Jamie's+Page

__**﻿﻿ **__//**Jamie's Page **// //**﻿__My Weekly Schedule:__ **// //**Girls Inc. of Pinellas Park - Monday 8:30 **// //**Boys & Girls Club of Pinellas Park - Tuesday 4:00 **// //** My first week of tutoring was like walking on hot coals while wearing ice slippers. It was like skipping through a beautiful meadow full of poison ivy. It was like driving a Lamborghini with a flat tire. It was like eating a delicious cake with no icing. **// //** My first week of tutoring was everything I expected it to be; I had no idea what to expect! **//  //**﻿ **// ﻿ **__Some things worth talkin about...__** ﻿>>>__Target's $1 section__ has a ton of __flash cards__ that can be used. I bought Phonics II-Digraphs & Blends, Alphabet (sounds), Rhyming, and Sight Words.

>>> __Visit any public library__ & see what they can do for you! I went to my local library yesterday & told them I was a reading tutor~__they hooked me up__! I got bookmarks, fun door knob signs, pencils, and reading logs for all of my kiddos. There is also a summer program called __"Reading with the Rays";__ kids read, log it, and bring it in to the library for prizes every week and eventually earn a free ticket to a Rays game. It's a fun way to get kids to read and earn __free stuff__~it also gets them into the library! My librarian gave me enough reading logs/forms to hand out to all of my little tutees.  ﻿**__Reflection__**  As the summer tutoring project comes to a close, I take a look back on the many analogies I created during the first few days of my experience. Though my anxiety levels have decreased some since the beginning weeks, I believe that the analogies are still just as suitable today as they were when I came up with them. The two sites I have been working at can only be described as polar opposites. This experience has provided me with tons of ups and downs in nothing but a positive way. It has forced me to do a lot of soul searching and, at times, some second guessing on my choice of career if I’m being totally honest. Throughout the entire experience I have had to remind myself of numerous things: I am only here one day a week, I am only spending a half an hour (at most) with all of these children, this isn’t a classroom, this isn’t a school, I’ve never done this before, I have learned how to do what I’m being asked to do, they don’t hate me, I can do this, and if nothing else, they are getting exposure to literacy. I have realized the importance and truth of the oh-so-famous phrase “assessment informs instruction!” I have always felt comfortable conducting word lists and running records, but now that I was really seeing them through to the very end result in order to understand who these children were as readers I have a totally new perspective! I did not expect the amount of time needed to completely analyze all of this data in order to use it the way it is intended to be used. Finding a child’s reading level, grouping them together appropriately, and developing a beneficial lesson is definitely easier said than done; no class can ever one hundred percent prepare you for this! I am so truly grateful to have been given this opportunity! I know that this has made me stronger as a person and as a teacher. I have been forced to recognize my strengths and weaknesses during this summer and I know that it can only go up from here! I honestly feel that I have gained so much from this experience and I hope, with all my heart, that I have been able to provide half as much to atleast one child along the way.

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