Meeting!

I've been really distracted by my AP exam coming, so I'm sorry for my late post! Anyways, I thought I would talk about my meeting with Tamara Martinez.
She talked to me about different literacy programs: Read To Me International, Read Aloud America, Hands Helping Out, Hawaii Sate Public System, Hawaii Literacy, Mental Health Organisation, and Chaminade University. Now I'll list a brief description of each of these programs!

Read To Me International- This programs encourages parents to read to their children--even ones in jail! They send recording of parents in jail reading a book to their children. Sometimes the parents are moved to a different state, so they're not able to visit their family members. They even provide parenting classes so that when the parents are released, they can care for their children better.

Read Aloud America- Evening gatherings at a cafeteria with a stage of prizes! They have great prizes, like a set of encyclopedias or tires and free nights at the Hilton. In order to win those prizes, they have this "game show" (question-answer) about literacy. They have six sessions throughout the year, and have various programs. Some include Mother Reads, Father Reads where parents are assigned stories to their kids with follow-up activities and a discussion/reflection. This affirmed the importance of parents teaching their kids (UPDATE: read children literacy post above for more information/statistics). There's even pizza at the end!! Everyone really enjoyed it, however, they were cut because of the cost. If you visit some communities, they may have signs that say "Bring RAP Back" (the "p" would be for program).

Hands Helping Out-  This organisation tries to directly benefit people by giving school supplies to those who need it. No child should have to go to school without proper supplies, and some students are embarrassed using old things that they even skip school. Senator Daniel Inouye and his wife, Maggie, started the program back in 1999, and this has had gerat success--they gave school supplies to more than 12,000 students! A mere $8 is enough to fill a backpack with basic and needed supplies.  Their website is in maintenance, but you can still visit this one.

Hawaii State Public System- Free programs open to public storytellers. Some include ESL where instructors help with people who haven't been taught English as their first language.They meet four times a week at a church and teach students about the citizenship tests, letters (interpersonal), and communication skills. This is a direct service based in the community that helps out numerous amounts of people.

Hawaii Literacy/Book Mobile- A gutted out bus that has books on shelves. Educators from Hawaii volunteer to visit various sites with low income families/transitional housing (kinda like a shelter). Anyone over five years old can come unsupervised (there are some exceptions...), so this has a wider range of people and most of them actually want to learn how to read/write.

Mental Health Organisation- This helps to get access to books and provides care and encourages a healthy mentality. There are different programs under this organisation that help with their cause, and they are very focused on spreading their message.

Volunteers are matched with students--there are over 150 volunteers (!) because various organisations connect for one big event.
Chaminade University- Student clubs--but not a school system format--that have "story hour", crafts, acting, and goodie bags! The students have stories via re-telling/acting, which is very fun and interactive. This leaves a really positive impact on everyone

Beginnings of My Video

I've been brainstorming for what I'm going to do for my literacy video, and I'm starting to draw it all out! I don't want to reveal much about it, but to the left is the beginnings of it :) I know my drawing isn't that good, but I wanted my "quality" to be shown not through a "live-action" video, but one that's been hand-drawn by me! It's extremely difficult to draw on an electronic device--I don't have a tablet that could attach to my computer, so I'm borrowing my mom's iPad. However, because of little success I've been having, I'm considering going to the old pencil and paper! But then that would be I wasted half my day on this.... :( Well, I guess you'll soon see when I release the final product (within a month or so?). I've got an AP Chemistry exam coming up, so I have to use my time wisely.

Oh! Update: I am going to meet with Tamara Martinez on Wednesday (April 11), who is in charge of Hawaii Literacy! I hope to talk to her about more literacy programs, resources, etc!


Another update: This program has given me so many issues! I think that's what you get for trying to use a free program. It deleted a huge chunk of my work, so I didn't think it was worth it if everything I do is going to be deleted. So, I used a different app (called Animator HD) that was only $2, which is relativity cheap for the amount of capabilities. So far, I haven't had any problems and the drawings come out cleaner.