Teacher stories 9: the joy of helping others

Note: Today's teacher story focuses on Rhonda Taylor, who teaches at Huth Road Elementary School. She is the advisor for the school's Early Act Club. The Early Act Club is a service club for children, ages five through thirteen. It is connected with Rotary International, and the goals of the club are to give children an increased awareness and knowledge of their community and their world. By being involved in the Early Act club, children can develop their empathy and can learn to see the dignity and value of all human beings.

Tell me about what you do during the school day.

I work between three inclusion classrooms, teach with Mrs. Gregson and Mrs. Cassata in fourth grade and also with Mrs. Percival in third grade. The past two years, I taught fourth grade on my own, while filling in on a maternity position. Before that, I worked as a teaching assistant at Kaegebein Elementary School.

Did you have any other career dreams or did you know from an early age that you wanted to be a teacher?

I’ve always wanted to be a teacher, even as a little girl. I always liked being around young children and guiding them to make good decisions. I also had a few amazing teachers along the way who have inspired me to want to make a difference.

I grew up in Lewiston and attended the Lewiston-Porter school system. My second grade teacher’s name was Mrs. Destino, and she was always very soft spoken and kind and passionate. She taught me that having a big heart and showing your students how much you care can go a long way in the eyes of a child. And then, in high school, I ran into a couple struggles in a pre-calculus class. It was difficult for me, and I wasn’t used to struggling in school. My math teacher’s name was Mrs. Matthews. She met me in the AAC. That’s an acronym for the Academic Achievement Center. She met me there a couple times a week to break down the math, one on one, so that I could understand it. And so, from that moment on, I knew that I wanted to be that person for so many others. So I volunteered my time in the AAC, to support other high school students with their studies. Then I went on and chose to pursue teaching in college.

Where did you go to college?
I attended Buffalo State College for both my undergraduate and master’s degree. I took classes in elementary education, early childhood education, and my master’s degree is in literacy.

How long have you worked at Huth Road?

I have been working in the district since 2007. This is my third year at Huth Road.

How do you feel about teaching at Huth Road Elementary School?

From the moment I walked into the school, everyone was so welcoming. The collaboration of all of the teacher here at Huth is what makes it truly special. We have a huge involvement of parents here at Huth. And I’ve really enjoyed getting to know so many of the faculty members, especially working in so many different classrooms.

What is it like to work in so many different classrooms in one day?

For me, I really enjoy getting to know so many of the different teaching styles. So I start my day with Mrs. Gregson, where we co-teach science and social studies. Then I head to Mrs. Percival’s room, where we finish up math and squeeze in writer’s workshop. After that, I head to Mrs. Cassata’s room, where we finish up math before and after lunch. Then I head back to third grade for literacy stations. Then my day ends in academic support with Kathy Brown, where we separate our fourth graders into smaller group to reinforce the ELA (English and Language Arts) and math that was taught that day. I really should wear roller skates to school, each day!

You get a lot of exercise! What has this experience been like for you?

To be honest, it can be difficult to be in so many places throughout the school day. However, I work with so many amazing teachers.  It is a truly beneficial model and experience for the students. Having more than one teacher is beneficial in so many ways. Staying organized is the key for me! Keeping well thought out plans and staying in close communication with each of the other of the teachers I work with is crucial.

What have you observed in the students?

I think that, for me, especially working between two grade levels that are back to back, it’s really neat to see how the concepts piggyback off of one another. It's interesting to see the student growth, in seeing how much growth a third grader has in becoming a fourth grader.

I'm watching kids put to use a skill or strategy that they’ve been taught, without telling them to use it. When a student grasps something quickly and is willing to use that knowledge to teach and encourage their classmates, you can see the pride on their face. You can’t help but smile yourself. It's really exciting to see them teach and encourage one another.

Tell me about the Early Act Club at Huth Road Elementary School.

Early Act Club consists of 20 fourth and fifth grade students, who want to make a difference in the lives of others. The kids fill out an application at the beginning of the school year, expressing their interest and ideas for the club. They need to be available to meet two Wednesdays a month after school, and we also had a couple of activities outside of school, as well. Like the Salvation Army bell ringing. We’ve had a couple of district wide Interact and Early Act meetings (Interact is the service club for middle school and high school students). This spring, we will also be participating with Interact at a garbage pickup at Beaver Island State Park. So this year, some of our projects included holiday placemats for our residents at Elderwood. We made fleece blankets for the animals at the SPCA. We had a snack drive for the pediatric floor at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. We also helped with Huth Road Elementary school’s food, pajama, and book drive. 

As the advisor, I feel strongly that the kids should know how good it feels to give up something good for yourself to do something good for someone else. A lot of our kids leave Huth wanting to participate in the Interact clubs at the middle school and high school, as well.

