Day 4: A Roaring Success

James:
Today was our half day which I was super excited for because I was super tired this morning. We got there and it was like any other day we have gone there. We went to get let into our classrooms and my teacher saw me come up the stairs and said that I would not be working with her class today and I would be working with a different class today because one of the students had already become too dangerous to work with. It was sad because I was excited to work with my class because of how I have been learning about them and their stories. But I went with a class I had also been with the first day, so I knew them as well. I played chess and checkers with one of the kids and it was funny to see how he wanted me to play with his rules. Later I helped the same kid do a project where he glued pictures to a piece of pictures. I wanted to just be there with him and do it to be a role model for him and to show him that he could be in a normal school and inspire him. After the day ended with painted the tiger mascot on the concrete and it felt good to make sure something in their school was getting restored by us because of all the different things that do get destroyed in the school. Overall, it was a good day.

Today was the most “chill” day of all three so far. I say “chill”, because there is no chill day compared to the classes at Regis. One small reaction to a word, action, etc... leads the whole day into a spiral. With today being a shorter half day not as much happened, the kids also seemed much more tired. The only real issue we faced today was a lockout due to a restraint outside. Every day I have experienced more humanity in the kids. Although these kids may have issues controlling their feelings, they are still kids at the end of the day. I experienced this feeling through the quick switches from fights to kids doing kids things. For example, yesterday there was an issue where the kids all were fighting each other, then playing duck-duck goose two minutes later. It seems like these kids have two sides, one being tough and the other being kids. When the kids feel weak, they resort to being tough, but when they feel comfortable, I see them as just harmless kids. After school we painted the tiger and picked up some brownies to make for dessert. I am excited to see how the kids act after a long weekend Monday but today was overall a smooth day.

Today was the best day I have ever had at the Tennyson Center.  One word that I would use to describe my day was “Regis like” because everyone in today’s class was completely locked in in all of the subjects in school the students were asking questions and wanting to get to know the subject more and they were also asking for help on the assignments showing that they were working hard even in Gym today everyone was doing some type of sport if not with another then themselves and in the transitions no one was trying to stand out and be the class clown they just wanted to get back to have free time or learn. Our daily reflections are often eye-opening, hearing my classmates and teachers share stories about how uncomfortable their experiences were and how disoriented and combative kids are, as well as the inappropriate language and actions. However, seeing these kids having better behavior towards me and going from cussing out the teacher to telling them today I am going to miss you over the break and seeing this change in the kids showed me that all kids want good it just what they are willing to do to reach that Good!!