Meat+(the+inside)

Goals:1.) increase literacy among GEAR UP students, 2.) increase technology awareness among tutors and tuttees Tutees: Tutors:
 * started with 14, the difficulty of getting 14 to commit to 3 weeks of STAR camp.
 * competition with basketball camps, church camps, 3 day events.
 * "Who wants to go to camp to read?" a facilitator's comment.
 * Grew to 17 with only a few absentees and the excuses were a funeral, parent ride problems, and a church event.
 * Almost no experience with the technology we were presenting.
 * had to learn along with the tutees
 * collaborative event
 * equipment: flip camera, pod digital recording device, computer, microphone, CD burner, CDs,
 * programs: Window Movie Maker, Wordle, Blogster, Voki, word processing programs and other programs

Structure of camp:
 * Three weeks, Monday through Thursday, except for last week Monday through Wednesday
 * 9:30 to 11:30. Snack at 9:00; lunch at 11:00. Usually started early and had to quit at 11:00.
 * One half literacy focus and the other half technology
 * hard copies as well as digital copies
 * Wednesday Celebration Day with parents and friends to demonstrate the products, field trip to Channel 2 to see their technology at work. digital stories versus news stories.

Surprises or Products: cross-age tutoring from tutor to tutee, tutee to tutor, tutor to tutor, tutee to tutee; "community"--technology as the great equalizer; intense commitment and time on task and engagement; multi-ethnicity working together (tutees stating on survey meeting new friends as a wonderful event of camp); lunch conversations about books, fishing, technology and people; and smiles.

Extension outside of class: Also, Jennifer is taking her 2 tutees, her daughter, Zane's tutee, Kathy's daughter and my daughter to the zoo. One of Jennifer's tutees had never been to the zoo...

Missy and Jennifer's tuttees doing their hair.