The Finished Product

Yesterday I posted about my 3rd grade son making a Prezi for his pen pal in the US. Well here is the finished product:

Merry Christmas

Pretty good for his first attempt. The great thing about learning is that although this particular product may be finished, the learning will continue. I will reflect with my son about his prezi and what he thinks is good about it, as well as what he might do differently next time. We will also talk about communication and how it comes in many different forms - we might even venture into the message he was trying to communicate and whether or not he actually communicated his intended message.

This simple activity will lead to many days of spontaneous and impromptu conversations - I can't wait to hear what we will talk about!

Giving Students the Opportunity to Shine

On Saturday we kicked off a new service/outreach initiative in the MS. Our Student Life Minister Ms Choe and one of our active colleagues and parents, Ms Chang recently started a conversation with a couple who are Pastors of a church near Suwon Sports Stadium. The Pastors run afterschool tutorial sessions for the local kids, most of whom come from broken and/or underprivileged homes. Both Ms Choe and Ms Chang knew that we had been looking for opportunities for our MS students and faculty to contribute to our local community through meaningful and repeatable service and they quickly realized that this is just what we had been waiting for.

So on Saturday the Pastors brought 13 elementary aged students to GSIS to participate in a Chapel, story time, computer time, games, swimming, and lunch. Each child was paired up with one of our MS students, 20 of whom selflessly gave up their Saturday for this worthwhile service. The day was also generously supported by Ms Choe, Ms Chang, Ms Kim in the library, and Ms Smith and Ms Wendling in the pool. Our visitors had a wonderful time and they all said that they can't wait to come back again - we are also excited about our next day together scheduled for December.

I was extremely proud of our MS students and the way that they put their own wants and needs aside for the day to serve these children. I know our MS students gained a lot from this experience and I was very pleased to hear that they will all be signing up to help out again next month.

I have been discussing this idea with our Student Life Minister for some time so it was great to see it come to fruition. Saturday was a wonderful beginning and I hope it is proves to be the catalyst for an expanding and growing community service program here at GSIS.