Player Movement

so i was doing my iWeb page for my computer class and I did a little investigating. Ok, so my page was really about the Lakers because well hey, what else do I know this much about right? It also gave me a chance to get caught up on my Lakers news since I'd been MIA due to being disgustingly busy. So i was reading and i was like OMG i feel that the Lakers did a really good job in the player movement. Now i know everyone is freaking out due to the triple threat but I feel that it wont be enough to defeat the Lakers. Lakers were genially genius in reacquiring Derek Fisher, there was some speculation at the hiring of Steve Blake but Phil Jackson is pure genius. He knows that they need Fisher to train all these newbies. The acquisition of Matt Barnes and Theo Ratliff was a great addition to the team. I cant even lie, I'm excited to see how Barnes and Kobe get along, or more importantly Barnes and Ron Artest. Ron Artest is a trip.

Under the Sea

This week our theme, titled Under the Sea, will be about ocean life and the beach.

• sensory table will be colored soapy water with sea creatures and seashells.
• dramatic area will have a blow up swimming pool with magnetic fish and fishing rods
• stuffed ocean animals
• beach toys: shovels, pails, towels, beach balls, life jackets
  

The art schedule is as follows:

Monday-Rainbow Fish
Tuesday- Finger Paint Jellyfish
Wednesday- Tissue Paper Sea Horse
Thursday- Sea Bagels
Friday- Sand Dollars

*We will be having Splash Day on Friday*
Remember to:

• bring child in swimsuit
• apply sunblock at home
• bring a towel
• a large Ziploc bag
• an extra set of clothes
  

Ideas for things you can try at home:
A-Z Kids Stuff
Angelfish

Lonely Day

Its been a while I must say. I dont really know what to say exactly. I came back to Austin this afternoon. I left my baby dog at home. I must say that it was the hardest decision I've made in a long time. I want my baby dog. Lidia doesnt come home until tomorrow so I am literally ALONE. I think this would be the perfect moment to state that I've never been home alone in my life. Especially not at night. We have a bagillion pets even if it comes to me being actually alone im never really alone. But today I am alone. And I miss my baby dog. I keep hearing noises. Noises that were always drowned out by the constant noise that comes from having two dogs in an apartment. I dont like noises. I get scared easily. I watch too much Criminal Minds. Its too quiet. And boring. there is absolutely nothing to do. no dog to take out. no dog to feed. no one to talk to.... not saying I talk to the dog, although we all know I'm a crazy and I definitely talk to my dog. I have horrible teachers. School starts tomorrow. Why do they not have the syllabus up yet. I think my favorite is the teacher that emailed us the syllabus but didnt upload any of the articles we need to read for the class. can you say massive fail. its not like i can prepare for work. I already set my clothes apart for the next day regardless. my alarm clock is set. did i mention the fact that I cleaned the house when I got here. yeah. i did that. my clothes is in the dryer. i showered. this is life. if only i werent so broke this summer. then i wouldnt have had to send my baby dog home. now for the worst part, sleeping by myself.

Final Tutoring Post

Aside from having to be up at 8 on most of my Saturdays, I quite enjoyed the experience with Amauro. I grew up in the neighborhood, I know what its like. I went back home this past weekend to celebrate my birthday (which is on the 6^th by the way) and I stopped by a friend’s house to see how they were doing. They were just sitting there in the broken down apartments, all four of them didn’t have cars because they’re so broke. They were all just sitting there on the patio with a case of beer and a bag of weed. No one expects anything from people that come from my neighborhood. These people that I knew in high school are the perfect example of that. They all came from low-income families with a lot of kids and low parent involvement. Most of the people I knew growing up were just like Amauro. My brother has ADHD, he was never behind on his schooling, thank God, but it was hard to keep him on point. My brother works at Jimmy Johns, my best friend dropped out of UT even though he had a full ride scholarship. I always have the desire to help the community; I mean it’s my community too. My little brother is going to be in high school next year and it scares me to death. I feel that Amauro benefitted from the experience, I mean I hope he did, I feel that he did. At the end of the semester he knew geometry at least. This experience is important because it allow me to gain some insight into the life of a child with some form of “disability” for lack of a better term. It helps me to understand, to identify with the issues that are at hand when it comes to legislation and what the students actually receive. Amauro was so far behind, and I mean my mother was trying her hardest, its like what do you do as a teacher? How do you help that one student? That’s something that we need to learn, it will be a challenge that we will all encounter as teachers. We must remember that each case is different and that it takes time and a lot of trial and error.