Cindy Robinson and I advised the Early Act club together last year. Before that, she had been the adviser. This year, the club was handed to me.

What would you like to tell parents?

I think that the best thing that parents can do at home is to have meaningful conversations with their children. Ask them about their day and their friends and their after-school activities. Read with them. Engage in conversations about their reading. I think it is easy to get wrapped up in technology, TV shows, and video games, but it’s so important to make meaningful time for one another. Also, I I think that it is important to have our children do things that are difficult for them, to allow them to safely make mistakes and encourage them to try new things.

Should children be afraid to make mistakes?

No, children should never be afraid of making mistakes. They should see them as a way to experience growth.

What do you like to do when you're not at school?

I have a five-year-old son at home. Mason is in kindergarten in the Niagara Wheatfield schools. So when I’m not working, I devote most of my time to my husband, Ryan, and to Mason, and to the rest of my family. We’re lucky enough to have my mom, Diana, around the corner from us, so we are able to spend a lot of time together. Mason is the only grandchild on my side of the family, but he has ten cousins on my husband’s side of the family. We always get together for a family dinner every Sunday with those cousins. We are very lucky to have our family close by. On the occasional downtime, I like to shop, read, and spend time with friends.

Speaking about your family, tell me more about your son, Mason, who is also known by the name "Super Mason."

 Mason was born with a disorder called neurofibromatosis (NF). It is a condition that is caused by a mutated gene. It is genetic, although neither Ryan nor I have the disorder. It can cause tumors to grow on nerves throughout his body. We found out that Mason had it when he was about one year old. Mason had a mass in his inner ear. The mass was removed when Mason was three years old. His hearing was only mildly affected.

Our family spends a lot of time fundraising for the Children's Tumor Foundation to find a cure for this disorder. We will be walking again this fall at the Rochester NF Walk. Mason continues to see several specialists throughout the year but, overall, is doing very well.

Note: This school year, Dana Papaj, a teacher's aide and a professional artist, painted a picture of Mason in a superhero costume. He was depicted as Super Mason. "Mason is cute, smart, and a celebrity," said Dana Papaj. Prints of the painting were raffled off, with all proceeds going to efforts to find a cure for NF.

For more information about the Children's Tumor Foundation, check out the organization's website at "link to the Children's Tumor Foundation."

The 52 week photography project: it's all about orange

The theme of week twelve of the 52 week photography project is orange. Just that. Orange. I can do whatever I like with it. So, what imagery do I get from just thinking about the color orange?

Ten years ago, I went to federal prison for protesting against the School of the Americas (Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation is the school's name now). When you are in prison, you have to wear a khaki uniform. If you get into trouble and end up in the punishment unit ("segregation" or "the hole"), you have to wear a bright orange uniform, just like people in Guantanamo. It's not very attractive and most people look like oversized pumpkins. Sitting in a cage for 23 hours a day is not conducive to good physical or mental health and, in fact, is considered a form of psychological torture if a person is kept in solitary confinement for more than fifteen days.

After I was released from prison, I gave away all of my orange clothes. I didn't want to deal with the color orange, beyond eating orange food. As it turns out, orange food is very healthy and includes oranges, carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, and more. 

In 2010, I was finally given reason to give up my aversion to orange clothing. When I was on the Walk for a Nuclear Free Future, it rained hard one day.  One of the Buddhist nuns who was walking with us was wearing her saffron robes. Saffron is a golden-yellow shade of orange. On top of her saffron robe, she was wearing a bright yellow raincoat. She truly looked like a ray of sunshine! Looking at that human ray of sunshine made me forget my dislike of orange and it reminded me that orange truly is just a color.

Here are my orange pictures:

How much more orange can you get than a fruit that is named "orange"?

Coyote standing against orange sky. 

Orange stuff

Still life in orange

Next week: Stay tuned for the next episode of the 52 week photography challenge.

Lenten Luncheon Series: gifts of the spirit, week two

"If you want peace, work for justice" -- Pope Paul VI

On Wednesday, March 22nd, I attended the second of the Grand Island Ministerium's series of Lenten Luncheons. It should have been the third; however, last week's snowstorm resulted in the cancellation of that week's luncheon. The featured church at last week's luncheon was Saint Martin in the Fields, and the featured church at this week's luncheon was Saint Timothy Lutheran Church. Unfortunately, the pastor of Saint Timothy, the Rev. Kris Bjerke-Ulliman, was ill and could not attend the luncheon. As a result, Saint Timothy provided the food and the Rev. Canon Earle King of Saint Martin in the Fields Episcopal Church shared the reflection that he had planned to share last week.

Clear as mud?

Excellent. The room at Trinity United Methodist Church, where all Lenten Luncheons are held, was filled. People enjoyed roast beef sandwiches, chips, salads, and cookies, along with coffee and tea.

Now, on to the reflection.

