Blog 15

Today was my last day of SCORE. At the beginning of the day, Mrs. Curcuru and the students surprised me with a care package for college. I was so surprised by how nice of them it was to do this for me. I have had so much fun working with Mrs. Curcuru and the students for the past six weeks. Going to the school everyday did not seem like I had to do it. I was going and working because I enjoyed it. I am so grateful for having done my SCORE project at Essex Elementary School. If I did not I would never have realized how much fun it can be working with children. I think that I could see myself working as a elementary school teacher one day because of the experience I had at Essex Elementary School.  

Blog 14

This is the last week of score. I cannot believe how fast it has gone by. It seems like I only started at Essex Elementary School a couple of weeks ago. I have had a lot of fun being able to work with all of the kids and help them grow. After doing this SCORE internship I have gotten a better idea of what it is I want to do for a career after college. I still am not one hundred percent sure but I feel as though elementary education is the best option for me. Today I worked with my reading group. We began to read a new chapter book called Mr. Ape. Instead of just reading right away we took some time to brainstorm ideas of what we think this book was going to be about. We read the front cover, back cover, inside flap, and browsed through the pages. The four students then made connections to another book they have read or to themselves. We put these connections on a sticky note and then began to read. Tomorrow we are going to continue making connections and we will put them into a packet they will get for this book.

Blog 13

Today I worked with the second graders for the first time since being at score. Mrs. Hardy, the librarian needed help with her classes while she taught. The students were working on a worksheet while Mrs. Hardy worked with two students on how to find a book in the library. Since she was doing that, I had to walk around and answer any questions that the students may have had on the worksheets they were working on. They were all working on alphabetizing a bunch of different words on the worksheet. While working with the students I was able to notice the big difference between the second graders and the third graders. Many of the second graders needed my help at all time whereas the third graders are able to wait until I am finished working with a student to ask for help. Also, the second graders still talk and whine in a baby voice when they are not getting the help that they need. I have found that the third graders no longer do this.

Blog 12

Today I worked with my reading group again. We briefly worked on the research packet for the state fair. I made sure each student had finished the entire packet and had good information about each question. After the four students were all finished with that we went and read a play. This was a play about all the states in the United States. They all went to a party and decided that they wanted to switch locations with other states to see what it was like to be on another part of the country with different neighbors. After the students were assigned roles we began to read the play. The four students had a lot of fun with this and were able to play around a little bit while reading. They spoke in southern accents for the states that were down south. Overall, I think that this was a very good activity for them.

Blog 11

Today I worked with three students that usually need a little more extra help than the other students. We worked on the speeches they will be saying at the State Fair at the end of the month. I started out working individually with each student. The first thing we did was come up with a good opening sentence so the audience would be intrigued. I helped these three students by giving them some ideas of what they could say. As I wrote they told me what they wanted to say in their speech. After they were finished we worked to take out some of the unimportant information so that the speech would be easier for them to memorize. They were able to get all of the speeches down to about five sentences. This is just enough for the students. Next, I went with the students to practice the speeches. They read them aloud to me as if they were on stage at the State Fair. To make this not so boring I would also read their speeches aloud so they could hear how it should sound when they get on stage. The more they practiced the more they were able to memorize it. By the end of the day the students were all reciting their speeches without any script or help from me.

Whitney hammond Blog 15

Well, today was my last day at the library! I was able to get a lot done on my last day which felt really gratifying. I started out the day by helping out Anne again with some young adult books. She just had me and Colin process them first. It didn't take long to put all the stickers on a barcodes. We also had to catalog them which means writing in the books how much the cost, their call number, the company they were ordered from, and the date they were processed. After we finished that I went back to finishing the shifting the adult fiction section. Dot's main goal is to the get the fiction on one side of the stacks and the adult non-fiction on the other side of the stacks. In order to do this every month or so there has to be shifting which is moving the books around to make more shelf space. It's kind of hard to explain but all you need to know it's a lot of work which includes heavy lifting and some thinking. I am never going to underestimate the strength of librarians again after lifting all of those books off the shelves. Anyway, this has been a three day project and finally today I finished! When I finished that, Rachel had some more kids books to delete from the catalog. That didn't take me too long so when I finished I worked on a task Anne left for me which was inputting the books we processed earlier into the computer. When I was finished with that I took the kids books I deleted down to the basement and put them on the shelves down there. When I came back up Sarah had me make some copies for her and cut some things up for when she goes to talk about summer reading at the elementary school. Overall, it was a really busy last day! But I really enjoyed working at the library!

