George Washington

Today was really good. I felt really confident handling the kids. My mentor even complimented me the kids. She told me that I seemed more confident in myself and that i seemed to be really get close with the kids. I finally learned all of their names. When Susan, a kindergartener, who usually asks me to spell things for her, asked me, I used the technique my mentor told me to do. I helped her sound it out! I could tell she was a little disappointed that I didn’t just do it for her but throughout the day when we did another spelling exercise she didn’t ask me as much.

GW elementary

Today when I met early with my mentor, she told me that one of the student’s mothers had passed away. She told me that some of the children might already know and others might start to ask why the child was gone. She informed that we would wait to address the whole class about the situation to say anything. After homework help we sat the kids down and told them what the situation was and that we were going to create a card for her. Today was pretty sad but we still carried on with tutoring and the science lab.

A.S.E.S.

My mentor told me that from now until I completed my hours that I would take over the class and she would just step in when I really needed help. Today after homework help we did some more work on they play. They have most of the skit finished. Their skit is based on the television show GLEE. They wanted to choose their own parts and I was going to let them but my mentor told me that I should assign the parts just so everyone could be apart of it, and not left out. So like she said I made sure I gave certain parts to some of the shyest kids.

GW elementary

I’m on spring break this week so I can meet up earlier with my mentor and get more hours. Today when we met up she asked me to bring my thesis statement to her. She said that my thesis statement was good but it needed to be more debatable. She said that no on would argue against me that after school programs are great so I needed to really focus on the controversial part about the budget. She said I needed to make the reader understand why I believe they should receive more funding in this time of economic instability and recession. After that we went to A.S.E.S.

GW elementary

Today my mentor told me to ask the kids their opinion on the program. I asked them questions like if they knew why they were here. Due to their age I didn't expect to get the answers that I got. One girl said "I'm here because my mommy can't pick up all the time". Another boy said that he was here because he needed help with his math and that because he was here he got better at math. I also asked them questions about things they liked and disliked. One of the pros they mentioned was that they gained more friends. One of the cons they mentioned was that they didn't get enough snacks and sometimes they would get hungry.

GW elementary

Today my mentor asked if we could meet after the program to go over my project. We started the program as usual with homework help and after that the kids had some time to work on a story for their end of the year skit. My mentor told me to type up the script and assign kids into certain groups. We made four groups a group that would design props, a group to make queue cards, a group for costumes, and a group to make advertisements. My mentor told me that every child would have a part in the play. Soon after that it was time for them to go to hula and Tahitian lessons. Dancers from Nemenzo had begun volunteering with A.S.E.S. to teach the kids to dance. After that they had to go to a science lab. I stayed after to talk with my mentor and she asked me if I had any idea on what I was going to write about and I told her that I would write about how after school programs needed more funding. She told me that it was a good topic and gave some places I could get information. She also told me that it might help if I got the children's' perspective on it.

GW elementary

Today I helped my mentor give homework help to the kids in my class. During the time they are supposed do homework they are supposed to be completely quite unless they are asking for assistance. After homework help we took the kids outside to let them play on the playground. My mentor said that I should always monitor the way the children are playing to make sure that none of them started to bully or mistreat another. After they played we went inside and they had a snack. All of the snacks are healthy ones and don't have much sugar in them. I was surprised to see how little of snacks they had due to the time they spend at the program. So I asked my mentor why they didn't give them more snacks and she told me that because of the little money they get from the government they can’t afford anymore.

George Washington A.S.E.S.

Today I met up with my mentor early again. She told me that today the kids were going to be working on their end of the year program and that this would be the main focus for today. Today my training would be focused on how to direct the kids. After we helped the kids with their work we brought them to the multi-use room to rehearse the play. When picking roles for certain kids to play she told me to make sure that some of the shyest to do some parts, even if the parts were small, just to help them come out of their shell a little bit. While for the first hour she directed the children herself she next hour and a half she helped me to direct them myself. Later we took the children to the library where they did science labs.

GW Elementary

Today I helped my mentor tutor the kids with their spelling. They are going to have an end of the year play and my mentor asked me to help them write a script for their play. However she told me to let them come up with the bulk of the play and just help out with minimal details. My mentor told me that when I help the kids with their homework I should just give them hints and suggestions because when I was helping them i kind of did the problems they didn't understand for them.

Volunteering at George Washington

I met early with my mentor so that we could go over what working with her and volunteering in her class would be like. I told her that I have never worked with children or in an after school program before. She walked me around the facilities and showed me where her designated classroom was and gave me a couple tips for dealing with children. For example to make sure that I smile when i help them. My mentor introduced me to her class at George Washington under the A.S.E.S. program. Before beginning her class she had the children recite the rules of the program to me. She told me that structure is highly important for children in this stage of development.