Wednesday: Sequencing & Pizza

Wednesday

As I write this I am suffering from a huge pizza craving and I already know that for tonight's dinner I'm making a beeline to the oven pizza I have stored in my freezer.

Wednesday we went over sequencing and I found no better way to make the lesson into a hands on activity than to practice sequencing by making paper pizzas. Sequencing means to arrange in a particular order. In the class's case I created task cards which broke down the process of making a pizza in a particular order. The students were given the cards in a mixed up order and asked to arrange them in the proper order. The entire class was able to perform this task without any help at all, and on my end I am very encouraged by these results. My hope in the future is that the trainees will be able to use task cards in their future jobs to help them remember their duties and how to carry out a task. What I stressed as we followed our task cards for making pizzas was that they start with crust, then meat, and then vegetables.

After placing the task cards in the proper order I distributed paper with pictures of pizza toppings which needed to be cut out and asked them to practice their hand eye skills by cutting out their own toppings. Only one student in the class had trouble completing the task, and he'll need more practice working with his hands. After cutting the toppings out the students were asked to separate the toppings: pepperoni, green peppers, olives, and mushrooms. Technically our green topping was actually broccoli but I called it green peppers. We briefly went over why it was important in the food industry to keep raw ingredients separate and through-out the activity I continues to stress that they separated their ingredients.

Once all ingredients were separated I passed out four "orders" the were asked to build. The order form presented four different ways to create a pizza slice and varied slightly each time. Sometimes the order would ask for 4 pepperoni pieces, 3 green peppers 2 olives, and 2 mushrooms. All trainees were able to complete the order form, about 2 needed help getting their first 2 orders started. The cards they used had their own sequence the trainees followed as they always went in this particular order: pepperoni, mushrooms, green peppers, and olives. See below for what the order cards looked like.



As soon as everyone had finished the order cards I asked them to practice their customers service skills by taking a partner's orders and then building the product to that customer's wants. One trainee took the activity too far as he adopted an accent as he placed his order and then insisted his partner take his order while attempting to understand his accent. All trainees did a good job following the dialogue we had created though and speaking respectfully to the "customer." Below is a copy of the order from they used.



Overall the activity was great, the only thing I regret is now I absolutely MUST go home and eat pizza for dinner or I'm pretty I won't be able to sleep at night. My favorite part about the whole activity was watching one trainee's imagination run wild as he worked to not only follow the order he was given but also manage to construct a face on the pizza. I'm attaching 2 of his creations below. You'll note that in the first picture, if you squint to read the order card, you will see that the pizza was made according to the requirements...

Tuesday: Dear Abby...

I have to admit, once I have finished reading the comics and scanning the classified ads for puppies I can't afford to buy yet, my last item I'll read in the newspaper is the Dear Abby section. Technically, I'm not sure Fort Wayne's Dear X is actually named Abby...

For anyone reading who does not know what the Dear X section is, it's a section in the newspaper where someone writes into a well-educated person and asks them for advice and words of encouragement for problems they are currently dealing with in their lives. Abby, or whatever their name is, writes back to the person and gives them a short answer to their question which usually ends with an encouraging message like, "Don't give up!" or something else along those lines.

Today in class I chose to focus on encouraging words as a soft skill. To execute this lesson I created 7 short letters which asked for advice about work which all of the trainees in the class struggle with. The topics I chose to focus on were:

• Feeling overwhelmed at a new job.
• Accepting a promotion.
• Being tired at work.
• Feeling emotional at work due to personal issues.
• Feeling unimportant at work.
• Making mistakes on the job.
• Dealing with performance reviews.

I tiered the lesson on two levels and then broke the work up between two levels in groups. The first lesson I created presented the problem to the reader, then it provided a section for the readers to write their answer to the reader. In this group we took turns reading and then discussing how to answer the person, once we decided on the answer we wrote the answer out. The second level also presented the problem but it gave the readers 3 possible answers: one answers was the correct answer to give, the second was an answer someone may give but it was not encouraging, and the third option was to write their own answer. In that group each member took turns reading again, and then the group discussed which answer was possibly the correct one.

The trainees all offered good answers to the questions, and several times they would hear the problem presented and then say, "I've had this problem before!" Interestingly the students who struggled with some of the problems mentioned could offer good answers to the questions. The struggle in this class is dealing with the problems when you are experiencing them personally. I know I personally can give fantastic relationship advice, but there have been a few times with ex-boyfriend where it was a lot harder to swallow my own advice. The activity was great though because when the trainees got stuck we as a group were able to talk through the possible answers and decide which answers were best.

Monday & Tuesday: Mission to Mars & Making Predictions

This week has been exhausting for me personally! I'm in the middle of writing substitute teacher lesson plans, lesson plans for the week after next, wedding party plans, and moving all at once!

