Monday 5/18. Today a lesson plan was created for the next 4 weeks at the YWCA. The classroom discussion was about what the students wanted to learn in the future classes. Topics such as drugs, sex, behavior problems, why people have certain disorders were the most popular ones. After the discussion, the students went on computers and chatted with their peers for the remainder of the time.
Tuesday 5/19. Today, I observed the student’s discussion on whether gay marriage rights resemble the civil rights comparison. Those who agreed with the similarity argued that all individuals in general were stripped of their rights. For example, blacks were segregated and gays are not allowed to get married. Both are abused by individuals who strongly oppose African Americans or gay individuals, mentally or physically. Those who disagreed with the resemblance of gay rights and civil rights argued that African Americans had it much worst because they were legally abused by white owners. In addition, they were segregated. On the other hand, gays were not legally abused. However, they were stripped away of their marriage rights. Such a topic led to a heated debate between the students which led to great interaction with one another. Wednesday 5/20. Today was open mic day! The students and I enjoyed other individuals in the city of Buffalo perform their talents and show their attributes on stage. Some sang, danced, read poetry, discussed certain topics such as the negativity in the world today, and various other things. Today was pretty much a day for the students where they got to enjoy lively performances and simply just relax! Thursday 5/21. Today an extremely interesting discussion was illustrated. An article was given to each student fully describing a transgender individual. A young boy growing up wanted to become a girl. In the article, Ben was born a male yet had a female perspective in life and changed his persona to Katie. As young as age 2, Ben would use anything he could fin to create long hair. At age 3, Ben was a princess for Halloween, wearing a tiara. At age 5, Ben was taking girl toys to show and tell in Kindergarten. The key term transgender was the main topic in today’s discussion.
Friday 5/22. Today the class discussed different techniques of learning. There were three groups set up and each group had a different method of learning. For example, the first table wrote down a phrase 15 times for memorization. The second table repeated the phrase over and over to memorize it. The last table had a spokesperson to repeat the phrase to them repetitively. Each group rotated until every student experienced each learning method. This evidently allowed the students to see whether they learned more efficiently by writing, listening, or by repeating on their own.
Total hours: 20
