More Conference Pictures

At the Neighborhood Networks RTAW, our center was recognized for our contributions and advocacy of Neighborhood Networks. Here are pictures from the presentation!

Becky receiving her award

Vicki receiving her award

Ed Phillips, TN HUD Office; Vicki Crick, CWA Apartments; Becky Taylor, CWA-Cayce Learning Center; Les Neely, TAMCO

Our Events Last Week!

As we said in our last blog, the Neighborhood Networks RTAW was here in Nashville last week! On Friday we were very proud to show off our center to about 40 of the workshop participants and Neighborhood Networks staff! They seemed excited to see our center and asked wonderful questions.

Here are some pictures from the tour!

Touring our computer lab

Enjoying some snacks and filling in our NN MadLib!

Learning about our afterschool program

In honor of the 50th anniversary of MadLibs, we did a Neighborhood Networks MadLib as a group with everyone contributing words. Here's how it turned out!

"This week at the Nashville RTAW we met so many wonderful people and learned so many PRODUCTIVE things. The accommodations at the SPOKANE were terrific. During the workshops our DOGS were well prepared to TALK the topic that was covered. One of my favorite workshops was about HOUSE. Networking was also important at this SPOON. I met someone named BURMAN who lives in COLUMBUS ZOO and is the director of a DOG. He told me all about SKIING. I think he talked for SIX minutes!

In the evenings, we WALKED the ENERGETIC city of Nashville! It was interesting to see how people EAT in this city! I even decided to take the MONKEY downtown and CREATE a song about this experience.

ACTUALLY, though, we realized our RTAW was all coming to an end. When I go to VAIL, CO I plan to tell my SWEET coworkers about what I VOTED while I was here!"

Neighborhood Networks Conference

As we've explained in earlier posts, we are a part of a national initiative called Neighborhood Networks. Neighborhood Networks, through the US Department of Housing & Urban Development, began this initiative in 1995 to provide technology access and other resources in HUD-insured or HUD-assisted properties.

Next week Neighborhood Networks is hosting one of its two Regional Technical Assistance Workshops (RTAWs) here in Nashville! We are very excited to host this year and are especially excited that they are bringing 50 RTAW participants to our center for a tour on Friday. We were the first in the country to become a MODEL center (the highest level) in Neighborhood Networks classification system and will be offering participants a chance to see what we do in action.

All of that said, next Friday will be a busy day and we will likely not have a post. But look for a new one early the next week with pictures from the event!

English Class Field Trip

This week one of our adult English classes went on a field trip! Bill Myers, husband of our English teacher Bonnie Myers, invited the students to see his one man art show on the campus of Belmont University. Here are some pictures from the trip!

Bonnie explains some of Bill's work to the students.

Miss Annie all dressed up for the occasion.

Monica signing the guestbook

Painting the Town Red... And the Water Blue!

Our middle and high school students are working on filling in a 7' x 5.5' map of the world! The map, printed on 64 sheets of paper and hung on our wall is just an outline of continents... the youth are doing the rest!

Mr. Adam and Annan start working on the map.

Annan has made it his special project to color in all the water! A really good way to learn that water covers 2/3 of the Earth's surface!

Science Day!

Our middle & high school students spent Wednesday doing science experiments.

Here Miray is listening for the sound waves to travel through the string attached to the coat hanger he's hitting against objects.

Ms. Kenithia is helping the girls test liquids (soda, lemon juice, club soda) to see what is an acid and what is a base.

All of our students participate in four science experiments each school year.

What was your favorite science project to do as a kid? Leave us a comment and tell us about it!

Spring Break Art Fun!

This week was spring break! As we have for many years, we partnered with the Frist Center for the Visual Arts to provide our students an art experience while they were out of school. The Frist Center has an Art Trunk program that sends us three fun art projects that correlate to their current art exhibit at the museum. So this week we learned about Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dali.

Students used oil pastels to create their own Impressionist art on Monday.

Tuesday they made a collage to resemble a Picasso Cubist work.

And Wednesday, students used watercolor and collage to create a surrealist picture.

Thursday, all of those that participated went to the Frist Center to see the actual paintings they studied!

Adult Computer Classes Coming Soon!

Beginning March 28th, the Learning Center will be hosting computer classes for adults each Friday at 1:00pm for 10-12 weeks. Taught by two of our favorite volunteers, Jim & Rebecca, students will start at the beginning learning parts of the computer and move into word processing and, maybe even Excel. Our hope is to provide our students with the skills they need to get the job that will move them into the life they've wanted to lead.

Space is still available for 3 or 4 more students, so if you know someone who is interested, please have them contact us at the center before the 28th!

Spring Break Volunteers

This week we had visitors from the University of Mary Washington's BCM! They came on the perfect week since our Vanderbilt students were on spring break and we were very short on tutors! They helped us with homework, in the computer lab, and with our enrichment activities!

Here are some pictures of their week!

Our New Look

What do you think about the new look of our blog? It was just time for a change! Let us know what you think. And let us know what you'd like to see on our blog in the future!