I have finally completed my Girl Scout Gold Award project, so now I have to submit my final report to Council for their approval. My project is called Enriching Kids’ Minds in the Classroom, which is an after school enrichment program for 2nd graders. I came up with this program because I am going to be a teacher and I wanted to do something with kids.

To start off, I had to find an issue and find a way to fix it. The issue that I found is students that are at or above grade level standards are often not challenged with higher level extensions in class due to time constraints. This enrichment program allowed them to continue working on the skills they are learning and give them extended classroom time.

This school year, I had a winter and spring session. Since this was my first time working with a group to develop my project, I started off with only 6 students. I planned many diverse activities for them. Some activities included a book project, breakout boxes, advertisement project, Kahoot games, reading comprehension games, a debate, math games and much more.

For next year, I have added another session (a fall session) and more activities such as calligraphy writing, spelling bee, Mad Libs, another breakout box, Kahoot games, a book report, etc. I will also be having 8 students after school and students from all three second grade classrooms.

An important part of my project is to make sure it is sustainable. After I graduate, Mrs. Hutchinson will be taking over my program. I have created five binders that contain all the materials needed to implement this program in other schools. They will be delivered to Galway, Amsterdam, Broadalbin-Perth, Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake and Scotia-Glenville. I have meetings set up with each school to present my project. In addition, I am presenting to the Galway Board of Education on June 6th. I have also created a website that has a link on Galway’s website. 

Creating this program and running it this year, has taught me so much. It has been an amazing experience. I now see what teachers have to go through; with time flying by and not fitting in everything you want to fit in, to things like the weather causing changes in your plans. I love working with the 2nd graders and I see myself in them. I look forward to helping as many kids as I can! 

Go to my site to learn more about my project!

https://sites.google.com/view/2genrich/home?authuser=0