Culminating Blog

My final decision to complete my hours was at an afterschool program because I wanted to get a better idea of what I enjoy doing. I have a four year old brother and throughout these past years, I have learned that raising a kid the correct way is difficult. Also, I wanted to discover different methods and tricks to properly raise my little brother. I thought to myself, "what better place than a school with students and teachers?" My little brother, Dylan, attends this program called Leo J. Ryan Child Care Center. Therefore, it was easy to introduce myself to the teachers.
This experience has taught me a lot. First, I learned to come out of my shell. I am comfortable speaking to adults, but sometimes I get intimidated. Asking a random person to be my mentor and explaining what this whole project is about was very frightening. I think that it was the first obstacle that overcame.
Communicating with adults and children is very different. I learned that children need more attention and time to process things. For example, during tutoring my students tended to distract themselves, and others. Therefore, it was my job to attentively explain why they had to continue doing their homework with me. I explained that it was better for them to finish their homework during the afterschool program instead of  completing it in their house because there would be more distractions in and around their house. For example, many children during the age of six are more likely to get distracted by toys, games, and especially technology.
Working with children requires a lot of creativity in order to make learning fun and enjoyable. In many times, after finishing their homework, I assigned small projects for the students. While working with fabric, I assigned them a goal. I made something for a very special person, I drew hearts and other stuff that had a meaning. Then, I wanted them to think of someone who makes them happy and explain in their project why they chose that person. This particular project was successful because my students had fun. Collaboration was a big part of my project because I had to work with two other people, in this case two teachers. Although, my mentor, told me what to do or how to do something, I still had to come up with ideas and combine it with my mentor.
I not only learned new things about children, but I grew as a person. Personally, I learned to be more patient because children require a lot of time. Since they are younger, they need more time to process things and actually understand. It's very frustrating to deal with children when they are misbehaving. A lot of people give up and decide to give the children what they're asking for. This is call falling into an unstoppable trap. For example, when I was tutoring, this specific student always wanted me to do her homework by pretending like she didn't know what she was doing. I once, almost, did her homework because she was getting tired and annoying, but then I remembered that it was her work and she was going to benefit from completing it, not me! In conclusion, patience is the key to work with children. I am more patient with my students and my little brother. I consider myself a very social person, I'm quiet friendly and know how to speak to different people. I can say that after this experience, I have better communication skills. Like I mentioned before, I learned to communicate with children. The brain of child is at a stage compared to adults, therefore, there is a big difference in comprehending things. I know what the right way is to talk to a kid. For example, when asking my student to pick up a pencil that they purposely threw on the floor, I typically would say: "Please pick that pencil up", but then I learned that its best to say : "May you please pick up that pencil that you threw on the floor, we don't throw things a round, especially not a pencil because that can hurt someone". There are different methods when talking to children.
Although I didn't face many challenges during my experience, there were a few that I was able to overcome. Since each classroom had two teachers, I was considered a "helper". At the beginning some students wanted to call me "teacher", but there were a few who would say "she's not a teacher, she's only volunteering" They were correct, but this made them not pay as much attention to me. The biggest challenge was the lack of authority. When I told them to do something, of course in a friendly way, they would sometimes respond by saying "No, you're not a teacher to tell me what to do!" At the beginning I didn't know what to say, I eventually learned what to respond. My respond now was "No I am not your teacher, but you are under my supervision and what I'm telling you to do is for your benefit, not mine" Also, since our classroom consisted of about twenty students, it was hard to get one on one contact with my mentor. She did guide me through this process and helped me learn a lot about children, but not having direct contact with her was tough.
While entering this project, I didn't think that it was going to help me that much. I thought that I was going to help the program by volunteering, and that my presence was going to make an impact on my students, but they actually made an impact on me.