Here are some
reflections of Charter Corps Members from Highlander Charter Schools favorite
afterschool activities from the past year:
My favorite
memory of this year was building and sustaining the foundation of my
Kindergarten homeroom. What started off as a really bumpy road became one of
the most gratifying experiences of my life. KA Homeroom became a close-knit
family, each student knew their responsibilities and expectations and was
always willing to lend a helping hand. They worked hard all year to earn their
end of the year pizza/movie party and we made sure to end each day on a
positive note, dancing and singing. The best part was that by the end of the
year, most of the students were reading books aloud to each other, instead of
me always reading to them. It was a pleasure to be their afterschool teacher
this year and I will miss each and every one of them.
~ Natalie
My favorite afterschool
class this year was Minute to Win It which was offered to 5-8th graders.
This class was based on the TV show and I was able to add a twist by working in
teams. It was great to see the kids engage in friendly competition while
having a lot of fun. One of the great things about this class was the
fact that everyone was so focused on a common goal that there wasn't much
behavior management that had to be done. The students also used their
imaginations and came up with variations on the same challenge which was great
to watch.
~ Nellie
My favorite
afterschool activity this year was a screen-printing course I ran for a group
of middle schoolers. Screen-printing is a process through which artistic
designs are transferred to a fabric screen, which you can then use to print the
design onto as many posters or t-shirts as you want. The students all got
excited when they found out that they would be able to design their own
t-shirt. They were less excited, however, when they found out the limitations of
screen-printing: one color per screen, one screen per design to start off with.
They adapted to these limits, learning how to collaborate to make a design
together, splitting off the work into chunks of illustrations and blocks of
lettering. Over the course of the seven-week session, the class made one shiny
gold poster, one t-shirt emblazoned with the catchphrase of one of the
students- "Maybe Next Year..."-, and two poster designs for the
end-of-the-year afterschool dance. This last project even made it to the dance
as a craft project for the whole afterschool program to try out during the
dance, which was a great success, as students tore through the stack of sixty
sheets that I'd brought in!
~ John
My favorite
afterschool activity from this past year was My Buddy Project. It was great to
see how excited the students were each week to work with their older or younger
buddy. The fifth and seventh graders really took charge during many of the
projects to help their second grade achieve their goal. During the session the
student’s favorite week was Science Week. Students started the class by
building with marshmallows and toothpicks. Each team build something completely
different and they got so much into it that they put up barriers so that the
other teams would not see what they were creating. After building time was up
we had judges come in and this allowed the students to talk about what they had
constructed. Once the competition was over the group then went outside to
create ice cream in a bag. The older students really took charge and guided
their buddy through the creation of the ice cream.
~ Kirsten
