This was Healing Hearts first meeting of this school year. At 5 p.m. I left campus with my roommate, who also volunteers at Healing Hearts with me, and we drove to Newport News’s Human Services at 6060 Jefferson Ave. The tall building can be seen as soon as you get off the overpass. Originally a bank, Human Services now occupies the majority of floors in the building. We get there around 5:30 and go to the 2nd floor where we are provided dinner. Tonight it was Jimmy John’s; I had a turkey sandwich and a bottle of water! We sign in and sit next to our supervisor Julie, in a large room with tables setup in a rectangle around the room. This is the first time we’ve seen her since the end of school last year, so we spend this time catching up. She …show more content…
tells us about the new group and what we should expect. Around 6 p.m. the foster kids and their foster parents start arriving, after they sign in they choose their dinner and pick a spot around the table. It was an extremely small group tonight! We had four kids in total, a little boy around 7, then three, siblings’ two girls, 12, and 10, and a boy who was 9. They were all pretty quiet. We also met the other volunteers we would be working with, both women, one in her mid 40’s and one in her mid 60’s, they were both new to Healing Hearts. At 6:30 p.m. we cleaned up dinner, made sure everyone was signed in and headed to the elevators to go up to the 6th floor where the preteen group of Healing Hearts is held. We go to a much smaller conference room on the 6th floor where the tables have been pushed back to create room for activities in the middle of the floor. Julie instructs the kids’ to sit in a circle in the middle of the floor for opening circle. Julie then explains the purpose of Healing Hearts and the rules that we all must follow. Basically saying that all the kids are here because they all have foster care in common. She shares that Healing Hearts is a safe place that they can talk about the difficult feeling they are going through. There are ten rules in Healing Hearts, but the most important rules other than no put-downs, are the privacy rule and the break rule. The privacy rule states that nothing the kids say will leave the room, no one will tell their foster parents, their biological parent, their social worker, their lawyers, whatever they say will stay among the people in the room, unless they choose to tell someone else. The Break rule states that we talk about a lot of hard things in Healing Hearts and if it ever gets to be too much, the kids can ask to step outside with an adult and take a break. These are the most important rules because they really invite the kids to open up. After we went over the rules we started opening circle, which is where we light a candle in the middle of the circle for the people we miss and then one by one we go around saying our name, age, the person we’re missing, and a fun fact (Julie picks the category of the fact right then and there). Everyone participates both kids and volunteers. Julie then explains the activity for the night; because it was our first meeting we made nametags. Everyone was to pick a color star and write their name in the middle, their age in one of the points, the person (or people) they’re missing in one of the points, and then three fun facts in the remaining points. Then they got to decorate it with whatever they wanted, markers, stickers, glitter, ect. Before we started the activity another volunteer showed up, she is always in charge of the Volcano room. The Volcano room is a small room that has been converted into a space where the kids can safely get out their “big” feelings.
