August 30, 2016 Over the summer I would watch this show called Switched at Birth and I was really fascinated by the sign language they used in the show. That show inspired my capstone because it really showed some of the struggles deaf people have to go through and how expensive their equipment cost.
September 5, 2016 I wanted to share some knowledge with other people just in case they didn’t know. I would also want to raise money for the children that can’t afford the proper equipment they need. On top of that I want to go to this school located in West Hartford called American School of the deaf. That’s where I would want to take lesson to learn to sign.
September 7, 2016 I emailed Jeff Bravin from the School of the deaf and he got back to me on Saturday saying he copied my email to Tommy Meehan who is the director of education. I’m still waiting to hear back from him. I also have a rough draft email that I have to send to a lady that works in the school and I’m going to ask her to be my mentor because she is a speech pathologist and works with children.
September 16, 2016 Mrs. Michaelson emailed me back agreeing to be my mentor and help me out. Still waiting to hear back from the American school of the deaf. September 23, 2016 I sent Tommy Meehan a follow email regarding my capstone and it turned out there was a little miscommunication in regarding who was supposed to email who but we finally got in contact and now I’m waiting again to hear back on when I can visit the school.
October 3, 2016 I still haven't heard back from Tommy Meehan so I sent another follow up email and now I'm waiting again. I find it very fustrating and unprofessional on their end. I want to get my capstone off the ground and that’s the piece I’m missing. If they can’t help me I would really appreciate it if they would just tell, so that way I can find a new resource.
October 5, 2016 My mentor Mrs. Michaelson came to the school and we talked about schools near me that I could possibly go to and work with children that have disabilities instead of working with the impaired children science no was getting back to me.
October 7, 2016 I spoke with Mrs. Bout and Zamorski and they suggested to me that I change my project up a little so that it still had something to do with signing. But I didn’t know what I could do so Mrs. Bout suggested emailing the staff and asking if they had any ideas of what I could do with sign language.
October 18, 2016 Just when I was on the verge of giving up and changing my project completely, I received an email from this lady named Alyssa Guldager saying that Mrs. Michaelson reached out to her and explained to her what I was trying to do and she was willing to work with me. She works at the Hartford deaf and hard of hearing school.
October 19, 2016 The plan was to meet with Mrs. Guldager at her school on Wednesday when the juniors had to test for PSAT but that day did not work for her.
October 20, 2016 Mrs. Guldager emailed me back and said that next Wednesday she would be able to come to my school and sit down and talk with me. Although I was hoping to meet with her at her school so I could clock some hours that could work for her.
October 26, 2016 I came to school ready to meet with Mrs. Guldager and I checked my email an hour or so before we had to meet and there was an email from her saying that she had to cancelled because a morning meeting came up. She asked if she could rescheduled for next week Wednesday but the problem with that is that grades close on Tuesday and I still haven’t handed in my proposal and she’s the missing piece to it. Mrs. Bout came into class that same day and I told what had happened and she told me to ask the lady if we could do a phone email. She got back to me about the phone meeting and said she could be on a phone at 9:30. I didn’t see the email till third block so I had to reschedule for tomorrow at an earlier time because I was supposed to be attending the Salem trip. I suggested a 7-7:30 call time for the meeting but she said she would be driving into around that time
October 28, 2016 I confirmed with Mrs. Guldager to call around 11 o’clock in Mrs. Bout’s office. I left gym class and went to talk to Mrs. Bout about my capstone. I called Mrs. Guldager twice and left a voice message leaving Mrs. Bout and I number in case she wanted to call back. Mrs. Bout suggested I go online and try to find a sign language class I can attend to up my skills.
October 29, 2016 I checked my email constantly today to hope to see an email from Bout or Mrs. Guldager. There was nothing there and I have yet to finish my proposal to hand it in and get a grade. This is the most frustrating thing ever because no one is getting back to me and the deadline is approaching very fast. On top of that I’m sooo behind on everything else.
October 30, 2016 If the lady doesn’t get back to me by tomorrow I’m possibly going to change my project to deaf awareness. I’ll go around the school and have a PowerPoint set up showing other children how deaf or hard of hearing people are discriminated against and the struggles they have to go through.
November 4, 2016 I finally sat down and met with Alyssa Guldager and we had our meeting. We were using Mrs. Bout’s office. During the meeting Mrs. Bout walked in and she and Alyssa stared to have their own meeting about what schools in Hartford I could go to or maybe babysit someone’s child that has disabilities or go with Mrs. Alyssa to one of the schools she helps out with. Also Mrs. Bout offered her our library to use to make projects and stuff for her kids because she doesn’t have a permanent office. Of course I would be down there helping her. Besides all that the meeting went well.
November 14, 2016 Mrs. Alyssa Guldager emailed Bout and I saying she is still investigating the law for minors to volunteer with young children in a school setting. She also gave me an idea about volunteering at CRT because she has a CC teacher over there. She said she would schedule a meeting between them.