Blog 10

Today I worked with my four student reading group some more on the research for the State Fair Project they will have due at the end of the month. I worked with the students on researching information they would like to know about their state. The students decided on three main questions that they would like to answer throughout the project. These questions varied depending on the state and the interests of the students. Some of the questions that the students chose were based on: climate, major events, major attractions, history, unique animals found in their state, and more. We began to find information in their state books that they could use for their research. Each student began to write small notes onto sticky notes and put them onto a page in their book. Tomorrow in group we will work on the putting the information they found into their research packet. Today I also took math groups to work on a math worksheet that they did in class a few days ago. I had all of the students go back and correct the questions they got wrong. Once all of their answers we corrected they were able to go back to working on their new math worksheets.

Blog 9

I am going to finish up talking about the State Fair in this blog. A very large portion of this project is to be done at home. The students will be required to make a float for their state. These floats will be put out on display the day of State Fair Day and the students will stand behind them to explain their float to the viewers that will be walking around. The floats can be made out of anything the student wants. The things on the float should have meaning behind them. For example: one student last year put a mini cereal box on their float because Kelloggs was located in their state. The float allows for the students to be creative and show the viewers what they are interested in about their state. On State Fair Day the students present their speeches and sing songs for the school and their families. I think that having a project this big in third grade is a great learning experience for the students. It allows them to work independently on something that is very important. The State Fair is the biggest project the third grade does all year and they are able to take a lot away from it. The students learn how to use persuasive writing to persuade the reader to want to go to their state, as well as descriptive language to allow the audience to imagine the great aspects of each state. I can still remember being in third grade and presenting my speech and float about Oklahoma.

Blog 8

In this blog I am going to continue talking about the activities the students will be working on during the State Fair Project. After the students are finished writing and editing their speeches they will then begin to work on the fun activities for the project. The first thing the students will do after the speech is make a t-shirt that will represent their state. The will have to decorate the t-shirt in creative ways that displays their knowledge of the state that they are researching. After the children are finished with the t-shirt activity they will then move onto the license plate activity. They will have to create a state license plate for the state they are researching. The license plate number should have some meaning and thought put into it. The third graders will decorate the plates and then they will be hung on display until the state fair day. The next activity the students will do is make a post card about their state. They can give the post card to anyone in the classroom to tell them about their state. The purpose of this is for the students to use descriptive language so that the reader is able to imagine the state in their mind. The final activity done in class will be a postage stamp. The students will decorate a postage stamp with different images that represent their state. These stamps will be hung in the cafeteria for State Fair Day at the end of the month.

Blog 7

Mrs. Curcuru told me about all of the activities the students will be doing in class for the next month to prepare for the State Fair at the end of May. The first thing the students are going to work on is their note catcher. This is the packet where they can obtain all of the research that they will need. In this packet they will answer general information and also three main topics that they will pick themselves. The main question that all of the students must answer is 'Why would a family want to travel to my state?' The next task that the students must accomplish is citing the sources that they used. The students will be taught how to properly cite the resources that they use throughout the project. After the students complete these two assignments they will then be able to move onto their state brochure. The main idea behind the brochure is to teach the students how to persuade the reader to come to their state. In the brochure they will include their three main questions that they researched and two interesting facts. The next activity they will do is probably one of the most important parts of the entire project. They will have to write a speech that they will present to the school on State Fair Day. The students will be instructed to make their speeches intriguing and original. Once the students have completed their speech they will then practice it so that it is memorized when they present at the State Fair. 

Blog 6

Today I had two different talks with Mrs. Curcuru. She told me more about how students are tested and evaluated. Each student in the entire school is given a test about three times a year. The test covers all aspects of learning that the children will need to know and learn that year. The students that do not necessarily have a learning disability, but are very weak in one subject are tested a little more frequently than the average students. These students are also given assignments in the subject that they are weak in that the other students do not have to do. The students that test in the bottom twenty five percent of the class are put into small groups and given more extra help. They are also tested once a month to make sure they are staying on track with the rest of the students. An interesting technique that Mrs. Curcuru discovered for one student was covering up the page with a blank sheet of paper so that he was only focused on one line of his reading. This student’s scores increased drastically from that simple technique. The coolest part about this testing system is that the teachers are able to find students strengths and weaknesses. Students that may seem like the average student can actually have a serious weakness that the teachers would not be able to see without this testing system. Although this is much more work for the teacher, it benefits the students in the long run.

