Poetry Palooza at P.S. 149: A National Poetry Month Celebration

Today guest blogger is Ashley Shank who currently serves as a corps member at PS 149 in East New York, Brooklyn. Ashley graduated from Ohio State University where she studied Creative Writing and English. In honor of National Poetry Month, Ashley lead her team through the planning and execution of a month long literacy initiative focused on poetry called Poetry Palooza. Read along to find out how Ashley’s passion for words inspired the students she serves.

The first question I ask when a few of my teammates and I walk into the classroom is: “Who knows why City Year is here today?” One or two rather excitable students are completely out of their seats, flailing their arms in the air. I call on a quiet student near the window who tells the class that we are here to talk about poetry. I ask, “Why?” and quickly one student yells, “NATIONAL POETRY MONTH!” And she is right.

At P.S. 149 in East New York, our team is reaching the end of a month-long poetry celebration in honor of National Poetry Month. The celebration involves workshop-style poetry lessons in four different classes a week. With the younger groups we’ve been working from a book called Kindergarden Kidsby Stephanie Calmenson. The book includes several poems that explore the excitement of elementary school – the first day, show-and-tell, a run-away class pet, loose teeth. We discuss rhyming words, have students draw their own imaginary pets, and give them names that rhyme. We end the lessons with my teammate, Michael Verdi, accompanying me on guitar while I sing Shel Silverstein’s poem “Peanut-Butter Sandwich.”  Each stanza ends with the phrase “peanut-butter sandwich” and we have the students sing (rather, scream) along.

Ashley (top left) and her teammates shared a collage of pictures from one of the Poetry Palooza lessons. Photo Credit: Batsheva Greenwood

The third through fifth grade lessons run a bit differently with a focus shifted more towards figurative language and imagery. Students are led through reading and discussing poems by Langston Hughes and Carl Sandburg. We guide the conversation toward the more specific topics of simile, metaphor, and imagery. The lesson ends with students creating their own Found Poems by compiling lines of famous poems that I’ve cut up and distributed. Students make the lines their own by rearranging, mismatching, and gluing the lines onto a piece of construction paper.

My goal with what we’ve come to call Poetry Palooza was simple: I wanted to share my love for poetry with my students. I wanted the students we work with every day to have a positive and fun experience with poetry and I am very grateful that our team has been able to have just that over the past month.

Students created their own poems during a Poetry Palooza lesson. Photo Credit: Batsheva Greenwood

 

Associate Board Fundraiser

The City Year New York Associate Board held its Annual Benefit last night at the Housing Works Bookstore Café in SoHo. The Associate Board is a group of 24 young professionals, who are lending their time and energy to support our mission to keep New York City students in school and on track to high school graduation. The Board engaged over 117 of their friends and colleagues to socialize, support and learn more about CYNY.

Thanks to the Associate Board for putting together such a great event!

A special thanks to Associate Board members Loren Fishkind, Jackie Beer, Matt Cunha, Justin McEvily and Brian Snyder who imagined and executed the event flawlessly. Congratulations to all of our raffle and auction winners who won a wide range of exciting prizes. By far, the highlight of the evening was corps member Elizabeth Ward who shared her story about serving students at IS 126 in Long Island City, Queens.

“Over the past few months Shamia has totally transformed. Not only has her behavior improved but so has her attitude towards school. She’s participates more in class and is proud to show me her classwork. Shamia is only one of the 15 students that I work with every day that I know I have made a difference to.” – Elizabeth Ward

Thanks for your incredible service, Elizabeth, and thanks to the 253 other corps members in New York City who are giving a year of their lives to make an impact where it’s needed most.

To view more photos of the event, check out our Flickr page. For more information about how you can get involved in City Year New York’s Associate Board, contact Kim Gillman at kgillman@cityyear.org for more information. 

Small Steps Make a Big Difference

Today’s guest blogger is Helena Fiore who currently serves as a senior corps Service Leader on the New York Civic Engagement (NYCE) team. On the NYCE team, Helena serves as the Operations Coordinator where she is responsible for the supplies and logistics for all of our physical service events. Last week, she supported the Comcast Cares Day and wanted to write a blog on the event!

On April 21st, 2012, Comcast Employees all over the country volunteered to beautify and transform their communities for an event called Comcast Cares Day. In New York City, Comcast and NBC Universal partnered with City Year to provide much needed service to a New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) housing development called Manhattanville Houses. The Manhattanville Houses hosts six 20-story buildings with 1,272 apartments, housing an estimated 2,756 residents. Within this complex, residents have access to a day care facility, children’s community center, and a senior center.

