10/28/09

Yesterday did not go very bad. At first, I was a little bit tired and cranky because I had just come in from working at my other job. I was asked to lead a carpetball tournament for the kids as part of the olympics thing that we are doing this week. It went well for the most part, but a lot of kids began arguing about who won the games. They all kept trying to talk to me at once and I almost lost my temper with them. Finally, I just told them all that they need to calm down or we won't play any more.

Later on I decided to do the science experiment that I had planned for the day which was to place a cube of ice into a clear glass full of warm water to see if it would overflow. As an incentive to get the kids to come, I told them that they would earn five points just for participating. If they answered correctly whether or not the water would overflow, they would earn an extra five points. Most of them answered correctly. Here is the link to the webpage where I got this idea:

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/experiments/iceoverflow.html

The rest of the day was spent doing clerical work and cleaning. I finished recording the hourly attendance for the month of October. After that that my supervisor asked me to enter in the points that the kids received from turning in their report cards. They received 25 points for just turning it in, an additional ten points for each A, and an additional five points for each B and C. Most of the kids received As and Bs. I was asked to redecorate the bulletin board and hang up pictures of all the staff members and pictures of the youth council members doing different things. My last job for the night was to clean up the gym, snack room, and game room.

10/26/09

Yesterday seemed to go really well. The kids are on Fall break this week so when I arrived, they were already there and playing around. My supervisor had taken the teenagers on a trip to the Louisville Science Center so I was in charge of running the ping pong tournament for the olympics. I had no problem whatsoever with doing that. I did have issues with the kids when one of the other staff members was trying to make them go up to art. Some of them thought it would be fun to try and play hide and go seek on us. After rounding them up I told them that if the misbehaving continues and they could not show us any respect, I would contact my supervisor and let him deal with them. For those who had permission to walk, I threatened to send them home.

I was able to do another science experiment with the kids. For those who wanted to play the Gamecube, I told them if they participated in the experiment and answered the questions correctly, they would have first dibs on it. I thought that rewarding them with that might be a good way to get them to participate in an educational activity. For the rest of the time I was either hanging out with the kids and playing games with them or doing paperwork for my supervisor. I had to figure out the hourly attendance for each day of this month. It got old really quick. Basically, I had to figure out who was there on what day and during which hours of our daily operation.

Here is the link to the science experiment that we did:

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/experiments/staticelectricity.html

10/23/09 and 10/24/09

It has been a very busy weekend for me. I am going to give you guys the breakdown of how my internship has gone for the past couple of days. If there was any day where I gained a lot of experience on how ork with kids, it was Friday. I had to sit a couple of kids down. Both times were for cursing. I heard the "f" word and the "s" word. They were the real words, not the substitutes which have been a great problem recently. This was also the night that we were having our Halloween dance. I had to hold what seemed to be about 50 kids in the snack room while the mentors, youth council members, and volunteers set up for the dance. It seemed like it was going to be endless. The kids got restless and were constantly nagging me for different things. I breathed a sigh of relief when another volunteer showed up to help out. I am getting better at handling the multiple demands though. For the rest of the night I was responsible for making sure that the kids stay on their best behavior. I constantly checked the boy's restroom to make sure that there were no fights going on, no one was sick, injured, etc. I also made sure that I kept an eye on the kids as they were waiting for their rides to come pick them up.

On Saturday I did not have to do any work with kids. I worked the concession stands while having the opportunity to view cage fighting matches for the first time. The MMA rents out the Gerdon Youth Center about every three months for around $500 and we get to keep all the profit made off of the concessions. By making me work during this event, my supervisor gave me the chance to see where some of our money comes from. All in all I was able to relax a little bit and be entertained and I had a break from the kids.

10/21/09

It was not entirely troublesome for me today. The kids were well behaved for the most part. There is still the issue of getting them to sit all the way down in their seats and not put their feet up on the couches and stools. For a while I thought about giving up because sitting them down has not been working, but I am not a quitter so that will not happen. I had to sit one of the kids down for using a curse word. He did not actually say the word, but I knew he meant to use it. The kids do not seem to understand or they do not care when we tell then that doing that is actually the same as using a curse word. We try and explain it to them in the best ways we know how.

I had "1" kid for Power Hour today. Hooray! That was better than nothing. He needed help on his math homework. I knew how to do most of the problems on his worksheet, but there were a few that I even got stuck on. It is basic math, but I have not done some of it in years. If it were algebra, I could probably fly right through it. I actually had to go bring another kid in there to help him on the problems that I could not solve. Even though I tried my hardest to help him, I still am not perfect at it. Hopefully I can do better at it next time.