My crazy personal life aside though, the class is doing great. Hilights this week included...

Monday: Mars Aerial Mission 

I found an interesting lesson online from a teacher's website which had an entire section devoted to job skills. The lesson that stood out the most to me was a lesson covering communication. The lesson required 2 students to work together as a team to build a complex paper airplane which was supposed to be an imaginary rocket to Mars. In the lesson the students were given one of two jobs, communication/directions and construction. Now, if you know anything about my current passion with Legos then you are probably thinking this lesson sounds very familiar, but there are some slight differences between this lesson and how I used Lego puzzles in the class. First: this particular lesson came with a specific script which the students had to read and follow; second: students traded roles half-way through the exercise. The objective was that students would learn to give slow and clear directions by using a very concise script, and likewise students would practice their listening skills by following along with their instructor.

To begin the lesson the class and I first outline two things: what it means to communicate and what are the best ways to explain something to another person. The class did a very good job of coming up with good ways to give directions including considerations like using good manners, physically showing a person what you want them to do, using a friendly tone, and going step by step. I was most impressed by the suggestion  to use good and friendly manners, this is something I think a lot of people can forget to do if they become frustrated when attempting to explain something.

After we outlined why communication was important it was time to move on to the paper plane construction part of it all which bombed. The paper plan turned out to be too difficult to construct for this class and only one group completed the plane completely on their own. This was not a failed mission though because none of the 4 groups ever gave up, and all groups asked for help when they felt stuck. To me, perseverance and asking for help are two extremely important qualities to have in the employment world and I try very hard as a teacher to encourage those behaviors in the classroom.

Tuesday: Making Predictions Using Context

Tuesday, after our outing to the Tecumseh Branch Library, the class devoted the afternoon to an exercise which asked the students to make predictions about what would happen next in each situation based on the context. Making predictions is a valuable skill because it helps students look ahead to the consequences and rewards of their actions. Being able to predict what will happen next also helps students to understand the world around them.

To teach this unit I found worksheets online which included pictures of someone or something performing a certain act, next to the picture was a space to draw what the students thought would happen next as well as blank lines to write out their answers. The pictures varied, one picture included a man holding a coffee cup tripping over an unseen object, another was of a small boy walking and carrying a fishing pole, and my last example I'll share was of an elephant wearing a dress and fishing. The pictures were a hit with the class and I did my best to encourage them to consider all possibilities by pointing out each detain in the picture; for example the man tripping was holding a coffee cup, several papers, and he was wearing glasses. Using the picture of the man tripping and the details students were able to guess that he would fall forward, the man's glasses might break, the coffee cup would break, the coffee would spill on the ground, papers would fall on the group, the coffee would get on the papers, the man might break a bone, and the man's boss will be angry that he ruined the papers. All of that from one little picture.

After students finished making predictions based off of pictures I gave them a harder challenge by presenting them with short stories that asked the reader to predict what would happen next. One short story I used had 2 characters, the characters were 2 young boys who were boy scouts. According to the story the boy scouts were walking home one day when they found a wallet, they realized they should turn the wallet in to the police but they each also couldn't help but think of something specific they would like to buy with the money they found. The story cut off after mentioning the boys' selfish desires and asked the readers to guess what would happen next. Some students were able to form a prediction on their own, while others needed help breaking the text down. To break the text down I pointed out the reputation of the boy scouts as a well known organization which works to promote personal, professional, and survival skills in young boys and young adults. I then pointed out that small children sometimes have trouble making altruistic decisions. In the end there was not right or wrong answer as long as the students were able to explain why they chose the answer they did.

Wednesday & Thursday: Fine Motor Activity and Spelling

I did some reading lately about how to help people who struggle with their handwriting. The reading suggested providing opportunities to practice hand-eye coordination with activities as common as cutting out patterns with scissors. I took this suggestion and used it to help the class create a useful spelling tool: paper Scrabble tiles.

As I've said in a few posts before the class is working hard to improve their spelling skills so that in the future they will feel more confident in jobs which require reading and writing. The current Arc staff member in the classroom introduced the idea of manipulatives to me around 2 weeks ago and after seeing the success it had with two students, I was ready to introduce the technique to the entire class. To help create manipulatives I used a free print out I found online of scrabble letters, the class was asked to cut the squares out along the lines to the best of their ability, and then glue the squares to construction paper to make the squares even stronger. 

Cutting along straight lines presented a challenge for some students who initially were leery of the project until I assured them I only wanted their best effort instead of perfection. I inspected each student's Scrabble tiles in order to give myself an idea of each student's skill regarding hand-eye coordination. Four out of the seven people were able to cut along the straight lines with little error, one student chose not to participate, and 2 others' tiles indicated they will need more practice. 

