My reminder alarm goes off, it’s 2:50 pm and time to head to
Danz Elementary. Once I arrive, I check in at the office and head to our
meeting room. In the meeting room, other volunteers like me, employees, and our
boss gather and talk about our plan for the day. Although we usually follow a
basic schedule, there are often specific things that we are advised to pay
extra attention to.
It’s 3:30pm,
the bell rings. Kids run out of their classrooms, filling the hallways with
noise, lost gloves, sticky art projects and their silly selves. I grab my
attendance board, head over to my classes ‘meeting spot’ and wait for the
little munchkins to line up behind me. Attendance is taken and we head over to
the lunchroom.
In the
lunchroom I double check that everyone in my group is there, usually the
employees and volunteers trade off grades so we get to work with different age
groups, but more often than not, I worked with the second graders. In the
lunchroom the children get a meal, this is because many of them would not be
provided with a supper if they went home. Many of the kids have parents that
work very late or through the night, making this meal crucial.
The kids
finish eating and I take them to a classroom to work on homework; this time is
called “Power Hour”. The goal is to get the work done, so they don’t go home
with homework, and also that they go home understanding the homework. Many of
my students struggle with Reading and Math, so this time also serves as a
chance to tutor the kids that need extra help on a certain subject or piece of
homework.
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| This is a picture of one of my students working on homework with me. This picture actually captures one of my biggest challenges while volunteering. This student, like many others, speaks Spanish, and Spanish only. Regardless she still needs my help with homework. I speak very little Spanish, which is what made it a challenge and also frustrating at times. I felt I couldn't always help her to my 'fullest' extent. This motivated me to write down terms/verbs forms that I noticed I needed to learn and review in Spanish in order to help her and others succeed with school work, such as to draw: dibujar. (Thank goodness it's very similar to Italian). |
After power
hour we grab our gear to head outside. Its hilarious to see how excited they
get, going as fast as they can to bundle themselves up in layers of jackets,
hats, gloves, scarves, winter boots, snow pants and more. Trust me they need it
all to survive 15 minutes in the Wisconsin winter. On days when it is too cold,
we go to the school gym and play games there.
On some
days, usually every other day, we have the opportunity to spend about 30
minutes in the computer lab after their break. In the computer lab the kids are
allowed to go on certain websites that help them improve skills needed to
succeed in school. They love to “login” by themselves and also type in the
websites they are allowed to use. You can tell they really appreciate the
‘freedom’ we give them when it comes to computers, at their age computers are
still quite the mystery. The keyboard is also a maze for them, finding each
letter to type in is fun but a challenge. This is a great chance for them to
explore technology with healthy limitations.
Computer time
is up and the kids go down to the main-doors when their parents/guardians arrive.
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| A hallway decorated with Winter Art. All the kids have been picked up and now it's time for the volunteers and employees to go home with a lovely reminder to "Never Stop Dreaming". |