It is equipped with balls, jump ropes, foam swords, basketball hoops, bubble wrap, a mini trampoline, a boxing bag, two giant inflatable bubble balls that the kids can use to run into each other without harming themselves or anyone else, and a giant stuffed man named max, he is white on one side and black on the other, and this is the only “person” the kids are allowed to hit. As part of our volunteer responsibilities, my roommate and I are to take turns being in the Volcano room and being with the main group, because Julie believes you get to better understand the kids this way. I was to stay with the main group and make nametags while my roommate and another volunteer took two (the number varies depending on the number of kids there that day) kids to the Volcano room for about 10 to 15 minutes (the time also varies depending on the number of kids there that day). I aided one of the girls with their nametag, helping them spell words, and finding stickers that represent who they were. I then had them help me complete mine to try to bond with them. Once we were done the groups switched to give everyone a chance in the Volcano room, and time to finish their
nametags. We had such a small group this time that the volunteers outnumbered the kids (this does not usually happen), the other volunteers were helping the boys with their nametags, so I just hung out and talked with the kids about their day, and why they picked the decorations that they did. Once the Volcano room group came back we went around the room and shared our nametags explaining every detail for example, mine said “Bridget Callery” in the center, 20 (in sparkly stickers) for my age on one point, my parents written in marker, for the person/people I miss in another corner, and my three fun facts were I like to nap, which I showed by drawing Z’s everywhere, I love food, which I showed by putting a collage of food stickers together, and I love the beach which I showed by making a scene of a beach with a palm tree popup sticker and under the sea animal stickers. Once we all went around the room and shared, we gave Julie our nametags so she could laminate them for us for next time. At around 7:20 p.m. we all helped clean up and then we sat in a circle in the middle of the room for closing circle. At closing circle we go around stating our name, age, and our favorite part of the night, then the kids get to blow out the candle we lit in the beginning during opening circle. By this time the foster parents are waiting to pick up the kids to leave. The volunteers then finish cleaning up by wiping down the tables, putting away the art supplies, and moving the tables back to their original conference room setup. Then all the volunteers come together to talk about the night, what had happened, how we felt, and what the kids reactions were. Tonight was different from usual because everyone was so new, and the kids were so well-behaved, we did have one of the sisters start talking about an experience that she went through recently with her birth father, causing an outburst from her sister scolding her for sharing. We talked about how we need to work on letting the kids know Healing Hearts is an open and safe place to share their experiences. I was very happy with the first meeting. I really did miss Healing Hearts, being here with the new kids made me miss some of the older kids who are now 13 and are too old to attend the preteen group of Healing Hearts, but I was excited to work with these new kids. They seemed like an amazing bunch that were really hurting and wanted to share what they are going through. The meeting ended at 8:00 p.m. and my roommate and I drove back to campus, sharing what we each experienced that night because one of us is always in the Volcano room. 10/13 We left at 5 p.m. and got to Healing Hearts around 5:20 p.m. We had Jimmy John’s sandwiches again. We were a little early so we signed in and talked with the new volunteers to get to know them a little bit more. They are some amazing women! Both are fun, loving, and exciting, always interested in our college lives and reminiscing about their days in college. As the kids start rolling in, I noticed a boy from last year, I was so excited because he is so smart and has the biggest heart, I thought he would really fit in with the two new boys that were at Healing Hearts the first meeting. The group was small again this time; it was the same individuals as the first time; plus the returning boy from last year. The atmosphere was interesting because the siblings seemed to be warming up to Healing Hearts pretty well, during dinner they started chasing each other around the room, they were eventually told to sit down, but it showed that they felt comfortable enough to start acting up, which is a good sign. At 6:30 p.m. after we cleaned up dinner, we went upstairs to the 6th floor where our group meets for Healing Hearts. We sat in a circle, went over the rules, and did opening circle, stating our name, age, the person or people we were missing, and a fun fact; today’s fun fact was “what is your favorite candy?” Julie then explained our activity for the day it was called “Past, Present, and Future”. Basically everyone gets a big piece of paper, and the adults help fold it into three sections. The kids were to draw or write words, feelings, or pictures of their past, present, and future in the designated sections on their paper. I stayed in the main room again this time. The volunteer who usually does the Volcano room was late today, but texted that she was on her way she was just stuck in traffic, so Julie had everyone start working on the project until the volunteer got to Healing Hearts, and we could split the group up for the Volcano room. I love this project; it shows the kids that progression in life, and hope is achievable. I started working with the little boy who went to Healing Hearts last year. Sometimes it takes awhile for the kids to take the activity seriously, they are only 7-12 year olds. At first he was joking around and put that he had money in the past, has it now, and was going to have a lot of it in his future, but after a few minutes of talking about his real money situation, he readjusted his artwork and drew big X’s over the money in the past and present, and drew his feelings of being sad in the past, wishing and hoping that he could be with his parents in the present, and then his ideal family in the future. My roommate was working with another young boy who did not want to participate, he was putting up a front, usually when the kids do this it’s because they have really big feelings that they don’t know how or don’t want to face, so we convinced him that instead of drawing or writing his feelings he could assign each color a feeling and scribble or dot on the paper whatever he was feeling in the past and present, and what he wanted to feel in the future. Eventually the other volunteer got to Healing Hearts and we split the kids up so they could have some time in the Volcano room. We had half the group share their projects and then we pulled out a board game, which asks them questions about foster care and the situations that they must face. It asks them how they feel about certain things, or how to deal with certain situations; once a kid answered Julie would give them candy to encourage answers. Once the Volcano room kids got back we sent the other kids to the Volcano room, and the new group that just got back got to finish the activity and then played the game!
