I'm no educrat.

I can't even pretend to be one, really.

I just don't have the "I'm the teacher, you're the student, be quiet and let me tell you what to learn"  mindset when it comes to projects. So I allow kids to learn rather than making them perform prescribed learning activities.

The project/activity for Tuesday afternoon was catapults.

Brashley piled the supplies on the table for me and the kids gathered around excitedly.

We had, hmm. Let me see here.
Tongue depressors. Plastic spoons. Tape. Pencils. Paper clips. Rubber bands. Cotton Balls. Glue. Card Stock. Heavy duty paper towel tubes. Rulers.

And ingenuity.

We started out by talking about catapults. The kids knew quite a bit about them, including the more gory details about severed heads being sent over castle walls to demoralize the enemy.

I showed them a plastic spoon/cotton ball catapult. The easiest way to launch a cotton ball.

Then we talked a little about levers and fulcrums and ways to make the throwing arm a little stronger.

We discussed the project itself.
"There is no grade. No right answer. No wrong answer. No perfect way to do it."

Rachelle* spoke up. "If you make a project you're happy with, then you did it right."

The rest of the kids looked at her sort of strange. Turned to me with raised eyebrows. Well, except for Liam* and Loren*... two of 'my' regular kids. They'd heard that phrase before.

I agreed with her. Said, "If you're one of the kids who attends my regular program, you know that I want you to make it your project and for you to go home with something you like."

And Rachelle added, "You can use all the stuff you want as long as you don't waste it. It's okay to use things up if you need to."

Again they turned to me. I agreed with her.
"That's right. As long as you need the items you're using, it's fine to use what you need."

Then we addressed copying.
"When someone copies your idea, what does that mean?"

"Cheating!" Gary* said.

And I said, "Well, if you're taking a test or doing school work, it's not okay for someone to copy you because then they're not learning anything from it. And that is cheating... both cheating the person they're copying from AND cheating themselves. Not getting to learn while they have the opportunity. And that's too bad. But in this situation, when someone copies your idea, it means you have a great idea and people have noticed it."

Then, I sort of backed off and let them drive.

We had some very interesting catapults. Some were multi-firing models, using more than one spoon or other type of launcher. Some fired the cotton ball straight into the air, some sent it 6 feet or more across the room. There were shouts of excitement, lots of encouraging each other, and everyone was having a great time.

It was over too soon. One of the kids said, "Can I make another?"

I said, "Of course!" I looked over the supplies still remaining and said, "Everyone can make two. That's about all we have supplies for, and it wouldn't be fair for one person to make five and another person to have nothing left to make a second one."

Most of them chose to make two, but it took awhile.

When we gathered in our 'campfire' area under the shelter in the corner of the room, the kids who chose to participate were still talking excitedly about what they'd made and discussing ways to make it different the next time.

And Brashley, who loves to take charge, stopped them. "You made two?!?" she asked, incredulously.  And when they gave her an enthusiastic affirmative and started chattering again, she turned to me and said, in front of them, "You let them make TWO???"

I smiled broadly. "Sure did. They learned a lot from their first one. The experimental model. So everyone's second attempt improved. We have a bunch of engineers on our hands!"

After my smiley response she just shut up about it and told them a little about Wednesday's field trip.

It's strange to me that she is uncomfortable with the kids exploring in sort of a free form manner. I can't imagine learning any other way. It's how my own kids learned, for the most part, and how I've been 'teaching' the kids I work with for years.

It's possible that since she's studying to become an elementary teacher that her attitude is a little different than mine.

I wish I could see 20 years into the future and see if my attitude toward allowing kids to experiment and enjoy being creative without worrying about getting it right or having a test about it will affect their future.

I'm not egotistical enough to think that every little thing I do with them, or the things I say today as we learn together are going to change the way they look at life in general, but I am hopeful that they might be a little more relaxed about learning. Enjoy it a little more.

What do you think?

In 30 minutes....

I tried to do a running commentary with little notes on a piece of paper one afternoon last week to give you an idea of what it's like in the first half hour after school gets out.

One of the best things about the job is the immediacy.  
One of the most difficult parts of the job is the immediacy. 

