Seven: Second Day Facilitating and Boys Club

Seven: Second Day Facilitating and Boys Club

Today Cherry and I were going to try a sensory activity that would have been lovely for the kids. However it didn’t go to plan at all and rather threw us both off.

In the morning we just continued with our big white painting with the kids. This took up a good hour or so and left us feeling rather confident about the rest of the day. I had to take charge over the teachers as they didn’t know what to paint or create so I had to make decisions for them as chief artist. Ishail really didn’t enjoy the painting task however as he took great delight in grabbing hold of anything, including punching cherry and I in the chest - I just carried on as I understood this was likely to happen.

During the break, we all went outside to enjoy the company of the kids and supervise their playtime. I played catch with a girl from another class who I can’t remember the name of but she was wheelchair bound but had mobility in her upper body and was very vocal. It was nice to talk to have a proper interaction and connection with a student as in AF we don’t get any real response. This made me feel really overwhelmed as when you look at disabled children at St Giles, it can be very easy to put them into the category of severe disability, forgetting that many of them are vocal and have the capability to communicate. From this I learned how to interact with the students. I originally was following what the teachers were doing and in many ways talking to them like I was a teacher, but from speaking to her I realised that its one hundred percent okay to speak openly and normally. After all they still are people not too different from myself. It was rather eye opening to me.

Later in the day I went to Boys Club with Harrison and met some of the boys who were going to be the leavers. I met Glory, Zack and Abdal. Glory and Abdal were by far the most vocal students I have met at the school so far. They definitely were more open to chat. In boys club I felt a great sense of responsibility as did Harrison as the kids were looking up to us without us realising it so much. When the discussion began about friendship and moving schools and the pressures of that began, I felt very shocked as to how these students felt to this situation. You really do forget that despite them having these difficulties in their lives, that they experience the same problems a normal teenager would face such as girls, university and many others. When the discussion began, a lot of them differed the questions to myself and Harrison. We were very open to sharing our experiences but were also cautious about having to feel like we had to be all sharing to the group, who we only met a few hours ago. However, I definitely felt like I had an important role to play with the students and I think the overall gravitas of responsibility and trust I have with the students hit me.

Our afternoon facilitation lesson was rather shambolic to say the least. It didn’t go to plan at all and we had to work on the fly. Our original plan was to go into the sensory room, but since it was 34 degrees, we decided not to take them in their as the heat inside was unbearable and we were afraid it would agitate them. Instead we did it in the normal classroom, which had air conditioning. We started off by reading the kids the stories we selected from the library - we made sure they were short, and age appropriate. I made certain that I only played songs in a similar chord pattern to get them familiar with the song as they don't like change. Surprisingly this technique worked as it calmed down everyone in the class to a silence, even Ishmail which I was surprised by. Both Cherry and I decided to re read the first book to bide our time as we had finished that activity quite early. However, the second the sensory activity began, the kids erupted into screams and tantrums which sent the staff into overdrive mode. We realised that we had mucked up somehow but we didn’t know what we did wrong.

We carried on with the sensory activity despite the kids mood. We picked the follow items:

• Fluffy Toy
• Pipe Cleaners
• Shaving Foam
• Ventriloquist puppet (To pretend he’s talking with)
• Bells and drums

We started with the fluffy toys and this didn’t go down well. It was very nerve racking having everyone reacting so negatively at the same time to us and it caused us quite a bit of confusion and distress. I was most nervous about having to do a sensory task and holding their hands whilst they flail around - I didn’t want to hurt them. In the end I just went for it, but Adam was having none of it and punched me in the chest rather hard and threw the toy across the room. I think I got the hint. We did attempt the task with the others but they weren't responsive and were rather dismissive. To cope, we realised that the guitar calmed them down so we went back to task one for the rest of the day and re read the books to them. They inevitably calmed down.

Overall, I think the reason they reacted so negatively to the sensory task was that we changed so quickly from one activity to another. They became comfortable in one task then we took them out of their comfort zone, which we shouldn’t do with them. For next facilitation I will make certain that it’s only games we have played before and that it’s one game per session. Both Cherry and myself felt rather on edge today as we were afraid of the reaction we got and how quickly it changed the atmosphere, but we tried our best to persevere.