The Scrabble tiles themselves have proved to be very valuable and I used them in one lesson on Wednesday and another today. The lesson I used yesterday was my version of "Go Fish" which asked the students to draw tiles at random and attempt to create their spelling words as they drew. I liked the activity because it asked the students to "build" their spelling words through a systematic process, and it provided a good chance to "play" in a group. Today's activity was less recreation and required students to practice spelling out their words using the tiles. 

The Scrabble tiles work because it helps to take the letters out of the trainees heads, place the letters in from of them to see with their eyes, and then touch and manipulate the letters as needed. One student relied heavily on the manipulatives to pass his spelling test. The strategy used by the one student was to listen to the word, spell it, and if he doubted himself he would arrange the letters in front of him so that he could sound the word out. This particular student really benefited from the letters because he struggles with writing, so having the tiles printed helped eliminate a hurdle.

Monday & Tuesday: Math & Abbreviations

It is amazing how time seems to fly by when I start working. When I started working my little clock in the corner of my computer screen said 9:00, now it's 10:25. Sometimes I'm convinced that I'm not actually lesson planning. I think I am actually being hypnotized into some kind of a trance that lasts hours at a time and when I wake up my cat Pumpkin has mysteriously materialized in my lap and my lesson plan for the next week has been hacked up and revised. As a new teacher I find that is something I do a lot: create a week's worth of lesson plans that seemed perfect at first, and then end up revising it again.

That's enough about lesson planning though...

Monday

Monday was a big day for math. A few trainee in the class have hit a wall which is requiring a considerable amount of patience to overcome on their part. I am very proud of the fact that one trainee in the class started out memorizing the multiplication table and is now onto long division. This one trainee has been stuck on dividing 5/6 digit numbers by 2 digit numbers for a few weeks now but he has yet to say, "I quit, I want to go back tot he stuff I already know how to do, and I don't want to learn anything else new." Other trainees have gotten even farther including one student who started in multiplication, mastered multiplication, went into division, mastered division, and is not into fractions.

As well as improving each trainees' math computation skills we also spent a large portion of Monday choosing and practicing spelling words. I continue to allow the trainees to choose their own spelling words, but I spend more individualized time helping each one pick out their words. What I have found in the past is that trainees sometimes pick words they already know, which doesn't help them to expand their abilities. The trainees are expected not only to select challenging spelling words, but to define the words they choose as well. The vocabulary portion of our spelling practices has led to some interesting learning opportunities before. One example I can think of when spelling and vocabulary fostered a new learning opportunity was when student had chosen "chloroplast" as a spelling words. As the trainee and I began breaking down the meaning of the word "chloroplast" our conversation turned towards how plants get food vs. how animals get food, what Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide are, and what is the process called photosynthesis.

Tuesday

Today's favorite lesson among the students was abbreviations and how to write with them.

I have been focusing on punctuation for the last few weeks in this class by identifying types of sentences, which punctuation goes with each type of sentence, and writing their own sentences with the correct punctuation. At least half of the class can identify a given sentence's type as well as how to punctuate, however most of the class still requires reminders to use punctuation in their own writing. I will need to continue to give the class opportunities to write so that they can continue to practice with punctuation.

To add on to writing I added using abbreviations in writing today. I focused on four common abbreviation types: days of the week, months of the year, people's titles, and addresses. To teach this lesson I started out by passing out blanks with the abbreviation next to a blank, the students were asked to write the full word next to any abbreviation they thought they knew. I was very impressed by how the students naturally reached out to each other for help and offered aid when they saw a need.

After going over the common abbreviations I played a memory game using Bingo cards. The rules of this particular Bingo game were that I would say the full word out loud and the students had to find its abbreviated version on the card. The class really enjoyed the game, I played until everyone got the chance to win at least once. One poor person in the class had a "cursed" Bingo card and at least three other trainees in the class had earned a Bingo over 3 times before she even got a Bingo once!

Lastly, after ensuring everyone had practiced their abbreviations I finished the lesson with a few pages which required matching, editing, and writing abbreviations.

Wednesday & Thursday: Job Skills and Safety

Wednesday

I'm a little behind here on updates, as you can see from the date...

Wednesday was a day we focused on alphabetizing and categorizing.

Alphabetizing is very useful for jobs that involve sorting and organizing. The class has been practicing alphabetizing their chosen spelling words for the last few weeks, but I wanted to provide a real world example of when it is helpful to know how to alphabetize. I chose to use sortintg DVD's as an example of when a person would need to know how to alphabetize. In order to sort the DVD's alphabetically the class first had to categorize the DVD's. The class came up with a very healthy list of movie categories which they wrote on sheets of paper and then laid out on the floor. After the categories were decided on and laid out I passed out my entire personal DVD collection that I brought in from home. The class sorted the DVD's by category and then the alphabetized the collection in each category.