This meeting lasted about 1 hour and I felt very welcomed in this warm compassionate setting. Attending this meeting, I knew that I wasn’t going to be judged or looked down upon because of my situation or issues. Everyone who attended this meeting has a story to tell and that is why they choose to come. I choose to attend this meeting because of my past struggles, so I felt that I could relate to the material that was presented. The ...
"Lost Hearts" written by M R James is a disturbing yet intriguing short story. M R James uses intense descriptions and shows ghostly figures to create tension. Throughout the story unpredicted events take place. Mr Abney’s obsession with pagans and religion makes the reader question why he is so interested about taking in his orphan cousin and how it could benefit him. “The Professor of Greek at Cambridge had been heard to say that no one knew more of the religious beliefs of the later pagans than did the owner of Aswarby.” We learn about the disappearance of the two previous children who had also been taken in by Mr Abney. After the ghostly sightings of the two children with their hearts ripped out, are witnessed by young cousin Stephen, it creates a sense of foreshadowing events and suggests to the reader, the third victim will be innocent Stephen.
While John is under a great deal of stress, he is in the hands of seasoned professionals who all share the same goal, getting John better. St. Luke’s, a medical center geared towards helping veterans, has provided John a knowledgeable health care provider team to help meet his needs. John’s interprofessional team is being put together by John’s primary care physician, Dr. Jackson, and his licensed clinical social worker, Tessa. The team is kept small due to John’s reservations about opening up to people. The rest of his team will consist of a veterans affairs representative to help John seek any veterans benefits he is entitled to, as well as a mental health case manager. Lastly, a CNA assigned to help John integrate into life in a home with others while he tries to get a handle on his depression and Alzheimer’s.
Have you ever felt the urge to know how it feels to be insane. Have you wonder how it would feel to be rid of something that haunted you for eight days. Have you felt the thrill of getting rid of it by ending it. I might be a little crazy but, I strongly believe that tell tale heart is appropriate for the 8th grade standard. “What is the Tell Tale Heart?”, you my ask. Tell Tale Heart is a horror genre story that is about a man who suffers from a mental disease, and he lives with a old man that never harmed him or wronged him. What made him kill him was because of the old man’s eye. “It was like a vulture’s eye” (pg.89) so he stalked him in his sleep every night for seven days just to see the old man’s eye open. His verge to insanity he was not stable. He was already ill, but instead of seeking for help he states that it sharpened his senses. He stated that he was trustworthy (no end mark; reread this run-on
The Heart Sutra is a Mahayana Buddhist text. Mahayana means “The Great Vehicle” (41). This refers to the bodhisattva vow and path, which involves developing the ten perfections. The Heart Sutra is a text centered on the training to develop the perfection of wisdom. At the heart of this training is the realization about the truth about emptiness.
Poe writes “The Tell Tale Heart” from the perspective of the murderer of the old man. When an author creates a situation where the central character tells his own account, the overall impact of the story is heightened. The narrator, in this story, adds to the overall effect of horror by continually stressing to the reader that he or she is not mad, and tries to convince us of that fact by how carefully this brutal crime was planned and executed. The point of view helps communicate that the theme is madness to the audience because from the beginning the narrator uses repetition, onomatopoeias, similes, hyperboles, metaphors and irony.
