Playworks: Day 4

Thursday March 22^nd

Another day, another cold shower. Turns out the YMCA shut off their hot water for the day. The crew was jolted awake by the freezing showers and more than ready to get out into the Denver heat and have fun playing in the schoolyard with the children at our elementary schools. By this time, we had made 3 separate trips to the store to make sure we had all sorts of goodies to keep us energized throughout the day. The OG’s were very nervous for Thursday because of an event that Coach Roo was preparing for. Because Playworks is an organization that is still growing rapidly through the use of grants and other financial aid programs, many elementary schools are showing an interest in implementing them within their own curriculums. The directors of Playworks chose Coach Roo as an excellent example of what Playworks is capable of and as a result had scheduled 10+ principals to come to Whittier to observe her recess time. Of course, this is the day that the children acted up the most. There was more arguing, more accusations of “cheating”, and overall more problems during this recess than any other day. Even so, at the end of the recess time, the principals were overjoyed with the work Coach Roo had done, and the success of the Playworks program. I think it is safe to say that while Coach Roo and the OG’s were frustrated with the behaviors, we also lost sight of the improvement that these children had made from the beginning of the year. Coach Roo explained the complete disrepair that Whittier recess time was at the beginning of the year and also explained how it is hard for her to see improvement while being immersed every day. She comments often on the necessity of looking at improvement overall and not basing her ideas of the result of Playworks because of one bad day. It was interesting to put this all into perspective but was so glad that the OG’s got to play a part in the good display of a Playworks recess period. Again, the group helped out with volleyball in the evening, and crashed into our beds at an early bedtime.