Journals
Journal 1: Everyone always told me all throughout middle and the beginning years of high school that high school would fly by. I never believed it because to me it felt like forever. Well here I am now a senior with only half a year till graduation and I can’t believe it. All those countless nights of staying up and studying and writing essays, trying to perfect them to the best of my ability, would pay off in June and I’d be starting a new chapter of my life. I knew what I wanted to do for capstone but I was indecisive, which is why it took me sometime to actually start it. I finally decided that this is my passion and planned to begin next week. Until something crazy and very unexpected happened. I was in my first car accident and the reason it was even more scary is because I was the driver but not at fault. I worked hard after and made sure I didn't fall back in my senior year Although it was tough going to capstone since my car ended up being totaled and I didn’t have a form of transportation. But I was able to communicate with my mentor and she was very understanding and told me to take some time and start whenever I was ready.
Journal 2: For the past few weeks, I’ve been in touch with Ms.Muriel and Naylor’s principal completing all the forms in which allow me to voluntary at Naylor. Today’s the day I was finally able to start my capstone. I arrived at Naylor school and everyone already knew and was expecting me. I got to Mrs.Muriel’s kindergarten class and all the kids were so excited to see a new face in the class, I’ve met the kids once before but it was still very exciting to them. Mrs.Muriel had me introduce myself and explain why I would be coming to their class so often, I told them that I was a senior in high school and as a 12th grader you are given a big project to help the community and my big project would be to help every one of them as much as I could. The class began with their reading centers and I immediately began helping. I was asked to sit with one girl, who is very shy and doesn't understand much english, and work on assignments with her. It was difficult for her to stay focused because of her little understanding. I helped her with the worksheet and since there was some extra time left, I worked on the alphabet with her just trying to get her some extra help in which she can hopefully use later on different assignments. As soon as the reading centers were finished, Ms.Muriel took students one by one to test in sight words and reading while I did a group math lesson.
Journal 3: Today I started off with helping Ms.Muriel get a bit organized and prepared as she has parent teacher conferences coming up the following days. I got all the summer school forms stapled,wrote students' names on them and then put them in order based on the conferences. I also organized all the students files (folders she kept all testing in) in the order of conferences, trying to make it as easy for her as possible. I did my usual checking homework folders/making sure everyone did homework. I had to talk to two students that did not do their homework, making sure they did it the following night as well as making sure they didn’t need help (figuring out the reasoning as to why they didn't do it). Then I was able to work in the center with the students for both math and reading. After math centers, I walked the kids up to Music so for the next hour I was just helping Ms.Muriel. I was able to finish everything and still had some time so I decided to go visit my middle school teachers. I was sad to realize that all my teachers transferred school except one, my social studies teacher. He was a very nice teacher and always cracked jokes with us, so of course as soon as he say me he says “wait students I have to call security.” I was able to catch up with him and he said that after my class left, it has not been the same at all.
Journal 4: Today was an exciting day for the kindergarteners, it was their favorite day of the school year. I came in and everyone was happy yelling “Good Morning Miss. Amina” as I'm walking. I said hello to everyone and then began to do my art and craft activity. I began with handing out all the materials. I stood in the front of the class where every student can see me and can follow along with what we were doing. As a class, we wrote Happy Valentine’s Day and then everyone decorated their hearts. I went around helping everyone that needed it and overall just watching how much fun all the students were having. I was surprised at how excited they were to do this project. Once everyone finished, I handed out candy and cute valentine's day pencils that I bought all my kindergarteners. Next, it was time for the little ones to hand out the stuff that they’ve brought in. We did a few students at a time so not everyone was walking around and this way it was a lot less complicated. Ms.Muriel and I helped and then when everyone passed out their stuff, they all sat and looked at everything. Both Ms.Muriel and I got heart candies and watched everyone as we caught up since Ms.Muriel would be out the next three weeks. I spoke to her since I knew how nervous she was for her surgery. I helped get organized and ready for everything she needed to do the next three weeks. We prepared everything and then I left since I had to be at work a little earlier for the holiday. I went home and got ready for work and immediately had to leave. I wasn’t ready for how busy it was going to be. I get to work and everyone is running around and preparing. It was crazy but at the end of the night everything was so much better and we were all relieved.
