September 9th, 2014 | Uncategorized
I didn’t exactly have to beat the tardy bell this morning into St. James Whiteabbey Primary school.
However, I did find myself running late to our first school session. In the schools, we teach kids the game of basketball in a fun way to hopefully inspire them to begin or continue playing. It was an exciting time for me this morning because I understand how much of a ‘sponge’ kids can be. They really soak up any and everything you tell them. It was my chance to make a good first impression, along with scholars Caroline and Ryan, to get them excited about our 8 week basketball class.
Right from the start, you could feel the excitement from every group of kids that we worked with as we dribbled, raced, and passed our way through 6 hours of fun! We did dribbling relays where halfway through, the kids had to stop and act as an animal (yes – I got my 6’4 lanky body onto the ground and barked like a dog) and they found this very amusing and fun. They had so much fun laughing at each other act as monkeys that they didn’t even noticed they were still practicing basketball with dribbling, jump stops, and chest passes. I’ve taught a 2nd grade summer school class and student taught in a Kindergarten classroom so I understand how teachers feel when their students come back to class all wound up. So we relaxed all the kids before the left with having them lay down and think about their favorite ice cream-bubble gum flavor is a hit here!
In the end it was an amazing first experience and I am itching for next week to be here so I can not only teach them more about the game of basketball but begin to build a relationship with the students. I did find myself keeping students a wee bit longer while exiting as all the girls and boys either wanted to touch my hair or have me shake it all crazy like a mad man, hopefully they made it to class before the tardy bell though.
