| As a Swing Kid, you supervise the letter collection each month and encourage college pen pal involvement for one elementary school classroom. You will work together with your Hall Heads and the other Swing Kids in your residence hall to develop a sense of pride and community within your hall. Your role is an integral part of K-grams, as you are the direct link between the college pen pals and the rest of the program. You are their source of information about letters, projects, and other kids programs.
Main Responsibilities:
Collect Letters, Make Packages,
Have Fun:
- Collect letters from the letter drop box in the hall library on Monday night at 8pm. Check through the letters and contact, immediately, those pen pals who have not turned in their letters.
- Meet with your Hall Heads and the other Swing Kids in your hall on Monday night after the letters are due to discuss issues with the letters and upcoming events. ALL letters must be delivered to the Letter Head by Wednesday so the kids will receive them on Friday.
- Thoroughly read through all letters before you send them on to your Hall Heads!
- Create a package for the letters. You should do this one week before letters are due, so you'll have extra time to collect letters and get organized
before the letter delivery. This is your chance to be creative and original, so get wild with the packages!
- Promote fairness between the college and elementary pen pals: Every little pen pal MUST receive the same things (i.e. letters, candy, gifts, etc.)
- Inform your Hall Heads about what is going on with letters and your pen pals. Let him/her know of any problems, upcoming events, or any comments/ideas from the pen pals.
- Promptly answer any pen pal questions or direct them to someone who can help. Remember - you're the pen pal's link to K-grams!
Encourage Pride and Community in Your
Hall:
- Build relationships among college pen pals by assisting Hall Heads in organizing events such as letter-writing parties, a Rock-N-Bowl, or a pizza party in you hall!
- Frequently call or visit pen pals just to say "hi" and see how they are doing
- Work with Hall Heads to maintain the K-grams bulletin board/display in your hall, keeping it updated with the latest information
- Inform pen pals about projects in your elementary classroom, and other school events, and encourage them to attend
- Promote participation in projects, BookMARK, Kids-Fair, K-day, and other kids programs
Get Your Creative Juices Flowing:
- Meet with your Hall Heads and other Swing Kids monthly to discuss upcoming K-grams events, plan projects, and coordinate activities to do with your hall
- Create a "pen pal poster" to display all the college pen pals' photos in the elementary classroom
- Work with the other Swing Kids in your hall to generate a fun, age-appropriate, "edu-active" project involving both the elementary and college pen pals
If your pen pal has a problem
or question that you cannot answer, contact your
Hall Heads or email smile@umich.edu.
Keep swingin' and smilin'!
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