2nd Night of Service Learning

Well, the first night went very well and I was excited to get back to the school this week and see what was on my agenda. I again came and signed in, found out what I was going to be doing for the night. I was going to tutor a little boy by the name of Daniel, who was in Kindergarden. He was the smallest, funniest and unique (in a smart way) little boy. The last couple of minutes of the first night I was there I spend with him playing Playstation. So, I was excited to get to hangout with him some more. Well, we went into the teachers lounge and started working on his math, which didn't take that long. So, he read a Stock Car book to me.

After we finished we went into the gym and took attendance with the rest of his class. It was still a little nice out and a few minutes of daylight, so the other teacher and myself took the kids to the playground for a little exercise. After about 15 minutes some kids began to be naughty causing us to come back inside. Inside we split the gym into two halves one being soccer and the scooters. I went with Daniel and since he is really short we sat and played basketball in the corner, where I lowered the hoop as much as possible; being a kindergardener that lasted briefly. So, we decided to throw the football around and turned it into a game called bomb. One person would go "tick, tick, etc." then once the ticking stopped the bomb went off and if you had the ball you lost an arm. Whoever had no arms at the end of the game lost and was out. Again, another fun week! Can't wait to go back again...

Picture of the Gym!!!

First night of Service Learning

My first night of service learning and actually going to the elementary school, I was rather nervous and really didn't know what to expect. I met with Yesima and she told me I would be tutoring two students at the beginning of the night. They were both in third grade and I was really excited to help them. Brian was an easily unfocused child, who would rather talk to people and if he wasn't he would rather be by himself. Then there was Masika, who was very smart hated doing homework and just seemed to be a grumby, but adorable and funny little boy.

I initially helped them with there science and math homework, because they were in the same class. Brian had a little difficulty doing his homework, but Masika knew the information, he just didn't want to do any of it. Once we were done with homework I was told to go into the gym for gym class with the Kindergarden class. The class was split into two sides of the gym one being soccer and the other scooters. I stayed with the boys and soccer. We only had one boy cry and it was, because he was hit in the face with the soccer ball. Lesson learned from that day is to use a soft soccer ball and not an offical one. Overall the first night was a very exciting and eventful night.

Orientation

Big Brothers & Big Sisters Logo outside of school

Orientation for Service Learning is my first journal entry this semester. At first when we walked into the school I didn’t know what to expect and what I was getting myself into. I was thinking this is going to be a lot of work that I really don’t want to get into. After I thought about it and they said that we could be teaching Hispanic adults how to speak English and got the opportunities to help tutor small elementary children, I was excited at the opportunity. Not only is it a good deed, it will also look good on a resume stating that we did volunteer work within an inner city school. Moreover, 20 hours wasn’t that many hours to accumulate over the course of 15 weeks; making the project seems relatively easy and fun.
In our first night they gave us pizza, which was great if I hadn’t eaten prior to coming to the school. Although, I ate before that didn’t stop me from eating again. We got the chance to meet other volunteers that are full-time and are there most every day, trying to help keep these kids out of trouble. Then, came the numerous pieces of paper work we needed to fill out (i.e. background check, volunteer availability, Big Brothers, Big Sisters application) I mean there are some weird people out there and you can never be too careful when working with today’s youth. Overall, the first experience and first night went very well and I can wait to start working with these kids!

School Logo, First thing I noticed as I came up to the School!