10/19/09

Again, sorry about the late post. Yesterday was a whole lot more successful than some of the previous days. There were a few issues. I had an incident where one of the girls did not want to listen to me. We were serving popcorn for a snack, but she did not want any and that is all we had. She decided she was going to try and eat a napkin instead. I told her not to, but she decided not to listen and got sat down. I also had to sit two of the boys down later in the day at the same time for pushing each other. They got into an argument which led to the pushing. After having them sit down, I told them that fighting does not solve any problems and they need to come to me or another staff member if they get into a disagreement and we will settle it.

Earlier I did a science experiment with them like I was talking about in my previous posts. I chose to do the one with the blow dryer and the ping pong balls. You have to turn the blow dryer all the way up on high, hold the end where the air comes out straight up, hold it level, and place the ping pong ball above it and let it go. Gravity and air pressure work together to keep the ball floating in the air. I tried to make this a Power Hour thing, but it did not exactly work out the way I had hoped. I will try to make it to where Power Hour is done right after all the other programs. I thought I would do a science experiment with them for the first half hour and the rest of the stuff for the remaining amount of time.

10/16/09

I was really proud of the kids today. Most of them did not cause any trouble. There was one who I sat down twice for not listening to me and for walking on top of a table. Abother one had used the phrase "what the freak". I told her to sit down, but she went and told another staff member what had happened and he did not make her sit down. That was kind of upsetting. I will have a discussion on Monday with my supervisor about that on Monday when he gets back from his trip. Otherwise, things went smoothly today.

It was a freeday again so we allowed the kids to play whatever they wanted. I got some games of dodgeball going with them. We also played a few pick-up football games and hit the volleyball around to eachother. At the time when I was supervising the game room I played some ping pong and carpetball with them. I feel as if the kids were really beginning to enjoy my presence there today and are starting to see me as a friend as well as an authority figure. It's not quite there yet and I don't think I am going to meet my main goal by the end of my internship, but I am making progress and taking baby steps.

10/14/09

There's not a whole lot of interesting things that happened today. I did start enforcing the rule for the kids to keep their feet off the couches, the stools, and the inside picnic table. I let them know that if I keep on having to tell them not to do that, they will sit in time out. I did not have much of a problem after that. Later on in our shift, I overheard our new mentor say the word "freakin". I pulled her aside and let her know that we are trying to teach the kids to not use those kinds of words, therefore she should not use them in front of the kids. I explained why, but you can find that reason in one of my earlier posts because I do not feel like repeating myself.

I am still having trouble getting the kids to come up to Power Hour. I even have tried to get a chess tournament going for the past couple of days I have worked and offer the winner and runner-up extra points, but still nobody wanted to come. Therefore, I am going to choose one of the science experiments to do from one of my chosen websites. Hopefully that will spark their interest and get them to attend. If you looked at the websites and saw an experiment that you thought seemed interesting, let me know and I might use it.

10/12/09

It was not a very eventful day today. None of the kids wanted to come up to Power Hour today. So I came up with an idea while entering data into the system for attendance. I thought about doing some fun science experiments with the kids that would, be easy, fun, and educational for them. I looked up some websites where I could receive some instruction on how to do some experiments and how to discuss them with the kids. Check them out and see what you think or if you know of anything better, let me know:

http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/experiments.html
http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/experiments.html

I just spent the rest of the day hanging out and playing games with the kids and keeping an eye on the teenagers while they were playing basketball. My supervisor attended the board meeting so It was just me and one of the volunteers that kept an eye on the place.

10/09/09

I have an update on the situation with the girl. I spoke with my supervisor today andhe informed me that he is not going to report this to CPS, but we are going to keep a close eye on her in the case that it happens again. I neglected to ask if the mother was informed of the accusations because I did not think of it at the time. Rest assured that the situation will get taken care of one way or the other. The staff at BGCHC are highly professional and have years of experience with kids. They know what to do when these situations arise.

I talked to my faculty advisor about the situation. I mentioned that this is the last thing that I was hoping to have to deal with. Unfortunately, these things happen a lot and I will have to deal with it when I become a school counselor. She referred me to the IUS counselor so I could speak to him as a future professional to professional so I could see what I need to do in case this type of situation occurs again. I am going to make an appointment next week.

