Joaquin Thomas Capstone

Posted by Joaquin Thomas in Capstone · Siswick/Kay · Wed on

For my Capstone I decided to go out to a middle school near SLA to help with tutoring kids in math. The main purpose behind doing this was to help struggling kids bump their grades up and to help them be prepared for the PSSAs. In the very beginning I was clueless as to what I was going to work on but, then my mentor, Jonathan Tyler, helped to guide me to something I was interested in. He did so by noting my interest in math along with my daily tutoring of my little brother. Every Wednesday I went down to the middles school, Robert Morris, to teach 7th graders. In the beginning it was difficult to find ways to reach the students but, after receiving assistance from my mentor and the principal of the school I was able to improve on my teaching skills and I began to make real progress with the kids. I learned a lot with how to be patient with students along with understanding that every student needs their own special attention. I also learned of the importance of teaching kids in need.

Capstone Bibliography



Source #1: One of my out of school mentors, Mr. Kay, Elder. Mr. Kay’s Dad.


When we were first talking about the development of this project a lot of the conversation was about him telling me what to do which I had a problem with. I didn’t like that very much because I like being worked with to develop my own ideas in some way. Also in an interesting way he taught me an interesting lesson about teaching just from making a mistake. Then I expressed my distress with him and once we set a mutual line of respect for the both of us our meetings went a lot smoother from then on. So I chose this source for inadvertently teaching me a lesson and the good affects positive change brought to our relationship.



Source #2: My second source was, Mr. Jonathan Tyler. A grandfather to an alumni at SLA.


Mr. Tyler came off very harsh from the first moment we started conversation in what seemed to be an aggressive attempt to making me submit to his orders. The way he approached setting up an atmosphere with me was very unsettling and it didn’t make me very comfortable with having him help me. However some of his stern talking was very helpful in some situations because of the fact that it allowed me to focus a lot on my work when I would normal be distracted. At the same time I wasn’t that inspired to do my best because I felt under pressure a lot of the time. I felt persecuted instead of sympathised with sometimes.



Source #3: My third source was my mom, Marielle Thomas.


I chose my Mom as one of my sources because of the fact that she is used to teaching kids from all ages. She’s taught kids in Pre-K and she once worked in High Schools in philly. While talking to her she helped me understand the importance of setting up an initial atmosphere with your tutee because it can be a deciding factor in whether or not the student learns, then falls off, or learns, and continues to grow and flourish. Along with that she talked about understanding that every student is different and you need to focus on different areas for each.



Source #4: My fourth source was, Ms. Burrell, a teacher at Robert Morris middle school.


I chose this source because she was the head teacher of the school that I was going to be doing the tutoring at. She helped me with understanding how to keep students calm especially when there is more than one of them you are helping at once. Also the fact that when one student doesn’t understand and gets frustrated it’s more likely for more of them to get frustrated easier even if they would’ve understood originally. Along with asserting myself without making them feel disrespected. So far this has helped with having them open up better to what they don’t personally understand.



Source #5: " Tutor Training." General Tips & Techniques | Chandler-Gilbert Community College. Chandler Gilbert Community College, n.d. Web. 02 Feb. 2017.


This source was very useful from the start solely because of the fact that it was written in a list format. This helped me really understand the content being provided to me. It talked about setting up a layer of respect about everything.


Source #6: "Benefits of Tutoring." Benefits of Tutoring. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Feb. 2017.


https://docs.google.com/document/d/1quLQtL-Y-SMq3f5bZj6dctv3c3PmqHbfcO2ZAT8ASsY/edit


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