Name

Ruquyyah Smith
Project Start Date
1/28/15
Title of Project Living wage v. Minimum wage Project Completion Date 5/1/15
1. In 40 words or more describe your project and the steps you performed to complete it. What did
you produce or perform?
For my project I taught four classes on the living wage v. Minimum wage. In order to do that I
first talked with the teachers whose classes I would be teaching to confirm dates. I then decided
on how I wanted to present the information to the students. I wanted a learning segment as well as
an interactive part of the lesson. When I talked with Mrs. Draeger she gave me a video about
raising the minimum wage. I decided to use that video as well as three short clips. I used the three
clips to show the students some of the groups of people who are exempt from the federal
minimum wage. I started my lesson off with a PowerPoint. I told the students about myself as
well as what I did for my paper. While talking about my paper I shared with them why I chose
this topic. I had to prepare the power point and small speech that I gave. I also had to prepare the
activity. I researched common minimum wage jobs that are in the area. I created the work sheet
along with little slips of paper. Each slip of paper had a job on it or if the students where going to
have kids, if they did they were also given ages. For the worksheet I created a monthly plan for
which the students would have to complete based on their monthly incomes. After this and the
raising the wage video the students had discussion questions. I created the discussion question so
that way they are broad to cover everything we discussed as well as questions that pertained to
their specific class.

2. In at least 40 words explain how the project challenged you, and what sort of time challenges and
resource problems did you encounter?
My project challenged me because I taught three different types of classes. I had to make sure the students
understood why I chose them to learn about my project and how the topic related to them. It was also hard
to make sure that the content of my presentation and activity could be related back to each of the topics
that they were already learning about in class. I struggled with making sure that the activity is something
that would catch their interest and make them want to complete it. When you are teaching you come
across many different types of students so I wanted to make sure that I could keep the attention of as
many students as possible.

3. List and then describe 5-8 fundamental ideas/concepts/skills of your project, which you learned
during your project.
Idea/Concept/Skill

Explanation

(how you learned it)

Lesson Plans

Activity

Moderator
Adapting to Classes

Fundamental Concepts

I learned how to write lesson plans.

Writing a lesson plan that is up to a
VBCPS standards is difficult and
tedious.
I learned how to write an activity.
While writing the activity I had to
learn what format to use as well as
how to write the directions so they
are understandable. I also had to
make sure that the students could
complete the task with resources
they have and that the activity
made sense.
I learned how to keep a discussion
going when people didnt want to
talk about their opinions.
I tried to incorporate what each
class was learning about into my
project. Therefore I had to learn
about what they had been
discussing in class.
I had to make sure I understood the
basic concepts of the federal
minimum wage and understand
how I was going to present them to
the classes. Each class has different
types of students in them and I had
to make sure that the way I
presented the information could be
understood by everyone.

4. List and describe 5-8 problems you encountered in your project, and briefly describe how you
solved each.
Example from Project on Search and Seizure
Problem
Videos

Snow Days
Surveys

Explanation

I could not play the YouTube videos

if I was logged into the computer. I
had to make sure a teacher was
logged into the computer in order
for the videos to work.
Due to the amount of snow days we
had I was unable to have meetings
with my consultant.
I had made a survey to use for all of
my classes. However, due to miss
communications one of my classes

did not complete the survey with

valid answers so I decided not to
give surveys.
There was a fire drill in the middle
of my presentation. This caused me
to be behind schedule and having to
extend my project end date.
I had some students who did not
want to participate in my activity
therefore they did not actual
complete the activity but wrote
down random things.

Fire Drill

Students

5. Outline the process hours spent in completing the project.

A. Estimated total hours spent on project: 27
{Should match those detailed in Progress Report}
B. Estimated total steps involved in your project: 20
Modify number of steps to fit your project.

