Session 1 Feb 5th

Dr. Burley and I had a very talkative group of students consisting of one 4th grader, one 5th grader and two 6th graders. Are group appeared to be very eager to discover why we were there and what type of project we would be working on. A female student in the group thought we were school counselors, while another could not believe that we were students at Southeastern. When students were asked to draw their favorite places some responses were school, the mall, the stadium, and church. The drawing activity was a great icebreaker allowing the students to share their thoughts. All the students were excited about the idea of participating in this project and completed the accent form as instructed. At times it was difficulty to keep the students focused on the task at hand. I found myself spending more time redirecting the students than conducting the focus group. The students listened to my directions, however, older students in the group appeared uninterested in hearing what their peers had to say. This was evident when students proceeded to talk while other students were sharing their ideas. Due to the following challenges and time constraints I was unable to finish asking all the focus group questions. I would consider this first meeting as a trail run, that will help us as a group structure future projects with this group of students.