I chose to do this project because my future career choice is a highschool history teacher, so learning to work with problematic or unsocial kids would be a great skill to learn. Also, I had family and self esteem issues up until the 10th grade so I thought I could possibly pass my advice onto these kids who may be going through the same problems I had. My motivation for this project was to see these kids be more outgoing and making more friends in the school and was also what I hoped to accomplish.

Who, What, When, Where, How

Who: The people that were involved in this project were the senior and junior members of Y.A.Y, Ms. Persichini and Ms. McKeg
What:I was to create an entire lesson or project for us to do during the Y.A.Y meeting.
When:This was taking place November 18th, 2008 during both first and second lunch.
Where:The Y.A.Y meetings are held in the library.
How:I give everyone instructions and they go from there.

Calendar

November 2008
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
						1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17		19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30

Instructions for things hard to explain that I planned for the day

Human Bridge:
In a group larger than 6 (we had 12), everyone must work together to build a bridge using themselves across two chairs. Out of all the members in the group, only 4 limbs may touch the ground and only 2 people can actually sit on the ground. Everyone must somehow be connected in the bridge.

Human Knot
Everyone comes together in a circle and joins hands with whoever they wish, as long as it is not the people beside them because the group needs to get all tangled up. Then the group must untangle themselves until the group is in one open circle.

Why I planned this web design theme for my culminating project

I decided to do this idea because everything is on one page and really easy to code. I chose the rainbow colour scheme because it seems happy, positive and cheerful, much like what we are trying to achieve all the time in Y.A.Y. The little smiley face emoticon ( :] ) was the logo the senior Y.A.Y members came up with during training.

During first lunch, I heard that my plan was not even brought up and instead Ms. McKeg just had everyone do a rock paper scissors tournament.
Since I was the leader for second lunch, I had more control over what was to be done

TIMELINE

12:40-12:50We ate the pizza provided
12:50-12:55Icebreaker: We tossed a ball around in a circle and when we caught the ball we had to say our name and something interesting about ourselves
12:55-1:05Made the human bridge across two chairs.
1:05-1:15Tangled ourselves into a human knot and then attempted to untangle ourselves but ended up in a never ending loop
1:15Everyone left for their last period class

Was it a success?

My project was successful because everyone seemed to be really engaged in the events, unlike last meeting on Halloween, where the junior members just stood there. The kids were talking to one another and the following week, many of the junior members were stopping us senior members in the halls and talking to us. Ms. Persichini and Ms. Lew both said I did a good job with the lesson.

Throughout Y.A.Y I have learned that I actually enjoy working with younger students (I still cannot stand elementary level students however). I also realized how much ofa disorganized person and procrastnator I am, which I need to work on. My leadership style in the meeting was democratic, which worked in this situation because everyone gave input on how to make a human bridge and gave the suggestion of doing the human knot activity. I should have been more autocratic with Emily to make sure the plan I made got followed through because, according to the senior members who had first lunch, they didn't have as much fun as the people who have second lunch. Everything seemed to run smoothly throughout this project. The only things I would do differently next time is chose a more autocratic senior leader for first lunch and not procrastinate and make my final lesson plan at the last minute. I made a positive difference in the junior Y.A.Y members that day because now when I see them in the halls or in the cafeteria, they are with a bunch of friends and not just by themselves or are skipping school. I think however this project was more beneficial to myself because it made me realize that I really do want to be a teacher when I finish college and that I would rather work with secondary level students rather than elementary. I also was the one being graded for the meeting, so that's another reason why the meeting was more beneficial to myself.