Sunday, May 30, 2010

End Hunger, Walk the World 2010


From end of the year pictures


From end of the year pictures




When? Sunday, 6 June, 2010,2:00-4:00 p.m.
24-time zones walking in a 24-hour period

Where?: Join the United Nations of Greater Oklahoma City at the South Plaza of the State Capitol and Perimeter.
On Site “Zumba Conmigo” to pump up walkers, Kimberly and Jose Munoz
Rainy Day Option: Your treadmill, your neighborhood, or join the virtual walk on Facebook

What? $10 per mile. Find sponsors. Set your own goal
Hydrate. Use reusable water bottles. Sierra Club bottles for sale at walk
Decorate a T-shirt with your motivation to walk
http://www.facebook.com/WalkTheWorld
http://walktheworld.wfp.org/
http://www.regionalfoodbank.org/Programs/Childhood-Hunger

Why? Hungry Children Cannot Learn

How? Checks, Online Donations
United Nations World Food Programme, School Meals, Walk the World
https://walktheworld.wfp.org/donate/donate. Powerful WFP video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA2xkaXcyuE




Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, Food-4-Kids
http://www.regionalfoodbank.org/Programs/Childhood-Hunger/Food4Kids



For more information contact clayc@casady.org; 405- 520-1325

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Brainstorming Lunch: YAC 2010-2011




Mrs. Clay Inspiration as a sponsor:












Agenda
11:30-12:30
(Snacks: Chips, salsa and fruit punch)
Present: YAC Senior Chairs: D.J.. Johnesha, Josh, and Rebecca. Not Present: Caitlin. YAC members who attended: Andrew and Leah

YAC answered 8th grade questions: See answers at http://cycloneslifeprep101.blogspot.com/. We realized we had a problem when Leah did not know what YAC was and she had participated in a couple of activities. As a group, we need to be better at communicating our purpose. We built personal relationships well but we did not inspire the freshmen to serve. When asked what YAC stands for, Rebecca gave motions to our mission: One heart, one beat, one mission served because Josh said that freshmen might not understand the mission. Thank you Rebecca for uniting us with your creativity.

New YAC in 2010-2011
No official homegroups.

We need to ask Mr. Huestis about times to meet with freshmen because YAC members will be busy during class meeting times. We also do not know the day of the week YAC will be assigned for meetings.

No official site visits.

YAC members will decide when their project helpers will meet and when they will go to site visits. D.J and Johnesha want to continue to go to Boys and Girls Club. Our task is to keep YAC as THE service club at school. STUCO can be a great connection and have service projects too, but we have one purpose SERVE. We are committed to our cause.

Calendar: Service Saturdays, YAC Projects, Service Celebrations (Details at YAC website: http://www.casady.org/podium/default.aspx?t=29893)

YAC Expectations for next year: Inspiration for others to serve. Be on duty for Service Saturdays. Know what YAC is to be a spokesperson as needed. ( We reviewed the service-learning website and Mrs. Clay asked for help making the site more interactive)Mrs. Clay spoke about the new "class time" activities and YAC responsibilities within those times.
a. Life Prep 101: Service opportunities for the freshmen, create " home groups and site visits on best times for the groups, Week after SPC are options." Talk to Mr. Huestis about the role of YAC regarding mentoring freshmen--5 YAC chairs are seniors. Be asset builders of life and study skills.
b. Life Prep 201: Help with the creation and facilitation of the "internship fair."


12:30-1:30: Lunch at Sala Thai
What study skills can help you be a better student?

From YAC Leadership1. Be better organized...learned too late
2. Better time management...learned with APUSH
3. When reading for English and history: Pay attention to what is mportant...Know the teacher and what they consider important
4. PRIORITIZE: Keep focus on what matters...put big rocks first
5. Study hardest subject first at home!

From teachers
1. Organization
2. Look over tests and quizzes. Keep them for reference

1:30-4:00: Recycling and PI grant
Project Ignition (Andrew and D.J.) completed the Casady reflection of Project Ignition Grant. William will finish it and we will send it to State Farm ASAP.

