Third Session of volunteering

Wednesday Oct 3rd was my third session of volunteering at Adams school. I worked an a project for the secretary sorting some documents that had confidential information. She needed the help and she could not have the usual parent volunteers sort them as the information pertained to the children who went to school there. I was able to do this since I do not have children who attend the school. When I was done with that I assisted the kindegarten teacher with a project of laminating some flip chart sized pages. She said the children tend to get rough with them so laminating them protects them. The pages contained photo's of items with the Spanish word that pertains to that item. There were several pages that took the photos and words making them into a sentence. She had used something similar when I shadowed in her room last week. I finished that task and moved onto assisting one of the aids with a project of cutting out shapes that the children would be using to make a collage of sorts. I visitied with the aid. He is from MN and has worked at Adams for a couple of years. He works with the teachers to break down where the children are on the learning scale. He shared with me that some children come in and are very comfortable in the bi-lingual world. Others have had little or no exposure to Spanish, but the parents want the children to learn the language as some of the culture that goes along with learning a second language. This can be a good thing, or it can be extremly difficult. There are some children who are also on the complete opposite end and have little grasp of either language. This is where he comes in. He takes on some of the training of the children who need the extra help. I asked if he liked his job and he said yes, it is one of those jobs where while working with children who are struggling only to have them have a break thru and to see how far they can come in one year is rewarding. It was nice to hear that he enjoyed his job and is there as a positive resouce for the children.

Next week Oct 9th will be my last time at the school. I am sad, as I have met some very interesting people. Each one has a unique story of who they are and has been willing to share something about themselves with me.