As I started looking for places to
volunteer at, I had multiple expectations for myself. I didn’t want to go
anywhere I where I wouldn’t enjoy myself and I want to do something with kids,
that were certain. I thought of the elementary schools I went as a child,
that’s when I remembered that my freshmen year I had volunteered at Cabrillo
Elementary School to teach a group of students a dance after school for 5 De
Mayo. I knew it was too late to teach kids a dance routine, but I had the
thought of volunteering as a tutor. I have always been able to work great with
kids and seem to be able to explain things to make them seem simpler.
Contacting them didn’t seem to be a
problem since one of my classmates, and partner, lived around the corner from
the school. She mentioned that a group of juniors wanted to know if we could
help out as tutors at the after school program. He said that he and the
children would love to have us there. The program I volunteered at was called
Prop 49. It’s an after school program where children stay after school if their
parents can’t pick them up right away. There the kids do homework and if
finished with their homework, the kids are allowed to choose from multiple
activities, outside and inside, to attend while being supervised. It gives kids
a chance to interact with other kids from different grades.
The first thing I noticed was that the
kids were kept in groups by grade levels. Kids up to the 4th grade
are kept in the cafeteria whether they are done with their homework or not. The
5th and 6th graders are kept in two different groups, if
they are doing homework they stay in the science room and when they are done
they get sent to a room connected to the cafeteria where they can choose an
activity to do. I only got the chance to work with the younger kids in the
cafeteria. Most of them behaved great, but like always there are always the
trouble makers and the shy ones. For example, one little girl wouldn’t talk
regardless of how much we tried to help, another boy would just start heavily
breathing when any girl would get close to him, and the most memorable boy was
the one whom we asked if he needed help and he answered, “I’m not cheating and
I DON’T NEED ANY HELP,” with an attitude. For the most part I enjoyed myself
and I will most definitely be going back to help out next week. I think i just
need some getting used to.
1 comment:
I personaly think that what you are doing is great especialy because it has to do with kids and like we always here kids are the future. Also, it was really important that you wrote about the different behaviors that some kids showed because that demonstrates, whether it was commendable behavior or not, how every kid needs different things so to aquire equality we must act uppon the learning methods and abilities of every kid.
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