We did not see the documentaries/and or videos or work on rubric or interaction because Mrs. Zesiger and the environmental club president, Josh, needed help recycling. We spent from 2:00-4:00 recycling building and had to quit because maintenance stopped working at 4:00. Becca continue to work! Mrs. Z, left at 4:00

4:00-6:00: Josh and Mrs. Clay went to the DEQ to return the Green School Tool Kit borrowed from Deer Creek. They also measured the walking course for Walk the World 2010. Josh is well informed about the walk and will be the youth spokesperson for the walk if needed.

DOCUMENTARIES AND RUBRIC OF INTERACTION TABLED FOR NEXT SUMMER MEETING AT MRS. CLAY HOME. MOVIES AND CHIPS AND SALSA! Date: TBA by YAC chairs who will set agenda!

Quest High School Service Learning
Six Billion Paths to Peace Initiative-Mrs. Clay, Sasha and Josh hoping to attend Retreat in San Francisco, funding being raised!
Pay it Forward film
Videos about service learning from university presidents, etc: http://www.tedxcapital.org/speakers/

Inspirational videos from Khadija:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAwOZvvGsRs: It is never too late to be a winner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49cU7gtPIzM: Balanced Team

Monday, May 24, 2010

Friday, May 21, 2010

Week before finals...Brainstorming meeting 2010-2011

Agenda
11:30-12:30
New YAC introduction,calendar and expectations, grant reporting for Project Ignition
(Snacks: Chips, salsa and fruit punch)

12:30-1:30: Lunch Pizza if many YAC members show up, restaurant of their choice up to $50.00
DOCUMENTARIES AND RUBRIC OF INTERACTION TABLED FOR NEXT SUMMER MEETING AT MRS. CLAY HOME. MOVIES AND CHIPS AND SALSA!

Quest High School Service Learning
Six Billion Paths to Peace Initiative

Videos about service learning from university presidents, etc: http://www.tedxcapital.org/speakers/

Inspirational videos from Khadija:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAwOZvvGsRs: It is never too late to be a winner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49cU7gtPIzM: Balanced Team

Sunday, May 16, 2010

LAST YAC meeting 2009-2010

Agenda




1. Farewell to senior chairs: Zainab gave Braeden his pillow. Rose was absent and Sarah's is still being made.

All YAC members received peace doves made by OKC kids for the Respect Diversity Foundation. Sarah said that she wanted to attend the San Francisco Retreat. Sasha will apply this afternoon. Josh will chek with Mr. Sheldon regarding funds.

2. Answer 8th grade questions. Item tabled for next meeting

3. Assign Executive Board for Next Year: Zainab, Josh, Caitlin, Deric, Sasha, Vincent(if returning to Casady) will continue as members of the board. Chandler, Elizabeth, D.J. did not attend.

4. Set-up time for first YAC meeting of 2010-2011:Friday May 28, 11:30

5. Help wanted: Community Service-Learning Office moving to Woods




Organizational meeting for next year: Place: , Date: Lunch, after conflict exams

a. View documentary from Quest School
b. Revise YAC Manifesto
c. Create Rubric of Interaction

YAC meets 8th grade!

First Advisory Meeting: 8th graders met Mrs. Clay and learned about the service requirement.

a. The requirement is 45 hours in 4 years.
b. Students can start certifying hours for their transcript in June. Only required form to certify hours is the site supervisor evaluation.
c. Places where 8th graders have served: Camp Casady and Boys and Girls Club

Second Advisory Meeting: 8ht graders viewed PP of YAC activities, learned about next year, met two YAC members, and left questions for YAC members.

NEW IN THE UPPER DIVISION NEXT YEAR
a. NEW Life Prep 101 "class meeting" Academic and life Skills Activities facilitated by teams of Upper Division teachers.
b. NEW Saturday service opportunities at Habitat for Humanity and Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma

SERVICE EXPERIENCE FROM YAC MEMBERS
From Aamina
-Food Bank: Casady Cans Do-Students Against Hunger Food Drive
-Environmental Club: Recycling
From Sarah
-Taste of Japan (8TH GRADE)
-Respect Diversity Foundation Art Projects (9-12)
-YAC Senior Chair
-Challenge 20/20: Awareness of Global Warming
-Service related trips: Japan, Minneapolis, San Francisco

QUESTIONS ON POST-IT NOTES TO YAC MEMBERS

ABOUT YAC
1. What does YAC stand for?
a. Youth and Adult Advisory and Action Council.

