National Make a Difference Day October 25

My club kids and I prepping a house for paint

October 25 is the National Make a Difference day.  On this day, thousands of people from across the United States will participate in community service on the 25th.  This year my club kids and I are painting in the paint-a-thon for the needy and the elderly.  This past Saturday we did the prep work for the house we are going to paint.  We cleaned the yard, trimmed the tree, and taped off the windows .  In the middle of the work, the homeowner, his daughter and son-in-law came by to see how much work was done.  The little old man was staying with his daughter because his wife who had alheizmer disease broke her shoulder when she fell.  Since the old man’s eyesight was failing he needed help so his daughter came to get them.  He was such a sweet old man.  We are excited to paint the house on the twenty-fifth and to see his reaction!

Always happy to help

 If you want to do something productive on National Make a Difference Day, it’s not too late.  Go to the main website to get ideas! http://www.usaweekend.com/diffday/

Blogactionday: Educating the poor to help themselves

Good video on how it is important to teach poor countries to be self-sufficient through rural economy.  Giving the necessary resources to people in poor countries so they can help themselves is the key to ending poverty.  Many third world countries who have been given loans to start businesses have proven to be successful.  The best way to end poverty is through education.  This video is inspiring.

http://blogactionday.org/js/ee1fe4421fce3e3b645afedd4dc0c875144bf717

Blogactionday: Educating the poor

Many a times I hear people joke, ” I’m so poor I can’t pay attention!”  Today, on this international blogactionday against poverty… that joke, that simple statement has taken a profoundly different meaning. For some kids, that statement is just a joke, but for many kids that is the truth.  Kids living in poverty do have a difficult time paying attention in class.  Statistically, it has been proven that poor kids struggle in school more than the higher income kids who do not have to worry about their basic needs of food and shelter. The socio-economic status of a student is one of the most important factors in student success or failure in the classroom. In a recent article,Class matters- In and out of school: Closing gaps and requires attention to issues of race and poverty, Boyd-Zaharias & Pate-Bain wrote,”Low achievement and dropping out are problems rooted in social and economic inequality- a force more powerful than curricula, teaching practices, standardized tests or other school-related policies”.  What this means is that  in order for students to be successful their basic needs has to be met first.  It is very difficult to engage students in the classroom when they are worried about where they are going to sleep or what they are going to eat once the bell rings. The two meals a day at school is more than some of the kids would get if they were home. In some cases, the school is a sanctuary for kids who are abused, neglected and abandoned by parents who leave them to fend for themselves. Some kids are even forced to fight for their own basic needs when their parents feel that they are old enough to contribute.  Some of these kids end up working under the table to buy food and help pay for bills.

A couple of years ago I had a kid who moved from California to Arizona because he got in trouble with the law there.  He moved in with his dad who was a construction worker. Joe would miss school a lot and at first I would get on him about his absences and preached to him about the importance of education because I didn’t know about his home situation.  He did not tell me why he was frequently absent until a day after his fifteenth birthday.  On his birthday, he didn’t come to school because he was working under the table with his dad to make money.  When he came back I told him to stop ditching school.  I remember him looking at me and said, ” Ms. A yesterday was my birthday… nobody cared, not even my dad, his girlfriend… nobody did anything for me or say anything to me.”  I don’t know who was more shocked, me for discovering the truth or him for letting me know his secret. I couldn’t say anything… my mind went blank.  What do you say to a kid who looks at you in despair, in frustration?  Do your homework? Pay attention?  No, I couldn’t do it.  I couldn’t tell Joe to stop missing school. I couldn’t tell him to write his essays.  Instead I told him to take care of himself and if he needed help I was there for him.

