This blog is an archive

This blog is an archive of work done at Cabrini Connections in the 2000s. Use it as an example of what's possible in an organized, site-based, tutor/mentor program. 

The Change Makers: FIRST PLACE!

Hello friends!

Last week we kicked off our Cabrini Madness Fundraiser. Our team, The Change Makers, pulled into first place after some tough competition from The Dream Team. We're so proud of our team. Special thanks to Paris Lockett, our writing club student and fundraising extraordinaire! Paris organized her own candy sale with her tutor/mentor, Tiffany Smith, bringing in $60 for our team last week, great job Paris! Also a very big thank you to Casey Moran's in Wrigleyville! They are our top donor with a generous $500.00 donation! We look forward to holding a little fundraising mixer at Casey Moran's very soon. Hopefully The Change Makers will keep up the pace and hold our strong defense!

Aside from Cabrini Madness, last week we began an activity in honor of Valentine's Day. We are making our own homemade greeting cards...but not just any greeting card. You see, on Valentine's Day all of the store shelves are bursting with a plethora of pink and red heart clad cards. Roses are red, violets are blue....

So we are taking it a step further, we are finding pictures that aren't obvious cliche love notes. We looked at some examples of artistic expressions of metaphoric messages relating to love. Like a man holding onto a bird... I know that seems a little odd, and that's exactly the point! The students picked out some great artistic photos and even began to write the message in the card, this week we are finishing them up and will post the finished products later today!

It's Cabrini Madness Time!

It's that time of year!

In anticipation of college tournament basketball season, Cabrini Connections is heading up a fundraiser that makes a play on March Madness. This is a team oriented challenge called Cabrini Madness to raise some funds for our program. We depend on donors to help keep Cabrini Connections up and running so the writing club is participating by introducing Team Change Makers! Meet the Team...

Shannyn Nellett: Writing Club Coordinator
Christine Conzett: Writing Club Coordinator
Steve Miller: Cabrini Connections Board Member
Tiffany Smith: Tutor/Mentor/Volunteer
Paris Lockett: Cabrini Rockstar Student
Charlie Goff: Tutor/Mentor/Volunteer
Veronica Reyes: Cabrini Veteran
Sean Hannon: Fundraiser Volunteer
Alayna Van Hall: Fundraiser Volunteer
Javan Gordon: Cabrini Rockstar Student


Instead of playing basketball, each team has created a fundraiser page and will be raising money. The teams that raise the most money will advance into the Elite Eight, Final Four, and then to the Championship! So please, friends, help the Change Makers advance by donating to our page
http://giveforward.com/cabrinichangemakers

Even if you can't donate, you can help us out by posting our link to your social websites. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace...etc. are great platforms to spread the word.

The Writing Club is made possible by donors like you and we greatly appreciate your continued support!

Go Team Change Makers!

A is for Alliteration!

Last week the writing club began an activity that focused on a writing technique called alliteration. Alliteration is when the writer stresses two or more syllables of a word group by using the same consonant sound or sound group. After we discussed what this meant, and how to use it, we put our new technique to work.

We wrote stories using each letter of the alphabet as a sentence, stressing the letter in each sentence as much as we could. The rough drafts are pretty good so far, we plan to polish them up and post them next week! So check back and tell us what you think!

Happy Holidays from Cabrini Connections!

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Free write journaling...

Last week was Thanksgiving so we took a little break and enjoyed family and food. We hope you were able to do the same!

The previous week we had light attendance (Charles and Sean we miss you!) so we focused on free writing. Javan, Paris and Savon wrote in their journals about anything that was on their minds.

We then openly discussed our journal entries and related to each other in what we have going on; with the Holidays approaching and for the students grades are coming out so all-around stresses are running higher than usual. Next week Miss Misha will be introducing a new activity that is hands-on and lots of fun so stay tuned!

A Day In My Life...

Last week we began an activity that mirrored the activity we did two weeks ago about the Minors. Each student began with a sheet of paper and titled it "A Day in My Life."

The concept: Each narrator began his/her story with a situation that embodied a day in their life. After two minutes of writing we dropped our pens and passed our stories to the person on our left. They then continued the story and applied it to a day in their life. We were almost finished when our 6:00pm bell rang and writing club ended. We'll pick it up where we left off on Wednesday and share some of our finished products with our friends that visit our blog.

Thanks and have a nice day!