Sophia's essay-writing skills definitely need work. Her attention to historical details, that are interesting but minor, overtakes the more necessary task of staying on focus and making a convincing argument. The following are the main things I notice:
1. Difficulty narrowing a topic. A 1-page assignment has proven more difficult than a 4-pager.
2. Selection of a thesis. For the essay on Indians, she chose the answer where they were designated land and how they reacted. Yet, no where in the introductory paragraph were these two items mentioned.
3. Run-ons: Many of her sentences contained upwards of four clauses, making them difficult to follow.

I do realize this is a History and not an English class, but writing does lie at the heart of what historians do. We are making clear progress, learning important strategies for what to include and not include in a paper.

Good class.

Wow! I am very proud of Sophia. I compared exercising her brain as one exercises muscles. She is working very hard on this project, and I told her that by pushing herself to think and write clearly and eruditely, she is blazing new trails for herself so that she will excel others who have not subjected themselves to such discipline. Her essay is becoming excellent.

Sophia has great insight and introspection of life for her age, and shared her thoughts with me openly. She has adapted yoga concepts and philosophies into her life.

We lost some time, since Sophia had to print out her essay.She did go above and beyond, though, in writing 2 pages as opposed to the required 1 page. She discussed both general and specific details about the Sante Sioux, their interaction with pioneers, treaties, reservations, land designation. We spent this class going over her syntax, spelling, and grammar, as this was a major distraction from the essay. She had good command over the course of events, the double-edged sword of land treaties, and the destruction/creation caused by the railroad economy. Since paper-writing is fundamental to History, I thought it was good to devote these 40 minutes to that. We will continue going over it next time, with her correcting it directly on her laptop.

Great discussion. Sophia has definite interest in having a restaurant.

Sophia seemed very tired during class. She said her brother had been in town this weekend and she didn't have much time to devote to schoolwork. She seemed more on-top of her assignments a week and a half ago, so I do know she can do it! She is very bright and curious, and I know she will succeed.

Good class. She did very well in the last exercise on Possessive.

Sophia was very focused in class and worked hard to perform acroyoga and gained confidence, as she didn't think she could do it. She really enjoyed challenging herself.