As a teacher I see all types of kids come through my classroom and I am not talking about good kids or bad kids; I’m talking about kids from high, middle , and low income. At the school I teach at, over 62% of our students are on free or reduce lunches.  They are identified as the economically disadvantage.  Some of these kids are migrant  where their parents move around the agricultural region because of the field jobs.  Some of these kids come from a single parent home in which the majority of the time the mothers are the head of the household… the father no longer in their lives emotionally or financially.  It is amazing that against all odd many are successful because they believe that education is their way  out.  They are  right.  Education is the key to end poverty… to break the poor  soci-economic cycle.  If these kids want a better life, they have to get their education and fight against cultural norms and break free from the economic barrier they grew up in.  As an educator I think it is vital to remember what Eli Broad says, “Public education is the key civil rights issue of the 21st century. Our nation’s knowledge-based economy demands that we provide young people from all backgrounds and circumstances with the education and skills necessary to become knowledge workers. If we don’t, we run the risk of creating an even larger gap between the middle class and the poor. This gap threatens our democracy, our society and the economic future of America.”

Blogactionday: Stand up and fight poverty

 

Blogactionday.org is encouraging the international community to discuss, look at,and find solutions to end poverty around the world.  Let us be a part of this movement to end poverty through education, action, and movement.  Do your part now by voicing your opinion, share your story, and give your ideas about poverty.

According to Poverty.com, “About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes. Yet there is plenty of food in the world for everyone. The problem is that hungry people are trapped in severe poverty. They lack the money to buy enough food to nourish themselves. Being constantly malnourished, they become weaker and often sick. This makes them increasingly less able to work, which then makes them even poorer and hungrier. This downward spiral often continues until death for them and their families.”

Realistically, it would be a challenge to completely end hunger everywhere.  However, what we can do is to help decrease the amount of people who are living in poverty.  I think it would be easier to do this in America instead of a third world country.  In America, we already have governmental agencies in place to help people who are struggling financially and who can not afford health care or grocery.  We have mediacare and medicaid for people in need.  We have foodstamps, HUD, and WIC to help low income people.  Of course, these systems are not without flaws, but at least we have it available for people.  In contrast, many third world countries do not have these governmental agencies where their people can turn to for help. To decrease the percentage of people living in poverty in these country requires assistance from the more industrialized nation to send help or aid. 

What is the answer to poverty?  This is a difficult question because every situation and place is unique.  However, the most important thing to remember is that we all have to do something however big or small.  Sending donations of clothing, food, or money is helpful if it goes straight to the people instead of to corrupt agencies or government where the people who are suffering are not getting what they need.

To end poverty, it is going to take more people to stand up and fight for those who can not do it themselves. Through activism, education, and awareness we can do something about it. If we all sit back and think only about our comfort and welfare without further regard for the needs of others then we will never end poverty.  We can all start all in our own community and identify the areas of need whether it is in our neighborhood, church, or school.  Being aware of those around us, can help us see who needs help.  Even if we can help one person a day or week or month, that is one less person living in poverty.  If all of us will commit to helping one person then pretty soon that can turn into a large number. 

To end poverty we have to all work together as a community, nation and world.

What am I doing to help fight poverty?  What have I done to help fight poverty? 

1.  Taken my club kids to the homeless shelter to volunteer to serve food.  We have made a long time commitment to the shelter for the rest of the year.  While we were there we notice they needed to stock up on can foods so we are going to have a can food, clothing drive, and blanket drive to donateto the shelter.

2. October 18th my club kids and I are going to prep low income houses and get it ready to paint on October 25 the which is the National Make a Difference Day.

3.  My students and I have collected school supplies for kids in the poor neighborhoods of Iraq. We have former students from our school who are serving in the army and they are stationed in Iraq.  They wrote home and told us about the needs of the community they patrol so we are doing our part.

http://blogactionday.org/js/ee1fe4421fce3e3b645afedd4dc0c875144bf717

Jon Foo starring in Tekken

A couple of months ago, my cousin had called me to tell me that she was an extra on a new movie called Tekken.  Before she could tell me anything else I was screaming in her ear. Of course, I heard of Tekken I told her because we have the game.   I’m not good at it and most of the time I don’t have time to play it, but I love the graphics. 

