Today I was excited to go to Gearity Preschool, I was nervous last week when I didn't know what to expect but now that I know how the schedule works, I was looking forward to going. When I first arrived the children were playing in their classroom, and then it was time for gym. In gym the children ran around to music and then spent the majority of the class doing parachute activities. One little boy did not want to participate, I sat down and talked to him and tried to get him to join in, but he would not, finally the gym teacher was able to get him to participate. Back in the classroom we had circle time where the teacher told a story about ducks using a felt board. I thought that on the whole the children sat and listened quite well. Next was snack time, during this time the children who cannot speak and those who can use a voice button to choose what they would like to eat. Snack time went pretty smoothly, some children did have trouble saying seated though. Recess was a little hard as several of the children had a fight over a soccer ball, they seemed to have a hard time sharing, though maybe not much more then any other four or five year old. One boy did hit a girl, and he got yelled at, but I think that maybe a time out would have been more effective. The rest of the day was pretty fun, story time, playing with play doe and in the sand box. The kids where also fairly good for the rest of the day, save a few melt downs. Some things I've noticed: Before changing actives they are shown a picture of whats next and given a warning, they also sing songs, I think this is helpful and the kids seem to enjoy it. There is a good amount of hitting and not keeping hands to self, and I feel that sometimes a punishment is needed, but not always given. Overall, though, the kids are very sweet and loving, they like talking and playing with me, and I'm enjoying my time at Geartiy and learning more about special needs children and how you have to be patient and explain to them what kinds of things they are going to be doing.
A current event that relates to my service learning site is bullying. It is always in the news and unfortunately deaths do result from it. Even though the kids that I work with are only in preschool, they can already be mean to each other, saying they are not friends with someone, or excluding people from their games. That is why it is important to start young, and teach the children that everyone is their friends and to all play together, and also that everybody is different and to be accepting of all people. The teachers in my classroom at Gearity often tell the children that they are all friends, I think this a good starting point to prevent bullying. Music in general relates to my service site, because singing is a big part of the school day for these kids. As mentioned above the kids use music to transition from activity to activity, it is helpful to get them focused and also helps to work on their speech, and the all seem to enjoy it. I think that music is a good thing to incorporate into the classroom, because it can teach kids things, like about history or different cultures, and it makes learning more fun and interactive.
So far my my service site is going great, I understand that these kids are a little different and often use screaming and violence to express themselves, last week this scared me, but now I understand that this is just the way these kids are and that in the classroom they are learning how to talk better and to use sign language, just today I was pushing a boy on the swing and he was practicing saying more when he wanted to go higher. After getting over my original fear because these children where a little different, now I am enjoying talking with them and playing with then and just getting to know them.
We didn't have a journal question again this week.
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