First 30 minutes looked like this:

Got their bracelets on. 
Checked with each kid, "Did you wash up?" 
Most of them stop at the sink on their way into our space and wash (but not dry, haha), as is evidenced by the growing puddle of water to my left on the top of the table where they place their hand to steady it while I peel and stick the little adhesive end of their bracelets. I have a paper towel sprayed with the table disinfectant to wipe it off once they've finished arriving.

They all have to wash upon arrival, even if they're not planning to have a snack.
They put their backpacks and assorted sweatshirts and jackets and papers in one of the laundry baskets along the back wall. 

Everyone except for Noah, that is. He drops stuff here and there around the room. He stops to talk to a friend at the art table and leaves his homework there. On his way to the corner where we keep our baskets, he drops his sweatshirt on the floor by the dramatic play area. He usually leaves the little prizes from his class treasure box (I hate a token economy SO MUCH) on the snack table.

In my mind I refer to him as Darth Deciduous. 
Obviously wouldn't ever say it to him. 
But it helps me keep a sense of humor about his cluttery self. 

I have to track down kids who aren't there but are on my attendance list and their parents didn't remember to either mark them absent in the app or leave me a text on the site phone or send me a friggin' email and it's my JOB to make sure they're safe and for goodness sake, trying to figure out where your kid is while I'm trying to manage the other 22 who did show up is not a simple thing! 

In some cases your kid has been in my program for three years and I've had to contact you every time your kid didn't show even though I have asked you every time to please call or let us know if your kid won't be with us after school. 
It's for THEIR safety, dammit!!! Also, it's a colossal pain in the ass to have to make a phone call while I am trying to do all the things necessary when 22 kids show up all at once.

Sometimes one shows and they're not sure if they're supposed to be there after school or not. 

If they're not and the buses have already left, and the child doesn't appear in the app, I tell the child to put away their backpack and go have a snack and I'll call parents.

They don't all attend every day. I always tell them if they're not sure, just come to me. We can call parents or whatever, meanwhile the kid is not going home to an empty house. We know they're safe, they get a snack, their friends are there.

I've made it clear to children and parents that we try to make it easy. 
If you're not 100% sure, come to me. 
We'll get it figured out together. 
We don't charge a family for the extra attendance, either. 
We want to make sure the young humans are safe, that's it.

Aaron had a recent schedule change and was completely confused about where he was supposed to be. So I put a bracelet on him and sent him to get a snack, telling him I'd call his mom.

Okay, so check in/wash hands/snack right away. Sometimes I have to leave our space and zip into the school office and get one of the nice ladies who work there help me track one or two of the young humans down. It's more difficult because of the extra curricular classes. A kid could be in the pick up line, in the bus line, in one of the seven extra curriculars... but we have to find them. 

I also have two new kids in the group and their parents haven't learned the whole 'contact your day care if your child won't be attending' rule. They think if they let the school know that I automatically know. And I don't. My program is a separate entity, a private contractor within the school. The sharing of information, while courteous, isn't enough under licensing. 

My school office is happy to let me look at their attendance logs, but not all schools do that and even if I've looked at that log and I know the kid won't be there, I need to contact a parent because it's still my job.

So that's the first five to seven minutes post-dismissal. Assuming that I've located all my young humans, the next steps are making sure everyone gets snacks if they want one (William is in charge of the snacks)  and that they're finding things to do that don't involve running or chasing or breaking toys. 

One of my new kids is quite destructive, although he's not malicious, just careless/clueless. I have to tell him every single day that we don't throw our toys, that if it's not yours, don't touch it, and that if he can't treat his friends nicely, he can play alone until he can. 

He has some neglect in his past, so he's starting from a much younger child perspective. He hasn't been taught those rules. Actually, he hasn't been taught any rules. He's no longer living with the parent who didn't take proper care of him. It's going to take some time, patience, and effort to help him catch up.

Kids are choosing what they'd like to do for the afternoon, asking for specialty items (googly eyes, construction paper, tacky glue) or for a refill of the paper drawer that's on the art cart. 

Phone is ringing because Parent A finally called back to say their child is not attending. Which I knew already but still had to check.

There is girl drama at the art table. Bella was being vocal about what she hated about the play they saw on their field trip and two other kids disagreeing with her. 

Also, a discussion about middle names. Again, I don't attach their real names to them here so this one is also made up, but I have a kindergarten girl who didn't know her middle name. She has a hyphenated last name. So when they asked her what her middle name was, she said, "My name is Emily Grace Cullen-Witherspoon. Which one of those is my middle name?"

