I have continued working with my group of 1st and 2nd graders. My feelings about their improvement fluctuate everyday. Robert*, the student who is at risk of retention, has made some progress, as he is now able to recognize some words that we studied a couple of weeks ago. However, other days Robert is hardly able to focus, and struggles with basic phonics. I'm conflicted with this situation because I wonder if Robert has a learning disability that has gone unnoticed, or if he simply needs more consistent one-on-one help like the one he is getting with me. The idea of Robert being held back for either of these reasons frustrates and saddens me, because neither of them are his fault. Can Robert's case be a result of the lack of funds and assistance in our public school system? I'm not sure, but I am going to continue to work with Robert and his peers in the hopes that this short time will make a difference.

About two weeks ago, Ryan*, and child with special needs, was enrolled in the program. He was the only child with special needs participating in the program, and the staff members were all ill-prepared to work with him. I say this because as a whole we didn't know how to facilitate interaction between Ryan and the rest of the children. This was unfortunate not only because it isolated Ryan, but because it highlighted society's general inability to work with children with special needs. After only one stressful day that Ryan had, my supervisor decided that we had to remove him from the program because he was displaying aggressive behavior. I understand that the safety of our teachers and participants is important, but I believe that if we, as a society, had more knowledge about the challenges that others live with, we would have been able to help Ryan more, and allowed him to have the same summer experience that other children have.

Today I accompanied the 1st and 2nd grade class to a small field trip to our local library. There, they saw a live performer who sang Blues music. It was great to see how excited they were, and I think that events like these at the library are important because it associates it with fun times.