2. What does YAC mean? What are the main things of it?
a. Intergenerational council with one mission: Serve. INSPIRE, CONNECT, COLLABORATE. Service based on values. Service as a path peace and developer of life skills and de-stressor.
b. YAC helps students find their interest and serve with it. (Zainab)


3. Why should I join?a. YAC needs your talents, energy, ideas and problem solving skills.


4. What is your favorite part of YAC?
a. Developing close relationships as we focus on serving others' needs doing something WE LIKE DOING.


5. How many people are involved in YAC?
a. About 30. See member names and projects in the "About Me" section of this blog.


6. Will I have time for sports if I am doing YAC?
a. Yes, If you cannot attend a YAC meeting, we have a YAC blog to keep yourself inform. Your project could be sport related like tennis clinics for Johnson Elementary.


7. What group projects have you done before?a. Home Groups Site Visits, Volunteer Service Days: International Day of Peace, Day of Remembrance, MLK Day of Service, National Volunteer Week, Global Youth Service Day. The projects change every year. This year the big projects were Home Groups, Casady Cans Do, Pinwheels for Peace, MLK Day, Habitat for Humanity and Casady4h2ope.


8. How can you get to go on trips at school?a. YAC will only leave school for capacity building opportunities such as conferences, presentations, Saturday projects. Make-up work needs to be done ahead of time, if possible. YAC students are required to bring back something to implement at school. YAC does not promote service project that will make students miss clases.


9. How often does YAC do service project?a. YAC members participate in projects anytime their schedules permit them to attend. We will have YAC members of duty at Habitat or the Food Bank on Saturdays. YAC members facilitate their own projects and also volunteer in other student and classes projects.

10. What do you want YAC to be?a. Servant leaders who lead by example and promote collaboration and participation in service projects around school. Leaders who reflect on their actions to improve.

ABOUT PROJECTS

1. How can you get to go on trips at school?a. If it is a YAC planned activity and you need transportation, talk to Mrs. Clay a few days before the activity. You will not miss class time for service activities.

2. What different types of work can you do (Other than Infant Crisis Center and the Food Bank)? a. Students can work with any NON-PROFIT organization of their choice. A list of organizations is available at the Casady Website.

3. What is Walk the World?a. People walk in a 24-hour period in 24 time zones with one purpose: End childhood hunger. Walk the World OKC was created by Leann Farha’08 when she was a freshmen. It raises awareness and funding. It will take place June, 6 at a location TBA, but you can walk around your neighborhood or join a virtual walk. Goggle Walk the World 2010 for more information or contact Mrs. Clay at clayc@casady.org

ABOUT THE REQUIREMENT

1. What happens if I do not finish my 45 hours?a. You will not get your diploma until hours are certified. This has never happened.

2. Do you have to have a certain sheet to have an adult sign off on for your hours?a. Yes. There is a form available online, but organizations have their own form too.

3. Do my service hours from Scouts transfer? a. Yes, but only the ones performed this summer.

I do not have any questions




Thank you to Mrs. Larsen, 8th grade teachers and students for sharing your St. Crispins experience. It was a great opportunity to get acquainted with the upcoming freshman class and see them make memories of a lifetime before their graduation from the Middle Division.

Friday, May 7, 2010

YAC May 8th meeting: Changes for next year

Participants: Josh, Chandler, Elizabeth

WHY YAC? We are a group with the mission to serve and motivate others to serve. We are going to try for one more year to inspire people to serve. If we are not successful, STUCO will assume YAC responsibilities. We will have a default STUCO officer in YAC. Josh suggested a YAC officer to attend STUCO meetings. He will consult with Mr. Pena.

The responsibility of the Service-Learning office, the director and YAC director have changed.

a. No updated files, no reflection, only site supervisor evaluation needed to certify hours: There will not be required reflection of service projects. Parents and students will not longer receive an updated file of student's service work. They will only receive yearly update of hours certified. Students are responsible only of bringing a site supervisor evaluation stating number of hours served. Students may use the form available on the internet or provide the form the organization gives volunteers for the purpose of hours served verification. The requirement is still only 45 hours. Students have until graduation to complete their requirement.