Surprisingly, it took them a minute and a little discussion to draw the correct conclusion.
She's a cutie, as all the K age kids are, and she's grown so much this year.
::sigh::

There are physical altercations in the construction zone.
"THOSE ARE MY MAGNATILES!!" 
Followed by shoving, screaming in a sibling's face, crying frustration.

And the Zoobs. The damn Zoobs. I have a love/hate relationship with them. I love that the kids are very focused when they make stuff, and that it's contained in a small area. I make them keep the pieces on the table because they're fragile enough that when one steps on them, they break. I hate that they fall on the floor anyway and most of the time I have to remind someone that they are on the floor and please pick them up!

Daniel asked me the other day if they could take them to the reading area since no one was reading over there. I told him they could try it and we'd see how it went. Noah and Daniel are best friends, but Daniel is only in program three days a week. So on the days they're both there, they do everything together.

It didn't go so well.

I had to talk to Shelly and Mike and explain once again that no one gets all of one color. That we have to share the toys.

I told Emma and Bailey the same thing just seconds later.

Within about three minutes, Steffie was on her back on one of the chairs, lying down building a little car with her Zoobs. Noah decided he wanted some of the ones from her stack, so he laid on top of her to reach for them. And because of the positioning, stuck his junk in her face.

She had no idea why everyone else was laughing, and I tried to keep it calm by telling Noah, "Dude. Personal space." He didn't have malicious intent, he's a little kid. 
Still... um, NO.

I'm not sure Steffie caught on, but everyone else seemed to. 
Saw a couple kids pointing and laughing from across the room.

Noah always has problems keeping his body in his own space. He's not mean, he just gets really involved in whatever he's doing and pays zero attention to what anyone else expects or needs from him.

So within two minutes, I'd had to remind him four times about personal space. He was upsetting everyone else over there, and the fifth time I heard an aggrieved, "NOAHHHHH!!" I finally told him that he'd need to take his toys and play in a different location, because, "Everyone else has a right to play here without you in their face or their space, Noah."

He got up, starting to cry. He crawled under the salad bar at the other end of the room, sobbing like I'd torn his heart out. I felt bad, I don't want to hurt their feelings, but the consequences of being in someone's space over and over need to be that you are removed from that space. When he's escalated, there is no point in trying to talk to him. 
If a person tries, it makes it worse. So I wait until he runs down, then take a few minutes to sit with him and (once again) explain why he needs to keep his hands in his own personal space.  

On my table were the collage art projects from the day before, it helps them remember to pick up their art and take it home.

Steffie came to pick hers up. She did one that was all hummingbirds for her mom, carefully gluing little jewels and star-shaped sequins on and humming her own little song while she worked. She was very excited to give her art to her mom.

When she picked up her page, she was dismayed to see that, "My special big blue jewel is gone!!"

She began crying loudly. She's another one who has to run down a little before she is able to be rational. I got the jar of rhinestones from the cabinet and dumped a bunch into a little french fry boat, which is what we use to organize stuff when we're crafting.

"Steffie, let's find another jewel for your picture."
"THAT WAS THE ONLY ONE!!!!"

I found six more. Unfortunately snapped the pic of her project before she happily glued the larger blue rhinestone on.

It was important to her, because she made it for her mom.

The blue jewel was on the big 
hummingbird's 
chest below the row of jewels.

During the same half hour, Malia was picked up early. She was frantically searching for her blue whale (what??) at the project table. I found it later when I was cleaning, it was an origami project. I texted her mom to let her know I'd found it.

I had to get Aaron and John to stop firing Lincoln logs across the room with the catapult they made from K'nex during that time, too.

None of the rest of the day made it into this post. The assigning of jobs to get outside (our bug out bag, ball cart and door holder of the day... unimportant to me but SUPER important to them). 

I haven't told you about our art project, any of the other arguments that happened during the afternoon (there are always several, they persist in acting like children) and parent pick ups and shoe tying and all the little things that go on.

This was just the first half hour of the afternoon.

Huh.

Possibly why I'm so tired all the time?

And. I've been sitting here swearing for 10 minutes trying to get the bottom part of this post to line up on the left margin. I am officially giving up.