John Frontczak

17-02-08

TI Final Reflection

Throughout the week, my views about everyone (and others views about me) around

me changed, rather fast. Mainly the kids views about me changed, from curiosity to “Wow, this

high school student is really weird”; and vice versa. The kids, while at first were surprised to see

a high school student there, later thought that I was too quiet and still. One student, that would

not leave me alone, said that I did not have that much facial expressions and that I was nice in a

cold sort of way. With me, I found that the more time I spent with the students, the more

confusing they got. At times it was as if they were speaking another language, and I vaguely

recall that I used to know that language yet it is lost to me now. But with time the kids did trust

me more, albeit that that did not take as long as I thought it would, and with that trust I found

that I was helping them more.

On the first day, all I really did was sit in a corner and cut paper. But towards the end of

the week, I was helping the students with their art, nearly the whole day. I found myself helping

out the kids more and more, as the teachers and students trust in me grew. While some flatly

refused my help, I always tried to help out those kids that would take it. I also found that I had

a great deal more patience than I thought, when it comes to helping out little kids.

When I first found out that I would be helping out an art class, I thought that I would be

strangling the kids be the second day (this is of course an exaggeration). That was not the case;

however, I was able to remain calm and patient when it came to dealing with the little kids’ lack

of common sense. I learned to just accept their weird ideas and move on.

With how this past week went, I can firmly say that I am mostly proud of the fact that I

was able to that much help in general. Rather, I was able to be of help to someone for an entire

week. I am not necessarily the more proud of any one task, more than another. Sure, I am a

little proud that I was able to clear the tables fast, and put out the next materials, but I’m just

as proud of that as I am about packing newspaper into a kangaroos’ leg.

I am pretty sure that, due to me doing all those tasks day after day, my speed in those

tasks increased. At first I did not know where anything was or where it went, but at the end of

the week I was setting the tables without the need of instruction. In this I don’t think that any

of my skills improved to any noticeable extent, only traits such as patience increased any or me

during the previous week.

My five days in the art room were fun. It involved a lot of waiting, to do a lot of frantic

work. It was never dull and gave me reasonably amount of work to do, with lots of brakes in

between. Later in the week, that free time was taken up by helping some of the kids with their

projects, mostly. But, once again, it was never boring and it gave my something to do; other

than just sit around and wait.

In the end I was doing a lot more work than at the beginning. In the beginning, all I really

did was put this here and cut some things. Towards the end, however, I was clearing and

setting tables, cutting paper in varies sizes, helping a student when they needed it, and doing

research for Mrs. Neubrand. I was still doing little compared to Mrs. Neubrand, and she was

finding it difficult to find things for me to do. As such I did not feel as if I was doing as much

work as I should have been. I still did a fair amount though, and I will miss doing tasks that did

not require that much thought.

I will defiantly miss working with the elementary school, and not just because it means

that I will have to go back to doing work that takes more than minimal brain power. The

elementary school students, at first, seemed to have this mind set that anyone in high school is

cool. The kids also had this sort of open curiosity and energy that made them both annoying

and fun to be around. So it was fun being around them, even with them bombarding me with

questions. Some of them even liked me being there, which was a surprise; I thought that they

would all distrust me from the start.