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.

Immigration

The first class in the course about Immigration, As Described in Fiction was today. It was a very interesting lecture and I'm looking forward to the next two.

Photography Club

Next meeting will be at 2:30 pm on Monday, June 14th in the Board Room. Molly will assist people in learning how to use their camera. Also, the assignment is taking photos of flowers and sending them by e-mail to Molly at mollysphoto@gmail.com. She will show them on the big screen and comment on the pictures

Photography Club

On Monday, April 26th, the first meeting of this new club was held. Despite minimal publicity fifteen (15) CherryWood residents attended. Molly Jones, staff member, led the group. The fifteen were diverse in their level of camera sophistication. Some had never owned a digital camera, others had one but didn't know how to use its basic features. A few knew how to use a camera.

Molly helped those who needed help to learn some basic features of their camera. In addition to helping individuals, Molly showed, on the big screen in the board room, some of her pictures.

Molly volunteered to arrange for the reservation of the board room and to see to it that there is appropriate publicity for the next meeting. She also volunteered to accept photos by e-mail. Her e-mail address is: mollysphoto@gmail.com. She will show these photos at the next meeting which will be on Monday, May 24th. Time to be announced.

I urge all photographers, regardless of knowledge level, to attend.

Tutoring

A program has begun operating that provides CherryWood residents as tutors for students at Floyd Light Middle School. Floyd Light is located across Cherry Blossom Drive and up the hill. Its Principal is Mark Gaulke who is the nephew of Lyle & Norma Thorgramson who live in the Orchards. Every year the Floyd Light choir serenades at our Friday Social. So there are already some ties between CherryWood and Floyd Light.

Now there is an established tutoring program as well. There are two different kinds of tutoring available: One is where the CherryWood resident is assigned by Principal Gaulke to the class of a specific teacher. The teacher then either assigns the tutor to work with a specific student or has the tutor be available to any student in that class who needs help. This is worked out by the teacher and the tutor. The time commitment can be for as little as a half hour per week. The second program is helping students at an after school homework program. This is for an hour at least once a week.

In both types the tutoring is very basic. Frequently it involves reading to students and having them read to you. If interested in joining either program call Dick Lutz at 503-887-1100.

Inspire Your Heart with Art!

Artists and Crafters!
Wednesday, February 10th is Inspire Your Heart With Art day!
In celebration of this day I am asking YOU to come display your art and/or crafts for your friends and neighbors to see! All work will be displayed in the community room from 10am-2pm – you do not need to be present! Someone will be there to make sure your work is safe.
If you have pieces that you would like to display please call the Wellness Center and let us know what you have so we will be able to accommodate your work! Please sign up by February 7th. I would like all artwork to be brought down the morning of February 10th. If this will not be possible, please speak with Sara or Mindy in the Wellness Center so we can make other arrangements. Please note that we do not have much space to store your work. 503-546-7924

FYI: Some inviations were sent out with last years dates - please refer to the dates in this post and on the flyer on the art studio door.

Phone Scam Alert

Today a resident informed me about a phone call she received from a company called Cordia. I believe they represented themselves as some type of phone company, and possibly a representative of Verizon. They offer to switch your phone service - and somehow they have the ability to do this without you giving them much information. This particular person started having a $19.95 charge on her phone bill. We did some research on this company and found several similar complaints from all over the country. It seems they target older adults. There was also a complaint from another state of this disrupting their medical alert system.
If you receive a call like this, please take note of the date and time, and if you have caller ID, any information that comes up there and report it to Eyke, Lisa or myself (Sara). Also, those of you who read this blog, please spread the word to your neighbors.