TBGC Session 5/ABGC Session 8

The children in Troy are progressing much faster than I had anticipated. There were a few kids missing from each group, but everyone who was there finished designs for their shirts. The older group picked up on the software much faster than the younger group did. The older group was almost completely independent, asking only a few questions and making rather complex designs.

The younger group, on the other hand, had a very difficult time with the software. Even when reading through the tutorials with them, they were having a difficult time focusing enough to learn how to use the software. I decided to skip the tutorials about designing arcs and spirals with polar coordinates, because they were having a hard enough time understanding the concept of moving the shapes using cartesian coordinates.

When the instruction period was over and they were to make their shirt designs, the younger group was more uncooperative than normal. Some said they didn't want to make shirts or wanted to quit. One sat in her chair and refused to listen to anything I had to say. We finally managed to convince everyone to work on their designs, but they would continually ask questions about how to do the simplest things.

I have noticed that the younger group tends to give up more easily than the older group. When I try to help them, they just say they don't know how, even when I show them how to do exactly what they want to do.

This weekend I will have to go to the craft store and buy the supplies for their shirts so I can have them made by the next session.

The Albany session continues to frustrate me. When we arrived today, there were considerably more kids than what we normally have in the computer room. They were playing games, and it was very difficult to convince them to work with the CSDTs again. There were counselors in the next room working with another group of kids, and they would occasionally look into our room as well, but they lacked the physical presence that tends to make the kids less rowdy and more apt to pay attention. There was only one counselor in training present, and all he did was instigate the kids to do things other than work with the CSDTs. Talking to the administration has done little to help the situation, and the kids become harder and harder to work with each week.