Day 11: Beary Kind Citizens.. (Go Scott Lane Bears!)

"Scott Lane is a public K-5 elementary school and one of sixteen elementary schools in the Santa Clara Unified School District. The school serves a richly diverse population. Students, families and staff combined at the school speak over 17 languages. About 65% of the students are English learners. Scott Lane offers a K-5 Transitional Maintenance Bilingual Program that prepares students to be academically and socially successful in English and Spanish and fosters pride and respect for cultural and linguistic differences. Scott Lane specializes in differentiating instruction to meet the needs of all students. Children with special needs are mainstreamed into the regular classrooms." (Direct link)

We have a school requirement to fulfill 10 hours of community service each year as a freshman, sophomore and junior. Well guess who got tied down and realized she owed a whopping 10 hours by this Friday... yup; that'd be me.

Well anyways, I decided I would go do my time at Scott Lane Elementary (I went a few times last year and the year before.) For the most part, I remembered enjoying my time there but it wasn't until I got there that I remembered how much I LOVED these kids! They are so awesome- I hardly even felt like I was doing community service! If you ever have some free time- go see them! The only care they have is being first in line for snack or being the next lava monster champion. They are also quite beastly at Dodgeball- it's become quite the tradition to play a few games when Harker kids go to visit them. This isn't any little kid dodgeball either- come prepared to get worked! All in all, you have the opportunity to affect a person's life- to influence them by simply showing them attention and listening to them. The staff is extremely inviting and are always open to new faces to keep the kids occupied. If you go to Harker- shoot Kerry an e-mail: she drives a small group every Wednesday and I'm sure she'd be more than happy to save you a seat.

Oh and I saw this commercial tonight... Fit's the purpose- :) enjoy

Day 10: Honesty is the Best Policy

I'm really enjoying sharing my stories with you guys because I believe it's the result of the multiple texts I've been receiving which detail the good deeds of my friends :) Glad you guys have been up to some good.

This weekend I was in Anaheim (near LA) for a 3 day volleyball tournament. Volleyball games get pretty intense- the refs always have to be on their toes or they'll be called out within seconds. Gyms are usually packed for these tournaments with players, coaches, parents, grandma, grandpa, aunt, cousin, boyfriend..... etc. Well when it comes to reffing calls- they all have their own agenda. I have never witnessed a game where there wasn't at least one controversy over a call. (Basic Volleyball Rules- Just in case you're interested)

So one of the days, we had an absolutely ridiculous ref. He wasn't calling touches off the block which consequently was destroying us point-wise. Just as we started to forget how horrible a ref he was, he'd make a horrible call and remind us. Frustrating? I think so.

Well unfortunately, our ref didn't get any better and we really had no benefits from the experience but it reminded me of something extremely similar that happened AT Harker!

I wasn't able to attend as many boys' volleyball games as I felt I should have last year, but I believe this story took place during our own Harker boys volleyball tournament in the Blackford gym. Harker was playing Bellarmine in a pretty intense (from what I heard) game. Volleyball, during tournaments, is usually best out of 3 games- First 2 games are scored to 25 and the last game; to 15. You must win by 2 so sometimes these numbers are higher than the standard (I've seen games go to 30..) But anyways after losing the first game, Harker was pushing hard during the second game in hopes to take the match to 3. A call was made during the final points of the game in Bellarmine's favor. But just as soon as the Harker boys' faces dropped because of the loss, they also gained hope.

A blocker from Bellarmine made his way to the ref to admit a touch on the ball- ultimately handing over the point back to Harker. Now, Bellarmine won in the end anyways, but what he did is not common in competitive sports. Dan Molin loved this story so I'm sure if you want better details from someone who was right in the action, feel free to shoot him an email.

So in volleyball, they always say 'offense wins games- defense wins championships.'
Life obviously doesn't revolve around volleyball, but it is a game- you can't cheat life.

Day 9: iPhone= blogger fail

So I've been in LA since Thursday afternoon so I haven't been able to blog. And to be honest, as amazing as a thing my iPhone is, it sucks at updating my blogs. So it's your turn :) what good deed have you done/ witnessed this weekend?