Volunteering – 03/12/08
My first time volunteering this semester – I’m back at the same place I volunteered last semester: Cityview with elementary students. I remembered a few of the kid’s names and some of them remember me.
As usual, we started by helping the kids with any questions they had on their homework. The first challenge of this is to get them to admit they have homework and to take it out (some of them are always good at this, quite a few of them, understandably, just don’t want to do homework). Once they have their homework out it can be challenging to get them to focus on it. 30% concentration is an accomplishment. Most kids are good about asking when they need help but often its apparent they just want you to do it for them. Some kids almost never ask for help when they need it and may even get upset if you offer. And there’s usually one or two that just refuse to do anything at all.
One of these kids – one that seemed to have had a bad day – looked like he was on a do nothing track for the day. Another volunteer showed up, a basketball player that this kid was obviously impressed with – his attitude changed immediately. He asked me to help him write a “big fish� tale for the volunteer – so that’s what we did for the rest of the time.