Maui-Four residents of CherryWood are on vacation here.

Cherry Pit

Well, the April Fools edition has hit the shelves. Although the staff and I get positive feedback from many residents, I wonder if there are some residents who have some negative opinions about some or all of the Cherry Pit. If so, we never hear from them.

I'm using this blog to ask if anyone has opinions, or who has heard the opinions of others, about the CP. Positive or negative. If you are not a member of this blog, you can still comment on this post. Thanks for your feedback.

GARDEN COMMITTEE

1/11/11 Notice to residents includes statement as follows:
6. GARDEN COMMITTEE - Chairperson -Bob Weurth -503-285-8911
The committee meets on call by the chairperson. It develops plans for residents to use the Upper and Lower Garden Plots, promotes participation by residents, reviews plot assignments, answers gardening inquires from residents, maintains the Upper Garden tool shed, arranges for composting if desired, instructs gardeners in the disposal of garden debris and insures that the garden plots are neat and orderly.

GARDENING DILEMMA

About two years ago the Hubbard family donated two raised gardening bins, in memory a member Benjamin, for handicapped use. These were installed on the upper level garden, one of which is shown to the right. As of this time apparently no one with any limited ability has requested use thereof. Spread the word.

Tutoring

Eight CherryWood residents are tutoring at Floyd Light Middle School for the school year 2010-2011. They are: Janet Balmer, Walt Davis, Bill Kapranos, Bill Lund, Dick Lutz, Heather Pierce, Louise Varley, and Lauralee Ware. The tutors are all working with individual students in Special Education classes. If any one else is interested in the tutoring program, they should contact me at 503-580-0485.

iPad

For my recent birthday my wife gave me an iPad. An iPad is a brand new product from Apple, Inc. It is a portable computer that is operated by a finger. (It is a tablet computer.)

It's really COOL!

Tutoring

It's the end of the school year and I'm reporting on our tutoring at Floyd Light Middle School. There were 8 or 9 CherryWood residents originally but several dropped out and then communication dropped between teacher and tutor for several others. It ended up with 3 of us actually tutoring, Phyllis Moore, Bill Kapranos, and myself. Bill and I were assigned students in Tim Smart's Special Education class. I tried to teach reading to a 7th grade boy who had difficulty reading at a second grade level. The kid didn't like to read and was challenging to tutor. He also came from a very dysfunctional family. I didn't think I accomplished much, but the Principal told me he had observed considerable progress in the boy.

Bill seemed to have a similar time while Phyllis was assigned to a class of regular students and, although uncertain as to her duties at first, ended up having a good experience.

I also participated a couple of times with the after-school program which involved helping kids with their homework.

Principal Mark Gaulke (whose Aunt & Uncle are CherryWood residents) and I went over the program at the end of the school year. I recommended that we focus next year on students in Special Education classes. Mark agreed but pointed out that there were two other Special Education teachers besides Tim Smart. So, I will contact Mark in September and however many CherryWood tutors we have will be assigned to a student in Special Education. These are kids with low skills, some with low intelligence, or other disabilities such as dyslexia. Many are minority children with at least one having an Oriental name.

The Principal said that our tutoring program is included in a School Improvement Program report which will be used in an effort to get Federal funds. So I guess we've gotten off the ground.