Moving to Word Press

So, I feel like I am playing the connect the dots game. I have been trying to link things to each other for the past few hours. By linking things, it means less work. Hence, I have linked my google and twitter to facebook and now it is time for my blog. Unfortunately, Facebook does not support the blogger opensource 1.0. So, I will attempt to link my blog to word press and then link word press to Facebook. Word Press was rated the #1 Blog Site on blogtap.com. You can see the article here: http://www.blogtap.net/the-best-blogging-sites-and-platforms-top-blog-sites/

Hello out there,

Before I go into go into a post on leaving HDA. I want to note that I am using technology during my technology fast. How can I be fasting from technology, when I use it daily. Hence, I decided to rename my fast from a technology fast to a Time Waster Fast. I will tell you about the time Waster Fast later. Right now, I need to focus on what I need to do to leave HDA. Part of this is creating a binder of information on all my projects. Thus, here I will list out my projects and advice for them. I really don't think a binder is necessary, because I know these projects are getting split up. Why put all their information in one place, when there will not be one person to run them? Anyway, I guess I can make a binder and Jen can take it apart as information is needed.  Anyway, here are the projects I have done:

Internships
Wreaths
Dine and Donate
HPC
Athletics
Washington DC Stuff
Yearbook
Classes

Technology Fast

Hi there,

Today is the Sunday of a three day weekend. It is beautiful, lovely, serene and calming. Yet, now I feel like I have reached my capacity of R&R. I sit idly trying to figure what to do with my time. Usually, when I am bored, I turn on the television, play on my computer or go to bed. Yet, right now I feel like that is a waste of time, a waste of life. For instance, I played Words with Friends online for the past hour today, slept an extra two hours in-between breakfast and lunch, and watch television for a half hour. I feel like I don't know what to do with myself when I have time. I search for the easy way out. What is the thing that takes the least amount of energy with the most entertainment. It is a ratio. The activity that has the greatest ratio, is the one that I end up doing. On a positive note, I read 70 pages of Les Miserables in the past two days. That is a feat. It is better then television or sleep, because this requires thoughts.

Anyway, the reason of this post is not to complain, but to come up with a resolution. Starting Monday, February 20, 2012, I will do a technology fast. The guidelines of this fast are not the same as the last technology fast I did a year ago. Last year, I fasted from television, music and nonwork computer time. These are my new stipulations for a new year:

1. No Facebook or YouTube
2. No Television on-line (Netflix or Hulu or other movie sites)
3. You may watch one television show with mom (Vampire Diaries). 
4. Do not use phone as entertainment
5. Do not use computer for entertainment (Skyping does not count as entertainment

So, this is the prohibited list. Things I think are necessary to survival are: skyping with George, E-mail for work and new job,  limited research, and use of computer for meet-up group events. I will also say that gym technology is okay to use. That is also a time period I may watch television. Hopefully, with this time I find from my purge of specific technologies, I will learn what boredom is again. I would guess that boredom will wreak havoc on my mind. I will have the urge to turn on the tube or open my laptop. To combat these urges, I am compiling a list of things to do when bored. I am compiling a list of things to do instead of watching television, sleeping and playing on the computer. Here it is:

1. Bake
2. Cook
3. Read
4. Write
5. Practice Guitar
6. Do Art
7. Make a card
8. Ride my bike
9. Clean my living space
10. Do laundry
11. Go to the gym
12. Play basketball with my siblings
13. Go on a hike
14. Jog
15. Go to the library
16. Study for the GRE
17. Update Career stuff (Linked In, Twitter)
18. Wash the dog
19. Look at spanish stuff
20. Go through life stuff and donate things
21. Play games with my siblings
22. Learn a new hobby knitting.... making something or another

This is all I got. I feel like I have other ideas up there, but can't think of them. I'll keep you posted on how things go.

