Reflection 3: OBSERVE

One thing that I observed as I helped out and watched was how our presence affected the teachers (Ms. Nancy and Leslie). The benefit for the teacher was obvious. Ms. Nancy and Leslie were no longer torn in 20 separate ways. I heard Ms. Nancy declare numerous times how nice it was for her to just sit and observe rather than constantly giving her attention to all of the kids. I cannot imagine how much different the classroom would look when we were not around to play and help them during their free time. When there were less kids and a lot of us came that day, I felt like we kind of got in the way but otherwise, we were extremely beneficial to the two teachers in the Pre-KK classroom.

I learned a lot from observing the school-aged classroom. I watched a couple of the kids play the computer and they were surprisingly computer-literate. They knew how to maneuver all of the different games and seemed somewhat familiar with the keyboard. This surprised me because I was under the impression that these kids are of a low-socioeconomic status where they would not have easy access to computers. The YWCA and the school systems must be doing a good job of including technology in kids' learning. Also, as I talked with a couple of the girls there, I listened to how dysfunctional their families were. The girls would be frightened whenever their mom and sister would fight and they talked about how loud their house is. It was a good reminder of the differing family backgrounds that the kids in my classroom will have.