prune prower

today i asked the kids to use leaves rocks and sticks to create a map of field camp in a field. 

i said the prize for the group that made the best map was a mystery fruit that i had purchased with my own money

the prize was prunes 

later at lunch a kid came up to me and said "andy, can I go eat all the prunes."

i said " no way dude the prunes are too powerful for your tiny frame."

he said "no they're not i eat 5 peaches a day."

and then later at the end of the day i asked him how many prunes he ate and he said 10.

grateful

I'm grateful for the very light rain we've been having. It's been pleasant. Being outside is excellent.

I did a full school year of afterschool

my first time doing one continuous year. and I'm coming back next year.

I'm really proud of it. I'm proud of the kids and I'm proud of the program. I think my big takeaway, the big lesson I learned was that the program worked best when it was student-centered.

Yesterday we were supposed to sit down and start planning for the next year. And what the official program is concerned with is coming up with THEMES for the kids. Like "Willy Wonka" or "The Rainforest" and we're supposed to dress up everything and then also teach the kids math somehow. I don't know. I'm not about it. It's a teacher-centered approach.

Because it assumes you have all these humans who are devoid of knowledge and interests and motivations and unless you dress everything up and put something in front of them, then they are just going to be empty vessels awaiting information and fun. That's silly. I'm casting it in the worst possible light but that's just silly.

I was talking to my coworker and we focused on things like "how can we make the lighting in this cafeteria less harsh?" and setting up the environment for success.

The kids already like things. They're full of ideas and motivation and interests. What they have a harder time with is structure and organization. So anyway, my guiding principle for the next year is listening to what the kids say and do and then framing it and organizing it in a way that is presentable and memorable.

Taking pictures, doing write ups in the word of the bird, making art out of their art, showing interest, adding extra facts/info/context, getting supplies to enhance it.

yeah!

today I met a 5 year old

and I tried to explain to him how Liono from ThunderCats used his sword to give him "sight beyond sight"

he was quite charming.

kickball

we've been playing a lot of kickball at afterschool and we have one girl who always plays and she holds her own in kicking and fielding. she's an awesome kid.

anyway, today a boy kicks a line drive straight to her on first base and she catches it. her team is going in to kick and another boy who is watching says "wow, I'm surprised she caught that."

And I decide to give him a hard time and tease him and say "watch your gender assumptions there, bud."

I didn't think anything else of it but like 5 minutes later he comes up to me and he's clearly thought about this issue and says, "well, I'm not racist because then why would I always say that my sister is better than me?"

This happens a lot actually. The kids at my school don't seem to distinguish racism and sexism. Or maybe they're afraid of saying sexism because the sex part.

I like that he was concerned about it though. Being called it. That was interesting.