Thoughts of leaving HDA and To-Do-List

Oi! It is morning and gosh I am tired. I thought staying the night in your own bed is better for your sleep. It turns out I sleep better on a futon my dad's office then I to at home. It is hard to focus. Anyway, to pull me to a focus point I am creating my to-do-list here. My to-do-list relates to my new job. Yes, the big news is that I was offered a position with Girl Scout San Diego. All that preliminary work paid off. So, now I am approaching my last week at Heritage Digital Academy. I need to make sure my programs are supported. I am terrified of the thought that these programs will die without me. Here is what I need to do:

• Talk to Jen- How did rallying support go?
• Is Christian mentoring Nina?
• Who is helping with Spanish?
• When are we going to meet with Mark for Cheer?
• House Parent Council
• Call Claudine. Please, Please can you do Mondays??
• E-mail/Call everyone about the meeting time
• Get Jen PTO Starter Kit
• Talk to Jen about leading a meeting/finding a leader
• Compile folder of information
• Call James/Matt about Soccer
• Stop Putting it off!
• Interns need paperwork!
• Showcase
• Broadcast over PA (EW Can someone else do it?)
• E-mail out to parents
• E-mail permission form to parents
• Write tryouts on the board
• Make a poster
• Dine and Donate Make a poster
• Make fliers
• Send out e-mails
• Contact Boomers
• Kelsey Yearbook
• Come up with Game plan. Dates and Schedule.
• E-mail out Blurbs
• E-mail parents about party
• Figure out last date of Yearbook
• Talk to Jen about Jake
• Look through files
• Put together binder of information 
• Newsletter

That is all I think I have to do. Usually, I imagine I have more to do. I guess with a week left at HDA, life is not about building, it is about maintaining. It is about making sure the programs I am creating have enough support to survive. Part of me does not want to leave HDA. I know the ropes here. I have gained connections with the staff and community. I feel like things are just getting started and here I am leaving. The other part of me is excited for this new endeavor where I finally get paid. A full time position with benefits. I will not be making much, but I really feel like it is a start. Girl Scouts will be a place to grow and develop professionally. 

I know I mention money and part of me feels sick for doing so. My heart goes out to programs with insufficient funding. Money is not extremely important to me. I do not need to live a extravagant lifestyle. I do want to eventually live on my own without a roommate. I guess to some people that is extravagant. I feel like life is all about perspective. You can see the glass as half empty or half full. You can look at the world around you and see the potential. Anyway, in many places (yes I am generalizing and I am not proud of it) ..... Got to go and actually get work done. Hopefully, I will finish with you soon.

House Parent Council, New Job, Leaving Limbo

Hey Out There,

I am excited to inform  you that in two weeks, I will be an official Girl Scouts employee. This means I have to tie up all the loose ends at Heritage Digital Academy. One of the things that has been weighing on my mind is my House Parent Council. I am afraid that all these programs I established are going to fizzle out. My solution to prevent program extinction is to develop a House Parent Council. This will be some what like a Parent Teacher Association. Honestly, I would copy and paste a PTA format at Heritage Digital Academy, but our Superintendent does not like PTA's or PVO's. Hence, we have to get creative. This is where the House Parent Council comes in. This is how I would break it up:

House Parents
- A Parent for each house and grade (this means four parents per house)
- House Parents will be in charge of designing ways of developing house spirit
- House Parents will ensure teachers are being acknowledged and appreciated for their hard work
- Birthdays celebrated
- House parties and celebrations
- What other ideas do parents have

House Parent Council
- We have House Master? The person in charge of organizing house parents?
- A representative from each House
- Teacher Appreciation
- Collaborating with Principal to meet the needs of the students
- Develops Traditions and campus culture

Other Aspects:
-Look at PTA and PVO bylaws
-What can we fundraise for?
-How involved with Principal be?
-What is the goal of HPC?
-Mission Statement?
-Why are parents here?
-What do we want out of this organization?
-What traditions can we create?
-What is the chain of command?
- How often do you meet?
- How will we get other parents involved?
- How do we get project approved?
- What should we focus on for the next semester?
- Jen what do we need?

