Nikki - Playworks - Blog 3

Day three of our trip we were at a charter school, AXL Academy, in Aurora. When we showed up at the school we realized how small it was. It was a lot smaller than the previous school we had gone to but there were still close to as many kids. They were all working hard in their classroom and were very well behaved. When we got out onto the playground we found out how small the school actually was. The playground was in a back alley on pavement. It was not very big and had cracks and potholes everywhere. The coach told us that there was not enough money to repave the playground and he has made due with what he has. He has set up the playground quite nicely under the conditions he was given. He explained to us before the first class came out that they have gender-based classrooms. He did not know why and was kind of upset that the girls and boys were separated. Playworks is big on inclusion so it is a little hard to include everyone when there are gender-based classrooms. The boy’s kindergarten class came out first. I noticed since there were all boys the competition was fierce on the playground. This is a normal thing for boys but it was just something I took note of. The other class recesses went on as planned and we all had so much fun. I started to think about my days of recess in middle school. I never wanted to play because I never felt good at any of the games. I would dread recess because I would have to be the last picked or show others how bad I was at sports. Playworks is completely the opposite of that. They focus on inclusion and trying to have the children cheer on their peers. All the children seemed to love recess and liked to participate and not just stand there. We got done volunteering early today because Wednesdays are a half-day at AXL Academy. Our group got to plan something fun to do for our half- day off. We decided to go up to Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs so we could all see the mountains. This is where I really got to contemplate how much this experience has meant to me. I have met the greatest kindhearted people on this trip. I never knew I could have so many belly laughs with six people I barely knew before this trip. We have had so much fun and learned so much from each other. I do not normally do spontaneous things and get quite anxious around new people. I have forced myself to step out of my box during this trip and it has been the most rewarding experience in my life thus far.