Meeting with June Heinz 5/19 1-3pm

Today June Heinz(my mentor) and I met to discuss our plan for the coming weeks of Endersession. She gave me an overview of the different challenges her students face and how we can best work with them. For some students who have more of a verbal and/or written language barrier, motor function issues, or situations like dyslexia, creative writing activities would be excellent because they can learn how fun it can be to express themselves while facing challenges. However, students with more severe learning disabilities would do better with more artistic activities because this would all them to express themselves without feeling frustrated.

Something I had not considered before is the impact of these students working in groups with each other. One might think that there might be a comradeship among the students if they were able to work together. This may be true for some activities, but for most a very stable inner balance must be maintained for each student to be comfortable. Often children facing these problems will self judge and internalize feelings of insecurity that may materialize when working with the others. Therefore it is better for the students (and their self esteem) if the do the bulk of their learning activities independently or with a friend that individual trusts rather than any kind of group situation. We decided that in this situation, I would be best working with her students individually.