For many volunteers, this was their first experience working with City Year New York. Many volunteers were inspired by the energy and positivity that the City Year Corps Members brought to the day. One volunteer expressed, “everyone at City Year was great to work with.”  On top of the inspiration that City Year brought to the day, volunteers started the morning with a powerful opening program.  The day started with words from the Emmy award winning host George Oliphant, of NBC’s George to the Rescue, Michael Jack, President and General Manger of NBC New York. Following the speakers from NBC, volunteers heard from two special community representatives. Commissioner Margarita Lopez, New York City Housing Authority, and Council Member Robert Jackson spoke about the Manhattanville Development, and the importance of being involved within the community.

Photo courtesy of NBC New York

After such a wonderful opening program and taking in the beautiful weather, the volunteers were excited to start and complete service.  City Year corps members led Comcast and NBC Universal volunteers through garden and painting projects and they worked hard to beautify the NYCHA grounds.  After a whole morning’s worth of hard work, volunteers built 9 new garden beds for the residents and planted 90 vegetable plants. Later this year residents will have the opportunity to harvest lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers, and peppers. In addition to vegetable gardens, volunteers added mulch around 20 trees, planted 20 flowers, and provided general landscaping all around the Manhattanville baseball field. To add to the landscaped area surrounding the baseball field, volunteers painted a large wall mural. The most inspiring project was the beautification that occurred in the playground space. With the help of 16 gallons of paint, the volunteers painted the surrounding walls. What used to be a dull space was transformed into an inspiring place to play, with murals of children playing different sports. Volunteers painted large blacktop graphics including a  map of the United States of America, a hopscotch court, a maze and a four square court.

Photo courtesy of NBC New York

The volunteers completed a lot of work. When asked if they enjoyed the event, one NBC Universal volunteer commented, “It was great to meet new colleagues and paint a playground for children. We took a drab playground and brought it to life. Great Day.” We certainly feel the same way and want to thank Comcast and NBC Universal for partnering with us for Comcast Cares Day as well as NYCHA for hosting the event. We appreciate all the volunteers, corps members, and staff who committed to serving together on this day and completing such wonderful projects for the Manhattanville Houses. I think this event is best summed up by this quote from a volunteer, “This experience was not only personally rewarding, but proved how even the smallest steps and endeavors make a big difference in the community.”

To check out all the pictures from the day, click here.

Five Things Friday

1. National Volunteer Week: Last Tuesday, a Presidential Proclamation was released in which President Barack Obama announced that this week, April 15-19, is National Volunteer Week. Americans are encouraged to find volunteer and give back through service through this special message,

“Service is a lifelong pursuit that strengthens the civic and economic fabric of our Nation. With every hour and every act, our lives are made richer, our communities are drawn closer, and our country is forged stronger by the dedication and generous spirit of volunteers. I encourage every American to stand up and play their part — to put their shoulder up against the wheel and help change history’s course.”

 

2. T-Mobile Gives Back: Earlier this year, local T-Mobile Store Managers teamed up with their employees and communities to collect school supplies and warm winter gear to give to students at some of City Year New York’s partner schools. Recently, the National Grid team at PS 213 in East New York, Brooklyn, gave away the donated supplies as part of a 2^nd Grade After School celebration. Please see below for some photos from the event. Thank you T-Mobile for your generosity and support!

3. Comcast Cares Day: Today we’re partnering with NBCUniversal and Comcast for Comcast Cares Day. Over 150 employees from Comcast and NBCUniversal volunteers to complete projects including murals, constructing flower boxes, and benches. To inspire and pump up our volunteers before jumping into service, we were honored to have Commissioner Margarita Lopez, New York City Housing Authority, Michael Jack, President and General Manger of NBC New York, and Council Member Robert Jackson speak. George Oliphant, host of NBC’s George to the Rescue and Victoria Sosa, Weather Anchor and Reporter from Telemundo 47  also joined us to lend a hand. With so many volunteers and special guests around, you can imagine that the twitterverse was busy. To check out what you missed, check of the Comcast Cares Day Spotify Story below.

4. Spring Community Service Days: In case you missed it earlier this week, we have THREE awesome Community Service Days coming up and we need some support running them! Each event offers something unique and exciting to the communities in which they’re hosted, so check out the blog here and sign up with the contact person listed for each Service Day.

5. Last Application Deadline: Our last application deadline of the year is April 30th. If you’re ready to apply, start your application here. If you still have questions, you can join us TONIGHT for an Open House. This even provides you with a great opportunity for to mingle with current corps members, enjoy refreshments and become familiar with City Year, its mission and its work.