The City of Kites: Flying High

                I was so excited to research the city of kites when I found out that we could do a topic of our choice from things mentioned in our letters from our friends in China. Two of the girls whose papers I had mentioned they were born in Weifang, which was known for the festival of flying kites. I found a great online resource that was straight from the source. This person was originally from Weifang (born and raised) and talked in depth on their traditions. The article was posted in Chinese and then translated into English. The article says that the tradition of kite flying is over one thousand years old but has lasted up until now.

                The first descriptions of these kites were recorded and originate from the Tang Dynasty. The kites were made first from bamboo and into frame and then covered in paper and silk. The records say that they were made into birds to honor the great birds of the skies. Now days, there is a huge ceremony that takes place the night before the actual day. They host it in the soccer stadium and it is broadcasted onto tv so everyone can be a part of this big day. There are all sorts of different performers like singers, acrobats and stage shows.

                Then comes the kite flying! There are competitions in which the kites are flown and rated by judges. Tons of people come and watch this. Just think of how cool it would be to have something like this in Springfield where everyone comes together to participate in this! Afterwards, there are awards and the closing ceremony. Then an hour long fireworks display choreographed to popular music. Then, a museum takes the best kites and puts them in a showcase so anyone can get a taste of what the kite festival is like, even if they weren’t there.

                All in all, it sounds like the kite festival is very neat. It is such a big piece of China’s history, I would have loved to hear more about it from the Chinese students themselves. I love seeing what is important to others across the world.  It is interesting how even their simple traditions can still impact us all the way in America.

Presentation Summary

Overall, I really enjoyed this project. While at some times frustrating, it was definitely worth it in the end. I did my project over teaching. First i started with the statistics of teaching and I dug in to find out just why teachers are quitting so early on in their teaching careers. After this, I did some more research on teaching and found that many teachers quit because of their placement in the school system or sometimes because of the pay rate. Doing this service learning has really had an impact on me. I have found my passion and my place.

Global Perspectives

  Getting to go on the field trip to MSU was so much fun! Not only did we get to learn more about current events and ways that people are aiding others, but it was great to spend time with people outside of the classroom. In the east ballroom, we heard several speakers talk about extreme poverty. I took a few notes during the discussion and come to find out, many people are living on less than $1.25 per day. In 2009, more than 52% of people were living in what's called extreme poverty. In order for us to eliminate significant poverty we need to take a stand. Already, people are getting involved with this by doing fundraisers and different types of these things.
Income is directly related to productivity. Employers are going to adapt to more technology. "Think globally, act locally"
Poverty not only effects people in far away countries, but right here in the USA we have extreme poverty. To eliminate this, we need to be able to live within our means. 
     Next, we went and watched this really neat documentary called The One Who Builds. It was all about this man who started an organization to help people who have escaped a hardship in their home country, come and start a new life in America. What these people did was supply the refugees with a home and everything else that they needed, including helping them find work. These people literally undergo a life change and they need help into this transition. That's where Omer comes in and takes these people through everyday life and guides them into this new life. He checks up on them and just lends a helping hand out where he can. He says that they always stay busy so about every two hours he tries to take a 5 minute break. 
  Watching this was very eyeopening because it made me realize that we have it so well. Even though we struggle with simple things, their are others less fortunate that we are called to help out. I think that each event we went to directly related to service learning because all the people that we heard from put their plan into action. It will be so exciting to maybe one day see one of our own putting their plans into action as well!

Service Learning Recap