1. No home groups or site visits. Home group facilitators developed great personal relationships with some members of their groups, but only a few attendend site visits. Why did YAC fail to inspire freshmen to attend site visits?
Next year, YAC members will facilitate and motivate students to attend Saturday service opportunities set at Habitat for Humanity (Casady wants to build a house. The cost of building a house is 70,000 of which we are responsible of raising a minimum of $20,000). YAC is also responsible for indirect contact projects with the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma. YAC members will facilitate and pump people to volunteer on Saturdays at the Food Bank. Mrs. Clay will be on site on Saturdays and will take off a day a week, when she spends her time supervising projects on Saturdays. Elizabeth volunteered to facilitate the Food Bank project next year.

Individual projects and YAC service opportunities will be encouraged, but fundraising will come from grants not from out of uniform ocassions unless approved by the Student Council. We will promote possibilities within the school and around our immediate community. We hope to still have YAC projects such as Pinwheels for Peace-Pennies for Peace, Challenge 20/20-Hunger: Casady Cans Do-Walk the World, Global Warming-Aluminun water bottles, Project Ignition, and YAC work with organizations of special interest to YAC officers and members. The organization and interest will change as the YAC students change.

YAC students will be resources for teachers integrating "social action" in their curriculum.

YAC students will also be expected to help the team of teachers and community partners facilitating their class meetings once every six day cycle.

1. Freshman Study Skills: Life Prep 101 (Study and life Skills, personal and social responsibilit): 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens, Lions Quest Skills For Action, and Six Billion Paths to Peace

2. Sophomore Internship Program: Community Prep 101: How our community works. What professions are needed. Letter and resume writing, job interviews, application for summer internships, job fair. Community Partners: Leadership Oklahoma City, Center for Non-profits, Shinnyo-En Foundation, Oklahoma City Community Foundation, Junior Achievement, Sim City, Key leader training

3. Junior Thinking tank and leadership program

4. Senior College Counseling Program: College Application Process
Mrs. Clay has requested a STUCO officer to be a default YAC officer. Caitlin Britt has demonstrated how powerful a direct connection to STUCO can be for a service project to be part of the culture of the school.

2009-2010 YAC NEXT MEETING: Will be facilited by Josh, Chandler and Elizabeth. Mrs. Clay recommended using Roberts Rules of order.

1. What worked? What did not? why?

2. What do we want AND NEED to change to improve?

3. Who wants to do what and when?

4. How will we know we are using "our minds well" to inspire, facilitate, engage and motivate?

THERE ARE SIX BILLION PATHS TO PEACE. WHAT IS YOURS?



WHY SIX BILLION PATHS TO PEACE?
It sees every act of service done with loving kindness as an act towards peace.
It sees service as de-stressor.
It celebrates volunteerism and service-learning.
Its goal is to bring harmony, inner peace and world peace through service.
The Shinnyo-en Foundation provides support both financial and simple, quick, effective and creative reflective activities.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Service and Electronics: What is the link?

Thank you Mr. Bush for sending YAC this article.

What's driving kids toward their fanatical electronic networking? There is increasing evidence that more is involved than smart phones, PCs, and other technological marvels. Hidden factors rooted in our genetic heritage may be at work. "Humans form social networks because the benefits of a connected life outweigh the costs," says Nicholas Christakis, professor of sociology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and professor of medicine and medical sociology at Harvard Medical School.

Christakis and James Fowler, associate professor at University of California-San Diego in the Department of Political Science, are coauthors of the recent book Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives. They have shown that cooperative behavior is contagious, and that it spreads downstream from a single individual in a cascade of influence that involves dozens more individuals, reaching at least "three degrees of separation." Their research shows that the initiating influence can involve a variety of behaviors, emotions and ideas, including kindness, happiness, and generosity.

Seen from this perspective, it isn't the electronic gizmos and doodads that have caused an obsession with networking in our kids; rather, the gadgets may simply make it possible for them to live out their underlying genetic predispositions for cooperation and empathy.

The ultimate incentive for kids' interconnected, empathic way of relating to one another may be that it, well, feels good. Beginning in the late 1980s, reports of the "helper's high" began to surface -- a feeling, following selfless service to others, of exhilaration and a burst of energy followed by a period of calm and serenity. , The feeling was similar to that following intense physical exercise. Researcher Allan Luks studied over 3,000 Americans involved in volunteer services and found that the feeling lasted several weeks, and that the euphoric sensation returned when they remembered the action. The helper's high is accompanied by positive changes in the body's immune function and a lower level of stress hormones. As Ralph Chislett, a sixteen-year-old whose volunteerism involved delivering supplies to a post-ER recovery unit at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, said, "Volunteering helps you become a better person. You get a good feeling when you're helping people because you're making a difference in their lives." Steve Culbertson, president of Youth Service America, a volunteer resource center in Washington, D.C., said, "It gets under your skin. The real big secret to service to others is the majority of the benefits accrue to you. It just becomes who you are. It's not something you pick or choose; it's just part of your nature and makeup."

