FInal Project Thoughts

For my final project, I am thinking about exploring my relationship with the woman I work with (I finally found out her name) and possibly working on capturing the language barrier between me and the staff and students. I have some ideas of how I am going to approach the project and have taken a few pictures. The kids are really excited when I take their picture so I feel like I shouldn't have any problems finding pictures of them to put in my project. Next week I will be concentrating on taking pictures of Ms. Valdivia and her interaction with the students.

Welcome to Escuela

Welcome to Escuela
Being welcomed into a community makes any experience feel more comfortable and reassuring. From my short time volunteering at Escuela Vieau I can say that Escuela makes any person, no matter who they are, feel welcomed and part of the school. By taking pictures of places around the community and school that welcome people of all shapes and colors, I have put together an “essay” that shows this welcoming environment.
The camera acted as a tool to capture the atmosphere of school for me. I tried to capture moments and angles that accentuated my theme. By enhancing the details, I enhanced my overall message and theme of feeling welcomed by the city, to the front doors, all over the school, and additionally, in the classroom. My last picture I feel is the deepest in that it shows how the school is a community within itself and the children create the future of our society. The overall project focuses on welcoming outsiders into the community by capturing signs and places throughout the school that act as a sign of comfort. I chose, however, to not include any staff or children in my project because I wanted to show that even though I still feel welcome to be there, I still feel a little like an outsider at the same time. My pictures also mostly have a colored focal point where I want the audience to be drawn to and think about more. By focusing on the welcome signs in addition to highlighting aspects of pride in their diversity, I wanted to point out the details that might be missed but are important.
The communication between the staff and I may be weak but I have had some great conversations with the children so far. They not only talk to me and want to hear what I have to say, but when I get a chance to ask them questions, they aren’t afraid to answer me. I would have taken pictures of the all the children I help out with every week but it didn’t work out due to the restrictions made by the school. So far I have learned about the school and the activities they offer for the children. I believe that by keeping them in structured activities that they want to take part in, then that will help them make healthy decisions in everyday life. They have also been teaching me a little bit of Spanish so that I can communicate with them better. One of my favorite parts about the school is that everything in the classrooms is in English and Spanish. Even though it is frustrating for me when the children interchange from English to Spanish, I find it fascinating that they can do it. I feel like the children welcome and treat visitors and volunteers better than the staff does.
My goal for the last half of the semester is to get to know the staff better and communicate with them. I want to be able to communicate more with than staff by getting past just a formal greeting and move on to getting to know them on a first name basis and have actual conversations with them.

Post #2

Over the past two weeks at Escuela Vieau I still haven’t really seen a change in my relationship with the staff but I feel like I have really started to connect with the kids. A lot of them like to approach me and talk to me as much as possible. For example, they like when I teach them common French words and phrases and they teach me some Spanish. However the woman I work with never allows them to talk but rather makes them do their work in silence and when she does speak it is always in Spanish even though she knows I can’t speak any and does not ever tell me what she is doing or what she needs help with. The kids have actually told me that they don’t like her and really like when I come. It makes me feel good that they like when I am there but I don’t feel comfortable working with someone who won’t talk to me. My goal is to still try and get her to talk and be more open with me.

Journal Entry #1

On my first day at Escuela Vieau I was very nervous because I was worried that most of the kids would speak mainly Spanish and not want to speak to me at all; however they surprised me right away when they all started talking to me and telling me about themselves and asking questions about me as well. I really enjoyed getting to know them and learn about their school lives as well as their personal ones. At the school, I work with students who are in sixth through eighth grade and help them learn about their health and help them make good life choices as well as work on healthy character development. The one thing that I am hoping to improve on during my time at Escuela Vieau though is my relationship with the staff. I felt that I did not have a very good connection with the volunteer I work with and I cannot even recall her name. I was very surprised when she left me alone with the kids on my first day for a significant amount of time even though I had no idea what I was doing or what the kids were working on. I hope that by the end of my experience the volunteers will be more open with me and I will be able to communicate better with the staff. Overall, my first experience was very positive and I feel like I made a good first impression on the kids and they all were all sad that I wasn’t going to be there every day, and truthfully, I am sad too. I am really looking forward to next week and to the surprises that await me.