My time in
Kaunas,
Lithuania
Activities
In this sector, i will explain about the different activities i hope to perform, with the children and young people at "Namu Zidinys". My primary goal is to teach the children some tools, they can use in their future, my primary focus for this will be on the older kids, since they are closest to be let out on their own, and my secondary focus will be on improving all the kids english skills. I originally had some plans about teaching the kids to think "green", but since i had these plans made before knowing what surroundings and circumstances there would be at "namu zidinys", i had to adjust or cancel some of the original idears.
Cooking up culture
Why: Cooking is a basic, but much needed skill why you are moving out on your own, therefore it is a very good skill to practice. I did plan to make an preparatory workshop once a week with the kid/kids that are on duty, to help me wirte a shopping list with ingredients and preparation methods, we would also talk about the different nutrients in the food. That plan did i not follow through. These cooking lessons is also to set of their international curiosity, though rewarding methods, and give them new varieties to spice up their cooking, they will also learn about handling different material, security protocols and hygiene.
How: The cooking classes will follow the children's regular duty schedule. So once a week when they rotate their duties, a new person will help me in the kitchen, making a native nutrient dish from an international country. I will choose, or in cooperation with the kid, a country from where we will make native recipes. The food will always be prepared in the weekend for lunch, to make sure the kids and I, has energy and time to do this activity. I will display the progress trough pictures of the process or/and food, in my school blog.
Make dry learning fun
Why: To learn thing in school can often be seeing like at boring thing,since it is a forced learning process, so to help the kids/young find fun in learning, i will play interacting games with them, and that might make them more motivated for learning. I will explore their current game based learning activities, and possible design/redesign boardgames to enhance the learning opportunities
How:
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Memory games, with linking the term and the picture.
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Memory game with people as the checkers, with categorys like songs, stories, animal and connect it to english language.
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Own designed memorygame, with possibility of expansions, and words useful in school and everyday life.
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Own designed game called "play with sentences", with laminated words, the children can use to create small sentences, and develop english skills.
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Use english launguage in the every day life, like godmorning, thank you etc.
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Use Doulingo and reward system in learning language. - The participants quit on me after short period of time.
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Use computergames that are suitable for learning english, like "the sims".
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Watch movies with only english language and subtitles.
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"back to basic" - english motivation research - did do it, but didnt have enough experience to complete further plans.
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Words puzzles and "find words"
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Play "hangman" and "gues words form letters".
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Use the Wii console i brought with me, to enhance teamwork, eye-hand coordination, patience and english skills.
Social skillset
Why: Social skills are important, to obtain a wellfunction lifestile, where you get the confidence and courage to make your dreams come true. In the social skillset, is also the importance of knowing how and when to act, in order to fit in, without having to "loose" yourself on the way.
How: Activities within and outside the homearea. Like going to a movie could be the first step to be around other people, but without having to fully interact with strangers, and being in the company of a freind.
Also by interacting with me, and visitors. With me it would be in daily life small talk, and trough the planned learning and cooking activity. If i get an extra good connection with some individuals, i will use more time with them, to reach and develop their deeper potentials.
Introduction video
Why: Since this boy didnt have any relations with us, we should show him how we all were, and what we did during the days. She would be his primary adult connection, and we could might help start the connection, by letting her be the only "live" person in the movie, and maybe it wouldt be more frigtening to him, if there where to many new impressions with people he didnt know.
How: She wanted it to be a staged and formality movie, where all the kids had their most charming cloth on, and where we would walk around the house telling about who lived where etc. But since we were running out of time, before he was going to move in, i told my honest opinion, about i didnt think it was the best idear with the stages scenes, i thought it would be better to show her "live" in the video, talking from the room where he would be sleeping, and then show the kids and the house though selected pictures, incorporated into the running movie.
What happened:
I made a video starring her, sitting in the bedroom, at the desk, so she was sitting comfortable and relaxed. Then i asked her to tell "the boy" about things like who she was, how many kids were there, who Mr. Gittes was (since he is a favorite among the children, and i would show a pictue of him playing with the kids), what room we were sitting in etc. So still formalities, but in a short version. I used 6½ hours to put the video together, using pictures from holidays, dinnertime and playtime. Then i presented it to her the next morning, and she took the video to show the young boy.
She told me he had been hiding under the table when she arrived, and he didnt wanted to talk to her, even when she pretended she could not figure out how to open her computer, but when she told him that they had a student from Denmark, who had use a lot of time to make a special video, only for him, he started to emerge from his hideout.
She said they ended up watching the video together, and then she asked him: "Do you like the video?" - he said: "yes" - she asked "are you still afraid to visit us?" - he said: "not as much".
So there were good responses from both the child and my headmistress, and the boy came visiting already the next day.
Activitites on pause
Colleague relation.
Why: Relations are important, to obtain and maintain a high quality in your worklife. You will get the confidence and courage to make activities at work, and help the children with their learning process. A secure and relaxed work envoirment, helps the staff maintain the joy in their work, and their mental state. It will make the employees last longer, in a field of work, that can be very stressful and mentally challenging.
How: Daily communication, trustbuilding experiences, acitvities at work, and outside the workhours. I will participate in the weakly staff meetings, and try to contribute to a more creative thinking process, when i fell needed, along with being aware of the employees personal boundaries.
From the ground to the table
We will make a projekt, where we decorate the outdoor garden area, with different types of plants and beds.
The children will learn about different materials to use in outdoor projects, how to use tools and perform craftmensship.
They will explore and influrate the outcoming, and design, learn the positive and negative effect of the choices, and that way have a feeling of the project in all details.
In the end they will plant the beds, and learn what the different plants needs, according to the weather, placement and nutrition. They will be responsible to maintain the garden.
Then later they can harvest the crops, and use them in the kitchen, where they will learn about, and taste the difference between bought and homegrown ingredients. They will also gain good experince on the fact, that good ingredients does not need to be expensive, you can grow a lot of it yourself.
