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I think that we are very supportive and conducive to diverse cultures and perspectives. It has helped that we’ve had lots of kids from different cultures and backgrounds at our school. The families are often very kind and help us better understand what we can do to introduce it to the other children. The specific ones that pop-up in my mind are a Jewish family with a little boy who wore a tallit katan (an undergarment worn by men at all times), a Chinese family who bring in music and decorations for the Chinese New Year, several Korean families, many Hispanic families, and even just families who have moved here from another state bring a new perspective. We always do art and talk about all holidays. We put in our best efforts to not make any child or family feel left-out or under-represented.

Today was Valentine’s Day so in after-school we finished up the sticker pizzas and sticker faces to give to their parents. They had a lot of fun and were excited to give it to their parents when they got picked up. Something I did notice was that the other after-school teacher (newer) had an idea she wanted the kids to do (the paper plate hat idea), so I helped her facilitate that. The kids did not enjoy it… Having worked with these kids much longer, it’s safe to say you either need knowledge of the kids themselves or an understanding of kids that age in general. I’m not sure the other teacher has either, but that’s okay.

I wasn’t able to do after-school today, but I was able to finally build the last two little tike cars. I finally had enough time today to get it done. Then during recess today, a girl from after-school comes up to me and asks me what projects we’re going to do today. That made my day. That lets me know that they really appreciate and enjoy it when I do projects with them after school.

Today in after-school, I oversaw another colleague’s art project idea. Paper plate heart hats. They really just colored them today. I was going to start cutting but the colleague wanted to wait until Friday. I didn’t have enough time to get back out the sticker work.

I didn’t have after-school today so I took some time to get other projects done that my lead teacher tasked me with. I finished our class puzzle and finished our class birthday board. These kids aren’t really old enough to appreciate the birthday board but they love the puzzle. They like finding their own piece and pointing out their friends/classmates.

I was able to do after-school today. I had gotten some Valentine’s sticker activities for the kids. Strikers are great for fine motor skills and kids absolutely love them. They made pizzas and heart faces. Even the stickers that I thought would be too hard to peel, the kids tried and did really well.  

The goal I have for next week is to take initiative for myself. I plan on going around to each classroom and asking if they need anything done or if I can observe how different it is from my classroom/age group. From my rocket name art project, it’s extremely clear that each age group is quite different from the other developmentally. I’d be very interested in seeing how they are taught and how their classes are organized. I hope to see each classroom in the next two weeks.

I prepared all the rockets by dotting out their names. I will show them by example using the one I made for myself. Writing their own name and even stenciling is a little above these kids’ level, but I’m still excited to try it. That’s how people grow, by doing things above their level. I think it’ll be really good for these kids. — My expectations were both reached and surpassed. Two older children (aged around 4) did very well. In comparison, the 2-3-year-olds didn’t do as well. However, one 3-year-old surprised me. He did so well, I’m so proud of him. For his age group and no known practice, he did incredibly well. I did find it interesting that older kids were able to recognize the letters, but when I said “You’re actually writing your own name.” They became hesitant and told me that they didn’t know how to write their own names. I corrected myself, I told them don’t worry about it, just connect the dots. They did very well.

I wasn’t able to do after-school today, but I was asked to audit the children’s birthdays. We’ve had some typos with birthdays, so I went through each child’s forms to check if their birth dates were correct. I was also asked if I could make door decorations for Valentine’s day by my lead teacher.

I was just able to do after-school today. They count out how many letters are in their names and glue that many squares on a paper. (they also get to decorate it with star stickers) Some kids are only called by their nicknames, so I’m making sure to use their whole names for this project. I’ve also started dotting their names so that they can trace them.