The rest of the day was normal. The kids had a free day and I spent most of my time monitoring the behavior in the game room. I sat three kids in time out today. The first one sat down for screaming too loudly. The second for jumping on another kid and trying to wrestle him. The third for saying "what the freak". I cannot stress it enough to the kids that that is considered the same as cursing because your intentions are to say the actual curse word. Also, I am trying to teach the kids some manners and not put their feet up on the chairs and couches. I asked my supervisor if that was being too harsh, but he said that he has been trying to do the same thing. I should tell them that if I have to repeat myself, they will get sat down.

10/07/09

It was a highly eventful day today. I didn't fully have to deal with everything today, but there was a lot on my plate. Two of the problems that I had to deal with had to do with the same kid. I tried to get the kid who was told by his grandmother and father to come up to Power Hour and do his homework to do likewise. He absolutely refused and I was unable to get him to come with me. My supervisor gave him the option of doing that or sitting in time out until the programs were over with for the day. Later on, he was playing in a kickball game. He got into an argument with the one of the players on the opposing team and threw the ball at him. The other player caught the ball and did not get hurt, but his intentions were to hurt him so I sat him down again. Also, when I tried to explain to him why I sat him down, he screamed and yelled at me. Therefore, I extended his time out by ten minutes.

I could probably fill up a whole page with the story behind this kid, but those of you who are following me will have to ask me in person about it because there is a bigger issue at hand that I want to address. Remember from the previous post when I talked about the girl possibly being abused? I spoke with my supervisor about that today. I told him, basically, what the girl said to me. I also explained to him that I had her tell one of the other staff members the exact same thing that she told me. When he spoke to the girl yesterday, he told me that she said everything was fine. He and I both agree on the same thing abou this issue. We think that she has made the marks herself and is looking for attention or that she might be trying to get her mother in trouble. We are not ruling out the possibility that she is telling the truth. In order to take care of the situation, everyone involved, especially me, has filled out an incident report because we are required to keep these things on file. The next step in the process is to get approval from the Executive Director of BGCHC to report the incident to CPS. He said he might go ahead and do so whether he gets the approval or not.

This is the first time I have ever been involved with a situation like this. I have already known that the first thing to do in this situation is to tell someone whether or not you think the child is telling the truth. If you do not report the incident, the child could get hurt and you will be in trouble for not doing likewise. Another thing I have learned to do, in case nothing gets done about it, is to make a mental note about it to see if there is a pattern. I also did some research on the internet after I got home tonight. I sometimes have wondered how things would be if I was wrong, but this quote from the Arizona Department of Economic Security website reminded me that I did the right thing either way:

"A report of suspected child abuse, neglect, exploitation or abandonment is a responsible attempt to protect a child."

10/05/09

I think, for the most part, that things went well today. I was unable to get any of the kids to come up to Power Hour today. Therefore, I played dodgeball with them in the gym. I spoke to my co-worker who does the art program about an idea that I had in mind. I have a goal by the end of the semester to write a Christian song about unsopken prayer requests. I thought we could hand out slips of paper and have them write a line of lyrics about a problem either in their lives or in the world. They do not have to state their names. She thought it was a great idea. She wants to add to it by having me to play the guitar and sing during art so she could have the kids draw me.

I did approach a potentially huge problem today. One of the kids showed me some marks on her arms and told me that her mother did that to her while in church. I had her show it to the other staff members. My supervisor was off. Therefore, he was not there. They said that I should wait and tell him and make a mental note of the situation. I am not ruling out the possibility that her mother could have grabbed her to keep her from running off and she resisted resulting in some scratches, but she did not mention that happening. I have never dealt with this situation before so I am not quite sure what needs to be done.

10/02/09

There was not much in store for today. I had a little bit of my usual problems with kids putting their feet up on the couch or leaning on the carpet ball table. From now on, if I catch them leaning on it when they are in line, they will go to the end of the line. One of the girls decided to disobey me today so she got to sit in time out. I was asked by my supervisor the other day to bring my guitar to play and sing. I did just that. I just did it that same way as the last time which was going in the game room and playing while the kids were playing the games. We were also supposed to have a new volunteer start today, but she ended up cancelling for the day.

I also want to let those of you who read this blog know that I am open to receiving comments. If you have any advice for me about certain situations that I have faced during this internship, let me know. I would be glad to hear feedback from everyone.