I did my professional development stint with Motheread at Ironwood estates with Jessica. We were a little bit early, and so we waited for a short while. As the students trickled in I noticed something odd. Out of eleven of us, seven were men. I found it amusing that the book that we were going to read that day was "Just Us Women". ( I hear you giggling out there. Jessica and I giggled too).
After we got over that, we had a productive three and a half hours. Nadine, the facilitator, read the book, then asked questions. The class took turns reading lines from it, and then we shared what we learned from it. After that, we had multiple writing exercises. It was a strange feeling because I have become so used to typing. Actual writing-writing, was uncomfortable, and my handwriting has become atrocious!
We had some discussions as well, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that one of the Chuukese men is a quarter Japanese. They got to practice their reading and English-speaking skills, and I got an impromptu Japanese refresher! Win-win!
This is an excellent program for the community, and I am glad it's available for all to join. Everyone should check it out. Free books!
LOL, that was cool. That sounded like a lot of fun, but too far me to travel. I'm glad you guys had fun.
ReplyDeleteShirley,
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you and Jess were able to participate in the Motheread Program. As a trained Motheread Facilitator myself, I know the importance it has in the lives of countless families nationwide. Family literacy is so important, and I encourage you to participate in the program again. Kudos to both of you!
Best regards,
Dr. Rivera
Great job! I learned about this just by reading your post, I will be doing some research on it.
ReplyDeletePhil, if you're interested you can go to the Pagachao one.
ReplyDeleteHere is their site so you can see the dates.
http://www.guamhumanitiescouncil.org/calendar.html
Sounds like you guys had a great time, and, yes, I was giggling. My wife was wondering why I was chuckling away at the computer screen, so she came over, read the blog, and giggled, too.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that the words are reversed in the picture. Just wondering if you were holding it up to a mirror or something.
Oh no! I made a mistake!
ReplyDeleteThe photobooth on my mac takes reverse pictures and I forgot to correct it.
How could I have missed that? I guess I'll leave it as a reminder that I'm human. A couple of years from now I'll come back and look at this little digital souvenir of my crazy-hectic-graduate-student-in-the-summer-daze days,..... and laugh.