Reflection+7



__**Reflection for April 5th**__

This week was the beginning of the Storykit presentations. Students one through eight were scheduled to present and since Miguel is number ten, he was set to go the Tuesday after returning from spring break, April 17th. But, because some students were absent, or unavailable, Miguel presented on Thursday. With the fulfillment of the presentation aspect of the project, Miguel and I accomplished everything on the checklist. The next step for us is to listen to the remainder of the presentations and then utilize the iPads to play games and do activities that we, as Carthage students, found for the Curtis Strange fifth graders. On my personal checklist, as a buddy, I took pictures of Miguel’s work and recorded portions of the presentation for my Voicethread assignment that will be a gift to Miguel.

This week, we didn’t meet on Tuesday with our buddies, only on Thursday, so my time with Miguel was shorter than usual, and even more so because on Thursday the students sat separate from us. Miguel did a wonderful job presenting and he took my suggestions very well. I was surprised that he was presenting on Thursday (because he was originally scheduled for Tuesday, April 17th), so I quickly tried to gather my quick tips for him before he got up there. He was very confident and listened respectfully to my reminders and suggestions. Because of interaction was so brief, there were no real problems or challenges this week.

I think that on Thursday I did a good job of being supportive and encouraging before he began and following up the presentation with praise. He was really the star this week, so I tried my best to act as a helpful resource and positive force. One improvement I could make for our next session is properly saying goodbye to Miguel. It sounds silly, but I thought I fully said goodbye to him and I went to the van, but two fellow classmates informed me that Miguel was bummed that I didn’t say goodbye. Obviously there was a gap in expectations I feel bad for failing him in that instance and potentially making him feel less important.

The next time I see Miguel (after his spring break), we will be listening and acting as the audience for his classmates for their presentations on the Storykits on the iPads. In that respect, we don’t really have anything to “do” and there isn’t anything that I need to prepare or prepare for. Maybe I will prepare a surprise for Miguel to make up for not properly saying goodbye the last time we saw each other.