I still remember when Street Fighter was made into a movie and then Mortal Combat.  Needless to say, most people probably think they were both cheesy and horrible, but I still love it.  Once again I love any movie with martial arts in it.  I’m sure Tekken is going to be much better because the of the cast.  My cousin couldn’t tell me much because she signed a confidentiality contract, but she did tell me that Luke Goss was in it.  Here are some more info about the cast:

1. Luke Goss:  he starred in One night with the King in which he played King Xerxes.  The movie was a good story about the Jewish people and how they were rescued by Queen Ester who was married to King Xerxes.  At the time, Jews were getting persecuted because of their religion and Queen Ester risked her on life to save her people. The other well known movie he starred in was Hellboy II as Prince Nuada.  Of course, some people couldn’t tell it was him because of all the make-up.  In Tekken he plays Steve Fox. Picture below of the character from firstshowing.net website.  After Tekken he stars in a comic book adaptation with Jenna Dewan in Magdalena as Kristof.  Whatever, movie he stars in I will definitely watch since he is talented and not bad on the eyes!

2. Jon Foo:  he is going to play the character Jin Kazama is an amazing Wushu master.  He actually is part of Jackie Chan’s stunt crew. When he starred in Onk Bok as a villian, the was in the major fight scene with Tony Jaa.  I remember  thinking that he was such a good martial artist, but my attention had been focused on Tony Jaa.  Knowing Jon Foo’s martial arts background, he will definitely showcase his skills as Jin in Tekken.

3. Cung Le:  he is going to star as Marshall Law. I fixed noticed him fighting in the MMA against Frank Shamrock.  I was blown away that a Vietnamese mixed martial artist defeated Shamrock who has been around since the beginning of the UFC. According to Wiki, “Cung Le is undefeated in his professional San Shou career (17-0-0). He has won three US Open International Martial Arts Championships (1994, 1995,1996). He has also won 4 US National Championships.”  He is definitely talented.

The water and the wave

 

The coming storm

 

 

Our minds are like waves on the sea, swaying all the time. Concentration helps this swaying mind become still… The state in which my inner mind is not grasping, not excited, not busy, is a state where my mind has settled down completely, in the same way as the water settles down.  The sea of the mind, the deepwater of the mind, when it settles quietly this is concentration—Myongsong Sunim

I read this from the book, Woman on the Buddhist path by Martine Batchelor and it reminded me of the beauty of stillness in the fast pace world we live in. We are constantly on the go, in a rush to get somewhere, do something, be someone that we let life pass us by.  Sometimes I feel like a hamster, frentically running on a wheel that I can’t get off and the harder I try the faster the wheel turns until I am going so rapidly that I am flung into space.  I use this analogy as an example of how out of control our life can be if we let it.  Myongsong is right when she says that are mind is swaying, “moving” all the time like the waves in the sea.  Even when our body is at rest, our mind is still racing, we are still stressing, still thinking of the next big thing… still obsessing over things we can’t control… still refusing to admit that we need to slow down.  Are we missing out on life’s little moments because we are so busy racing around trying to live life too fast?  I think we are.  Sometimes our life becomes so frentic, chaotic, and stressful that when we actually slow down we panic because we feel that we are not being productive.  Then the whole crazy cycle starts again.

Easing our mind, slowing it down to rest, to focus, and to concentrate fully on one thing is a difficult thing to do in a fast moving world.  I am reminded of the pleasure I get and the benefits I reap from slowing down mentally and physically.  My Yoga class reminds me of the power of the stillness of the mind, body and soul.  When I am doing Yoga, I deliberately shut out negative thoughts, worries, and frustrations and tell myself the hour of class is solely for me.  It’s my time to come within myself and to myself without letting anything or anyone intrude on my moment of mental and physical focus and concentration. 

Give yourself at least an hour a day to relax and rejuvenate.  Besides, Yoga, I love looking at the ocean, the sunset, and the horizon. 

Sunset in San Diego

 

 

 

 

Word Up!

