"Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school."
Albert Einstein
9/8/16: I came up with my capstone idea to start up or volunteer at a elementary or middle school after school homework program to help kids get their homework done and help them with their school work. I thought this would be a good idea for me because I used to have a problem with doing my homework and I don't want kids to have the same problem as I did.
9/12/16: I sent out an email, reaching out to my former 5th grade teacher at derynoski elementary school, asking to try and set up a meeting to try and talk to him more about my idea. I got a reply later that day, but my teacher said that it would be a better idea for me to propose my idea to the middle school because of transportation issues. I was a little disappointed that I was denied but I knew that it was a possibility so I moved on and began to type out my email to my middle school teacher at John F. kennedy middle school.
9/15/16: Today I sent out my email reaching out to the teacher at John F. kennedy middle school. I really hope I get another quick response because I want to try and start working on this project as fast as I can.
9/16/16: I got a response from the teacher. He was glad to hear from me and wants to set up a meeting with me and ask me a few questions about my project. I was very excited to see that he was interested in helping me with my project and I look forward to scheduling a meeting with him.
9/17/16: I set up a meeting for wednesday on the 21st, I was also told to email the vice principal of John F. Kennedy middle school, to see if it was alright with administration. I'm looking forward to the meeting on wednesday.
9/19/16: my meeting with Mr. DiNello was canceled, due to a important meeting that has come up for hm. We are now trying to set up a meeting for sometime next week. I was a little disappointed, but i look forward to setting up a meeting with him next week.
9/23/16: Today our proposal letters where due and i handed mine in. I'm nervous about it but i'm very confident I did well on it and i hope i get good feedback on it.
9/26/16: I finally got a response from the assistant principal from JFK middle school, she wants me to call her and give her more information about my project idea. I Hope to be able to meet with Mrs. Boutilier and give her a call some time this week.
9/30/16: I met with Ms. Boutilier today during my lunch period. I made a phone call to JFK middle school to try and talk with the assistant principal, but she was busy and was told to call back at a later time, I was also told to contact, the head of the YMCA after school care program at Derynoski elementary school, and I called HMTCA to get the contact information of the head of the after school programs there as well.
10/3/16: I recieved a email today from someone over at HMTCA, about volunteering after school there. Unfortunately they did not have a volunteer form for me to complete at the time but they said that they will try to find it and send it to me as soon as possible
10/5/16: Today I recieved a email from the head of the after school care program at the Southington YMCA. Unfortunately she told me that there are no volunteer opportunities for the after school program at the YMCA.
10/5/16 I Finally got a call call back from the vice principal at JFK middle school, She said that they would love for me to come in and help some of the 7th and 8th graders, but she wants to know more about the project and when i'll be doing it.
10/6/16: I told Ms Boutilier today that I got a response and now I am working with my 4th and 5th block teachers to see if they would allow me to leave early every friday to go and do my capstone project at JFK.
10/10/16: I am now set to begin my project in 2-3 weeks, once I improve my grades and my teachers allow me to go
10/11/16: I am currently trying to set up a meeting with Ms. vitcavage at JFK to talk more about what i'll be doing during my capstone, and to ask her to be my mentor
10/11/16: Today I met Brandyn mercado, An 8th grader here at SMSA, I will be tutoring and mentoring him for capstone and trying to improve his grades to allow him to take high school courses the second half of the year
10/12/16: Today although it was brief, I met with my brandyn and talked a little more about what we will be doing and we will begin tutoring on friday.
10/15/16: Today I emailed Ms. Vitcavage at JFK, she wanted to set up a meeting with me to talk more about my capstone project, and to talk to me more in person. I am really looking forward to this because, I am very eager to get my project started, and I hope our meeting goes well.
10/19/16: Today I met with Ms. Vitcavage at JFK. I went to JFK at 9 to meet her. The meeting went very well, she seemed very excited about my capstone and hopes I can start soon. Before I can start my project she wants to see my proposal letter and would like to get a email from Ms. Boutilier. I also asked If Ms. Vitcavage would be my mentor, she said that it would be very difficult for her to be my mentor, but she said she would think about it.
10/19/16: I was also able to meet with Mr. DiNello, My old 6th grade science teacher, who I originally reached out to for my capstone project. He also seemed very excited about my capstone and even offered to be my mentor if Ms. Vitcavage is not able to. Im very excited about this and hope that I will be able to work with Mr. DiNello while doing my capstone.
