Sending out an SOS...

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!