Did Well: This takes some explaining but I've started doing a "Name the Song" challenge with the kids at the start of the afterschool day and normally I do it on Thursday but tomorrow the 4th graders have a field trip and will miss the start of afterschool so one of the 4th grade boys showed up early, as soon as school let out, to let me know this and asked, very politely, if I could move the contest up one day. The problem was that I had already promised another girl that I would do a "Fun Fact" contest on Wednesday (today). The kids submit fun facts about themselves that people and then they guess who the fact belongs to. And this girl had asked me every single day for the past 5 days about it and if you've ever tried to hold the attention of 30 to 40 elementary school children in a noisy cafeteria the moment school has just let out, then you know it's not an easy task. So there was no way I was going to try to run both of these contests on the same day because I knew I wouldn't be able to hold their attention for that long. Anyway, the 4th grade boy was really disappointed because he'd put in the effort to think ahead and be considerate and do the right thing and I had no choice but to shut him down in the nicest way I could.
So he got really mopey and upset and was pretty mean and standoffish to me and interrupted me a lot when I was addressing the group outside. BUT what I did well was afterwords I was able to talk to him and let him know that he had done everything right and I had to be a buzzkill about it. And he played like he was still upset at me and wouldn't accept what I was saying and so I just dug in further and started going "let me be nice to you!" in a joking/teasing kind of way. I don't know, it kinda sounds weird written out but I really like that I've gotten to the point with this kid where I can sort of tease him about this grumpiness and joke about me wanting to be nice to him and he'll more or less accept it. He actively disliked me at the beginning of the year. Like, he was not ambiguous about it at all and I just kinda had to take it for a while and show that I still really appreciated him, even when he was upset at me or the program or even upset at himself. Today made me feel good about the progress I've made with him.
Could Improve: My kicking was terrible today in kickball. Just atrocious. I don't think I even got on base. What I could actually improve is continuing to build a structure that feels genuine and the kids are invested in. Creating opportunities for things like recognitions and discussions and moments where the group is together but not stressed. That's a hard one. And sometimes things only work for a short period of time and then you have to come up with a new thing. Or they're too work intensive for me to really have ready every day. I don't know. It's about listening to the group and also being consistent and patient and maintaining expectations, even if things feel chill or low energy.
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