Monday: Microsoft Word

I cannot say enough how proud I am of the fact that each person in the class's computer skills has improved by leaps and bounds.

For the last month now the class has slowly been working their way through a workbook created by the Saint Paul Community Literacy Consortorium (S.P.C.L.C.). This workbook is a complete curriculum of Microsoft Office's Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Currently the class is working on mastering Microsoft Word. Today's lesson was about creating tables. The exercise we used covered how to create a very brief weekly schedule using a table. I will expand this lesson on Wednesday and ask them to create a list of their choice using a table.

I could see while I was teaching that the class has become much more comfortable using Microsoft Word. Trainees still continue to ask questions about how to do something but my help has changed from showing how to do something to correcting how to do something. This change in aid shows that the trainees have a notion of how to do something in their minds, they are willing to attempt what is asked of them, and they see that if they make a mistake, the error can be fixed with the proper help.

As said, I am very proud of everyone in the class and I'm very excited to see how this skill we are trying to master will impact everyone's ability to apply for and potentially be hired for a job.

Wednesday and Thursday: Making Deductions with Clue & Spelling Words

As I continue to teach life skills in this class, I'm learning that I need to write my mom a "Thank You" card for playing those 20 million board games she played with me when I was a kid. It blows my mind to realize how many board-games out there can help to develop life skills. I've been trying to think lately about how to not only teach the habit of making deductions to find an answer, but also allow the trainees themselves to it out themselves. Then the board-game Clue came to mind. To my surprise the game had about a 75% success rate. Two people were not very interested in the game and chose to work independently on their typing skills, but the rest of the class really enjoyed the game. Near the end of the game 2 out of the 5 trainees playing understood the concept of how to choose the weapon, person, and location for their accusations based off of information they already knew. I will definitely play this game again.

A second activity which the class did on Wednesday and Thursday was that they created picture dictionaries for their chosen spelling words. Easter Seals Arc recently ordered tablets for the classes to use and I took the opportunity to test the tablets out and tie them in with a lesson. The trainees used the app. from dictionary.com to define their chosen spelling words, after defining the words the trainees were asked to draw a picture which went along with the word's definition. The activity was a huge hit because students learned the meaning behind the spelling words they chose, and the process of drawing a picture helped make the word "stick" in their minds. I'm happy to say 7/8 students in the class earned 100% on their spelling tests yesterday, and I think some of that success came from the hard work they put into their "pictionaries."

I'm very excited in the future to continue using the tablets. Most of the class was very excited to be working with tablets and appeared to understand the devices very well without much instruction. One trainee does require more help using the tablets. This particular trainee has never used a touch-screen device before and his hands shake if he consumes too much sugar, so I'm going to take some time next week to explain how to use the tablet to him and give him a stylus to make using the touch-screen easier.

Tuesday: Hobby Lobby

I would like to give a big shout-out to the staff at Fort Wayne's Hobby Lobby! 

The class went on a trip today to our local Hobby Lobby to evaluate the store's environment and help identify the jobs which the trainees could possibly expect to do if they worked in a store like Hobby Lobby. The class took a "Job Assessment" form which I found online to the store and they filled it out as they walked around. The form asked the students to do things like identify 8 jobs at the store, choose a job each individual person would enjoy doing, and decide if they would like to work in the store. The form really helped everyone focus on the purpose of the outing and it is surprisingly easy to identify 8 jobs. 

The staff at Hobby Lobby were incredibly helpful and took time to answer any questions the trainees asked about their jobs. Three of the trainees in the class went out of their way to find employees and then ask them about their jobs. I was so impressed by one employee who stopped what they were doing to explain how they do their job and the organizational system they operated under.

Monday: Spelling Words

Yesterday was the start of a new week and therefore the start of a brand new spelling list.

I have just recently began working in a spelling lesson into the class. The idea is, if people can spell more words on their own, their thought process will not be interrupted as often because they won't have to ask someone to spell a word. If the thought process is not interrupted people's thoughts will flow better and help make them better writers.

Last week I broke the class into two groups and assigned each group a list of spelling words. I found from my test results last week that this method needed some tweaking because some trainees found the words to be too easy or too hard. To try something different I allowed the trainees to choose their own words. I'll know by the end of this week if this method works better. I can say already that most of the class found the idea of choosing their own spelling words to be very exciting and they dove head first into the task by selecting words like, "photosynthesis."

Something Amazing

I'm writing a post in the middle of the day because right now at 12:09, lunch time, I am watching something really amazing happening. The trainees have purposely called each other over to eat together at the same table and are all talking to each person in the group.

This is the first time this has happened since class was started 3 months ago.

Wednesday: Life Skill Lessons From Spongebob Squarepants

Last week a trainee suggested we watch a Spongebob Squarepants episode titled "The Suds." In this episode Spongebob gets sick and makes several mistakes before he finally gets the proper treatment for his illness. I absolutely loved the idea because it was a great way to demonstrate what people should and shouldn't do when they get sick.

I showed the episode in class today and then asked the students to create a T-chart for the good and bad things Spongebob did  when he got sick. The trainees loved watching the episode and they actively participated in a classroom discussion to help decipher what Spongebob did right to help take care of himself, what he did wrong, and why each of these actions was positive or negative.

The class gained a new member today as well and I couldn't be more excited. This new trainee warmed up to the group within 20 minutes! To help introduce the new crew member to everyone we played an icebreaker game similar to "Have You Ever" in which the trainees formed a circle and one at  a time stepped into the center, shared something they have done or like. If the other members of the circle have also done or agree with what the person in the center has said, they also step into the circle. Everyone seemed to learn something about each other and our new person didn't have any reservations when sharing information about herself.

Tuesday: The Library

Tuesday was our day that we go out somewhere. I try to get the class out to go volunteering so that they can practice working in a group towards a common goal. Unfortunately Arc wasn't able to line up anything for us yesterday so the class made a pilgrimage to the library to select new reading material.

My favorite thing about the trip to the library yesterday was one particular trainee's enthusiasm over a book he found at the library. The trainee found an interactive book about World War II which included realistic looking copies of declassified army documents, maps of U.S. Navy's routes in Japan, and several pictures. The trainee was so excited about his book that when we got back to the classroom, he emptied the book of its contents and arranged all of the documents on the table by type of document. He spent his 15 minutes of reading pouring over his reading materials trying to make sense of every detail provided.

After reading I gave everyone a short "test" about everything the class has been learning about Microsoft Word. So far the class has learned how to change the font in Microsoft Word including its style, size, emphasis, and alignment. I'm happy to say that about 75% of the class was able to complete the test with minimal assistance. Next week the class will be getting into some of the more complicated aspects of Microsoft Word including creating tables, inserting pictures, etc.