Winter Day

   Finally, after all the planning and postponing, the Winter Day had finally taken place on Friday, 8th February. Our initial planning had to be slightly changed due to the fact that we were given only one slot in the timetable, however we weren't the only group who was planning something for it. As a result of this poor planning, we had to divide the students coming to our activity into 2 groups - one group would go participate in our activity while others would enjoy themselves with Natasha and Polina. After 20 minutes we would change. Overall we would have 6 sessions with each year group, each 40 minutes long.
   My group ended up mixing up some of the initial activity ideas and came up with a list of different snow games, that included searching for plastic shapes in the snow and running to "capture" plastic poles. The day before the Winter Day took place Mark, Maans, Polina and I stayed after school to borrow all the things we needed for our activity from the school gym and assemble them in the outside space we have chosen for our activity. Even though we knew it wouldn't take much time, we decided to do everything we could in advance, so that we wouldn't be faced with any last-minute problems on Friday. As for making the hot chocolate for Karina's group activity (they decided to do a quiz instead of story-telling), I decided to prepare everything in the chemistry lab and heat the drinks up in a microwave. I had also baked cookies to serve along with the drinks.
   Overall, I was really happy with the way we've handled everything for the whole day. We were running our activity until lunchtime and we had enough time to entertain 6 groups of students - Years 7-9. The first session turned out to be quiet challenging as it was hard to explain the rules to some of the children, however after some time it was going really well. Everyone (including us) got so involved in the activity, that when "our" 20 minutes had passed, we totally forgot that we had to send the students to Natasha's and Polina's activity, so they had to come and remind us about it (which frankly they didn't seem very happy about), however after the first session we've learned our lesson and monitored the time very precisely.
   Even though most of the things were going perfectly, I was having some issues with getting involved in two activities at the same time - our outside games + making hot chocolate. I had to leave my group for almost 10 minutes during every session to go to the chemistry lab and prepare hot chocolate for Karina's group. At the beginning I couldn't do it quickly enough, however with practice I got more and more confident and were able to cook the tasty drink in no time. In order to make it more special, I decided to put some marshmallows and whipped cream on top. The word quickly got out and in between the sessions and on break/lunch I had teachers as well as some students coming up to me asking for hot chocolate.
   Everything was going according to the plan until after the lunch. That's when things got out of control. According to the timetable that we were given, everyone had to go outside. However, after several attempts to find out what exactly we were going to do, no one had a clue. This lack of planning had resulted in complete chaos. Children were doing whatever they wanted and a massive snowball fight (students against teachers) ended up taking place. Pretty soon it got crazy - students were almost attacking the teachers, forcing them to surrender. Those few who managed to run away and hide inside the school building could consider themselves lucky, because those, who didn't manage to escape from this battlefield... Oh, well. Being hit everywhere by the snow (or even ice), getting pushed, falling down. These are only some of the things they had to experience. One of the teachers even got hit in the face with a chunk of ice, ending up with a black eye. After that, all students were told to go to their tutor rooms, where we had to evaluate the Winter Day. It's very unfortunate that such a great day had to end so badly.
   If we were to have the Winter Day again, there would definitely be a couple of things I, personally, would try to improve upon. One of them would be the whole planning. It has to be much more accurate and, in my opinion, should be done well in advance. Another thing I would do differently - I would bring some extra warm clothes with me, because frankly, after spending so much time outside, even considering that I had to go inside to make hot chocolate, I was freezing to the point where I couldn't feel my legs for some time.
   By getting directly involved in initiating this event, I've achieved the following:
    - Increased awareness of strengths and areas for growth
    - Planned and initiated activities

    - Worked collaboratively with others