Steps Involved
Step 1

Step 2

Step 3
Step 4
Step 5
Step 6
Step 7
Step 8
Step 9
Step 10
Step 11

I picked the dates for

my project with Mrs.
Draeger
and
Mrs.
Spruill
I watched the raising
minimum wage video
twice and took notes on
the video.
Started my lesson plan
Started my weebly
Lesson plan outline
Updated weebly
Meeting with Mrs.
Spruill
Re-watched the raising
the minimum wage
video
I created surveys for the
classes
I created the questions
for the class discussion.
Introduction for my

Hours

Date Completed

30 minutes

2/5/15

45 minutes

2/5/15

1 hour
30 minutes
2 hours
1 hour
1 hour

2/5/15
2/5/15
2/12/15
2/9/15
2/10/15

30 Minutes

2/17/15

1 hour

2/17/15

2 hours

2/19/15

30 minutes

2/19/15

Step 12
Step 13
Step 14
Step 15
Step 16
Step 17
Step 18
Step 19
Step 20
Step 21

presentation
Found YouTube videos
to go along with my
presentation
Started Activity
Meeting with Mrs.
Spruill
Finalized the first part
of my activity
Finalized my discussion
questions
Made the strips of paper
with the job and family
details
Finalized presentation
Made Copies for my
project
Meeting with teachers
Taught classes

1 hour

2/24/15

1 hour an 30 minutes
1 hour

2/25/15
2/26/15

2 hours

3/9/15

30 minutes

3/10/15

20 Minutes

3/17/15

1 hour
5 minutes

3/18
3/23

45 minutes
8 hours

3/23
3/24-4/1

6. List materials used.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Activity worksheet
Promethean board for videos and power point.
Cellphones to research
Slips of paper with jobs and family information.
Discussion question worksheet.

7. List all people who helped you on the project and briefly describe the help given.
Mrs. Spruill

Mrs. Draeger
Cassie Marshall
Kelsey Donahue

She was my project consultant. She helped me with

my lesson plans and my activity. As well as helping
me find a direction in which to teach my classes. I
also was able to teach one of her classes.
She allowed me to teach her financial management
class. She also gave me the federal minimum wage
video that I used for my project.
She took photos of my project.
Showed me how to make copies of worksheets.
Also helped me with my activity by reading it to
make sure that students would understand it.

8. How does your completed project compare to the picture you had in mind when you started the
project?
My project did not turn out exactly how I thought it would. I was not sure if the students would
really connect with the topic of my project. However, the students I talked to were really
interested in what I had to say as well as sharing their own opinions about the minimum wage.

9. If given the opportunity, what would you do differently now that you speak from experience?
I would have added another activity to the lesson plan dealing with wages of those who are exempt
from the minimum wage. This way they could compare how they struggled with minimum wage and
how they struggled without minimum wage.
10. Now that the project is completed, explain/describe the stretch or challenge you
encountered/experienced.
The problem that I had with creating my project was making sure that I delivered the information in a
way that sparked interest into the students. I wanted to make sure that the students understood the
laws that I used and the interpretation of the laws. I struggled with the fact that all students are
different and not everyone would want to participate in my activity. At first I thought this was a
reflection of how I presented my project but after talking with the teachers I realized that all students
are just different.

11. Beyond the project itself, what did you learn about yourself?
I learned that I am capable of putting together a project of this caliber and executing a great project.

12. What grade would you give yourself on the project? Justify the evaluation of your grade in at
least 25 words.
Grade: 94
Justification:
I feel that I deserve this grade because I challenged myself. The perception on teaching classes is that
classes are the easiest way to complete your senior project however, I disagree. I feel that teaching classes
was a challenge for me because the classes I taught had different curriculums. Due to this fact I had to
learn a little bit of what they were talking about in class inorder to apply that to what I was trying to teach
them with my senior project. When teaching a class the audience you have is not there because they chose
to come to your project therefore, it was important to me that I made the lesson as interesting as possible.
Writing lesson plans are not easy because these lesson plans had to be up to VBCPS standards. I created a
lesson that I believed open the students eyes to what the federal minimum wage law really means as well
as how new laws could effect them. I was apart of three great discussions about my topic and that it was
what I wanted.