Author: Melissa Eisen

With the support of The Cathay School and the hard work of fundraising events led by the SAMS Jr. Leader Club, SAMS Family Foundation raised over $1000 for the purchase of supplies and equipment for the expansion of STEM curriculum at Sherman Adams Sr. Memorial School, located in Duazon, Liberia.

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By Kristin Zhu, sibling of our camper & partner for Cathay’s Connected World

After over 16 hours of flight over the Atlantic and Europe, on July 15th, 2018, my mother and I finally arrived in Monrovia, Liberia. Although the flight and security checks were tedious, we were welcomed with comforting smiles and hugs by our amazing hostess, Mrs. Kate Adams.

I started to learn about the school when my mother first mentioned it at home. She told me of how Dr. and Mrs. Adams returned to Liberia and founded the SAMS school in Duazon Township, Liberia to address the need for primary education and learning opportunities in the area. Knowing the necessity of a primary education, I became interested in doing something to help the school and its students. I recruited students and organized several fund-raising events. After communicating with Mrs. Adams, we decided to help strengthen the school’s STEM program by building a lab dedicated to science. We collected books and monetary donations, purchased STEM books, ordered lab equipment and downloaded school curriculum.

Although it took us three months to prepare the materials and curriculum for the week, nothing could’ve prepared me for the wonderful welcome from the staff and students. Even though it was their summer break in a rain swept season, the students came to class everyday with an eager and focused passion to learn new knowledge. Their enthusiasm to learn Math, Art, Music, Biology, Astronomy, and Geology blew me away. Even though they didn’t have WiFi and numerous other ammenities, the staff still tried their hardest to help me with presentations and aided me during my teaching sessions. Throughout the week, I learned new songs, new teaching methods, and even new shoe making methods! The kindness of the local populace along with the lovely environment the school had provided made this trip a truly remarkable experience.

The hardest part of the trip was saying goodbye. The students and the staff had also prepared an incredible farewell ceremony. While hugging the students, teachers, and staff, I couldn’t help but remember the beautiful experiences we had. We sang together, laughed together, and we learned together. Knowing now of the incredible work of Mrs. Adams in the face of such unfavorable situations, I am inspired now to take more action on my own. In the next year, I will look forward to recruiting more students as advocates and volunteers for the SAMS school, creating new programs to assist students in need, fundraising even more to help the school provide for its students, and hopefully return to Liberia to teach the phenomenal students again.

This post was originally created for The SAMS Family Foundation

The three core aims of Washington Cathay Future Center (WCFC) are to cultivate students’ artistic expression, intellectual development, and leadership potential. We feel that one of the BEST ways to contribute to this mission is through involving our community in social justice work. Social justice not only benefits those on the outside that the individual is working with or for, but it also provides for strong intellectual and emotional development for the practitioner.

Students who volunteer are more successful in school.  From having more experiences to associate texts they read and paragraphs they write, to being a better team participant in group assignments and projects, students who participate in social justice activities are better equipped to tackle classwork and project assignments. The Corporation for National & Community Service summed it up well when they wrote

Students who report doing better in school are more likely to be volunteers than students who report doing less well…

Additionally, social justice work is beneficial to student’s emotional and physical health. Students who volunteer have an “increased sense of social responsibility”, TeenLife.com, and a stronger understanding of injustice in the world, because they have personally connected to those they want to give back to. According to ChildTrends.org,

the benefits of volunteering in adolescence may even reduce their risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

So why not start your child as young as possible with participating in social justice activities?! We have designed the Cathay’s Connected World to actively engage our community in meaningful activities that will not only educate our community itself but will connect them to communities around the world that are committed to the same dream of providing quality education for all.

Join us April 8^th for our first event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cathays-connected-world-registration-43890643095

When it comes to discussions about education we often refer to the traditional school setting. We envision a classroom with a group of peers around the same age with an adult instructor guiding the students at the front of the room. And when we speak of ways to improve education, we refer to needed adjustments to our schools to enhance student performance. While it is noble to speak about improving education through the schools, a primary source for education, it ignores a plethora of other ways and places that students learn.

For many students mastering of a subject happens outside the school classroom. New experiences, unique interactions, and life situations provide for valuable education. Whether through impromptu learning opportunities throughout life or in planned informal educational experiences, the students gain richer understanding of the subject at hand. Life-long learning, the information that we gather and utilize throughout life typically happens in the informal settings.

These nontraditional settings that support a culture of learning are the key to providing learning opportunities that may not be available in the classroom. Not all students learn the same and not all learning objectives can be covered and comprehended in a traditional classroom, thus alternative learning opportunities should be provided to students who require alternative leaning styles. Valuable teachable moments, individualized and personalized leaning can be found in a learning center, such as Cathay Future, that will not only support the everyday classroom initiatives but advance core skills.

By Staci Mathura, Language Arts Instructor

Teachers always rely on lesson planning to map out what students learn throughout the year, but sometimes there are these unplanned opportunities that arise where teachers get to offer insight that has nothing to do with the curriculum, but about life lessons.  Sometimes a kid has a bad day, sometimes there is a national event or tragedy in their lives, or sometimes they have a question about navigating the world, where teachers have to give pause and address that. These are precious and magical instances where teachers extend learning and engage students on a humanist level.