November 17, 2016 Mrs. Alyssa Guldager emailed me saying that there is a preschool I can volunteer at but I will need to get my finger prints done before I can volunteer and I also need to bring an updated physical form. I would have to go set up a meeting with the director at CRT and I also have to meet with the unit manger named Rhonda Knight. The place is located on Douglas Street in Hartford.
November 18, 2016 I called over at police department in downtown Hartford see how much it would be to get finger printed and when I would be able to come. They do finger printing Tuesday’s and Thursday’s 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and it cost $25. For my physical I don’t go for a new one until the holidays so I would have to give them the one from May.
November 22, 2016 Today I was going with Mrs. Zamorski to get finger printed at downtown but when she came to the MCH she told me that one of her students in her second block stole the money off her desk. She talked to them and told them the money belonged to me and that it was for my capstone but still they didn’t return it and of course no one saw who took it.
November 24, 2016 At this point still no one returned the money so Mrs. Zamorski took me anyways to get finger printed and used her own money to pay for me to get this done. When we got to the police station the lady asked to see my ID and of course stupid me forgot it in my book bag back at the school. I don’t know what I was thinking to not grab my ID. We left and Mrs. Zamorski told me this is a good learning experience and something that I should write down in my journal.
December 24, 2016 I’m in Florida over this winter break and I sat down and looked over my paper to try and work on my introduction and conclusion again but I’m totally stuck. I know what my paper is about and how to orally say it but I have a hard time trying to put it down on paper.
December 30, 2016 I don’t know what happened to my fifth page of journal so what I was going to write on my 6th page is going to be on my 5th so my 6th page might be a little short than where it’s supposed to be.
January 10, 2016 Mr. MacKay read over my research essay and was giving me good feedback. He was saying how I need to go back and change my essay question because my research is supposed to reflect back on that and that my question is too broad.
January 11, 2016 Today I have a game so Mr. MacKay and I worked on the paper a little more and we said I need to have at least two quotes in each paragraph and I need to go back and explain my quotes because I cannot end my paragraphs in quotes.
January 13, 2016 Mr. Mackay and I were supposed to work on my essay but we couldn’t because we also had a game and it was in Canton so we had to leave the school earlier than we usually do.
January 14, 2016 Back to my project, my dad was supposed to take me to the downtown police station so I could get my finger prints done but he ended having to work and the time that he gets off the police station is not doing the prints because it’s only from 10-2.
January 15, 2017 I’m still working on my research essay because I am stuck on truing to write my introduction and conclusion. I don’t know why it’s such a struggle for me to give a brief overview of my paper. I feel like it’s because the first sentence is supposed to be a hook and grab the reader’s attention but I don’t know an interesting first sentence.
January 17, 2017 I’ve decided that it would work better for me if I wait till the spring to work with the children over on Douglas Street because my scheduled will be a lot less busy. I haven’t decided yet if I wanted to do track while trying to work with the children. My goal for this week is to finish my research paper, get finger printed, start my mission statement, start my e-portfolio and just be all caught up all together. I can honestly say capstone is very overwhelming and I didn’t expect it to be this much work.
February 2, 2017 So finally took care of my finger prints and got them done. I immediately email the lady over on Douglas Street and let her know I got everything done that they have asked of me. She emails me some questions that the manager at CRT wanted to know. I gladly answer then and wait to hear what’s going to happen.
February 8, 2017 It had been awhile since I heard from Margaret so I decided to send her a follow up email and Cc Mrs. Bout and Mrs. Zamorski on there because they told me I look more professional and like the real deal. Anyways she gets back to me pretty quick just saying how she was still waiting to hear back from the manager. She said that he usually leaves on Friday so the timing was kind of tricky, which I didn’t mind.
February 12, 2017 She gets back to me in a couple days saying that I could not volunteer over there because I was not 18 yet. This kind of made me upset because now this would be the second time someone turns me down because whatever the situation is. I felt as though they should have found out if I was eligible to volunteer before they told me I had to get finger printed because of course I did have to pay to get that done.
February 14, 2017 Wow! I am thankful for Mrs. Zamorski, if it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t be getting a third opportunity with another school. Mrs. Zamorski knew that Mrs. Wemier knew someone at R.J. Kinsella Magnet school literally down the street from our school. Mrs. Weimer sent the lady she knew an email to see if they would be willing to work with me over there. They said that I would have to sit down and meet with the principal first.
February 15, 2017 I went down to the locker rooms to meet with Mrs. Zamorski about what Mrs. Weimer had told her. It turned out the principal was excited to have me come in because she said the children there would love to have me and that I didn’t need to sit down with her for her to interview me. So I sat down with Mrs. Zamorski and sent a thank you e-mail to the principal and said I will be hoping to see her when I come to meet the teacher. After that email I sent one to the teacher whose children I would be working with and I thanked her as well and explained to her a little about capstone.
