Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Girl Power


Yesterday, I mentioned that I was teaching a group of 11-year-old girls as part of the SOHO project. This project pairs at-risk girls with mentors. A focus of the program is to have the girls create art projects each week that will end up being a part of their room makeover. I had the girls make pillowcases using freezer paper, masking tape and stickers. Of course, I was blown away by the results!


Joann Lui who heads up the program is a young, energetic teacher. We had time before the class to go over the lesson plan and streamline it a bit.  She had the great suggestion to have the girls think of a word or a few words to represent a future dream or something that they aspired to (or just something that they liked) instead of symbols.


The SOHO program is really quite wonderful. The girls arrive at 4:30 PM for an hour interactive program to discuss different topics to help build self-esteem and make good life choices. Then they meet up with their mentors for a provided dinner. From 6:00 - 8:00 PM the girls and their mentors work on the art project of the week. It's a great bonding time for them. After hearing the assignment and watching me demo, they sat down together and planned the pillowcase. The mentors let the girls take the lead but also take part in the art project as an assistant of sorts. At 7:45 PM we stopped for clean-up. It was great to see the girls take responsibility for cleaning up after the project.


I had such a super time. The girls were enthusiastic, thoughtful, polite and just fun to be with.


Enjoy seeing the project results!


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