The two videos that I like the most from this class was the ted talk name “America’s native prisoners of war” by Aaron Huey, and the documentary “When Your Hands are tied” by Mia Boccella and Marley Shebala. These two videos brought my attention because in the first video which is the ted talk the author of the video is an outsider of the society that he is trying to represent he did not go through the experience that the native people that he is trying to defend went through. In the documentary when your hands are tied this is a little bit more personal I think because this is a documentary where people from the tribe and people that went through all this obstacles are trying to heal themselves.
Mona Counts works in the village of Mt. Morris, Pennsylvania. It is a medically underserved area and a HPSA (health professional shortage area). The town has an extremely poor economic base and majority of Mona’s patient population are poverty level. Mona is not worried about the money and will tell a patient to come in for a check up, regardless of whether or not they have health care. One patient said, “she is old-fashioned, she talks to you and tells you what you nee...
In the “Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator is extremely uncanny due to the reader’s inability to trust him. Right from the beggining the reader can tell that the narrator is crazy although the narrator does proclaim that he is sane. Since a person cannot trust a crazy person, the narrator himself is unreliable and therefore uncanny. Also as the story progress the narrator falls deeper and deeper into lunacy making him more and more unreliable, until the end of the story where the narrator gives in to his insanity, and the reader loses all ability to believe him.
The book I read was call When Calls the Heart by Janette Oke, it has 220 pages, and the genre is Western Drama. The book is about a woman named Elizabeth she had gone through school to become a teacher. She had lived in the big city, but then moved to a small coal mining town in Canada to teach their children. Elizabeth was a very beautiful woman. When she had got to the town she had decided that all her focus would be on teaching school. Then she meets the town's Mounted Police. It tells about her everyday teachings and the hard things she would have to go through to teach them. Helping students after school to make sure that they understood what was happening in their studies. “Thomas needs special help with his lessons.
The behavior of the narrator in The Tell-Tale heart demonstrate characteristic that are associated with people with obsessive-compulsive disorder and paranoid schizophrenia . When Poe wrote this story in 1843 obsessive-compulsive disorder and paranoia had not been discovered. However in modern times the characteristics demonstrated by the narrator leads people to believe that he has a mental illness. Poe’s narrator demonstrates classic signs throughout the story leading the reader to believe that this character is mad
Is it really possible to die of a broken heart? When people hear about broken heart, they typically think that you have broken up with a boyfriend/girlfriend, and believe that the phrase “broken heart” is just that, a phrase. Those thoughts are incorrect because a broken heart is a real thing. Many people haven’t heard of “Broken Heart Syndrome” or “Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy.” What is broken heart syndrome? It is a syndrome that occurs when there is a sudden heart failure that occurs about an emotional trauma. This syndrome was first recognized by Japanese doctors in the 1990’s. The reason it got its name is because of the shape of the heart muscle is when it occurs, the shape resembles a Japanese octopus trap, which is called “Takotsubo.”
In our lives we face multiple challenges. It makes you feel like tomorrow won’t come or that the sun won’t shine again. We wonder when the pain will stop or if the hardest days of our lives will be the last. At a very young age, my journey of hardest days were just about to start for me. This journey of mine began on the day I took my first breath on this beautiful earth. Seconds after that moment, life handed me my first challenge.
Psychoanalytic criticism is a term used to describe how and why a person behaves. There are two different types of psychoanalytic criticisms which were developed by Freud and Jung. Freud’s archetypes are the most common in “The Tell Tale Heart.” Freud’s archetypes are displayed throughout “The Tell Tale Heart” by how the narrator shows Id, which is the most dominant, as he kills the old man, Superego, as he shows remorse, and planning to kill displaying Ego.
What does the word "heart" mean? Strictly speaking, a heart is an organ of the physical body which pumps blood into the organism. The term "heart," however, extends to more than the physical body.