Father Earle's reflection was a continuation of the theme of "gifts of the spirit." He talked about two: peace and joy.

Part one: What is peace?
"Is peace the absence of war?"
He mentioned the words "shalom" (Hebrew) and "salaam" (Arabic). They both mean peace, but they mean much more. They mean hello and good bye. In addition to peace, the words also mean:

• prosperity
• safety
• wholeness
• well being
• harmony with God and with other people

As people, we have to challenge ourselves about what peace means to us. Father Earle said that, in the 1960s, some people said, "Everything was fine until those black people started demonstrating." Black people said, "It wasn't peaceful for us." Father Earle, as a young man in 1968, heard a Sunday School teacher express delight that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was dead because "he was a communist." Today, however, King is known as a visionary and a great champion of peace, justice, equality, and freedom.

Who works for peace? Do we have consensus on that?

Is Standing Rock working for peace?

Was Occupy Wall Street working for peace?

What about the peace that comes from God?

The "peaceable kingdom" is described in Isaiah 6-9. Animals, such as lions and lambs, live peacefully with one another. 

Part two: What is joy?

What brings you joy in life? Father Earle suggested several things: Snoopy doing a happy dance, marriage, the gathering of the harvest, an end to war, drinking wine, and winning the Superbowl.

Right now, I'm listening to a recording of a six year old boy playing Chopin's Fantasie-Impromptu, opus 6, on the piano. His interpretation is beautiful. I love Chopin. My favorite composer. For me, listening to this is joy.

The Bible is full of examples of joy, said Father Earle. In Luke's gospel, there are three stories about joy and they all have to do with finding someone or something of value that is lost. They are a lost coin, a lost sheep, and a lost son. "The joy is being in the presence of God and of finding a hidden treasure," Father Earle said. Peace and joy can go together. In the fourth chapter of St. Paul's letter to the Philippians, he talks about the peace of God, which transcends all understanding. He concludes the passage by saying that "the God of peace will be with you." When the disciples were sad, after Jesus was crucified, they were walking to Emmaus. A man joined them, and they told him about their sadness. They did not know who the man was. They invited him to share supper with them. He told them, "I bring you tidings of great joy." It was the joy of having been in the presence of God and of finding a hidden treasure. All of a sudden, the disciples realized that they had been walking with Jesus, the risen lord. "Didn't our hearts burn within us?" they asked.

Father Earle said that, in 1991, he was encouraged by that passage in the epistle of Philippians as he was traveling to Pittsburgh to be with his mother, who was facing open heart surgery. "I'll never forget that passage. Even in the most difficult times, we are encouraged to rejoice."

Next week: The food will be provided by Saint Martin in the Fields Episcopal Church, and the reflection will be provided by Trinity United Methodist Church.

The 52 week photography project: a bit of editing magic

Week eleven's challenge in the 52-week photography project was a photo editing challenge, rather than a picture-taking challenge. The editing technique is called split toning. The first step is to turn a color photograph into a black and white photograph. That can be done on the computer. I use photo gallery in Windows to get that accomplished. Then I used photoshop to adjust the tones in the highlights first and then in the shadows. 

Originally toning was used to turn black and white photographs into sepia photographs. The reason for that was preservation. Sepia photographs lasted longer because of the chemicals that were used in the process of developing the film.

Today, toning is used to make a picture feel warmer or cooler. It changes the feel of the picture and can bring the photograph to life. Below are a few pictures that I split toned.

In this, the two toned approach creates a gray background. The flowers stand out because the background is muted.

snow scene, with very muted colors.

large strawberry in pink

Still life with bear

Here are the original photographs:

Hibernation, day two

I hibernated. The storm struck and I stayed inside, watching the snowfall from the safety of indoor space. Today is the second day of "winter storm Stella" (uh oh, is there a "winter storm "Stanley" on the way?) All of the schools were closed, and many activities were canceled. This has been a widespread storm and, in some areas, accumulation has been more than three feet (.9 meters). Here, we've had about 24 inches (61 centimeters) of snow. 

It's been very cold, too, and windy. Today, the winds have died down and the snow has stopped falling. It's just cold now so I went outside and took pictures. The snow is soft and fluffy, and, when I went to take pictures, I sank down in it. I sank pretty far because I am "fun sized" (I think that sounds better than just "short"). 

Fortunately, I'm OK because I have plenty of food, a warm house, and electricity. I have art projects to do, as well as a book to read. I can watch the news on TV and look at the bridges and roads that are buried under snow. I hope that anyone who has no warm home to go to has found safe and warm shelter. 

And today is... the Ides of March!

If we were to bring Julius Caesar and the Roman Senate forward in time, to here and now, the Roman Senate would be able to murder Caesar by stabbing him with an... icicle! It's a weapon that just melts away but I don't think that the Senators were concerned about hiding their tracks because they did the deed in the most brazen of ways. 

