As a service-learning facilitator for a community service requirement for graduation at a private school in Oklahoma City, I have been involved with MLK Day Presidential Service Day for years. MLK Day National Day of Service 2021 was different as I was keeping safe at home. I have been retired for almost three years, and I did not have a group of young people to connect their spark to make a difference to a real community need in person. For the first time, I was away from my grandchildren, I was not frantically learning how to use my sewing machine and making masks for family, friends, and workers in my neighborhood. I was on my own. The virus had a new variation that helped spread Covid-19 more rapidly. The vaccine distribution in my state was not optimal. The political landscape was toxic. We had domestic terrorism inside the US Congress. I was at home learning how to play the guitar and how to teach online. I felt, I needed to do something, no matter how small to honor th
I love dancing, but I have not been listening to music for a long time. This morning when my grandson called on Alexa to share a song with me, I got re-energized with the songs we listened to and danced together. 1. What was the power of these songs to enter not only my body but also my soul? 2. Why do I feel like the lethargic stage I entered in the last month came to an end after listening to these songs and dancing with my grandchild? 3. What questions will continue to develop as I move with creative movement in my relationship with my grandchildren? 1. Hammer Time was the first song I suggested first. Loved to see his dad and him dancing as we were communicating during our almost daily FaceTime minutes. FaceTime requested by my grandchild as part of his breakfast routine which enables him to wake us up and be with us as when we are with him at his home. We might want to sleep a little bit more some days as there is an hour difference, but seeing their lovely faces and focusing
CLIMATE ACTION PROJECT 2020 CAP 2020 We started our CAP (Climate Action Project) journey via FaceTime as a way to have engaging communication between grandparents living in Oklahoma and grandchildren starting preschool in Massachusetts during Covid-19 times. In our first-six weeks of participation, we worked virtually on the difference between weather and climate. My grandchildren's preschool teacher had a maple tree farm and we connected global warming and climate change to what was happening to the production of my grandchildren's favorite topping for pancakes, maple syrup. CAP also empowered us to communicate with a preschool teacher from California who shared her CAP plans for her classes and validated my (the grandmother) inexperienced early childhood educator efforts. We followed Ivette’s suggestions during CAP 2020 and 2021. Our first CAP climate action was simply watching a memorial Japanese maple tree planting at the children's backyard. We also started making
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