Monday+Reflections

~ Monday Reflections-February 21

1. The first thing that my buddy and I did was to get some general facts about his life through the internet. Then she showed me her book and I realized that we would get a lot more important facts in the book that she picked out. So we moved to reading the book and began and finished writing important facts about his childhood and then moved on to reading about his adult life when we ended the session on Thursday.

2. One of the challenges that we encountered was that she was very antsy on Thursday; instead of making her sit in her chair I let her stand up and that seemed to help. Sometimes she would have a hard time remembering what we just read; so we did a lot of talking and breaking things down into smaller pieces so she could understand it.

3. I think things went very well in breaking down the material. I believe that I was supportive in helping her stay on task and helping her to understand the material. I think next session we need to work on keeping her even more focused on the task at hand.

4. My plans for the sessions this week are for us to finish her dear diary for his early life, finish his adulthood and to start working on chapter 3 and figure out his accomplishments. I plan on doing this by using graphic organizers and helping to keep her motivated.

~ Monday Reflections-February 28

1. My buddy and I finished reading the book she had on Leroy Paige, which took the whole time. This however helped us to get a lot of facts about his adult life and accomplishments. We also started to organize all of the facts more. She is going to start working on the white organizer packet on Tuesday.

2. One of the challenges that we encountered was that she was taking so many notes that her hand started to hurt. When she told me this I let her take a break and we just sat and talk for a little about Leroy Paige and what we thought would happen next in his life.

3. I think things went very well. We ended up getting a lot of facts this week. She seemed to be having fun and enjoying finding out all of this new information about her person. I believe that I was supportive in helping her stay on task and helping her to understand the material. I think our big thing for improving on for next week is I will have to teach her how to organize facts in a better way.

4. My plans for the sessions this week are for her to get her organizer packet checked off.

~Monday Reflections-March 5

1. My buddy and I started to organize all of the facts that she had gotten from the week before. On Tuesday we started working on the white organizer packet. She was able to finish Chapter 1-Early Life and she started on Chapter 2 and made it all the way to page 6. On Thursday she was able to finish up Chapter 2- Adulthood and complete Chapter 3- Accomplishments.

2. My buddy knew exactly what she wanted to put in her presentation so putting the facts together was easy. One challenge that we had though was that she was writing so much that her hand started to hurt. We overcame this challenge by me telling her to take a break for about a minute or so and let her hand rest.

3. I think I did well at keeping her motivated and keeping her on task. I was also very supportive at helping her with her spelling. I also helped her with the structure of her sentences. The area I need to improve on for next week is to find ways to help her understand the rules of grammar more.

4. My plans for next week are that we will be able to finish the whole white organizer packet. I will prepare by breaking this up into smaller goals for Tuesday and Thursday so it is easier for her to handle. Tuesday I am hoping to finish Chapter 4- About the author and on Thursday I am hoping that we will be able to finish typing everything on the iPad.

~Monday Reflections-March 12

1. On Tuesday my buddy and I started and were able to finish Chapter 4- About the Author. She was then able to get her white organizer packet checked off. She then started typing on the iPad and was able up to finish up to Chapter 2. On Thursday she was able to finish typing the project on the iPad. When she finished typing we had a little bit more than 30 minutes left. We were able to pick out pictures to import from the internet and she started to decorate her StoryKit in that time.

2. This week went extremely well because my buddy was really focused. She said that she really wanted to start using the iPad so I told her we could as soon as we finished the paper copy. This was all she needed to get herself motivated. This week we actually did not have any problems. I believe that was why we were able to get so much done. I was very proud of her this week.

3. I think I was really supportive at helping her with her spelling. I made her sound out her words which really seemed to help her. I think I was really good at helping her to focus her ideas for what she was going to write about. I think I could improve on how to help her when she gets antsy. I was thinking maybe after each chapter she finishes she could stand up and walk around for a minute or two.

