2. PHS-SAC
O I have worked at the YMCA Prairie Hill Afterschool
Program for 5 years. Since I am graduating and
student teaching in the fall, this will be my last year
working with the program. These past five years I
have seen many students come and go through
the doors of my program where we help children
with homework, crafts, games, and hopefully
growing as individuals. However, as my time
comes to a close with these students, I started to
think about how my students, especially those who
I have followed from Kindergarten through fifth
grade, have changed and grown through our time
together. What have we done together that has
made an impact to both their lives and mine?
3.
4. The First Year
O I first met this group of students when they were
five years old. I was sixteen at the time and this
was my first job. They were new to the school and
the afterschool program and so was I. We
navigated what to do together. Many afternoons
were devoted to getting to know one another,
playing Uno, and making crafts. This first year,
when they were still so young, I learned a couple
different things. I learned how to talk to young
children and be patient with them as they learned
how to be part of a group and follow rules set for
them by someone other than their parents. When
they were kindergarteners, only five years old, they
were starting to develop into the students and
young teens that I see today.
5.
6. “But do you have homework?”
O Through their kindergarten year and beyond, I watched as these
students grew intellectually. Every day after school we have
homework time where I and the other staff will sit down with the kids
and aid them in their work. Sometimes it is as simple as helping the
young ones with their letters and other times we need to help the
fifth graders with their more difficult math problems that now have
complex methods. Through the years, I have helped these
students through many homework assignments and seen them
learn and grow, not just through the material but also as far as their
study habits are concerned. As far as my kindergartners-turned-fifth
graders are concerned, they have a lot more homework now
that they are ‘one of the big kids’ and a lot less teacher involvement
when it comes to making sure they have all of their things organized
and ready to take home because they are now switching classes.
Though some of them struggled with this aspect at first, all of them
have now settled nicely into the homework routine in the middle
school setting and have found out how to work responsibly to get
things done and done correctly.
7.
8. The Neverending Story
O The importance of reading has always been something I stressed to
the kids at the after school program; since I have a passion for
literature and am becoming a high school English teacher I always
wanted my students to feel that same connection to, and love for,
books that I did. We started out with small books, just little picture
ones like Cat in the Hat or If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, but as we
realized that our time together—three hours a day, Monday through
Friday—allotted more time for longer books, we started reading
classics such as Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. These
moments, the ones where I read to the students while they huddled
on the floor and hung on every word I said, almost jumping with
anticipation to know what Peter and the Lost Boys would do next,
were always my favorite. Now I see my fifth graders huddled in the
corner reading the Percy Jackson, Hunger Games, and Divergent
series just as hungrily as they used to listen to me read to them and
I’m still just as excited to see that development. They don’t let me
read to them anymore and yet they still choose to read for hours
straight.
9.
10. Family Bonding
O Building relationships, not only between the staff and the
students, but also between the students themselves is key
in a program such as this. Because we spend around
fifteen hours a week together throughout the school year, I
always encourage the students to get to know each other
regardless of their grade. Through these relationships, the
older students learn to help the younger students and the
younger students learn that they are able to go to the older
ones when the staff is busy and they need help. We teach
them to work with others who are different from themselves,
which is a necessary skill that they will need later in life.
Sure, sometimes they do not get along but it is all part of
the “family dynamic” that we create. Now that my initial
group is older now, they love helping the little ones by
walking them to the bathroom or assisting with snack.
11.
12. Point Systems
O Helping students develop into responsible children and, eventually,
adults is another aim that I have tried to have throughout my six
school years at the program. In the last couple of years, we have
installed the “House Cup” at the site as modeled from the Harry
Potter series. Students earn points through being a good friend,
cleaning up after themselves, using manners, or going above and
beyond at the site. The points they earn go to their table groups
(three groups in all) and the group with the most points at the end of
two weeks wins the House Cup. Through this system, the student
learn to work in collaborative groups to earn points and also be
responsible, good friends to those in their group. Also, we teach the
students sportsmanlike conduct when it comes time to announce
our winner because we always make the students congratulate
others if they win or do not win. Through the House Cup, my kids
have become better citizens at the program and hopefully outside of
it, as well.
13.
14. Second Star to the Right
O As we read more and more books to the students, we started to
catch on to certain quotes or phrases that held meaning to both the
staff and the students. This particular one from Peter Pan reads
“The moment you doubt you can fly, you cease forever to be able
to” is one that still hangs at the site to this day. Every year we make
posters with quotes from books that help the students realize their
potential or phrases that keep them motivated; they are all from
books we have read through together and they can go back and
remember. These posters, though partially decorative, are a
constant reminder for the students to keep a positive outlook and
keep reaching forward while also looking back at the good times we
have shared over the years through these readings. If the students
haven’t encountered these stories with us, I encourage them to take
a look at them and find the magic that other kids have found in the
pages of the books and hopefully they too will love them and learn
from them, as well.
15.
16. Growing Older
O Now my kids, once small five year olds, are big fifth graders and
their priorities have changed along with their faces and size. They
no longer want to hang out with me and play with my hair; instead
they find their own spot on the playground and gossip, mostly about
the boys or girls that they like. Their style is becoming more mature
and so are their actions. Instead of causing trouble, they are
helping to stop the younger ones who are getting into fights or doing
something that they shouldn’t be. They help set up snack or pass
out paper when my hands are full; they are growing into mini-adults
now. Watching this transformation, from small kindergartner to
almost middle school students, while I transformed from high school
student, to college student, to almost teacher has been an
interesting one. We have all grown and changed together. Our
‘family’ learned together and developed into better human beings,
both with each others help and on our own. Though we are all
going to be done with the program next year, I feel like we are all
leaving with something more than we started it with: a sense of
intellectual growth along with skills of being responsible for
ourselves, as well others, and caring to all.
17.
18. Why Care?
O This is a photo of my staff and I dressed as the cast of Alice in
Wonderland last Halloween. Every year we try to make this
particular holiday, the one where the students get to be whatever
they want to be, the most special. We pick a theme and dress to
impress. Halloween isn’t the only day we dress up, however. We
find any excuse to dress up or put a mustache on in order to
encourage creativity, imagination, and trust with the children. If we,
five grown adults, can look silly and be okay with it then why
shouldn’t they have the mentality? Through this job, working with
these students, I think I have realized that you never stop being a
kid and this is what I hope my fifth grades remember when they
leave my program. They are entering middle school, a confusing
time when they encounter so many changes, and I want them to
remember all the different skills and lessons we tried to instill in
them during our time together. You are never too cool to put on a
mustache and dance around in a tutu—you are never too cool or
too old to have fun. Though I will miss them as we all move on to
our new and various adventures, I know it has been a great learning
experience for us all.
