S. 73 Newspaper!

Last year when we checked in with Jenny Portillo, founder of the Fordham group, she
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Community Spotlight: Meet Wright Harvey

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Kristin Black

Those of you who’ve been attending our school beautification days have no doubt met Wright Harvey, the artistic guru frantically prepping mural spaces, weighing in on color choices, and adding a few more dabs of paint to his already over-the-top messy work pants. You may have asked yourself, “Who is this mad artist in the paint-splattered jeans with the preternaturally organized girlfriend?” Herein, everything you ever wanted to know about Wright Harvey.

Wright Harvey in his infamous work jeans

This Naples, FL native grew up a mile from the beach and came to art early in life through the efforts of his cousin April. Together they killed long afternoons with art projects and bracelet knotting, and when he went to the University of Virginia to study econ, he also managed to spend enough time in the print shop to add a second major in visual arts.

“Of course when I graduated I relied much more heavily on the economics degree to get a job that would put a roof over my head,” he notes. Wright’s been at JPMorgan ever since, and while there are plenty of opportunities there for creative business thinking, he hadn’t had a real chance to flex his artistic muscles in a public forum in quite some time.

Enter the Change for Kids school beautification days.
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Community Spotlight: Choose Your Own CFK Adventure

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Kristin Black

Let’s just say you have a family you love and a highly successful, non-teaching career – like financial services. You’re happy in your life choices, but you’ve always harbored fantasies of stepping into a classroom, your chalk and attendance chart in hand, and making a difference in young people’s lives.

Do you:

A: Wait until retirement to dust off your Dead Poets Society dreams.

B: Abandon your current life for unknown adventures with Teach for America.

C: Have it all! On your own time, right here in NYC.

Steve Blum is mobbed by adoring 2nd graders

Meet Steve Blum, the man who chose option C. A Yale alumnus, championship fencer and father of two grown children, Steve is a Managing Director at Burnham Securities. He found us last year at the Yale not-for-profit fair, where he confessed to a lifelong love for education, fond memories of bringing math to life for his own kids and, like many professionals in other fields, an interest in picking up teaching as a second career “someday.” When we told him we could place him in a classroom as a volunteer – for as many hours during the week as he might be able to give us – he jumped at the opportunity to stretch his teaching wings without chucking his current life. “That is really the moment I realized that there was a different path that is not full-time teaching but that would provide an outlet for those needs,” he says.