Making a Difference

The How
I remember being a child, stuck bored at home during the summer while my parents were away at work. What to do, what to do...play outside? 30 minutes later, the Texas summer heat gets to me and I am back inside. How about some good old television? T.V. during the day time consists of soap operas, infomercials and raunchy talk-shows with subjects such as “Who’s my baby’s daddy?” and “Help, my teen is a monster!” Sounds like great programming for our kids stuck at home to watch right? Wrong. With LAUSD canceling its summer school programs, there are a huge number of kids stuck at home on the couch thinking the same thing, what to do? I myself was blessed enough to come from a family who could afford to send me to day camps and enrichment programs, so my summer days bored on the couch were few and far between. But what about those who are not so privileged, whose parents count on summer school to occupy their kids while they are at work or whose children need the extra instruction because they are struggling during the normal school year? What are they supposed to do now? Spend their summers sinking on the couch, watching Judge Judy?

Well, with the initial push given to us by our writing professor Mark Marino, or “Coach” as he prefers to be called, my class and I created a resource to save the sinking summers of LAUSD youth called SOS Classroom. SOS stands for Save Our Summer and that is what our compilation of online educational resources does for kids; it saves them from a summer without learning. But we are not providing long division worksheets, vocabulary tests or mundane times tables drills. We are providing kids with the tools to learn in a fun environment. Hey, if LAUSD is going to cancel summer school, we can bring the summer school to the kids via the internet. That is our drive behind the site: as individuals who know the importance of an education, we saw the need and made a small step to fill the gap.

I personally feel connected to the Save Our Summer project because I love the way it utilizes technology to facilitate learning. As it is evident from my blog, I consider myself to be a technology geek: I always want to know the latest gadget or web tool and I enjoy finding new resources to help me be a better student. I also love internet games. No, I am not a World of Warcraft fanatic or a Second Life enthusiast, but I do love my casual web games. And what does SOS Classroom do for kids? It provides fun online resources, such as games, that also have an educational component so that kids can have fun and learn at the same time. So your kid wants to spend his time on the computer playing computer games? Okay, deal: have him go online and play one of the games featured on our site; I think he will be surprised that there are educational games that are fun to play as well.

The web is an enormous, often times confusing space where kids can get lost and stumble upon the wrong content, yet I think the internet has the potential to do just as much good as it can harm. SOS Classroom provides the key to unlocking the great resources that are out there amongst the garbage that seems to try to consume us all. Out with the garbage, in with the learning!

The Why
What is it again that you are supposed to do when you are working with children? Do you speak slowly and not use big words? Or do you tell a funny joke? Oh wait, aren’t you supposed to go around and give them all high fives? Jeez why does it feel like it was ages ago when I was a volunteer for vacation bible school back in high school? Just be yourself, everyone says you are great with kids and don’t forget they are just a bunch of seven year olds…they cannot be that brutal. Okay they are lining up outside the door. Coach, why don’t you take the reins here and tell them what to do. I’ll chime in where I feel comfortable. Wait, you are introducing me? I am going to tell them about the site? Crap. And now twenty four pairs of beady eyes atop little fidgety bodies are staring at me, “Miss Michele.” When did I become Miss Michele? Why did I volunteer to come here…I knew I should have signed up to be secretary or something like that for this project. Oh well, here I go…

And that is how my trip to Champions summer camp began. My individual job title for the SOS project was Impact Researcher, meaning that I was responsible for following up with how the site was doing in achieving our goal: saving the kids’ summers. My job was to get feedback regarding the functionality of the site and find out what the kids thought about the site and how we could improve our product. This meant that I had the opportunity make a trip with “Coach,” our professor, to visit Champions summer camp, the day camp for children grades kindergarten through eighth grade with whom we paired to test our site. At Champions, each of the age groups were given an allotted amount of time in the computer lab where they were allowed to explore the site and try out all the games, activities and online resources that we had compiled thus far. It was really exciting to get to see the kids using our site first hand as it was an opportunity to see all of our class’s hard work brought to life.

The group of kids that I worked with during my visit were boys and girls in the second grade and younger. Having to stand and talk in front of a group of around twenty five, six and seven year olds was a lot more intimidating than I had imagined. One thing was for sure: they were full of energy and had attention spans that lasted mere seconds. But one thing was also for sure: they loved working on the computer and loved what resources our site had to offer. Looks like my class, a group of 19 and 20 something college students, actually knew how to compile some great content. Once we got them logged on and exploring away on Tumblebooks.com, it was hard to get them to acknowledge my presence, let alone answer the questions I had for them regarding the site! Luckily, one girl was willing to give her input on the website and had some really bright comments on the sites she liked, what content she had seen before, and what she would change. All in all, I made it past the initial anxiety and had a very insightful and enjoyable trip to Champions.

In addition to my Impact Researcher work, I had other duties that I performed for our Save Our Summer project. Two smaller tasks I had were finding resources for the math grades six through eight section of the website and translating our promotional flyer into Spanish so that we would be able to reach the Latino population as well. I was also able to utilize my social media savviness and helped one of our publicity staff search the Twitter stratosphere for education activists, parents and anyone who might find the SOS project useful.

When I signed up for this section of Writing 340, I knew I was going to be working with blogs but I had no idea that I would also be utilizing Web 2.0 tools in a socially conscious manner in order to do something worthwhile for the greater community. Working on the Save Our Summer project in conjunction with WRIT 340 really gave a unique edge to my USC writing experience in that as the course comes to an end, I leave something in addition to a collection of insightful essays (and insightful they were!). I, along with my class, am leaving a site where kids can learn and have fun at the same time. As a child who loved working with computers, what more could I provide for those coming after me! And with all this academic enrichment, maybe they will eventually end up a Trojan!

So kids, grab onto our life preserver that we have cast out for you amidst the vast digital ocean and save your summer!

The Presentation
Question: What do you get when you combine a talented tuba player, Saucy the learning life-preserver, and sub-par Microsoft Movie maker skills?

Answer: The SOS Classroom theme song music video!

Along with my classmate, Lyndsey Hoh, I created an almost five minute “Ode to the SOS Classroom” that provides a walkthrough and explains all the different resources that can be found on SOSClassroom.org. Lyndsey, a talented musician and music major, volunteered to put her talents to work and compose an original piece, complete with lyrics that showcased the site. I on the other hand, volunteered to complete the technical task of creating a slideshow that paired as a visual counterpart for the track. We wanted to create something that was child-friendly, playful and fun. Something that would get kids excited about the site and provides a mini “how-to.” So our YouTube video was born! You might recognize some of your favorite kids songs mixed in the jingle, just for a little walk down memory lane. Enjoy!