Week 14

What I did:

I feel like I have really been devoting much of my time to IP, which is good!

-spent about 8 hours or more working on my presentation

-reached out to Courtney's mom Sandra Michalik and have been connecting back and forth with her (30 minutes)

-created outline for Sandra to show to principal (1 hour)

-worked on website a bit (2 hours)

-Came up with a new idea for my book (1 hour)

-Met with Stephanie about reaching out to women my age (45 mins)

-Reached out to all IP students to reflect back and reached out to friends to attend a workshop where we will be reflecting together (1 hour)

-Met with Hodan Saed of Girl Scouts Ann Arbor (1 hour)

-Created abstract (3 hours)

What I accomplished/discovered/encountered:

-It has been SO helpful to put together this December Review Presentation. It has really been making me stop and think about everything that has happened so far this semester. It is really helpful to see my process and how one thing relates to another (a lot of time when I am so caught up with everything, this becomes difficult). I really needed this experience of putting together this presentation to allow me to make clear for myself exactly what I am doing for IP. Also, it was extremely helpful to receive feedback from my peers and from Hannah on my presentation.

-I'm also really thankful for Courtney getting me in touch with her mom! Sandra Michalik is a 5th grade teacher at King Elementary school. We have been emailing about my project, and she knows for sure that the 5th grade girls will want to do it. I also created an outline to send to her, which was in effect helpful for me to get out (Hannah-I followed the layout you usually use for your handouts, since I wanted it to be very clear- hope that's ok!) (see above)

This was the latest email from Sandra (we are meeting on Monday to discuss the permission slip to give to the parents, etc...)

*She would like me to put the A+D logo on it, and I emailed Kate West, who said she needs to hear from either Hannah or Stephanie a little more about my project.

I told my class just a bit about your project and ALL of the girls were interested. We'll have to figure out how to accommodate allllll the girls if they want to participate:)

A good problem to have. We could end up with as many as 7 or 8 groups of 5? They were already brainstorming images to create.

Also, Sandra is really into the website/blog and thinks this will be a great tool for the girls.

-I worked on my website a bit more to make it solely a tool for the girls

web.mac.com/carly9188

-Additionally, I met with Stephanie on Tuesday which was very helpful. We talked about ways I can go about reaching out to women my age to have them reflect back on this time for them and how they overcame it. I ended up putting together an email. I am excited to see what I receive. I also reached out to a group of 5-6 of my friends and I am going to have them come to my house for us to reflect back together. Stephanie and I talked about the differences between private and group reflection, and I am trying both.

-Hannah and I talked today about the content of my book (not being only what I receive from women my age) and telling more of my story. I think this is a good idea and am definitely going to work on that.

-Today I met with Hodan Saed of the Girl Scouts of Ann Arbor and her intern Maureen who is a grad student in the School of Social Work at Michigan. I presented my project to them and they were really excited about it. I feel really good because I felt extremely confident in my presentation to them since I had an outline, etc... They are even so excited about my workshop that they might be able to help fund me a bit! Hodan gave me the list of all the troop leaders working with the age group I am targeting, and I am looking forward to hearing back from them.

-Sometimes I have these moments when I look back at this semester and freak out about not having many tangible products that I have produced. I think working on this book with its content being about my story might make me feel better. I also keep telling myself that it has taken me so long to reach out to all the people that I reached out to, and make the connections that I did. I think once I really start working with the girls I will be really excited as well. Once again, it is so helpful to see my process throughout this semester and I feel I am really learning a lot about myself.

What's next:

-Using Hannah's Daughters and Friends as a focus group on Sunday- this should be very helpful

-keep working on presentation and practicing it!- i also need to come up with questions for the panel

-Meeting with Sandra Michalik

-Start working on book with my story

-thesis!