Journal 5: Since Ms.Muriel will be out for the next few weeks due to personal reasons and to not cause much complications for the sub who will be replacing her, I will be working with a different class. These past three weeks I was able to move up and work with Mrs. Alihodzic’s fifth grade class. I didn’t think my experience between the two would be much different, but wow was I surprised. The fifth graders have a rotating schedule for which I was able to work with many different levels in both math and reading. I was able to sit in a group as well as work with a few students individually. Working with them brought back memories of when I was in middle school but a lot has changed since then. But I’m glad I was able to move up and work with a different grade level because it made me positive that I wanted to stick with and later educate the youngest of students. Lately I’ve also been focusing a lot on capstone and it’s getting a bit nerve wracking how close the end of the year is coming. Also how fast all these deadlines are approaching, I’m glad I have been working hard and keeping up with everything I’ve had all of senior year. I’m also excited to go back to working with my kindergartener, I’ve been texting Ms.Muriel and checking in on her the past few weeks. She’s recovered well and is excited to get back to working. Although I have reached my goal for my volunteer hours, I always wanted to go above it and help as much as I could. Today is Friday and we found out that due to the coronavirus schools in Connecticut will be closing until further notice. I wasn’t happy at all to hear this because it means that other things will be canceled and I don’t know when we’ll return to school. This also gives us an extension on the date we’ll even finish school. I’ve been hearing that many college graduations are being canceled due to the risk of the virus so I’m really hoping this all goes away asap so that it doesn’t ruin the ending to our senior year
Journal 6: It’s been almost two weeks since we’ve been out of school and I also haven’t been working, since restaurants are only open for takeout or delivery. At my job, I’m a busser which means they only need me to work when we’re actually serving people in the restaurant. I never thought I’d actually say that I missed school and working but I do... a lot. I was able to use this time and work on my e-portfolio since I’m such a perfectionist and have been trying to make it look good as well as be my best work. I’ve also spent a lot of time with family: watching movies, playing with my cat and board games as well as baking (my favorite). Uno was very funny with my very European parents, boy did it take forever for them to get the hang of it but it was very fun. I’m going up to upstate NY tomorrow to surprise Dina She thinks we're coming Thursday but we're gonna show up a day before. We plan on just spending time together and staying in to probably play a few board games or puzzles. I hope all these issues of the coronavirus clears up very soon and everything is back to normal. I don’t want to have to miss out on any senior events like prom and graduation all due to a virus. My classmates and I have worked very hard these last twelve years so I hope we get more information on when we’ll return to school as soon as possible. I hope it’s really soon because I’m ready to leave my room and return to my normal everyday life.
Journal 7: It's now been almost two months since we’ve been out of school and work. Being quarantined is not fun at all and it’s sad to say this is the new normal for a while. Still can’t get over how this is really happening and we weren’t able to have a normal and fun senior year. Our senior year was taken so easily from us. As for capstone, I was able to finish all my requirements for hours before all this chaos. But I’ve been working with and homeschooling my brother and little cousin in all of their classes. It is very different then working with the kindergartener since now we’re at home and everything is done on a computer. But we were able to adapt quickly and now it’s a lot better then when we first started. The only good thing that's happened since we’ve been in quarantine is we’ve been able to spend a lot of time with family. But, I just wish I was able to say goodbye to my student as well as Ms.Muriel. Working with them was an amazing experience which I’m very grateful for. I’m glad I was given the opportunity to work with them because it has given me a head start into my future. I just wish I could've continued to work with and finish the year off with them all. It makes me feel that all of us weren’t able to get the full capstone and senior year experience. Although all that is going on, our senior class has stuck together and communicating almost everyday in our group chat. While our teacher was hoping we would do so I reached out to Christina, to see how she was doing and how her capstone was going. We talked for a while, catching up on everything we could’ve. Her capstone was sadly cut short due to COVID-19 as mine was as well. She was working in a nursing home and that is no longer allowed to protect all of our older adults. But she was able to spend time with and take care of her grandma. I know she’ll do great in the future with whatever she picks to pursue. Although with everything that’s going on I still think this is all gonna end soon and we’ll be back in school. I’ve also officially committed to Central Connecticut State University, which I’m very excited about and can’t wait to see what my future has in store for me.