While scrolling through Facebook recently, I came across this clip from a British TV show called The Secret Life of 4, 5, and 6 Year Olds. Essentially, the show follows some kids in their preschool. As the kids interact, hidden cameras are catching what they say. Then, a group of developmental psychologists tunes in to the footage, commenting on the significance of the kids’ actions.
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here are so many groups at Wesleyan working with children that it can be hard to choose just one. Aspiring tutors sometimes join the first program they hear about rather than selecting an organization based on the target age group, time commitment, academic subject, and program structure. To help you pick the group that’s right for you, the Office of Community Service is hosting an information session where representatives from several tutoring programs on campus will talk about their work and answer your questions.
Whether you’re providing homework help and dance classes at Green Street or doing long division at Macdonough School, tutoring and mentoring are fun and effective ways to engage with the community. If you receive Federal Work-Study, you can get paid for volunteering with an OCS literacy program.
Date: Thursday, September 11th, 2014
Time: 7:00 PM
Place: PAC 002
Dale Glasspiegel ’13 writes in:
This is: That Group That Reads To Children (and does a lot of other cool stuff too!)! On a weekly basis (or more), you can go into preschools and read to a classroom of students for 10-15 minutes, and then spend the rest of the time free-playing, making crafts, playing outside, playing music, giving more individualized lessons, helping out the teachers, etc.
There are 7 preschools within walking distance that we will volunteer at: Head Start, Preschool Town and Country, Even Start, the 2 Neighborhood Preschools, Christ Lutheran, and St. Mary’s.
Chloe Rinehart ’14 and Lucy Britt ’14 are ready for you to get ready for Let’s Get Ready:
Did you love the SAT? Probably not. Do you love college? We’re guessing so. Want to help local high school students prepare for the SAT so that they can get into and love college too??
Apply to be a coach—a tutor, mentor, role-model—with Let’s Get Ready!, a non-profit organization that provides free SAT preparation and college admissions counseling to socioeconomically disadvantaged and otherwise under-served high school students. The Wesleyan program of LGR partners with Upward Bound to work with rising high school seniors from Middletown, Platt, and Maloney High Schools on the SAT, college applications, and financial aid information.
As a coach, you will be committing to volunteer with us once a week for 2.5 hours, teaching a group of 4-5 students either the Math or Critical Reading and Writing sections of the SAT.
Come volunteer with LGR! Applications can be found at this link, and are tentatively due Friday, January 25th!
Deadline: January 25
Contact: crinehart(at)wesleyan(dot)edu
May Lee Watase ’13 writes in:
Are you free this upcoming Thursday from 1:30-2:30pm? 7th graders from Amistad Academy Middle School in New Haven, a charter school serving mainly low income students of color, are coming for a field trip and would love to meet some Wesleyan students and chat informally about college life.
Students should meet at Exley Science Center, room 58 at 1:30. If you are interested please email May Lee Watase atmwatase@wes.
Date: Thursday, 1:30 – 2:30 p.m.
Place: Exley Room 58
Way back in the torrid days of July, we posted about Little Sweet Potato, a brand new children’s book by alumnus and writer-in-residence Amy Bloom ’75. Maybe you’re fond of Bloom’s latest literary turn. Maybe you’re such a fan that you want to paint a bunch of little kids’ faces while Bloom reads her book. Izzy Rhode ’14 can hook you up:
We need volunteers!
On October 11th, from 10:15-11:30am, Amy Bloom will be reading her children’s book, Little Sweet Potato, to a bunch of adorable kids from the Neighborhood Preschool and other faculty and staff children. There will also be face-painting and the decoration of little sweet potatoes (arts and crafts).
We need children corral-ers, face-painters, and people to help with crafts. Contact Izzy, irode@wes, if you’re down to have a good time with some great kids for an hour and half!
Contact: irode@wes
Eye to Eye will be having an information meeting tonight. More from Ariel Jacobson ’15 and Emily Moody ’15:
Do you have a learning disability or ADHD? Do you have an hour a week to mentor a child? Then you should check out Eye to Eye!
Eye to Eye is the only national mentoring program pairing kids with learning disabilities (LD) and ADHD with similarly labeled college
students. Using a weekly art-based curriculum, our mentors help kids with LD/ADHD to value their own unique minds, build their self-esteem, and give them skills to become self-advocates. No artistic skill is required, just enthusiasm.
Hannah Reuman ’13 tells us of the upcoming info sessions:
Want to work with really cute kids? Tutor with WesReads/WesMath this semester and work with students on their math and reading skills at MacDonough Elementary School or Farm Hill Elementary School right here in Middletown! You only need to be able to dedicate one hour of your time per week in order to be involved.
Brief information/training sessions will be held in Albritton 311 (top top floor)
For Returning Tutors-
THIS Sat. (9/8) 2:30-3:30 pm
Tues. (9/11) 4:30-5:30 pm
Q: What’s more Wesleyan than a Commencement Eve Tent Party featuring cameos by Das Racist’s Himanshu “Heems” Suri ’07, playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda ’02, and a wedding-style funk cover of “Kids”? A: Probably nothing. We’re late on posting this, but hey, it’s summer, we straight-chillin’.
We don’t have video of Heems dropping a brief verse before flailing around the back of the stage, but we do have a clip of a funkified “Kids,” as performed by Kinky Spigot and the Welders (Lillian Ruiz ’08, Nicole Tirado Strayer ’07, Amanda Facelle ’09, Marlon Bishop ’07, Vlad Gutkovich ’07, Yoni Rabino ’07, Jon Hutchinson ’07, and Tess Amodeo-Vickery ’07). Scroll through the gallery below for a key shot of Heems bonding with Wesleying’s own viral star Kill-F Feinstein ’13.
In semi-related news, Miranda ’02 gave a talk to the Wesleyan Alumni Association. Watch it here.
[nggallery id=151]Edit: An anonymous commenter writes in, “You forgot about the Party on Fountain girl, who I’m pretty sure stagedived during this song.” Yes! I didn’t spot her, but both A-Batte (via text message) and Lin-Manuel Miranda ’02 (via Twitter) mentioned sightings of Molly ’06, the star of “Party on Fountain.” Can someone do a retrospective WesCeleb interview?
From Gabe Gordon ’11:
Want to share some knowledge/skills with the awesome kids at Green Street Arts Center? Apply now to teach a class in the After School program! Some ideas include: art, poetry, dance, music, martial arts, comic book-making, dream-analyzing–get creative! Classes are offered to 1st-3rd, 4th-5th, and 6th-8th graders. If you have an awesome idea, please submit a class proposal to bobbye(at)neatmiddletown(dot)org. ASAP. Your proposal should be for a weekly slot and should include: preferred day(s), preferred age group, and a rough outline/curriculum/goals/etc
Note: the Spring semester runs from late January into early May (about 13 weeks). Classes run Monday-Friday 4-5pm. Other note: this opportunity is for work-study and volunteer Wesleyan students. The position includes prep-time and monthly meetings/support. Teachers work in the classroom with at least one Teaching Assistant/Support Staff (either as an individual request or purposefully matched).
