Post #5

March 11th, 2009. 9:40-5:40. 16 hours of work completed.
I got the store punctually at 9:00 to find that the store hadnt opened. The gates were closed, the lights were off, and the sign in the window read only nope. I had figured that I had arrived early so I proceeded to wonder around the area and return to the store sporatically to see if it had opened. I did so for 40 minutes and then got in touch with Alex to see if I had the date right. I wandered to Dolores park with my head in a fog and sat and enjoyed the morning scenery. After calling Alex back I met up with him in front of the store and the gate happened to be open. It was 9:40 then and I had first arrived at 9:00. Note to self, get earmuffs, or learn leason about store hours....noted.

Now, lets delve shall we. I experienced my first field trip today. It was as everbit as energetic as I was expecting it to be. Second graders are lively. The kids basicly come in to make a book collectivly and write their own ending. Wow. I wrapped what it takes them to do in two hours in one sentence. Then again, my sentence wasnt very creative and didnt contain a little man named David who has one hundred feet and one eye. Anyways, the stories can get pretty colorful and it takes a team of people to get the kids through the day. Theres Mr. Blue the angry producer, the typist who types the story, the drawer who draws, the leader who conducts the orcestra, and the hand of doom. Then there are the bag stage guys who resize images, cut and paste, copy and compile. After we gather all the papers together we bind the books, take pictures of the kids, and send them on their marry little ways. All in all, not a bad experience (I was backstage with the copiers).

In stark contrast my first mentoring experience I had a great time today. My first kid was a little boy of about 6 who sounded like he was 3. It was hard getting him to focus and complete his work at first, but his older sister helped get him back on track with a quick call to their mom. After we got going Sanchen and I did some reading about clocks and then began drawing. Together we made a total of three animals. A panda, a camel, and leopard; the last of which we named Sanchen (still not using real names just in case). A bit of an ordeal was had when Sanchen couldnt draw what he felt was a perfect leg for the leopard from which he gets his nickname.
After Sanchen left I began work with Mirry. She was a calm girl of about 9 years. She had a few fraction problems and two writing assignments. The math went by quickly and she began writing a chapter of a book her class was going to start reading. They had to make up there own chapter. Although hers was a bit risque, what with her main character Sara jumping out of a thirty floor foot window and landing not in the safety net of the fire men but in a trash dumpster of dead rats and smelly sneakers, I feel that it came out pretty nice. We subsequently took a break in the Pirate store and returned to finish her work. We read a Magic School Bus book about the human body together and Mirry then wrote about what she liked and didnt like about the book as was dictated by her assignment. We took some extended breaks before finishing her homework but we had a good time and all of her work got done. I really had a great time working with Mirry and hope that I get to interact with more kids of her caliber. One thing that struck me was the slow often uninterupted pace at which she read. I began reading quickly and kept making mistakes as I rushed through the text. Mirry taught me something today, slow and steady really does win the race. I think I'll try and incorperate this into other parts of my life. Like with typing and reading lines. Thanks Mirry, see you in a week or two!