Today was a very negative day with the kids. They were asked to do a activity in which they had to sit on each others lap in a circle while balancing each other out. I thought that the entire class was going to do this fairly easily because they had progressed so well the past few weeks. i was completely wrong. Not only did the kids fail miserably, i feel like they all took a step back in their development in the program.
First the kids were divided into two groups. My group didn't take the task seriously and they didn't want to do it at all. When they all managed to sit on each others lap for about a minute they lost their balance and fell to the floor. After this every time they wanted to try the game 5 seconds into they would all fall to the ground in giggles. Then the all were jumping on each other.
The other team was having even a worse time with the game. One boy even said he would only do the activity if one of the teachers would give him $5. After 25 minutes of us being there the gym teacher got very aggravated with the students and canceled the activity. He thanked us for our time and we left. He was really disappointed with the kids because it seemed like they were less mature today than what they have been in the past.
It was a really disappointed day because next week is the last time we meet with the kids and i feel like we've spend all this time with the kids and they went from doing really well in everything to acting like they didn't give a damn about anything that was going on.
hey whats up,
It seems that you had a miserable time with the kids, which seems to be very unusual in your case. However, I wanted to know if you and your group members have anytning planned for next week which could potentially get the children in focus for one more last time? Get back at me if you can!
Posted by: Jeff Jacques | December 05, 2005 at 09:11 AM
At Chesterbrook we also had a similar response. The same thing happened there where you mention "5 seconds into the game they would all fall to the ground in giggles." I wouldn't say that the kids necessarily failed. I mean if you think about it they're just kids and want to be able to have fun. I'm guessing that for them it is not as important to do well. The student who said that he wanted to be paid $5 to do the activity proves this. I find that it's best to provide a student with some kind of reward. Even a sticker or something small would make all the difference.
I also found it messed up that the teacher made you guys leave. The teacher should have done something to change the situation. In part it's also his fault that the students are failing at meeting the objective. Making you guys leave was just his way of saying that he gave up.
I hope you have a positive result next week and that you are able to have a good sense of closure with them.
Posted by: Hitesh | December 05, 2005 at 11:41 AM