5th Day Of Service

Today when I got to the classroom, I was told yet again about some changes to the schedule. Now at the end of the day the children watch a movie while the teacher's get their backpacks and coats so as to make the line up process run smoother. Also the children now all have their own goal charts. Each child has two goals and if they achieve both goals they can pick from the treasure chest. These goals are things like lining up on time and keeping their hands to themselves. These new changes seem to make the class run smoother. Anyway when I first got to the classroom it was playtime, so I played cars with a little boy named Carlos for a while. Then it was time for gym, it seemed to be more structured today. First the children ran around, then they practiced skills such as galloping, then they did some actives with kicking balls, and finally they had some free gym time towards the end of class. The actives done in gym class today seemed to be focused on working on the children's motor skills. Most of the children did well and seemed to enjoy the actives. Back in the classroom we had snack time, and then craft time. The craft they made today was a rainbow using different colors of paper. I helped Carlos work on his, he did a pretty good job staying focused. Then we went outside for recess, I pushed a little girl on the swing and she did a good job of saying more if she wanted to be pushed again. When we went back in the classroom the children watched a movie about Spot the Dog, in the movie Spot sees a rainbow, which is why they made rainbows today. While the movie was still playing I helped the children get their coats on, then I walked some of them to their buses. Severel children were absent today, but it was still a good day at Gearity.

A current event that relates to my service is the voting that took place on Tuesday. While I don't know if Gearity had any issues on the ballot, I do know that education in general is always a big ticket issue. Schools like Gearity that have special education programs need funding, and for that they need levies to pass. So it is important when voting to take in the different education issues, because if schools don't get enough funding, programs like the one I work at at Gearity will suffer. A popular culture event that relates that relates to my service is educational television for children. There are many shows out their aimed to help children learn, like Dora the Explorer or Word World. Today at Gearity, as mentioned above, the children watched a Spot movie, things like this help them to stay focused and work on their speech, among other things. It does seem that the children benefit from watching this movie, they were all very focused during it. A theroy that I think applies to my service is that of positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement is when something pleasant happens when a certain behavior is exhibited. When the children at Gearity do what their supposed to, like line up on time, they receive a sticker on their goal charts. This seems to work well and most of the children seem to be becoming better listeners.

Today was another eventful and enjoyable day of service. I can really see the children's progress now, I see them talking more, gaining motor skills and becoming better listeners.