Personal Narrative: My Trip To The Red Caboose Day Care Center

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Journal Entries Post-Initial Visit Entry: On September 22, 2014, I had my first visit to my service-learning site, Red Caboose. As I volunteered at this site through Badger Volunteers, I arrived with three other girls who were my team members. When we arrived the executive director buzzed us in and met us at the door. She gave us a tour of the building which ended in her office where she spent about an hour going over the volunteer information, rules and regulations. From this, I learned that the Red Caboose Day Care Center is a non-profit corporation created to provide quality care for children ages 11 months through 12 years and the families are a diverse group in terms of race, ethnicity, income and family type. This includes children …show more content…

Schools are sending children out of the classroom because “the definition of what is a crime as opposed to a teachable moment has changed in extraordinary ways” (Editors of Rethinking Schools, 2011/1012). The article further discusses that “We cannot build safe, creative, nurturing schools and criminalize our children at the same time” (Editors of Rethinking Schools, 2011/1012). Instead it is vital to create “alternative approaches to safe school communities that rely on restorative justice and community building instead of criminalization” (Editors of Rethinking Schools, 2011/1012). I think Kathy does just this; she empowers the children to communicate their feelings and create solutions to the problems they …show more content…

Recently, a child named Jake has joined the Grasshopper classroom. Since he is new to the class, he clearly has no understanding of the rules and routines of the classroom. He always seems agitated, often has temper tantrums and has difficulty sharing and initiating play with other children which correlates with some of the behaviors described in the article we read on trauma (Bassuk, Konnath and Volk, 2006, p. 13). At one point, Kathy mentioned to me that Jake is homeless which explains his behaviors because as Jani Koester mentioned in her presentation “every homeless child has experienced trauma” (Koester, 2014, p. 3). As Kathy is well aware of Jake’s circumstances, she provides him the safety, stabilization and support he needs. Firstly, Kathy always patiently handles Jake when he has a temper tantrum, fights over a toy with another child or refuses to do something she asks him to do. Secondly, she keeps a routine and has a schedule clearly posted on the wall for all of the students to see. Lastly, she has developed an environment that encourages learning and cooperation. The children who have been in the classroom from the beginning of the year know all the rules and expectations. Jake on the other hand is continuing to learn how to follow these expectations. Therefore, the other children can get frustrated with Jake as he will sometimes push over the tower they built or skip

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