Entry #10 - Opportunities Unlimited Blog

1. Today in class we... met over in the education building for a while and discussed how the remainder of class would go as the adults from Opportunities Unlimited came to spend the day with us. We got started on a name game with our class and then as the adults from Opportunities Unlimited began to show up, they also joined in our game. We got to know them a little bit and then split up into groups to take pictures for the class movie we will be putting together. After we finished taking pictures, we headed over to the class in DePaul. When we got there, we broke up into stations. There was a station where we took a survey on what we like/what we don’t like, another one where we used play-doh to represent ourselves, a station where the we worked together with the adults to build a tent, and another station where we made up a story about the pictures we took. Each group did not get a chance to visit each station before class concluded, but we all got to know a little about the adults from Opportunities Unlimited and how we will be working with them.

2. Describe your experience.

Coming into class today I was excited to meet the adults from Opportunities Unlimited. I really didn’t know what to expect as far as how class would be organized but I figured we would be working on something hands-on with the adults. When I arrived in class, we discussed how the day would go once the adults arrived. When they finally did, my group decided to work with one of the adults from Opportunities Unlimited, Melissa. We were given the task to go around campus and take pictures of things that represent proper etiquette for a professional situation. Our group chose to focus our pictures on maintaining good eye contact, not texting or using your phone, not wearing too much jewelry, and showing that you are confident. We first chose to go over to the Castallani Art Museum to take pictures that represented eye contact and confidence. While we made our way over there we all welcomed Melissa and got to know her a little. She was very quite and timid, which is understandable coming into a large class of people you do not know. Hopefully, in the coming visits she will begin to feel comfortable and be able to open up to the class. After the art museum we made our way to the church, where we took pictures that represented no texting or using your phone. After our visit to the church, we went over to the Gallagher Center to take pictures that depicted someone not wearing too much jewelry. We then headed back to the class where we worked with Melissa completing the survey station and the play-doh station. Melissa remained shy the entire class; however, there we some other adults from Opportunities Unlimited that were very outgoing and clearly felt comfortable in our class.

3. Connect to text

In our textbook, chapter nine focuses on children who have gifts and talents. The chapter speaks about how gifted children show their excellence in different ways than the typical person. This relates to class today. Many of the people from Opportunities Unlimited showed this. They were all unique and showed their gifts in various ways. The textbook would label any of these adults as "gifted underachievers" which are "students whose academic performance consistently falls far short of expectations despite high cognitive abilities." (Kirk, Gallagher, Coleman & Anastasiow pg. 301)