Blog #7

There is a program at Orange called Storm Helpers, in which 4th and 5th graders can give up their recess to come to the gym and help teach the kindergarten classes. Two girls and two boys are allowed to help every day. I am so torn with this program because it has so many positive and negative aspects. In theory, it helps the big kids develop leadership skills and takes some of the load off of the gym teachers. The helpers are supposed to demonstrate activities and help some of the kids who don't understand the rules. With such a busy schedule, it truly is helpful to be able to get a break and let the 5th graders move the equipment and stand up and play with the kids. However, there are some storm helpers who take advantage of the program instead of treating it as a privilege. Sometimes, there are helpers that just clique together with the other helpers, and completely ignore the kindergarteners. For example, there was a kid crying, and just a couple of feet away were the "helpers" just talking to each other. Other times the helpers set a bad example for the kindergarteners. In the gym, the expectation is that when you walk in, you sit on the floor in your assigned spot. However, when the helpers walk in and immediately start chasing each other around the gym and playing with the equipment that is out like baseball bats or dodgeballs, the kindergarteners start thinking that it is okay for them to do the same. The other thing that I saw was helpers treating the kindergarteners like they were big kids. Just today, there was a helper that was chucking dodgeballs at full speed toward the little kids, and hit one of them in the head and the kid started crying. I would have expected that the big kids would take it easy on the little ones, but they are just as competitive as they would be with kids their own age which surprised me a lot.