Artist’s statement Nick Carr

When finding out I need to put together a blog at the start of class I was a little unsure of what that meant. I had a never worked with a blog before and the assembling of my blog was a tuff thing to get the hang of right off the bat. I must not of been paying close enough attention the first week of class when we went through what is was we would be using are blog for. The first paper we had due I went about it in the same way I would have approached any other paper I had to write witch would be to write it then print it and turn it in. It never crossed my mind that I should put it on my blog. Then my teacher sent me an email telling me I never posted the paper to my blog. I had no idea how to do that it would take me 30 min to post my first paper. But threw out the semester I have worked with my blog and I now have a better understanding of how a blog works I even uploaded a picture of myself to the blog and have all my stuff laid out in a way that is easy to read yet at the same time has a little bit of an art feel to it.
When collecting Images and working at Esuela Vieau I learned and came to understand how the Hispanic culture in Milwaukee lives. I never knew how different their lives are then mine with us both living in Milwaukee, just last week when working with them the school brought a teacher in to help teach to students how to use a computer. Growing up where I grew up I had been using computer ever since I get in to kindergarten. Most of the people I know are the same way to, but the middle age adults that I work with had never or very rarely used a computer. They even needed help getting on to Google. It was truly eye opening to see people not know how to use something that use every day because they never had the opportunity to use one. It made me thankful for all of the great opportunities I have been blessed with in my life.
When putting my final project together I chose to work with a common theme of “the land of opportunity”. How Esuela Vieau symbolizes America still being a great nation of opportunity for people struggling. Esuela work with given both the children on the south side and the adults on the self side opportunities to improve their life. From helping the adults find work and teaching those skills need to find work. The main reason for the ESL class I teach is to help them learn a skill it improve their ability to get a good job. With the ESL class and the after school programs Esuela has is truly giving their neighborhood opportunities for bigger better things.

Images for film 150

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final

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journal 3

Yesterday was my last day going out to Escuela Vieau School to help teach English. It was a good feeling knowing that I was going to get my 15 hours. This day was also the birthday of the oldest person in the class, she was turning 87. Before she got to class everyone else brought some sort of food in to share with the class and celebrate her birthday. When she got to class she did not even notice all the food sitting 10 feet from her. She just sat down at the table and joined the class on the lesson for the day. Later that day we had her party. They got her balloons and a cake and she had the biggest smile on her face. This will be my most memorable memory of my time at Escuela Vieau. Later in class we went over to the computers and worked on how to use a computer. It never crossed my mind that they might not know how to use a computer or use the internet but they had no idea what to do when on it. But using the computer was just as much work for them as it was to try to learn the English language. It was eye opening to see how different two people can be that live 20 minutes from each other have very different experiences. Here’s me, a 19 year old kid that spends probably half my day using a computer for one thing or another trying to teach people in their 40’s how to speak English and use a computer. It was a complete role reversal for what my life has been like, me being taught by people older than me and now I am teaching those older than me. That has been the biggest thing with this whole experience, me trying to help those who I am not entirely comfortable with. But I will always look back at my time at Escuela and be happy about the time I spent there.

America, Land of Opportunity

Journal #2

With my time I have been spending at Escuela Vieau School I have not been working with the kids like most the other students in our class. But rather I have been working Monday nights with the adult’s on teaching them English. This has been fun and tuff at the same time. Although working with them is rewording when they appear to be learning what it is I am trying to teach them at times when they all start speaking in Spanish and looking at me and asking me questions in Spanish it get very difficult to work with them, and I feel out of place. Last week I was working with a woman that is on staff at Escuela Vieau and she started to ask the people we were teaching about where they came from and how it is that they got to the states. Some parts of this conversation I wish I never heard it started to challenge my belief system. I went into this service learning project not wanting to know this people past wishing I could remain ignorant to the fact that many of them are illegally in the states, knowing the hole time in the back of my head that there was a good shot many of them are. That is a fact I can no longer remain ignorant too after last week. The idea of people sneaking in to the United States of America has always been a scary thought to me but I will try not to let it affect my performance at Escuela Vieau.

my multimedia project

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Artist’s Statement

When working on my multimedia assignment and working with adult Hispanics to improve their English speaking skills, I ran into problems but also discovered areas that were much easier than I had planned. When I first went out to Escuela Vieau to start my project I was a little worried about what I was going to be doing. I felt that my experience with the Spanish was going to make teaching them English quite hard. Once we began to work together I was working with the class split up into 2 different groups. One group was the higher English speaking group, and the other was the lower skill level group. We sat down with a workbook that had lists of English words and their equivalent Spanish counterpart. The workbook then showed how you would use the word in English. We would go through the list of words first. I would read off maybe ten words then they would take turns reading the words to them- selves and then we would go around in a circle while everyone said an English sentence using one of the words we just went over. We would do this same process until the class was over and it was time to go.
The day I started with my multimedia project I rented a camera from the library and brought it into Escuela Vieau that night. Before class I took some pictures of the school itself, then after class I asked my class if they would mind if I took some pictures for my class project. Mind was not the right word to use, everyone in the class got really excited some of the women in the class even took a quick trip to the bathroom before they would let me take their pictures. We took a big group shot and then they went and did some individual work on their own and I took some pictures of my class working. However, when I went back to school the next day and attempted to retrieve my “saved” my images from the day before none of my pictures had been saved. Therefore, for my project I was unable to use any of my images. Therefore, I went online and googled South Milwaukee and other words or phrases that I felt would help me put together my project. I ended up finding some images online that really captured what it was I had experienced when working at the school. A Google search would not have been something I would have done if I did not lose my images. Although I will not say losing my images was something that made my project better, I will say it made me work in a different way. This is exactly what my entire experience with Escuela Vieau has been, me working in a different way than I am accustomed to.

less forchant

I am not going lie when at the serves learning orientation I started to feel a little overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with how much time this was going to take out of what seems to me to be a busy schedule. I did not know how I would find time to get out there and get all my hours done. But as the meeting went on what it was we would be doing would be a really good experience. In the past I have going on mission trips to “help those less forchant then me” but by the end of them it became apparent to me that the people I was helping had helped me out more than I did them. They helped me in ways that with the lack of skill I have of the English language can’t put in to word. Remembering this time I began to think how it was I would make this work and I would be able to take advantage of this opportunity and talked with Maria Espinosa and was able to figure out I will be able to come out Monday and work with the adults to help them learn English. The hope is that I am able to help them with their goal and at the same time have the impact my life in a positive way.