10/24/16: Today I met with ms. Boutilier and told her about my meeting with ms. Vitcavage. I asked her if she could email me more information about the capstone project so that I could send it to Ms.Vitcavage.
10/26/16: Today me and Ms. Vitcavage started talking about my start and end dates. I know that I will probably end it around March or April, but I'm still not sure about my start date, I really want to start by the end of November.
10/28/16: Today me and Ms. Vitcavage reached a good start date for November 18th. Im very excited and I'm ready to start, I just need approval from my 4th and 5th block teachers, and approval from Ms. Boutilier.
11/1/16: Today I began to read through all of my research for my research paper. It's going to very tough having to read through all of the research that I have, but it will be worth it in the end.
11/9/16: Today I began the rough draft of my research paper, with the help of my outline I should be able to get it done pretty easily, I typed about a page and a half after the first day.
11/10/16: Today I continued my research paper, I typed another page and I am feeling very confident about my paper so far.
11/11/16: I am a little over halfway done with my paper and I am feeling good about it. I look forward to turning it in on Monday.
11/12/16: Today I finally finished my research paper, I didn't quite get all five of the pages done but I still feel really good about my papers.
11/14/16; Today is the day the research paper is due. I felt very confident turning it in, until mckay told me I had an error and had to reprint, this happened several time. Each time I reprinted he found another error and made me reprint again. I reprinted my paper so many times they had to put more printer paper in the printer. By the end of class he told me to take my paper home, fix it some more and submit it to turn it in by the end of the day for a grade. I was very disappointed that I had to reprint so many times
11/18/16: My first day on site for my capstone didn't go the way I had hoped. When I arrived Ms. VItcavage was in a long meeting and didn't finish until I only had 20 minutes left. She told me that she had completely forgot that today was the day I was starting. I was upset because I was looking forward to being able to start today, but we made the best out of the situation. I told her that I was thinking about Mr. DiNello to be my mentor and that I needed to ask him so she called him down and I asked him to be my mentor and he agreed. I was very excited that he agreed to be my mentor, which means I can finally submit my proposal letter. At the end of the day Ms. Vitcavage apologized and said that I can finally start my project next week.
11/25/16: Today was the day I was finally able to officially start my project. When I got there at 1:30 I headed down to the first classroom to help Mrs. Hughes’s 7th grade math class. On my way over I didn't really know what to expect but I was still excited. When I got to the classroom, I was then told that Mrs.Hughes was absent and there was a sub teaching. The sub did not know what to do with me so she just made me correct their class work and I didn't get a chance to meet the kids. When the bell rung I walked down to Ms. Hebert's class to out her 8th grade math support, but again I was told that she to was sick and had a sub teaching. I couldn't believe my first day was going this bad. The Sub again did not know what to do with me so she just gave the kids a free class. Ms. Hebert's class was a lot smaller than I expected, there are only 5 kids, while Mrs. Hughes’s class had around 20. My visit was messed up again for the second week and a row and I feel like I haven't even started yet.
12/2/16: As I was on my way to start my second day at my capstone site, I hit a bit of traffic on the way. I started getting nervous that i would be late and I wouldn't be able to make it on time I wanted to make a good impression for the teachers since they were both out sick the last time. I just barely made it on time and I hurried down to Ms. Hughes classroom. When I got there again I was hit with a little disappointment as they had to do testing that day and I really didn't get to do to much but Ms. Hughes did officially introduce me to the class right before they left for the next class. I stayed back and had a talk with Ms. Hughes about what i would be doing in the class and how I would be interacting with the students. It was a little different then I expected because my plan was to work just with 8th graders, but her class was all 7th graders. After we finished our talk i headed down to Ms. Hebert's classroom when I arrived i was finally able to meet Ms. Hebert and get a proper introduction to the class. I knew of the bat that this class would be a lot easier to remember all of the names of the students since there were only five kids. Each one of them had completely different personalities. Josh was a very kind a polite student, and is always looking to help someone out. Jose is a very quiet student and keeps to himself mostly. Niko is a little on the odd side but he's a great student and works very hard on his work. Nick loves sports especially basketball. Antonio is a motor mouth, he was out sick the week before, so I didn't meet him then, but Antonio is always talking and has very little interest in his work. After I was introduced to the class they began to work on a worksheet that the teacher gave them and I was able to work 1 on 1 with any of the kids that needed help with the worksheet. I sat down with niko to help him through the worksheet, and halfway through it, i'll never forget what he told me. Out of nowhere Niko told me that he threw his calculator out his window that morning. I was pretty confused but I asked why and he told me it was for a science project. I paused for a brief moment trying to think of a project that would need him to throw a calculator out the window. I finally asked why he did it and he simply said “I don't know.” I couldn't help but start laughing a little. After that I wasn't so nervous anymore, I felt like Niko already trusted me, and I was happy that he did. After I finished we didn't have much time left so the teacher let the students have some free time. Josh, Nick and Antonio, had a couple questions they wanted to ask me about my school or what I do in my free time. Once class was over I had a quick talk with Ms. Hebert, similar to the one I had with Ms. Hughes, just quickly about what I would be doing in the class and even talked about me coordinating plans in the future.
