I am so proud of the student I’m hoping to shadow!  When she first came to Kindering, she was very passive – she would obey what she could understand, and she would follow if she was lead, but she would not do much in the way of expressing preferences, speaking, or participating in a craft without much prompting on our part.  Now, however, she has starting leading the way herself, participating with her hands, and even speaking out loud (once even in full sentences!).  This may not be character development on my part, but I hope that I can be on hers, and that this is not just a temporary phase.

            There was one instance on Tuesday with this same girl – shall we call her Mary? – that prompted me to display a job-specific skill:  the ability to pick up and comfort a child.  At the Kindering center, volunteers are not usually allowed to pick up the children.  However, we were heading back from the motor room when another child, whose class passed us in the hallway, began crying.  Mary became frightened and immediately began crying as well.  One of the specialists told me that I could pick her up in order to calm her down.  I had comforted Mary before, on the day that she was first put in the body suit because she required comforting, but now I was being trusted to pick her up as well.  I’ve picked up many toddlers in the past, both to comfort them and to play with them, but this was the first instance of my doing so at Kindering.

            There’s a slight instance of problem solving that can be addressed, although it is nothing major – we need to find a new song.  My internship involves a lot of singing, but we haven’t yet found a song to sing when the parent’s come into the classroom at the end of the day.  We’ve ruled out “When the Parents Come Marching In,” but we can’t seem to think of anything else.  This is still a work in progress.

            Teamwork is, as always, a huge part of working at Kindering.  With most organized activities, one leader sits in the center of a semi-circle or behind a table, in front of the children.  While the leader leads the activities, it is up to the others, who sit behind the children, to ensure that the children participate.  The instances in which I have sat behind a child myself and participated in this teamwork and growing more frequent with every week, up to this point, where I even have a couple of children, Mary included, that I am consistently placed behind.

            As for goals, my long-term goal hasn’t changed.  As for short-term goals, I will ask tomorrow whether or not I can have approval for my journal from the internship office.