Welcome Back!

Hey UNITE! Welcome back to a new semester here at UIUC.

We can't wait to get our year rolling, and so far we are off to a good
start.  We kicked off our recruiting at the College of Education
Welcome Fest this past Thursday, and then saw a lot of student traffic
at Quad Day.  Both were pretty warm days, but we are excited to meet
all of our new prospective members.

Speaking of members...don't forget our info night is TONIGHT (8/28) at
7pm in 391 Gregory Hall.  Also, we are stoked for our first meeting
that will be held Tuesday, September 4 at 7pm in 259 English Building.
 We are looking forward to seeing old and new faces at both meetings!

Looking past our initial meetings, we have planned a very exciting new
year.  In the not so far off future we have a few workshops at UNITE
National in Chicago, a fun service trip one weekend, as well as many
speakers, hot topics for discussions, fundraising events, and even a
few socials!  To learn more about the workshops coming up at
nationals, visit their website or stay tuned with our e-mails.  Our
service trip is going to be to St. Louis so we can learn more about
urban areas other than Chicago.  We got a good taste of it with our
spring break trip to Minneapolis, MN and that's why we want to offer a
mini weekend service trip in the fall before we go on another
week-long adventure in the spring.  Meetings, fundraising events, and
socials will all be highlighted in our emails as well as we will be
updating you all on our progress here!

As I mentioned about a million times we are super excited for the new
semester!  Make sure to keep reading our updates here, in the e-mails,
and on the website.

See you soon!

Our First Workshop!

This past weekend we hosted our very first workshop at UIUC!  Our workshop revolved around social and emotional learning and featured speakers from the University as well as current teachers.

Our first speaker was Joey Merrin, who is a doctoral student in Dorothy Espelage's lab.  Joey talked to us about the current research on bullying prevention and intervention.  He also enlightened us with some good tips for how to prevent or intervene in bullying incidents.  The work shop attendees had many great questions and we learned a lot.

Our second speaker was Anne Butler.  Anne gave us a great talk about ten different essentials in creating a positive classroom environment.  This list will be very helpful for any classroom situation and it was great to learn about.

Next on our list was a guidance counselor from University High School, Karl Radnitzer.  He spoke about emotional intelligence and self-directed learning.  Karl was very knowledgeable on the subject and recommended a few good books for future teachers as well.

Once in our break out sessions, we heard from Debbie Stapleton and Sarah Varland.  Both are current teachers and offered some great advice.  Sarah talked about some different types of activities she uses with her high school students and Debbie discussed strategies to inspire active learning.  Both sessions were extremely engaging.

In between the speakers was coffee/bagel breaks and great suicide prevention activities led by our very own Melissa Johnson.  We had a very productive and successful workshop, and we can't wait to plan another. Keep a look-out on our website for the workshop resources to be uploaded.  The workshop was a great end to our semester and we can't wait to see everyone in the fall!

Back to Reality!

Today marks our first day of class back at the University of Illinois! After being so busy the first half of break, it’s been nice to sit back, relax, and have my mother do my laundry (or is that just me...?).

Although it’s nice to be back on campus, I can’t help but miss our time in Minneapolis. Even though we weren’t in class, we learned so much during our trip! I couldn’t help but think about everything we’d been able to discover and how much I wanted to share that knowledge with my fellow future educators. Between playing with the young children at Sharing and Caring Hands to tutoring students as old as 21 at Opportunity High School, I was able to learn so much about working with students in an urban environment.

We spent our last day again at Opportunity High School, which gave us the excellent  opportunity (see what I did there?) to see classes outside of our content areas. I was able to observe Health and ESL. I found it interesting how different ESL was in this environment since many of the students had received very little schooling previously and were not very familiar with American idioms. For example, I struggled to explain terms like “marriage” and “button”...try thinking about how you would do it!

After helping out at lunch and taking pictures with the high school staff, we hit the road for Chicago. Although the trip was seven hours, it passed surprisingly quickly thanks to some podcasts and well-timed jam sessions. I think we’ve all agreed that despite this we will be flying to our Spring Break destination next year.

I can honestly say this trip has trumped any Spring Break I’ve gone on previously (and that includes a trip to Florida!). I had a wonderful time belting Call Me Maybe, working with students unique from what we’re used to in Chicago Public Schools, going on late-night hot tub runs, learning from some truly amazing professionals and philanthropists, and making my friends from UNITE into some of my favorite people on campus. I’m extremely proud of what everyone was able to do both in planning and engaging throughout this trip. Even days later, reliving our trip is putting me in an amazing mood!

So thanks for checking out our posts about our trip! Hopefully you enjoyed reading about it even 1/10th the amount we enjoyed living it. Thanks to everyone for their help throughout our journey and we’ll see you next year!

And by next year, I mean we’ll go back to regular blogging for awhile now. We have a lot of exciting things planned over the next few months, so be sure to check back regularly!

-Sarah

University of Minnesota was a home run!