So with all this in mind. I need to set a day to meet with parents. The big question that pops into my head is who will take over all this? Who will take over this figurative child that I conceived and brought forth into the world? The answer isn't apparent. It is not blatantly obvious. I need to find a leader of the pack. I need to find a parent who is 1) Passionate about Parent Organizations, 2) Organized, 3) Has the time to devote, 4) Has good follow through, 5) Might actually stick around for a while and 6) Not overwhelmed with other projects. Maybe call and put it out there. I guess this will happen tomorrow after I talk with Jen. My first choice would be Sheryl Gonda because I know she will be around for a while and has PTA experience, my second choice would be Lisa Eshelman. I wish she was not leaving us for Escondido Charter High School. Third choice is Adriana Guerrero but again, she has a 8th grader. Will that student leave us too? Well, I guess that will come forth tomorrow.

While, I keep talking about what I need to do, really its about preparing everyone for life without me. That sounds a little dramatic, because life goes on and I am not all that high and mighty. The world will not come to an end without me. It will move on and develop and grow. Really, it is about finding someone to take charge of this idea. Someone who is willing to work with Jen and parents to develop this idea.

Anyway,  I don't know what more to say. I am excited about Girl Scouts but I feel like I am dropping the ball with Heritage Digital Academy. I have this internal battle going on. Do I completely shuck HDA or do I help out still? As much as I care about HDA, I want to focus on my next step. How can I focus on the next step if I am stuck holding onto the past? Anyway, I hope all is well with other recent college graduates. I am still in awe of getting a job. I can't believe it. Everything I worked so hard in college came true. It took four, five, six months more then I initially thought. It took many challenges and tears but here I am. I will not call it the promise land, but I feel like I am finally making my way out of limbo. How lucky I am. I hope you find luck in your world too.

Hasta luego.

Jenna

Recruiting and Retaining Girl Members for Girl Scouts

In a previous post, I talked about retaining Girl Members. I have a feeling I will get asked this in my interview. Yesterday, I asked girls who were and are girl scouts to tell me why they stayed and girl scouts or why they left. I asked roughly 20-30 middle school girls if they would join girl scouts. These are the answers I got:
1) Not Cool
2) Have to wear a uniform
3) Boring (from someone who never was a part of girl scouts)
4) Lack of community in a troop
5) Busy schedule
6) Troop leaders don't want to lead any more
7) Too much work

Here are my ideas to target this. I realize that many girls drop out of girl scouts in middle school. A refrain I kept hearing is uncool. I think we should do a campaign highlighting how cool girl scouts is. I have my own individual ideas, but I think it is important for our volunteers to take ownership of this campaign. Hence, I will meet with the area administrators to talk about this. Start out asking why do girls leave and how can we prevent them from leaving. I also would bring to them the flexible ways of being a girl scout. I know people has busy schedules, but there are various ways of participating in girl scouts. I also would talk about trickling down reflection to the girl members. If troop leaders help the girls see the bigger picture, then maybe they would stay in the organization.

My individual ideas are to:
1) Middle school campaign
2) Being a girl scout is cool
3) Girls either walk around in their uniform or make annoucements to their class about joining
4) Have a troop membership campaign where girls invite other girls to join
5) Have girls create a video about why girl scouts is cool, or write in why it is cool
6) Have girls post on facebook that they are proud to be a girl scout

Four Pillars for Retaining Volunteers

Today I am drawing  a diagram of my vision for retaining volunteers. It has the following four components: Training, Support, Reflection and Appreciation.

Training: Teaching an individual skills necessary for success. Without training, volunteers can feel overwhelmed and unprepared for the challenges they find.
- On-line trainings
- Perpetual growth, learning does not have to end if you are an advanced leader
- Trainings given on-line reach a mass of people
- Trainings given to groups create a community and promote discussion
- Include volunteers in deciding what trainings they need
- Get to know your volunteers


Every Day Support: Help and guidance given to volunteers on a daily and weekly basis to promote the success of their programs
- Weekly Phone Calls
- Bi-Weekly Group Meetings
- Bi-Weekly one-on-ones
- Site Visits
- Make working with your volunteers personal, learn about whats important to them
- Create a supportive community for your volunteer
- Available at any time for questions or concerns
- Mediate Conflicts
- Help volunteers learn the leadership dynamics of the group, it is important for volunteers to know how to work with different leadership styles


