Project Reflections
| Date | Place | Reflections |
1/30/06 |
LHG |
Earlier This week I was introduced to the Long House Garden (LHG). The LHG needs quite a bit of work, but is much more managable then I had imagined. I look forward to becoming more familiar with the LHG and working more hours in it. |
2/3/06 |
Long House -LNY |
Today at the Long House we hosted a Tai Ji work shop that was led by Chungliang Al Huang. I went in to the workshop sore, tired, and not too happy. I left the workshop feeling rejuvinated and much happier. The workshop really proved to me that Tai Ji is effective in focusing the energy around us so that we can benefit from it. |
2/11/06 |
Roosevelt School |
At the Roosevelt School I participated in Make a Difference Day. It was a very uplifting experience to work with the kids and their parents in the garden. I have never worked with kids in a garden before, but I enjoyed their passion to help the older crew. Even though some of the things we were doing in the garden were pretty advanced the kids never lost interest and always found a productive job to do, which is more then I can say for some adults. |
2/16/06 |
YMCA |
Today was my first day in the YMCA classroom with my friend Jeremy. Before I met the kids I was afraid that they wouldn't be interested in me and that I would be overshadowed by their "big brother" Jeremy who has been working with them for a long time. Fortunately I got along very well with most of the class and played kickball and Frisbee with a couple of the kids. I was very pleased with my first day in the classroom and look forward to getting to know the kids better. |
2/22/06 |
YMCA |
Today we did arts and crafts for the first half of the day, it went great for around the first two hours. Then a select few in the class decided crayons, pens, and pencils worked better as projectiles. We figured this meant it was time for a break. I played ball with a couple of the kids, while the others watched the neighboring kids ride dirt bikes. In the evening I noticed that some of the much older kids used misbehaving as a pass time, they would see just how much they could get away with without getting a time out. Jeremy, of course, was wise to this and told the two to go inside. I am starting to get to know the kids as individuals and I think they are really starting to look up to me. |
2/26/06 |
LHG |
This quarter I felt very removed from the activities of the LHG group. I think this was due to a lack of communication and overall work done in the garden this winter. Because of this I decided to spend a little time in the garden cleaning the seasonal creek bed. It was a cold and wet experience, but I feel better having spent the time with the garden. I hope to spend some more time in the garden this spring and during the summer. |
3/10/06 |
YMCA |
It is now my third time working with the kids at the YMCA and I have finally found my place in the program. Jeremy and I spend most of our time outside with the kids playing games. We have so many kids that we are usually able to split up into two groups depending on what games the kids want to play. Today we played Sprout Ball (Dodge Ball with a twist) while Jeremy watched the kids on the playground and on the basketball court. This ability to split up allows us to better catter to the kids interests. I am planning on comming up with some good games for the next time I come in so that I can introduce the kids to some fun new ideas. |
3/14/06 |
YMCA |
Today was a little rainy so we spent a lot of time inside drawing and coloring. We also made some bubble wands out of wire so that we could blow bubbles when the sun came back out. When the sun returned we all went outside and blew bubbles. A little later Jeremy and I split up the kids into two groups. Jeremy took the kids who wanted to play ball, while I took some kids interested in some new games. I started off with a game of Predator Prey, one of my favorite childhood games. For each round the child who was to be the predator got to choose what kind of predator they would be. Then we would decide what kind of prey the rest of the kids would be. I started them off with an owl as the predator (me) and mice as the prey. I think they really enjoyed this game, but it took them awhile to get used to the rules. After awhile some of the kids wanted to be the predator so badly that they started to cheat, so we had to switch games. At that point we played Over the Wall with the theme of fish swimming up a waterfall. The wall was waterfall and all the kids were fish, as they got tagged they became bears that would try to stop the fish from making up the waterfall to safety. Both games were a hit and a lot of fun to teach. I don't think I will be continuing with Arts Environment and the Child, but I am definitely going to continue volunteering at the YMCA. |
3/16/06 |
YMCA |
Today was another rainy day at the YMCA. We spent most our time inside, but we did get to go out to the play shack for awhile and play a couple rounds of Sprout Ball. Today was a good day with the kids, but we did have one major mishap. One of the kids was caught putting some Pokemon cards in his lunch box that did not belong to him. As a result all the kids had to take their cards home and all items left in the cubbies had to be marked with their owner's name. This is really to bad as we have had the same group of kids all along and nothing had ever happened like this. |
