First Visit to The Boys and Girls Club

On our visit to the Boys and Girls Club yesterday, I was very impressed with all the students working on the digital story, especially the student Sherzel and I worked with. She had not completed her interview yet, but she was in the process of getting pictures that were relevant to her great-grandfather, the person she has chosen to interview. She seemed to have great ideas as to what direction she wanted to take her story. She gave us some background information on the digital story project first so that we could get some understanding of the expectations for the story. After that, Sherzel and I showed her our digital stories and asked her what she noticed in both that she thought would be helpful for her when she goes on to complete her own story. She also told us a few things about her great-grandfather in terms of the man he is and some of the things he has done in his lifetime that she plans to incorporate in her digital story. Sherzel and I then showed her Rachel's digital story just to give her an idea of another route she could take to make her project different or unique and creative.

Our student shared with us that her great-grandfather had Alzheimer's Disease and asked for advice on how she could suppress her impatience when interviewing him. I was able to give her some helpful tips since I am a very impatient person myself. I told her to just remember that it was not her great-grandfather's fault or choice to have the disease, and because of that, she needed to be sympathetic and understanding. One simple thing I advised her to do is that when she feels herself getting impatient or frustrated, it would be a great idea for them to take a break and maybe get her great-grandfather and herself a glass of water and then resume. Other advice Sherzel and I gave our student was to just start off broad, and then once she had her interview done, she could decide on the main points she wanted to bring out in her project. We also encouraged her to avoid asking others how they are doing their projects so that she would not fall into the trap of comparing or doubting her ideas and project in terms of others. My main goal in going into this first visit was to make sure that the student had some ideas and was working towards something, and I think Sherzel and I did well in helping her feel more confident in her original ideas.