4. I hope by the end of next week she will be completely done with the StoryKit. I will prepare for next week by setting goals for her on each day. For example; I am hoping that Tuesday we will finish decorating the StoryKit and finish doing her VoiceThreads. On Thursday I am hoping that we can just go over her presentation and make her feel comfortable with it.

~Monday Reflections-March 26

1. On Tuesday we finished decorating the whole book and we did three out of the four VoiceThreads. On Thursday unfortunately my buddy was not there so I could not finish the VoiceThreads with her.

2. One of the challenges that we encountered was that she was not there to finish the project. A challenge that we encountered on Tuesday was that she was not feeling creative. We handled this by looking at some of her old pages that she had decorated to inspire her. This seemed to really work. Another challenge is that she will have to do the VoiceThread by herself when her teacher gives her time.

3. I think I did well at keeping her on task and focus. I think I was very supportive in helping her find her creativity again. A thing I would improve on for next week is trying to find something to help her motivate herself more.

4. My plans for this session next week is to help her feel comfortable in giving her presentation. I will prepare for this by going over her presentation with her. I will also prepare by thinking of strategies to tell her to help her for when she gives her presentation.

~April 2

1. On Tuesday we were able to finish the last voice recording that we needed to get done. We also used this day to put in the bibliography. At the beginning of Thursday we decorated the bibliography pages. We then used the rest of the day to go over her presentation.

2. One of the challenges that we had was that when we were trying to do the last voice recording we could not find a place that was quiet enough. We ended up having to go into the classroom, which was still a little noisy. We ended up having to ask some of the other people in the classroom to be a little quieter which caused things to work out really well. One thing that went very well was that when she was doing her voice recording she spoke very loudly and clearly. She also did very well at typing out the bibliography. It was very long but she did a great job at just sticking with it.

3. When she was doing the bibliography she was very good at sticking with it but she did get frustrated in the middle of typing it. I was able to help calm her down and remind her it is not a race. I also told her that it is not about how fast you do something it is all about the quality of your work. She responded very well to this and continued to type. I think I was very good at that situation because I was able to help build her confidence a little bit. I was also able to help her stay on task, because when she got frustrated she was almost willing to give up, but I was able to get her motivated to do the assignment again.

4. My plans for next week are to listen to some great presentations. During these presentations I will be watching to see if there are any other good tips I could tell her on what to do or what not to do.

~April 9

On Tuesday we were not there. On Thursday we went and saw the first day of presentations. The presentations were great. I was so surprised that they were that good. Some students needed to talk a little louder but most of the students talked in a good volume and were very clear. I think the one bad thing was that none of the students really looked up. I know they were reading the StoryKit like it was a book, but an improvement for next time could be to tell the students to look up after they are done presenting each page. One thing that I really liked was that when one student struggled with a word the other students would try and whisper it to him. I also really liked how the students did not make fun of him for struggling but instead when he was finished told him that he did a great job. I think this says a lot about how the teacher has set up the classroom.

~April 23

On Tuesday and Thursday we had another round of presentations. The round of presentations on Tuesday and Thursday were great. You could tell that these students learned from the first round of presentations. They were much louder and spoke much more clearly. The eye contact was low, but that was fine because the assignment does make it difficult to look up. One of my favorite parts of these presentations was listening to their voice recordings on Dear Diary. I love listening to how the students would really get in to it and try very hard to actually sound like their person. My buddy Constance went first on Thursday. I thought she did awesome! She spoke clearly and loudly even though she was extremely nervous. She even looked up at the classroom when her voice recordings were playing, which was something that we discussed earlier. One improvement she could make is to throughout the presentation keep the volume in her voice up. I could tell when she was getting nervous because she would start to get quieter in her voice. I would also tell her to next time be more proud of her project and to let that show by standing up straight, talking loudly at all times and looking more at the audience. These skills will come with the more practice she gets; but she did a great job. I was very proud of her.