The Heyman Interages®Center is a program
of JCA® - Jewish Council for the Aging of Greater Washington.
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THE INTERAGES CONNECTOR
STAYING CONNECTED
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Staying in Touch
Hello, JCA Interages Volunteers,
MCPS UPDATE...MCPS UPDATE...MCPS UPDATE...
MCPS has changed its policy for JCA Heyman Interages volunteers. MCPS yellow badges will no longer be issued or used. Volunteers registered in a JCA Interages program should now bring a state-issued ID, such as a driver's license, and check in at the front desk of the school. If you are volunteering in a virtual JCA Interages program, please have your state-issued ID ready to show if asked. JCA Interages volunteer fingerprinting records are shared with the school. Also, MCPS is requiring that the MCPS badges be returned to MCPS. Please mail your badge(s) either to the Office of Human Resources and Development, 45 W. Gude Drive, Suite LLC14, Rockville, Maryland 20850; or to Indira Dingledine, Volunteer Manager, JCA Heyman Interages, 12320 Parklawn Drive, Rockville, MD 20852. We recommend that you take a picture of your badge for your records before returning the badge. We will keep you updated on MCPS developments.
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See volunteer opportunities anytime through our Volunteer Portal:
Please note, all opportunities require
preregistration and a background check.
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JCA Interages Program Evaluation Numbers to Celebrate! |
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A teacher at Highland Elementary School shared with us, "With the consistent opportunity to work on fluency that the volunteers are providing each week, the students are building their confidence and starting to see themselves as readers!!...The kids took the MAP-R (Measure of Academic Progress-Reading)...They each took it in the fall and then again last week and every single Session 2 student who participates in Reader's Theater showed significant gains on their RIT score."
Reader's Theater is a style of theater in which the actors present dramatic readings of narrative material. Readers use vocal expression to help the audience understand the story. Reader's Theater increases reading comprehension and reading motivation to help develop fluency through repeated exposure to text.
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New JCA Interages Facebook Page!
JCA Heyman Interages® has a new Facebook page! "Like" it to follow exciting posts :
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IN-CLASSROOM SUPPORT VOLUNTEERING:
A CLOSER LOOK
Featuring JCA Interages Volunteer
Janis Halprin
"Hola, Abuelita" (Grandmother in Spanish) say the students to Janis Halprin. Since 2014, Janis has been volunteering in the classrooms of MCPS. Janis considers her volunteering her third career. Her first two include being a high school Spanish teacher and working with college foreign students. She loves volunteering with high school and middle school students and establishing relationships with them in the classroom.
Janis recommends that volunteers come into the classroom twice a week to best get a feel for the class's rhythms, curriculum, and to get to know the students. Teachers will fill her in on what is being taught and she also takes it upon herself to look at the materials and lessons the students are assigned in class. She walks through the class, meeting with students, and helping them focus on the assignment, as well as sort through the assignment.
Students often share with her stories of their lives, including those who have just come to the United States from other countries. She is greeted with warmth and the students are always happy to see her. Janis says, "If students don't respond right away, keep coming to get to know them. Spanish is not necessary. Young people want to know that someone cares about them." The students are amazed that she is not paid, yet she wants to help them. This is very meaningful to the students.
The kids really do need extra support. Janis once met a student who was in the United States on her own. The student's family was back in El Salvador. This high school student truly needed the attention Janis could provide. She still stays in touch.
Janis encourages any volunteer to consider In-Classroom Support as a volunteer option.
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CELL PHONES FOR SENIORS
Opinion piece by Andy,
a sophomore in high school
With my phone, I can text, reply to emails, play games, access the internet, check the weather, Facetime, and use social media. I’ve grown up in the age of modern technology, so navigating all of these features comes naturally to me. Some people, however, grew up much earlier than that. My grandmother, Shiela, is one of those people.
My grandmother was born right after television was popularized. If she did have a phone, it was likely fixed to a wall. This differs drastically from modern-day phones, which are only connected to a wall when someone is charging it. People who grew up in her generation didn’t rely on technology, as my peers and I do today.
If someone I knew told me they were going to get a new phone, I would assume it would be a smartphone. Not every generation is the same, however; for some people, the most suitable phone is not a smartphone. In addition to being much older than me, my grandmother has very poor vision and declining memory. She struggles to see the objects in front of her, so how could she see a smartphone’s tiny keys?