The second half of Tuesday was just as fun as the first.  After we took a tour of sharing and caring hands, we headed towards the North side of the city to go to Urban Research and Outreach engagement Center (UROC).  There, we met with Wokie Freeman who is the Assistant Director of Operations and Programs of the facility.  In the facility we utilized one of the multiple modern conference rooms to talk about the services and programs that UROC offers.  We also learned more about the demographic of the community, the types of research UROC conducts, and how they are trying to build a trusting relationship with the community members.  Wokie explained that at first the community was resistant because they perceived “research” with a negative connotation.  However, with UROC opening up its doors to the community members by offering things as simple a conference room or as complex as a computer class, trust began to and is still growing within the community.  After we discussed the different types of programs that the center offers, we began our tour of the facility.  There were multiple conference rooms, as mentioned before, but some were smaller and some were much larger.  The building also had an open design, which was created by the community to promote the university being transparent and open with the community.  After completing our tour we looked at some of the artwork that was done by youth in the community and then said our goodbyes.

Once we were back in the cars, we headed to the University of Minnesota to meet with Dr. Sandra Christenson.  Sandra is a professor in educational psychology and was kind enough to take time out of her busy day to talk to us about her research and experiences with drop-out rates and urban education.  She is the project director for a program called Check & Connect which focuses on improving drop-out rate by providing supports for “at risk” students.  A big part of the program is the students working with mentors.  The mentor program works in cooperation with the classroom teacher and the families of the students in order to improve their success and intrinsic motivation for school completion.  The program can be used K-12^th grade and even in some community college settings.  So far the experimental results have been promising and we are all looking forward to reading through the new 3^rd edition of the Check & Connect manual when it is available.  After our meeting we walked around campus for a little bit and were able to snap a few pictures. 

Soon enough we were back in the car and headed to a suburb to meet with Rachna who graciously invited us into her home and prepared a delicious traditional Indian meal for us.  Rachna is a professor at the University of Minnesota in business and provided us some nice insights into the area, her research, and just some fun conversation!  We had lentils, naan (bread), some yummy rice with vegetables, and daal which is a kind of soup.  We had a great time chatting and left with full bellies to head back to the city.

Although the weather was questionable, we were lucky enough to be heading for the Metrodome which is covered stadium, so no rain delays!  We went to see a University of Minnesota versus North Dakota State baseball game.  Not too far into the game we realized that none of us were huge baseball fans but we still had tons of fun talking and getting some U of M posters.  After the game we were all pretty tired and we headed back to the hotel where we all quickly turned in for the night.  The day was exciting and educational and we couldn't have asked for more!

-PW

Sharing the Love

While we were being filled with much energy and excitement from the Nickeloden Universe and our shopping for the day, hunger quickly followed. We soon found ourselves settling for Buffalo Wild Wings at the Mall of America to ease our hunger. After a good meal of delicious chicken wings, fried pickles, and a tray of ultimate nachos, we were finally ready to leave the excitement and say good bye to the Mall of America. As we set off back onto the highway in the late night rain, we head home carrying the memories of our time at the Mall of America and we soon found ourselves back at our hotel resting for our next morning adventure.

By the next morning, at 9:25, we have already left the fun behind and we come back to the Sharing and Caring Hands facility for an informational tour. We first arrived at the facilities, where a kind staff worker led us to a room to watch an informational video of the history and vision of Sharing and Caring Hands. We learned that Sharing and Caring Hands started out in a small store in downtown Minneapolis and was founded in 1985 by a woman named Mary Jo Copeland. Mary Jo shares her vision and proclaims how intention is to share her Catholic’s principles and belief that God has called her to serve in this community by doing and giving what she can to the people that are in need. Mary Jo does not only facilitate the Sharing and Caring center, but through the video, we see that she genuinely cares for the people of the community and she gives all her time and effort lovingly serving the community. After watching the video, we had the privilege of briefly meeting Mary Jo herself.

Our tour guide was led by a sister from The Immaculate Heart of Mary Mother of Christ Sister, who was part of the staff at Sharing and Caring hands. We first explored the Sharing and Caring Hands center where people from the community are able to retrieve free food, clothing, shoes, bus tokens, hygiene products and basic needs for living. There was a large cafeteria room for people to eat, storage rooms that was filled with an abundant supply of donations for basic living needs and also friendly volunteers working on packaging the donations.

After touring our first building, we were led across the street to Mary’s My Hope Children’s Center that consisted of a bright play room that consisted of various toys and stuffed animals. Outside of the center was a basketball court on one side and on the other, a playground for young children to enjoy. Following the children’s center, we were led into our next building: Mary’s Place, where the facility was being used for aiding families who were in need of any assistance in finding stability. They offer services ranging from dental, applying for licenses, laundry, a chapel for personal spiritual health, and health care support. Lastly, we saw the Teen Hope’s center that was a room filled with work out machines, billiard tables, and game systems for the teens of the community.

