Final Reflection Initially for my capstone I wanted to learn sign language myself and then teach younger children sign language. Unfortunately things did not work in my favor, I never received an answer back from Tommy Meehan from American school of the deaf which was my top choice to volunteer considering they are a deaf school so they do have sign language programs. I struggled to get my fingerprints done so I could volunteer at CRT which was my second option. Mrs. Zamorski offered to take me downtown to get my fingerprints done, but of course I forgot my ID in my book bag back at the school. The next time Mrs. Zamorski was going to take me she found me at the blood drive where she told me someone had stolen the money from off of her desk. No one returned the money even after Mrs. Zamorski told them who and what it was for. Thankfully Mrs. Zamorski paid me back, I waited and waited before I actually went to get my fingerprints done because they were only open while I was in school. I had a really busy schedule and trying to fit this in was going to be hard. I eventually got them done and I eagerly email a lady from CRT to tell her I am ready to volunteer I have my stuff. To later find out I wasn’t even old enough to volunteer at CRT, you had to be at least 18.
I had to constantly keep changing my project around so I can find a way to get hours. It started to get really frustrating when I could find a permanent solution to fix my capstone. I started to give up on capstone because I didn’t know what to do. I started to fall really behind all of my classmates. I couldn’t do my journals because I didn’t have a project and they mostly consisted of emails and follow up emails. Mrs. Zamorski told me that if I didn’t hand in a research paper she was going to have no choice but to call my dad and tell him I’m on the verge of not graduating. When she told me that my heart dropped, I began to realize that I couldn’t sit around and wait for something to come to me. I had to stop feeling sorry for myself and get my butt in gear.
I’ve learned from capstone that it is important to stay on top of the work you need to get done for your project. Once you miss something you start to fall behind and it’s really hard to catch up. It’s good that you start doing stuff ahead of time it is due so you can always go back and make corrections. Some parts of the project I realized that I was going to struggle with was the research paper and presenting my project. I always feel embarrassed of my writing because I feel as though it is not where it should be for my age or compared to other writers. I’m also not the best or creative writer. I’m a little nervous to present my project because I know I’m not a great public speaker but I know if I practice in class and at home in the mirror I can get better at my confidence. I wasn’t so worried about the field work logs until I couldn’t find a place to volunteer to get some hours. Most of my hours at the time came from emailing and phone calls. I was eager to actually get hours from my project, like hands on kind of hours. Thankfully Zamorski helped me find a place to volunteer over at R.J. Kinsella Magnet school. This changed my project to me working with kindergartners and teaching the sign language along with a song they will present at their talent show. Finally when my project started to slowly come together it was already February which meant I would have to work up until the day we present.
During this project I felt real confident about my idea and what I wanted to do. Not being able to do what I wanted for capstone really was challenging for me. Having all the setbacks that I did in the beginning it made me think I wasn’t going to be able to finish my project and graduate. That really scared me because I would be devastated if I couldn’t graduate with all the people I started this middle school and high school experience with 7 years ago. Going back to my previous paragraph where I stated all of my setbacks I started to feel frustrated with capstone in general and having to change my project around. I really wanted to give up and not think about capstone. I started to fall really far behind my classmates and then I started to feel worse about everything. I realized I can’t sit around feeling bad about myself because that wasn’t going to get my project done. I picked up my slack and got on top of my project.
As I stated in my second paragraph the problems I had with capstone, here is what I did to fix them. Knowing what I know now. I would take advantage of all the resources here in the school like the writing center and all of the capstone teachers. Teachers in the building had connections with other schools like Weimer. She and Zamorski are the reasons why I was able to go to volunteer at Kinsella.
My experience with the children was incredible. It was such a great warm feeling I got every time I went to go see them. They would always get so excited as soon as I walk through the door and it was such a good feeling seeing how much they loved what I was doing with them. They even wrote about what they were doing this week and they shared it with the other classes and I could see them wanting to come inside the room when I was working with my children. They all have their own little story of who they’ve been teaching sign to. Mrs. Andrusia has also told me that she has seen them practicing the song at their table sometimes. They are also going to perform the song we have been working on together in front of the school and their parents. It truly is a good feeling when you can see how you’re impacting someone’s life in a positive way.