Blog 15

At camp Spindrift there is a road that is named in honor of one of Chris Xavier’s relatives, I think it is his grandfather. The name of the road is Xavier way and leads to the pool from the parking lot that I had to park in for the week I was working at camp Spindrift. The third day of working on the pool We finally began the painting. The paint we used was very expensive. It was special paint that is meant only to be used on pools. It is very durable and hopefully they will not have to repaint the pool for about five years now. Without the use of this paint they would have to paint the pool every other year. Painting the pool is a very time consuming project so it is very helpful for the maintenance people to not have to repaint the pool every two years. The three of us crushed the painting and were done much faster than we had expected. We had chosen one of the hotter days of the week to be painting so it was very nice to be finished with the pool before the sun was unbearably hot. We had to paint over all of the markings that showed where the deep end started and the different markings for the depth around the pool. The next day we had to go back and paint back in all of these markings with stencils and tape after the paint had dried. 

Blog 14

The second part of my project at camp Spindrift was to clean and paint the pool that I had power washed. There was still a lot of debris left at the bottom of the pool after I had power washed. This debris consisted of leaves, pine needles, paint flakes, and rocks. A used the power washer to push all of the debris into a drain that was located in the bowl of the pool. Once I had gotten all of the debris into the bowl and inside the two drains it was time to suck all of the miscellaneous debris from the drains. To do this I used a bucket head. The bucket head is probably one of the coolest vacuums that I have ever used. This is because it simply attaches to any five gallon pail or bucket with the right sized top and latches on. Once it is latched on it works like a normal vacuum with either wet or dry materials. When the bucket is filled you simply snap off the head and carry the bucket and dump it to wherever you want to get rid of the things that you were vacuuming. Inside the drains there are also springs that let in ground water. When the water pressure is too great under the pool these springs will pop up and let water pour into the bowl. If these springs were not there then the pool would pop out of the ground because of all of the water pressure that is built up under it. 

Blog 13

On Thursday I started a project at camp Spindrift in Gloucester Massachusetts, right next to Wingersheek Beach.  This project had to do with the pool that is at the camp. The camp is an overnight summer camp for children that go to the YMCA. The camp is like the camp at the Ipswich YMCA just bigger and with more things to do as well as a better environment for the children. This project that I began had to do with the pool. Every other year the pool needs to be repainted because of the harsh winter climate of New England. The paint often chips after winter and is very bad for the pool water. To prepare the pool for painting I spent a day power washing the entire pool. The pool is not the usual square or rectangle pool that you often would see inside a YMCA or in another location with a public pool. This pool is in almost a rounded L shape. The primary portion of the pool is a rectangle with curved edges that is from 2 to 4 feet deep. This rectangle then leads into a rounded bowl that is at the boot of the L. The bowl is six feet six inches deep and has waterslides falling into it. I spent the day power washing all of the old paint off of the pool walls and bottom. This was like sanding a house but I was using a power washer to spray water at such a high velocity at the wall that it acts like sand paper. 

score blog 2

The way I go through my score project has been better than the way I went through high school. At score I am there early everyday and I am ready to start my day and get stuff done. But when I am at school I am lazy and do not want to do anything not even talk to my friends. I don’t know what it is but I just love to wake up in the morning and go to work. Going to work is the best feeling ever, I feel like I am a grown man and I am going to work and getting paid but I am not actually getting paid. At the end of the day I feel like I have matured more and more every day. The way that I have been working at score has been with a positive attitude and ready to work and to get work done. Sometimes going to score is horrible and I cannot stand it but at the end of the day it helps me a lot. Learning the ways of the business life has taught me a lot and makes me want to be a business owner when I am older. The ways of a business has showed me that there is a lot more to it than what you see from the outside looking in. As the business owner you have to worry about paying the workers and the shipping of the products is good and secured enough for the buyers.

score blog 2

Today at score It was not busy and I just did stuff to get the business ahead of order. Like for example I was loading up logs with mulch and putting plants with the logs and making them look good. Also I was transporting a lot of plants to another greenhouse. After that I had to unload the plants and put them into alphabetical order. This project has actually been really fun overall. I have learned a lot and gained a lot of experience. Later in the day I went to another greenhouse by myself and compared the two greenhouses. There are a lot of differences between the two; both have great and supportive ways in making and keeping their plants safe. The ways that the greenhouses are arranged is kind of weird. The order makes no sense at all, it seems like it is harder to transport flowers and tools back and forth, and also they do not have a cart to help with the transportation. At lunch break I had the best lunch that I have ever had. I had chicken Alfredo with some orange juice. I was full until I had dinner. After lunch I went back to filling logs and transporting flowers to one greenhouse to another. This was so boring; I do this every day it just gets kind of natural to the way I live. I have learned that practice makes perfect at the end of the day. When I first started my score project I was in everyone’s day and now I’m so much better and more experienced.

