Easy Tutoring Like 1, 2, 3

The library of Parkmont Elementary where students are tutored at, this was taken when we cleaned up

On Tuesday, April 24, 2012, Kammy and I went to Parkmont elementary school to tutor and help students from grades 1 to 5 with their homework. We decided to do our volunteering work that involved helping younger students as well as work that served as an afterschool program. I personally like helping out little kids and teaching them new things as well as helping them with subjects or things that they struggle with. Since there were not many after school tutoring programs nearby, I had the choice of working at Parkmont Elementary School or Brier Elementary, but I decided to go to Parkmont first since I've volunteered at Parkmont before so I knew how things worked there.

When Kammy and I arrived, we went to speak with the librarian. Last year when I worked at Parkmont, the librarian was a man so I assumed that he must have retired as the new librarian was a woman. We explained to her that we were here to work for hours as well as for our project. Surprisingly, she told us that it was the last day to work because the school has to close the library due to STAR testing. However, when we spoke with some students, they actually said that Thursday would be the last day of tutoring. We also asked for permission to take pictures of the students, but it was rejected because we needed permission from the students' parents in order to take photographs. Pushing that aside, Kammy and I split apart to ask students if they needed help with their homework. The majority of the kids however, mainly copied off of each other's homework--which is no surprise to me considering the majority who copied were 4th and 5th graders. While I was helping a student with a STAR test practice worksheet, I heard the librarian shout at a 1st or 2nd grader, asking the student why she wasn't working. I actually felt bad for the poor girl, but I had to carry on working. As I worked, the kids whom I helped with their homework were well behaved and very polite, some of them even actually managed to amuse me as I helped them by using their vocab words in funny sentences. Then as I walked around, I noticed how 3 other volunteer tutors--all from Washington High--just moved around, talking to each other. One of them also had her phone out in the open too, showing that she wasn't really working considering she looked as if she was texting someone. I was helping two students with forming sentence from their vocabulary list, when some kids began chasing each other in the library. I was starting to see lack of control in the room. When I also went to ask Kammy something, a girl looked up from her work and looked at me, stating in a tone which annoyed me slightly. She said, "Visiting hours are over." I was actually shocked that she assumed that I was a visitor instead of a tutor. So in turn, Kammy spoke to her, "She's not a visitor, she's working here." The girl then looked at me again and said, "You two aren't supposed to talk to each other" and then she went off to tattle on the librarian. I felt as if I was slapped in the face since I had a 2nd or 3rd grader tattle on me. That confirmed my feelings of Parkmont, it wasn't the same as last year.

Over all in the end, there were positive things as well negative things on the first day on the job. On the bright side, I learned how easy it is to help elementary students with their homework. In turn, they would ask what grade I was in and ask what high school is like. I would answer, but I would say things that wouldn't scare them. However, on the negative side, I noticed the lack of control in the room for it was slightly noisy for students to do their homework, how rude the librarian was towards me and Kammy, and to top it off, I was tattled on by a student younger than me. I think that I'll have to look somewhere else to volunteer at considering the lack of control and respect I received and also that the librarian said that Tuesday was the last day for volunteers to come anyways. I hope that Brier Elementary's afterschool program, Bronco Brainiacs, is a much better program than Parkmont's.