The Culminating Blog

This project came with a lot of mixed emotions: ecstatic, joyful, frustration, relief, annoyance, bitterness, and more! However, the whole experience has been a great learning experience and I'm glad I had the opportunity to do this project. I learned a lot about myself and child development. Although I couldn't help out in the hospital, I did academic development at a local elementary school, Ponderosa Elementary. I helped teach in a kindergarden class. I tried several ways to teach the children, but the best way was hands on learning. They worked better with hands on learning because when I orally explained the lesson they didn't understood it, and when I demonstrated the lesson without them copying, it took them awhile to understand it because they weren't all paying attention. They got side tracked. I had them do the pre-lesson with me, so they can have muscle memory.When I was teaching the kindergartners, I did the each activity with them, so I can continue to learn with them. I had the students copy what I did before we did a lesson. This helped them with their learning skills and most if not all understood the lesson within minutes. I had to talk in a gentle voice, so the children wouldn't shut down. We worked on letter sounds, letter recognition, sentence starters and conjunctions! I had them read the alphabet everyday, so they can remember how important it is to know you letter recognition and sounds. We would play big bag games, which they chose a bean bag and whichever letter it said, they had to say the sound, what letter it is, and an object starting with the letter. With the advanced group, I made a game, which I gave them two flashcards and they had to make a sentence using the two objects on the flashcards. They were amazing at this! I had to help some of them, but majority of them got it. It was interesting listening to how string their sentences were at such a young age. 

I gained self-relaince, confidence, and resilience. I've always been a timid girl who was always hesitate on everything. I always want everybody's opinion. I usually need guidance to make feel "comfortable", but when I started this problem, I learned how to rely on myself and my instincts. It felt amazing and knowing I made an impact to many young lives. These children believed in me and I believed in them, and that made me strive till the end in this project. I usually talk so fast people don't understand what I'm saying. I don't even know what I'm saying! But when I was teaching the students, I learned how to talk slow, learned how to think before I spoke and learned how to pronounce words. I still have trouble, but it's getting better. After a long day at school, I would go to community service to teach the children and they always put my mood in a good mood. They taught me that there is a brighter side to everything. Even when they were struggling, they never gave up. They encouraged each other to understand the lesson, and I will never forget this lesson. 

There weren't that many challenges along the way besides being patience. I would get frustrated when the students didn't listen to me as I was trying to help them be Pros at their alphabets, but I never showed the frustration. I would just stay quiet for a moment then wait patiently until they are ready to learn. This really helped. They felt bad that I had to wait in the end. Also, I found it difficulty when I had to change up the plans at that moment because we took too long on something or went by quickly over something. This only happened two times. I would either finish teaching the lesson the next week, or have them finish it during play time the next day, and if I went too fast on a lesson, I would call out random objects in the classroom and had them say the letter, letter sound, have them put it in a sentence. They loved it because they made their own sentence on the spot.

This capstone experience has been amazing. I love working with children and I can't wait to work with them in the future. I hope to still volunteer at Ponderosa when I come home from break from college. My mentor and students were awesome and I can actually say they made a positive impact to my life.

18th Day- April 11, 2014

On Friday, I tutored my little cousin with division. The division problems had remainders. We first did the remainder problems with double digits. He got it right away. However, when we moved onto a more complex worksheet with 3-4 digits, he got stuck. I told him it was okay and to just take one step at a time. I had him cover up the 3rd and or 4th digit, so he can understand a complex problem. If he didn't know how many times a number went in the number, I had him to the opposite of division, which is multiplication. He didn't understand what I was saying, until I showed him an example. He's getting better and better at math now I need to pace him, so when it comes to tests, he can finish all the problems or when it comes to timed tests he can get as many problems done as he can. 

Time logged in for session: 3 hours

Total time logged in: 25 hours 

17th Day- March 25th, 2014

On Tuesday, I had my cousin write complex sentences with his weekly words. Since he's in 3rd, I wanted him to challenge himself. He did really good! However, he just used the wrong prepositions. Next, I'm going to give him a prompt and wore 8-10 sentences, so he can learn how to write paragraphs the essays. After, I taught him how to do longer division. This time the number was  4 digits. He confused himself. I told him "it's nothing different or harder, just take one step at a time". This calmed him down and began to slowly understand it. After he got a hang of it, the questions switched over to 3 digits and forgot how to do it. I understand how he can get confused because easier things can be harder. After math, he read his book to me. His English is improving, he just stutters. How can you prevent that because I always stutter when I publically speak? 

Time logged in for session: 3 hours

Total time logged in: 22 hours 

16th Day- March 24, 2014

Yesterday, I tutored my cousin again. He still had trouble with division. He had 3 math worksheets to complete by the next day. We only got to finish two because it was getting past his bed time. I helped him with each problem, again. I didn't know I had this much patience because every 2-3 problems were repetitive. He kept getting stuck, so he guessed. I told him not to guess because he kept guessing wrong. I told him he needed to really think about it, so he did. I've learned that teaching math is more difficult that teaching spelling. On his spelling work, he went through it like a breeze. Tonight, I'm going to print out 1-9 times table so when he does his multiplication or division he can refer to the table.

Time logged in for session: 3 hours

Total time logged in: 19 hours 

15th Day- March 23, 2014

On March 23, 2014, I tutored my cousin in math. It was only one worksheet on division. I helped him with each and every problem. It was difficult because my cousin has trouble with math. I tried to teach him different methods like doing the problems he knows first, covering the ones places of the problem, and more but it's hard to explain. It's took an hour and a half to do one worksheet, but he understood it by the end. Then he had to read to me for 30 mins. He's really good at reading, especially English being his second language.

Time logged in for session: 2 hours

Total time logged in: 16 hours 

14th Day- March 18, 2014

Today, I played with all three kindergarten classes outside for 30 mins. After, I had the Tuesday group come with me to the rug, so I can read them "Green Shamrocks". The Tuesday group is slower than the Monday group, but it's okay because I get to work with the different levels. Before I read the story, I asked them what's the beginning, middle and end of a story. They said the beginning occurs on the first couple pages of the story, middle has the problem, and end is where the problem is fixed. I read them the story and stopped consecutively to ask them questions about the book to keep them engaged and because some were looking out into space. After I asked them what the 3 different sections were. The teacher and I had to help them. I couldn't stay for their worksheet because time had ran out. 

Time logged in for session: 1 hour

Total time logged in: 14 hours 

13th Day- March 17, 2014

Today is St. Patty's day! The kids were so excited to tell me the leprechaun came and took the coins. Their stories were so cute! Today, I read them a St. Patrick's story, "Green Shamrocks". The students had to pay attention to the beginning, middle, and end. After repeating the story several times, the students wrote down the beginning, middle, and end. And after drew a picture. The students had a difficult time understand in the different sections because they mainly remembered what happened at the end. I miss kingergatren and all the activies they do. :( 

Time logged in for session: 1 hour

Total time logged in: 13 hours