It was a wonderful experience as we saw the way Sharing and Caring Hands live out their vision every day in these facilities. It truly is a community that comes together in serving the needy as we learned that all of its funding comes from donations only. After the tour, it has truly opened my eyes to see the needs of an urban community and being inspired by how Sharing and Caring’s vision and love for the community is being evidently being overflowing in the works of the volunteers and Mary Jo’s own work. It was a great privilege to be part of the sharing of this vision and love for the community!

-ML

Ups and Downs, Flips and Turns

Good morning, UNITE. We were up and ready to go at 7am. After a few instances of getting lost, we finally found our way to Opportunity High School, an alternative high school for English Language Learners (ELL). Jenni Gunga, assistant principal of Opportunity High School, invited us to join her faculty bright and early to their Professional Learning Community (PLC), where they focused on the reading levels of their students. During this session, the teachers concentrated on MAP testing. MAP testing contains four categories that allow teachers to evaluate their students and track their progress throughout their years in school.  These four categories are vocabulary, literature, comprehension – informational text, and comprehension – narrative.  We compared the test score strands amongst each of the levels that the students are grouped in based on their ability to speak and understand English, 1 being not very fluent and 4 being the most fluent, across the categories.  From there, teachers, as well as UNITE students, shared their implications for instruction based on the results of their students’ test scores and reading strategies that they utilize in their very own classroom. Some examples included the Frayer model, context clues, word walls, predictions within a story and even a scavenger hunt for vocab words in a text.


Once the school day began, each of us were able to rotate within the classrooms to observe and participate in the classrooms as teacher aides.  Many of our tasks consisted of working with smaller groups, assisting students with activities, grading tests, and tutoring one on one with individuals.  Teachers encouraged us to take on leadership roles within their classrooms as opposed to observing all day. They succeeded in including us within their lesson plans and also sharing their own teaching strategies with our future teachers.  Many of us were able to participate in classrooms of our specific teaching concentration, but others stepped out of their comfort zone to other subjects, such as world history, ESL, and environmental sciences.  Meanwhile, other members not in the classrooms helped the school by organizing their basement that included a wide variety of materials for the high school, their adult program, and their weekend program. Through this experience, we were really able to understand the various aspects that contribute to the classroom and to the needs of making a high school function exceptionally.

UNITE at Nickelodean Universe

After an exhausting day at Opportunity High School, we hit the roller coasters and rides at Mall of America within Nickelodeon Universe.  A few of us chose to experience a few rides and hit the stores again, but the rest decided to explore the highs and lows, flips and turns that the park had to offer. With the shortest lines that I have ever experienced, we were able to go on more than 10 roller coaster and rides and repeat a few more with our unlimited wristbands. We got to be Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles for 3 minutes, get splashed on a water log ride, zip through the park on a roller coaster, and get pulled straight up towards the sky to only allow gravity to do its thing.  Nothing can beat this combination of this day.  I do not want to ever leave this place.

-          MJ

Day 2: Definitely Amazing, Dontcha Know!

The morning yielded no loss of excitement for the UNITE UIUC group in Minneapolis! Everyone enjoyed their continental breakfast before heading to the cars for our first service aspect of the trip. We ventured into the heart of the city to volunteer at Sharing and Caring Hands. Sharing and Caring Hands is an organization dedicated to fighting economic disparity by providing housing and other services to different families. It is a huge facility that can house 2,800 beds for members of the community that would otherwise be found on the streets.

At Sharing and Caring Hands we were tasked with managing a playroom of 20-30 kids ages 3-9 for a couple of hours. When we arrived we found out that we had complete autonomy over the kids for the time period. Our child caring skills were put to the test as we laughed, cried, smiled, and frowned through a variety of activities. When it was time to leave, the kids were reluctant to say good bye. It was really rewarding to be able to provide such an exciting experience for these children living at Sharing and Caring Hands.

UNITE in Action

Although this experience was extremely rewarding, there is a strong possibility that those hours will fade in the children's memory. This experience reminded all of us about the challenges that we may face as we enter into urban education. We left Sharing and Caring Hands with a deep respect for the organization and what it accomplished in the community. We arranged to get a tour of the facilities on Tuesday, so stay posted for a chance to learn more about this amazing organization!

We headed to Mall of America to experience some major shopping opportunities. The mall was massive with every single store you could imagine. In the middle of the mall was a Nickelodeon themed amusement parks with roller coasters and other rides. The group ate lunch and spent the rest of their time roaming the mall and shopping at different stores. At 8:00PM we went to a comedy show hosted by Michael Kosta who was a former UIUC communications graduate. During the bit, Michael picked us out as fellow Illini and spent a good portion of the show giving UIUC a good name. Michael also talked about the lack of homeless people he saw around Minneapolis. We wondered if Sharing and Caring Hands made a huge contribution to this claim. Even at the end of the day, it was good to understand another piece of the puzzle that is urban education.

We are all super excited to go to Opportunity High School tomorrow and get to see their education system first hand!

- B