12/9/16: After last weeks success I looked forward to going to my capstone all week. I couldn't wait to get back into to classes and start helping the kids again. When I arrived to Ms. Hughes class the kids has just finished up taking a quiz and Ms. Hughes thought it would be a great idea for me to correct their quizes 1 on 1 with the students to go over any questions that they might of gotten wrong or had trouble on. I was very surprised to see that every student I sat down with got a 100 on their quiz. After that the bell rang and I headed down to Ms. Hebert's classroom, when I got there she told me that the students were taking a test and that I could take Antonio down to the library to give him help on his test. I sat down with Antonio and we started his test, Antonio was more interested in the scratch mark on the table then he was his test. I struggled to keep him on topic, he didn't even want to read to problems, but when you did actually get him to do his work, I learned that Antonio actually knows exactly what he's doing, he just has a hard time focusing in class, and maybe a little lazy to. After I finally got him to finish his test we headed back to the class and with the remaining time Ms. Hebert let the students play a game of guess who before they left. I thought it was a pretty successful day even if I did have a little trouble with trying to keep Antonio on track.
12/16/16:Today when I arrived at Kennedy for capstone, The school was at an assembly so I wasn't able to go the Ms. Hughes Class to help out, so I was only able to help out Ms. Hebert's class for the day. She handed out a worksheet for the class to do and I sat down with Jose to help him with his work. Jose didn't have much trouble on his worksheet, and was one of the first ones to finish. Jose is a pretty quiet kid and he didn't really talk to me a lot. I felt like he did not really want my help on it, but after the teacher went over the answers with the entire class. After that I had a quick talk with Ms.Hebert, and she said that should would plan it out so she wouldn't have the kids take tests when I visit.
12/23/16: Today when I went in for my capstone, I couldn't find my mentor Mr. DiNello to let him know I was there that day but I headed down to Ms. Hughes class anyways, The class was doing learning stations each station with a different worksheet. Ms Hughes sent me over to one of the stations to watch over the kids and give them directions and help with their work. Although I didn't get much helping in, because the kids all knew what they were doing and a student named Cameron kept asking me questions like “What grade are you in?”, “How tall are you?”, and “Do you go to Southington High?” To be honest it was getting a little annoying, but at the same time it felt nice that he cared a little about who I was. After that the bell rang and I headed down to Ms. Hebert's class to see that she was not there that day and they had a sub. Ms. Hebert didn't leave any work for the kids to do so they just all played uno. I really didn't do much at all that day, and it was pretty uneventful.
1/6/17: Today the school had the day off so I couldn't go to my capstone that day.