Score Blog

Today at the greenhouse was very different. Today I was not just at the greenhouse I was also at someone’s house with my supervisor planting plants at a customer’s house. We planted many plants, which were outside on their front porch. With this being very easy but a new experience this was great. A easy day with a new experience is great. I was at the customer’s house for about 3 hours than after that I got to go home. When at the customer’s house we put plants where they wanted them to be, also we dug up some places where she wanted some other plants to be but she had not yet ordered them yet. On the way back to the greenhouse we had to make a quick stop at another greenhouse to pick up some plants for the customer. Today has taught me that I should never be too comfortable with one situation because I could leave and not know what I am doing. This little adventure to the customer’s house was new to me and the company. This has only happened a few times before within the company, and with me being able to be with them when they went to a customer’s house was a great feeling. At the end of the day I felt like I was more experienced at the landscaping and planting life. I learned a lot more of where to put plants in the ground and how to put them into the ground.

week 5 blog 3 Dylan Wolniewicz 5/22/13

Today I started the day by feeding the birds. After that I started mowing, which did not take very long because I had done most of it on Monday and Tuesday. After that I started to get ready for the Governor Academy kids to come in. They bring 30 kids for three day one week as a workweek. They told us that they were coming at ten but they showed up early and got there at 8:30 so we were not ready for them. So we were running around trying to get all of the tools together and then we had to wait for some of the volunteers to come in to set them up on there projects with the kids. While the kids were waiting for use they all went for a walk and they were all supposed to be back by 915 but most did not come back to the top of the hill till 9:30 so we had to wait for them. Once they were all back we split them into three groups and one group was stacking wood in the sugarhouse. Another group went into the field pulling out garlic mustard. Then the last group went with my self and 3 other volunteers. The kids went ahead of use pulling sticks and cutting and thing that were hanging over the trail. Then myself and the other volunteers followed behind them with a wood chipper and we throw all of the sticks and logs into the chipper because it is too dangerous to have any of them using the chipper. 

week 5 blog 2 Dylan Wolniewicz 5/22/5

On Monday I started out the day by filling the bird feeders after that I started moving some of the trails around the property. The trail that I first started on is about 2 miles long and goes in a circle around the property. The trail is so wide that I had to take 4 passes to cut the grass on the whole trail. The main reason that we cut the trails is not so that it looks nice, but so that it keeps the tick’s form getting on to people. The tick population on the property is every high. This is due to the over population of deer that we have. Because we do not allow hunting on the property there is an over population of deer that are starting to wipe out any small trees and plaints coming into the under story. After I was done mowing that trail I went out the new barn to check the progress that they were making on that, and myself and my boss looked at the parking area and figured out that it was to small and not what we had planned. So we got a measuring tape and stakes and staked out the area that we wanted for the parking. Then we had to call the contractor and tell him that he had to make the changes. After that myself and other intern set up staging on the back side of the main building because latter on this week we will be doing painting if the weather is good enough for it. 

blog 1 week 5 Dylan Wolniewicz 5/22/13

Tuesday I started by feeding the birds then I mowed the rest of the grass around the buildings and in the parking lot. Then I took the weed wacker and started to use it under all of the fencing and under the solar panels. After that I got on the tractor and started moving wood chips to a trail that we are going to be spreading them out over with kids form Governor Academy. But we did not have enough so myself and another intern took my truck and moved the chipper to ship wood to make the pile bigger so that we would have enough to do the whole trail. After moving about 20 loads of chips over to the trail. We took the tractor and finished moved about 30 loads of wood from different piles around the property and brought them up to the wood shed to split them. So that once winter comes around and they start making maple sugar they have plenty of wood to burn. They usually use about 10 cords or more of wood each year of a mix of soft pinewood to hard oak wood. The different between the different woods is that soft pinewood burns faster and hotter than hard wood like oak. But the oak burns longer at a little less temperature so they use a mix of the wood to keep a hot and long burning fire going in the winter. After that we stared to split the wood and we did that for the rest of the day.