Troy BGC Demo/ABGC Session 3

Regina and I went to the Troy BGC this morning to demo the different CSDTs we would be using in order to garner some interest for the program.  It was very hot today, so it was difficult to keep the kids engaged. Some kids were legitimately interested in some of the programs, while others just wanted to play on the computers. It is hard to run a structured program or demo when there is little structure for the kids in place at the Boys and Girls Club.

In the end, we had six kids sign up for the program. After talking with the director at the TBGC, it was decided that we would come in on Thursday prepared to teach two sessions in the hope that more kids would be interested when they found they wouldn't be able to use the computers unless they decided to enroll in our program.

After Troy, we headed over to Albany. Only two of the kids in our group today had worked with us previously, so it was difficult to pick up where we left off because we had to teach the new kids what we had gone over in the last sessions. We need to talk to the ABGC staff and see if it would be possible to have a consistent group of the same kids for the remainder of the summer. It is difficult to progress when we have to backtrack every time we have new kids.

We let the kids who we worked with before to continue with their drawings from the last session. We had the new kids briefly go through the basics of the Graffiti Grapher, and then we had them start making their drawings.
All the kids were able to finish their drawings on paper, and most finished the electronic version as well. Next session we should be able to move on to the Virtual Bead Loom applet.