Pages

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Day 2

Today was my second day helping out at the after school program. I got to the school earlier this time so I was there for the portion of the program in the cafeteria before heading out to the playground. While inside, some students work on and get help with their homework, with others color, play board games or draw. There is also a snack time while the students are inside and today they had graham crackers and milk. My participant did not have any homework to do so we played games and drew pictures while we were inside. The first game that we played was Uno. I remember playing this game all the time when I was younger, but there were many rules that have been changed since then so it was interesting to see how they played. After this game, we drew pictures and colored with crayons until snack time. After snack time it was time to head outside. We had lots of fun on the play ground and played lots of the same games as last week. I also learned that my students like to pretend to run a restaurant, and takes peoples orders through a "window" in the play ground. I thought this was very entertaining and was impressed by his creativity. He takes peoples orders, tells them how much they owe for the food and then serves them rocks off of the ground. We did this for a long time today. Towards the end, my student started getting a little restless and was anxious to be picked up. This is when he started acting up and threw a little bit of a fit. He took his socks, shoes and glasses off and laid at the bottom of the slide, not letting anyone else pass. This was frustrating because me and one other aids tried everything to get him to put his stuff back on and move. We ended up having to carry him off of the slide, and do more convincing to finally get him to cooperate. We bribed him with letting him go back inside to the warm and play a game in their if he followed our directions. Once he finally put his socks, shoes and glasses back on we went inside and colored until his ride got there. His ride was a little later than usual so I was there for two and a half hours today. After seeing him get to restless and troublesome when he got bored, I will be sure to have more activities planned for next time to try and prevent this from happening again.

Day 1!

10/21/13

Today was my first day at my placement for PED 447. I am helping out at the after school program, specifically with one student with various developmental delays. I was only at my placement for an hour and a half today because of a slight miscommunication but I had a good time and a great first session getting to know my student. We played outside on the play ground the entire time I was there. We played tag, duck-duck-goose, kicked a ball back and forth and just ran around playing on the playground equipment. I think my student liked being able to do whatever activities he wanted to and having me there just to hangout with him. But it was a little strange for me to just be there doing more observing than planning and leading activities. That is what makes this experience so different from experiences that I have had in other classes. For future sessions, I will continue to play games and activities that he wants to do, but will also try suggesting some other games that can help him work on things that may not be so easy for him. I think this will be a good time for him to indirectly get some extra skill practice in. I will try and do this in one-on-one games and group games with other students at the after school program. It will be good for him to get this interaction with the other kids and have his time to be one his own because he seems to like to have a balance of both.