Reflection: Spending time thinking about volunteer experience and how it effects the community at large
- Educate volunteers on the impact they make in the community
- Lead activity for volunteers to think about what they have done, why it is important and how to improve upon their work

Appreciation: Expressing gratitude for one's help
- Large Scale appreciation events with awards
- Personalize your volunteer appreciation
- Know your volunteers' likes and dislikes
- Use "Love Language" to deduce which is appropriate for you
- Submit volunteer achievements to the local news paper
- Small awards received frequently and immediately have a greater effect then large rewards given over long periods of time

To Do

To Do:

Pick up Dry Cleaning
Go to the gym (after internship)
Print out Four resumes
Buy four green/teal folders
Print four short question responses
Make quarter page
Buy eye liner and mascara
Write down ideas for recruiting girls, troop leaders and admin
Craigslist (Don't get lazy)

My Answer to a Question on Diversity

1.    Describe what it means to have a commitment to diversity and how would you develop, promote and apply your commitment to diversity amongst Girl Scout volunteers? In a globalized world, where we transcend borders, it is becoming inherently important to embrace the diverse aspects of humanity. It is important to me that people understand the depth of diversity. In the psychological community, we call this depth the "Big 8 of Diversity."  This includes:  1) Age, 2) Ability, 3) Culture, 4) Sex, 5) Gender, 6) Ethnicity, 7) Sexual Orientation, and 8) Socio-Economic Status. 

I 

I      In the United States we tend to have metaphors to describe an idea of diversity. Usually these terms, look towards acceptance or tolerance of differences. I have a different belief. I show my commitment to diversity by embracing differences. I want to learn about an individual's heritage and experience life from another perspective. I would develop, promote and apply this commitment by 1) Organizing a training on multicultural manners, 2) Celebrate an aspect of diversity each month, and 3) Partner with the International Cottages of Hospitality in Balboa Park  to host a Girl Scouts Diversity Event.  

My To-Do List of Some Sort

I know it is two posts in a half hour or however long it takes me to type this up, but I had to start a new post. There needed to be a clean break from my deep thoughts from today, because this is my update of what is going on with my internship. This is supposed to help keep me grounded, but most of all, my head secure. Sometimes when I have many projects, I see a vortex in front of me. Words and pictures pop before my eyes. For instance right now I see athletics and job hunt vying for visability. I must cut this short and get into the grit of this post. I need to keep my head straight.

Athletics- I am establishing an athletics program at my school. Right now basketball season is getting started. Some things to think about are:

• Print out forms
• Call coaches to discuss code of conduct
• Show Jen (my Prinicpal) code of conduct and emergency contact form
• Get a schedule from Joe (Boys Basketball Coach) when practices are\
• Call soccer coaches, start putting that together

Athletic Dinner- I had a parent express interest in having an athlete dinner at the end of the year. This is to recognize the great work our teams did this year. I hope the parent will have a big hand in helping plan this

• Call Jayde
• Research Athletic Banquets
• Prepare a Space

DC Collaboration- I tried to pull together a Washington DC Trip this year, but people did not have the financial capability of doing this. Thus, I am making a commitment to Summer 2013. I am putting this on hold until February. I do not want to think about it right now.

Grant Project- This actually needs to get done soon. So, my position is a unpaid internship. My family says I am getting paid in experience, and that I am. I feel like I have learned a lot about working with people. Anyway, it would be nice not to feel under financial duress and be able to put all my time into this position. The only way to do this is to find a grant. It's interest at HDA, we do not have an official grant writer. One faculty member at our sister high school told me grant writers dont pay for themselves (or at least all the ones Escondido Charter High School has had). Thus, faculty members wear multiple hats. Some juggle teaching and finding the funds to keep our doors open. That is what I call passion. The problem is that for everyone (like me) that is not a integral part of the school, they have to find grants to pay for themselves. And this is where I am, on the hunt for grants. While searching for funds, someone delegated an interesting project to me.