Although not all teen volunteerism is altruistic -- some schools make volunteer work a requirement for graduation -- today's teens are nonetheless volunteering more than any other generation in history. According to Independent Sector, a coalition of not-for-profit organizations and foundations based in Washington, D.C., 59 percent of teens volunteer an average of 3.5 hours per week. Annually, that's 13.3 million volunteers totaling 2.4 billion hours at a total economic value of $7.7 billion.

It may be no accident that the most plugged-in generation in history is also the most volunteer-prone. The empathic urge may underlie both areas of behavior. In fact, electronic connectivity and volunteerism have proved to be inseparable. Disaster relief efforts following the Haitian earthquake in January 2010 were largely made possible by an unprecedented mobile electronic communications effort. When one clinic texted that it needed fuel for its generator, the Red Cross responded in 20 minutes. Translators volunteered their efforts electronically from faraway locations without ever setting sight on Haiti. Within a few days a map was constructed via satellite pictures by a firm in Southhampton, UK, showing every one of the 5,000 collapsed buildings in Port-au-Prince. A Craig's List-style "we need, we have" website was set up to help anyone who needed services, and an online database was constructed to monitor the capacity of hospitals in real time. The Haitian tragedy showed that empathy, charity, and electronic communications are natural allies.

Plugged In -- To What?

For decades a realization has been growing, fed from a variety of sources, that there may be a collective level of intelligence that transcends individual minds. This idea is rooted in antiquity. The Upanishads, India's sacred scriptures that date to the middle of the first millennium BCE, proclaim tat tvam asi, "thou art that": the human and the divine are one. Similarly from the Christian tradition, "The kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21, KJV). The esoteric sides of all the major religions recognize that the individual consciousness is subsumed and nourished by an infinite, absolute, divine, or cosmic source, and is ultimately one with it -- the scala naturae or the Great Chain of Being. It follows that, at some level, all individual minds are united and one within the boundless All. The goal within the great wisdom traditions is to realize our essential unity with one another, and our inner divinity or cosmic consciousness, and to enable this awareness to make a difference in how we live our life.

For a century we have witnessed a steady outpouring of books that, in one way or another, affirm the recognition that consciousness is larger than the individual mind. Examples include pioneering works such as R. M. Bucke's Cosmic Consciousness, Emerson's essays on the oversoul and transcendentalism, William James's The Varieties of Religious Experience, Arthur Lovejoy's The Great Chain of Being, and C. G. Jung's The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious. More recent contributions include Erwin Schrodinger's My View of the World and What Is Mind? and Mind and Matter, Ken Wilbur's The Spectrum of Consciousness, Peter Russell's The Global Brain, Nick Herbert's Elemental Mind, Huston Smith's Beyond the Post-Modern Mind, David Bohm's Wholeness and the Implicate Order, and David Darling's Soul Search.

An overlooked influence in the recognition of collective consciousness is the development within the social sciences of dialogue and group process as ways of promoting consensus, creativity, and problem solving. A variety of terms are being used to describe these exercises -- "developing group synergy," "unleashing collective creativity," and "developing team coordination." Organizations are discovering that when individuals unite in a shared intention, something mysterious happens: a group intelligence emerges that transcends that of the individuals involved, a theme developed by James Surowiecki in his courageous book The Wisdom of Crowds. As psychologist and entrepreneur Carol Frenier says, "In these group experiences, people have access to a kind of knowing that's bigger than what we normally experience with each other. You feel the presence of the sacred, and you sense that everybody else in the group is also feeling that. There's a sense of openness and awareness of something larger than yourself. Your ability to communicate seems broader. What is astounding to people is how much creativity comes forth in a setting like that. You have a sense that the whole group is creating together, and you don't quite exactly know how."

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About Me

cbc: clayc@casady.org; 405-749-3103