 

For those of you who has ever played scrabble you probably will be able to relate to what I am about to describe. I don’t know about most of you, but when I play scrabble, I am like a little kid.  I get all excited when I shake that bag and slowly reach in to get those all important letter tiles  that will determine whether I am going to shout with glee and scaring my opponents with my maniacal laugh or cry like a banshee. In my case, most of the time I either get mostly consonant and two vowels on my first draw. Once in a blue moon, I would get lucky and have an awesome draw where I am able to use  all the letters on my first turn. Unfortunately, I do not have the acumen to become a world class scrabble player like the one described by Kerry Wood. According to Kerry Wood from the Helium website (2008):

For some time, the highest scoring English Scrabble word was QUARTZY, at 82 points. That record was broken by a player who, after a couple of rounds of discarding unnecessary tiles, managed to play QUIXOTRY, using all seven letters and extending over two triple word squares. (The R was already on the board for him to connect to.) His score, which is the current all-time record for a single play, was 365 points.

 This totally blows me away because the highest points I have ever earned during a single turn is 50 points. After reading about this unknown player, I searched for more information on what it takes to be a top player.  From the Helium website I have concluded that strategy is the key to winning this word battle.  According to Kirsten Remesen from Helium website posting, “Scoring highly in scrabble is less a matter of getting the right letter than a matter of good strategy.”  In other words, knowing where to put your letter (word placement) can make a difference in the amount of points you will earn.

A word game I love to play on line is Literati because it is similar to scrabble.  It’s fun to play against other people from around the world.  The most important thing to remember is be prepared to get your butt kick once in awhile. I have played against awesome players, but there were a couple of time where my opponent was either hook on phonics or so slow that I actually nodded off waiting for them to make a move! I hate playing with people who try so hard to strategize in order to win because they sometimes take too long.

Another online game I love to play is word racer where tiles of letters are exposed and you have to make as many words as you can.  The goal is to beat the other players by making the most words from the given tiles that is on a grid.  The longer the word the more points you will get.  There are four rounds and within each round you have about 30 seconds while the grid is cleared and loaded.  One time during those 30 second interval,I actually got into a fight some racist people who were being rude to the other players by making racial slurs because they had lost. Of course, being the outspoken person I am, I had to tell them to show some respect etc… Besides, I was practicing my verbal skills. The little “argument” actually stimulated my thinking skills because I had to think of polite ways to tell of those racist people.

If you are interested or ever get bored, you can go to yahoo games and play for free.

Image taken from Yahoo Games website of the wordracer.

Funny in Farsi by Firozeh Dumas

Funny in Farsi

I LOVE reading.  I read everything from historical to true crime to comedy.  While I was at one of my teacher professional workshop about two years ago, the presenters used this book Funny in Farsi as part of the presentation.  I was asked to read a passage of it to the group and I was laughing so hard that I had trouble with my enunciation! The part I had to read was about the main character’s uncle’s goal to lose weight which led to his crazy obsession with the diet industry and all the “miracle weight” lose gadgets like the thigh master.  I remember reading that part and going “OMG! I had one too!”  Actually there were many things in the book that I could relate to, being an immigrant myself. For example, being an interpreter for my parents even though my English wasn’t that great back then.  Crazy family vacations, first days in an American school, teachers and students mispronouncing my name etc…

Here is a summary of the book by Random House, Inc website:

Funny in Farsi grew out of Firoozeh Dumas’ experience of moving to Southern California in 1972 at the age of seven. She originally intended her collection of essays as a gift to her children–to show them that our commonalities far outweigh our differences–and she wrote the book almost entirely in the hours before they woke for school.
Arriving with no firsthand knowledge of this country beyond her father’s glowing memories of his graduate school years here, Firoozeh learned to adapt to her new surroundings with a special eye to the more absurd elements of American culture. Funny in Farsi chronicles the American journey of Dumas’ wonderfully engaging family: her engineer father, a sweetly quixotic dreamer; her elegant mother, who never fully mastered English; her uncle, who combated the effects of American fast food with an array of miraculous American weight-loss gadgets; and Firoozeh herself, who as a girl changed her name to Julie, and encountered a second wave of culture shock when she met and married a Frenchman.If you would like to read an excerpt click here: http://www.randomhouse.com/highschool/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780812968378&view=excerpt