Ryan Wichtendahl

Project Start Date: February 1, 2016

Project Completion Date: March 15, 2016
Title of Project: Big Books for Little Seagulls

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 raised over 2,200 new and gently used books for the students of Seatack
Elementary School. I then held a family fun night on March 15th for the families of
Seatack. At my literacy night kids rotated to various literacy themed centers. In order to
get all of these books I had to ask several students and teachers to donate books. To
ensure the success of my literacy night I had to spend several hours planning every single
hour and station of the event to every single detail.
2. In at least 40 words explain how the project challenged you, and what sort of time
challenges and resource problems did you encounter?
The project challenged me in so many ways. First, I set a huge goal for myself and
refused to allow myself to not achieve that goal. I decided I would raise at least 400
books, one for each child. The biggest problem I found in this is that I had to rely on
other people to get the donations. I was able to overcome this by reaching out to teachers
and community organizations to both advertise for donations and actually donate books.
Secondly, I had never worked with Seatack Elementary School before. This created
challenges because I had to get to know the staff in the middle of planning the project.
Luckily, the staff was extremely welcoming and helpful in the midst of the chaos of
planning. Lastly, I ran into challenges with not feeling overwhelmed. This was such a
large scale project and I began to immediately feel stressed and unsure of what to do. In
order to tackle this feeling I made several lists for each task that needed to be done. This
helped break down each big task into smaller ones so that I could get more done.
3. List and then describe 5-8 fundamental ideas/concepts/skills of your project, which
you learned during your project.
Idea / Concept / Skill
Planning of a Large Scale Event

Working with School Administration

Explanation
I had never before planned an event for
even 20 people, let alone 200. So, I had to
learn the proper organization and manner
to go about planning an event of this size.
Since I was working with a Title I school,
I had to go through specific processes in
order to ensure I was taking the proper

Collecting a Large Donation

Extreme Organization

Curriculum/Literacy Based Planning

measures required for Title I school

events, this was something new to me
since I had never really seen the inside
view of the school administration tasks
and policies.
I have never been comfortable asking
other people for things, but when I
realized I would need 400+ books this
changed. I soon learned that a wide-scale
donation required advertisements,
incentives, and generosity of others.
I am quite honestly not the most
organized person, but I learned this was
going to have to change in order for my
project to be successful. Throughout my
project I learned how to organize each
station, hour of the event, and day leading
up to it down to every single detail. This
organization prevented anything from
slipping through the cracks.
Of course, I want to be a kindergarten
teacher so I was somewhat familiar with
how to plan using a curriculum but I had
never planned games/stations around
such. So, I had to learn how to make
something fun about a curriculum and
literacy. This was tough, but it required a
lot of innovation and creativity on my
part. This skill will be very helpful to my
future career in education.

4. List and describe 5-8 problems you encountered in your project, and briefly
describe how you solved each.
New School

Before my project, I knew no one at

Seatack. I was not familiar with how their
school was run nor any of their policies,
etc. This being said, I had to learn all of
this and become familiar with the staff
and administration, all while organizing
my project. Luckily, I was able to
overcome this by visiting Seatack
constantly. I set up biweekly meetings and
would use them as an opportunity to get to
know those at Seatack. I also kept in
contact via email every day.

Uncertainty of Attendance

Guaranteeing Volunteers

Self Dead-Lines

Getting all of my Donations

Since I was not able to just ask friends to

come, as this was for Seatack Students, I
was unsure of how many people would
come. This was extremely nerve wracking
for me. In order to overcome this, I had
Seatack sent out RSVPs to all of their
students. We also advertised during
classes and library time to try to
encourage kids to come.
As this would be a large scale event, I
knew I would need a good amount of
volunteers. This was tough because I was
going to use my high school friends as
volunteers, and high school students are
not the most reliable. In order to guarantee
volunteers I sent out several emails to
those who offered to volunteer. I had a
few cancellations in replies, but for the
most part all of my 25 volunteers replied
and came to my event.
I had tried to set myself deadlines at the
beginning of the project. I did this so that I
would be able to complete everything in a
timely manner. Yet, I definitely struggled
to find myself actually completing those
tasks on time. In order to fix this, I broke
down every big task into smaller tasks so
that I could accomplish them faster and
reach those self dead-lines.
In order to achieve my goal of 400 books,
I had to try to get books donated from
several people. This was tough for me
because I don't like to generally ask
people for things. In order to overcome
this I reached out to several teachers and
asked if they could offer an incentive to
their students. I also reached out to family
members in friends for both book
donations and monetary to support my
goal.

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

Date

Duration of Time

Reason for Time Spent

2/4/16

30 Minutes

Meeting with Ms. Mason

(consultant) to cover/debrief
on my plan, to do list, and
project progress.

2/4/16

30 Minutes

Meeting with Ms. Mason

(consultant) to go over
meeting with Mr. Darby.