Tutoring Amauro

We recently started going over things a little differently. Instead of the usual me telling him ok, how do you spell this word, we’ve begun combining all aspects of the information that Amauro needs to know. Now Amauro has to identify the image and write down the name without any teacher involvement. It was a bit difficult. He would look at the picture then look at me and ask for confirmation. Without confirmation he could not produce an “acceptable” outcome. He couldn’t get past the fact that he wasn’t fully sure that it was an isosceles triangle that he couldn’t even write the words down. Legibility is still a big issue, not for the Math TAKS but most certainly for the Writing TAKS, which he has to take next week. As horrible as it sounds he won’t pass that one on his first try. Things are difficult because where we’re from we don’t see the use of knowing the difference between the many triangles. What’s the point in being able to identify the different types of angles? I mean when do you really say oh hey look at the clock, its at a 90 degree angle? You don’t and its hard to explain that to someone who doesn’t feel that it’s important in any way. I cant even lie, I hate math, I don’t think I’m the perfect candidate for making math sound like the coolest thing ever.

More tutoring

Amauro showed up just in time this week. We were to review mathematics in preparation for the TAKS test. It seems that TAKS prep is all we do, I mean he needs to pass and he is nowhere near the range where it would seem possible for him to pass. We went over some geometry. I noticed that it was the same exact stuff that we went over the first time I met him, and the second time. I was surprised because he still continued to have the same problems, he could not make his requests known on paper. He also had problem focusing. We were working one on one at the back of the classroom while the rest of the class was doing group work. He would constantly look over to his peers. Sometimes when the other students because a little loud he would disregard me completely, he would just zone out until I got his attention again. His teacher has discussed this student with me before, he has no outside service provided. He gets small accommodations in the classroom but he does not receive any special tutoring, or intervention aside form Saturday school. The area in which Amauro lives is low income. I am very familiar with the neighborhood because I live a block away. In some of these houses there are 10 people living in a two-bedroom house. I am not particularly sure about his specific living conditions but no one I the neighborhood is more than middle class.

Tutoring Amauro

I did my project at Arturo Salazar Elementary School in Dallas, Tx. The school is 95% Hispanic in a low socioeconomic area. My particular assignment was Amauro, a fourth grade bilingual student with learning disabilities. When I met Amauro he seemed like any other fourth grade student. Upon conversing with him I realized that a lot was going on in this child’s life. As I talked to my mom, his teacher, I realized that aside from his living situation he was also very behind in his learning. At 8 years old, Amauro couldn’t write the letters. I mean he can write them, but for the most part its illegible. I can’t even lie, its bad. I couldn’t even read it and my writing sucks. I didn’t expect this, I mean my mom teaches fourth graders, they’re supposed to know how to read, how to write. The first day with Amauro we spent 3 hours writing letters, like you do in like kindergarten with the sheets of paper with the really big lines and the dotted line in the middle. The final hour we spent reviewing words for his geometry lesson. It was interesting to see because he knew how to respond verbally to my demands but when he had to write it down he would freeze. We reviewed how to write down words like obtuse, angle, perpendicular, because he needed to know these words to pass his math test the next week. He knew the words, and he knew what they meant, he just couldn’t write them down on paper. I honestly thought the boy was crazy. For snack, he brought a bag of chips, a coke, and a jar of cherries. If that’s not weird I don’t know what is.