After my grandfather passed away, my mom and dad realized that she needed a tool to help her communicate with people outside of her assisted living facility. When my grandfather was alive, they shared a phone and only he knew how to use it. But because of her deteriorating vision, a smartphone was not the solution. My mom and I conducted thorough research on the most practical alternative, and we decided that the Jitterbug Flip2 was an effective solution. The Jitterbug Flip2 has many great qualities including a long-lasting battery, a relatively cheap price, and accommodations for people who don’t have great vision or hearing abilities. There’s also a vibrant red button that, if pressed, will connect the user to Urgent Response, in case of emergency. The built-in GPS tracker allows the first responders to see where the phone currently is, which can save a person if they are unable to speak.
With her Jitterbug, my grandmother now has the ability to call me whenever she wants, without having to swipe through many screens to find the “phone app.” Fortunately, she hasn’t had to contact emergency services yet, but she could at the touch of a button. Although it may feel like an Apple or Android product is your only choice when it comes to phones, there are plenty of other options to choose from.
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MONTHLY READING TUTOR TRAINING SERIES
We hope you will join us on Zoom for our new monthly Reading Tutor Training series. We are so grateful to presenter Megan Bainbridge, Reading Specialist of the Captain James E. Daly Elementary School, who is providing the sessions. Each session focuses on a different Reading Tutor Training topic, and lasts about an hour. Pre-registration online is required.
Please note, these sessions are providing broad tips and are not intended to be certification level training.
RECORDED SESSIONS
September 2022 [Already recorded] TOPIC Science of Reading (Shift to Structured Literacy from Balanced Literacy).
October 2022 [Already recorded] TOPIC Decoding
November 2022 [Already recorded] TOPIC 3rd- 5th grade Intermediate Reading Skills
January 2023 [Already recorded] TOPIC Gathering data to inform instruction.
For the video, click here. Passcode: Passcode: V&00$1mv
UPCOMING SESSIONS
February 21, 2023 at 1:00 pm TOPIC TBD
Registration Link
Register on this link and you will receive a login link, you will also receive an email with a recording of the session.
March 21, 2023 at 1:00 pm TOPIC TBD
Registration Link
Register on this link and you will receive a login link, you will also receive an email with a recording of the session.
April 18, 2023 at 1:00 pm TOPIC TBD
Registration Link
Register on this link and you will receive a login link, you will also receive an email with a recording of the session.
May 23, 2023 at 1:00 pm TOPIC TBD
Registration Link
Register on this link and you will receive a login link, you will also receive an email with a recording of the session.
Resources
Twinkl has some free resources that align with word recognition skills.
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Alexander Graham Bell's Recordings Now Available |
National Museum of American History Will Preserve Alexander Graham Bell’s Experimental Sound Recordings.
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Seeking Volunteers
for the Annual Food Drive Committee
Join us to battle hunger! JCA Interages is seeking volunteers for a committee to help plan our annual Good Deeds Day Food Drive. Each year, JCA Heyman Interages participates in The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington's locally-led "Good Deeds Week", an international initiative. The food drive will be held on a day in March and needs community members dropping off food, as well as younger volunteers helping bring in the donations. This will meet the JCA Interages mission of providing meaningful intergenerational programming. The students will earn Service Learning Hours.
According to Harvest Share, limited access to food is not what first comes to mind when we think about Montgomery County but, in our population of over 1 million, 115,000 people are considered "food insecure." The number of residents affected has increased 37% since the pandemic began, with 41,000 children impacted. (Gundersen, C., M. Hake, A. Dewey, E. Engelhard (2020). The Impact of the Coronavirus on Food Insecurity in 2020, Update October 2020 [Data file and FAQ]. Available from Feeding America: research@feedingamerica.org).
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Free Fitness Passes in MOCO |
The Montgomery County recreation department is giving residents free fitness passes to 22 of the recreation centers. That includes access to the weight rooms, game rooms, and open gym activities. Here’s the registration link. [MoCo Gov]
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Make a gift to support the good work that we do.
You can designate your gift to intergenerational programs on the donation form.
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“I’d rather regret the risks that didn't work out than the chances I didn't take at all.
- Simone Biles
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For your convenience, past issues of the JCA Interages Connector are available on the JCA Interages website.
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Jewish Council for the Aging of Greater Washington
"Jewish Council for the Aging," "JCA," "Helping All Seniors Thrive" and "Interages" are registered trademarks of the Jewish Council for the Aging of Greater Washington, Inc. Visit us at AccessJCA.org.© 2023 Jewish Council for the Aging® All rights reserved.
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