Mt. Pleasant Session 5

I have to admit this was one of my harder weeks at the Mt. Pleasant Explore program. Over the past few weeks we have been dealing with this issues of the kids who truly want to be in the program for its benefits of learning about college, and the kids who seem to want to be there for fun and games. It can be a difficult balance to manage, because where we have to offer valuable lessons for the students, we also must figure out ways to engage the students who prefer to play fun and games, in hopes of not letting them distract from the learning opportunities of the other students. In my honest opinion, it has felt as though the students who want fun and games have triumphed over the ones who are there to gain from the program. It seems as though we spend so much time trying to control the room, or the reckless chatter, that a lot of valuable learning time is lost. I think the most effective way we can remedy this situation is by dividing up into smaller groups. When we are paired or grouped off those students who are eager to learn are given more individualized attention, and the explore leaders are able to separate themselves from the constant attention they are having to give to the other students. Similarly, the students who prefer to have fun and games while at the program can do exactly that. They can sit and discuss what they want, and it does not effect the rest of the class what so ever. We have discussed the importance of smaller groups on one or two occasions, but I think it is vital that each lesson plan focus around smaller groups, in hopes of remedying the difficulties faced when we have a variety of students within the program. Another frustration I felt towards this weeks lesson plan was its lack of usefulness. They theme of the week was "health and wellness" and we spent ten minutes discussing the different reasons we have stress in our lives and the different ways we deal with that stress. The remainder of the time was spent in the basketball gym playing open basketball. No lessons, games, or structure was added into the gym portion at all. I am definitely and advocate for fitness and for being active, especially as a health and wellness lesson, but there was no lesson or purpose to the gym session. I felt as though we wasted the time of the students who rely on us to learn valuable material. I do not want to sound completely negative towards this weeks explore program. It was wonderful to be able to talk casually with some of the girls in the program and laugh around at how bad we are at basketball, but at the same time, I wish I was experiencing these conversations and laughing moments in a more beneficial way for the students. An hour is a really short time to be with these students and I think as leaders we must use every possible second of it to make an impact on these students. I really believe what we do can help these students open their minds to the possibility of college, but I think as leaders we need to be even more dedicated to assuring we do whatever possible to create that possibility.