1/13/17: It was my first day in about 2 weeks since I was at JFK for my capstone, It felt a little weird at first, I even got a little lost on the way to the classroom. When I got to Ms. Hughes class I was a little sad to see that the kids were testing and that I wouldn't be doing anything. So I sat with the teacher and made small talk until the class was over. When I got to Ms. Hebert's class She handed a worksheet out to the class for them to do. I sat down with Nick to help him on the worksheet. Nick was struggling at some points in his work but he seemed glad I was there to help him. I could tell that Nick was really trying his hardest on the worksheet even though he would struggle from time to time. While i was helping Nick he would ask me a couple of questions occasionally about myself. Antonio who was sitting in front of us would turn around and start complaining to me that he was “Bored”, or “Tired”. I thought it was kinda funny, and he also reminded me of myself when I was in middle school. I could tell that Antonio and Nick were definitely good friends with each other. They both were more interested in trying to mess around and talk to each other. It felt weird telling them to cut it out since teachers still do the same to me when i'm in school. When Ms. Hebert began going over the worksheet, and I Sat and watched and before I knew it class was over. I thought that today was actually a pretty good day besides Ms. Hughes class taking a test. I started to understand how teachers feel and that I wasn't that different from how the students were acting.
1/18/17: Today when I arrived for capstone, at the office when I was signing in they didn't have anymore guest stickers so they actually gave me a Faculty and staff badge. I don't know why but I was a little excited to get this, I felt like I just got an upgrade. After that I quickly headed down to Ms. Hughes classroom, the class was going over their homework, but not many of them had it done. So I went over to some of the kids who didn't have it done to talk with them. I told them how I used to never do my homework, and that its not worth not doing it, But after that they all just started on a worksheet, and it was pretty uneventful after that. Not a lot of students in the class really needed extra help, and they all seemed like they knew what they were doing. WHen the class ended and I went to Ms Hebert's class, The class began going over homework and they all had it done, besides Antonio. When they were done and they started to work on a worksheet, I was going to go over and talk to Antonio about his homework, but Ms. Hebert wanted to talk and work with him herself. So I sat with Josh and Niko to help them on their worksheet. Josh didn't have too much trouble on the worksheet and didn't really say much either, I thought it was a little Odd since Josh loved having conversations with everyone. And Niko would occasionally start telling me random stories while we were working. Remembering his calculator story I was prepared for anything. He started talking about a time he was walking his dog and it almost got off the leash when it saw a stray cat run across the street. I told him to focus more his work, and Ms. Hebert even told him to stop rambling about his dog. After we finished the worksheet I started thinking about everyone in the class. Antonio was definitely the hardest to work with, he struggles to keep on track and pay attention. I felt like Josh, Niko and Nick all trusted me to help them and weren't afraid to ask me for help when they needed it. The only student who didn't really trust me was Jose, But that could just be due to the fact that he's always been a quiet kid.
2/3/17: I missed the last two weeks due to a snow day and a half day at kennedy. So I was ready to get back to the classroom. When I got there I found out that Ms. Hughes class was testing and Ms. Hebert was out and the sub didn't have work for the class to do. I really didn't do much other than a quick talk with some of the students. It was honestly the worst day so far.
2/10/17: Today when I got to Kennedy for my capstone I had a talk with Ms. Hughes while the class was working on a worksheet. Since my schedule at school doesn't allow me to come much earlier than 1:30, I only get to Kennedy about halfway through Ms. Hughes class. After a the talk I had to make the difficult decision, I had to stop going to Ms.Hughes class. Due to me arriving halfway through the class she had trouble working out more ways I could be involved with the class. So we Both decided that I should take the time to focus more on Ms. Heberts class. So that day was officially my last day helping Ms. Hughes class, I was a little disappointed but I understood why it should be done. I never really did much with the kids and I only knew about half of their names.
2/24/17: Today was my first day only visiting Ms. Heberts class it felt a bit weird at first but I soon got over it as class began. The class was working on a review worksheet, to prepare for a quiz they were having next class. So I began to walk around and help the students with any of the problems they were struggling on. I was very impressed to see that the students weren't having much trouble on the packet. When the students finished their packets, Ms. Hebert allowed the class to have the last 5 minutes to themselves. It was a very relaxed day, and I started to feel like the class was really starting to make some progress.
3/3/17: Today I helped Ms. Hebert set up her math scavenger hunt activity for the class. The students would answer questions that are at the stations, and then have to go find the stations with the answers of the last station. The kids were very confused at the start, it took them a while to finally understand how the game worked. The kids seemed to have a fun time walking around the classroom solving the problems. I had a issue with Antonio and josh though, the two had completely different answers for the same problem and it turned out they both had it wrong, listening to them try to explain it started to confuse even me.
