Kayla McDaniel

I really enjoyed working with the kids at Huffman Middle School today. This has been our most engaging and enjoyable day so far and I love how the kids have been responding. I was a little nervous how they would react and how engaged they would be because the topic was feelings and emotions and I didn’t know if that was something they would want to do. However, the girls loved the questions and we were able to have an open discussion about their feelings without anyone being too afraid to share. The boys were a little different and we had to write their answers down and read them anonymously because that’s what worked better for their group. The most challenging thing was getting the boys to answer questions about how they felt when we played emotions basketball, they were trying to miss on purpose. My takeaway from today is that if we’re having fun, so are the kids.

Our topic today was respect. The kids seemed to understand the activities and were really involved. I enjoyed being able to work with the kids and do fun activities with them while also talking about important things. They look forward to meeting with us every week and telling us about their weekends, so I also enjoy that. At times it's challenging getting the kids to listen and pay attention, but this wasn't an issue today. This day was the best one we've had so far so my takeaway is understanding that some things come with time. Now that the kids are more comfortable with us, they are more engaged, and they really enjoy what we do.

We worked with the children on team building exercises and discussed the importance of teamwork.