WHAT ABOUT MY MASTERPIECE?

I did my masterpiece over spring break! It was such a fun and eye opening experience. Hannah, Sierra and I went to the Boys and Girls Club and put on a three day camp for two hours each day. It most definitely gave me a taste of what life would be like as an elementary school teacher. The kids did test my patience and by the end of the two hours I was already exhausted but it was worth seeing the laughter in their eyes. The days didn't really go as planned. The first day was fun interacting with the kids through sports. Hannah had planned a scheduled soccer camp with drills but instead we decided to all play a scrimmage as a group picking teams and playing against each other. Not only did we play soccer but also basketball and baseball. We did this because their entertaininment was our priority.

 The next day, Sierra planned to have a fashion show with the kids making outfits of newspaper. And of course, the exact plan did not happen. We ended up making individual outfits and they also made ones for us. As entertaining as it was, the kids were also sensitive. Being more familiar with us, the kids would fight for our attention. Hannah made sunglasses for one kid and them every other kid wanted a pair too. I made a dress and soon every girl wanted to design one too. Sierra spent a good forty five minutes making an entire outfit for a boy. The kids were very rowdy and excited. Kids would come up pointing fingers that he stole my hat or he's using my tape. Each day seemed to get harder.

The last day, which was my day, was most definitely the most difficult day. I planned a fun game day with the kids. The first activity was building the tallest straw tower. I had planned on a friendly competition with candy for reward. It started off small with six kids so I had each kid make their own when the original plan was to have six teams but it would work. Then more kids showed up and I decided to have sessions because each kid wanted their own towers and I didn't bring enough straws. The first set of kids had 20 minutes and so on. That's when the name calling and competitive nature built. I was disciplining kids that it wasn't nice to be mean or to call names or to touch other's towers. The chaos built as we'd moved onto musical chairs. The Disney songs were great and they sang along but then kids began to be sensitive as they went out. As I ran the game, off to the corner, I saw two boys and with a girl crying in the corner. She left the room and the two boys looked at me innocently. It was hard for me to keep a serious face and discipline them. I got the two boys to understand that what they did was wrong and they apologized. The second big obstacle was over and I figured we needed to calm down and I put on a movie and of course there was a big argument over which movie. I put on Hotel Transylvania but some kids complained that they were halfway through the movie already. One kid immediately grabbed the remote and fastfowarded it. I kindly asked that he give me the remote and other kids began to back me up telling him to give it to me. Another boy tried to grab it out of his hand when he pushed his face away. I was very upset because that was absolutely unacceptable. I was going to have him go the time out but just in time a supervisor came in and took care of it. The day built as it continued within two hours. I would be lying if I said it was a piece of cake but looking at the picture as a whole was a good thing.