3/12/17: Recently Mr. Ericsson has been telling me to try and develop a lesson plan for the class so i'm more involved with the class. I asked help from Mr. Mraz and he suggested i try to create word problems for the kids. Although that was a great idea I wanted to try and develop a more fun and engaging type of activity, after talking with Ericsson he gave me the idea of math basketball. The Students would have to answer 3 questions i wrote up on the board, once they all finished and had them correct, they would get to take 2 shoots with a mini basketball in a hoop. I created a lesson plan and sent it to Ms.Hebert for her permission to do the lesson, she thought it was a great idea and was excited to see it. After I started developing simple problems on what the students were working on in class that week. I was pretty excited to have the students try out my lesson plan.
3/17/17: Today was the day I was going to present my Math basketball Lesson plan. Ms. Boutilier was also going to be making a visit to my capstone to see me present the lesson plan and take pictures. I was very excited and couldn't wait to go. As I was heading to my capstone I started to get more and more nervous, I didn't think it would start getting this bad When I meet up with Ms. Boutilier in the office of kennedy we headed down to Ms. Hebert's class that just started. When I got there I started to prepare my lesson plan, as the students got ready. When I started to talk to the class and have them read the directions of the worksheet, I noticed my hand was shaking a little I was so nervous but I quickly calmed myself down. I didn't want to let Ms. Boutilier or the class down. Ms. Boutilier took a video and a quick picture before she had to leave, but I was able to introduce her to all the students before she left. As the students began to answers the first three questions some of them seemed confused but I was quickly able to help clear up any issue they had. When they all finished and went up to take their shots Another problem occurred the hoop that was on the door was to close to the ceiling and no one could make a shot, I couldn't even make it. So we had to change the spot of the hoop and let everyone re shoot, the kids still couldn't make it but it was at least a lot easier now. After A couple more problems and shots the game was over and Antonio was on top with a score of 2 shots made, Some of the kids didn't make any unfortunately, but everyone still got a prize of jolly ranchers. The kids all looked pretty happy even, Jose who does not show much emotion at all. I thought my lesson was a big success and I wanted to do it again, Ms. Hebert said that she would love to have me create another plan for another class. I felt pretty accomplished, and thought all of the students and even Ms. Hebert had a little more respect for me that day.
3/30/17: I started to feel like going to Ms.Hebert's class wasn't even part of capstone anymore. It just felt like a normal thing, at this point. While we were waiting for Ms. Hebert to get to the class nick looked up at me and asked “what grade are you in?” Very jokingly, I replied saying I was the new 6th grader, I just hit puberty fast, All the students broke out in laughter. This made me feel great. The students began to look at me like i'm more than just a teacher. Wen Ms. Hebert got to the class they began a worksheet using algebra tiles to help the students better understand it. All but Antonio Had a easy time with the lesson, He quickly started to just stop participating and it was hard to keep him on track. He began to start mumbling instead of actually talking when I spoke to him, It was actually pretty frustrating. With a little help from Ms. Hebert we finally got antonio back on track to catch up with the class. With about 5 minutes left the class cleaned up and was going to finish the worksheet tomorrow.
3/31/17: It felt a bit odd going 2 days in a row to my capstone but I was still excited to be there, We quickly jumped into the algebra tiles worksheet to finish it up. I spent my time mostly working with Josh and Jose, even though they had not trouble at all with it. I could tell algebra was still a confusing concept for some of them though, but it was a slow process and we were going to be there to help them through it.
4/5/17: Today Ms. Hebert was absent again, but this time work was left for the students I was in charge of leading the class for the most part, but all the problems were from old lessons so the students had no trouble at all when they finished, They all quickly finished and I decided that the class would play a game of telephone instead of them just doing there own thing. I started the story with “The purple elephant lives in a big green 3 story apartment.” It came back to me as “The elephant lives in a house” I wanted to try to get the same story back but i think Antonio was messing with the story on purpose, He kept giggling so I decided to Try a easy on I said, “The Cat in the hat” watching carefully Antonio bursted into laughter after her told josh the phrase, it came back to me as “Go Go power rangers” I couldn't believe it, I called Antonio out on it but he just denied it and giggled. The class was over shortly after and all the students left. I thought today was a fun day, Even though we didn't do much actual work it was nice to sit down with the students and play a game with them for once, It also felt very nice when Ms. Hebert gave me Permission to basically lead the class while she wasn't there.