• Pull info from database and put it on excel
• Then create own database

Community Based Research- In order to get funding, I had a faculty member for San Marcos State suggest creating a Needs Assessment. If parents and families say this is a worthwhile project for them, then it makes a greater statement to foundations.

• I need to really think this through. What do I want to do? What kind of questions should I ask? What are parents lives like? I want my job to make life easier on them by creating a safe place for their students. But this is what I want, is it what they want?

Robot- My Director seems to want the robotics team to build a robot house sorting machine. I think it is a great idea. I approached the Director of our technical program and he said to wait until April and to find someone to coach.

• Talk to John about this
• Develop questions for him
• Why do I feel like I am imposing upon him?
• I think I am afraid of rejection, but if you don't ask, you never know.

Wreaths-  I organized a wreath fundraiser. We raised over $350. Our rep said that was a really good showing for our first year. It will interesting to see next year.

• Call parent
• Send e-mail with addresses

Interns- I need to spend more time on developing partnerships for our interns. This is the core of what I care about in programming. How does it get pushed down to #8 on my list? Because there seemed to be more imperative things at the time. I have to ask myself is what I'm doing what I want or what the school wants. The answer should always lead towards the school. Hence, tomorrow first thing, I am going to call the Community Engagement Office at San Marcos State. HDA needs to be on their list of approved service learning sites.

• San Marcos State Phone Call
• Reach out to Palomar (I haven't had as much luck there, but who knows)

Showcase-  I have no clue where to go with this. All I know is that I want it to happen. I have a meeting with our music teacher tomorrow. Hopefully I will find guidance there, especially now that I have four parents suited up to help.

Ruminations on work environments

Hello Out There,

Finishing up my day at my internship. I feel fortunate to have it. I still find it funny that I am an intern who oversees interns. I met with one intern today and she felt so morose over our school. She felt like she was not supported by anyone but me. This led me to thinking about the welfare of my interns. I want them to grow and learn in a conducive environment. I do not want anyone to be left behind. Hence, this has made me dwell on developing a person. We may stop growing tall, but we always grow in depth and understanding of the world. Like children, we need support from our community to survive. One person can help us survive, two or more can help us thrive. Hence, I have learned from my exhausted teaching community that we need to feel the love from one another and it is hard to do when stressed with finances and uninspired. I once thought charter schools were the light in a dark time of education. The light is now tarnished with exhausted expressions of my colleagues and the lack luster passion in their heart. This scares me like it scared my intern.

I try not to let this monster of disdain affect my work and passion, but it makes me question. Who are these people? Where did they come from? Why do the feel so fore lorn and angry? How can you inspire disheartened people? This all comes down to my interns. What is best? I want them to thrive, not survive. I think my newest goal for this internship is to make a connection with each faculty member. If I listen to them and help them. Then maybe, they will help guide not only me but my interns. I need to do a little thank you. I wrote a cover letter today for Girl Scouts San Diego. In this cover letter I said that there are five pillars to retaining volunteers. They are: 1) Education, 2) Reflection, 3) Training, 4) Appreciation and 5) Support. Throughout my day, I ruminated on this. I realized that this goes beyond volunteer world, it goes straight into every work environment across the United States and even the world.

Thus, I want to state this one goal loud and clear: Get to know each co-worker, show each one that I care, help them feel supported. Maybe then, their opinions, their lives and their demeanor will change.

Right here,

Jenna

Why I help

I have been looking for part-time jobs. While I enjoy my internship, it does not pay the bills. One posting asked me to describe why I like to help others. This is my answer:

"I have always loved helping others. It began with the tingling sensation of knowing that I made a difference in someone’s life and then grew into a deeper understanding of what helping really means. Helping someone else means helping my community and myself. It is sharing knowledge, privilege and skills to provide each other with the means of creating a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. It is a partnership of learning and appreciation for the experience each person has to offer. This communication, mutual learning and support of one another reflects into the community at large. Thus, creating a happier, healthier and more sustainable society."