2/7/16

1 Hour

Preparation for my meeting

with Principal Darby.

2/8/16

1 Hour

Meeting with Principal Darby

at Seatack Elementary.

2/15/16

1 Hour

Making Flyers for

Distribution. Printing Flyers
& making plan for
distribution.

2/15/16

1.5 Hours

Assembled 11 donation
boxes.
Taped flyers to boxes.
Printed flyers to give to
teachers/classes.
Cut flyers in half.
Drafted letter to send to
businesses.

2/16/16

30 Min.

Talked to classes during my

2B,3B, and 4B about my
senior project and distributed
boxes & flyers.

2/16/16

2 Hours

Distributed flyers to almost

200 homes in my
neighborhood about my book
collection.

2/16/16

30 Min.

Wrote a basic agenda for my

meeting with Mrs. Evans at
Seatack. Emailed her with a
copy.

2/17/16

30 Min.

Meeting with Mrs. Evans at

Seatack Elementary School to
discuss my project further.

2/18/16

1 Hour

Recorded advertisement
video. Edited video on movie
maker. Emailed
advertisement video to
teachers.

2/19/16

2 Hours

Printed 100 more flyers, cut

them in half, distributed flyers
to houses in my
neighborhood.

2/20/16

1.5 Hours

Started making a plan for all

of the activities for K-2 and 35. Emailed Mrs. Evans and
the Title I teacher

2/20/16

15 Minutes

Called Channellos to discuss

pizza for the event.

2/22/16

1 Hour

Printed more flyers,

constructed more boxes,
drafted letter to the news.

2/28/16

30 Minutes

Finish activity agenda

revisions, replied to Mrs.
Evans email.

2/29/16

1 Hour

Beginning to sort books,

made a time lapse video of
my book sorting.

2/29/16

20 Minutes

Confirmed pizza with Dawn,

confirmed pricing also.

3/6/16

30 Minutes

Checked email, sent out

emails to Mrs. Evans and
Mrs. Donahue. Revised the
supply list.

3/9/16

2 Hours

Went around to stores with

my sister to buy all of the
supplies necessary for my
stations and project.

3/9/16

30 Minutes

Worked on cut outs with my

sister for the station.
Reviewed all of the stations to
ensure I had all of the
necessary supplies.

3/10/16

1.5 Hours

Worked on making the

models for each one of my
stations, example crafts.

3/11/16

4 Hours

Bought final supplies at the

store and other supplies came
in the mail. Started making
each supply bag/box for each
station. Drafted volunteer
emails and made the
instructions for every station.

3/12/16

2 Hours

Revised and printed

instruction booklet
information. Sent volunteer
emails out. Sent emails to all
the officers. Confirmed pizza!

3/13/16

4 Hours

Sorted and boxed up all 2,200

books!

3/14/16

8 Hours

Made SOL Cards, made sight

word cards, printed
instructions for trail mix,
made hopscotch rhyming
words and printed, printed
instagram signs, bought last

set of supplies, made posters

for parent tips, made the
instruction post-its, created
posters for each station. Made
checklist for supplies.
3/15/16

4 Hours

Made schedule for the day,

revised and printed final
instructions, made new
checklist, made volunteer
info.

3/15/16

1 Hour

Picked up cookies from

subway for the event. Went to
store to purchase last minute
items.

3/15/16

30 Minutes

Loaded all of the boxes,

gathered all supplies, double
checked the check list of
supplies before leaving For
Seatack

TOTAL: 44.5 Hours

6. List all Materials Used:

Materials for Stations:

Kiddie Scissors
Various Construction Paper
Index Cards
Glue
Pipe Cleaners
Cardstock
Stickers
Candy Prizes
Blue Painters Tape
Pencils
Markers, Crayons, Etc
Paper Bags
Manilla Folder Cut Outs

Googly Eyes
Index Cards
M&Ms, Goldfish, Chex Mix
Plastic Baggies

Supplies for Other Stuff:

