A Light Escuela Vieau

Final Artist's Statement

What I wanted my project to portray was the friendly and welcoming environment of Escuela Vieau. Looking back, I can honestly say I had no idea how welcomed I would feel by all of the staff and children. I started my project with dreary music and text to make the audience feel sad about the negativity in the world. When the pictures of Escuela Vieau come up, I changed the music and the font of the text. I wanted to show a dramatic change between most of the world and the positive attitude that is taught and shown at Escuela Vieau.

In my project, I used a partial quote by the principal at Escuela Vieau where he states, "...to welcome diversity in people..." (Galvan). This quote was a useful source to show that it is part of their mission statement to welcome diversity in people. This coincides with my theme of the welcoming nature of the school. I also wanted to include the Boys & Girls Clubs of America in my project because we worked a lot with them as well as with the staff of Escuela Vieau. I also feel they are an organization that has a lot of the same mentalities as Escuela Vieau. I used a quote from their website which states, "...a positive place for kids" (BGCA). This also helped support the theme of my project.

Throughout my experience in Film 150, I have learned how the use of the camera can manipulate reality. Although Escuela Vieau is a positive place, it is not perfect. I did see a few times children arguing and fighting. If I were looking for negative things to say about Escuela Vieau, I could have taken all of my pictures of the few arguments I saw. After viewing my project, the audience would assume that people are always arguing and fighting at Escuela Vieau when the truth is that it is very rare to see the children acting in that manner.

Escuela Vieau School Home Page

http://www2.milwaukee.k12.wi.us/vieau/English/index.html

Journal Reflection #3

Since my last post I have had some very good experiences at Escuela Vieau. I volunteer on Fridays, so I'm lucky-I get the fun day. A couple Fridays ago, I got to help referee flag football. I am a huge football fan; I love everything that has anything to do with football. Anyways, the kids were great! Both teams tried very hard but I didn't notice anyone being a poor sport or mean; they were all just having a good time. Some of the other kids were coloring with chalk, playing baseball, playing with a huge flag or playing on the jungle gym. I'm not sure what the game is called with the big flag but it's huge and you have to all stand around holding the edge and a ball is in the middle that you have to try to keep on top. I remember playing it when I was a kid.

Last Friday, I was helping to referree indoor soccer. This was a little crazier than the football. It was also really tough for the kids though, it was way too small to try to play soccer inside the gym. One good kick and the ball is out of bounds. I can not tell you how many times the ball went out of bounds. Still, the kids had fun playing and were real into it. The first team to five would win. The score was three to zero and one point but the other team came back to tie it up at three to three. The score then was four to four and unfortuneately the game had to end in a tie.

Escuela Vieau

Film power point

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Artist's Statement

While putting together my essay and looking at the pictures I took, the main thing I have learned is to expect the unexpected. I have to admit, I had some preconceived notions about how my experience at Escuela Vieau would be and I was wrong. I thought that maybe some children and staff would not be welcoming because I was not like them.

I grew up in a household where I was only allowed to associate with a certain group of people. I was taught that "the outside world" was a bad place and was filled with wicked people. As I got older I realized that the majority of the people who lived thinking this way lived by looking at other people just to find their faults and therefore have reasons why they thought they were better than them. When I came to this realization and started looking for the good in people and appreciating people for their differences and seeing people as equal to me, I just felt like I had truly discovered happiness. I am not perfect and still make assumptions and judge sometimes, but I try to train myself to see the good in people. My experience at Escuela Vieau has inspired me to keep living in this new light. It has proved to me that once again my assumptions were incorrect. While putting together my essay, I strove to show how Escuela Vieau operates with an open heart and an open mind and I strove to show how we should live that way as well.

Using the camera was little bit tricky. The first picture I took of Brian working on his homework, I didn't use and I decided to retake the picture. In the first picture, the angle was high and it was like you were looking down on him. The one I used was more eye level and I felt that you didn't get the the feeling you were better than him with the second photo. I also didn't choose to incorporate some of the images I took because of the background or the lighting.

Overall, I have enjoyed my experience so far with Escuela Vieau and I hope that it showed in the essay presentation that I put together.

Journal Reflection #2

I have really enjoyed the time I have spent volunteering. On my first day I helped a young boy, about 8 years old, with his homework. His name was Carlos and he was so sweet. He was working on his math homework and he barely needed any help; he was very smart. After homework time, I helped in the gym with the fourth through sixth graders. It was a Friday and their fun time was roller blading. I helped some kids put on their skates and mostly just talked with some of the kids. One girl I talked to most of the time was Dianna. She was in fourth grade, I believe, and she reminded me of myself when I was little. When I was little, I was very shy and never wanted to do anything where people might look at me. Dianna was shy and she didn't want to roller blade because she doesn't like attention being put on her. One the second day that I volunteered, they were having an olympics fun day. Some parents came in to be captains of the teams. They did the three-legged race, the crabwalk, the potato sack hop, musical chairs and a few others. It was nice to see the kids all having so much fun.

Journal Reflection #1

To be completely honest, when I first learned we would be volunteering at a school-I wasn't exactly thrilled. As a high schooler, I used to volunteer on a church bus route. I would knock on doors and bring kids on the bus headed for Sunday School. I would sometimes lead songs on the bus. I'm not sure if it's because I'm petite, but so many times kids would pick on me. They would push me and make fun of me. So I now have this fear of being groups of middle school and high school age children. After attending orientation, I feel relieved. The group as a whole at Escuela Vieau seems so welcoming and friendly. We met a young boy in the gym that was probably about 13 years old or so and he seemed very nice and he was helping watch the younger kids.
Our main contact for the school will be Yesenia Montenegro. She seems like such an easy person to talk to. I think she will make it easier for us to understand what we need to accomplish while we are the school. Maria Espinosa was also very welcoming. I thought is was a very nice guesture for them to order pizza for us, it was very unexpected and pleasant.
Today I head over to Norris Health Center to get my TB test slip so tomorrow I am ready to start my new experiences at Escuela Vieau School.