pc tools syllabus
English discussion post
biology vocab

We started out going through the intro to the PC Tools class. This seems to be a very basic and easy class, and Brandon should not have much trouble with this. It's going to be a lot of busy work, but shouldn't take up too much time each week. He then worked on his discussion post for English, while I went through the biology material and organized all the terms he needs to know for the week.

English

We started working our way through the introduction to the new English class. We read the syllabus, wrote his introductory post, and started working our way through the material for this week.

discussion posts

Brandon finished up his discussion posts for the week, and then continued working on his paper. He should be in good shape going into his break.

Today, Brandon made a special trip to school so that we could finish his Business Ethics paper. Brandon was geared and ready to work, and we were able to conduct all of the research necessary to complete the paper. Brandon simply needed to finish his conclusion in order to submit the essay, and we ended with a great final product. I can't wait to see his final grade in both classes. What a hard semester, but Brandon managed to pull it together!

Brandon and I spent some time finishing up both his College English Final Essay and his Business Ethics Final Paper. Brandon has really surprised me with his meta-cognition in writing, and it has been a pleasure to see him become more and more self-aware in when/how to transition from thought-to-thought, and where to include support for claims. This is something that he will continue to develop over time, and is something that will help to cultivate his critical thinking skills.

Brandon continued work on his Business Ethics paper, but he has a long way to go with finding articles that support his point of view. To help, I had Brandon retell some pertinent stories from work that support his personal business philosophy. This led to Brandon's finishing his third body paragraph. Brandon has a lot of work to do because of the dreaded "finals week," but he is handling everything with grace and seems really eager to get everything finished.

Brandon and I continued to work-on his Business Ethics paper, conducting research when necessary. The research aspect is fun, but a bit time-consuming. I am trying to teach Brandon how he can use not-so-clear-cut research and manipulate it via inductive and deductive reasoning to support his claims. Brandon usually searches for items that articulate EXACTLY what he needs for his paper. Sometimes he is lucky, but more often we have to use the "gaps" in the research to support our argument. He is getting better at this, and will be more successful in time.

After obtaining feedback from Betsabe, Brandon and I continued to revise and expand his "We should not raise the minimum wage" paper. Brandon had to conduct some extra research to support his contentions (mainly he could not support an argument with a counterargument, and he needed to devise points that could stand on their own). This took some time, but after we outlined our essay, it was clear which points we had covered at length and where the corresponding gaps were.

Brandon continued outlining the Business Ethics final paper, which called for Brandon to outline his own business philosophy of ethics. At first, Brandon had some trouble brainstorming a thesis statement, but after being asked: "Well, how would you want to conduct business at your own Dunkin' Donuts franchise 5 years from now," Brandon was able to put the issue into perspective. His thesis: "My personal philosophy of business is to find a balance between transparency, objectivity, and self-preservation." Great session.

Brandon and I worked on the comments that Betsabe, his writing coach, provided on the first draft of his Argument Paper in English. On the whole, Brandon needed to provide some support for his assertion on logos, as well as a supporting paragraph for ethos. Once these items were completed, though, Brandon ended-up with a pretty complete final draft.