The class enjoyed the chance to rifle through my DVD collection and debating with each other to decide which category to place the DVD's in. I divided the class into two groups for this activity, one group was able to categorize and alphabetize the movies in less than 15 minutes, the second group took about 20-25 minutes with some aid. I found that about 90% of the movies were categorized accurately, but those movies were movies which tended to fall into 2-3 categories and depended on the person judging. I am happy to say there were not any errors when students alphabetized the movies, which shows me everyone understands alphabetizing well.

Thursday

Last week and this week the CLA portion of the class is focusing largely on safety and because my class also covers skills for work I wanted to spend some time in my class discussing safety also. I found an interesting way to combine science and fire safety on Thursday: homemade fire extinguishers.

I based me lesson based on a video by Champak SciQ. In the video Champak breaks down the 3 main needs of a fire: heat, fuiel, and Oxygen. I showed the video to the class first, after watching the video we reviewed what the 3 needed requirements of a fire were and then we discussed how the fire extinguisher can help to eliminate two out of the three parts of a fire. After the video we slowly got started working on our fire extinguishers. The fire extinguishers were made out of the following materials: a squirt water bottle, 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup of vinegar, 1 tsp of baking soda, a 5 inch square of tissue paper, and a 9 inch piece of string. Directions ask that first you fill the water bottle up no more than half way with water and vinegar. After filling the water bottle you set the bottle aside and then you take the baking soda, spoon it into the center of the tissue paper square, next you roll up the tissue paper square into a small pouch, lastly you tie the piece of string around the pouch of baking soda.  After the pouch has been created and wrapped you slowly and carefully push the pouch into the water bottle without letting it drop into the bottle by holding onto the end of the string. Once the pouch is inside the bottle you screw the cap of the bottle on while securing the string.

The reason the fire extinguisher works on fire is because of the chemical reaction created when a water/vinegar solution come in contact with the baking soda. When the baking soda is mixed with the water/vinegar solution it creates a blast of Carbon Dioxide. Carbon Dioxide removes Oxygen from the fire, and the water lowers the temperature of the item on fire.

After creating our fire extinguishers we took one outside to test it out. As a class we established that while these fire extinguishers were interesting to make, they would not meet work safety standards because it takes too long for the tissue paper to dissolve and release the baking soda. Another student pointed out that the fire extinguishers themselves could be a workplace hazard due to the fact that they cannot be jostled too much or you risk setting the fire extinguisher off before it is needed. Overall I think the trainees showed an excellent understanding of safety based off of their evaluation of the fire extinguisher.

I found that 5 out of the 8 students needed or wanted help creating the fire extinguisher and others did a very good job following my verbal instructions. I felt at least 2 people in the room were capable of being more involved in the process, but they weren't interested in the project. In the future I will try to use more experiments that require more independent investigation so that the trainees can use less time following directions and more time working towards the solution themselves.  I do however think that it was good to use an experiment which required following directions because that is a valuable job skill which the class needs to practice with.

Tuesday: Community Harvest

No teacher, who works a traditional school year schedule, wants to hear this but I have some news: school starts up in less than a month. If you don't want to be reminded of this I suggest you stop hear and go watch Youtube videos of kittens chasing laser pointers.

As for anyone else...

Any teachers or parents of young children living in poverty can rest easy tonight knowing my class did its part on Tuesday to help fight hunger in the city of Fort Wayne. The Community Food Harvest is currently working on a program they call "Pack the Backpack." The "backpack" I am speaking of is actually a paper grocery bag, it contains exactly 10 pounds of groceries, the groceries are chosen to include foods from each food group, and the students receive a backpack every week they are in school.

The backpacks we packed included:

• 1 box of Mac'n'Cheese
• 2 bags of freeze-dried rice and beans
• 2 cans of fruit
• 2 cans of vegetables
• 4 containers of instant oatmeal
• 1 water bottle
• 2 cans of beans/canned meat
• 4 juice boxes

To make the packing process as efficient as possible each person in the group was held responsible for packing one of the categories listed above. We started out with an empty paper sack, one person placed their grocery item in the bag and then passed it to the next person until the bag was complete. The process worked great because it helped the trainees understand why it is imperative to pay close attention to what you are in doing. An example is in this case if someone hadn't paid attention they may have accidentally shorted a child's backpack of one of the items. The trainees C.L.A. training also came into play when we had to consider how many "backpacks" could be loaded onto a cart before it was considered unsafe. 

The trainees overall enjoyed the the work and it meant a lot to them that kids living in poverty would benefit from the work they put in on Tuesday. On a personal note I think this job also meant a lot to the trainees because of few them could relate to the need to ration food for the sake of not running out before the next designated grocery day. All of this is a reminder for why this class can make such a difference for the trainees, learning the soft skills and functional literacy skills taught in this program can hopefully help some of the trainees obtain better employment opportunities.