Paper Goods for Pizza

Gloves for Serving Food
Moving Boxes for Book Collections

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

Ms. Mason As my senior project consultant, Ms. Mason did absolutely

everything I needed her to do. She was extremely helpful in organization and
planning. I met with her weekly to daily in order to review my plans and get
feedback.
Mrs. Evans She was my consultant at Seatack. As the librarian she knew the
ins and outs of the school and everything that would work best. She helped me a
lot in guaranteeing attendance, planning age appropriate activities, and organizing
where to hold each station at Seatack.
Mrs. Donahue She is the Title I teacher at Seatack Elementary school, because
of this she was able to provide me with extra funding to cover the difference in
costs between the pizza donated and pizza needed.
Mrs. Dalton She is the Reading Resource teacher at Seatack Elementary
School. She was extremely helpful in ensuring that all of my stations were age
appropriate and focused on literacy.
Mrs. Whaler She is another librarian at Seatack Elementary School. She was
also very helpful in the planning of my stations, by telling me what the students at
Seatack would or would not like.
Taylor Wichtendahl My sister was extremely helpful as she just completed a
senior project two years ago. She was able to provide me with advice, complete
menial tasks to alleviate my to-do lists, and help me through all of the stress. She
helped gather all of my necessary supplies for each station and to create the boxes
of instructions/supplies for the stations.
Brittany Wichtendahl My other sister was able to provide me with her artistic
abilities. As a graphic design and communications major she helped me make all
of my signs and to draw the signs for each station. She spent nearly all of her
spring break helping me with my project, which was so kind.
Various High School Teachers: Mrs. Fernandez, Mr. Pratt, Mr. Butler, Mr.
Godfrey, Mr. Stravino, Mr. Stubbe, Mrs. Disher, Mrs. Pettay, Mrs. Perkins, Mr.
Lane; all of these teachers helped significantly by offering incentives and

advertising to their students about my collection of donations for the books. They
helped significantly in raising all of the books needed.
Star of the Sea Elementary School This is my middle and elementary school
alma mater, they were able to donate over 400 books alone. They asked families
and teachers to bring in new and gently used books as part of their community
service mission. I was extremely appreciative of their willingness to donate.
Various Police Officers: Lieutenant S.E. Wichtendahl, Lieutenant S.L.
Wichtendahl, Deputy Chief Zucaro, MPO Pierce, Detective Marafka, and
Lieutenant Ball: All of these officers volunteered to attend my event. At my event
they hung out with children and parents of Seatack. Some even began to hand out
books, read to the kids, play games with them, and help them with the crafts. I
was really happy with the police community interaction at my event!
Various High School Volunteers: At my event I had around 25 high school
student volunteers, they were able to help me by manning the various stations at
ensuring there was order at my event!

8. How does your completed project compare to the picture you had in mind when you
started the project?
I originally believed I would be working with a school in Franklin. I believed this
originally because they are one of the overall poorest cities in the state of Virginia. I also
believed that I would host a parent night. The parent night would have a guest speaker
who would address the parents of VBCPS students about literacy and why it is so
important. I decided this would be tough because parents may not be extremely receptive
to this. I decided then to work with Seatack Elementary school, as it is a Title I school
and their students eventually get zoned for my school. I also decided I would have a
family fun and literacy night for kids and their parents to come to. I made this choice
because I felt parents would have a better time and learn more watching their kids
participate in events centered on literacy. I felt like that it was better also to just have
parent tips at each station instead of a speaker, this was definitely the better choice.
9. If given the opportunity, what would you do differently now that you speak from
experience?
Looking back, if I could do something differently I would definitely had changed the
number of stations I had. I feel like the kids wanted to do more games and less crafts, I
feel like I could have focused more on the games rather than the crafts. I also would have
made each station have something that involved the parents, some did but many did not. I
feel like parents would have had more fun with the event if there was a portion of each
event designated for their involvement. Honestly though, there is not much else I would
change looking back because I felt it went very well!

10. Now that the project is completed, explain/describe the stretch or challenge you
encountered/experienced.
The stretch for me with this project was certainly how big of a project this was. I had
worked with elementary schoolers excessively before, but I had never worked with
parents at the same time. I felt very overwhelmed when Seatack told me they were
expecting about 150 200 students, this was extremely difficult for me. I had to plan to
have enough supplies, volunteers, and food for all of these people. I wanted to make sure
that I was prepared and ready for all of these people so that it wasnt disorganized or
flustered in my event. Looking back, I am still shocked that I pulled this all off because it
required a lot of planning, organization, and punctuality, which are not my typical
character traits.

11. Beyond the project itself, what did you learn about yourself?
I learned so much about my own capabilities throughout this project. First and foremost, I
learned that I am meant to be a teacher. I really at times doubted my capability to become
a teacher but after this project I learned that I was made for this profession. Secondly, I
discovered that I can do literally anything when I have a goal in mind. I had never had
such amazing passion and drive for something specific, like I did with this project. I feel
after this project that I have realized I have a great passion for children and that passion is
very powerful when I set mind to doing something. In my project I learned so much
about being selfless, the power of giving is far better than receiving and the children of
Seatack truly taught me this.
12. What grade would you give yourself on the project? Justify the evaluation of your grade
in at least 25 words.Grade: 95
I really feel that I deserve an A on this project because I feel that I poured my heart and
soul into every single aspect of the project. I feel that I set goals for myself and exceeded
them all. I raised over 2,200 books and had around 210 parents and students at my event.
I feel that I worked diligently to ensure my project would go well and I truly feel that
work paid off. I know I could have had a few more parents and students at my event but I
still feel like I truly helped the community of Seatack and made a difference. I feel that I
challenged myself in many ways to plan this entire project.