When I taught in the inner city, most kids were faces with unimaginable hardships and there were many challenges to engage them academically. Thinking back, some of the most meaningful moments were the teachable moments where I got to connect with students and I would be able to build trust and rapport. One activity that I was able to connect to the students was in their journal notebooks where I had them incrementally complete a ‘Gratitude List’ of all the things they were thankful for. It was great to share this list with each other because it showed that no matter what was going on in our lives we all had something to appreciate and we had someone to be grateful for. Kids soon learned that when we focus on the good things, the tough times became easier to get through, and they learned to think optimistically. The optimism had a positive impact on the classroom, thus increasing academic performance.I often think about how I could further these lessons instead of waiting for teachable moments, and when I did some research and lesson planning I was able to find some fun writing activities (such as practicing writing letters and thank you notes) as well as role playing activities (which was great for public speaking and building confidence) to integrate into our learning. This time of year is perfect for a teachable moment in gratitude, but these are some activities you can try at home any time of the year to put some ‘gratitude into your kids’ attitude!’

1. Thank-you notes.When young kids receive gifts, they should be create and send a thank-you picture (if they can’t write as ye) or a short note to practice correspondence skills.
2. Be polite. Role-play with your kid’s favorite toy or stuffed animal to practice saying “thank you.” You can model etiquette for your child so they know when to say thanks without being prompted.
3. Your daily top 3. At dinner or bedtime, take turns sharing the three best things about your day. It will engage your family in a positive daily ritual.
4. Make a gratitude jar. Fill it with short handwritten notes of gratitude (“I’m thankful we won the big game!” or, “I’m grateful Grandpa came to visit.”). Pick a special time to pull out notes at random and read them aloud.
5. Celebrate your year & milestones. Every major milestone or birthday, make a list of things you are grateful for that year. A 5-year-old can think of five things to list, while a 10-year-old can manage at least 10.
6. Thank a teacher. Send a handwritten note to let her or him know how much their efforts make a difference.
7. Volunteer. Think of a food pantry, animal shelter or even your local church, where you can give your time and try to make it a regular commitment.

By Staci Mathura, Language Arts Instructor

“There is an intimate and necessary relation between the processes of actual experience and education.”  (John Dewey 1938)

As an educator and avid researcher of pedagogy, I’ve used many tried and true techniques to engage a range of learning styles. However one of my preferred approaches to engaging students is through the concept of ‘Experiential Learning,” whereby a student learns by a hands on approach, a direct experience or even through observation. Studies have shown that this method has tremendous benefits for the learner and give teachers creative opportunities to enhance the curriculum. As we know, each student has an individual learning style, so where one child can easily grasp a concept in writing, another’s learning style necessitates an actual sensory experience to connect and apply the concept to the real world.

Experiential learning is a model based on the fundamentals of renowned educational theorist John Dewey who wrote about the benefits of experiential education almost a century ago. Dewey advocates for progressive methods to have an experiential component and not rely on content based styles. He argues that by focusing only on content, it eliminates the opportunity for students to develop their own opinions based on interaction with the information. Furthermore the practice of creating hands on learning opportunities enhances learning and creates an invaluable transformative moment for the learner.

While it is undoubtedly important for students to grasp academic concepts through traditional learning and classic methodologies in classroom, it is impactful to create opportunities for concrete experiences. This gives students the opportunity to actively engage in their learning process, and apply the concepts to real world experiences. When teachers create opportunities for students to learn through experiences, they are able to react to new sensory situations, observe and reflect on the experience though direct participation and apply abstract ideas to real world situations.

In my teaching career I have been fortunate to give my students best practices in the classroom as well as outside the class walls so they can absorb and engage with academic concepts in a variety of methods.  I have found that not only had the learning experiences made positive impacts on pedagogy, but it created unforgettable moments between the students and teacher.  For instance I have done hands on lessons that were visually or tacitly focused, I have taken teenage students on local college tours, to volunteer in the community,  to Chicago for a choir festival and even abroad to Paris and Lisbon! Whether the experiential lesson was a small curriculum modification or an international trip, they connected the abstract concept form the classroom to a real and genuine experience for the learner.

Here are some ways that Experiential learning can be beneficial to your child:

1. Accelerates Learning
   Experiential Learning methodology uses critical thinking, problem solving and decision making to accelerate learning through hands on and concrete experiences. Concepts that are learned in the texts can now be applied in real life scenarios.
2. Provides a Safe Learning Environment
   Taking kids into nature, to museums or even to a restaurant and getting them to have fun will encourage them to try new things while they learn in a safe controlled environment.
3. Bridges the Gap Between Theory and Practice
   By giving learners opportunities to apply text based information in the real world allows them to interact and test out abstract ideas, thus allowing them to retain and build upon concepts and ideas.
4. Increases Engagement

When students are encouraged to explore and apply their knowledge, they are able to interact with the world in an academic mindset, therefore every new experience becomes a teachable moment and opportunity to absorb information.

5. Enables Individualized Learning
   To enable personalized learning, the teacher should modify the curriculum to creatively engage the visual, auditory and tactile strengths of her students. The best way to encapsulate all of these learning styles as well as encourage learning is by creating opportunities for students to learn and apply the concepts to real experiences.