T.O.U.C.Ch Update

This past friday, April 16th, I went to Watsonville to volunteer with T.O.U.C.Ch at the Calabasas Elementary School After School Program. I was suprised to see how many kids participate in the After School Program, it was almost a full classroom of kids. When we got there each of the volunteers were assigned a classroom to go to where they would work with a few kids at time to work on their 4 Why's worksheet. This exercise is to help them develop better strategies when taking multiple choice tests, such as their test coming up in a couple of weeks now. I volunteered to go to the sixth grade classroom and the After School Program director said I was "brave." Which kind of made me nervous after.

When I got into the classroom the kids were doing their test-prep class so I just walked around looking at their test questions to make sure I was familiar with the questions they were given. While walking around the classroom I noticed the kids were very antsy. They could not sit still or keep quiet during their test prep. This made me feel like it would be a challenge to get them to focus when I had to work with them. After they were done taking the test I got my first three kids to work with. Almost all of the kids at the elementary school speak Spanish, therefore the first thing the kids asked me was if I spoke Spanish. Sadly though after three years of Spanish in high school, I still cannot speak Spanish. At first I was a little uncomfortable because they kept talking in Spanish and I had no idea what they were saying but I quickly got over it.

For both the group of kids I worked with it was hard to get them to focus as I predicted. At the same time though, I realized that it was a Friday and the kids were probably tired of school. Eventually though I did get them to finish their worksheet. I really enjoyed doing the worksheet for them because I felt like it really got the kids to analyze the questions they were answering. When you have to explain why an answer is right or wrong you begin to see all the tricks the test makers have to make the wrong answer look right.

After the worksheet they had PE time. Since it was Friday they do not have any homework. During PE time there was not much for me to do but I paid attention to the kids so that I could get to know them better and what they liked. My first day volunteering at the After School Program was definitely a good experience and I cannot wait to go back again. Since the kids get homework during the week, it is important that people can volunteer during the weekdays. Which is why I plan on volunteering on Wednesday therefore I can see what they are working on for their homework and help them with that.

The T.O.U.C.Ch. project is very admirable. I was happy to participate and plan on participating more in the future!