But I digress.

Here are some of my pictures of the storm that started on Pi Day (3.14) and seems to be ending on the Ides of March. 

A few days ago, the neighbors' storage shed looked like this. Some snow had fallen, enough to coat the ground and the roof.

Today, the neighbors' storage shed looked like this.

Another storage shed. 

Nope, no leaves on the tree anytime soon.

Somewhere, beneath all of that white stuff, there is shrubbery.

Magically disappearing mailboxes

Not exactly the "hot seat."

This is a porch.

Doesn't that look like a Christmas card? Merry Christmas!

The 52 week photography project: March snow

This week's challenge in the 52 week photography project was to tell a story via the relationship of objects. About a week ago, it seemed that winter was over and that spring was coming very soon. That plan was abruptly canceled. First it got really cold and, then, it started snowing copiously. It has been incredible to watch the snow fly. I looked outside through the window at the back yard and photographed the snowy world. I went outside with my camera to capture the flavor of the snow, the ground, the buildings, and the sky.

A few days ago, we had just a tiny bit of snow and this is what it looked like. I included the building to show the two-point perspective (two vanishing points).

Once again, you can see the two-point perspective in the buildings. You can also see how the trees dwarf the houses and how gray the sky is. 

It has been snowing all day. This is the road before it was plowed. Everything was closed down pre-emptively. It probably wasn't necessary. We did get a good amount of snow over the course of the day, and it is still snowing, but did everything need to be canceled? This is one-point perspective. Everything is pointing toward a single vanishing point.

A downtown Buffalo experience

Today was a cold, windy, and sometimes snowy day. It was winter trying to assert itself. It was the early flowers of spring popping out, despite the snowflakes and bitingly cold air. Here are some of the images of my downtown Buffalo experience.

At the Home and Garden show in the Buffalo Convention Center, I discovered a house (or at least part of a house). This is the outside of the house.

The theme of this house is Disney. Everything is Disney, especially Mickey Mouse. There are fun surprises everywhere. Look, even the carpet has a Mickey Mouse-shaped pattern.

Places for coats, shoes, umbrellas. All with that very bold color scheme.

Comfy and soft place to relax with Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

Bedroom decor.

Black and white bathroom.

This is another view of the bedroom.

Baby's crib, very Disney-esque.

This is me in a mirror taking a picture of me and the mirror. Note the picture of Mickey's feet, entirely in black and white.

I saw my friends here and I posed for this photograph, next to this Mickey Mouse portrait. Photograph is Portrait of Alice Contemplating Mickey.

Isn't this a cute place setting?

What a cute chair!

After leaving the Mickey Mouse house, I went inside a tiny house that was designed and built by high school students at Erie 1 BOCES. This house is very tiny, the size of a small room. It sits on a new 2016 trailer.

This wood burning stove is the heating system for the house.

This is the kitchen sink. It is super tiny. You couldn't wash pots and pans in this itty bitty sink. There is a little refrigerator next to the sink and some cabinet space. Cooking is done outside on a grill. This is definitely a minimalist house. There is no room for stuff. The bed is a pull down bed. It's enough of a bed for one person but for a couple... well, let's just say that you'd have to get along very well or there could be problems.

It could be a very nice guest house for friends or family. 

My next activity was to test out a bunch of beds. These guys gave me a tour of sleeping opportunities. The beds range from very firm to very soft. I tried most of them. I found that I did not like the firm beds. It was like attempting to sleep on a rock. The very soft bed was too soft and mushy. I could feel myself sinking into the bed more than I wanted to. I was happy with a bed that was more soft than firm. I liked the sensation of the bed accommodating my body.

One bed was too hard.
One bed was too soft.
And one bed was just right!
Just call me Goldilocks (but don't call me late to supper).

I wandered around the convention center and found some cool stuff...  here are options for your garden... rocks? stones? or what color mulch do you prefer?

Oooh, the hot tub looks inviting.

I explored this lovely bathroom. I was attracted by the interesting-looking bathtub.

built in storage for bathroom stuff.

One display was a wide variety of bathtubs and showers.

Shower time!!!

There were tasty things to sample, as well. I got to taste balsalmic vinegar, made by D'Avolio. The two flavors that I tasted were peach and cranberry-pear. They were scrumptious! Later on, I tasted a delicious sparkling wine. 

Living decoration for the wall.

Antiques appraisal.

I left the Home and Garden show and went to a water is life march and rally. It was a cold, windy, and raw day. I joined a group that had formed on South Elmwood in downtown Buffalo. We marched in circles for a while and then we marched to the Bank of America. The Bank of America is one of seventeen banks that is funding the Dakota Access Pipeline, the pipeline that the folks at Standing Rock, North Dakota, have so strongly opposed. Below are the images from the march and the rally. The pictures below are images from the rally.

Stand with Standing Rock.