Week 3 of Our Summer Placement (Trips & PJ Parties)

What a great week to end my summer placements at La Casa de Don Pedro and Abington Avenue Elementary! This past week has been exhausting, but full of bus rides, exciting and informative trips, and tons of fun. : )  

After using last weekend to banish my cold (sorry to everyone who I may have transferred my sickness to), I woke up Monday morning filled with enthusiasm for my first trip to Lake Wawayanda with Keshia, Joe, and the students of 4A and 4B at La Casa. It was interesting to see and feel out some of the organizational aspects of the trip throughout the day. I was expecting to get some information in the morning about the lake and our responsibilities as chaperones during the bus rides and while we were at the lake, but no instructions or information was provided to us. All of the sudden the students were outside walking to one of two small buses as Joe, Keshia, and I pondered aloud about the probability of all of the students fitting onto one bus. Surprisingly, all of the students were able to squeeze on one bus, but the two teachers, two high school students, and the three of us did not. Joe, Keshia, and I wound up on the same bus with 14 students. The bus was loud for there only being a total of 19 of us (including the bus driver) onboard, but overall it was an enjoyable experience. Keshia knew some interesting facts about the areas we were driving through, many of which related to Newark. We passed many lakes on our way, which made me wonder what was so special about Lake Wawayanda in comparison. I concluded that La Casa must have an established and successful relationship with the lake and its personal.

I had looked up a little information about the lake on Sunday night and I saw a few pictures of large rocks along the water, so I was surprised when we arrived at the lake and it looked more like a beach. 

We used two picnic tables as our home base for the students’ and our belongings. The children were excited to jump into the water and play in the sand. Some student played in groups in the water, while others chose to play a game of football in the sand. 

Around one o’clock we started to hear thunder, so the lifeguards asked everyone to leave the water and sand, and remain on the grass. We decided it was the perfect time for lunch, since the children had to wait 30 minutes after it stopped raining to return to the water. Joe was able to share some information with us and the students about lightening and electricity (Yay Sumi’s class!!!). 

They liked how everyone’s hair was being effected by the energy in the air.

After lunch it became clear that the rain would not be stopping any time soon, so the students changed and started to return to the buses. A few of the students wanted to stop at the food truck stand to get some snacks for the ride back. This soon turned into most of the children getting off of the bus to wait in line, and since most of them wanted popcorn that had to be heated up one at a time in the microwave, this became a long waiting process. This became the perfect time, however, for some real-life application of the finance lessons Keshia, Joanne, Chamara, and I had been doing with this group of students over the past three weeks. We talked about budgeting our money, weighing our desire for three bags of popcorn vs. spending (wasting?) money on food that would not be finished, calculating totals and change, etc. One student had $4 and ordered a chocolate milkshake, 2 packs of M&Ms, and 2 packs of sour candy. The milkshake was $4 and each candy cost $1. After asking him what his total would be and if he had enough money for everything he ordered, the student decided to get the milkshake and put the candy back. While all the students in 4A and 4B may not have wanted to participate in our finance lessons in the classroom, they were more open to the lessons OUTSIDE of the classroom when there own money was involved. Lesson learned: Give students real-world experiences and interaction whenever possible.

At Abington, our lead teacher asked us to help create decorations for the BIC event on Thursday. BIC came to the school to give us 5,000 backpacks for the students at Abington. (Unfortunately I was not present for the actual event because it fell on the same day as my trip with the students to Camp Lewis, but one of the things I learned this summer is that I can’t be everywhere, even if I want to.) Deb and Chamara designed a banner for the event, which came to fruition when their efforts were combined with mine, Joe’s, the children’s skills (with a little help from some markers, paints, scissors, and glue).

On Tuesday I went to the Sterling Hill Mining Museum with some of the students. After a scavenger hunt and look around the museum, our tour guide took us into the mine. 

We learned about safety procedures that developed while the mine was in operation, such as fans to blow oxygen down the stairway all of the miners came out of at the end of the day. The fan was needed because of all of the carbon dioxide being released into the air as the miners exhaled. All of the miners had number chips they would keep on their bodies at all times while in the mine. At the end of the day, they would return their number chips to the wall. This was used to make sure no one was left injured or dead in the mine at the end of the day. If a worker forgot to return their chip, they were put on “toilet duty” until someone else made a mistake.

We also learned that the miners made 10 cents an hour and worked 10 hours and day, six days a week. The students calculated that a miner would make $6 a week, which was a decent salary at the time, since the miners could rent a house for the month for $5. The only worker who made more was the person in charge of laying and setting off the dynamite. He made 350% more at 35 cents an hour! 

After touring the mine, we went to a room filled with black lights and florescent rocks. 

The students really liked this room, but we were only in there for 5 minutes before being whisked away to the rock area. They received a brief intro to the rocks they would be looking for at collecting for the next 15 minutes. I was a little disappointed that the rocks were organized in order in huge piles. If I was one of the students looking for the rocks, I would have wanted to have to search a little for them.

**Fun Fact: The movie Zoolander (2001) filmed its mining scenes with Ben Stiller, Jon Voight, and Vince Vaughn here!

On Thursday I went to Camp Lewis with 20 of the students from Abington. We left at 7:30 in the morning and arrived by 8:30 to thunder and rain. Our first activity at the camp was not supposed to start until 9:30, so we had to wait on the porch for an hour. 

The weather eventually cleared up and our day was filled with a variety of activities and lessons. We participated in Cope Games (team-building activities), two Scavenger Hunts, Tree Identifying Activity, Bamboo Pole Fishing, and a Nature Hike. We also had lessons on Weather, Wildlife, and Nature. It was a very active, informative, and exhausting day!

During our orientation at La Casa de Don Pedro, we were told that the goal of their program is to “foster empowerment in individuals,” and that at La Casa they believe that “every individual, if given the opportunity, can be self-sufficient.” I believe that this summer we were able to help the students at La Casa and our NPS schools get closer to these goals of self-sufficiency and empowerment, so I consider our three and a half week summer placements to be a success!

Cheers to a relaxing three weeks before the storm. See you all on August 20th!