Onondaga Week 6

Again this monday I was not allowed in the gymnasium as the school was setting up for their annual Thanksgiving Feast. I worked with the 5th grade students again on their homework. This week I was specifically assigned to one boy who was having a lot of trouble with his multiplication and division homework. I worked with him for the entire time on one worksheet as he was not ready to sit down and do the problems. He asked specifically to work with me because I helped him the week before to understand the problems rather than that he should just know how to do it. I helped him realize that he was able to complete the problems. This student is very smart, but does not have confidence in his intelligence. He second guesses himself, and then puts the wrong answer. After a while, he began just writing down random numbers next to each question even though he knew the real answers. I had him erase the entire worksheet as just about every answer was wrong at this point expect for the two or three we did together before. It took him less time to complete the worksheet correctly than to make up answers. I spoke with him afterwards, and he expressed that he knew he was not going to do the homework at home, and really thought he would not finish it anyway. He just wanted answers on the sheet so he could hand it in, even if the answers were not right. I explained to him that it only took 15 minutes to get the correct answers once he started to try rather than the 30 minutes it took to make up the answers. If he had tried from the beginning he would have been able to go to the computer lab with the rest of his friends, and play games, but instead he had to sit in the cafeteria with 3 other students in the entire after-school program that needed to work on homework first. I was happy to see that he realized he needs to concentrate from the start if he wants to be able to do the things the other students are doing, and I hope to see the difference this week. I know there will have been a change if he is in the gymnasium with me for game time rather then missing it for homework.

Lab Assistant #3

This past Monday, November 25th, I was working with the BOCES students again. Starting a week before the BOCES had started receiving two new students that are 7 and 9. They are brothers that had just for the first time been enrolled into school. Until this point, both brothers had been home schooled by their mother. The 7 year old has severe ADHD, which makes it very hard for him to concentrate on any task for more than a minute or two. The 9 year old does not have a disability, however has many behavioral issues, as he has never been put into a situation where he had to share things with more than just his brother. The teachers from BOCES were not very helpful thus far as they have not worked with the students too much yet, and were eager to see what strategies we used to keep the students on task.

Dr. Craft asked me to work with the 7 year old this week as all of the participants were present this week for lab, so we had no extra instructors. I noticed right away that he was very curious about the college, so I took him on a tour of the building to try to get to know a little about him, and see what I could get from him. As this was his first time in a building will all of these things that he had never seen he had many questions. Every window, every door, all hallways, each room were explored by this student and he had questions about it all. It was nice to teach this student about different environments that physical education can take place in, and he was more than interested in it all. He wanted to do it all! I then took him to the sensory lab as I thought this was a place where this student could roam around and show me exactly what he can do. His eyes lit up the second he walked into the room. First, I had him go into the swinging ball pit. This was the first time I could see that this student was concentrated on one thing and one thing alone. He only wanted to dig to the bottom of the pit, and pretend like I could not see him. I asked him to show me his hands, and sure enough both hands popped right out of the ball pit, same with his feet. This student did not want to get out of the ball pit for the rest of the time, but unfortunately we had to let other students have a try. He was not happy and made it known. He started to cry, and it seemed to me as this would have worked at home. Cry for mom, and you will get what you want right? Well, it was not going to happen within this program. He was shocked when I said he had to get out and let other students have a chance. I made a promise that if he did not give me trouble, and got out I would let him go back in the following week's class for a little bit. He was happy to make the deal, and gave me no trouble. All in all I would say that this was a great experience for myself and for this new student. He seemed to really enjoy himself, and I learned a lot about working with a student with severe ADHD.

Extra Hours: 1 hour