If one doesn't respect oneself one can have neither love nor respect for others-Ayn Rand

My fifth PYC day was April 25th from 10:20-12:30. This day we worked with all three girls, Antonishia, Tanyka, and Kashmere. Kashmere came late, but before she came Tanyka and Antonishia were working out of their textbooks this time instead of working with the fraction packets. Once Kashmere came is was harder for the girls to work, because they would get easily distracted. Laura was working with Antonishia which was going well. I was working with Tanyka and Kashmere and it was hard for them to stay focused, especially when the classes were changing. They would sometimes get up and start talking to other people. It is fine if they take a brake, but it is hard to get them back on track again. After a while Tanyka finished one of her assignments and began to work on some literature homework she had not finished. I then began to work with Kashmere on her geometry homework. She was nervous to start with geometry, because she had not worked with it before. After a little bit of practice and focus she finished her assignment.

Posted by finnx067 at 1:49 AM | Permalink

On Friday April 18th I volunteered from 10:20-12:20. Laura and I only tutored Anthonisia because Tanyka and Kashmere weren't there. We just continued working on her fraction packet. She did well on it because there weren't many disruptions. Only when the classes were changing and people would come out in the hallway she would get a little distracted. Eventually she got tired of doing math so we quizzed her on drivers ed things. I think it is good to talk about other things in their life other than just math because then we are like mentors and not just tutors. So if they have a problem they could come and talk to us about it, or if they need help in anything we could work with them on it.

Posted by finnx067 at 4:05 AM | Permalink

My third time at PYC was April 11 from 10:20-12:20. This time both girls were there and we worked on a fraction packet. We were also supposed to work with this other girl called Kashmere, but she wasn't in school that day. We worked on the fraction packets for a while, and it was harder for Tanyka to stay focused on the packet than Anthonisia. She was more focused in the beginning, but then more people started to come into the room so it became more difficult for her. After a while both girls had to go talk to a teacher for a little and then Anthonisia came back but Tanyka didn't. We worked with Anthonisia a little bit more. Then we spent the rest of the time talking about what she was going to do on the weekend and we played a game. It was a while before we came back because we had spring break and then they had spring break then they had Friday of the week after that. But from now on we will be going every week, unless something comes up.

Posted by finnx067 at 8:12 PM | Permalink

My second time volunteering at PYC was Friday March 7th from 10:15-12:30. This time Laura and I got math workbooks to work with the girls. Anthonishia had to work on a project so she could not work with us this time. Laura and I both worked with Tanyka on the workbook. A lot of the stuff was difficult for her to do on her own. We had to help her along with each step of the problems. Also it was difficult to keep her focused on her math. The tutoring goes on in their cafeteria, so there are more people around and it is hard to keep her on track. Also it is a Friday, so she doesn't want to be at school then either. Two hours is a long time to work on math, so we worked with her on math for about an hour and fifteen minutes. The next 45 min we helped her study for her drivers ed test that she was taking the following week. After the two hours were up Laura and I talked with Kathleen and decided that she would make fraction packets to work on with the girls.

Posted by finnx067 at 7:58 PM | Permalink

For my service learning project I have decided to volunteer at Plymouth Youth Center in the high school. My first day I went on February 8th from 10:30-11:15. I went there with Laura Fickes and we met with Kathleen. She told us that we would be working together in a study group with two girls, Tanyka and Anthonisha, in math. This way the girls would be able to help each other and then if they could not figure out the answer than Laura and I would be there to help them out. The first day was more of an orientation and we just met with the girls and got to know them more. Both girls were very nice and they told us how much they really did need our help with their math homework. We talked about the PYC and how long they had been there and what school they went to before they came here. Then they asked us about college: if we liked it, if it was hard to get used to, etc.. After we got to know them a little we talked with Kathleen again and she told us that she would have workbooks for the girls to work with next time we came.

Posted by finnx067 at 10:57 PM | Permalink