February 16, 2017 Trying to find time to go in and meet with the teacher was going to be hard because I have classes I can’t miss and she has her classes as well. Thank you to Mrs. Zamorski again who said she would allow me to walk over to the school during her class which was the teachers prep period and meet her. I sent her an email to see if that works for her and now all I do is wait to see if that works for her.
February 17, 2017 Mrs. Bout brought me over to Kinsella Magnet School so I could sit down with Miss. Andrusia to get to know each other as well as what would be good days and times for me to come in and what would be doing with the children. She said teaching them a song in sign language would be a good idea. One memorable thing from that day was as I was leaving the children were coming back from dance I believe and this one girl named Jordan came up to me and hugged me.
February 27, 2017 Today was the first time I went over to Kinsella to actually work with the children. I was so nervous that the children weren’t going to like what I had planned or they weren’t going to listen to me. Instead the majority of them were excited to learn the song. After I went through it a couple of times they got the hang of it. I quizzed them on some of the words in the song and they were practically jumping off the floor so I could see who had their hand raised. As I was leaving again more of the girls wanted hugs once they saw other people asking for hugs.
March 1, 2017 There are quite a few children there so to remember all their names was going to be a little difficult for me. So when Mrs. Andrusia had them clean up their tables and head to the rug I went around saying their names and asking them to remind me of their names so I could become familiar with them. Anyways the lesson we did this day was teaching the colors of the rainbow. After that I had brought in some coloring worksheets to quiz them on their colors. I would pick a character off of their paper, then I would choose a piece of clothing they were wearing and I would tell them to color it with whatever color I told them to in sign language. We didn’t get to finish the coloring this day so I collected them and said we would finish on Monday.
March 6, 2017 Monday I come in and I notice the class seems smaller by a lot, six kids were out but only three were in the building. Before I started the coloring with them I wanted to see if they remembered the song since we hadn’t practiced it in a while. I quizzed them on the signs from the song and then we sand and signed the song all together and to my surprise they remembered the whole thing. Mrs. Andrusia was telling me that she saw some of them sitting at their seat practicing the song on their own. We reviewed the colors again and again they knew them. As I was going around while we were finishing up on the coloring worksheet Lyla told me how she was teaching her little sister the 5 little monkeys’ song and how her sister messed up the sign little by pushing her hands outward instead of inward. All together the kids made me happy because they actually liked what I was teaching them and trying to teach others what they learned.
March 8, 2017 I cannot see my children today because Hartford public schools all have half days and their schedule over there is really tight on these days.
March 13, 2017 I worked with my children today and I taught them the body parts and played Simon Says once I felt they knew it. The one child that stood out to me while playing Simon says was Rowan. You could tell she was paying close attention to what I was saying along with what sign I was holding up. We played two rounds of Simon Says and Rowan won both times. We practiced the song 5 Little Monkeys and I reviewed the colors with them. We had a little more time left at the end of the class so I taught them the numbers.
March 15, 2017 We did not have school yesterday or today due to the snow storm that hit us. Sadly I could not make my Wednesday class because of this so I have to pick up next week Monday.
March 20, 2017 Today’s lesson consisted of learning the animals. I taught them the basic animals but there were quite a few of them and the signs were pretty similar to some of the other ones. They really wanted to know the sign for a unicorn so I have to look that up for them for the next time I go to see them. I have to find more games to play with them because some of them really want to play Simon Says again. March 22, 2017 I was supposed to go see my children today but I guess Mrs. Bout forgot about me so I went to class instead and e-mailed Mrs. Andrusia saying how sorry I was but I could not make it today due to a ride situation. I would have walked but by the time I would have got over there I would only have about 10-15 minutes left in the class with them.
March 27, 2017 I went to Kinsella and went through the ABC’s and taught my children how to fingerspell their names, along with how to sign my name.. They were so excited when they got their name down so we went around calling them up one by one to show the class how to sign their name. There was more I had planned for this day but the fingerspelling took up most of our time I didn’t get to get into the greeting and stuff. I liked how they remembered some of the animals by the sign of a letter from the ABC’s.
March 29, 2017 I went again and I started to receive some of the parent consent forms back from Mrs. Andrusia so Bout can hopefully come in soon and take pictures and videos of me. I continued the lesson from the previous time because I was only able to get through finger spelling. I taught them the mini conversations that consisted of greetings and the 5 W’s. Who, what, where, when, and why.
April 3, 2017 Bout came with me this time to Kinsella to take pictures and observer how I was doing with the children. We did the five little monkeys again for Bout and I let them come up and sign their names for the class. I also went over the mini conversations I taught them along with reviewing the animals. Rowan was the most involved and she is so sassy and funny. Next time I go I’m thinking about having the students write testimonies, so I can see what their favorite part was of learning how to sign. Now that I’m thinking about it I don’t know if I’m going to be able to go to Kinsella on Wednesday because the juniors are taking their SATs this day so I don’t have to come to school and I don’t know if I’m going to have a ride here.