follow up to martin o

From: Mike Cole (mcole@weber.ucsd.edu)
Date: Wed Mar 01 2000 - 14:55:40 PST


Here is a sample field note from a staff person (BA training) who spends
two afternoons a week at the BG Club. It gives a pretty good picture
of the issues Martin raised. If this is not of interest, bail now!
mike

GENERAL SITE OBSERVATIONS

The Fifth Dimension and the homework room were particularly quiet today as
the gym was open for the first time in several weeks. Sarah's announcement
that the gym was open was met by enthusiastic cheers from many of the
kids- boys and girls alike. Most of the non "homework club" kids did not
come in as they spent most of their time in the gym.

NARRATIVE:

When I arrived at the club, I went over to say hello to Sarah who
immediately introduced me to Maggie, the new program director. She seemed
very nice and was quietly watching Sarah get ready for the kids by putting
the schedule on the white board. I told Maggie I was from the UCSD lab but
did not go into any more detail since I did not know if she has yet to be
informed of UCSD's role at the club. I told Sarah that there would be
different Ugs this week due to the class's site exchange at which point
Sarah briefly told Maggie that UCSD undergrads come to the club and help
out.

I moved on to tell Abbey and Scott about the Ugs as well. Scott was in the
computer room getting wiz mail ready. He had already printed the messages
out from home, anticipating a printer malfunction and was pinning them to
the bulletin board.

The kids began to filter into the computer room to spend their free time.
One of the girls who came in had a wiz letter so I lead her over to the
bulletin board. She was really surprised that she had a letter- I think
it is her first from the wizard. She immediately took it to put it away in
her backpack and then came back for me to show her how to write back to
the wizard. We sat down at the Internet machine and I typed for her. At
first she could not think of anything to say but once I started typing,
she added to the letter.

I briefly introduced myself to the visiting Ugs and showed them around the
site- telling them to spread themselves out amoung the homework and
computer rooms. There were only four Ugs who came in all but that seemed
to be enough due to low numbers in each room.
 
The homework room was well staffed as many of the Ugs visiting as a site
exchange from LCM really wanted to see what it was all about. There was
always at least one adult at every table and the noise level stayed
relatively low. Even when talking increased, it seemed to be over an
assignment and not very social in nature. Today, Abbey did not take role
aloud. Instead she went around the room and checked off the kids she knew
and approached those she didn't to add them to the list.

I sat down at one table to help R (10) with his math. He was having a lot
of trouble understanding fractions. At first I tried to go over the
example given on his worksheet with him. I talked him through it and
asked him questions. If I broke the problem down for him, he could get the
pieces right but had trouble seeing the whole picture. For example, in
changing 5/4 into 1 1/4, he could aknowledge that there was a whole and
some parts but could not figure out how many parts were left over. He
could draw a picure representing 5/4 but could not see how that picture
could also be interpreted to mean 1 1/4. We kept going over every problem
together and breaking it down. I never gave him the answer- I provided
steps to getting to the correct answer. He was able to get every one right
eventually but I am not sure he walked away from the assignment with a
true understanding of the concept. He did however, work very hard and
stayed focused the whole time, something that is often difficult.

The Ugs who were in the homework room were very concerned that they were
being effective in helping the kids. One Ug came up to me and asked how
to help the kids who were "giving her attitude". I told her that the kids
like to test us adults and they were obviously testing the new faces. I
encouraged her to move around the room to find kids who either needed help
with an assignment or staying on task but that if she did not feel she was
being helpful to feel free to check out the Fifth Dimension. When she left
the homework room, she sent another Ug in her place.

I left to check out the Fifth Dimension which was also very quiet. Many of
the kids played by themselves. One male Ug was playing with a five year
old and showed me how he had recorded her score on Word Munchers.

Dex was trying to set up the new scanner and show the kids how to use it.
He helped a boy scan one of his drawings and then showed him how to modify
the size, shading, etc. The boy thought it was really cool. I ran the
idea of scanning artwork to make T-shirts and he thought it would be fun.

I was about to leave when R (7) came in with Maggie, the new program
director. They had been playing together but Maggie had to go talk to
Sarah so Rachel turned to me and asked me to play Mancala with her. I
agree and we sat down on the floor to play. She easily beat me again.
While we were playing, S and A (both 10) came over to check out our game.
They often come over to watch when I am playing a board game with someone-
they always offer help as well. When Rachel and I were finished playing, I
encouraged her to play with S or A.

REFLECTIONS

It is interesting that I often have trouble getting S or A to play games
with me but they always come over to watch me play with someone else.
They also always say "oh, I know how to play that game" and will try to
help me win. When I suggest that they play however, they decline.

S is also very pushy to get attention. Often when I am working with
another child in the homework room, she will interrupt us, wanting me to
check her work or answer a question. When she does this I tell her she
needs to wait until I am done. She usually keeps trying to get me to help
her at first but will then wait patiently. I am glad that she has been
doing such a great job with her math homework and that she is more
enthusiastic and willing to ask for help but needs to be patient as well.

The undergrads from LCM were very helpful and jumped right in to the
programs at the club. They marveled at how different the club is from St.
Leo's which puts things into persective. We complain that we can't get
the scanner to work right when the LCM undergrads were impressed by how
nice our chairs are.

Scott and I had a brief discussion about what to do during the three weeks
without Ugs in the 5D. He really seems to like the T-shirt idea as well
as the maze scavenger hunt. His main concern was that there be enough
machines for the kids to use in order to participate in whatever
tournament we plan.



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue May 23 2000 - 09:20:32 PDT